Synopsis of a Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the Provo Meetinghouse, Oct. 13, 1877.

It was with pleasure I listened this morning to the remarks of brother Snow, and wish that all the people in this Stake had heard them. We have had a great deal of preaching, and need a great deal, and I don’t know that a people ever lived who had more.

We are in the valleys of the mountains for a special purpose—to establish righteousness and live in accordance with the principles of truth. There never was a generation of people who had so much to perform as the Latter-day Saints have. This work is progressing, and it will continue to advance. I have seen the time when you could get the whole Church into this room—when there were a few High Priests, no Apostles or Seventies, and only a few Elders. I am as thoroughly satisfied now as I ever was in my life, that this is the kingdom of God. I am as firm a believer in God, in the revelations of God, in the Books of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, as I ever was. I have read the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other inspired writers, and have seen some of them fulfilled, and expect to see others have their literal fulfillment. God worked with the children of men through revelation, and he will continue to do so in this generation. With him there is no change; his ways are one eternal round.

The Lord has directed and guided this work from the beginning. The prophecies relating to the present dispensation—to Zion being established in the tops of the mountains—to the building of cities and Temples —are being fulfilled. We have nothing to do but build up the kingdom of God, and the more light and understanding we get, the less our hearts will cling to outside things. While we are engaged in this work, we can realize that holy angels are watching us. The Lord told us, forty-seven years ago, what would take place, and we are now fulfilling that which he spoke of. Brothers Joseph and Brigham are gone into the spirit world, but there are a few of us left to continue the work laid out by the Almighty. We have preached to the world, organized the Priesthood and the Saints, and angels have borne record of this, and it is recorded in heaven—our toil, our preaching, and our testimony. We have filled these once desert places with Saints of the living God, and many thousands are here who never saw the world. We have to build Temples—one is almost completed and is dedicated; we have laid the foundations of others, and the work, like a panorama, is before us. This labor is not to be performed by other hands. God looks to us to build these Temples, and to bring about the redemption of the earth. He holds us responsible for this work; we have to preach to the house of Israel—to the Lamanites—to gather together the honest in heart from all parts of the earth. We are chosen to perform this great and important work—we, a small handful of people compared with the millions of human beings on the earth. The Lord does not expect any other people but the Latter-day Saints to do this work; there is nobody else preparing.

One after another of our brethren have left us and gone to labor on the other side of the veil. President Brigham Young, brother George A. Smith, and others before them, have all gone, and the few that are left of the Twelve will also go by and by; but while here, it is our duty to labor on the foundation they have laid. President Young labored hard and faithful during the last few years of his life in organizing and building up Zion. We have to continue the work they were engaged in, and when our time comes to take our departure for that life behind the veil, none of us will regret having devoted our time, talents, and labor for the accomplishment of this great object. The riches of the world will appear as the dust under our feet compared with the eternal reward before us.

This kingdom will never be given into the hands of another people. We may pass away, but our sons and daughters will have the labor on their shoulders of building up the kingdom.

Many of you may have read, years before it was fulfilled, the revelation and prophecy of the Prophet Joseph in regard to the trouble, anarchy, and war that should befall this nation. Wise men said its fulfillment was a matter of impossibility—that the government was too sound and too well established for such a calamity to occur, but the fulfillment came. When the Lord undertakes to perform a work, he is certain to carry it out. It would not take the Lord twenty-four hours to cause war, anarchy, confusion, and judgments to come upon the nation. He is withholding these calamities until his purposes are accomplished.

The set time has come, and the world is preparing itself for these things. The Church and kingdom of God must adorn itself, and prepare for the coming of the Great Bridegroom. Every key relating to this dispensation was given to the Prophet Joseph, and they remain with the Priesthood today. We have no right to walk in the dark. The burden is now resting upon us, and, holding the Priesthood, our aim should be the building up of the kingdom of God. We hold the Priesthood for that purpose, and we have no business to use it for anything else but to officiate in the ordinances of the house of God.

Sooner or later we shall have to obey the law of death. As it is written, “In Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” We shall have to pass through the ordeal—there is no escape from it. We have, consequently, no time to throw away. It may be asked, “How much longer will it be before the winding up scene takes place?” It is not for me to say. How much longer have the Elders to suffer violence at the hands of the wicked? It appears to me that the world is about ripe for the judgments of the Lord, and that the testimony will soon be sealed. He is already working with the Lamanites, and he will accomplish a great deal in a little time.

Some people entertain the idea that because wheat is plentiful and selling at exceedingly low figures, the probability of a famine is more remote than ever; but the Lord makes no mistakes about what is going to transpire. He has decreed the visitation of judgments, and they are certain to take place. President Young has for years repeatedly impressed upon the brethren the necessity of preparing for a period of famine by storing their wheat, and, before his death, was impressed to speak to the sisters and urge them to look after that matter. Let us be united in our labors, and in all the branches of industry that males or females may be engaged in. The raising of silk may be rendered an important item in the industry of this Territory. It is a business that our wives and children can engage in, and there is nothing to hinder the people from becoming rich from this branch of industry alone. There is an improvement in the United Order, or Cooperation. The Saints are preparing themselves for that event when Jesus shall come as a thief in the night. For our own sakes let us do the best we possibly can. We must observe and keep the laws of God, in order to inherit the rewards promised. Let us not set our hearts on the riches and vanities of this earth. It is very convenient, it is true, to have the comforts of life around us, but we shall be better without them, if by hoarding up the riches of the world we forget the things of God.

I pray God to bless you and our sons and daughters, that their minds may be led and prepared for the work they will be called upon to perform.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 16, 1877.

It is with much pleasure and satisfaction I again stand before the Saints of God in this Tabernacle. A year nearly has passed since I enjoyed this privilege, my labors having been directed elsewhere. Whatever I may say to you depends entirely upon the dictation of the Holy Spirit. And I may say that we all need the inspiration of the Almighty to dictate us, whether we preach or listen, and not only in our public gatherings but in all of our labors connected with the building up of the kingdom of God, yes, just as much as the Saints of God did in every past age and dispensation.

I can truly say as the Apostle Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” I am not ashamed of what the world is pleased to call “Mormonism;” I am not ashamed of any revelation that God has given unto the Latter-day Saints, through the mouth of modern Prophets; I am not ashamed to acknowledge myself a firm believer in the literal fulfillment of the Bible, as well as every communication of God to man, although I am well aware that the Scriptures have been more or less spiritualized by the whole Christian world, especially during the last hundred years. I believe that holy men of old wrote and spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and that they meant what they said and said what they meant, and that the Apostle Paul spoke truly when he said, “that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.” The Lord has taught us in a modern revelation contained in this book, the “Doctrine and Covenants,” that it matters not whether he speaks from heaven by his own voice, or by the ministration of angels, or by the mouth of his servants when they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost, it is all the same, the mind and will of God; and although the heavens and the earth pass away, my words would not fall unfulfilled.

I desire more particularly to address myself, this afternoon, to the Latter-day Saints; and at the same time if any of the strangers present can receive any benefit from my re– marks, I shall be glad of it.

Our position, today, before the heavens and the earth and before each other, reminds me of days that are past and gone. On the 20th of July, 1847, I brought our late President Young in my carriage through Emigration Canyon into this valley, which was the first time he set foot upon this land. The question has been often asked by strangers who visit our city, why did Brigham Young pick upon this spot to build a city? Because it was shown him before he came here. But when we came to this country, what did we find here? A barren desert as barren as the Desert of Sahara; and the only signs of life were a few black crickets, some coyote wolves, and a few poor wandering Indians. Today we may travel from Paris in the north of our Territory to St. George in the south, a distance of some 500 miles, and see on every hand towns and villages, gardens, and orchards, fields and crops; we behold a people industrious and happy, building their own dwelling houses, meetinghouses, schoolhouses, tabernacles and Temples, and improvements and enterprises are constantly going on. And all this within so short a time. What does this mean? What does it bespeak to the strangers who visit our Territory, and in fact to the whole world, and to heavenly as well as mortal beings? It is evidence that God has set his hand to fulfil the prediction contained in the Bible, that he has commenced the work of uniting the record or stick of Joseph with that of Judah; that the set time has come for him to favor Zion. And how have these things come to pass and what was the origin of this peculiar system that presents itself now to the inhabitants of the earth, which found a resting place in the wilds of this desolate, uninhabited land, and which has already produced such marvelous results? It was performed in a very singular manner, to begin with. As the Lord ever has done in attempting to establish his rule and government on the earth, he chose the weak things of the earth, and them he will use to confound the wisdom of the wise. He manifested himself to a boy in his teens, and also sent an angel to him on several occasions, in fulfillment of the revelation to John the Revelator, and of the inspired words of many other Prophets and Apostles who have spoken concerning the marvelous work and wonder of the latter days. But says the world, “We do not believe that.” We understand that perfectly well; we do not expect you to receive the Gospel of the Son of God with the same readiness that you believe the falsehoods and misrepresentations that are constantly made about it. The world ever has opposed it, and we expect to meet all manner of opposition until the final triumph of right over wrong, of truth over error. We might commence with father Adam and trace it down to the present time, and we would find that the same spirit of opposition and of persecution followed the people of God in every age, as exists today against us, as a people. And so natural is it for the devil to oppose every move that the Lord makes towards reclaiming and redeeming the earth, that men are often found to denounce the “Mormons” and their religion when they know nothing either of us or our tenets. The Savior of the world himself was denounced as a deceiver, as an impostor; why? Because those who raised this cry against him knew him not, and those who reechoed it took not the trouble to ascertain whether it was true or false. And it has been precisely in the same way that the names of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young have been had for evil by the masses of this enlightened age. The Savior said of those that rejected him, that he was hated by them because he testified of their works which were evil. And so verily it might be said of those who decry against the men who, in this respect, have not been more favored than their Master. Through them light has dawned upon the world, and because men choose darkness rather than light, their deeds being evil, they find their opposite in “Mormonism,” and in all those who faithfully adhere to it and advocate it.

Through this boy, inexperienced and unlearned as he was, the Lord organized this Church on the 6th day of April, 1830, with only six members; and it can be said of him as of no other man in Christendom, that he was the instrument in the hands of God of presenting to the world a system of religion, a Church organization complete with all the keys and powers of the Holy Priesthood, and that through him has been imparted to the religious world more light and knowledge than all the professors of religion combined, with all their boasted intelligence and learning. And when he published to the world this new yet old doctrine, even the everlasting Gospel, it was found to agree precisely with that taught by the Savior, and the Church organization was after the same pattern as the one instituted by Him, although the Gospel had not been preached since it was driven away from the earth by the iron hand of persecution. One of the peculiar features in the faith of the Latter-day Saints is that we believe there is but one Gospel, that there never has been nor never will be any other, and that that Gospel never changes from one generation to another, and that it consists of the simple principles taught by the Savior and contained in the New Testament, which principles never deviate one from another. The first was faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; the second was baptism in water by immersion for the remission of sins, and then the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost; and this was the kind of doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles, and this was the doctrine that Joseph Smith preached. In doing so he stood alone in the world, and he had to meet the traditions of eighteen hundred years, traditions which had been handed down from generation to generation, which were entirely opposed to the doctrine which the Lord had revealed to him, and which he was commanded to preach. You and I were taught from our youth that there was no such thing as new revelation, it was all done away; and this same tradition is being imbibed by the youth of Christendom to the present time. Ask the ministers, the men to whom people look as their spiritual guides, why they do not enjoy the gifts and graces and the light of revelation from heaven, and what is the universal reply? It is in substance, “Oh, these things are all done away, they are no longer needed; it was necessary that they should exist in the dark ages of the world but not in these days of the blaze of Gospel light.” Whenever God had a Church upon the earth these gifts were enjoyed by the people. The sick were healed of their sickness, the lame were made to walk, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, etc., through the administrations of those among them who held the Priesthood, which authorizes men to act in the name of the Lord; and without it no man ever did or ever can officiate in the ordinances of the House of God. And I cannot believe that there is an honest-hearted man anywhere who possesses any portion of the spirit of the Lord, and who has any faith in the revelations of God, who can believe that men, whether of high or humble birth, learned or unlearned, would be divinely called to minister in the things of God, unless they were endowed from on high with the same power that the ancient Apostles possessed.

Well, the Prophet Joseph Smith lived fourteen years after he had organized the Church; and during that time the work spread over the United States, and to some of the foreign nations and islands of the sea. And when he had done this, he had a mission the other side of the veil, as well as this. Here again we widely differ from other religious denominations. As I before intimated, the world of mankind do not comprehend “Mormonism;” the people are as ignorant of the Gospel today as Nicodemus was when he inquired of the Savior what he should do to be saved. And I will here say that the answer which Jesus made him in that early day is strictly applicable to all who are now seeking the same information. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And no man from Father Adam to the present time ever understood the principles of the Gospel, unless he received the testimony of Jesus through obedience thereto.

We are living in the dispensation which Daniel saw in prophetic vision, when the kingdom of God was to be established upon the earth, whose dominion is to have no end, and when the greatness of the kingdom is to be given to the Saints of the Most High, to possess it forever and ever. Who are the Saints of God, I may ask? Every honest soul who on hearing the Gospel preached, receives it and obeys it, and uses his energies to consummate its establishment upon the earth.

The Prophet Joseph was moved upon by divine inspiration in the establishment of this Church. And before his death he called the Twelve Apostles together, whom he had called to the ministry by revelation, intimating that he was going to leave them, that he would shortly be called home to rest. And he talked with them and instructed them for weeks and months in the ordinances and laws of the Gospel; and he sealed upon their heads all the Priesthood, keys and powers that had been conferred upon him by the angels of God. And then, in addressing them he said, “Brethren, no matter what becomes of me, or what my fate may be, you have got to round up your shoulders and bear off this kingdom; the God of heaven requires it at your hands. I have desired,” said he, “to see the Temple completed, but I shall not be spared to see it, but you will.” Although he spoke so plainly to us, intimating that his end drew near, we could no more get it into our hearts that he was going to be martyred, any more than the Apostles could comprehend the meaning of the Savior when he told them he was going away, and that if he did not leave them, the Comforter could not come. When the Messiah was crucified his followers felt sorrowful and disappointed, because they expected him to release them and their nation from the Romish yoke. And so helpless did they feel themselves when denied his society, that even Peter, the first among the Apostles, proposed that they return to their nets, that instead of pursuing the high calling of “fishers of men,” that they again become common fishermen. They comprehended not the words of the Savior to them. But after his death, he appeared to them, and they began to understand then what he had previously told them. We did not understand either what Joseph meant when he told us he was going to be taken away. But so it was, and when it came, we knew too well his meaning, for sorrow and gloom rested upon all Israel. The question may be asked, Why was this necessary? There may be more than one reason; one, however, is, the dispensation already ushered in is the dispensation of the fullness of times; and like preceding ones, the men who have been called upon to open them up, had to seal their testimony with their blood, Joseph had to do the same. But those who took his life, and those who assented to it, will have to pay the bill. He held the keys of the Priesthood, and had a work to perform in the spirit world, as Jesus had. When he was put to death, and while his body lay in the tomb, he went to the spirit world to introduce the Gospel to the spirits there, that they might have the opportunity of either receiving or rejecting it, and be judged according to men in the flesh. And it will be the privilege of every son and daughter of Adam, sometime of their life, either in the body or in the spirit, to hear the glad tidings of great joy proclaimed to them, for God is just and is no respecter of persons. Joseph, then, standing at the head of this dispensation holds the keys of the Priesthood pertaining to this time, and it was a duty that the God of heaven required of him to open up the Gospel to those in the spirit world who had not received it. And there is no greater duty resting upon the Latter-day Saints today than that of building Temples, and officiating therein for the dead as well as the living. Said Paul, in support of this doctrine, “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?” There is no doubt or obscurity in the minds of the Latter-day Saints respecting this principle, it has been made plain unto our understanding by the light of revelation. The Adversary, well knowing the nature and importance of the mission of this Prophet of God, put it into the hearts of wicked men to kill him, and in taking his life they thought they were putting an end to “Mormonism.” They reasoned from their human standpoint, for such might have been the case if this work were the creation of man. But the hand of God was over him and the work that he established, and it is his work and he directs it, and those who want to find fault with it, or any part of it, should enter complaint against God, for he is its Author; we are merely the instruments in his hands in carrying it on.

After the martyrdom of our beloved Prophet, the Twelve Apostles stepped forward, in the magnitude of their calling, and assumed the Presidency of the Church, and, as a Quorum, they led it, with President Young as President of that Quorum, for several years before there was an organization of the First Presidency; and when this organization was effected, with Brigham Young as President of the Church, he continued to preside for the space of thirty-three years, until the time of his death, notwithstanding the combined efforts of the Adversary and wicked men to destroy him from off the earth. His works are before you; they are before the heavens and the earth, and all men. The entire Territory bears marks of his genius and enterprise; and the Lord certainly crowned his labors with success, as he has blessed the labors of his brethren who have not spared their hands or their hearts in assisting him. And instead of the work of the latter day stopping, or its progress being retarded in consequence of the death of our beloved President, it will move forward with accelerated speed, until Zion arises in beauty, and power, and dominion, in fulfillment of the inspired words of Prophets and Seers who have spoken, and who, while wrapt in heavenly vision, saw our day.

It cannot be a very great while before many of us will follow him. I have traveled with him for some forty-four years of my life, and during those years I have never known him to waver or flinch in the performance of his duties. He has performed an honorable mission to earth, and while his body sleeps his spirit lives, and he continues his labors, strengthening the hands of Joseph, and Hyrum, and Jedediah, and Heber, and George A., and all those who have been true and faithful to God and to man while upon the earth, who are now engaged in the same great cause of redemption and salvation. Although President Young has finished his earthly career and mission to this earth, the work has only commenced. The Gospel must be thoroughly and faithfully preached to every nation under heaven, and the Lord holds us responsible, for verily the trust has been imposed upon us, and it behooves us to see to it. I have traveled more or less for the last forty years, without purse or scrip, and I have been sustained by the hand of the Lord, and so have my brethren. Our Elders who are called constantly from the plow and the workshops to go forth into the world and preach the Gospel, traveling from place to place on foot, without purse or scrip, and although they are not trained in colleges or seminaries of learning, yet they are sustained and enabled to cope with the learned and wise, and the honest in heart receive their testimony, which is accompanied by the Spirit of God, and the Holy Ghost.

Before I close, I want to say one thing to the Latter-day Saints, which is resting upon my mind. President Young having now passed away, his labors with us have ceased for the present. He, with his brethren, built and completed one Temple, also laid the foundation for one at Manti and one at Logan, and besides a great deal of work has been done on the one in this city. He left this unfinished work for us to carry on to completion; and it is our duty to rise up and build these Temples. I look upon this portion of our ministry as a mission of as much importance as preaching to the living; the dead will hear the voice of the servants of God in the spirit world, and they cannot come forth in the morning of the resurrection, unless certain ordinances are performed, for and in their behalf, in Temples built to the name of God. It takes just as much to save a dead man as a living man. For the last eighteen hundred years, the people that have lived and passed away never heard the voice of an inspired man, never heard a Gospel sermon, until they entered the spirit world. Somebody has got to redeem them, by performing such ordinances for them in the flesh as they cannot attend to themselves in the spirit, and in order that this work may be done, we must have Temples in which to do it; and what I wish to say to you, my brethren and sisters, is that the God of heaven requires us to rise up and build them, that the work of redemption may be hastened. Our reward will meet us when we go behind the veil.

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.”

We have labored in the St. George Temple since January, and we have done all we could there; and the Lord has stirred up our minds, and many things have been revealed to us concerning the dead. President Young has said to us, and it is verily so, if the dead could they would speak in language loud as ten thousand thunders, calling upon the servants of God to rise up and build Temples, magnify their calling and redeem their dead. This doubtless sounds strange to those present who believe not the faith and doctrine of the Latter-day Saints; but when we get to the spirit world we will find out that all that God has revealed is true. We will find, too, that everything there is reality, and that God has a body, parts and passions, and the erroneous ideas that exist now with regard to him will have passed away. I feel to say little else to the Latter-day Saints wherever and whenever I have the opportunity of speaking to them, than to call upon them to build these Temples now under way, to hurry them up to completion. The dead will be after you, they will seek after you as they have after us in St. George. They called upon us, knowing that we held the keys and power to redeem them.

I will here say, before closing, that two weeks before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, “You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God.” These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and they waited on me for two days and two nights. I thought it very singular, that notwithstanding so much work had been done, and yet nothing had been done for them. The thought never entered my heart, from the fact, I suppose, that heretofore our minds were reaching after our more immediate friends and relatives. I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon brother McCallister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and fifty other eminent men, making one hundred in all, including John Wesley, Columbus, and others; I then baptized him for every President of the United States, except three; and when their cause is just, somebody will do the work for them.

I have felt to rejoice exceedingly in this work of redeeming the dead. I do not wonder at President Young saying he felt moved upon to call upon the Latter-day Saints to hurry up the building of these Temples. He felt the importance of the work; but now he has gone, it rests with us to continue it, and God will bless our labors and we will have joy therein. This is a preparation necessary for the second advent of the Savior; and when we shall have built the Temples now contemplated, we will then begin to see the necessity of building others, for in proportion to the diligence of our labors in this direction, will we comprehend the extent of the work to be done, and the present is only a beginning. When the Savior comes, a thousand years will be devoted to this work of redemption; and Temples will appear all over this land of Joseph—North and South America—and also in Europe and elsewhere; and all the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth who received not the Gospel in the flesh, must be officiated for in the Temples of God, before the Savior can present the kingdom to the Father, saying, “It is finished.”

May God continue to bless us, and guide and direct our labors, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Aug. 13, 1876.

In connection with the young brother, Elder Joseph H. Parry, who has just returned from a preaching mission to England, I wish to bear my testimony, and to make a few remarks on the Scripture contained in the last chapter of St. Mark, commencing at the 14th verse, wherein an account is given of the Savior’s appearing unto the eleven disciples, and of his upbraiding them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them that had seen him after he was risen, etc. At this time the following commission he gave unto them—

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: and they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

It may appear singular to some, why our Elders do not treat on what is termed “the mysteries of the kingdom.” I know of no greater mystery to the inhabitants of the earth, than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet the Gospel is so plain, and so easy to be understood, that the unlearned and the youth can know of it. The Apostle Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” He considered it of so much importance, that, on another occasion, in writing to the Galatians, he said—“But, though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” From the fact of the Gospel being so simple, of its being adapted to the condition and circumstances of all people, and of its having gone forth by the commandment of the Savior, to all the world, in the event of its being rejected, condemnation must necessarily follow.

Notwithstanding the simplicity of the Gospel, where during the last eighteen hundred years has been the man or the sect that has presented it to the world, as taught by the Savior and his Apostles, before it was revealed from heaven, in fulfillment of ancient prophecies, to the young man Joseph Smith, and preached by him? No voice had ever been heard to proclaim it. There had never been a church or an organization upon the earth, since the days of Christ and his Apostles, directed by the revelations of heaven and owned of God.

The Gospel now being preached to all the world, by commandment of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph, is the same as taught by Adam, Enoch and the Savior. It never changes through lapse of time; its ordinances and laws are always the same, worlds without end. The first principles of the Gospel taught from the dawn of creation, are faith, repentance and baptism, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost; and they are the same today. To certain minds there might be a mystery connected with these principles. Why, say some, is this so? We can only answer, because it is the law of the great Jehovah, the plan framed in the heavens for the salvation and redemption of man. They are requirements made of the whole human family, which must be obeyed in order that the prevailing mystery may be banished, and the fruits and the blessings of the Gospel enjoyed. The Gospel is free to all; it is without money and without price. But none can officiate in its ordinances, acceptably to God, except those who have received divine authority to do so. For, says the Apostle, no man taketh this honor unto himself, except he be called of God, as was Aaron. But there are a great many Gospels, all claiming to be of Christ, and all differing, more or less, from one another, and from the one taught by the Savior, when upon the earth. When he, who has the authority, preaches the Gospel, he promises, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all that believe and obey, that the Holy Ghost will be given them. By virtue of this promise, all such can know for themselves, whether it is of God, or whether it is of man. If an unauthorized man goes forth, pretending to proclaim this same Gospel, and it matters not how able and talented he may be, his doctrine can be detected, because the promises which were to follow the believers in Christ are not realized, the Holy Ghost which imparts its gifts unto men are not received, and hence the fallacy of the doctrines of men is exposed, so that none need be deceived. Our boys are often called from the plow and the workshop, to go abroad to the nations to disseminate the principles of the everlasting Gospel. By what power are our young men sustained, who go forth, inexperienced, without much education, presenting in meekness, to a learned and intelligent world, the Gospel of Christ? God, through his angels, attends them; he strengthens their feeble knees, and gives them utterance.

I was once preaching to a large assembly in Collinsville, Connecticut; when I got through, a young clergyman came forward, and asked me if I had received any diploma from college. I answered him, “No.” “Do you know,” said he, “that a man who has not received a college diploma, has no right to preach?” “No, sir,” I said, “I do not know it.” “Well, sir,” he said,” that is the case.” I then asked him to inform me how it was that Jesus preached, without receiving a college diploma? And if such things as college diplomas were ever known or read of in the ministry of Christ and his Apostles?

The Lord chose poor, illiterate fishermen, and sent them forth to combat, and even to confound the wisdom of the wise. His Gospel is represented today, by the weak things of the earth, and has been now for over forty years. And what is the result of our preaching? Let facts speak for themselves. You can behold for yourselves, a people gathered here from the different nations, all prompted by the same motives, namely, to build up and establish Zion on the earth, in fulfillment of the words of God, through the mouths of his Prophets. Why have we been so successful, thus far, in accomplishing so great a work? Simply, because God has confirmed our preaching, and the testimonies we have borne, by conferring the Holy Ghost, with signs following the believers. Had not this been the case, Utah would be today, what it was on the 24th of July, 1847, when the pioneers first set foot on its soil—a barren, desolate land, unfit for the habitation of man. The results of our preaching bespoke the fulfillment of prophecy. Zion has arisen, and some of the prophecies concerning her, recorded in the Old and New Testament, are having their fulfillment.

Angels have visited the earth and delivered the keys of salvation to the Prophet Joseph. He lived long enough to effect a complete organization of the Church, strictly according to the revelations of God to him. God has in our day given gifts to men, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The Apostle likened the Church unto a perfect body. One part cannot say to the other, I have no need of you; but all the parts are necessary to complete the organization; which is just as necessary to effect the perfection of the Saints of this generation as of any other. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance and baptism for the remission of sin, are absolute requirements, which must he complied with, before the Holy Ghost can be received. These signs, says the Apostle, shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, etc. These blessings are the right of every honest believer in Christ. They were set in the Church by the Savior, and remain with the Church, as a mighty cloud of witnesses throughout this Territory could testify to; and not only they of this Territory, but those of every land and clime wherever the Gospel has been preached and a Branch of the Church organized. Says the Apostle John, this Gospel is to be preached to all that dwell on the earth, to every nation, and kindred and tongue, and people; as a witness before the second coming of our Savior to dwell on the earth, who will come, not as a lamb to the slaughter, not riding upon a colt, the object of the people’s scorn. But he will come in power and great glory, taking vengeance upon them that love and fear him not. We, therefore, are sending glad tidings of great joy to whomsoever will receive them, that they may come up to Zion and escape the judgments that will most assuredly overtake the wicked.

I know that we are engaged in the great latter-day work, the work of the living God. And I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God chosen and set apart to usher in this last dispensation of the fullness of times. He has left a record, published, sealed by his own blood, confirming the truth of the same. This testimony is in force to all the world, and it will be in force until the end of time. This we declare is the kingdom which the Prophet Daniel saw in vision, never more to be thrown down or given to another people. In these mountains Zion is to be built up, in fulfillment of prophecy, and every jot and tittle that has been spoken of her must come to pass. The last is first, and the first will be last. The Gospel was first sent directly to the Jews; the Savior himself was of that lineage, through the loins of David. He came to his own, but they received him not. He was reproached of them, from the day of his birth until they crucified him on the cross. Consequently, the risen Redeemer commanded his Apostles to turn to the Gentiles. They received the work, and enjoyed the gifts and blessings of the Gospel, even the Comforter, the Holy Ghost; and the Priesthood continued with them until a portion of them became unworthy of it, through their falling away, while the faithful were harassed and persecuted to their death. The Gospel is now restored to us Gentiles, for we are all Gentiles in a national capacity, and it will continue with us if we are faithful, until the law is bound, and the testimony sealed, and the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, when it will again revert to the Jews, whom the Lord will have prepared to receive it. They will gather to their own land, taking with them their gold and silver, and will rebuild their city and temple, according to the prediction of Moses and the Prophets. When this time arrives, which is nigh, even at our doors, let the Gentile nations who reject the Gospel which is now sent to them, prepare to meet the judgments of an offended God! For when their cup is full even to the brim, the Lord will then remember the chastisements of the Jews, his favored people, and at whose hands they will have received double for their iniquities. Offenses must come, said the Savior, but woe unto them by whom they come. Woe unto the Gentiles, who have administered afflictions to the Jews for these many years! Woe unto them if they now reject this only means of salvation, for the awful calamities spoken of in these books, the Bible and Book of Mormon, will certainly befall them.

The principle of gathering has been preached for the past thirty-seven years. Before this principle was preached by the Elders, a great many of the people had received the spirit of it; and the consequence was, that no sooner had it been taught by the Presidency of the Church, than the people everywhere were ready to receive it. It had been revealed to them by the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to reveal that which is past, present, and that which is to come, and no surer, stronger testimony can be given to anyone than it affords. We have gathered here for the express purpose of establishing Zion, which, according to the Scriptures, must be before the Gospel can be sent to the Jews. Passage after passage might be found in the Bible, referring to our coming here; the casting up of the highway on which the ransomed of the Lord might travel; the building of our city in a low place, which was to be called Sought out, a city not forsaken; and how the Lord would cause springs of water to spring up, and the desert to blossom like the rose, etc., all of which have had their fulfillment. But how do the inhabitants of the earth regard these things? With great indifference. In fact it would be a marvel to me were it otherwise, for according to the predictions, the people in this age were to be like unto the people of the days of Noah and Lot, marrying and giving in marriage, practicing all manner of wickedness and abominations, and wholly unprepared for the coming of the Son of Man. The Jews were under no condemnation for rejecting the Savior, until he appeared amongst them as the light of the world, then they had no longer a cloak for their sins; and in rejecting him, and those who were sent unto them, they stood condemned before the Lord, and, consequently, his threatened judgments overtook them. The people who heard not the Gospel preached from the days of the Apostles until its restoration in our day, are under no condemnation for rejecting the Gospel during the time it had been taken from the earth. But the light again has dawned upon the world, and the Elders of Israel are engaged proclaiming it far and wide, and as it was with the Jews, so it will be with the Gentiles who reject it, for the predictions at God’s Prophets must have their fulfillment, and neither you nor I can prevent it if we would. We are charged with being uncharitable, because we proclaim these things. We are not to blame—we are merely the creatures used by the Almighty in doing his bidding. The work is his, the plan of salvation is the creation of his superior wisdom, not ours.

Let me say to my brethren and sisters, our responsibilities are great, far greater than the outside world who reject the Gospel. We have received the light, the knowledge of God; we are under sacred covenants to stand by the truth, and by one another in righteousness. If we are found traitors to the cause, crucifying the Son of Man afresh, great will be our condemnation. Our time allotted us to tarry here below is short; but our spirits are eternal, and will live forever, and our future destiny depends on this our earthly career. The Lord has given his angels charge concerning us; they are our friends, and their eyes are over us. They stand in waiting with sharp sickles in their hands, ready to go forth and reap down the earth. Our calling is to perfect ourselves, to purify Zion, and make it a fit habitation for the Son of God when he comes; to build Temples, and in them perform the rites and ordinances for the living and the dead, and accomplish all that God designs us to do. And that we may be faithful in the performance thereof, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the Forty-Sixth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday Morning, April 6, 1876.

“Who am I, saith the Lord, that I command and am not obeyed? Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?” We have again the privilege of assembling ourselves together upon another Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I hope and trust that, what time we may spend in Conference, our hearts may be lifted up unto the Lord, that his Holy Spirit may be given unto us, that we may be dictated and directed in our words, thoughts, acts, and teachings, in such a manner that we may be justified before him.

We have said, time after time, and year after year, that we live in a very peculiar age, generation and dispensation, and this is true. Time rolls on, carrying with it its events, and fulfilling the revelations of God, unto us especially. We live in a day of darkness; unbelief and infidelity are covering the whole face of the earth, until it seems as though the whole Christian world had lost all hold of faith in God and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Bible, the revelation of God to man. And this being the case, if the Lord has any people on the face of the earth, they should be increasing in faith in him. You let a Christian come here, no matter who, whether he be a minister, professor, or believer, or anyone who professes to believe in the Bible, and let him ask an Elder in Israel—“Do you really believe, in your soul, sincerely before the Lord, that Mormonism is true?” When the Elder answers him “yes,” he is about as much astonished as we were yesterday when these magazines exploded. The fact of it is, as I said before, the world do not believe in God or in revelation, and they marvel very greatly to find any man who has really got independence of mind enough to stand up and say—“I believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and I believe in the revelations that were given through him; I believe in the literal fulfillment of prophecy, as written in the Bible.” To hear men say this astonishes the Latter-day Saints to see the amount of darkness and infidelity that are abroad in the earth. Hence, as Latter-day Saints, I think it requires on our part an increase of faithfulness in the practice of our religion, and in the various revelations of God contained in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.

We see before our eyes, year after year, the signs of heaven and of earth, and the fulfillment of prophecy, but how much are we as a people increasing in faith in God? Do we increase in that respect in proportion to the increase of infidelity in the world? Perhaps I am not a judge, but it appears to me that we do not comprehend. The work in which we are engaged, and the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, are just as true today as they were twenty, thirty, or forty years ago, when we shouldered our knapsacks and valises, and traveled on foot from city to city, State to State, and from country to country, to preach the word of God without money and without price, trusting in the living God to sustain and uphold us in our mission. I say that this work is just as true now as then, and so is the saying which I quoted—“Who am I, saith the Lord, that I command and am not obeyed? Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?” I believe that the Lord will fulfill what he says; I believe that he will fulfill his promises unto the Latter-day Saints and unto the world, unto Zion and Babylon; and if he does, there is something at the door, something for us, as Latter-day Saints, to do. I believe the Lord has held every man responsible, from the day of our great progenitor, father Adam, into whose hands the Holy Priesthood and the keys of the kingdom of God have been committed; and I believe that every man, every set of men, and every people, will be held responsible, in time and eternity, for the use they have made of the gifts, blessings, and promises which have been given unto them. The amount of it is that if any people undertake to keep a celestial law, it is their privilege to enjoy the spirit and power of that law; it is also the privilege of any man or set of men, who ever received the Gospel, to enjoy the blessings of that Gospel, no matter what age of the world they may have lived in. Every person who has ever repented of his sins, and has been baptized for their remission, after the order of God, and after the similitude of Jesus Christ, who was buried in water in the likeness of his death, and came forth in the likeness of his resurrection, has a right to the Holy Ghost; it is promised, and it belongs to him; it is the right of all persons to enjoy this, and if they receive the Holy Ghost and its gifts, they have inspiration, light, and truth; they have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand, and they should be in a position before the Lord that they can comprehend his work far more perfectly than the world, for they have not obeyed the Gospel of Christ, and they have no right to, or claim upon, the gifts of that Gospel. But all who, in any age of the world, obey the Gospel, have a right to the Comforter, and to inspiration and revelation, they belong to them, and the Lord never had a people on the face of the earth who did not have a right to these gifts, and it was their privilege and duty to enjoy them.

This is the difference between those who keep celestial law, the law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and those who do not. But, as I have remarked, all in every age of the world who have received a dispensation of the Gospel, are responsible before the Lord for their acts, and for the manner in which they have used their blessings and privileges. The Prophets and Apostles in every age have been held responsible for the manner in which they made use of the Gospel of Christ when committed unto them; and that is the way it is with us today. One thing is evident to everybody who reflects at all upon the things of the kingdom of God—whenever the Lord chooses a people out of the world, they are hated by the world, and are unpopular in the world. This has been the case in every age. It was so in the days of Jesus Christ. He came to his own father’s house—the Jews; he was of the lineage of Abraham, and when he came to his own brethren he was unpopular, he was rejected and opposed. They did not like him nor his course. They were looking for Shiloh to come, but not as a babe born in a stable and cradled in a manger, and traveling on from that to the cross and the grave in poverty and affliction, without military authority, and without power to govern and control, and to deliver and uphold the Jews as a nation. Christ came as the babe of Bethlehem, the lowest almost of the human family, and remained so up to the day of his death. A poorer man never lived, that I know of, in Judea and Jerusalem, than Jesus Christ. Who were his followers? They were not the great, rich, learned, noble, High Priests, or leading men of Judea; many of them were illiterate fishermen, poor men, weak things of the world; they were the class that Jesus chose for his disciples, and into their hands he gave the keys of the kingdom of God; he gave them the Apostleship, the power to bind and to seal both on earth and in heaven. Their deeds and labors reached not only through this world, but they reached into the eternal worlds, and will affect the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem from that day, I may say, into eternity. Those disciples of Christ received the Holy Priesthood, the Gospel of Christ, and the keys of the kingdom of God, and Jesus held them responsible to the day of their death for the course they pursued. However much they were despised by the world, they were held responsible for bearing a true and faithful testimony to Jew and Gentile, of Jesus Christ being the true Shepherd and the Savior of the world.

And so I will say about the Latter-day Saints and the work they are engaged in. Ezekiel says that in the last days the stick of Joseph in the hands of Ephraim should be placed with the stick of Judah, before the eyes of the nations in the hands of the Lord, for a special purpose—to gather the house of Israel in the latter days. These two records were also to be made use of in order to preach the fullness of the everlasting Gospel to both Jew and Gentile; and they will stand in judgment against the generation living on the earth when they come forth; and from the day that Moroni gave that record into the hands of Joseph Smith, the Lord held him responsible for the use which he made of it; and when he gave him the Priesthood under the hands of John the Baptist, and the Apostleship under the hands of Peter, James and John, the Lord Almighty held him responsible unto the day that he sealed his testimony with his blood, for the course that he pursued with these things. And he bore his testimony, left it on record, and sealed it with his blood, and laid down his life, and that testimony is in force today upon all the world, and will remain so unto the end of time. And when I say this of Joseph Smith, I say it of every other man. President Young has led this Church for many years, and the Lord has held him responsible, and will hold him so unto the day of his death, for the course pursued by him while conducting the affairs of his Church and kingdom, and also for the use he makes of the holy Priesthood and the keys of the kingdom. So also with his Counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and everyone of us; we shall all be held accountable to the day of our death, and we shall have to give an account before the God of heaven when we go into the spirit world and meet him there; for the use of this Priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, which have been established on the earth for the last time, have been committed into the hands of this people, and God will hold the whole of us responsible for the use we make of the blessings, privileges and powers which we enjoy in connection therewith. The eyes of God and his angels, and of every man who dwells in the celestial world are watching us, and the course we pursue.

We are gathered together here as a people; we have been in these mountains a good while, and for a good many years we have been organized as a Church and kingdom, in this last age, in this dispensation of the fullness of times; and now the question with me is—Are we living up to our privileges? Are we performing the work required at our hands? Can we, as a people, claim the blessings of the Gospel of Christ, the blessings of the celestial law and of the celestial kingdom of God? Can we claim these things at the hands of our heavenly Father unless we keep his commandments? This is a question that we want to take home to ourselves. If we are not keeping the commands of the Lord can we claim his blessings? We cannot; and this is matter for reflection for the Latter-day Saints.

It may be asked—What are the commandments of the Lord? Many of them are contained in these records, the Bible, Book of Mormon and Book of Doctrine and Covenants; and we have the living oracles with us, and have had from the commencement. The Lord will never leave his kingdom without a lawgiver, leader, president, or some power to direct the affairs of his Church on the earth, for the reason that it is the dispensation of the fullness of times, in which God has set up a kingdom which is to be an everlasting kingdom, and to whose dominion there will be no end; that kingdom will not be given into the hands of any other people, but it will be given to the Saints of the Most High, and they will possess it forever and ever.

Now, brethren and sisters, here comes a question in my mind, this morning, which I think we ought to bring home to ourselves, and that is—Are we, as a people, doing our duty in keeping the law and commandments of God, and the covenants which we have made? If we are we are justified, and we have a claim upon the Holy Spirit and upon the blessing and approbation of God. Many things are required at the hands of the Latter-day Saints, and there is not one of us who has a lease of his life. The Elders of this Church are passing away, and almost every Conference we look around and find that somebody has left us; and it will be but a short time before many of us who are here today will have closed our labors in the flesh, and we shall have passed to the other side of the veil, and it is important to us all that we should do what is required of us. What we find to do today we should not put off till tomorrow.

The question may arise in some minds—What is required of the Latter-day Saints? I will tell you some things that are required of us. The Lord requires us to pay our Tithing; and another thing is that we go to and build the Temple in this city; whether we do it or not it is required of us, and if we fail, we, in my view, shall be under condemnation. I consider that the building of Temples is one of the important things required by the Lord of the Latter-day Saints in the dispensation of the fullness of times, that we may go into those Temples and not only redeem the living but redeem our dead. We have been a good many years here in the valleys of the mountains, and we have not yet got a Temple finished to the name of the Lord. We have one pretty well forward in St. George, and I am very glad of it; but we want one here. We have got the foundation laid; it has been standing a good many years, and I think that we should go to and finish it, and do what we can to redeem our dead. This is among the things for which I think we shall be held responsible. Very many of us in this Church and kingdom have been gathered, as the Prophet has said, one of a family and two of a city, and many of our progenitors, now in the spirit world, never saw the face of an Apostle, Prophet, or inspired man, and they are shut up in prison. Joseph Smith, Heber Kimball, George A. Smith, and thousands of the Elders of Israel may preach to those spirits, and they may receive the testimonies which the Elders bear; but the Elders will not baptize believers there; there is no baptism in the spirit world any more than there is any marrying and giving in marriage. All these things have to be done this side of the veil, in the flesh. God is no respecter of persons; he will not give privileges to one generation and withhold them from another; and the whole human family, from father Adam down to our day, have got to have the privilege, somewhere, of hearing the Gospel of Christ; and the generations that have passed and gone without hearing that Gospel in its fullness, power and glory, will never be held responsible by God for not obeying it, neither will he bring them under condemnation for rejecting a law they never saw or understood; and if they live up to the light they had they are justified so far, and they have to be preached to in the spirit world. But nobody will baptize them there, and somebody has got to administer for them by proxy here in the flesh, that they may be judged according to men in the flesh and have part in the first resurrection.

This, in my view, is the work that is required at the hands of the Latter-day Saints, and when we get through I think we will find this to be true. And if there is anything I desire to live for on the earth, or that I have desired, it has been to get a record of the genealogy of my fathers, that I might do something for them before I go hence into the spirit world. Until within a few years past it has seemed as if every avenue has been closed to obtaining such records; but the Lord has moved upon the inhabitants of this nation, and thousands of them are now laboring to trace the genealogical descent of the Puritan fathers, those who landed at Plymouth Rock, and whose descendants built up New England. Their lineages are coming to light, and we are gradually obtaining access to them, and by this means we shall be enabled to do something towards the salvation of our dead.

These are some of the things upon my mind that I wished to speak to you about. And now let me ask—Have we a right to our endowments and to the ordinances and blessings of the Church and kingdom of God, unless we fulfill the law of God. It seems to me many times, that there is a darkness and a lack of faith even among the Latter-day Saints, and that as we grow older we grow colder, and as we advance towards the winding-up scene it seems as though we have almost lost sight of our calling, of the object of our being gathered together, and the purposes which God requires at our hands. There is a good deal for us to do if we build up Zion; and if we do that and sanctify ourselves before the Lord, it has got to be done through obedience to the commandments of the Lord. The Lord has commanded us, and we have got to obey his commandments if we receive the blessings of obedience. Our numbers are not great, and compared with the whole of the inhabitants of the earth I do not expect that the number of the Latter-day Saints will ever be very great; yet the Lord has promised that the little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; and out of the house of Israel and those from among the Gentiles who obey the Gospel, God will raise up a nation, and they will have power and strength in the earth. But when we compare the Saints in this or any other age with the surrounding world, their numbers are few. I do not know why it is that so few of the inhabitants of the earth take any interest in their eternal welfare. The whole human family, heathen, pagan, Christian and Jew, know that this is not their home, and that all have got to die, they cannot escape the law of death; even if translated, as some were anciently, they have to undergo a change equivalent to death. Then why is it there is so little interest throughout the world with regard to a future state and to eternal matters? The few who show they have an interest in these things, and who have gathered together to these valleys of the mountains, have need of faith; we stand in need of prayer, we stand in need of the Holy Ghost, and of the inspiration of the Almighty to dictate and direct us, and unless we possess and enjoy these things we become barren and unfruitful before the Lord.

Now, whatever the Lord requires at our hands, he does not require anything of us that we cannot perform. We can obey his command– ments according to the position that we occupy and the means that we have in our possession. There is no man or woman so poor but what he or she can obey the Gospel; they can go forth and be baptized for the remission of their sins, and if they keep the commandments of the Lord he will put into their hands power and means to fulfill that which is required of them.

I hope, brethren and sisters, that while we are together at this Conference, we shall have prayerful hearts, and that the Spirit of the Lord may be poured out upon us; that President Young may have strength of body, and that the Spirit of God may rest upon him to such an extent that he may be able to give the Latter-day Saints such instruction as he may desire; and that the Apostles and Elders who may be called upon to speak may be made the instruments in the hands of the Lord in conveying his word to the people, and that we may be united together.

Somebody or other has got to build up Zion; somebody has got to build Temples, and to go into them and attend to the ordinances therein. The Lord has said that he will come and visit the earth, but before he does come the people have got to be pure. The Lord Jesus has declared that he will come and reign on the earth, and if you read the Book of Doctrine and Covenants you will find numerous predictions in regard to his coming, such as—“I come quickly,” “I come at an hour ye think not,” “My coming is at the door,” “I come as a thief in the night,” “I come in an hour when you are not looking for me,” and “Blessed is he who is looking for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I say that throughout the whole of the Scriptures—the Old and New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the second coming of the Lord is frequently referred to; and has the Lord promised these things without intending to fulfill them? No, he has not, they will be fulfilled. But before Christ comes, a people have got to be prepared by being sanctified before the Lord. Temples have got to be built; Zion has got to be built up; there must be a place of safety for the people of God while his judgments are abroad in the earth, for the judgments of God will visit the earth, there is no mistake about that, the revelations are full of promises to this effect, and as the Lord has declared it, he will not fail in keeping his word.

Brethren and sisters, let us search the revelations of God; let us look to ourselves, and understand the spirit by which we are governed and controlled in our labors and callings. We are called to a great calling. The greatest calling with which any people can be called is to have placed in their hands the Gospel of Christ, and the power to build up his kingdom upon the earth. The Lord has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the world, and things that are nought to bring to nought things that are. He has done this in every age of the world, and he has done it in our day and generation; and he will hold us responsible for the use we make of the holy Priesthood, the ordinances of his house and the power that is put into our hands to accomplish the work of God, and to build Temples to his name. If we do not do these things I think that we shall be under condemnation before the Lord, and that we shall suffer for it.

I pray God, my heavenly Father, that he will pour out his Spirit upon this people, that we may see and comprehend things as they are, that we may comprehend our duties and may be inspired to labor while the day lasts, for by and by the night will come when no man can work. I pray God that we may be prepared for his coming, and that we may have power and a disposition to perform and accomplish all that is required of us, that when we go to the other side of the veil we may he satisfied with our labors here in the flesh.

This is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the Forty-Sixth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday Morning, October 8, 1875.

“Oh Death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the gift of God is eternal life, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is most glorious. It is comforting, at least to my spirit, to think, that, in the morning of the resurrection, my spirit will have the privilege of dwelling in the very same body that it occupied here. As Elders of Israel we have traveled a great many thousand miles in weariness and fatigue, laboring to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the children of men. I would be very glad to have the same body in the resurrection with which I waded swamps, swam rivers and traveled and labored to build up the kingdom of God here on the earth. I like this, I rejoice in the privilege we enjoy at this Conference, of meeting with so many Latter-day Saints. I feel that we have had a good deal of the Spirit of the Lord with us, and I hope that it may continue until we get through with the Conference.

President Young referred, yesterday, in his remarks, to the experience of some of us in past days. I have reflected a good deal upon these things as well as on the future. I have long been associated with the kingdom of God, and I wish to refer for a moment to what was said yesterday on that subject. The mission then mentioned was one of much interest to the Twelve, if not to the Church. The whole of that mission to England, from the beginning to the end, placed the apostles in such a position that they had to walk by faith from first to last. The Lord gave a revelation, with date, day, month and year, when they were to go up to lay the cornerstone in Caldwell County, Far West, Missouri. When that revelation was given all was peace and quietude, comparatively, in that land. But when the time came for the Twelve Apostles to fulfill that revelation, the Saints had all been driven out by the exterminating order of Governor Boggs, and it was as much as a man’s life was worth, especially one of the Twelve, to be found in that State; and when the day came on which we were commanded by the Lord in that revelation to go up and lay the cornerstone of that Temple, and there take the parting hand with the Saints, to cross the waters to preach the gospel in England, the inhabitants of Missouri had sworn that if all the revelations of “old Joe Smith” were fulfilled, that should not be, because it had a day and date to it.

President Young asked the Twelve who were with him—“What shall we do with regard to the fulfillment of this revelation?” He wanted to know their feelings. Father Smith, the Patriarch, said the Lord would take the will for the deed; others said the Lord could not expect the Twelve Apostles to go up and sacrifice their lives to fulfill that revelation; but the Spirit of the Lord rested upon the twelve, and they said—“The Lord God has spoken, and we will fulfill that revelation and commandment;” and that was the feeling of President Young and of those who were with him. We went through that State, and we laid that cornerstone. George A. Smith and myself were ordained to the Apostleship on that cornerstone upon that day. We returned in safety, and not a dog to move his tongue, and no man shed our blood.

As soon as we got home we prepared ourselves to go on our mission to England, and, as President Young has said, the devil undertook to kill us. I have myself been in Tennessee and Kentucky for two or three years, where, in the Fall, there was not well persons enough to take care of the sick during the ague months, and yet I never had the ague in my life until called to go upon that mission to England. There was not one solitary soul in the Quorum of the Twelve but what the devil undertook to destroy; and, as was said yesterday, when Brother Taylor and myself, the two first of the Quorum ready for the trip, were on hand to start, I was shaking with the ague, and I had it every other day, and on my well day, when I did not have it, my wife had it. I got up and laid my hands upon her and blessed her, and blessed my child, having only one at the time, and I started across the river, and that man who sits behind me today, the President of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth, paddled me across the Missouri River in a canoe, and that is the way I landed in Nauvoo. I lay down on a side of sole leather by the old post office, and I did not know where to go, and I was not able to stand on my feet, and I lay down there. By and by the Prophet came along and said he—“Brother Woodruff, you are going on your mission?” “Yes,” I said,” but I feel more like a subject for the dissecting room than for a mission.” He reproved me for what I said and told me to get up and go. Brother Taylor, the only member of the Quorum of the Twelve who was well, and I traveled together, and on the way he fell to the ground as though he had been knocked on the head with an axe. Old Father Coulton was carrying us, and Brother Taylor fell twice in that way, taken with the bilious fever, and no man in that Quorum could boast that he went on that mission without feeling the hand of the destroyer, for it was laid upon us all. I had the shaking ague, and lay on my back in a wagon, and was rolled over stumps and stones, until it seemed as if my life would be shaken out of me. I left Brother Taylor behind, by his advice, for said he, “We are both sick, and if you stay you can’t do anything here;” so old Father Coulton carried me along in his wagon until I got to Buffalo, N. Y. From there I traveled alone to Farmington, Connecticut, my native place, and I stayed there fifteen days at my father’s house, coughing and shaking every day. My father never expected that I should leave my bed, and my stepmother did not expect that I should ever get better. A message came from an uncle of mine, who had just died, and his last words were—“I want you to send for Friend Wilford, I want him to come and preach my funeral sermon.” My father said—“You can’t go and preach that sermon, for you can’t sit up in your bed.” Said I—“Never mind, get up your horse and wagon;” and he did so and I got into it, and rode over that morning in a chilly wind, and the hour that my ague was coming on I got before a big blazing fire and preached the funeral sermon of my friend, and the ague left me from that day, and I went back and went on my way rejoicing.

In process of time Brother Taylor came along and he and I crossed the ocean together, and arrived in England, and here I want to make a little statement of my experience in those days concerning circumstances that took place with me. When Brother Brigham left home he told you that all his family had was one barrel of rotten flour. Two hundred cents would have bought every pound of provision I left with my family when I left home. But we left our wives, for we had the commandment of God upon us, and we were either going to obey it, or die trying. That was the spirit of the Elders of Israel; and I blessed my wife and child and left them in the hands of God, and to the tender mercies of our noble Bishops, and those who were acquainted with them know how it was in those days. However, I went on my way, and I want to speak of one little circumstance. I had with me an old cloak which I got in Tennessee when traveling with Brother Smoot over forty years ago. It had once been a dandy cloak, and had on keg buttons, and when new had a good deal of trimming and fancy work about it; but it was then pretty well threadbare and worn out. I wore it in Kirtland and I carried it to England with me; and when I was called by revelation to go to John Benbow’s and preach the gospel I wore that cloak. I went there and found over six hundred people, called United Brethren, and among them were eighty-three preachers, and they, as a people, were prepared for the word of the Lord, and I wanted to catch them in the gospel net. Before embracing the doctrine of the United Brethren, Sister Benbow had been what is called a “lady” in England, and she had worn her silks and satins; but after obeying the doctrine of this religious body she cut up and burned and destroyed her silks and satins and wore the plainest calicoes she could get, because she thought that was religion. When I went there to preach she looked at me with this old cloak with the keg buttons on, and the Spirit of the Lord bore testimony to me that reli– gion, so far as she was concerned, had a good deal of tradition about it, and that her faith could be tried by the coat a man wore; and as Paul said, if eating meat offended his brethren, he would never eat any more, so I felt a good deal, and one morning I went out and cut off the buttons from my old cloak, and never had a button on it afterwards. By doing this and some other things, which some perhaps would call foolish, I, through the blessing of God and with the assistance of Brother Young, George A. Smith and Willard Richards, caught the whole flock and baptized every soul except one solitary person into the church and kingdom of God. Many of them are here in this room today, and some of them have passed away. I mention this just to show our position. We traveled without purse and scrip, and we preached without money and without price. Why? Because the God of heaven had called upon us to go forth and warn the world.

Now I want to say again, I have looked around within the last few years and I have thought: Where, Oh where, are the sons of the Prophets, Apostles, and fathers in Zion, preparing in these last days to rise up and bear off this kingdom when we are on the other side of the veil? Sometimes, in thinking on this subject, I have felt that they were very few and far between who had the spirit of their fathers and were prepared to bear off this kingdom. But I thank God that I find it is now something like it was in the days of Elijah. When the Prophet said, referring to the followers of Baal—“They have killed thy Prophets, and pulled down thine altars, and I alone am left,” the Lord said—“Oh no, I have seven thousand men in Israel who have not yet bowed the knee to Baal.” Well, I begin to feel, since I have heard the testimonies of our young brethren at this Conference, that some of the sons of the servants of God are becoming filled with the fire and spirit of the Prophets. We want a good many of them to rise up and bear off this kingdom.

Now I want to say a word or two on another subject. I have heard some of our brethren remark—“If the Twelve Apostles have the word of the Lord, we would like to receive it.” I want to say a few words with regard to the word of the Lord. I think that many of this people are mistaken with regard to the word of the Lord. They sometimes wonder why President Young does not give them the word of the Lord. I have been acquainted with President Young more than forty years. It is over forty years since I traveled a thousand miles with him, Joseph Smith, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Charles C. Rich, and many others perhaps in this congregation, and I never saw a day from that day until the present, but what President Brigham Young, even before the Twelve Apostles were organized, always had the word of the Lord for the people; and instead of thinking there is no word of the Lord, my faith is that there is not an Elder in Israel who has any business to preach, unless he has the word of the Lord to the people. The Twelve Apostles should have the word of the Lord to the people; the High Priesthood should have the word of the Lord to the people; these four thousand Seventies, the messengers of Israel to the nations of the earth, should have the word of the Lord to the people; and every Elder of Israel, when he speaks, should have the word of the Lord, and the whole Church and kingdom of God, men and women, should have, each for himself and herself, the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy. This should be in the possession of every man and woman in the Church, for their own government and guidance, and this has always been the teaching to us of President Brigham Young. And this is backed up by the revelations which the Lord has given in these last days, as you will find if you read the twenty-second section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. That revelation was given over forty years ago, to Elders Orson Hyde, Luke Johnson, Lyman Johnson and William E. McLellin; and on that occasion the Lord said—“Go forth and preach the Gospel to the people. And when you go forth you are called to teach the people and not to be taught. And you must teach as you are moved upon by the Holy Ghost, by the power of God, by the Spirit of the Lord; and when you speak as you are moved upon by the Spirit of the Lord, your words are scripture, they are the word of the Lord, they are the mind of the Lord, they are the will of the Lord and the power of God unto salvation unto every one that hears.”

Yes, we have plenty of testimony with regard to these things, and I will say to my brethren that whatever the word of the Lord may be to them I know what the word of the Lord is to me. The word of the Lord to me is, that it is time for Zion to rise and let her light shine; and the testimony of the Spirit of God to me is that this whole kingdom, this great kingdom of Priests, this forty thousand men in these mountains of Israel, who have borne the Priesthood, have thoroughly fulfilled one part of the parable of the ten virgins. What is that? Why, that while the Bridegroom has tarried we have all slumbered and slept; as a Church and kingdom we have slumbered and slept, and the word of the Lord to me is that we have slept long enough; and we have the privilege now of rising and trimming our lamps and putting oil in our vessels. This is the word of the Lord to me.

The word of the Lord to me again, is, that it is time for this whole people, these forty thousand Elders of Israel who dwell in these valleys of the mountains, and I believe that it is the word of the Lord to them, that we listen to the voice of the Lord through the lawgiver, and unite ourselves in temporal things, and that we labor to build up the kingdom of God, and cease to labor to build up ourselves alone, against the interests of the kingdom of God. This is the word of the Lord to me, and I think it is to you.

It is the word of the Lord through the mouth of his servant Brigham, and has been a long time the word of the Lord to me, that as Twelve Apostles, as Seventy Apostles, as High Priests, and as Elders of Israel, it is time that we should rise up and bear the burden that rests upon the shoulders of Brigham Young, who is far advanced in life, and has had the weight and burden of this Church and kingdom upon his shoulders. It is our duty to rise up and bear off this burden, and lift it from our President, and also to cry aloud unto the people to unite themselves together. It is our duty to cease shaking in our shoes for fear the Lord Almighty should give some of his words to govern and control us in our temporal affairs. Who, to use a comparison, expects to have a forty-acre lot alone in the kingdom of God, or in heaven, when we get there? None need expect it, for in that kingdom, in heaven or upon earth, we shall find unity, and the Lord requires at our hands that we unite together, according to the principles of his celestial law.

This is what I consider to be the word of the Lord to us. It is our duty to unite ourselves together, and to sustain the institutions which have been established in these mountains by the revelations of God unto us.

There is another word of the Lord unto me, and which has been like fire shut up in my bones for the last three months; that is, to call upon all the inhabitants of these mountains, as far as I have an opportunity, to go to and lay up their grain, that they may have bread. For the last three months I have not felt as if I could answer my own feelings, unless, at every meeting I have attended, I called upon the farmers to lay up their grain. “Oh, yes,” say some, “Heber C. Kimball cried, ‘Famine, famine’ for years, and it has not come yet.” Well, bless your soul, there is more room for it to come. “Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?” The day will come when if this people do not lay up their bread they will be sorry for it. The Lord has felt after us in days past and gone by the visitations of crickets and grasshoppers time after time, and had it not been for his mercy we should have had famine upon our heads long before this. It is the duty of the farmers in these mountains not to sell their bread, or to throw it away for a song, but to lay it up, or you will find that the day is not a great way off when you will need it. That is the voice of the Lord to me, and it is the way I have felt for a good while, and I believe it is the same to my brethren.

We are living in a very important time, and the Lord has raised up this people to accomplish his purposes; and as some of these reve– lations convey the idea, they were chosen from before the foundation of the world. The Lord says—“I have called you by my everlasting Priesthood, and your lives have been hid with Christ in God,” and you have not known it. You have been called here and God has put into your hands his cause and kingdom, and the salvation of both Jew and Gentile. This people hold in their hands the salvation of the twelve tribes of Israel. It was not to the oldest son, but to Ephraim, the son of Joseph, that these promises were made. Joseph was the youngest but one of the Twelve Patriarchs, and through his son Ephraim God has raised you up and has put this power into your hands, and you hold the keys for the salvation of Israel. And the ten tribes of Israel in the north country will come in remembrance before God in due time, and they will smite the rocks and the mountains of ice will flow down before them, and the everlasting hills will tremble at their presence. A highway will be cast up through the midst of the great deep for them to come to Zion, and they will bow down in the midst thereof, and receive the Priesthood at the hands of the inhabitants of Zion.

Then what manner of men ought we to be, we, who have been ordained and called, and had such responsibilities placed upon us by the God of heaven? Our lives have been hid with Christ in God, and we are heirs of the eternal Priesthood, through the lineage of our fathers. Thus saith the Lord through the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who sealed his testimony with his blood, and his testimony from that hour has been in force upon all the world. Know ye, Latter-day Saints, that the Lord will not disappoint you or this generation with regard to the fulfillment of his promises. No matter whether they have been uttered by his own voice out of the heavens, by the ministration of angels, or by the voice of his servants in the flesh, it is the same; and though the earth pass away not one jot or tittle of his word will fall unfulfilled. There is no prophecy of Scripture of any private interpretation, but holy men of old spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and their words will be fulfilled to the very letter, and it certainly is time that we prepare ourselves for that which is to come. Great things await this generation—both Zion and Babylon. All these revelations concerning the fall of Babylon will have their fulfillment. Forty-five years ago, in speaking to the Church, the Lord said—“You are clean, but not all and I am not well pleased with any who are not clean, because all flesh is corrupted before my face, and darkness prevails among all the nations of the earth.” This causes silence to reign, and all eternity is pained. The angels of God are waiting to fulfill the great commandment given forty-five years ago, to go forth and reap down the earth because of the wickedness of men. How do you think eternity feels today? Why there is more wickedness, a thousand times over, in the United States now, than when that revelation was given. The whole earth is ripe in iniquity; and these inspired men, these Elders of Israel, have been commanded of the Almighty to go forth and warn the world, that their garments may be clear of the blood of all men.

I tell you that God will not disappoint Zion or Babylon, the heavens or the earth, in regard to the judgments which he has promised in these last days, but every one of them will have its fulfillment upon the heads of the children of men; and when they are fully ripened in iniquity the nations of the earth will be swept away as with the besom of destruction.

What did the Lord say to that meek and humble man, the brother of Jared, thousands of years ago, with regard to the land of America—a chosen land promised by old Father Jacob to his sons? He said that no nation should ever occupy it, unless the people thereof kept his commandments; and if they failed to do that they should be cut off when they were ripened in iniquity. The Lord has already swept away two mighty nations from this continent, because they have not fulfilled his word, spoken through that humble man. The Lord chooses the weak things of the world, things which are naught to bring to naught things which are, and he will as surely perform his work in this age of the world as he has done in any other. We need not fear man, nor the wrath of man, but fear God, who holds in his hands the destinies of all men.

Before I close my remarks, I want to say a few words to our sisters and daughters in Zion, for I feel that there are some words of the Lord to them. This is a time that the daughters of Zion should hearken to the words of the Prophet of God, who has been set to lead us. I feel that it is time, forty years after they were organized, that the Female Relief Societies should labor with all their might to carry out the object of their organization by the Prophet Joseph Smith. You may ask, “What was the object of that organization?” I will say that in organizing these societies there were several objects in view, some of which I will refer to before I get through. President Young has been calling upon you, as one branch of the land of Zion, to take hold and help to build it up. He desires that the sisters here in the land of Zion should govern and control the fashions of Zion. Instead of heaping to yourselves and imitating the fashions that have adorned Babylon, you should have independence enough to form your own; and those which are not comely and comfortable should be laid aside. I, myself, do not think it has been pleasing in the sight of God, to see the manner in which the mothers and daughters in Zion, for years past, have been ready to adorn themselves with every fashion that Babylon has contrived and invented. I need not mention all these things, but I will mention two or three. For instance, how is it with regard to the head dress of the ladies? The Lord has given to women generally a fine head of hair, which, we are told in the Scriptures, is the glory of the woman; and she should let the hair given unto her adorn her head without adding any foreign substance, as is now done, in order to imitate and follow after the fashions of the world. Again, just as quick as the daughters of Babylon extend their crinolines until they cannot move in a space less than six or eight feet wide, in a coach, assembly room, or anywhere else, why the daughters of Zion must follow the same uncomely fashion. But a fashion the reverse of this is now adopted, and at the present time the daughters of Babylon wear their elastics so tight that they have not room left for locomotion when walking in the streets; and, of course the daughters of Zion must practice the same. And now, see one of them, dressed in the height of fashion, crossing the street, and a runaway team comes thundering along. What a position she is in! Why the only way she can save her life is to lie down and roll across the street like a saw log.

All these fashions are uncomely and should be laid aside. The daughters of Zion should do better than to trail silks and satins in the mud when walking in the street. The Female Relief Societies should lay hold of and regulate these things, and introduce fashions that are comely and comfortable; it is their duty to do it. Again, you can do a good deal in regard to maintaining the independence of Zion, by going to and carrying out the counsel of President Young in raising your own silk for dresses, bonnets and trimmings, so that your adorning may be the workmanship of your own hands.

I felt as though I wanted to say so much with regard to our sisters in Zion. President Young says, and I know it is the truth, that this is the best people on the face of the earth. But however good we may be we should aim continually to improve and become better. We have obeyed a different law and Gospel to what other people have obeyed, and we have a different kingdom in view, and our aim should be correspondingly higher before the Lord our God, and we should govern and control ourselves accordingly, and I pray God my heavenly Father that his Spirit may rest upon us and enable us to do so.

Another word of the Lord to me is that, it is the duty of these young men here in the land of Zion to take the daughters of Zion to wife, and prepare tabernacles for the spirits of men, which are the children of our Father in heaven. They are waiting for tabernacles, they are ordained to come here, and they ought to be born in the land of Zion instead of Babylon. This is the duty of the young men in Zion; and when the daughters of Zion are asked by the young men to join with them in marriage, instead of asking—“Has this man a fine brick house, a span of fine horses and a fine carriage?” they should ask—“Is he a man of God? Has he the Spirit of God with him? Is he a Latter-day Saint? Does he pray? Has he got the Spirit upon him to qualify him to build up the kingdom?” If he has that, never mind the carriage and brick house, take hold and unite yourselves together according to the law of God. I rejoice to see the population increasing in the land of Zion. Why is it that ninety-nine women out of every hundred over the whole land of Zion, who are of proper age and married, are bringing forth posterity until our children swarm in our streets almost like bees? Because the God of heaven is raising up a royal Priesthood, and a generation to bear off this kingdom in the day when his judgments will come upon the earth.

Let us do our duty; let us cease setting our hearts upon the fashions and things of this world, and laboring to enrich ourselves at the sacrifice of the kingdom of God. We have a cooperative mercantile institution; and it is the duty of these Latter-day Saints to sustain and uphold it; and so with everything else that is in the kingdom, for these are the stepping stones to us to a fullness of the celestial kingdom of God.

I thank God that I live in this day and age of the world, when my ears have heard the sound of the fullness of the Gospel of Christ. I thank God that I have seen the face of Prophets, Apostles, and inspired men. I rejoice in this, and I pray God my heavenly Father that I, and my brethren and sisters, may have power to unite and take hold and build up this kingdom. When we do this it will not be in the power of earth or hell to take away our rights and privileges; for I tell you that if this people were united according to the law of God, wherein we should become fully justified before the Lord, sinners in Zion would tremble and fearfulness would surprise the hypocrite; the power of God would rest upon Zion, the angels of God would visit the earth, the judgments of God would be poured upon the wicked, the Zion of God would be redeemed, the Temples of God would be reared, the prison doors would be opened and the prisoners in the spirit world would go free, because we would feel the spirit and power of our mission and calling and should fulfill it.

I pray that God will bless this people, and that he will bless President Young, who has already outlived four of his counselors. The Lord says—“I will take whom I will take, and I will preserve whom I will preserve.” All these counselors were younger men than President Young, yet he has outlived them. God has ordained President Young to live, and he has lived so long, and has had the prayers of hundreds and thousands of Saints, which have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth for his preservation; and the Lord has heard and answered these prayers.

Let us, as Elders of Israel, rise up and bear off this kingdom. Let us forsake our evils and wickedness, and repent of our sins, and renew our covenants and keep the commandments of God; that we may lighten the burdens of our President, that his spirit may be cheered, and that the power of God may attend him in his labors for the advancement of Zion upon the earth.

This is my prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Sept. 12, 1875.

I will call the attention of the congregation to a few verses in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew. [The speaker read the first thirteen verses; also the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth paragraphs of the fourteenth section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.]

This revelation, a portion of which I have been reading, treats in a measure upon the subject of the parable that Jesus spoke, namely, the ten virgins; both refer to his second coming, and to his work in the latter days. In no age or dispensation can a man be called to a greater calling than to administer in the ordinances of the house of God, and nothing but the power of God and the inspiration of the Almighty can sustain and uphold any man, no matter what age he may live in, who is called of God to declare the words of life and salvation, and to preach repentance to an unbelieving generation. This may perhaps sound strangely in the ears of many people, but the inhabitants of the earth, both Jew and Gentile, should remember that the Lord God Almighty himself, his Son Jesus Christ, and his Gospel and work, have been very unpopular in every age of the world among the hosts of men. No more unpopular doctrine was ever presented to the human family, than the doctrine of life and salvation. I do not care in what age of the world a Prophet, Apostle or inspired man has been raised up to declare the commands of God, he has had to contend with the prejudices of the inhabitants of the earth. It is so in our day, and it was so in the days of Jesus Christ. When he came to the Jews, his own Father’s house, the house of Israel, as the great Shiloh of Judah, and the Savior of the world, a more unpopular man than he never dwelt in Judea or Jerusalem, from the day of his birth to the day of his death, when he gave up the ghost on the cross, and went home to glory as a martyr for the word of God and the testimony which he bore. And this is why I say that when any man, in any age of the world, is called of God to declare the words of life, he has to contend with the traditions of ages that rest upon the minds of the in– habitants of the earth.

The parable of the ten virgins is intended to represent the second coming of the Son of man, the coming of the Bridegroom to meet the bride, the Church, the Lamb’s wife, in the last days; and I expect that the Savior was about right when he said, in reference to the members of the Church, that five of them were wise and five were foolish; for when the Lord of heaven comes in power and great glory to reward every man according to the deeds done in the body, if he finds one-half of those professing to be members of his Church prepared for salvation, it will be as many as can be expected, judging by the course that many are pursuing.

I wish, if I can get enough of the Spirit of the Lord to answer my own mind, to say a few words on the present occasion to my brethren and sisters, the Latter-day Saints, those who have taken upon them the name of Christ. We live in one of the most important dispensations that God ever gave to man, namely, the great and last dispensation of the fullness of times, the dispensation of all dispensations, and the one in which the whole flood of prophecy in the holy Bible will be fulfilled, for most all of the prophecies contained in that sacred volume, from Adam to John the Revelator, point to the great work of God in the last days, the days in which the God of heaven would set up a kingdom that should be an everlasting kingdom, and to whose dominion there should be no end, and the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens should be given into the hands of the Saints of the Most High God, and they are to possess it forever and ever. I wish to have the Latter-day Saints understand their appointment, position, and re– sponsibility before the God of heaven, and their responsibilities to both Jew and Gentile, living and dead, on this and the other side of the veil.

The Lord never has built up his kingdom in any age of the world except by calling upon his servants and laboring through the tabernacles of men on the earth; but this he has done in a great many ages and dispensations. And whenever the Lord has had an Apostle, Prophet, or inspired man on the earth, he has had power to administer in the ordinances of the house of God, and he has labored for the advancement of the kingdom of God upon the earth, whether he has had few or many followers. As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. We live in the day when God has set his hand to establish that great kingdom that Daniel saw. We live in the day when the angel of God has delivered the everlasting Gospel in fulfillment of the revelations of St. John, when he says—“I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them who dwell on the earth, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people under the whole heavens, saying with a loud voice—’Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.’”

There never was a generation of the inhabitants of the earth in any age of the world who had greater events awaiting them than the present. As I before remarked, the fulfillment of this whole volume of revelation points to our day. The building up of the kingdom of God, the building up of the Zion of God, in the mountains of Israel, the erection of a standard for the Gentiles to flee unto, the warning of the nations of the earth to prepare them for the great judgments of our God, the building up of the Church, the sanctifying of the people, the building of Temples to the Most High God, that his servants may enter therein and become saviors on Mount Zion, redeeming both the living and the dead, all these things are to be performed in our day. And an age fraught with greater interest to the children of men than the one in which we live never dawned since the creation of the world.

Where is the man, priest, or people, in the whole sectarian world, today, who believes in the literal fulfillment of the revelations of God contained in the Bible? If there is one I should like to see and converse with him. The whole Christian world profess to believe the Bible, and perhaps they do when it is shut. But open the Bible and read the declarations contained therein, concerning the last dispensation of the fullness of times, and where is the man who believes them? You cannot find one, and it requires faith even among the Latter-day Saints to believe the revelations of God, and to prepare themselves for those things which await the world.

The fig trees are leafing, the summer is nigh, the signs of heaven and earth all indicate the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; but who are really looking and preparing for the coming of the great Bridegroom? I do not know that any people on the earth, except the Latter-day Saints, are looking for this great event. There may be exceptions, there may be men who believe in the second coming of Christ. The people called Millerites, believe in the second coming of the Savior, and they have set a great many days when it should take place. But he did not come; and he never will come until the revelations of God are fulfilled and a people are prepared for his coming. He will never come until the Jews are gathered home and have rebuilt their Temple and city, and the Gentiles have gone up there to battle against them. He will never come until his Saints have built up Zion, and have fulfilled the revelations which have been spoken concerning it. He will never come until the Gentiles throughout the whole Christian world have been warned by the inspired elders of Israel. They are called to thrust in the sickle and reap, for the harvest is ripe and the time has come, which is referred to in this revelation, when the Lord commands the Elders to go forth and warn the world for the last time, and call upon the inhabitants of the earth to repent. And what I wish to say to the Elders and to the Latter-day Saints is—Have we faith in God and in his revelations? Have we faith in our own religion? Have we faith in Jesus Christ? Have we faith in the words of the Prophets? Have we faith in Joseph Smith, who, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, translated the Book of Mormon, giving a record of the ancient inhabitants of this country, and through whom the Lord gave the revelations contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants? If we have faith in these things, then we certainly should prepare ourselves for the fulfillment of them. I consider that as a people and as Elders of Israel we occupy one of the most important positions ever occupied on the face of the earth by those who have been called to work for the Lord. We have received our appointment for this work, and we should prepare ourselves to perform the duties devolving upon us in connection with it. Truth is one of the attributes of the Lord, and he never makes a declaration but what is certain and true. And, as one of the Apostles says, “There is no prophecy of any private interpretation, but holy men of old spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost;” therefore what they said is true, and their prophecies will have their fulfillment. No man can point to any of the revelations of God in the old prophets concerning events up to our day, but what have had their fulfillment. Everything that Jesus Christ spake concerning Judea and Jerusalem has had its fulfillment to the very letter. The Temple at Jerusalem was overthrown until not one stone was left upon another, and the Jews have been scattered and trodden under the feet of the Gentiles now for eighteen hundred years, and so they will remain until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, and that is pretty near. And, as the Lord has told us in these revelations, we are called upon to warn the world.

We have been laboring now for forty-five years in preaching the Gospel of Christ throughout the Gentile nations. We say Gentiles, because the Gospel goes to the Gentiles first, that the first may be last and the last first. Anciently the Jews were first in having the Gospel sent unto them, but they rejected it, and they were broken off through unbelief, and hence the Gospel turned to the Gentiles; and, as Paul says—“Ye Gentiles, take heed and fear, lest ye fall through the same example of unbelief, for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed also lest he spare not ye.” The Gentiles are fallen through the same example of unbelief as did the Jews. They have put to death every Prophet, Apostle, and inspired man since the days of Jesus Christ, and the Church went into the wilderness, and the face of a Prophet, Apostle, or inspired man, called of God to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, had not been seen for some eighteen hundred years, until the Lord raised up a Prophet in the day and age in which we live. Therefore the Gospel brought forth in the last days has to go to the Gentiles first.

Sometimes our neighbors and friends think hard of us because we call them Gentiles; but, bless your souls, we are all Gentiles. The Latter-day Saints are all Gentiles in a national capacity. The Gospel came to us among the Gentiles. We are not Jews, and the Gentile nations have got to hear the Gospel first. The whole Christian world have got to hear the Gospel, and when they reject it, the law will be bound and the testimony sealed, and it will turn to the house of Israel. Up to the present day we have been called to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and we have had to do it. For the last time we have been warning the world, and we have been engaged in that work for forty-five years.

When Joseph Smith was called of God, it required faith, inspiration, and the power of the Almighty to rest upon him to enable him to organize the Church and Kingdom of God, and to preach the Gospel against the traditions of the Christian world, for they had spiritualized the Bible until there was not a remnant left in a literal point of view. Hence the inhabitants of the earth were not looking for the Church and Kingdom of God to be established in their midst. Darkness has prevailed upon the earth, and does today, in all the nations, and this causes silence to reign, and all eternity is pained because of the sin, wickedness, and abominations which prevail throughout the whole Christian or Gentile world, and throughout the whole Jewish world, for darkness prevails upon the face of all the earth, and the Lord is calling upon all the inhabitants thereof to repent and receive the Gospel, and when they have done so to gather out of Babylon to the place he has appointed for the dwelling place of his Saints. The Latter-day Saints heard this Gospel among the Gentiles wherever they dwelt, in almost every nation under heaven, and by this Gospel we have been gathered out unto Zion. We have been gathered here for a certain purpose, and that purpose is to fulfill the revelations of God.

When we left Missouri and Nauvoo, leaving behind the graves of our fathers and children, we were driven by our enemies into this desert, in the expectation that we should perish, and for nothing but because we believed revelation and prophecy, and in living prophets and servants of God. We thought it was hard to be driven from our homes and lands, which we had bought of our government, and paid the money for; but I will say to the Latter-day Saints that if we had not come here there certainly would have been a flood of prophecy fallen unfulfilled, prophecy in regard to the mountains of Israel, and the great company gathering up thereto, with regard to the lifting up of a standard therein, and the building of cities and the Temple of God in their midst. All these things would have fallen unfulfilled if we had not come to these mountains and fulfilled them. And so with many other prophecies. We have been called together to perform the work of the Lord, and now the Lord looks to us to fulfill our covenants and keep his commandments. If we do this he has made great promises unto us. The Lord has given the holy Priesthood unto the Elders of Israel, and he requires at our hands to fulfill all these revelations and commandments; and in regard to the parable which I have read, I, as an individual, feel that it is necessary for me, and I may say that it is necessary for the whole people, to have oil in our lamps if we expect to see and comprehend the things of the kingdom of God.

The Lord has chosen a royal Priesthood and a holy people from among the weak things of the world, in fulfillment of his revelations; and we have been commanded to go forth and bear record of these things, and we have done it. We should have been condemned and the curse of God would have rested upon us if we had not, because the full set time has come to build up and favor Zion, to build up the kingdom of God, to warn the world and prepare them for the judgments of the Almighty. The Millennium is dawning upon the world, we are at the end of the sixth thousand years, and the great day of rest, the Millennium of which the Lord has spoken, will soon dawn and the Savior will come in the clouds of heaven to reign over his people on the earth one thousand years. The Lord has a great work ahead and he is preparing a people to do it before his coming. Now the question arises here, brethren and sisters, are we prepared in our hearts? Do we realize these things? As a people do we realize our responsibilities before the Lord? The Lord has raised up a kingdom of priests here in the last days to establish his Church and kingdom, and to prepare the way for the second coming of the Son of Man, and the God of heaven has put into the hands of his servants the keys of the kingdom, and he has said—“Whatever I have decreed in these my servants shall be fulfilled, for to them is given power to bind and to seal both on the earth and in heaven, against the day of the wrath of Almighty God, which is to be poured out upon the world.”

I think, many times, that we, as Elders of Israel and as Latter-day Saints, come far short of realizing our position before the Lord. The work required at our hands is great and mighty; it is the work of Almighty God. We are held responsible for presenting the Gospel of Christ to all the nations of the earth, to warn the Gentiles, to prepare for the return of the lost ten tribes of Israel, and for carrying the Gospel to the whole tribes of Israel. We are held responsible for all this, and for building Temples to the Most High, wherein we can enter and attend to ordinances for the salvation of our dead. There are fifty thousand million spirits shut up in the spirit world who never saw the face of a Prophet, Apostle or inspired man in their lives. No man having the authority of God ever declared the words of life and salvation unto them, and without authority their ministrations are useless, for this is what the Priesthood is for. The God of heaven has ordained this from eternity to eternity. These persons in the spirit world died in the flesh without the law, without the Gospel, and they are shut up in prison. Joseph Smith is preaching to them, and so are thousands of the Elders of Israel who have died and gone to the other side of the veil. George A. Smith, who dwelt with us until within the last few days, will take part, with joy and rejoicing, with his brethren in the great work the other side of the veil. When I saw ten or twelve thousand people met in this Tabernacle to pay their last respects to the body of that man, I thought to myself—“How much larger a congregation surrounds his spirit, in the spirit world.” Yes, they number millions there, to where we have units here, and the servants of God will preach to them the same as Jesus preached to the spirits in prison. While his body lay three days and nights in the tomb he went and preached to the spirits in prison, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, that they might receive part in the resurrection, according to the testimony which they received. As I said before, the God of heaven requires this at your hands. They will not baptize anybody in the spirit world; there is no baptism there; there is no marrying or giving in marriage there; all these ordinances have to be performed on the earth. Paul says, in referring to this subject—“Why are ye baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not why then are ye baptized for the dead?” The Lord holds us responsible for going to and building Temples, that we may attend therein to the ordinances necessary for the salvation of the dead.

In every dispensation the Lord has had those who were foreordained to do a certain work. We all dwelt in the presence of God before we came here, and such men as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the ancient Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles received their appointments before the world was made. They were ordained before the foundation of the world to come and tabernacle here in the flesh and to work for the cause of God, and this because of their faith and faithfulness. You can see the great variety of spirits that have dwelt in the presence of God, from those who are in the presence of God, down to the devils. A good many of the hosts of heaven were cast out because of their wickedness. Lucifer, son of the morning, and those who fol– lowed after him were cast down to earth, and they dwell here to this day—a hundred to every man, woman and child that breathes the breath of life. They dwell here without bodies, only what tabernacles they can get into, to rule and preside over.

We are required to build Temples in which to attend to the ordinances of the house of the Lord, that the prison doors may be opened, and the prisoners go free. The world say—“We do not believe in such stuff.” We know that perfectly well; it was so in the days of Noah and Lot, but the unbelief of the people did not stop the flood and the fire, neither will the unbelief of this generation stay the hand of God one moment. The angels of God have been waiting in the Temple in heaven for forty-five years to go forth to reap down the earth. The wheat and the tares must grow together until harvest; the people must be warned, the Saints gathered out, Zion built up, Temples reared, the living warned, the dead redeemed, that the skirts of the Elders of Israel may be clean before all men.

It is by the power of God that the Elders have been sustained in days past and gone. And I want to say to my brethren—and what I say to them I take to myself—we should wake up, we should open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and we should open our hearts to understand our appointment and position before the Lord; for if, as Latter-day Saints, we are going to stop praying, lose the light of the Holy Ghost, and turn to the beggarly elements of the world, the Lord will have to say to us—“Get out of my way, my purposes cannot be thwarted;” and he will raise up somebody else to perform this work. The Lord has never told any lies or made any false promises. “Who am I,” saith the Lord, “that I promise and do not fulfill?” “Who am I,” saith the Lord, “that I command and am not obeyed?” The amount of it is that the promises of the Lord are yea and amen, and though the heavens and the earth pass away, his word never will fail of its fulfillment.

In one paragraph of the revelation which I read to you this afternoon, it says—

“And again, the Lord shall utter his voice out of heaven, saying: Hearken, O ye nations of the earth, and hear the words of that God who made you. O, ye nations of the earth, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not! How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor, and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not! Behold, the day has come, when the cup of the wrath of mine indignation is full.”

How often has the Lord sent Prophets, as in the days of Noah, Lot, Abraham, Enoch, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young? How often have the Elders of Israel lifted up their voices to the inhabitants of the earth and been rejected? Will not these things rise in judgment against them? Yea, verily they will. The Lord has offered the fullness of the everlasting Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth today, and they refuse to receive it. Brother Pratt, here, myself and thousands of us have traveled ten thousand miles on foot, without purse or scrip, carrying our knapsack or valise, and we have waded swamps, swam rivers, and begged our bread from door to door to preach the Gospel to this generation. And how many have we got to believe it? Two of a city and one of a family, as the Prophet has said, and we have gathered them to Zion. Nevertheless the warning voice has gone forth to the world. But what do we see today? What do the Gods, the heavens and all eternity see? They see a generation of men and women making war against God and his Christ, making war against Prophets and Apostles, and laboring night and day to overpower and annihilate every principle of salvation and eternal life which God has restored to the world. And I will here say, in the ears of this congregation, that were this not the dispensation of the fullness of times, and were it not for the decrees which the Lord has made in relation to it, one of which is that he will set up a kingdom which shall stand forever, there is not an Apostle or Latter-day Saint on the face of the earth but would have to seal his testimony with his blood, as has almost every other Apostle that ever breathed the breath of life. I say that were it not for these things, we should all have to follow our leaders, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who laid down their lives for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. But hear it ye Gentile nations and all ye nations of the earth, the Lord Almighty has set to his hand to build up his kingdom on the earth, and he will not be thwarted. The Lord is going to make a short work in the earth, and he will defend his anointed, his Prophets, his Zion and his people. This is the decree of Almighty God. The eyes of all heaven are over this people, they are over the earth, over the Gentiles, and over the Jews, and the Lord holds in his hands the destinies of all men. And we are commanded of God to rise up and warn the nations of the earth; and we call upon the Latter-day Saints, upon the Elders of Israel, upon the mothers and daughters in Zion to lay aside their fooleries and nonsense, and to no longer let their hearts be set upon the fashions of the world, but turn to and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the revelations of God given in these days, and get the Holy Spirit and walk in the light of the Lord, that your eyes may be opened, that you may see and comprehend the position you occupy on the earth, for you are held under great responsibility for the manner in which you do your duty and magnify your callings before the Lord, and he is not trifling with us, nor with this generation.

If the eyes of the Gentiles were opened one moment to see the things of eternity, and the judgments which await this generation, they would not wonder that the servants of God are moved upon to cry aloud to the nations of the earth. I tell you that the judgments of God are at the door of both Zion and great Babylon. Great Babylon has come in remembrance before God, and His sword is bathed in heaven and it will fall on Idumea and the world. Who can stand before the hand of Almighty God? No man, no nation, nor set of nations on the face of the earth.

I would to God that the eyes of the world were opened! I would to God that the eyes of the Gentile nations were opened, that they could see and understand what belongs to their peace! How much has the Lord pleaded with the nations of the earth to give them celestial glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life? He has pleaded with them for the last six thousand years, and has raised up his servants from time to time and called upon the inhabitants of the world to prepare themselves for the great day of his second advent and coming, which is at hand. He is calling upon them loudly today; and, as I have said to some of my brethren lately, the Lord now wants to know whether the Latter-day Saints are willing to work with him or not. It is a day of decision. I do not expect that more than half of us will have oil in our lamps and be prepared to enter into the marriage supper with the Bridegroom. That will be about as much as we can expect, unless we repent of our sins and turn from our follies, fooleries, and the fashions of Babylon—things which our hearts have been set upon instead of upon building up the kingdom of God. It seems to me that there will be but a remnant even of the Latter-day Saints who will be prepared to inherit eternal life and for the coming of the Bridegroom.

I feel, in my bones and in my Spirit, that there is a change at the door, both with Zion and Babylon. Great events await us and this generation. As I said before, judgments are at the door. The angels of God are waiting for the great command to go forth and reap down the earth. All earth and hell are stirred up against Zion. The spirit of lying is abroad in all the world, and the people will not receive the truth. In my meditations, whether in regard to the past or present, it has always seemed one of the greatest mysteries why so few have been willing to believe the revelations of God. In the days of Jesus, among all the Jewish rabbis, with their Urim and Thum– mim, ephod, sacrifices, giving the law, and all the blessings of Judah which they held in their hands, it has been a marvel to me that so few had an interest in their Shiloh, their Savior, who came to die to redeem the world. The whole spirit of Jerusalem and Judea was—“Crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be upon us and our children.” It was and has been, and they have felt it. And the Gentiles have cause to take heed lest they, too, fall through unbelief.

I would tell Jew and Gentile, and all the earth if I had power, that God never had but one Gospel to deliver to the sons of men, and that Gospel is the same today, yesterday, and forever, it never changes. The Lord never had a Church in any age of the world that he acknowledged, but what it had a head to it, and it was organized with Prophets, Apostles, Pastors, Teachers, gifts, helps, governments, inspiration and gifts of the Holy Ghost; and God’s Church today is the same as in every other age.

This Gospel is offered to the world, and that men generally have such a desire to root it out of the earth, is the strongest proof imaginable that they are under the dominion and control of the father of lies. If any man has a truth that we have not got, we say, “Let us have it.” I am willing to exchange all the errors and false notions I have for one truth, and should consider that I had made a good bargain. We are not afraid of light and truth. Our religion embraces every truth in heaven, earth or hell; it embraces all truth, the whole Gospel and plan of salvation, and the fulfillment of the whole volume of revelation that God has ever given. We have not power, men have not language, to show forth the eternal truths of God in all their fullness and beauty; all we can do is to warn the children of men, and the Lord has chosen the Elders of Israel for that very purpose. That has been one fault that men have found with the work of the Lord. A man asked me awhile ago—“Why did the Lord choose Joseph Smith to build up his kingdom? Why did he not choose Dr. Porter, Henry Ward Beecher, or some such men?” Said I—“Such men would sell the kingdom of God and everything in it for money and popularity, and as the Lord lives he never could rule and handle them, none of them would work with him, they are too much like the Pharisees, Sadducees, High Priests and Rabbis of Judea and Jerusalem.” Did the Lord ever choose such men to perform his work? Go through the whole history of the world, and you will find that whenever God wanted a servant, an Apostle or a Prophet, he chose the very humblest man that could be found. When a king was wanted for Israel, he could not find one out of all the tall sons of Jesse; and when the Prophet asked if Jesse had not another son, he was told no, only the boy that looked after the sheep. Nobody thought anything about him, he was of no consequence. “Let me see him,” said the man of God; and when he was brought, the Prophet poured oil on his head and anointed him King of Israel. So it has been all the way through. Take Moses the leader of Israel. His mother cast him in the bulrushes on the banks of the river Nile, to the crocodiles. But how carefully the Lord watched over him! Finally the daughter of pharaoh got him out, while bathing, and gave him to his mother to be trained and nursed. You could see the hand of the Lord in this. When the Lord called Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt, said he—“How can I do this? I am a man of a hard language and slow of speech.” He thought he could not get along, for he had not a good command of language. But the Lord told him that he would find a spokesman for him. So all the way through the Lord has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the wise, and the things that are nought, to bring to nought the things that are. Jesus Christ himself was born in a stable and cradled in a manger; and who were his Apostles? Illiterate fishermen, men of the lowest calling almost in Judea, Salt Lake City, or anywhere else; but fishermen can be just as honorable men as any others, and they are generally regarded as very humble men, and that is the kind of men God has always chosen.

The Lord called Joseph Smith because he was foreordained before the world was to build up this Church and Kingdom, and he came through the loins of ancient Joseph. He was an illiterate youth, but the Lord used him, and he lived to fulfill the measure of his appointment; he lived as long as the Lord required him to live, and until he received every key held by every Prophet and Apostle that ever lived in the flesh from the days of Adam down to his day, which belonged to this dispensation.

Joseph Smith received his first ordination under the hand of John the Baptist, who was beheaded, and who, while in the flesh, held the Aaronic Priesthood. Peter, James, and John, who were Prophets, and were crucified and put to death, at least Peter and James were, they came and ordained Joseph Smith to the Apostleship; and every ordination that he obtained, he obtained from the spirit world from men who had tabernacled here in the flesh. These are the eternal truths of the God of heaven, and eternity will reveal them to the inhabitants of the earth. It is by this power that this Church has been planted, not of man nor by the will of man, but by the revelations of Jesus Christ. We call upon the Latter-day Saints, we look to them, and the Lord looks to them, the heavens look to them, to take hold and build up this kingdom.

Some of the outside world are finding a good deal of fault with the Indians. Who are the Indians? Read the Book of Mormon, and you will learn that they are the literal descendants of Israel; they have been cursed through the transgressions of their fathers, and a skin of darkness has come upon them. This history tells us that they were once a white and delightsome people, and had great power on this land, but that they were degraded and cast down because of their sins. When we came here, we found them living upon crickets, grasshoppers, roots, and anything they could possibly eat, poor, miserable, degraded beings, though they have immortal souls, and are of the house of Israel. What is the Lord doing for them? He is stretching forth his hand over them, in remembrance of the promises made to their fathers. President Young and his people are accused of stirring up the Indians against the general government, and against the white man. This is not true. We have preached to the Indians a good many years, as we have had opportunities, but what effect did it have? Not much. We preached to Walker, Arapene, and many other chiefs who have dwelt here, but have now passed away, but our preaching had but little effect. Now the Lord is stretching out his hand over the Lamanites, and their eyes are being opened, and they are receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the hands of the Elders of Israel. Whose work is this? Not the work of man, but it is the work of God, and if the nations of the earth try to stay it, the warfare is between them and God, and not between them and us. So with every other principle which God has revealed to us. This work is the work of the God of Israel, and not the work of man; not the work of Brigham Young, the Twelve Apostles, or anybody else. The hand of the Lord is feeling after that people, and if we, as Latter-day Saints, do not arise and magnify our callings and fulfill our missions, the Lord will take that people and build up his kingdom, and we will be cast out. It is time that we awoke and realized this truth, and that, as Elders of Israel, we realized our position before the Lord. Now there is a very general desire manifested by this people to get rich, and to labor for self rather than for the kingdom of God. But what will it profit you or me to give up praying and to go to and get rich? What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Not much. What will a man give in exchange for his soul, when he gets on the other side of the veil? I marvel very much at the little interest manifested by the inhabitants of the earth generally in their future state. There is not a person here today but what is going to live on the other side of the veil as long as his Creator—to the endless ages of eternity, and the eternal destiny of every individual depends upon the manner in which the few short years of the life in the flesh are spent. I ask, in the name of the Lord, what is popularity to you or me? What is gold or silver, or this world’s goods to any of us, any further than to enable us to obtain what we need to eat, drink, and wear, and to build up the kingdom of God. And for us to stop praying, and to become crazy after the riches of the world, is the very height of foolishness and folly. To see the way that some people act, you might suppose that they are going to live here eternally, and that their eternal destiny depends upon the number of dollars they have. I sometimes ask the Latter-day Saints, how much we had when we came here? How much did we bring, and where did it come from? I do not think anyone of us brought a wife or a brick house; I do not think that any of us were born on horseback or in a carriage, or that we brought railroad scrip and cattle and houses with us, but we were born naked as Job, and I think that we shall leave here as naked as he did. Then with regard to this world’s goods, what do they amount to with us, that they should induce us to lose salvation for them? I say, rather than that, let me be poor all the days of my life; if riches are going to damn me, and take from me the glory I have in prospect through keeping the commandments of God, I pray God that I may never possess them.

God holds the riches of this world in his hands; the gold and silver, the cattle and the earth are his, and he gives to whom he will give. When Christ was upon the mount, Lucifer, the devil, showed him all the glory of the world and offered to give it to him if he would fall down and worship him. But do you know that that poor devil did not own a single foot of land in the whole world, and that he had not even a body, or tabernacle? The earth is the footstool of the Lord, and if we ever have any of it for our own the Lord will give it to us; and we ought to be just as faithful to our religion if we had ten thousand million dollars, as if we had not any at all. Eternal life is what we are or ought to be after, and that, whatever our circum– stances and condition in life may be, should be our first object.

I say to the brethren and sisters—you have your appointment; the Lord has raised up these Elders of Israel, and I can prove from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants that you received the Priesthood from eternity, and your lives have been hid with Christ in God, and you knew it not. You are literally and lawfully heirs of the Priesthood through the lineage of your fathers, and that Priesthood will continue throughout eternity, therefore you have received your appointment, and the Lord looks to you to build up his Zion and kingdom upon the earth.

Let us try to be faithful and to live our religion; let us try to believe in the revelations of God. I think it will be better for our daughters, for our wives, for our sons and for ourselves to lay aside the New York Ledger and yellow-covered literature generally, and take hold and read the revelations of God, and comprehend them. When I read the revelations, whether in the Bible, Book of Mormon, or Book of Doctrine and Covenants, I look upon them as true, and I look for their fulfillment. Up to the present day, one jot or tittle of them has never gone unfulfilled, and, as the Lord has said—“What I have spoken I have spoken, and I excuse not myself, and though the heavens and the earth pass away, not one jot or tittle of my word shall go unfulfilled, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same. Behold and lo I am God, and truth will be and abide for ever and ever, Amen.” Now let us try and live our religion and keep the commandments of God. As Latter-day Saints let us see where we are, and if we have no oil in our lamps let us stop trying to get rich, and let us pray to the Lord until we get his Spirit and oil in our lamps, and light unto the glory of God, and take hold and labor to build up his Kingdom and Zion.

Before I close I want to speak on one temporal point. I have been talking about getting riches. I do not find fault with riches. The gold and silver are the Lord’s. We want houses building and we must cultivate the earth. This is all right. I do not find fault with a man getting rich, I find fault with our selling the kingdom of God, our birthright, selling the Gospel and depriving ourselves of eternal life, for the sake of gratifying the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life and the fashions of the world; and setting our hearts upon these things. It is right to build houses, to plant vineyards and orchards, to cultivate the earth and to make the desert blossom as the rose, to adorn our dwelling places and to build Temples. This is all right. I have no objection to the ladies—our wives daughters and mothers—in Zion adorning themselves as much as they please, if they only make what they wear. Set out your mulberry trees and make your own silk; get straw and make your own bonnets; make your artificial flowers to adorn yourselves with, and let all be the workmanship of your own hands, and do not import these things at the expense of the means we have in the Territory. I have not any fault to find with your adorning yourselves, if you only make that which you require yourselves.

I want to say one word to our farmers before I close. I want to ask you if you ever heard brother Kimball tell about laying up wheat? “Yes,” say some “we have heard him, but the famine has not come yet.” No, but it will come. The Lord is not going to disappoint either Babylon or Zion, with regard to famine, pestilence, earthquakes or storms, he is not going to disappoint anybody with regard to any of these things, they are at the doors, and I want to give a word of exhortation to our farmers, and I say to them, lay up your wheat, for according to the spirit that has been in my bosom the last three or four months, and in the breasts of a good many others, the day will come when, if you do not take this counsel, you will want your wheat for bread. I feel to exhort the brethren; and to say to them—lay up bread, do not sell it for a song; let your wives and daughters go for awhile without ribbons and ornaments, let your wheat stay in your bins; let us try to get along with old coats and old hats, and keep the wheat, and in a little while you will see the reason why this counsel has been given. Lay up your wheat; and other provisions against a day of need, for the day will come when they will be wanted, and no mistake about it. We shall want bread, and the Gentiles will want bread, and if we are wise we shall have something to feed them and ourselves when famine comes. We have fed thousands of them in days past, who would have laid their bones on these plains if it had not been for the counsel of President Young to us to cultivate the earth and have wheat on hand to feed them. And the day will come again when corn will be wanted in Zion, and it will be sought for. I hope the Latter-day Saints will take heed to these things and be wise.

I pray that God will bless you, that he will give you his spirit, that you may see and understand your position before him. And I pray that he will open the eyes, ears and hearts of the Gentiles, that they may receive the Gospel of Christ, and be numbered with the house of Israel in the last dispensation of the fullness of times, that they may stand in holy places through the nations, for they will come to both Jew and Gentile, Zion and Babylon. There is no getting away from them, for the Lord has said so, and what he has said will come to pass. Amen

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered June 27, 1875, in the Second Ward Schoolhouse, Salt Lake City, at the Funeral Services of John Houseman, Aged Six Years, and Willie Franklin, Aged Four Years, Sons of William and Ann Wheeler, Burned to Death at Wanship, Summit County, U. T., June 24, 1875.

I am entirely dependent this morning upon the Spirit of the Lord to guide and direct me in what I may say upon this painful occasion. Those who have assembled here—Brother and Sister Wheeler, and their friends who mourn with them, are dependent upon the same source for comfort in their serious bereavement; and in fact we are all dependent upon the blessing and Spirit of the Lord in all the labors of life, and I hope that, in our services this morning, a large measure of that Spirit will be imparted unto us.

I feel disposed to read the first chapter of Job as a preliminary to any remarks I may make. [The speaker read the first chapter of the Book of Job.] We also see in reading the history of Job that the devil did not finish with him there, as it seems the devil had another conversation with the Lord on this subject, in which he informed the Lord that a man would give anything for his life and that if he, the devil, touched Job’s flesh, he would certainly curse God. And it seems from reading this history that the Lord put Job into the hands of the devil, to do as he pleased with him, only to spare his life. Of course the history is familiar to you all who have read the Bible, and you are aware that the devil smote Job, and he was covered with boils from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, so that he was in great distress, trouble and tribulation, yet in the midst of it all he did not sin, but acknowledged the hand of the Lord.

I may say with regard to the case which has brought us together this morning, it is a little similar to that of Job. We meet with some strange things in the history of our lives in the dispensations and dealings of God with men. In the case before us we are called to mourn the loss of two children taken from Brother and Sister Wheeler, we may say as suddenly and, in one sense of the word, as miraculously, as were the sons and daughters of Job. His affliction consisted not only in the loss of two children, but of all his children and also of all the possessions that he had, yet still, under all this he said—“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I know very well it is hard for any person to be called to pass through the scenes that we sometimes are called to pass through in this life, it is so in the case before us this morning. The loss of these little children, taken away as they were, is certainly painful, not only to the parents, but to every person who reflects; and it is a very hard matter for any of us to enter into and appreciate the depth of sorrow which parents feel on occasions like this, it is difficult to bring the matter home to our own hearts unless we have been called to pass through similar affliction and sorrow. At the same time there is no doubt that we all sympathize with our friends when called to pass through trials and bereavement. And I will here say to Brother and Sister Wheeler, and to all my friends, there are a great many worse things in this world than the case we are now called to mourn.

Our children are taken away from us in infancy and childhood, and they are taken away as Job’s were, in one sense of the word, through the dispensations of Providence, causing us severe trials. This we will acknowledge; but, as I have already said, there are many things in this world that are far more painful and afflicting than to have our children burned to death. My friends may ask—“What is Brother Woodruff driving at in this remark?” I will tell you. I have lived in these valleys twenty-seven years, since the pioneers came here. I have seen a whole generation of men and women grow up in these valleys of the mountains, and they have become parents. I have seen some, I will not say a great many, but I have seen some young men, I say nothing about maidens, who have met with untimely deaths and who have gone to the grave disgraced, and a dishonor to themselves and to their parents. Circumstances of this kind are far more painful to any parent in the world than it is for their children to meet with sudden death by accident or any other way. I do not make these remarks to apply to Brother and Sister Wheeler, for none of us know what course our children will take. We set good examples before them, and we strive to teach them righteous principles, but when they come to years of accountability they have their agency and they act for themselves.

Many things are transpiring in the earth today which we should regard as great calamities and as grievous to be borne if we had to pass through them. Think of these late earthquakes in South America, eight thousand people out of ten thousand in one city sunk in the earth in a few moments. And then, the tremendous floods that are sweeping over France and other parts of the earth, causing the death of hundreds and thousands of men, women and children. All these things are in fulfillment of the revelations of God, and of the judgments which he has promised should come upon the earth in the last days. One of the purposes which the Lord has in view in gathering his Saints to the valleys of the mountains is that they may not share in the sins or partake of the plagues of Babylon; therefore we have reason to rejoice before the Lord because of his mercies and blessings unto us. And with regard to a case like this before us this morning—the loss of those children—I want to say a few words for the consolation of those who are sorrowing. In the first place these children are innocent before the Lord; as to their death and the cause thereof, that is in the hands of God, and we should not complain of the Lord or his dispensations any more than Job did. These children have been taken away very suddenly, and in such a manner as to cause great sorrow and distress to their parents, but there is this consolation connected with the matter—they are innocent, they are not in transgression. They have paid the law of death which God passed on Adam and all his posterity; but when their spirits left their bodies and got into the spirit world their trouble and affliction were over. Their death was a very painful one, but their suffering is now over, and in a few years from now they will come forth out of their graves in the morning of the resurrection, not marred by fire or any element, but clothed with glory, immortality and eternal life, in eternal beauty and bloom, and they will be given into the hands of their parents, and they will receive them in the family organization of the celestial world, and their parents will have them forever. They will live as long as their God lives. This, to Latter-day Saints, who believe in the resurrection, should be a source of comfort and consolation.

Why our children are taken from us it is not for me to say, for God never revealed it unto me. We are all burying them. I have buried one-third of the children that have been given unto me. I have had some thirty children born to me, and ten of them are buried, all of them young. The question may arise with me and with you—“Why has the Lord taken away my children?” But that is not for me to tell, because I do not know; it is in the hands of the Lord, and it has been so from the creation of the world all the way down. Children are taken away in their infancy, and they go to the spirit world. They come here and fulfill the object of their coming, that is, they tabernacle in the flesh. They come to receive a probation and an inheritance on the earth; they obtain a body or tabernacle, and that tabernacle will be preserved for them, and in the morning of the resurrection the spirits and bodies will be reunited, and as here we find children of various ages in a family, from the infant at the mother’s breast to manhood, so will it be in the family organization in the celestial world. Our children will be restored to us as they are laid down if we, their parents, keep the faith and prove ourselves worthy to obtain eternal life; and if we do not so prove ourselves our children will still be preserved, and will inherit celestial glory. This is my view in regard to all infants who die, whether they are born to Jew or Gentile, righteous or wicked. They come from their eternal Father and their eternal Mother unto whom they were born in the eternal world, and they will be restored to their eternal parentage; and all parents who have received children here according to the order of God and the holy priesthood, no matter in what age they may have lived, will claim those children in the morning of the resurrection, and they will be given unto them and they will grace their family organizations in the celestial world.

With regard to the future state of those who die in infancy I do not feel authorized to say much. There has been a great deal of theory, and many views have been expressed on this subject, but there are many things connected with it which the Lord has probably never revealed to any of the Prophets or patriarchs who ever ap– peared on the earth. There are some things which have not been revealed to man, but are held in the bosom of God our Father, and it may be that the condition after death of those who die in infancy is among the things which God has never revealed; but it is sufficient for me to know that our children are saved, and that if we ourselves keep the faith and do our duty before the Lord, if we keep the celestial law, we shall be preserved by that law, and our children will be given unto us there, as they have been given here in this world of sorrow, affliction, pain and distress. It has no doubt been a marvel many times, in the minds of men and women, why God ever placed men and women in such a world as this, why he causes his children to pass through sorrow and affliction here in the body. The Lord has revealed something to us concerning this matter, and we have learned enough about it to know that this thing is necessary. We know that we are created in the image of God, both male and female; and whoever goes back into the presence of God our eternal Father, will find that he is a noble man, a noble God, tabernacled in a form similar to ours, for we are created after his own image; they will also learn that he has placed us here that we may pass through a state of probation and experience, the same as he himself did in his day of mortality. And time and again it has been revealed in the revelations of God given in our day, as well as in the Bible and Book of Mormon, that these things are necessary in order to enable us to comprehend good and evil, and to be prepared for glory and blessings when we receive them. As the Apostle argues very strongly in the Book of Mormon—“If we never taste the bitter how will we know how to comprehend the sweet? If we never partake of pain how can we prize ease? And if we never pass through affliction, how can we comprehend glory, exaltation and eternal blessings?”

The Lord has said concerning Jesus, that he descended below all things that he might rise above all things, and comprehend all things. No man descended lower than the Savior of the world. Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, he traveled from there to the cross through suffering, mingled with blood, to a throne of grace; and in all his life there was nothing of an earthly nature that seemed to be worth possessing. His whole life was passed in poverty, suffering, pain, affliction, labor, prayer, mourning and sorrow, until he gave up the ghost on the cross. Still he was God’s firstborn son and the Redeemer of the world. The question might be asked why the Lord suffered his Son to come here and to live and die as he did. When we get into the spirit world, and the veil is withdrawn, we shall then perhaps understand the whys and wherefores of all these things. In the dispensations and providences of God to man it seems that we are born to suffer pain, affliction, sorrows and trials; this is what God has decreed that the human family shall pass through; and if we make a right use of this probation, the experience it brings will eventually prove a great blessing to us, and when we receive immortality and eternal life, exaltation, kingdoms, thrones, principalities and powers with all the blessings of the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, we shall understand and comprehend why we were called to pass through a continual warfare during the few years we spent in the flesh.

It certainly does require a good deal of the Spirit of the Lord to give comfort and consolation to a father and mother mourning for the loss of their children; and without the Gospel of Christ the separation by death is one of the most gloomy subjects it is possible to contemplate; but just as soon as we obtain the Gospel and learn the principle of the resurrection, the gloom, sorrow and suffering occasioned by death are, in a great measure, taken away. I have often thought that, to see a dead body, and to see that body laid in the grave and covered with earth, is one of the most gloomy things on earth; without the Gospel it is like taking a leap in the dark. But as quick as we obtain the Gospel, as soon as the spirit of man is enlightened by the inspiration of the Almighty, he can exclaim with one of old—“Oh grave, where is thy victory, Oh death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the gift of God is eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The resurrection of the dead presents itself before the enlightened mind of man, and he has a foundation for his spirit to rest upon. That is the position of the Latter-day Saints today. We do know for ourselves, we are not in the dark with regard to this matter; God has revealed it to us, and we do understand the principle of the resurrection of the dead, and that the Gospel brings life and immortality to light. We have received the Gospel, and if we are true to the principles of that Gospel as long as we live, we shall be made partakers of immortality, exaltation and glory.

I know very well that the loss of their children in this terrible manner is a sad affliction to brother and sister Wheeler. It was a sad affliction for Job when his children and possessions were taken from him in an hour, but yet he had sense or knowledge enough to understand and say that when he came into the world he possessed neither children, houses, lands, horses, oxen, camels nor asses, but that all his wealth had been given to him by the Lord, and that the Lord had taken them away and blessed be his holy name. I will say to our mourning friends, your children are taken away and you cannot help it, we cannot any of us help it; there is no censure to be given to parents when they do the best they can. A mother should not be censured because she cannot save her sick child, and we have to leave these things in the hands of God. It will be but a little time until they will be restored to us; in a little time brother and sister Wheeler will again have the children whose loss they now mourn.

With regard to the growth, glory, or exaltation of children in the life to come, God has not revealed anything on that subject to me, either about your children, mine or anybody else’s, any further than we know they are saved. And I feel that we have to put our trust in the Lord in these afflictions, we have to lean upon his arm and to look to him for comfort and consolation. We do not mourn under these afflictions as those who have no hope; we do not mourn the loss of our children as though we were never going to see them again, because we know better. The Lord has taught us better, and so has the Gospel; the revelations of Jesus Christ have shown us that they will be restored to us in the resurrection of the just. And I will here say with regard to the Gospel of Christ, that it is one of the greatest mysteries under the heavens to me why there are so few of the human family, whether in the Christian, Pagan or Jewish world, who take any interest in eternal things, in the state of man after death. If we read the Bible we learn that Noah, filled with revelation, and with the Gospel in his hand, although he labored a hundred and twenty years, could not get a solitary soul except his own family to go with him for salvation. It was similar in the days of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and if we come down to the days of Christ, we find that his testimony was rejected by the rabbis, high priests and the great mass of the people, and he chose for his Apostles twelve poor fishermen, and they and very few of the people, comparatively speaking, were all that received the teachings of Jesus and followed him through the regeneration; while the whole Jewish nation, with these few exceptions, were ready to put their Shiloh to death, and he was the person upon whom the salvation of the whole house of Israel depended. It is just so today. The great majority of the people reject the words of life and salvation which are proclaimed unto them. God, in these last days revealed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith by the teachings of angels out of heaven, and its principles are made known to the world, and there has never been a congregation of Gentiles, from that day to this, to whom the Elders of Israel have borne record of these things, but what the Spirit of God has also borne record of the truth of their testimony; and herein lies the condemnation of this generation, for “light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” I ask, in the name of God and humanity, why is it that intelligent beings, made in the image of God, take no interest in their condition after death? They know they are going to die, and, if they have any sense or reflection, they know they will live after the death of their mortal bodies; still men will sell their eternal interest for money, for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars they will sell all the interest they have in the eternal world; in fact, they take no interest in their eternal welfare. Their cry is—“Give me gold, silver and honors the few years I spend here, and eternal life may go where it pleases, I have no interest in that.” I ask again, why is it that the human family take no interest in these things? We have preached over forty years. I have been engaged in that work over that time, and have proclaimed the words of eternal life to millions of people, and have traveled more than a hundred thousand miles in so doing, and, as the Prophet has said, I have found one of a family and two of a city who have had eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand, and they have been gathered up from the various nations of the earth into the mountains of Israel, and here today we have a little handful of people, out of the twelve hundred millions who dwell upon the earth, who feel an interest in building up the Zion and kingdom of God upon the earth, and who are desirous of being saved in that kingdom.

Now I would rather be poor all the days of my life, I would rather go through poverty and affliction, it matters not how severe, even to the sacrifice of my own life, than lose salvation and eternal life, because I have faith in it and always had. I always have had faith in the Bible and in the revelations of God since I was a boy like these sitting on these seats, eight or ten years old, when I went to the Presbyterian Sunday school and read about Jesus Christ. I believed then that he was the Savior of the world; I believed that the Old and New Testament was true. I believe it today. What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? When he comes into the presence of God he can’t buy it. This is the position of the world. There is none of us going to live but a little while; we shall all pass away soon, and our eternal destiny depends upon the few days, weeks, months or years that we spend here in the flesh. Do you not think it will pay a man or a woman to keep the commandments of God? It will, and when we enjoy the Holy Spirit, when we are trying to live our religion here on the earth, we are the happiest people on God’s footstool, no matter what our circumstances may be. I do not care whether we are rich or poor, whether in happiness or affliction, if a man is living his religion and enjoys the favor and Spirit of God, it makes no difference to him what takes place on the earth. There may be earthquakes, war, fire or sword in the land, but he feels that it is all right with him. That is the way I feel today.

With regard to the Gospel of Christ, it is a thing that we should all labor to maintain the few years that we spend here. When I get through with this life and go into the spirit world, I do not want to miss what I have in anticipation. I have always desired to see the Savior, Father Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and those old Prophets we read about in the Bible. I desired this before I heard this Gospel, I desire it today; and I do not wish to miss this, for nothing in this world would pay me for such a sacrifice. But I know that it requires constant warfare, labor and faithfulness before the Lord in order for us to keep in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and to live in such a manner that we may obtain these blessings. Jesus says—“Strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to eternal lives, and few there are who find it, while broad is the way that leads to death, and many there be who go in thereat.” The road to death is broad enough to catch the whole world, and they do not like to walk in the strait and narrow one, they do not like to keep the celestial law. I have met with professed ministers of the Gospel, in my travels, at whose tables I have eaten and drank, and I have given them the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and have talked to and labored with them, and I have known some of them spend days and days in this warfare, trying to decide which to do, whether to receive the Gospel of Christ and take the reproach of the world, or reject it; and I may say that in nine cases out of ten they have come to the conclusion to reject it. When I visited Fox Island the first time, I went to the house of Mr. Newton, a Baptist minister; and I stayed with him. But first I went to his church and heard him preach, and when he got through I wanted to bear record of the Gospel, for I had a message to that people, and I appointed a meeting for four o’clock in the afternoon, and I preached the Gospel to them, and Mr. Newton took me to his home and I gave him the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and for ten days that man walked about his room until midnight trying to decide what he should do. The Spirit of the Lord bore record to him that my testimony was true, and he felt that if he obeyed the Gospel which I had proclaimed unto him he would lose his good name and honor among men, but that if he did not receive it, he would be damned. Finally he rejected it, and the consequence was that he became a vagabond, and a miserable outcast. I baptized all his flock who owned any portion of the meetinghouse, and if he had embraced the Gospel and been gathered with them he would have been here and saved in the kingdom of God, instead of the vagabond that he has since become. I merely mention this to show how the minds of some men are acted upon by the tidings of the Gospel. Some of them feel that it would be a great reproach to obey that Gospel and to keep the commandments of God. Bless your souls, we who obey the Gospel of Christ are all in good company. Whenever you are persecuted for righteousness sake, said Jesus, rejoice and be exceeding glad for so persecuted they the Prophets and Apostles which were before you.

I will say to all, whether in the church or in the world, it will pay you to keep the commandments of God. Here is a man who has a wife that he thinks a great deal of; they have lovely children, and the ties of affection bind them closely. Now should not such a man have respect enough for God to keep his commandments and so secure to himself his wife and his children in the celestial world after the resurrection? But you cannot get worldlings to believe in such a principle; the people, as I said before, have not interest enough in the things of the kingdom of God to be willing to keep the commandments of God.

I say to the Latter-day Saints, we should be faithful to our God. We are blessed above all the people that breathe the breath of life upon the earth, and we are blessed above all other dispensations and generations of men, for the Lord has put into our hands the power to build up his Zion upon the earth, never more to be thrown down, and this is what no other generation has ever been called to do. But although this is the mission of the Latter-day Saints, we have a continual warfare to wage—a warfare with the powers of darkness, and a warfare with ourselves. The ancients had a similar experience to pass through—they had their day of trials, troubles and tribulations. Enoch labored three hundred and sixty-five years in building up Zion, and he had the opposition of the whole world. But the Lord blessed him so that he maintained his ground for that length of time, and gathered together a few out of the nations of the earth, and they were sanctified before the Lord, and he had to take them away, and the saying went forth—“Zion is fled.” So you may trace down all the Prophets. Read the history of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others, and you will find that it was a warfare with them all the way through. And so with Jesus and the Apostles. But all those dispensations have passed and gone into the spirit world, and they have their eyes upon us, and in fact God our heavenly Father and all under him—the whole heavenly host, have their eyes turned towards the Latter-day Saints, because this is the great dispensation of which Adam, Enoch and all the ancient patriarchs and Prophets have spoken, in which shall take place the final redemption of the House of Israel, the restoration of their kingdom, the rebuilding of their city and Temple, the restoration of their oracles and Priesthood, of the Urim and Thummim, and the preparation for the final winding up scene in the last days; all these things will take place in the dispensation in which we are permitted to live.

Let us, then, try and fulfill and perform our duties as good Latter-day Saints. Let us bear with each other’s faults, and bear the yoke of Christ, live our religion and keep the commandments of God. Let us try and bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let us set them good examples and teach them good principles while they are young. They are given to us by our heavenly Father; they are our kingdom, they are the foundation of our exaltation and glory; they are plants of renown, and we should strive to bear them up before the Lord, and teach them to pray to, and to have faith in, the Lord as far as we can, that when we are passed and gone and they succeed us on this stage of action, they may bear off the great latter-day work and kingdom of God upon the earth. I do not believe that the day is very far distant when the revelations which God has given concerning the last days will have their fulfillment. I believe there are many children now living in the mountains of Israel who will never taste of death, that is, they will dwell on the earth at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will acknowledge that there is a great deal to be done, and the Lord has not revealed to man the day or the hour, but he has revealed the generation; and the fig trees are now putting forth their leaves in the eyes of all the nations, indicating the near approach of the second coming of the Son of Man. It is my faith that hundreds and thousands of the children that have been given to us will be alive in the flesh when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory. The Lord will not disappoint the inhabitants of the earth in these last days in regard to his second coming, any more than he has with regard to other great events and dispensations.

We live in a very important age and generation; we live in the day and time when God has set his hand to fulfill a measure of prophecy and revelation to man, in the great dispensation of all dispensations. As an individual I do not believe that many more years will roll over the heads of the inhabitants of the earth before the resurrection will be upon them, and then these children, which we are called to bury today, will come forth from their graves, clothed with glory, immortality and eternal life. You may ask why I believe this. I believe it because the revelations of God say so. I read the Scriptures, and I believe that the revelations and prophecies therein contained mean what they say, and I also believe that the saying of every Prophet or Apostle spoken under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost will have its fulfillment, and, as Paul said, no prophecy of Scripture hath any private interpretation, but holy men of old spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. They spake the mind and word of the Lord, and none of their sayings will fail to be fulfilled, for the Lord has said—“Though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not fail, but shall be fulfilled.” That is the way I read prophecy and revelation.

The Jews will be moved upon by and by, and they will return to the land of their fathers, and they will rebuild Jerusalem. These Lamanites here will receive the Gospel of Christ in fulfillment of the revelations of God. The Prophets which have been shut up in the north country with the nine and a half tribes led away by Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, thousands of years ago, will come in remembrance before God; they will smite the rocks and mountains of ice will flow down before them, and those long lost tribes will come forth in your day and mine, if we live a few years longer, and they will be crowned under the hands of the children of Ephraim—the Elders of Israel who dwell in the land of Zion. And by and by the testimony of the Gospel will be sealed among the Gentiles, and the Gospel will turn to the whole house of Israel, and the judgments of God will back up the testimony of the Elders of this Church, and the Lord will send messengers who will go forth and reap down the earth. The unbeliever may say that what we term judgments have always prevailed more or less among the nations, and that God has nothing to do with them, they are all natural. Well, if they have always prevailed, they will prevail to a greater extent in these last days than ever before, until everything that God has spoken shall have come to pass. Judgments await the world, and they await this nation, and the day is at hand when the Lord will sweep the earth as with a besom of destruction. In the vision which the Lord gave to Enoch, he saw the heavens weeping over the earth because of the fall of man; and when Enoch asked the Lord—“When will the earth rest from under the curse of sin?” the Lord told him that in the last days the earth should rest, for then it should be redeemed from the sin, wickedness and abominations that were upon it. The earth is now pretty near ripe, and when ripened the Lord will cut them off. These things are before the Latter-day Saints, but the world do not believe in them any more than they believed in the message of Noah or Lot.

Brethren and sisters, let us read the revelations of God for ourselves, and when we read them, let us believe them, and try to live in such a way that we may be ready for whatever dispensation the Lord may have in store for us, and so that we can acknowledge his hand as Job did, and not find any fault with him because of his providences toward us. If we cannot comprehend them now, we shall be able to do so in a little while. The Lord may have purposes in view in his dealings with us that we do not understand; I presume he has. In fact, the whole of the dealings of God to man are a mystery. There is a veil over the world, and it is ordained of God that it should be so, for if it were not so, and if men could comprehend eternal things, as God comprehends them, there is no man on the earth, no matter how wicked he may be, but what would be willing to keep the commandments of God, and to pass through anything that God ordained, for therein he would see there was salvation and eternal life. But God has an order in these matters, as he revealed unto Joseph Smith. He said unto Joseph—“I will prove you whether you will abide in my covenant; if you are not willing to abide in my covenant even unto death, you are not worthy of me.” And it is so with the Saints. If they are not willing to abide in the covenants they have made with God, even unto death if necessary, they are not worthy of him. Jesus laid down his life to redeem the world, and passed through suffering and affliction all his life in order that he might fulfill the mission which was given him. So it is with us. The Lord says—“I am going to prove the children of men.” There are a few individuals in this dispensation who will inherit celestial glory, and a few in other dispensations; but before they receive their exaltation they will have to pass through and submit to whatever dispensation God may decree. But for all this they will receive their reward—they will become Gods, they will inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities and powers through the endless ages of eternity, and to their increase there will be no end, and the heart of man has never conceived of the glory that is in store for the sons and daughters of God who keep the celestial law. And yet God has a veil over all in regard to these things. The whole world will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and they will inherit kingdoms according to the laws which they have kept, every man being preserved by the law which he has observed, and all will be saved in some glory, except the sons of perdition.

Now, brethren and sisters, the Gospel of Christ is before us. We are all passing along, and it will only be a little time before a good many of us will be on the other side of the veil. Our friends are passing off every day, and we look in vain for many with whom we have been familiar in years that are past. If I go into a congregation of ten thousand and enquire for the Saints I knew in Kirtland, and request them to lift up their hands, it will be like a standard bearer on the mountains, there is only here and there one. You ask a congregation how many of them knew Joseph Smith, and it is only here and there one, they are passing away to the other side of the veil. It is so with us all, we are hastening to the end of life’s journey, and a good many of us are on the downward grade. I ask that what little time I live, I may keep the faith and have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and of the Saints of God, that when I get through I may be satisfied with life, satisfied with my acts, that I may receive a welcome into the Kingdom of God. That is all I ask and all I labor for. As for riches and wealth, I do not want them if they will damn me. I would like to have enough to clothe, shoe and feed my wives and children, and to make them comfortable, if I can get it honestly before the Lord; but I would rather myself and them all be in poverty than to have wealth and be destroyed. Riches are dangerous unless we can use them so as not to destroy us; if we cannot use them to the glory of God and for the building up of his Kingdom, we are better without them. I do not expect to live a great many years longer. The young, the middle-aged and the old are dying off. For many years of my life the gospel of Jesus Christ has been a consolation to me. I have spent a good deal more than half of my life in laboring in this Church. I labored to find this Church, I may say, from my childhood up, and many a midnight hour have I pled with the Lord, in the wilderness, in the woods, and in my mill, and under various circumstances, that the Lord would let me find a people who contended for the faith once delivered to the Saints. I desired this from reading the Bible, and from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for in the pages of that sacred book I learned that a people once lived upon the earth who had communion with God, and they had power to command the elements, and they obeyed them; they conversed with angels, and had the gifts and graces of a religion which had power and salvation in it. I could not find this on the face of the earth. I prayed to the Lord to let me live to find such a people, and he promised that I should, and I have lived to find them. I have seen the faces of Prophets and inspired men, and it has been a great consolation to me. I have my failings and imperfections, and I expect that we are all subject to them, more or less. I want to overcome them, because I desire to partake of eternal life. I also desire this for the Saints of God and for the honest and meek of the earth everywhere.

I have labored many years, and traveled without purse and scrip, preached without money and without price, for the purpose of saving my fellow men. I labor on Mount Zion to try and save the dead; I spend a good deal of time in this. It is a consolation to me, I pray God my heavenly Father to bless you and all the Latter-day Saints, and that he will give us enough of his Holy Spirit to keep us in the path of duty and rectitude, virtue and righteousness, that we may be justified before him. I pray my heavenly Father that he will bless Brother and Sister Wheeler in their bereavement, and give them his Holy Spirit, that, when they lie down at night and rise in the morning and miss their children they may feel to commit themselves into the hands of the Lord, and realize that their separation from their little ones is not forever, but that in a little while they will be restored to them. This applies to us all in the loss of our children. We lay them away in the grave, but they will come forth in the morning of the resurrection, and if we are faithful to the truth, we shall receive them and rejoice with them; and when we have passed through the sorrows of mortality and have the joy and glory of the celestial kingdom conferred upon us we shall then know that the afflictions of mortality have prepared us for and enabled us to appreciate the blessings which God has in store for the faithful.

May God bless us, and give us his Spirit, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered June 27, 1875, in the Second Ward Schoolhouse, Salt Lake City, at the Funeral Services of John Houseman, Aged Six Years, and Willie Franklin, Aged Four Years, Sons of William and Ann Wheeler, Burned to Death at Wanship, Summit County, U. T., June 24, 1875.

I am entirely dependent this morning upon the Spirit of the Lord to guide and direct me in what I may say upon this painful occasion. Those who have assembled here—Brother and Sister Wheeler, and their friends who mourn with them, are dependent upon the same source for comfort in their serious bereavement; and in fact we are all dependent upon the blessing and Spirit of the Lord in all the labors of life, and I hope that, in our services this morning, a large measure of that Spirit will be imparted unto us.

I feel disposed to read the first chapter of Job as a preliminary to any remarks I may make. [The speaker read the first chapter of the Book of Job.] We also see in reading the history of Job that the devil did not finish with him there, as it seems the devil had another conversation with the Lord on this subject, in which he informed the Lord that a man would give anything for his life and that if he, the devil, touched Job’s flesh, he would certainly curse God. And it seems from reading this history that the Lord put Job into the hands of the devil, to do as he pleased with him, only to spare his life. Of course the history is familiar to you all who have read the Bible, and you are aware that the devil smote Job, and he was covered with boils from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, so that he was in great distress, trouble and tribulation, yet in the midst of it all he did not sin, but acknowledged the hand of the Lord.

I may say with regard to the case which has brought us together this morning, it is a little similar to that of Job. We meet with some strange things in the history of our lives in the dispensations and dealings of God with men. In the case before us we are called to mourn the loss of two children taken from Brother and Sister Wheeler, we may say as suddenly and, in one sense of the word, as miraculously, as were the sons and daughters of Job. His affliction consisted not only in the loss of two children, but of all his children and also of all the possessions that he had, yet still, under all this he said—“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

I know very well it is hard for any person to be called to pass through the scenes that we sometimes are called to pass through in this life, it is so in the case before us this morning. The loss of these little children, taken away as they were, is certainly painful, not only to the parents, but to every person who reflects; and it is a very hard matter for any of us to enter into and appreciate the depth of sorrow which parents feel on occasions like this, it is difficult to bring the matter home to our own hearts unless we have been called to pass through similar affliction and sorrow. At the same time there is no doubt that we all sympathize with our friends when called to pass through trials and bereavement. And I will here say to Brother and Sister Wheeler, and to all my friends, there are a great many worse things in this world than the case we are now called to mourn.

Our children are taken away from us in infancy and childhood, and they are taken away as Job’s were, in one sense of the word, through the dispensations of Providence, causing us severe trials. This we will acknowledge; but, as I have already said, there are many things in this world that are far more painful and afflicting than to have our children burned to death. My friends may ask—“What is Brother Woodruff driving at in this remark?” I will tell you. I have lived in these valleys twenty-seven years, since the pioneers came here. I have seen a whole generation of men and women grow up in these valleys of the mountains, and they have become parents. I have seen some, I will not say a great many, but I have seen some young men, I say nothing about maidens, who have met with untimely deaths and who have gone to the grave disgraced, and a dishonor to themselves and to their parents. Circumstances of this kind are far more painful to any parent in the world than it is for their children to meet with sudden death by accident or any other way. I do not make these remarks to apply to Brother and Sister Wheeler, for none of us know what course our children will take. We set good examples before them, and we strive to teach them righteous principles, but when they come to years of accountability they have their agency and they act for themselves.

Many things are transpiring in the earth today which we should regard as great calamities and as grievous to be borne if we had to pass through them. Think of these late earthquakes in South America, eight thousand people out of ten thousand in one city sunk in the earth in a few moments. And then, the tremendous floods that are sweeping over France and other parts of the earth, causing the death of hundreds and thousands of men, women and children. All these things are in fulfillment of the revelations of God, and of the judgments which he has promised should come upon the earth in the last days. One of the purposes which the Lord has in view in gathering his Saints to the valleys of the mountains is that they may not share in the sins or partake of the plagues of Babylon; therefore we have reason to rejoice before the Lord because of his mercies and blessings unto us. And with regard to a case like this before us this morning—the loss of those children—I want to say a few words for the consolation of those who are sorrowing. In the first place these children are innocent before the Lord; as to their death and the cause thereof, that is in the hands of God, and we should not complain of the Lord or his dispensations any more than Job did. These children have been taken away very suddenly, and in such a manner as to cause great sorrow and distress to their parents, but there is this consolation connected with the matter—they are innocent, they are not in transgression. They have paid the law of death which God passed on Adam and all his posterity; but when their spirits left their bodies and got into the spirit world their trouble and affliction were over. Their death was a very painful one, but their suffering is now over, and in a few years from now they will come forth out of their graves in the morning of the resurrection, not marred by fire or any element, but clothed with glory, immortality and eternal life, in eternal beauty and bloom, and they will be given into the hands of their parents, and they will receive them in the family organization of the celestial world, and their parents will have them forever. They will live as long as their God lives. This, to Latter-day Saints, who believe in the resurrection, should be a source of comfort and consolation.

Why our children are taken from us it is not for me to say, for God never revealed it unto me. We are all burying them. I have buried one-third of the children that have been given unto me. I have had some thirty children born to me, and ten of them are buried, all of them young. The question may arise with me and with you—“Why has the Lord taken away my children?” But that is not for me to tell, because I do not know; it is in the hands of the Lord, and it has been so from the creation of the world all the way down. Children are taken away in their infancy, and they go to the spirit world. They come here and fulfill the object of their coming, that is, they tabernacle in the flesh. They come to receive a probation and an inheritance on the earth; they obtain a body or tabernacle, and that tabernacle will be preserved for them, and in the morning of the resurrection the spirits and bodies will be reunited, and as here we find children of various ages in a family, from the infant at the mother’s breast to manhood, so will it be in the family organization in the celestial world. Our children will be restored to us as they are laid down if we, their parents, keep the faith and prove ourselves worthy to obtain eternal life; and if we do not so prove ourselves our children will still be preserved, and will inherit celestial glory. This is my view in regard to all infants who die, whether they are born to Jew or Gentile, righteous or wicked. They come from their eternal Father and their eternal Mother unto whom they were born in the eternal world, and they will be restored to their eternal parentage; and all parents who have received children here according to the order of God and the holy priesthood, no matter in what age they may have lived, will claim those children in the morning of the resurrection, and they will be given unto them and they will grace their family organizations in the celestial world.

With regard to the future state of those who die in infancy I do not feel authorized to say much. There has been a great deal of theory, and many views have been expressed on this subject, but there are many things connected with it which the Lord has probably never revealed to any of the Prophets or patriarchs who ever ap– peared on the earth. There are some things which have not been revealed to man, but are held in the bosom of God our Father, and it may be that the condition after death of those who die in infancy is among the things which God has never revealed; but it is sufficient for me to know that our children are saved, and that if we ourselves keep the faith and do our duty before the Lord, if we keep the celestial law, we shall be preserved by that law, and our children will be given unto us there, as they have been given here in this world of sorrow, affliction, pain and distress. It has no doubt been a marvel many times, in the minds of men and women, why God ever placed men and women in such a world as this, why he causes his children to pass through sorrow and affliction here in the body. The Lord has revealed something to us concerning this matter, and we have learned enough about it to know that this thing is necessary. We know that we are created in the image of God, both male and female; and whoever goes back into the presence of God our eternal Father, will find that he is a noble man, a noble God, tabernacled in a form similar to ours, for we are created after his own image; they will also learn that he has placed us here that we may pass through a state of probation and experience, the same as he himself did in his day of mortality. And time and again it has been revealed in the revelations of God given in our day, as well as in the Bible and Book of Mormon, that these things are necessary in order to enable us to comprehend good and evil, and to be prepared for glory and blessings when we receive them. As the Apostle argues very strongly in the Book of Mormon—“If we never taste the bitter how will we know how to comprehend the sweet? If we never partake of pain how can we prize ease? And if we never pass through affliction, how can we comprehend glory, exaltation and eternal blessings?”

The Lord has said concerning Jesus, that he descended below all things that he might rise above all things, and comprehend all things. No man descended lower than the Savior of the world. Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, he traveled from there to the cross through suffering, mingled with blood, to a throne of grace; and in all his life there was nothing of an earthly nature that seemed to be worth possessing. His whole life was passed in poverty, suffering, pain, affliction, labor, prayer, mourning and sorrow, until he gave up the ghost on the cross. Still he was God’s firstborn son and the Redeemer of the world. The question might be asked why the Lord suffered his Son to come here and to live and die as he did. When we get into the spirit world, and the veil is withdrawn, we shall then perhaps understand the whys and wherefores of all these things. In the dispensations and providences of God to man it seems that we are born to suffer pain, affliction, sorrows and trials; this is what God has decreed that the human family shall pass through; and if we make a right use of this probation, the experience it brings will eventually prove a great blessing to us, and when we receive immortality and eternal life, exaltation, kingdoms, thrones, principalities and powers with all the blessings of the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, we shall understand and comprehend why we were called to pass through a continual warfare during the few years we spent in the flesh.

It certainly does require a good deal of the Spirit of the Lord to give comfort and consolation to a father and mother mourning for the loss of their children; and without the Gospel of Christ the separation by death is one of the most gloomy subjects it is possible to contemplate; but just as soon as we obtain the Gospel and learn the principle of the resurrection, the gloom, sorrow and suffering occasioned by death are, in a great measure, taken away. I have often thought that, to see a dead body, and to see that body laid in the grave and covered with earth, is one of the most gloomy things on earth; without the Gospel it is like taking a leap in the dark. But as quick as we obtain the Gospel, as soon as the spirit of man is enlightened by the inspiration of the Almighty, he can exclaim with one of old—“Oh grave, where is thy victory, Oh death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the gift of God is eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The resurrection of the dead presents itself before the enlightened mind of man, and he has a foundation for his spirit to rest upon. That is the position of the Latter-day Saints today. We do know for ourselves, we are not in the dark with regard to this matter; God has revealed it to us, and we do understand the principle of the resurrection of the dead, and that the Gospel brings life and immortality to light. We have received the Gospel, and if we are true to the principles of that Gospel as long as we live, we shall be made partakers of immortality, exaltation and glory.

I know very well that the loss of their children in this terrible manner is a sad affliction to brother and sister Wheeler. It was a sad affliction for Job when his children and possessions were taken from him in an hour, but yet he had sense or knowledge enough to understand and say that when he came into the world he possessed neither children, houses, lands, horses, oxen, camels nor asses, but that all his wealth had been given to him by the Lord, and that the Lord had taken them away and blessed be his holy name. I will say to our mourning friends, your children are taken away and you cannot help it, we cannot any of us help it; there is no censure to be given to parents when they do the best they can. A mother should not be censured because she cannot save her sick child, and we have to leave these things in the hands of God. It will be but a little time until they will be restored to us; in a little time brother and sister Wheeler will again have the children whose loss they now mourn.

With regard to the growth, glory, or exaltation of children in the life to come, God has not revealed anything on that subject to me, either about your children, mine or anybody else’s, any further than we know they are saved. And I feel that we have to put our trust in the Lord in these afflictions, we have to lean upon his arm and to look to him for comfort and consolation. We do not mourn under these afflictions as those who have no hope; we do not mourn the loss of our children as though we were never going to see them again, because we know better. The Lord has taught us better, and so has the Gospel; the revelations of Jesus Christ have shown us that they will be restored to us in the resurrection of the just. And I will here say with regard to the Gospel of Christ, that it is one of the greatest mysteries under the heavens to me why there are so few of the human family, whether in the Christian, Pagan or Jewish world, who take any interest in eternal things, in the state of man after death. If we read the Bible we learn that Noah, filled with revelation, and with the Gospel in his hand, although he labored a hundred and twenty years, could not get a solitary soul except his own family to go with him for salvation. It was similar in the days of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and if we come down to the days of Christ, we find that his testimony was rejected by the rabbis, high priests and the great mass of the people, and he chose for his Apostles twelve poor fishermen, and they and very few of the people, comparatively speaking, were all that received the teachings of Jesus and followed him through the regeneration; while the whole Jewish nation, with these few exceptions, were ready to put their Shiloh to death, and he was the person upon whom the salvation of the whole house of Israel depended. It is just so today. The great majority of the people reject the words of life and salvation which are proclaimed unto them. God, in these last days revealed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith by the teachings of angels out of heaven, and its principles are made known to the world, and there has never been a congregation of Gentiles, from that day to this, to whom the Elders of Israel have borne record of these things, but what the Spirit of God has also borne record of the truth of their testimony; and herein lies the condemnation of this generation, for “light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” I ask, in the name of God and humanity, why is it that intelligent beings, made in the image of God, take no interest in their condition after death? They know they are going to die, and, if they have any sense or reflection, they know they will live after the death of their mortal bodies; still men will sell their eternal interest for money, for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars they will sell all the interest they have in the eternal world; in fact, they take no interest in their eternal welfare. Their cry is—“Give me gold, silver and honors the few years I spend here, and eternal life may go where it pleases, I have no interest in that.” I ask again, why is it that the human family take no interest in these things? We have preached over forty years. I have been engaged in that work over that time, and have proclaimed the words of eternal life to millions of people, and have traveled more than a hundred thousand miles in so doing, and, as the Prophet has said, I have found one of a family and two of a city who have had eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand, and they have been gathered up from the various nations of the earth into the mountains of Israel, and here today we have a little handful of people, out of the twelve hundred millions who dwell upon the earth, who feel an interest in building up the Zion and kingdom of God upon the earth, and who are desirous of being saved in that kingdom.

Now I would rather be poor all the days of my life, I would rather go through poverty and affliction, it matters not how severe, even to the sacrifice of my own life, than lose salvation and eternal life, because I have faith in it and always had. I always have had faith in the Bible and in the revelations of God since I was a boy like these sitting on these seats, eight or ten years old, when I went to the Presbyterian Sunday school and read about Jesus Christ. I believed then that he was the Savior of the world; I believed that the Old and New Testament was true. I believe it today. What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? When he comes into the presence of God he can’t buy it. This is the position of the world. There is none of us going to live but a little while; we shall all pass away soon, and our eternal destiny depends upon the few days, weeks, months or years that we spend here in the flesh. Do you not think it will pay a man or a woman to keep the commandments of God? It will, and when we enjoy the Holy Spirit, when we are trying to live our religion here on the earth, we are the happiest people on God’s footstool, no matter what our circumstances may be. I do not care whether we are rich or poor, whether in happiness or affliction, if a man is living his religion and enjoys the favor and Spirit of God, it makes no difference to him what takes place on the earth. There may be earthquakes, war, fire or sword in the land, but he feels that it is all right with him. That is the way I feel today.

With regard to the Gospel of Christ, it is a thing that we should all labor to maintain the few years that we spend here. When I get through with this life and go into the spirit world, I do not want to miss what I have in anticipation. I have always desired to see the Savior, Father Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and those old Prophets we read about in the Bible. I desired this before I heard this Gospel, I desire it today; and I do not wish to miss this, for nothing in this world would pay me for such a sacrifice. But I know that it requires constant warfare, labor and faithfulness before the Lord in order for us to keep in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and to live in such a manner that we may obtain these blessings. Jesus says—“Strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to eternal lives, and few there are who find it, while broad is the way that leads to death, and many there be who go in thereat.” The road to death is broad enough to catch the whole world, and they do not like to walk in the strait and narrow one, they do not like to keep the celestial law. I have met with professed ministers of the Gospel, in my travels, at whose tables I have eaten and drank, and I have given them the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and have talked to and labored with them, and I have known some of them spend days and days in this warfare, trying to decide which to do, whether to receive the Gospel of Christ and take the reproach of the world, or reject it; and I may say that in nine cases out of ten they have come to the conclusion to reject it. When I visited Fox Island the first time, I went to the house of Mr. Newton, a Baptist minister; and I stayed with him. But first I went to his church and heard him preach, and when he got through I wanted to bear record of the Gospel, for I had a message to that people, and I appointed a meeting for four o’clock in the afternoon, and I preached the Gospel to them, and Mr. Newton took me to his home and I gave him the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and for ten days that man walked about his room until midnight trying to decide what he should do. The Spirit of the Lord bore record to him that my testimony was true, and he felt that if he obeyed the Gospel which I had proclaimed unto him he would lose his good name and honor among men, but that if he did not receive it, he would be damned. Finally he rejected it, and the consequence was that he became a vagabond, and a miserable outcast. I baptized all his flock who owned any portion of the meetinghouse, and if he had embraced the Gospel and been gathered with them he would have been here and saved in the kingdom of God, instead of the vagabond that he has since become. I merely mention this to show how the minds of some men are acted upon by the tidings of the Gospel. Some of them feel that it would be a great reproach to obey that Gospel and to keep the commandments of God. Bless your souls, we who obey the Gospel of Christ are all in good company. Whenever you are persecuted for righteousness sake, said Jesus, rejoice and be exceeding glad for so persecuted they the Prophets and Apostles which were before you.

I will say to all, whether in the church or in the world, it will pay you to keep the commandments of God. Here is a man who has a wife that he thinks a great deal of; they have lovely children, and the ties of affection bind them closely. Now should not such a man have respect enough for God to keep his commandments and so secure to himself his wife and his children in the celestial world after the resurrection? But you cannot get worldlings to believe in such a principle; the people, as I said before, have not interest enough in the things of the kingdom of God to be willing to keep the commandments of God.

I say to the Latter-day Saints, we should be faithful to our God. We are blessed above all the people that breathe the breath of life upon the earth, and we are blessed above all other dispensations and generations of men, for the Lord has put into our hands the power to build up his Zion upon the earth, never more to be thrown down, and this is what no other generation has ever been called to do. But although this is the mission of the Latter-day Saints, we have a continual warfare to wage—a warfare with the powers of darkness, and a warfare with ourselves. The ancients had a similar experience to pass through—they had their day of trials, troubles and tribulations. Enoch labored three hundred and sixty-five years in building up Zion, and he had the opposition of the whole world. But the Lord blessed him so that he maintained his ground for that length of time, and gathered together a few out of the nations of the earth, and they were sanctified before the Lord, and he had to take them away, and the saying went forth—“Zion is fled.” So you may trace down all the Prophets. Read the history of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others, and you will find that it was a warfare with them all the way through. And so with Jesus and the Apostles. But all those dispensations have passed and gone into the spirit world, and they have their eyes upon us, and in fact God our heavenly Father and all under him—the whole heavenly host, have their eyes turned towards the Latter-day Saints, because this is the great dispensation of which Adam, Enoch and all the ancient patriarchs and Prophets have spoken, in which shall take place the final redemption of the House of Israel, the restoration of their kingdom, the rebuilding of their city and Temple, the restoration of their oracles and Priesthood, of the Urim and Thummim, and the preparation for the final winding up scene in the last days; all these things will take place in the dispensation in which we are permitted to live.

Let us, then, try and fulfill and perform our duties as good Latter-day Saints. Let us bear with each other’s faults, and bear the yoke of Christ, live our religion and keep the commandments of God. Let us try and bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let us set them good examples and teach them good principles while they are young. They are given to us by our heavenly Father; they are our kingdom, they are the foundation of our exaltation and glory; they are plants of renown, and we should strive to bear them up before the Lord, and teach them to pray to, and to have faith in, the Lord as far as we can, that when we are passed and gone and they succeed us on this stage of action, they may bear off the great latter-day work and kingdom of God upon the earth. I do not believe that the day is very far distant when the revelations which God has given concerning the last days will have their fulfillment. I believe there are many children now living in the mountains of Israel who will never taste of death, that is, they will dwell on the earth at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will acknowledge that there is a great deal to be done, and the Lord has not revealed to man the day or the hour, but he has revealed the generation; and the fig trees are now putting forth their leaves in the eyes of all the nations, indicating the near approach of the second coming of the Son of Man. It is my faith that hundreds and thousands of the children that have been given to us will be alive in the flesh when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory. The Lord will not disappoint the inhabitants of the earth in these last days in regard to his second coming, any more than he has with regard to other great events and dispensations.

We live in a very important age and generation; we live in the day and time when God has set his hand to fulfill a measure of prophecy and revelation to man, in the great dispensation of all dispensations. As an individual I do not believe that many more years will roll over the heads of the inhabitants of the earth before the resurrection will be upon them, and then these children, which we are called to bury today, will come forth from their graves, clothed with glory, immortality and eternal life. You may ask why I believe this. I believe it because the revelations of God say so. I read the Scriptures, and I believe that the revelations and prophecies therein contained mean what they say, and I also believe that the saying of every Prophet or Apostle spoken under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost will have its fulfillment, and, as Paul said, no prophecy of Scripture hath any private interpretation, but holy men of old spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. They spake the mind and word of the Lord, and none of their sayings will fail to be fulfilled, for the Lord has said—“Though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not fail, but shall be fulfilled.” That is the way I read prophecy and revelation.

The Jews will be moved upon by and by, and they will return to the land of their fathers, and they will rebuild Jerusalem. These Lamanites here will receive the Gospel of Christ in fulfillment of the revelations of God. The Prophets which have been shut up in the north country with the nine and a half tribes led away by Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, thousands of years ago, will come in remembrance before God; they will smite the rocks and mountains of ice will flow down before them, and those long lost tribes will come forth in your day and mine, if we live a few years longer, and they will be crowned under the hands of the children of Ephraim—the Elders of Israel who dwell in the land of Zion. And by and by the testimony of the Gospel will be sealed among the Gentiles, and the Gospel will turn to the whole house of Israel, and the judgments of God will back up the testimony of the Elders of this Church, and the Lord will send messengers who will go forth and reap down the earth. The unbeliever may say that what we term judgments have always prevailed more or less among the nations, and that God has nothing to do with them, they are all natural. Well, if they have always prevailed, they will prevail to a greater extent in these last days than ever before, until everything that God has spoken shall have come to pass. Judgments await the world, and they await this nation, and the day is at hand when the Lord will sweep the earth as with a besom of destruction. In the vision which the Lord gave to Enoch, he saw the heavens weeping over the earth because of the fall of man; and when Enoch asked the Lord—“When will the earth rest from under the curse of sin?” the Lord told him that in the last days the earth should rest, for then it should be redeemed from the sin, wickedness and abominations that were upon it. The earth is now pretty near ripe, and when ripened the Lord will cut them off. These things are before the Latter-day Saints, but the world do not believe in them any more than they believed in the message of Noah or Lot.

Brethren and sisters, let us read the revelations of God for ourselves, and when we read them, let us believe them, and try to live in such a way that we may be ready for whatever dispensation the Lord may have in store for us, and so that we can acknowledge his hand as Job did, and not find any fault with him because of his providences toward us. If we cannot comprehend them now, we shall be able to do so in a little while. The Lord may have purposes in view in his dealings with us that we do not understand; I presume he has. In fact, the whole of the dealings of God to man are a mystery. There is a veil over the world, and it is ordained of God that it should be so, for if it were not so, and if men could comprehend eternal things, as God comprehends them, there is no man on the earth, no matter how wicked he may be, but what would be willing to keep the commandments of God, and to pass through anything that God ordained, for therein he would see there was salvation and eternal life. But God has an order in these matters, as he revealed unto Joseph Smith. He said unto Joseph—“I will prove you whether you will abide in my covenant; if you are not willing to abide in my covenant even unto death, you are not worthy of me.” And it is so with the Saints. If they are not willing to abide in the covenants they have made with God, even unto death if necessary, they are not worthy of him. Jesus laid down his life to redeem the world, and passed through suffering and affliction all his life in order that he might fulfill the mission which was given him. So it is with us. The Lord says—“I am going to prove the children of men.” There are a few individuals in this dispensation who will inherit celestial glory, and a few in other dispensations; but before they receive their exaltation they will have to pass through and submit to whatever dispensation God may decree. But for all this they will receive their reward—they will become Gods, they will inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities and powers through the endless ages of eternity, and to their increase there will be no end, and the heart of man has never conceived of the glory that is in store for the sons and daughters of God who keep the celestial law. And yet God has a veil over all in regard to these things. The whole world will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and they will inherit kingdoms according to the laws which they have kept, every man being preserved by the law which he has observed, and all will be saved in some glory, except the sons of perdition.

Now, brethren and sisters, the Gospel of Christ is before us. We are all passing along, and it will only be a little time before a good many of us will be on the other side of the veil. Our friends are passing off every day, and we look in vain for many with whom we have been familiar in years that are past. If I go into a congregation of ten thousand and enquire for the Saints I knew in Kirtland, and request them to lift up their hands, it will be like a standard bearer on the mountains, there is only here and there one. You ask a congregation how many of them knew Joseph Smith, and it is only here and there one, they are passing away to the other side of the veil. It is so with us all, we are hastening to the end of life’s journey, and a good many of us are on the downward grade. I ask that what little time I live, I may keep the faith and have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and of the Saints of God, that when I get through I may be satisfied with life, satisfied with my acts, that I may receive a welcome into the Kingdom of God. That is all I ask and all I labor for. As for riches and wealth, I do not want them if they will damn me. I would like to have enough to clothe, shoe and feed my wives and children, and to make them comfortable, if I can get it honestly before the Lord; but I would rather myself and them all be in poverty than to have wealth and be destroyed. Riches are dangerous unless we can use them so as not to destroy us; if we cannot use them to the glory of God and for the building up of his Kingdom, we are better without them. I do not expect to live a great many years longer. The young, the middle-aged and the old are dying off. For many years of my life the gospel of Jesus Christ has been a consolation to me. I have spent a good deal more than half of my life in laboring in this Church. I labored to find this Church, I may say, from my childhood up, and many a midnight hour have I pled with the Lord, in the wilderness, in the woods, and in my mill, and under various circumstances, that the Lord would let me find a people who contended for the faith once delivered to the Saints. I desired this from reading the Bible, and from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for in the pages of that sacred book I learned that a people once lived upon the earth who had communion with God, and they had power to command the elements, and they obeyed them; they conversed with angels, and had the gifts and graces of a religion which had power and salvation in it. I could not find this on the face of the earth. I prayed to the Lord to let me live to find such a people, and he promised that I should, and I have lived to find them. I have seen the faces of Prophets and inspired men, and it has been a great consolation to me. I have my failings and imperfections, and I expect that we are all subject to them, more or less. I want to overcome them, because I desire to partake of eternal life. I also desire this for the Saints of God and for the honest and meek of the earth everywhere.

I have labored many years, and traveled without purse and scrip, preached without money and without price, for the purpose of saving my fellow men. I labor on Mount Zion to try and save the dead; I spend a good deal of time in this. It is a consolation to me, I pray God my heavenly Father to bless you and all the Latter-day Saints, and that he will give us enough of his Holy Spirit to keep us in the path of duty and rectitude, virtue and righteousness, that we may be justified before him. I pray my heavenly Father that he will bless Brother and Sister Wheeler in their bereavement, and give them his Holy Spirit, that, when they lie down at night and rise in the morning and miss their children they may feel to commit themselves into the hands of the Lord, and realize that their separation from their little ones is not forever, but that in a little while they will be restored to them. This applies to us all in the loss of our children. We lay them away in the grave, but they will come forth in the morning of the resurrection, and if we are faithful to the truth, we shall receive them and rejoice with them; and when we have passed through the sorrows of mortality and have the joy and glory of the celestial kingdom conferred upon us we shall then know that the afflictions of mortality have prepared us for and enabled us to appreciate the blessings which God has in store for the faithful.

May God bless us, and give us his Spirit, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in The New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday Morning, October 9, 1874.

We, as a people, have had a great deal of teaching and counsel in our day and generation. Some of us have been taught in the things of this kingdom for over forty years, and, by this time, we ought to exercise faith in the promises of God. We have looked forward to the fulfillment of the revelations which have been given in all ages and dispensations which are past and gone; and we have not only expected their fulfillment, but we have helped to fulfill a great many of them in the course of our lives. This work is the work of God, it is not the work of man. The Lord has set his hand in these last days in fulfillment of revelation and prophecy and the promises which have been made for thousands of years past and gone, concerning the earth and the dispensations thereof.

I will here say that all inspired men, from the days of father Adam to the days of Jesus, had a view, more or less, of the great and last dispensation of the fulness of times, when the Lord would set his hand to prepare the earth and a people for the coming of the Son of Man and a reign of righteousness. One of the brethren was speaking here about the views entertained by some in the world who regard Christianity and the work of God as a failure. I will say that the work of the Lord has never been a failure and it never will. His purposes have to be accomplished in the earth. There is one thing true with regard to the history and travels of the Saints of God in every age of the world—they have had to pass through trials, tribulations and persecutions, and have had to contend with opposition, and this will always be their fate until the power of evil is overcome. This is one of the legacies that is designed from God to the Saints while dwelling in the flesh among a world of devils, for the world is full of them, there are millions and millions—all that were cast out of heaven; they never die, and they never leave the earth, but they dwell here and will continue to do so until Satan is bound. As a people we have to meet this warfare, and the Saints of God have had to contend with it in every age of the world. Any man who undertakes to serve God has to round up his shoulders and meet it, and any man who will not trust in God and abide in his cause even unto death is not worthy of a place in the celestial kingdom. Said Jesus—“I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hate you; if you were of the world the world would love its own. They have hated me, they will hate you; and if they persecute me they will persecute you.” This is the legacy which all Saints may depend upon receiving. True, there has been a difference in the various dispensations. This is the only dispensation that God has ever established that was foreordained, before the world was made, not to be overcome by wicked men and devils. All other dispensations have been made war upon by the inhabitants of the earth, and the servants and Saints of God have been martyred. This was the case with Jesus and the Apostles in their day. The Lord gave that good old Prophet Enoch, President of the Zion of God, who stood in the midst of his people three hundred and sixty five years, a view of the earth in its various dispensations, showing him that the time would come when it would groan under the wickedness, blasphemy, murders, whoredoms and abominations of its inhabitants. The Prophet asked the Lord whether there would ever be a time when the earth should rest; and the Lord answered that in the dispensation of the fulness of times the earth would fill the measure of its days, and then it would rest from wickedness and abominations, for in that day he would establish his kingdom upon it, to be thrown down no more forever. Then a reign of righteousness would commence and the honest and meek of the earth would be gathered together to serve the Lord, and upon them would rest power to build up the great Zion of God in the latter days. These things were also shown to Abraham, and many others of the ancient servants of God had glimpses of them by vision, revelation and the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and what they saw, or an account of what they saw, has been left on record.

This dispensation is one that all the Patriarchs and Prophets had their eye upon, and the Lord has commenced it, and has carried it on now for more than forty years, since this Church was organized with six members. We have not altogether traveled on beds of ease, we have had warfare and opposition from the commencement until this day; but we and the world may set our hearts at rest concerning “Mormonism,” for it will never cease until the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the clouds of heaven. This nation and other nations will war with the Saints of God until their cup is full; and when they become ripened in iniquity the Lord Almighty will cut them off, and the judgments of the Most High God will follow the testimony of the Elders of Israel.

This is the way I look upon it. We are called upon to do our duty with regard to the subject which has been spoken of by brothers Van Cott and Cannon. What is this world I would like to know? What are the things of this world? What are houses and lands, goods and chattels, and the treasures of the earth generally, to us? What are they to any Saints of God compared with eternal life? We should certainly be as well off to unite ourselves and our interests together in the things of God as to be separate. There have been too much selfishness and division and every man for himself amongst us, and the devil for us all. Eternal life is worth more to a Saint of God than all things else put together, in fact it is the greatest gift God ever gave to man, or that he can give to him, and whatever the Lord requires at our hands we should be ready to do, individually and collectively.

As I have often remarked in my testimony, from my youth up I had a desire to live to see a people rise up in the earth and contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints, who would receive and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was taught in his day and generation. When I heard this Gospel I embraced it. The first sermon I ever heard the Spirit of God bore record to me that it was true, and I went forth and was baptized for the remission of my sins. I received the laying on of hands and the Lord gave me the Holy Ghost and a testimony, just the same as he gave to you, and to hundreds of thousands of those who have obeyed the Gospel.

It was but a short time after embracing the work that I was called to go with my brethren a thousand miles for the redemption of Zion. I went willingly, for I knew it was the work of God, it was what I had sought for from the time I was eight years old, what I had been taught in the Presbyterian Sunday School and what I had read in the New Testament in my father’s house. From that time up I had looked for these things, and I had a testimony that I should live to see them, and I did, and when I embraced this Gospel my heart was filled with joy and consolation; and as for this world, if I had the whole of it, I felt in those days as I feel now, it would not stand in my path in seeking for eternal life.

I was called to take my life in my hands and go up to Missouri, and a little handful of us went up to redeem our brethren. We certainly had to go by faith. My neighbors called upon and pled with me not to go; said they—“Do not go, if you do you will lose your life.” I said to them—“If I knew that I should have a ball put through my heart the first step I took in the State of Missouri I would go.” I went, and I did not get shot, neither did any of the rest of us, but we fulfilled the commandment of God. That is the way I felt in those days with regard to the work of God, and that is the way I feel today. I am after salvation and eternal life, and I do not want anything to stand between me and that which I am in pursuit of. It does not make any difference what we as a people may be called to pass through. Men can go no further than they are permitted by the Lord. I have often remarked, and I repeat it, your destiny, the destiny of this nation, and the destiny of every king, prince, president, statesman and ruler under heaven are in the hands of the God of Israel. He made the world and all its inhabitants, and they can go no further than they are permitted. If we unite ourselves according to the law of God we shall have far more safety than if we turn away from the commandments of the Lord and set our hearts upon the things of this world. If we forget God we are liable to be scourged; that is my feeling this morning.

This is the work of God. The Lord has set his hand to build up his kingdom, and he will do it whatever the consequences may be. Whatever the persecutions or difficulties his Saints may be called to pass through, the Lord will never withdraw his hand, for he decreed, before the foundation of the world, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times his kingdom should be set up upon the earth, never more to be thrown down.

The world has had its dispensations: we are at the end of the sixth thousand years, and are bordering upon the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, to reward every man according to the deeds done in the body; and whatever the feelings of the world may be the Lord has decreed a woe upon that man, that house, that nation or that people that rejects the testimony of his servants. The Lord says that he will hold a controversy with the nations, and judge the world with fire and sword, and he will plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord will be many. What if some of us do have to sacrifice our lives for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ? What of it? What is a man’s life? The whole world will die. Armies, containing thousands of men, go forth for the honor of being killed, in order to defend a king or a government. Is it any worse to die for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ than to die serving the devil? Not a particle. I glory in my feelings at the valiant spirit that is and has been manifested by the servants of the living God in the cause of truth and in defense of the great latter-day work. The Lord never raised up a better set of men and women since the world was than are they who have embraced the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days. They have the testimony of Jesus Christ with them, and they have been called to pass through many trials thus far in the history and progress of the work of God. It is true that many have broken their covenants and turned away from the Lord, and the reason is that they stopped serving God and undertook to serve themselves, and that led them into darkness. They rejected the things of the kingdom of heaven, and the spirit of God was taken from them, and that class of people, in every age of the world is the darkest of any who ever breathe the breath of life. They lose all confidence in every principle of salvation and eternal life revealed to man.

With regard to our present position I want to say that it is the duty of every Saint of God in these valleys of the mountains to let his prayers ascend into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, day and night in the season thereof, in the family circle and in private places, for the Lord to sustain his people, build up Zion and fulfill his promises. We are in duty bound to fulfill ours, and the Lord will not fail now any more than he has any other time. He did not fail in the days of Jesus Christ, not a bit of it. Jesus was poor, and from the manger to the cross, spent his whole life in the deepest poverty, suffering and affliction; he descended below all things that he might rise above all, and we are told that he had not money enough to pay his taxes to Caesar, and had to send Peter to catch a fish to get money for that purpose. He was poor all the way through his life. Is it any worse for you, or me, or any other Saint of God, to suffer persecution, affliction, poverty or trials than for our great Leader, President, Redeemer, King and Savior, who is going to come in the clouds of heaven? No, not a particle. As some of our brethren have said, there is need for us to repent and humble ourselves before the Lord our God, that we may have and enjoy more of the Holy Spirit to prepare us for that which lies before us. It is our duty to unite together as a people; our temporal salvation lies in this, and we should not be backward in this matter. We should not only preach it, but be also ready to practice it; as leaders and as people, all should unite in carrying out that which is required of us. As an individual I am not afraid of starving to death, I never was afraid of that in my life, and I have traveled a great many thousand miles to preach the Gospel without money and without price, and so have many of my brethren who are around me, and we never starved to death and we do not expect to. The amount of it is that everything we have herein these valleys of the mountains—this Tabernacle, this Temple, these public grounds, and all the cities and towns that have been built over six hundred miles of Territory, are the gift of God to us. The Lord knows this country was barren enough when we came here, and a faithful people were tried here with cricket and grasshopper wars, until famine stared them in the face; but they trusted in God, and they did not get disappointed.

Our prayers should go up day and night in behalf of our President, and the Presidency whom God has sustained from the beginning, and also for the leaders of the people and for each other. We should labor and pray for this. We are making history. The travels and experience of the Latter-day Saints have been as interesting as the history of any people in any dispensation since the world began. Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and he was called to lay the foundation of this kingdom; he was raised up from before the foundation of the world for this purpose, and he came forth, through the loins of ancient Joseph who was sold into Egypt, and dwelt in the flesh, and nothing failed in its fulfillment as far as he was concerned. He lived until he planted the Gospel, until he received the apostleship, and every branch of the Priesthood of Aaron and Melchizedek, all the keys of the kingdom of God, everything that was necessary in order to lay the foundation of this Church and Kingdom, which God, through the mouths of holy Prophets, declared should be established in the latter days, to be thrown down no more forever.

Under these circumstances, of course, faith is required on the part of the Saints to live their religion, do their duty, walk uprightly before the Lord and build up his Zion on the earth. Then it requires works to correspond with our faith. I know the testimony of Jesus Christ is not palatable; it does not, and never did, suit the ears of the world at large. Christendom today does not like “Mormonism,” because it comes in contact with the traditions handed down from the fathers; the world never did like the truth. We cannot help that, it is our duty to bear a true and faithful testimony to the work of God, and to preach the Gospel which has been revealed to us in our day by the ministration of angels out of heaven. That Gospel is the same as was taught by Adam, and the ancient patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Noah, Enoch, Methuselah and all the ancient Prophets, also by Jesus and the Apostles. There never was but one Gospel, and never will be but one delivered to the children of men, and that never changed and never will change in time or eternity. It is the same in every age of the world; its ordinances are the same. Believers in the Gospel had faith in Jesus before he came in the flesh, and repentance of sin was preached before his day as well as since; they also practiced baptism for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; and they had the organization of the Church with inspired men therein. Saith the Lord Jesus, “I have set in the Church, first, Apostles, second Prophets, third Teachers, pastors, gifts, helps, and governments.” What for? For the work of the ministry, for the perfecting of the Saints, etc. These things are necessary in every age of the world, and they have been restored in these last days, and they are true and will have their effect upon the children of men. When this Gospel is preached to the Gentiles and they count themselves unworthy of eternal life it will go to the house of Israel, and the first will then be last, as the last has been first.

It is our duty as a people to unite together and not to be slothful in welldoing. As I have already said, we should let our prayers ascend before the Lord. I have more faith in prayer before the Lord than almost any other principle on earth. If we have no faith in prayer to God, we have not much in either him or the Gospel. We should pray unto the Lord, asking him for what we want. Let the prayers of this people ascend before the Lord continually in the season thereof, and the Lord will not turn them away, but they will be heard and answered, and the kingdom and Zion of God will rise and shine, she will put on her beautiful garments and be clothed with the glory of her God, and fulfill the object of her organization here upon the earth. Therefore, I say, brethren and sisters, let us do our duty. Let us pray for the Presidency of this Church; let us uphold and sustain them by our faith and by our works. They are called of God, they have been our leaders for years. President Young has led this Church longer a great deal than any other man. His works and his life have been before you, and you know him, and the course he has pursued. God has blessed him and he has been profitable unto us. The revelations of God and the principles which he has brought forth have been a consolation to Israel. Our prayers should ascend for him that he may be restored to health and be preserved by the hand of God. We should pray to the Lord for everything else that we stand in need of. Then we should go to and do our duty in building the Temples of our God, that we may magnify our calling, and be saviors on Mount Zion, for the living and the dead. In the seventeen hundred years which are past and gone, over fifty thousand million people have gone into the spirit world who never saw the face of a Prophet or of an Apostle, and never heard the words of an inspired man, for during the whole of that time no man was called of God to build up his kingdom on the earth. Whatever the Christian world may think, these things are true. When the Apostles were put to death the Priesthood went from the earth, and the Church went into the wilderness, or, in other words, there was a falling away among the Gentiles, as there had been before among the Jews. Those generations are in the spirit world, shut up in prison; they have got to be visited by men who held the Priesthood in the flesh, that they may preach the Gospel unto them, the same as Jesus did when he went to preach to the spirits in prison during the three days and nights when his body lay in the tomb. This is our duty. And I will here say that every Elder of Israel who lays down his life, whether he dies in his bed, or is put to death by the enemies of truth, when he goes into the spirit world his works follow him, and he rests in peace. The Priesthood is not taken from him, and he has thousands more to preach to there than he ever had here in the flesh. But it depends upon the living here to erect Temples, that the ordinances for the dead may be attended to, for by and by you will meet your progenitors in the spirit world who never heard the sound of the Gospel. You who are here in Zion have power to be baptized for and to redeem your dead. The resurrection and the coming of the Messiah are at the door. The signs of heaven and earth indicate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fig trees are putting forth their leaves in the eyes of every man who has the faith of the Gospel. Let us, therefore, try and do our duty. Let us attend to the ordinances of the house of God, and unite ourselves according to his law, for Jesus will never receive the Zion of God unless its people are united according to celestial law, for all who go into the presence of God have to go there by this law. Enoch had to practice this law, and we shall have to do the same if we are ever accepted of God as he was. It has been promised that the New Jerusalem will be built up in our day and generation, and it will have to be done by the United Order of Zion and according to celestial law. And not only so, but we have to keep that law ourselves if we ever inherit that kingdom, for no man will receive a celestial glory unless he abides a celestial law; no man will receive a terrestrial glory unless he abides a terrestrial law, and no man will receive a telestial glory unless he abides a telestial law. There is a great difference between the light of the sun at noonday and the glimmer of the stars at night, but that difference is no greater than the difference of the glory in the several portions of the kingdom of God.

I always have said and believed, and I believe today, that it will pay you and me and all the sons and all the daughters of Adam to abide the celestial law, for celestial glory is worth all we possess; if it calls for every dollar we own and our lives into the bargain, if we obtain an entrance into the celestial kingdom of God it will amply repay us. The Latter-day Saints have started out for celestial glory, and if we can only manage to be faithful enough to obtain an inheritance in the kingdom, where God and Christ dwell, we shall rejoice through the endless ages of eternity.

I thank God that my ears have heard the sound of the Gospel. I thank God that I have been preserved upon the earth to live to see the face of an Elder of Israel, to be called of God and to administer the ordinances of his house. I traveled a good many miles with President Joseph Smith, as some of you did; I have also traveled a good many miles with President Young and with the Apostles and Elders of Israel, and I have never seen the hour yet, in the midst of our deepest afflictions and persecutions, that I was sorry that I had embraced the Gospel, and I hope I never shall.

I pray God my heavenly Father that he will inspire our hearts as Latter-day Saints, that we may become one and, not having the fear of man before our eyes, but the fear of God, that we may be ready to do whatever is required of us, and to carry out the counsels of the servants of God. When we do this we shall be happy, and we shall be saved whether in life or in death. I pray that we may pursue this course, and that we may overcome the world, the flesh and the devil, and inherit eternal life, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Wednesday, October 7, 1874.

I did not have the privilege of listening to all the remarks of Elder Taylor this forenoon, yet to what I did hear I can bear testimony of its truth. I always delight in seeing a man valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ. There is something glorious in the principles of the Gospel. I always did, from my boyhood, hope and pray that I might live long enough in the earth to find some man who would have sufficient courage and independence of mind to believe in the same doctrine and Gospel that Jesus Christ taught, and I have lived long enough to see, hear and partake of it, and I glory in it, because it is true.

The religion or Gospel of Jesus Christ is a very unpopular thing, and has been in every age of the world. Show me a man who was ever inspired of the Lord God of Israel to do a work for him who was popular. You cannot find such a man in the whole history of the world. You may take Noah, who was about a hundred and twenty years building an ark, and how many friends did he have? I think about seven in all. Lot was very unpopular the morning he left Sodom and Gomorrah, and so have been all the Patriarchs and Prophets in every age of the world. Jesus Christ, when he came to Jerusalem, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the great Shiloh of the Jews, came to his own father’s house, yet there was not a man more despised in all Judea and Jerusalem than was Jesus Christ, from the day of his birth until he came to the cross. Why is this? Because men love darkness rather than light—because their deeds are evil. The Lord Almighty, in the last days, has set his hand to carry out and fulfill his words for the past five or six thousand years, given through the mouths of his servants the Prophets and Apostles whenever he has had them on the earth. He has commenced this work and he will perform it, for, as brother Taylor has justly said, there is no power on the earth that can stay his hand, for the simple reason that God controls the destinies of all men—kings, princes, rulers, presidents, statesmen, governors, nations, tongues and people, upon the face of the whole earth, and men are placed in a position where they are under the necessity of exercising faith in God in order to build up his kingdom. Read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and you will find that, beginning with the creation of the world, everything has been accomplished by faith. The whole of the work of all the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets was accomplished by the exercise of this principle; and it is just so in the last dispensation of the fullness of times. When God sent angels to Joseph Smith, he knew and understood, by the teachings given unto him, what he had to perform in a measure. The Lord called him to do a work, and raised him up for this purpose. Was Joseph Smith popular among men? No, never, he was persecuted until the day of his death, until he sealed his testimony with his blood. But the persecution against him, and the unbelief of the world, do not make the truth of God without effect. The Lord has carried out and fulfilled all these prophecies from the commencement until now; there never has been a jot or tittle allowed to fall unfulfilled; there never was a revelation, from the days of father Adam until this, given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost through the mouth of Patriarch or Prophet that will fall unfulfilled. Though the heavens and the earth pass away, these things will not fail of their fulfillment, and, as brother Taylor has said, the world cannot stay the work of God. They never have done, and they never will.

This is a different dispensation from all others. God has set to his hand to build up his kingdom and Zion, and that kingdom and Zion must be built up, or the revelations of God will fall unfulfilled. The Bible is full of these teachings, and they must have their fulfillment, and I bear testimony to their truth. The Bible is true, and its prophecies were spoken by holy men of old as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. The revelations of Isaiah concerning the building up of the Zion of God in the last days will have their ful– fillment. The house of God will be established upon the tops of the mountains, and all nations must flow unto it. Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments, she must be clothed with the glory of her God. The Temple of God has got to be built also upon the tops of the mountains; the Gospel must be preached to every nation under heaven before the end shall come.

The world say they do not believe these things; that is true, we do not expect them, we never have expected them to believe them, but the unbelief of the world does not change the work of God. We have to live by faith. When Moroni hid in the earth the record which the Book of Mormon was translated from, four hundred years after Christ came in the flesh, he did it by faith, as much so as Noah built the ark. He looked forward and saw that record come forth in the last days, in fulfillment of the sayings of Ezekiel and of the saying of Isaiah, when the stick of Joseph should be put with the stick of Judah, and they should become one stick in the hands of the servants of the Lord before the eyes of the world, and when the truth should spring out of the earth and righteousness look down from heaven. These things were to be a beginning of the great work of God preparatory to the gathering of the twelve tribes of Israel in the latter days. That work has come forth, just as everything has been fulfilled which has been done by faith and by the commandment of God.

When Joseph Smith began to receive revelations from God he was a boy, an illiterate youth; and had he not had faith and the inspiration of the Almighty upon him, he never could have had power and courage to go forth and introduce the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of a gene– ration of false doctrine, ignorance and darkness. But God preserved, inspired and sustained him, and caused him to live upon the earth until he had planted this kingdom, in fulfillment of the revelations. He organized the Church, he received the holy Priesthood from the hands of angels sent from God—men who had held the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood in other generations upon the earth; they conferred upon Joseph all the powers and keys of the Priesthood necessary to build up the kingdom of God upon the earth, and he lived long enough to organize that kingdom, and it will never be thrown down any more forever.

The revelations of God to us have been encouraging, and we have seen them fulfilled, and we shall continue to do so until the end. I will say to the Latter-day Saints, that we are in the same position that other generations have been—we have got to walk by faith, we must have confidence in the fulfillment of the revelations of God. No man or woman on the face of the earth will ever be disappointed with regard to the fulfillment of the word of the Lord, for he has uttered decrees, made covenants, and through his servants the Prophets has declared his word and will concerning the world and its inhabitants, and not one of his sayings will fail, all must be fulfilled. If it could be otherwise, the Zion of God would never be built up; but God has decreed that his kingdom will be established, that Zion will arise and shine, and that every weapon formed against her will be broken.

The prayers of hundreds and thousands of Saints, dwelling in these valleys of the mountains, daily ascend into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, beseeching him to fulfill his word upon the earth and to sustain his servants. Do not the Saints pray for anybody else? Yes, they pray for everybody—for President Grant, Judge McKean, the Governor of Utah, and every man holding official positions here, as well as for Brigham Young and the Apostles. These prayers ascend before the Lord and they will be heard and answered.

Talk about Brigham Young and Joseph Smith, how many have said to Joseph Smith—“How on the earth do you govern and control this people? How easy you do it!” Our enemies, today, look at Brigham Young, and they say—“If he would only die, Mormonism would stop;” but in this they are mistaken. This work does not depend upon President Young; it did not depend upon Joseph Smith. All the world thought if they could only slay Joseph Smith there would be an end of Mormonism, and so there would have been had it not been the work of God Almighty; if it had been the work of man it would long since have ceased to exist on the earth. The power that has sustained this work from the beginning sustains it now. As brother Taylor has said, all the holy Prophets and Apostles who have been slain on the earth for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God, and who now sit on the right hand of God in the heavens, are just as much engaged in carrying on the work of God here as when they lived in the flesh, and more so, because they have more light and power. And Jesus Christ, himself, who died on the cross, and after his resurrection visited the other sheep of his fold on this continent, and offered the Gospel to Jew and Gentile, that same Jesus is pleading with the Father today, and has been from the day his body lay in the tomb, to carry out and fulfill his purposes and to accomplish his work in our day and generation. We are not alone in our efforts to carry on the work of God. If the eyes of the world were open, they would see that there are more for us than against us. We are only, in one sense of the word, worms of the dust in the hands of God. This work does not depend on any man or set of men. The Lord Almighty has set his hand to accomplish his purposes, and he is feeling after the honest and meek throughout the world, in order to find those who are willing to take hold and help to build up his kingdom in the latter days. He has found a few, and he will find many more.

How has it been with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, the Apostles, and thousands of the Elders of Israel who have gone forth to preach the Gospel to the world without purse or scrip, offering the word of life and salvation without money and without price? They have carried their knapsacks on their backs, or with valise in hand have traveled thousands and thousands of miles for this purpose. They have been inspired to do this by the power of the Most High God, and that inspiration has sustained them all the way through; it has upheld this Church from the time it came forth until this hour, and will unto its consummation. We came in here on the 24th of July, 1847, having been driven from our homes, the graves of our fathers, and from lands we purchased from the general Government because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, or, in other words, because of our religion. We came here and found a barren desert, containing nothing but a few roving Indians, coyote wolves, crickets and grasshoppers. There was no mark of the Anglo Saxon race or of the white man here then, but the whole region of country was a desert of the most forbidding and desolate charac– ter. Now when strangers come up to Zion on this great highway, cast up in fulfillment of the revelations of God, what do they see? They see no longer a desert, but a belt, for six hundred miles, of cities, towns, villages, orchards, fields and crops. Who has done this? The Lord God of Israel has inspired his Saints to do it. President Young has been led, guided, counseled and moved upon by the Holy Ghost and by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and that which strangers now behold in this Tabernacle, and throughout this Territory is in fulfillment of that volume of revelation which you can read in the prophecies of Isaiah and others of the Prophets and Patriarchs. These things are true and your eyes can see them, whether you believe them or not has nothing to do with it. I will tell you that if this work had not been of God, and God had not borne testimony to the preaching of the Elders, we might have preached until we had been as old as Methuselah and we could not have gathered the people from almost every nation under heaven as we have done, according to the predictions of the ancient Prophets contained in the Bible. But the Lord has never disappointed anybody so far as his work is concerned. It did not stop after the death of Joseph, and it never will on account of the death of any man, Prophet, Apostle or any other man, for it is in the hands of God, and he has decreed that it shall stand forever, and that it shall extend until its dominion becomes universal.

We do not see today what we saw twenty-four years ago, and we do not see today what will be seen twenty-four years hence; there will be no stoppage to the building up of the Zion of God, or to the carrying out of his work. Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, raised up by the Lord Almighty, and the inspiration of God guided and sustained him to the day of his death. He sealed his testimony with his blood, and that testimony is in force upon all the world. This record which I hold in my hands (Book of Doctrine and Covenants) contains the revelations of God, and in one of them the Lord says—“Let earth and hell combine against you, and they shall not prevail, the kingdom is yours—I have given it into your hands—and you are called upon to build it up.” The Lord is at the helm to govern, guide and control this work, and he will do so unto the end.

Now when men undertake to fight against this work, as brother Taylor has said, they fight against God; it is not against Brigham Young, the Apostles or this people alone, but it is against God. Every man will be rewarded according to his works. Our prayers go up before God day and night, that he will execute justice, judgment, righteousness and truth, that he will sustain everything that leads to good, and does good, and that he will overthrow all that lead to evil and do evil; and we are assured by revelation that the Lord will hear and answer our prayers. The Lord is with this people; but as Latter-day Saints, I do not think that we always prize our privileges. We are called upon to perform a work; the Lord has placed this work in our hands, and we are held responsible before the heavens and the earth to use the talents—the light and truth, which have been committed into our hands.

What is this life? What are the things of this life? The Latter-day Saints are living for things the other side of the veil, the same as all servants of God have done in every age of the world. Now is it not a curiosity that so few of the human family have an interest in eternal things—things the other side of the veil? Bless your souls, our lives here are only a few days in duration, but on the other side of the veil we shall live eternally, we shall live and exist just as long as our Creator will exist, and our eternal destiny depends upon the manner in which we spend our short lives here in the flesh. Will it not pay any man, any Prophet, Apostle or Saint, in this or any other age of the world, to be true and faithful to his God, to magnify his calling, to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ, to preach the Gospel, to bear record of the things of the kingdom to Jew and Gentile in his day and generation? Yes, it will pay men to do right, and men will sorrow and bitterly regret taking any course in this or any other generation against God or his work. What have been the afflictions of the Jews who rejected Jesus Christ? Why every word spoken concerning them by Moses and Jesus has had its fulfillment until the present day, for hundreds of years past and gone. They have been a hiss and a by-word, and trodden under the feet of the Gentiles, in fulfillment of the words of Jesus Christ, and they will continue in their present position until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Jesus offered his Gospel to the Jews in his day, but in these latter days it has been offered first to the Gentiles, thus fulfilling the saying that the first shall be last and the last shall be first; and when the Gentiles count themselves unworthy of eternal life, the Gospel will go to the House of Israel and they will receive it. The Gentiles should heed the warning given them by the Apostle Paul, lest they fall through the example of unbelief as did the Jews, who were broken off because they rejected the Messiah, and refused the message of salvation which he delivered unto them. From that day to this they have been scattered, peeled and afflicted; their city was overthrown and their Temples destroyed, and the land of their fathers has been in the hands of Gentile nations until today. The Lord has said—“Vengeance is mine and I will repay,” and we may rest assured that the Lord will reward those who seek to destroy the lives of his people and to overthrow his kingdom. Vengeance is in the hands of the Almighty. “I will fight your battles,” saith the Lord. We do not seek any man’s hurt, however much of an enemy he may be to us, we leave him in the hands of God, we know that he will reward him, and the reward will be all that God, Saints, angels, devils or wicked men can ask, and it will be all that any man can want. When we undertake to fight against God we have to pay for it. Men will have to pay for every sin committed in the flesh; no matter what they do, they will have to be accountable for it. If a man does right, is valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ, obeys the Gospel, and keeps his covenants, when he passes to the other side of the veil he has an entrance into the presence of God and the Lamb; having kept celestial law he enters into celestial glory, he is preserved by that law, and he participates in that glory through the endless ages of eternity. It pays any man under heaven to obey and be faithful to the law of God the few days he spends in the flesh. I say to the world, to every sect under heaven, if you ever obtain any blessings in the eternal worlds from anybody at all it will be from the God the Latter-day Saints worship, for God made us all; whether we are Methodists, Baptists, Mormons or anything else we are all the children of one parent. Then why should we persecute one another because of our religion? It is folly in the highest degree. We live in a land and under a constitution which guarantees the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience to every sect, party, name and denomination under heaven, then why should we be so narrow-minded as to hate or seek to persecute or kill our neighbor because he differs from us in religion?

We worship God and we are Latter-day Saints because we know that the Gospel which has been revealed in these latter days is true. We have received it and have realized the promises made to those who would obey it. The Holy Ghost and the testimony of Jesus Christ never deceived us, and we have received that testimony while abroad in almost every nation under heaven. By this power we have been gathered. That is the reason we are Mormons, as the world call us. We know this work is true, we know it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We would not persecute, abuse, or quarrel with any man because of his religious views. A man’s religion, let it be what it will, is between him and his God. He is going to the eternal world, and he will receive his reward, and there is no reason or use in quarreling about religion, and we have never felt to do this in our lives. Whatever may have been said concerning us, our Tabernacles—this and others—have been open to every minister who came along, no matter to what sect or party he belonged. We are not afraid of our doctrines, and we are not afraid to have our children hear the doctrines of others. If any man has got a truth that we have not got, let us have it. Truth is what we are after, and we are not afraid of the doctrines of any man; we are willing to stand by the revelations of God. These are the feelings of the Latter-day Saints. When our Methodist friends came to this city, erected their tent and held their big camp meeting, what was the course pursued by the Latter-day Saints? The President of the Church, the Twelve Apostles and citizens with their wives and children gave them a congregation of many thousands, and we sat in their tent and listened to them while they abused us just as much as they pleased. We believe in giving every man the privilege of saying what he pleases, we have always been willing to let every man express his sentiments here among us. We are not afraid of them. If we have not the truth, that is what we are after, we want it. But we know that we have it, that the Gospel as restored, revealed through Joseph Smith, is the truth of God, and we know that the Lord has set to his hand to build up Zion, and he is going to do it. We bear record of this because we know it is true.

I pray that God will bless the Latter-day Saints. I pray that we may prize our privileges, that we may enjoy the spirit of our calling, and that the Holy Ghost may enlighten our minds continually, that we may not walk in the dark but in the light. I pray that the Spirit of God may bear record to the stranger within our gates. I am satisfied that it does, and it has done more or less for the forty years that are past and gone. But it is the same today as it was in the days of Jesus. He told Nicodemus that light had come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil, and here is where condemnation comes in, but we cannot help that. My brethren and I have traveled a great many thousands of miles to preach the Gospel to our fellow men; we have done this because we know this Gospel is true. We are willing to stand by this Gospel, this testimony and this work in life and in death, in time and in eternity. We shall meet the strangers who come here and visit us, on the other side of the veil; they will meet us there, and if they never know before, they will know then that our testimony is true.

I pray God our heavenly Father that he will bear testimony by his Holy Spirit to the meek and honest among the children of men, that they may receive the truth and be prepared to inherit eternal life, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.