Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 1, 1863.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is perhaps one of the most comprehensive subjects that mankind can reflect upon. It not only embraces things as they now exist, associated with the human family, but it takes us back to days that are past and gone, to the organizations of this world and of other worlds, and by the principle of revelation it develops, unfolds and makes manifest unto the human family the great purposes of God as they shall transpire throughout every succeeding age. There are thousands of details or minutiae mixed up with these great projects, purposes, and designs, some of them we comprehend correctly, or think we do; others are not so clear and comprehensible to our minds.

There are some things we, as a people, have to do with perhaps more than any other people that exist, though they have to do with all people, if the people would have to do with them. But, in relation more particularly to the position that we occupy before God, before the world and before each other; and the faith we have in God, in his Work, in his ordinances, in his laws and in his kingdoms—and the reasons of that faith are to me and to all Latter-day Saints matters of very great importance—we are led to inquire upon what is our faith based, why are we Latter-day Saints? Why do we believe, as we do, in the doctrines of this Church? And whence do we obtain our faith or our knowledge, as the case may be, in relation to these matters? Why is it that there has been so singular a religious movement as that which has taken place within the last thirty years, introducing views that are contrary to the commonly established views of the whole religious world? Why is it that this people, say in this Territory, embracing a scope of country of some five hundred miles in extent, with a population that, comparatively speaking, may be called dense for a country like this, has assumed the proportions of a body politic, if you please, that have organized themselves into a Territory and have asked for admission as a State into the great American Confederation? Why is it that a thing so singular as this has taken place? Is it because there has been a desire among the originators of this Work, or any part of them, to establish a political power? I am not aware that this is the case. If there has been any such feeling and desire apart from other leading principles it is something I am not acquainted with. We have commenced to gather ourselves together under certain influences, certain principles and under a certain faith. We have gathered ourselves together from various parts, and although there has been a strong influence used to separate us, to scatter us abroad, to produce disunion, to sever us one from another; yet no influence, no power, no reasoning, nor anything whatever that has been brought to bear on this people to accomplish that object has succeeded; there is some cause, some reason for this. There are mighty motives underlying, overruling and overreaching all motives of a political character. The first thing that ever was proclaimed by the Elders of this Church was the Gospel of peace on the earth, and goodwill towards men has continued to be preached, and among other influences there has been a certain influence that has gathered the people to together. There has been no influence that could be brought to bear upon this people that could sever or separate them.

There must be, therefore, some reason for movements of this kind. Such movements are not very common in the world. It is common for various religious societies to arise in the world; but, generally, they are very narrow and contracted in their notions. They are not adhesive or cohesive, they do not unite or combine. You may take the Methodist society, the Presbyterian society, the Baptist society, the Episcopalian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, or any other you please, and you will find that motives of a political character will separate them and make them enemies to one another and make them take up arms against one another, fight one another and shed each others blood. They not only seek to destroy each other, but they all pray to the same God to help them to do so. There is nothing strange or singular in this; for there is no motive, principle or power to cement or unite them together further than a sort of fancied religion which does not possess the principles of union; for instance, in some of the great wars that took place in Europe some years ago; one of the last with which we are the most familiarly acquainted, was between Russia, England, and France. Who took up sides in the struggle? There was the Greek Church under the Russians, Protestant England, Catholic France, and the Muhammadan or Turk fighting against each other. The Catholics were Christians, the Protestants were Christians, the Russians were of the Greek or Christian Church, the Turks were Muhammadans; all worshippers of the same God, under different forms. These were arrayed against each other in deadly strife all praying to the same God to give them power over their enemies, and their enemies were also Christians; then they went to slaying and destroying each other. Let us notice the difficulties between France and Italy against Austria. In this case there were two Catholic powers engaged against another power which was also Catholic. Religious considerations do not confine or control them in the least. They fought just as hard to kill their fellow Christians, as the Muhammadans or any other people would fight to kill their enemies. They were all in the same church, all partaking of the same sacrament, all believing in the same doctrines and worshipping the same God.

How has it been in the United States? Precisely the same. Who were the first to separate? It was the religious communities of the country that separated first, Baptist from Baptist, Methodist from Methodist, Universalist from Universalist, &c. The churches made a division long before the States divided, showing that there was less virtue or unity in churches than in the state of the body politic. The Northern and Southern armies are composed of members of these different sects that exist in the Federal and Confederate States.

I mention these things to show you that there is no adhesive principle sufficiently powerful to unite the people of any portion of the earth, similar to the one that has sprung forth in our day and right among this people; if there is anything of that sort abroad in the world I am not acquainted with it. Then it follows, as a natural consequence, that if there is nothing to unite the people together they are deficient in some principle, doctrine, faith, or practice. Philosophy has not united the people together; politics has never done it; no social principles have ever accomplished it.

Freemasonry is one of the strongest binding contracts that exists between man and man, yet Freemasons are mixed up in those different armies, trying to kill each other, and so they have contended against each other for generations past. There must be something, then, to control this people different from that which seems to control other people socially, religiously, politically or any other way. There is some kind of a cohesive power, some kind of an attractive principle, something that unites and concentrates this people together in a manner altogether different from that of any other people under the face of the heavens; and so singular is it, that it attracts the attention of philosophers, of statesmen, of politicians and of leading men of every grade—they wonder at it, as they wondered at Jesus when he was upon the earth; they wonder what this state of things will grow to; they are fearful of the consequences and results of this union. We are naturally led to inquire how these things originated; from whence springs this principle, this influence, this power, for it is a very important one. It has dragged us from our homes; it has sent hundreds of Elders wandering up and down the earth for these ten, twenty and thirty years past; it has made us, in the estimation of our friends we used to associate with, laughingstocks and fools, and it has finally brought us together in this place; it has also assumed a political power as a natural consequence or result, simply because there was no other course for us to pursue. Whenever a body of people are thrown together, the inevitable consequence is a political power. It cannot be otherwise. They must have organizations, representation, laws and administrators of law; there must be a body politic formed whenever a body of people are gathered together as we are; and the very fact of our organization, religiously and politically, the very fact of that oneness that so universally prevails among this people produces a terror to evildoers and to those who are opposed to us. Why is it that a principle of this kind should exist among this people? For we can readily discover, in looking abroad in the world, that it does not exist anywhere else. Is it because we are more learned than they are? Is it because we are more intellectual and refined? Because we are greater philosophers, better statesmen, more acquainted with cause and effect, have studied more extensively the position of the world generally and its government and laws? I do not so understand it. There is something besides this; naturally, we are no smarter than other men and no more intelligent than they are; but there is a kind of principle of some sort that infuses itself into our very nature, is a great principle in our body politic and is mixed up with our religion and with our morals; it is a sort of secret spring of some kind that governs, actuates, controls, unites, and cements us together in a manner that no other people under the face of the heavens are united. I would like to try to make it plain to others, if the Lord will help me, why it is that these things have taken place. To begin, we will go back to the time when this movement first commenced. It would seem that a record had been hid up upon this continent for generations past. It would seem that a people had lived upon this continent who were full of the Holy Ghost, who had a knowledge of God, who possessed revelation, who had Prophets inspired by the Spirit of God, as they were on the Asiatic continent or in any other part of the world. It would seem that these Prophets, in common with the Prophets on the Asiatic continent and with the men of God in former ages, had looked forward to a time that we read of in the Bible, called the “Dispensation of the fulness of times, when God would gather together all things in one, whether they be things in the heavens or things upon the earth.”

It would seem that these Prophets had recorded these things in this record, that in the time of the dispensation of the fulness of time, when God should commence his great Latter-day Work, that among other things men should be taught the laws of life and the knowledge of God, and that the coming forth of this Work was to be the starting point of a great event; one of sufficient magnitude to have attracted the attention of all the ancient Prophets that ever did live; one of sufficient magnitude to influence the attention of the Gods in the eternal worlds; one of sufficient magnitude to cause that a medium of communication should be opened between the heavens and the earth, that light should again burst forth from the heavenly world, that the spirit of prophecy and revelation should again be unfolded, that an era should be inaugurated pregnant with life, light, and intelligence unto those that then lived, that they might have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, of knowing his laws, purposes and designs, his Gospel, the principles of eternal truth, the laws of life, that men should again be acquainted with things that had been, with things that were and with things that were to come.

The ancient Prophets of the two continents foresaw that the issuing forth of that record was to be the commencement of the Latter-day Work; one said, “Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” “The meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” It is one of those sticks that Ezekiel saw should be written upon, even the stick of Joseph which should be written for Ephraim, and be united with the stick of Judah, and become one stick—one in prophecy, one in revelation, one in doctrine, one in ordinances, one in unfolding the purposes and designs of God, and in leading mankind to a knowledge of the truth, as it was to be introduced in “the times of the restitution of all things spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began.”

The revealing of these records was to be one of the starting points in relation to this matter. Then it needed some instrument, some individual, some messenger, some communication, because it would be impossible without something of this kind that these things could transpire. There needed some authorized messenger, some communion from the Lord to reveal, unfold and make these things manifest. To talk about the world as it is, and the authority they have to preach the Gospel and administer the ordinances and dictate the affairs of the kingdom of God, is foolishness to reason upon; but we will merely give it a passing notice. Where did the different religious sects get their authority from? Who ordained them to administer in the name of God? Who gave them that authority? The Church of England gave authority to all the seceding sects that have sprung out of her, and they left her because she was corrupt. Where did the Church of England obtain her authority? From the Church of Rome, which they say is the mother of harlots and the abomination of all things. Where does the Church of Rome obtain her authority? They tell you that they get it down in an unbroken chain of descent from the Apostles’ times. Their statement is the most reasonable, rational and consistent of them all. The Greek Church professes to be governed by the same authority. When we apply a test to them we find that they do not stand upon a very good foundation. When, and wherein, and how have they departed from the true authority of God? I will quote a certain Scripture by one of the old Apostles, “He that transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” Do they abide in the doctrine of Christ? I think not.

Who taught them to sprinkle little children? Did the Gospel of Jesus Christ teach them this? No. But they rely on an unbroken descent for their authority. In answer to this, the Protestants tell them that the chain of their Popedom has been broken at different times. I do not care whether it has or not. If the Pope transgressed, it is not to say that the bishops and priests and the whole community did; this would not be a sufficient argument to satisfy me that the Roman Catholics had departed from the faith of Christ; but when they gathered together the authorities of the church from all the world in a solemn conclave, as they did at the Councils of Nice and Trent, and passed resolutions which admitted of doctrines and principles in direct violation of the laws of God and of the Church of God, then as a church, with the voice of their representatives they forsook God and introduced the doctrines of men. “He that transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God;” and if they do not abide in the doctrine of Christ they do not retain their priesthood and authority to administer in the ordinances of God. Then we are left without authority on the earth.

Shall we go to the Greek Church for the true authority? It is based pretty much upon the same principle as the Roman Catholic Church is, and all the sectarian bodies of Christendom are as destitute of the true authority of God as the mother church is.

Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom. There is no people that have held communion with God, no true church, priesthood, or authority, no medium of communication between God and man for church government, to dictate, regulate, manage, and control the affairs of his kingdom upon the earth.

How did this state of things called Mormonism originate? We read that an angel came down and revealed himself to Joseph Smith and manifested unto him in vision the true position of the world in a religious point of view. He was surrounded with light and glory while the heavenly messenger communicated these things unto him, after a series of visitations and communications from the Apostle Peter and others who held the authority of the holy Priesthood, not only on the earth formerly but in the heavens afterwards. That they hold it in the heavens we know from the Scriptures. In them there are certain principles revealed in relation to that matter that nobody could reveal unless they were acquainted with the principle of revelation. Moses and Elias were seen with Jesus on the mount, when Peter and his brethren saw them, who said, “Master, it is good for us to be here: let us build three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.” Who was this Moses? He was a man who had officiated before on the earth, had held the holy Priesthood, had been a teacher of righteousness, and who, with the Elders of Israel, had talked with God, and had received revelations from him, holding the Priesthood that administered in time and eternity. When he got through with this world his official duties were not ended, for he appeared to Jesus, Peter, James, and John upon the mount, to confer on them certain principles, authorities and Priesthood, that they might also be enabled to administer in the ordinances of salvation, and officiate as the representatives of God upon the earth. And hence, when Joseph Smith came, those who had held the keys before came to him, so he told me and others, and revealed unto him certain things pertaining to the kingdom of God upon the earth, and ordained him and set him apart to the ministry and Apostleship unto which he was called. He presented himself before the world and informed the people that God had spoken, and that he had spoken to him. He told them that the heavens had been opened and that angels clothed in light and glory had appeared to him and revealed unto him certain things. Then we have Oliver Cowdery, who tells us something about these things, and gives his testimony as a living witness. Again, there were eleven witnesses in relation to the Book of Mormon, who testify that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation from God. And some of these witnesses tell us that an angel of God came and laid before them the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and they knew that their testimony was true and faithful. Others tell us that they saw and handled the plates from which the record was taken. I have conversed with several of those men who say they have seen the plates that Joseph Smith took out of the hill Cumorah; I have also conversed with Joseph Smith, who has told me of these things and many more that it would be unnecessary on the present occasion to relate. Here, then, is an abundance of testimony that assumes a supernatural agency—an interposition of the Almighty—an opening and an unfolding of something to the human family with which they have been unacquainted. These things are left for the human family to reason upon; they are presented unto us in that capacity, just as things were presented formerly to others. We were told formerly that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and how can they hear without a preacher, and how can he preach unless he be sent.” Here, then, was a medium introduced by the Almighty to excite the faith or unbelief of the people. Here are certain records unfolded, and here is a man presenting himself before the people, declaring that God was about to usher in the dispensation of the fulness of times; and for this purpose he had introduced an ancient record that had belonged to the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent, together with that, he tells them that the so-called Christian churches had gone astray, and all mankind were laboring under gross darkness, and that darkness had covered the whole earth. He furthermore tells them that God had it in his mind to reveal unto them his will, and draw back the dark veil that overspreads the minds of the people—to introduce the principles of eternal truth, and that he came as a messenger from God, having been set apart by holy angels sent by the Almighty for that purpose, that, in the first place, he might be acquainted with correct principles, and then be able to teach them to others. This is the phase which this thing assumed at that time; and the people felt about it as the old Jews did when Jesus told them that they were deceivers, whited walls and painted sepulchres; they said, Away with such a fellow from the earth. When Joseph Smith told the priests, the good Methodists, the righteous Presbyterians, and the holy Roman Catholics that they were all wrong, how could they endure it. But you must endure it, for God has spoken and the word has gone forth. The Lord, in the first place, commanded all men everywhere to repent and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, giving them a promise that they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is different to anything that has been before in the world. That which was before, assumed no shape and came with no authority from God. The various sects of the world imagined that they had the Holy Ghost, but they forgot that it was to lead men into all truth. That spirit which they have mistaken for the Holy Ghost has led them into confusion, contention, and strife, and consequently it is not the Holy Ghost spoken of in the Scripture. Joseph Smith, having found and made manifest these things, and having turned the key that unlocks the destinies of the human family, having had committed unto him the key of this dispensation, he began to unfold and make manifest the things of God to the world, to all who were desirous to listen and yield obedience thereunto. A good many felt as the people felt when Jesus came, that “This man speaks with authority, and not as the scribes;” there were other principles and another spirit introduced developing other precepts, laws, ordinances, manifestations, and doctrines, and a greater power was associated with it than had been with any previous manifestations. What then? Why, the Lord was reasonable—he always has been; he is a good and gracious God, a benefactor and friend, suiting his doctrines and principles to the capacities of the human family. What was the consequence when men heard those principles? Many of them had a portion of the Spirit of the Lord among them, and as light cleaves to light, truth to truth, and intelligence to intelligence, wherever there was the light of the Spirit of God in the mind of man it discovered, comprehended, and embraced the truth. What is it? God has spoken; a record has been revealed, making manifest the events that have transpired on this Continent, and prophecy, and revelations, and visions, and the purposes of God, &c. This agrees with the Old Record; there is no need to bring argument here on that question, for it has been argued and investigated throughout the world. What then? Did I know because Joseph Smith knew? Not exactly. Joseph Smith had certain things revealed to him, and he was commanded to communicate those things unto others. What then? He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and shall know for himself of the things which he has believed in. This was the principle upon which my faith was based at the commencement. For instance, an Elder came to me and preached the Gospel and told me all these things. I was struck at once with them. I was well acquainted with the Bible, yet I had never heard such teachings before; had never seen such principles developed; had never listened to such words as came from his mouth, illustrating, making manifest and explaining the Scriptures, the Book of Mormon, and the revelations of God, and opening the heavens as it were to my view. It was to me one of the greatest things I had ever heard. He said to me, “If you will be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, inasmuch as you go in faith and humility and obedience to the law of God and forsake your sins,” &c. This was precisely the same thing that Peter told the people in his day. Said he, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” What will it do for us, Peter? “It will cause your old men to dream dreams, and your young men to see visions, and your servants and handmaids shall prophesy; it will bring things past to your remembrance, lead you into all truth, and show you things to come.” Here was quite a chance for a man to detect whether Peter was an impostor or not; and there was a favorable opportunity to detect whether the Mormon Elder was an impostor or not, for he promised the same things that Peter promised to believers, and all the Elders do the same. Can you find a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Baptist, an Episcopalian, a Roman Catholic that dare tell you what Paul said anciently, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ?” Why? Have you not been persecuted and afflicted and been let down in a basket over a wall, been driven from place to place and considered a deceiver? Yes. “But I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; and therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” I have obeyed the same Gospel. What then? Did the signs follow? Yes; I believed before I obeyed, and after I had been baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, that Holy Ghost took of the things of God and showed them unto me, so that I then knew for myself. But did I believe particularly because I heard tongues and prophesyings and saw healings? No; but these made me glad, for in them I saw the ancient order of things brought back again. It made me rejoice to see the sick healed, the lame to leap for joy and the blind receive their sight, the deaf to hear and the dumb speak. This was a certain amount of testimony for the doctrines that had been advanced. But, besides this, there was an inward evidence—an invisible manifestation of the Spirit of the living God, bearing witness with mine that this was the work of God that he had established in the last days, and I knew it for myself and not because anybody said so. At first I believed it on the testimony of others, and then obtained a knowledge for myself. If there is no other man under the heavens that knows that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God I do, and I bear testimony of it to God, angels, and men. How did it operate upon others? In the same way, inasmuch as they were sincere and faithful, and diligent in observing the laws of God, and hence, as the Scriptures say, “You are all baptized into one baptism, and have all partaken of the same Spirit,” and that is the Spirit that first commenced to be revealed through Joseph Smith, and the administration of holy angels, and the development and restoration of the holy Priesthood. If you do not know in the same way that I know this is the Work of God, I would not give a straw for your religion.

Having received this knowledge, it operates the same upon all and hence the union that exists among us. It is the same in Canada, the same in the Northern States, the same in the Eastern States, the same in the Western States, and the same in the Southern States; the same in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Denmark, Germany, the islands of the sea, and the different parts of the earth wherever this seed has been sown and the Elders have gone forth in the name of Jesus Christ bearing the precious seeds of eternal life. Wherever that has rested in good hearts it has produced the same results, giving the same signs, if not the same degree of evidence, and this has cemented and united us together; it is the little leaven that begins to leaven the whole lump; it is a part of the Spirit of God—a living spark that is struck from the fire of his eternal blaze that has made itself manifest on the earth; it is the still small voice that whispers peace to the soul—the thing that Jesus spoke of when he said—

“My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also.”

They feel the peace that passeth all human understanding. They possess the Spirit of God, though they cannot always tell the whys and wherefores. It is not because a man is learned and polished after the learning of this world that he knows, but because he comprehends and listens to the whisperings of the Spirit of God speaking peace to his bosom and giving him understanding that he is accepted of his Heavenly Father—“I in thee, and thou in me,” &c. It is this which has drawn us together—this that has cemented and united us, that has led us from our homes to the position we now occupy in these mountains.

An Elder whose mind was darkened once came to me to tell me that something was seriously wrong in the Church. How am I to believe you? said I. I was told by you one year ago that if I were to obey the Gospel I should know of the doctrines whether they were of God. I have obeyed and I know for myself, and am no longer dependent upon your testimony, and you cannot make me now unknow it. No matter what your ideas and notions are, now I know for myself. God is our teacher; he has organized his Priesthood and government upon the earth, which is the cementing influence that unites this people together, and as the Lord said formerly, “If you are not one you are not of me.” I remember on a certain occasion in Liverpool we were told not to say anything about the gathering. A lady came to me and said she had had a singular dream. “I dreamed,” she said, “that the whole Church was going off to America, and that you were there; we were going on board of a ship and leaving for America.” What was the reason of this singular dreaming? She had embraced the Gospel, and it revealed certain things to her that she could not know in any other way. “Your old men shall dream dreams,” &c. Can you keep people in the dark in relation to these things? No. And when a people live their religion, and all the Quorums of the Church are walking up to their privileges, then a certain ancient aphorism would be correct, “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” and the voice of God is the voice of the people—it would suit either way. It is upon this principle that we are united; and hence, no matter where this people come from nor what their former views and prejudices, they may have been different in regard to many things and opposed each other previously in politics, governments, rights, morals, religion, and theories, yet they will all agree now that they know this to be the Work of God.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ produces the same results among all people and in all generations, and if they cannot fully understand the whys and wherefores about it, they feel a good deal as the man did about Jesus and the child that had been healed. When Jesus had healed the child, some of the righteous people said, “Come, now, give God the glory: for we know this man is a sinner.” The man replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not I cannot say: but I do know that this child was blind, and now he sees.” So with the people of this Church, they know that, whereas they were once blind, now they see. Having partaken of this, what can separate us? “Shall life, or death, or principalities, or powers, or things present, or things to come, or anything on earth, in heaven or hell, separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Hence the secret of the union of this people.

One of the most irrefragable proofs of the Divinity of this Work is found in one thing—that everything that has been spoken by Joseph Smith in relation to these things has thus far been literally fulfilled, and you are his witnesses, as also is the Holy Ghost that bears witness of him. What next? Why, it is as it was in former times, “All are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s,” we are one with him, and one with the Father. “I in thee, and thou in me, that they all might be one, as I and the Father are one.” This is the reason we are found together in a religious capacity, and why we are not disunited like the rest of the world. This is the reason why we are united politically, because this is bound to follow. You get some thousands of people together and they are obliged to be governed by law, and form themselves into a body politic. We have been kicked and cuffed and abused almost all the day long, yet we are not much hurt, so far. We are here, and all is right, all is well, and we are bound to grow and increase.

Do you think the Lord, and the holy Prophets that have existed on this and on the other Continent, and the Gods in the eternal worlds have started this thing to end here? No. It is simply a nucleus of light, of intelligence, of truth, of virtue, of correct principles, of the holy Priesthood, of the revelations of God, and of something that has got to spread and to grow, increase and expand until it becomes a great nation and fills the whole earth; until all that has been spoken of by the holy Prophets shall be fulfilled in relation to these matters; until error shall give place to truth, wrong to right; until corruption and tyranny shall give place to justice and equity: instead of man bearing rule and having his own way, “God shall be king over the whole earth: and his name one;” “and unto him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, to the glory of God the Father.” We are only just commencing in this Work, which will grow, and spread, and increase, and no power on this side of hell shall stop its onward progress; it is onward, onward, onward, until the purposes of God and all he has designed shall be fulfilled and accomplished.

This is truly a great Work—a Work with which God and angels and Saints that have lived before us, and the souls that are beneath the altar praying unto God for the accomplishment of these things, are engaged in. The heavens and the earth, at the present time, are in communication, and God is our judge, our ruler, our lawgiver, our guide and director to lead us on in the ways of life, and no matter about events that may transpire; no matter whether our path is very rough and rugged or smooth, it makes little difference: it is for us to do right, maintain our integrity, honor our calling and magnify it and honor our God and one another, obeying faithfully those who are placed over us. Do I know that Brigham Young is called of God to lead this people? I do, upon the same principle that I knew Joseph Smith was. What can any of us do without God, without his law and without the principles of eternal truth?

I pray that we may be enabled to work righteousness and be exalted into heavenly places in Jesus Christ! That we may fear God in our hearts, do the thing that is acceptable to the Most High, prepare ourselves for a celestial inheritance and an exaltation in his kingdom, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 22, 1863.

“And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament of my blood, which is shed for you.” There is nothing very peculiar in this ordinance, though it is rather a strange institution when we reflect upon it. This ceremony has been attended to throughout generations that are past, and still it is attended to. Jesus said also, “Do this until I come again.” Notwithstanding the great falling off—the great apostasy since the days of Christ and his Apostles, this ordinance has generally been adopted by the Christian churches, so called, however they may err in many other principles of faith and doctrine. This ordinance has been renewed to us, and is part and parcel of the new covenant God has made with his people in the latter days. It was practiced among the ancient Saints who resided upon this Continent, long before it was discovered by Columbus, as well as upon the Continent of Asia among the Saints that lived there. When we attend to this ordinance we do it upon the same principle that they did anciently, whether among the Saints of God on the Asiatic Continent or among the Saints on the American Continent.

I was a little struck with the hymn that was sung—

“Behold the Savior of mankind.” My mind was led to reflect back to the time when he was upon the earth, and to the time previous to his sojourn here, and to the way and manner in which he came upon the earth, and the designs of his heavenly Father in his coming here, also the designs of God relating to the world and to his Saints in particular. As we find ourselves upon this stage of action, it is very natural that we should inquire something about the position that we occupy here and our relationship to God, and something about the plan of salvation and about those who have acted and operated in this plan. It would seem from all that we can gather, both from old and new revelations, that God has had a design to accomplish in relation to the world whereon we dwell, and also in relation to the inhabitants that have dwelt and will dwell thereon, and also in regard to the heavens; in relation, also, to those spirits that have not yet come into existence, as well as those that have; in relation to those who have lived and died without the Gospel, as well as those who have had the privilege of the Gospel—to bring to pass things that he has contemplated before the world was. We, as a portion of the human family, are interested in these events, and ought to understand our position in relation to them and also to God, and, at the same time, we ought to comprehend in some measure our relationship to each other. We ought to know what course to pursue to secure the approbation of our heavenly Father, and fulfil our destiny upon the earth in the best possible manner, and aid with all our might to accomplish those things God has designed before the world was.

It would seem that the coming of the Savior to the world, his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension to the position he occupies in the eternal world before his heavenly Father, has a great deal to do with our interests and happiness; and hence this continued memorial that we partake of every Sabbath. This sacrament is the fulfillment of the last request of Jesus Christ to his disciples. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord’s death till he comes.” Faith in this ordinance would necessarily imply that we have faith in Jesus Christ, that he is the only begotten of the Father, that he came from the heavens to the earth to accomplish a certain purpose which God had designed—even to secure the salvation and exaltation of the human family. All this has a great deal to do with our welfare and happiness here and hereafter. The death of Jesus Christ would not have taken place had it not been necessary. That this ceremony should be instituted to keep that circumstance before the minds of his people, bespeaks its importance as embracing certain unexplained purposes and mysterious designs of God; they are explained in part, but they are not fully comprehended. It is not fully comprehended why it was necessary that Jesus Christ should leave the heavens, his Father’s abode and presence, and come upon the earth to offer himself up a sacrifice; that he should, according to the Scripture saying, “Take away sin by the sacrifice of himself;” why this should be, why it was necessary that his blood should be shed is an apparent mystery. It is true that we are told that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins; but why this? Why should such a law exist? It is left with us as a matter of faith, that it was necessary he should come and, being necessary, he shrank not from the task, but came to take away sin by offering up himself.

Jesus Christ is spoken of in the Scriptures as “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” What sins of the world did he take away? We are told that it is the sin which Adam committed. We do not know much about Adam nor what he did; but we know that this sacrifice took place and that we are in the position we now occupy, and we are ready to believe from the testimonies we have received in relation to this sacrifice that it was the will of God he should thus offer himself up and that he came here for that purpose. He was “The first begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth;” and suffered his body to be broken and his blood to be spilled, doing “Not his own will, but the will of him that sent him,” not to accomplish his own purpose particularly but the purpose of him that sent him, and hence we are told to observe this rite until he comes again.

There is something also to be looked to in the future. The Son of God has again to figure in the grand drama of the world. He has been here once and “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.” It would seem that his ancient disciples upon this Continent or upon the Continent of Asia actually looked forward to the time when Jesus would come again and hence he is frequently spoken of in the Scriptures having a reference to his second advent, that to these who look for him “He would appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Again, Isaiah, in speaking of him, says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of my people was he stricken,” &c. Again, the same Prophet spoke of him as coming in power, glory and dominion, and as having his wrath and indignation kindled against the nations of the earth. “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” Jesus accomplished what he was sent to do, and, feeling satisfied of this, when he was about to leave the earth he said he had finished the work his Father gave him to do. But there was another work, another event that was to transpire in the latter days, when he should not be led as a lamb to the slaughter or be like a sheep before the shearers; when he would not act in that state of humiliation and quiescence, but when he will go forth as a man of war and tread down the people in his anger and trample them in his fury, when blood should be on his garments and the day of vengeance in his heart, when he would rule the nations with an iron rod and break them to pieces like a potter’s vessel. There must be some reason why he was allowed to suffer and endure; why it was necessary that he should give up his life a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and there must be a reason why he should come forth in judgment to execute vengeance, indignation and wrath upon the ungodly. In these reasons we and all the world are intimately concerned; there is something of great importance in all this to us. The whys and wherefores of these great events are pregnant with importance to us all. When he comes again he comes to take vengeance on the ungodly and to bring deliverance unto his Saints; “For the day of vengeance,” it is said, “is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” It behooves us to be made well aware which class we belong to, that if we are not already among the redeemed we may immediately join that society, that when the Son of God shall come the second time with all the holy angels with him, arrayed in power and great glory to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel, or when he shall come in flaming fire, we shall be among that number who shall be ready to meet him with gladness in our hearts and hail him as our great deliverer and friend. In relation to all events that have transpired and to the designs of God connected with the earth and all grades of men upon it, and to the events that transpired before we came into this existence, if there is anything we cannot clearly comprehend we can leave it for the future to reveal. True it is the privilege of a certain class of people to have the Holy Ghost that Jesus said should bring things past, present and to come to their remembrance and lead them into all truth. We can have a portion of that Spirit by which we can draw back the veil of eternity and comprehend the designs of God that have been hidden up for generations past and gone; we can go back to our former existence and contemplate the designs of God in the formation of this earth and all things that per– tain to it; unravel its destiny and the designs of God in relation to our past, present and future existence. If we can comprehend all these things so much the better. If we do not understand everything in relation to every event of the past and the future, it is necessary we should know something about the things that now exist, something about the position of the world we live in, and something about our relationship to that God who still lives and will continue to live, and something about our interests in that redemption wrought out for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose death and sufferings we are now commemorating. We should know enough about this to save ourselves and to know how to save the generation with which we are associated; enough to know how to save our families and to teach them the laws of life and the way that leads to God and exaltation; enough to know how to live and enjoy life and how to avoid the calamities that are coming upon the earth and how to prepare ourselves for celestial glory in the eternal worlds. How shall we know the laws of life? How shall we know anything about God? How shall we know anything of futurity? I know of no other way than that which has been communicated to man formerly; I know of no other way than the way that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Enoch, Moses and the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles obtained their knowledge, and that was by revelation. Jesus said, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” No matter what ability and talent a man may possess, all must come under this rule if they wish to know the Father and the Son. If knowledge of them is not obtained through revelation it cannot be obtained at all. Hence we are told, “This is the stone which was set at naught by you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” and unto him every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, and hence he is called the Mediator of the New Covenant, and hence we are told to ask for blessings in the name of Jesus Christ and to approach the Father in his name. We are told that to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent is eternal life. This knowledge cannot be obtained independently of revelation. We cannot come to God except through Jesus Christ; he is the only medium through which we can approach the Father. “When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” What rock? The kind of evidence he had that Jesus was the Christ—the principle of revelation; flesh and blood had not revealed it unto him, but his Father in heaven, and upon this rock Jesus built his church. Upon the same principle that we know that Jesus is the Christ and that God is his Father and the church of Christ is built on this and has been in all ages. This principle alone can give the knowledge of God which is life eternal and the only power by which a man can stand unscathed in the trying hour. Those who possess this principle are one with Jesus Christ and one with the Father, as says Jesus, “I in them and thou in me, that they all may be one, even as I and the Father are one, that they may be one in us.” They are baptized with the same baptism, they are baptized with the same Spirit, they are in possession of the same knowledge and they know God, whom to know is life everlasting. When built upon this rock the storms may blow, the rains may descend and beat upon the house, but it cannot fall because it is founded upon a rock. These are some of my reflections in relation to this ordinance of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. As to the whys and wherefores of this, there are a great many of them; the world is full of them, and eternity is full of them; all comprehensive, just, true, reasonable, all scientific, and according to the strictest principles of philosophy, if we could only understand the philosophy. The philosophers in the world understand something of the rules of natural philosophy; but those rules will never lead a man to the knowledge of God; if he ever obtains this knowledge it must be by the principle of revelation. All the works of God, whether on the earth or in the heavens, are constructed on strictly philosophical principles. We understand in part the things of earth; when we see things as God sees them, we shall then understand the philosophy of the heavens: the mysteries of eternity will be unfolded and the operations of mind, matter, spirit, purposes and designs, causes and effects, and all the stupendous operations of God will be developed, and they will be found to accord with the strictest principles of philosophy, even the philosophy of the heavens. In regard to the events that will transpire on the earth, we have had a thousand ideas and many of them probably correct. We have believed that God had an object to accomplish in relation to this world; we believe we came here for this purpose and that the myriads of human beings that have inhabited this earth since its organization have come and gone for a certain purpose. We have believed that there have been conflicting elements and conflicting spirits and powers, and we have believed that God has designed ultimately to root out and remove from the earth everything that is contrary to his will, designs, and purposes in relation to the earth. As a people we believe that God has commenced in these last days to build up his kingdom and root out the ungodly from the earth and establish correct principles. We believe there is an antagonism in the world to God and to his laws and to the principles of truth, not only with the bodies of men but with the spirits of men who have left the earth and the spirits who are in opposition to God. There are various influences at work to oppose God and his laws and the establishment of his kingdom upon the earth. We believe, moreover, that he will ultimately accomplish his own purposes, establish his own government, root out the wicked, take the reins of government into his own hands and possess the kingdom himself. We are not singular in this belief. The same things have been believed by every man that has known God in all ages of the world; all who have ever been inspired by him have had the same views in relation to these matters that we have, hence Paul says, “That the times of restitution have been spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began.” So all men who are inspired of God know him and can look into futurity; and all who ever have lived who were thus inspired looked through the vista of future ages to the time we are speaking of, and which we commemorate when we partake of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. They looked forward to the time when he would come again and when a reign of righteousness would be introduced on the earth. The next time he comes he will see that right bears the sway and the meek of the earth increase their joy in the Lord and the poor among men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel; when trouble and sorrow shall have an end and the scorner shall be consumed and those who watch for iniquity shall be cut off. Righteousness will take the place of error, wrong give place to right, falsehood and guile to truth and sincerity and every principle that has demoralized, corrupted, and enthralled the inhabitants of the earth will be destroyed; when not only one people, one individual, or an isolated few will participate in this blessed state of things, but every knee shall bow to him and every tongue confess to him that he is the Christ to the glory of God the Father, whose authority will be acknowledged throughout the world. The earth no more will groan under corruption and sin, and its inhabitants will no more suffer from the powers of darkness, but will be fully and thoroughly redeemed from the thralldom thereof, and truth, righteousness, judgment, and equity will reign with universal empire. We believe the commencement of these great changes has come in our day. We believe that God has revealed to the human family, through Joseph Smith, the great principles upon which the latter-day kingdom is founded. We believe that God has begun now to gather together his elect, as the Scriptures have foretold he would do. We believe the Lord is beginning to put forth his law as fast as the people will listen to it and feel willing to obey his precepts. Says John the Revelator, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” This Gospel, it appears, was again to be sounded in the ears of all people, all the world was to be made acquainted with the revelations God had communicated, and they were to be told to fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come. We believe that God has commenced this operation, and that we are gathered for this purpose that we may learn the way of life and be instructed in the things of God, to be prepared for all that is about to transpire. In the old world and in the new world I have mixed up with philosophers, divines, and politicians, and with all grades of men, but I never found anybody that knew anything about these important matters. Years ago I found a man by the name of Miller, who took up certain Scriptural numbers and began to calculate when Jesus would come; he found himself, however, under a great mistake, for Jesus did not come at the time he had set for him to come. He might have known that, for no man can know the things of God but by the Spirit of God. This people have obeyed the Gospel and felt the effects of it, notwithstanding all our infirmities and weaknesses. This people know something of God; and if they do not there is not anybody under the heavens that does. But do we know how to regulate, manage, control, and dictate the affairs of the Church and kingdom of God? No—if we are destitute of the principle of revelation; and if we have it, only then according to our Priesthood and calling. God has organized his kingdom and set in order his Priesthood, setting every Quorum in its place and position, and it is for all the Saints to bow and yield obedience to it and be governed by it; if they do not, what better are we than the world? It would be with us as with some of the ancient Saints, who were told they had commenced in the spirit and sought to be made perfect in the flesh; they commenced with the wisdom of God and sought to perfect themselves by worldly wisdom and human judgment. To know God and the ways of life is infinitely more important than any worldly consideration. “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” We ought to know something about God and the laws of life and the laws of his kingdom, and seek to be made acquainted with the events that will transpire in the latter days, events with which we are intimately associated at the present time. Things take place that we cannot always reconcile to our judgment. I do not know why Jesus should leave his Father’s throne and be offered up a sacrifice for the sin of the world, and why mankind have to be put through such an ordeal as they have to pass through on this earth; we reason upon this, and the Scriptures say that it is because man cannot be made perfect only through suffering. We might ask why could not mankind be saved in another way? Why could not salvation be wrought out without suffering? I receive it in my faith that this is the only way, and I rejoice that we have a Savior who had the goodness to come forth and redeem us, and I rejoice that we have a Savior who yet looks forward to the redemption of the world. I rejoice that we are watched over for good by invisible agencies of God who are determined ultimately to put an end to sin, darkness, confusion and misery with which the world has been enveloped, and deliver us and not only us but the spirits of the dead. O what a glorious principle this is when we reflect upon it; our progenitors will not be lost. When I first read the revelation which was given to Joseph Smith upon this subject, I thought it was one of the most sublime revelations I had ever read. God will bring order out of all the confusion that has existed, measure out mercy to all Adam’s posterity and give to all a fair opportunity of being saved. What a glorious thought. If it is a delusion, it is a pleasant one. I have thought over these things and rejoiced over them, as I do this day. If I cannot understand all the whys and wherefores about the purposes of God if he brings to pass all that is spoken in the revelation I have referred to, with the many glories mentioned, and we discover that God has extended mercy so far as he possibly could to the veriest wretch that ever crawled on the earth, and has brought forth and redeemed all the human family, as far as possible, and exalted them as far as they are capacitated to receive exaltation, we can afford to excuse a great many things we cannot now comprehend in relation to God and in relation to his laws and dealings with the human family. It might look curious to some for God to talk of treading the people in his anger; but as we have to do with eternity as well as with time, and as it is necessary the earth should be purged and righteousness should take the place of corruption, which will some time have an end here, we can then conclude that the Judge of all the earth will do right. We should seek to magnify our calling and honor our God, being co-workers with God in the things he has engaged to do. The Lord has begun to vex the nations, beginning with our own nation; he is vexing it and will vex other nations, and his judgments will go forth and all the wicked nations of the world will feel the avenging hand of God, and he will continue to overthrow nation after nation until He whose right it is will take the government into his own hand, and he will continue to increase and progress until every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them shall be heard to say, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, and might, and majesty, and dominion be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Shall we be found among that number who will thus magnify the name of God, crying, “Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth?”

I pray God this may be the case, that we may not be compelled to call for rocks to fall upon us and mountains to hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. May God bless us and guide us in the way of peace, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen.

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 25, 1863.

Notwithstanding the inclement and uncomfortable state of the weather, the wheels of time do not cease to roll and bring a few of us together on the morning of the first day of the week, to worship the King and Lord of Hosts.

I am grateful for this opportunity of addressing you, my brethren and sisters, for a short time. It is not the weather, it is not the might and power of nations that can stay the progress of Jehovah’s designs. We are living, as you all know, I trust, in a momentous period of the world. I will here remark that in the course of some conversations I have recently had with certain individuals, we have had occasion to enquire somewhat into the purposes and designs of the great Creator in these days in which we live. It would be impossible to point out all his purposes and designs; suffice it to say that it is highly satisfactory to the just and to the upright that we can know somewhat concerning them; and the fact of our being called as co-workers with him to labor in the carrying out of his purposes and designs is an honor to us that few can appreciate. We are permitted to assemble here and in other places also from time to time to be instructed in the ways of the Lord, for the express purpose of making us acquainted with his purposes designed in the bosom of eternity, to be brought about and accomplished in this dispensation, called the Fulness of Times; and this, that we may be the better prepared to cooperate with our Lord and Master in the bringing of them about, and also be better prepared to meet those events when they shall transpire.

A short time ago a gentleman asked me if I really knew this to be the work of God, for, said he, “If I did, most cordially would I embrace the doctrines which are taught by your people as emanating from the Most High; yes, I would willingly resign all worldly honor and my position in life also, and bow with humble submission to the requirements of your faith.” I observed something like this, We are not to be the judges of the amount of evidence required to bring mankind under condemnation before God for rejecting the truth. We may fancy to ourselves that we would like to see the dead raised from their sleeping tombs; we may fancy that we would like to see the mountains broken down, the valleys exalted or the floods in their course stayed at the behest of the servants of God; we may indulge in ideas and desires similar to these, yet said I, if there be an amount of evidence addressed to your understanding, which seals conviction upon your heart with regard to the truth, how will you meet that conviction in a coming day, when we come to stand before God and the spirits of just men made perfect? Do you think you can then open your mouth and say, “I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I had not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”—Matthew xxv, 24-30. Or will you be like the man who was found in the assembly without the wedding garments, and unto whom it was said, “Friend, how camest thou here?” What argument did he make, and what had he to say for himself? He was dumb. Remember then, I say, that it is the Judge of all the earth that parcels out the evidences of his divine interposition unto man, not according to man’s traditions but according to that wisdom which is in the bosom of the Eternal, knowing just the caliber of men and what it will require to turn the scale of reason and to penetrate the soul of every individual. It is for High Heaven to do this, and the Lord Almighty will not judge according to our desires, but he will judge according to the amount of evidence that he himself is pleased to give to each person.

A few remarks upon this subject, brethren and sisters, may not be amiss at the present time. I have noticed the providences that have attended this people from their origin in the year 1830, and I have noticed this, that a prejudice has been indulged in, by those who did not choose to embrace the Gospel, against the people of the Saints. There has ever been a kind of feeling indulged in by the world that the Saints were going to do something very bad, something dreadful; but what have they done up to the present time? The reply is, Why really nothing that we can establish against them. This is the view that has been taken of the Saints by those who knew us not, but the very course that we are now taking has been the course that has thwarted the wicked in their every design. The way their sails are new set indicates that they design some evil, some mischief, and they have said within themselves, Let us forestall the pending difficulty and remove the danger before we encounter it. This has been the feeling of the world, so far as my acquaintance extends in connection with the progress of events and advancement of this people. Storms have been drawn around us repeatedly, and caused us to be broken up and expelled from the land where we had made our homes; not that we had done anything, but because the wicked foolishly believed that we were going to do something that was dangerous and desperate.

Now all the world is against us, and the learning of this world has ever been opposed to the righteousness of God. In the beginning of this work those that were sent to advocate the Gospel were unlearned; as a general thing they were unskilled in the ways of the world. Uncultivated and untutored boys were sent forth to proclaim the words of life, and what was the simple message they were sent to bear? Repent, for the hour of the visitation of Jehovah is at hand, repent and embrace the Gospel. It did not require much learning to make this announcement; it was a plain simple message. If, for instance, your house was on fire, and the news went to the sources of help, the most illiterate could declare the fact as well as the most learned man in the world. He would simply have to say, such a man’s house is on fire, and every one could understand that. The simple proclamation of the Gospel was just as easy to be understood. Now, if it were some difficult diplomatic negotiation which required to be entered into, it would require all the embellishments of art to secure it a passage through, but the simple message of the Gospel required no such learning, it was simply to call upon the people to repent and to inform them that the chastising arm of Jehovah was about to fall upon the nations. We went forth, we made this announcement throughout the length and breadth of the United States, not only once but twice and thrice, and in fact all the day long until we created such a storm around us as to drive us beyond the confines of civilized man, and how cruel was the ordeal! It was no less cruel on the part of those that inflicted the wrong, although on the part of Jehovah it was an act of mercy to allow the wicked to drive us, or to cause us to be placed in these valleys of the mountains. The Heavens foresaw the danger, but we knew it not; but our Father knew it and that was enough. Was there not a Providence over us? Did he not deal kindly with his people? And has he not done so from the beginning?

When the Saints escaped from Missouri and subsequently from Illinois; when we wandered over the prairies and found a resting place for a season in an Indian country, and when we furnished five hundred of our best men, leaving our women and children unprotected in an Indian country, while they went to fight their country’s battles, and to secure to the country that had permitted us to be driven from our homes the very land upon which we now dwell was there not, I ask, a kindly Providence over them that went and also over them that remained? Yes, there was. We came into these valleys under the protecting care of our heavenly Father. We came with a few old crazy wagons, and many of us but very poor teams, for be it known unto you that the people who took our homes put them at their own prices, and paid out their own commodities; and if they had an old wagon which they thought would bear up till we got beyond the confines of civilization they would turn it out, considering that would be long enough for it to last us.

In this way we came to these valleys, and had to so live till we got something from an untried soil, not knowing whether a peck of wheat, corn, or potatoes could be raised from it, but Heaven blest our labors, Providence smiled upon our exertions and we made out to continue along until the land became abundantly blessed, and now our granaries are filled with plenty. If the wrath of God had been against this people to the same extent that the wrath of man was against us, where would we have been today? Annihilated! Nothing would have been left of us, and our career would have been highly colored on the pages of history, and sent down to posterity with the sting of the Anathemist upon it. But the wrath of Heaven was not upon us; it was only the wrath of man. Do you not see the difference between the wrath of Heaven and the wrath of man? If our enemies had been one with the Almighty, or if he had been one with them, we should have been obliterated long before this. But here, in us, is the evidence that the world and the Almighty do not exactly agree. They never did, and they never will agree, and hence I say the Saints will live when the ungodly shall wither and die; when the wicked are in ruin and disgrace, this people will flourish under the blessing of our Father and God.

These things, although silent, are upon the pages of history, they are still in the memories of men, but though silent they speak in language too powerful for the world to conceive their strength and weight in the balances which shall determine their future destiny. Like the other portions of Jehovah’s creation, the great family of planets revolve around their center, they move in their majesty, although in silence; you can see them but not hear them; they cease not to move; the course of their speed and their velocity is the same continually, and yet, though they move in silence, they speak in language too powerful to be misunderstood, and in thunder tones declare the voice of the Almighty. Well might an individual, say, who does not consider these shining works of the Creator, O, that I had some evidence that these are the works of the Almighty, I would adore him forever! Bless you, these are better evidences that the Almighty exists and rules in the heavens above than any that recital can adduce, showing hourly, daily, and nightly, that they are governed by law, and proclaiming to all nations that the Lord is God, that by him they are made, by him they are controlled, and that he views all the works of his hands with an impartial eye.

Whoever will look upon the history of the Saints and see the providences of the Almighty that have attended them, must see that these Divine interpositions speak in evidence too powerful to be resisted. I confess that these are arguments more potent than I am capable of adducing at the present time. Now he that will look at these things and run them over in his mind, will readily see that these are evidences of divinity in our religion. Where is there another people over whom Heaven has exercised these peculiar providences? Why is the world at war with us? It is because we are not like them. If we would go to work and establish about forty tippling shops, as many gambling houses, and as many houses of ill fame, bless you we could get into the Union without any trouble; the track would be clear, the wheels greased, and we would go right in; but, because we are not so inclined there is a good deal of friction about it, they fear that we are going to do something dreadful. Now, I can tell you that we are not going to do anything very wonderful nor very shocking, but if we are faithful and keep ourselves unspotted from the world, our God is going to astonish the nations; he is going to do something both wonderful and mighty, and it will be dreadful to the wicked; he will show this and every other nation that lift their hands against his anointed that they will henceforth cease to be a nation. He has commenced his work already, but he is only giving the alphabet now, we shall be getting into the pictures by-and-by. When I was a boy and went to school we studied Webster’s spelling book, and when we got along a piece with our lessons, we used to say I have got over to the pictures now, and the time is near at hand when we shall see such pictures exhibited by the hand of the Almighty as were never before witnessed by mortal eye; that will be a trying time.

The field of learning is boundless, and I venture to say that the most learned man in the world is far more studious when he gets into higher branches than when he first com– menced his studies, for he can discover fields of learning which before he could not conceive of, and so it is with the works of Jehovah; there is always a field in which the Almighty can display his power and his goodness, and it is enlarging all the time.

Brethren and sisters, I do not feel disposed on this cold morning to detain you any great length of time, but suffice it to say that I am glad of the opportunity of meeting with you, and I feel in my heart to say God bless the Saints—Heaven’s blessing be with them. This is my desire, it is my earnest prayer, and if we can so live as to be without spot, and blameless in the day of the coming of the Lord Jesus it will amply compensate for all our toils, all our privations, and for all our labors of love in the kingdom of God.

That this may be the case with us, is my earnest and sincere prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 26, 1862.

The Gospel of salvation is interesting to me, to you, and should be to all the world, for by it we are to be judged. This test will be put to all. The principles of life and salvation the Gospel offers to us, which if we neglect will be brought up against us in a day to come. The light of truth has been revealed by the Savior, and through the mercy of the Lord he has sent forth his servants to proclaim this Gospel to all nations. What for? To injure them? No; but to bless them. The time has come in this age of the world when God has set himself to take the rule and the power of the earth into his own hands. He has sent forth Joseph, and Hyrum, and Brigham, and Heber, and Jedediah, and Willard, and Daniel, and the Twelve Apostles and the other authorities of the Holy Priesthood which is established upon the earth. The communication has been opened up between the heavens and the earth. He has sent forth a message to all nations, saying, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come.” It has been proclaimed to the world by faithful men for many years—it has been sounded in the by-ways and highways, in city and hamlet, and in the nooks and corners of the earth; and, in a coming day the people will be judged by it, because it has been sent forth by the direct counsel of Heaven.

It is our duty to sustain the principles of truth, virtue, and integrity, and every principle that has been revealed from the Almighty to his children on the earth. If it is the duty of one man to do this, it is the duty of every man to do the same; and every man will be found wanting unless he obeys this Heavenly message. How shall we do it when we are compassed about by all the powers of earth and hell to overcome, overthrow and destroy us? By cleaving to the Lord of hosts, who is mighty to save, and by cleaving to those holy principles of life and power which he has revealed. The more the floods of iniquity surge up against us, the closer let us cling to those principles, for they will bear us off victoriously to exaltation and glory in this world and in the worlds to come. The same principles have exalted our Father and our God to his present state of glory and power, and they will exalt you and me and all who will abide them in the scale of human existence and eternal progression. They are the same principles which have been revealed in the latter days for the salvation of mankind, and for their exaltation to the presence of God the Father in heaven. They have always existed, and always will continue to exist. They will abide after the refuge of lies has been swept away. It is not now as it has been in days and years gone by. The kingdom is now established; it is upon the earth never again to be prevailed against or to be overcome by sin and iniquity.

All men have their volition, and are responsible to God alone for it. As the kingdom of God grows and becomes mighty upon the earth, laws will be given suited to the condition of the children of men, in their respective governments and nationalities, according to their views and principles. The supreme law of the world will be the law of God, and all people will choose to obey or disobey as they list. All will be governed according to their circumstances and the principles which will be revealed from time to time for their best good. This is not the work of a day, but of eternity—it is without beginning of days or end of years.

I feel gratified that I live in this day and age of the world; I am thankful for this privilege. “Would you not have preferred to live in the days of Jesus?” says one. No, nor in the days of Moses, nor in the days of Noah. Had I lived in Noah’s days I might have been drowned in the great flood. I prefer to live now—today—in the days of Brigham and Heber, and in the days of the great Prophet Joseph and Hyrum, although they did not stay long with us. They are not far away from us, neither is the Lord. Brigham is here, Heber and Daniel are here, and the Twelve Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ are here, and the organization of the Church and kingdom of God is here, with the Holy Priesthood which is after the order of the Son of God; and this is the great chain which opens up a communication between the heavens and the earth, and in it there is safety; and through it truth will prevail over the face of the whole earth, and by its power the kingdom of God will be established upon the earth no more to be prevailed against. What matters it to us who speaks in anger against it? The truth is all the same, no matter who walks it under their feet. The eternal principles of salvation and exaltation are the same, no matter who does despite to them.

In trying to injure the truth, and impede it in its progress, they only injure themselves, and will bring upon themselves swift destruction and a righteous judgment according as it shall be ordered by our Father in heaven. God is merciful and forbearing. Can we forbear as well as he can? We can, although we are far from being as good as he is. If he can forbear many years with a man who will not say grace over his meat, or bend his knee to his God in acknowledgment of his mercy, we surely can bear a little with the infirmities of our brethren, and the ignorance of the ungodly world.

As a people and community we have borne much; and all we have ever asked of any people or government has been our rights in common with the rest of mankind; but these they seek to withhold from us, which they have no right to do, hence they are under condemnation, and we shall go free. We believe and worship as we choose, and live under a Government that guarantees unto us that right. Inasmuch as they do not give us those rights, they violate one of the holiest and most sacred provisions of the Constitution of our country, and destruction will be the consequence. The fathers of the revolution fought and bled to secure this holy right to their children so long as the world should last or the Government continue. We are therefore bold in declaring our principles, and in defending our rights. There are countries in the world where imprisonment would be the penalty of the free expression of principles and rights; but they do not live under and enjoy the blessings of the Constitution which we live under. Yet even in this free country some have sought to deprive us of the free enjoyment of the privileges granted unto us in the Consti– tution of our country, and they will have to pay the penalty for so doing, for they trample under foot the Constitution that grants to them their own liberties, and thus subvert their own liberties, which it becomes them as well as us to preserve inviolate. It becomes us to cleave to God and our holy religion, trusting in him because in him there is power—in him there is strength; and if we remain faithful, we shall come off victorious, and walk under our feet every principle that is calculated to destroy, and rear the standard of truth and righteousness in the world in spite of hell and all the hosts thereof. Let us be encouraged, and go steadily on in the performance of our duties, cultivating the earth, and bringing from the elements all we need for our sustenance that we may be free and independent, so far as we can, by depending on our own resources with which the Lord has abundantly blessed us. We are greatly blessed in that the Lord has planted our feet in these quiet valleys from those who sought our destruction; while he has brought an overwhelming destruction on them, he has brought safety to us. We can see his wisdom, and his mighty hand manifested in this. Let us henceforth put our trust in that arm which has been so prominently made bare in saving the righteous. May God add his blessing. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 6, 1862.

I wonder if there is a person in this vast congregation today but what feels that all those instructions given apply to himself. I feel disposed for one to take what has been said to myself, and I do not think there is a man here who is so righteous that he cannot apply the greater portion of what brother Brigham has said to himself. I know it is very common for us to make observations like this when any of the brethren have been chastised: Well, I guess some of the brethren have received a pretty good chastisement today, but it don’t touch me. Don’t you know that this is very common? That jacket does not suit me, says one. Why did it not suit you? Because you did not put it on. If you had put it on, it would have been like a piece of raw hide or a piece of India-rubber, then it would have pinched when it became dry. Now I do not believe that there is a person here who might not be benefited by these lessons of correction and instructions, for we can all make improvement in ourselves, in our daily walk and conversation. I know that I can cultivate myself and improve in many ways, and I feel that I am improving and advancing in the things of God.

Some will say, are you not too old to learn? I say no, for I consider if I am too old to improve, I am too old to live. When a man has done learning, he had better leave and go hence.

I think I understand correctly what President Young has been talking about, and he wishes every one of us to accept of it and put it in practice.

In regard to those independent companies alluded to, I really do not know whether I would lead them or not. I know that the first company that I was gathered with, of which President Young has spoken today, and which embraced nearly all the male members there were in the Church, brother Joseph said, come brethren, bring your money with you and bring all you have. We gathered brethren from Nova Scotia and from all the States where we had any, and then we traveled forty miles in an independent condition, that is, every man had his money in his pocket and was calculating to have, but when we got to Portage, Joseph called upon that independent company and organized it with captains of hundreds, of fifties, and tens, with officers to lead and control them. Then he nominated and we accepted a paymaster and treasurer, and every officer necessary to a permanent organization. Then he said, Brethren, I want you to come together, and bring your money with you. I do not want any donations, but I want everyone to bring every cent he has got. Some had not any, some had a hundred dollars; some had a shilling, and the brethren handed over what they had to the paymaster. We were then taught that we should be subject to the law and government of God.

It is an important thing for a man to lead the people of God, and unless they will subject themselves to him and to the officers of the Church a Prophet cannot lead them; it is an impossibility. This course of obedience is the one we have to take. Talk about building up the kingdom of God on the earth, how can you do it except you go to work with your might to practice as well as preach, and labor and toil with all your might by day and by night, and by this means every man in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will become independent. I was reflecting upon these things when brother Joseph brought things to terms. Then if we are ready to do as we are told, to follow the counsel of the servants of God, won’t our offerings be accepted? I say they will.

When we went on that journey, Joseph told us there was an endowment laid up for us; for what? Because we had done just as we were told; and I can bear testimony that we received that endowment. Have we got through with our endowments? No, we have not; we have only just commenced, merely received the initiative ordinances, and we are only children in these things yet, but if we are faithful, we shall receive all that our hearts can desire, for the Almighty will withhold no good thing from them that love him and keep his commandments.

You will doubtless recollect reading of a certain woman in the Scriptures who was rather ambitious, and therefore wished to have her sons occupy a conspicuous place about the Savior’s person. The account of the circumstance is related by St. Matthew in the following language—“Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? But to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”—Matt. xx. 20—23.

Here we find set forth by the Savior the doctrine that it belongs to the Father to give each one his place in that kingdom, hereafter to be inherited by the faithful Saints. Now let me ask, can we walk with Jesus in the regeneration that is spoken of? But before I proceed further, let me ask, what is the regeneration? I should call it an improvement, or an advancement in the things of God. By some it is said to be the change and renovation of the soul by the Spirit and grace of God. Then again, it is called the new birth. Titus is somewhat more explicit upon the subject. He says, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” And our Savior speaking to Nicodemus, says, “Verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” In another place Jesus says—“Verily I say unto you, That ye which followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”—Matt. xix. 28.

Many other passages might be quoted to show how the doctrine of regeneration was taught by Christ and his Apostles, but these will be sufficient for my purpose at the present. I know that we, the Elders of Israel, are walking with Jesus in the regeneration, and we are becoming regenerated in Christ Jesus, and the blessings of the kingdom are being multiplied unto us day by day, and we shall continue to be enriched forever and forever. What! In property? Yes, and in everything that is good. If it were not so, how could you possess all things, which are certainly promised through progression and faithfulness.

I suppose I felt as the Apostles did anciently, when I went with the Elders into the State of Ohio, and through the New England States to the State of Maine. We called the people together and organized them into Conferences, and we went to work and selected wise men to receive and take the moneys of the brethren and purchase lands in Missouri. We performed our duties and were faithful unto the Lord, and if all the people had been as faithful as we were we should have gained an advantage; but as it is, I know that the day will come when we shall possess that land, and I can tell you that I expect to have and possess all that I merit, in the own due time of the Lord. When the kingdom triumphs, every man will be rewarded according to his works, and will receive that which is designed for him, and in all things be blessed according to his merits. By merit I mean that which a man earns, and you will see the day when you will get nothing but what you earn by your works and your integrity to God and your brethren.

I recollect when we returned from our mission to Missouri, Joseph said, “Now, brethren, it is a good time to get property; now is the time for you to get rich.” Well, it was one of the most trying times the Church ever saw. Most of the Twelve went into speculation, and half of them turned away. I went to Joseph and asked what I had best do, and he replied that it was a good time to get an education, or, said he, you may go a preaching, just as you please, and God will bless you in either. I went out preaching, and also some others and some went to speculating, and we have never seen them since, excepting one or two of them. It was so with the ancient Apostles. When Jesus was crucified his disciples said, “Come, brethren, let us go a fishing,” and off they went fishing. But they did not make much till Jesus came along by the seaside, made a fire and broiled some fish, and when he asked them if they had any meat, they answered him, No. Then he said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.

In regard to this work, I know that it will roll on, and the kingdom will be built up, the elect gathered, and the chosen ones go back to the Center Stake of Zion. There are a great many that are remaining in the States till we go back, but I can tell them they will have to come here, for this is the only way there is for the true Saints to get to Jackson County, and they will find it out to be so in due time. Let us serve God, brethren and sisters, with all our hearts, minds, might, souls, and strength, and all will go well and we shall triumph. As it was anciently, so it is in this age, the Saints must come to the mountains, the depot of the kingdom of God to get their blessings and prepare them for the future glory of Zion.

Let us take that course which will make us independent of all other people upon the earth; I know that this is the course for us to take all the time. Then we should put our minds together, and our mites also, to build up the kingdom of God; and if we will do this, being of one spirit, we shall prosper in all things. I know of no other way for us to become of one heart and one mind in regard to the things of the kingdom of God. By pursuing this course we shall increase in the knowledge of the truth, and ere long the angels will come to visit us, and Father will talk to us in relation to his purposes and the introduction of his government. Let us endeavor to attain these blessings, for they are ours through faithfulness and diligence in welldoing.

No good man wishes to force anybody into heaven, but it is for every one of us to strive and labor in righteousness to secure an interest there for ourselves. The righteous have no reason to fear, though all the combined powers of the wicked, visible and invisible, be arrayed against them; faithfulness will preserve them.

Brethren and sisters, we should all be like clay in the hands of the potter, and I want the people to learn that we shall all be rewarded according to the amount of our works, just as the potter is paid for his labors, in proportion to what he does.

God bless this people forever. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 8, 1862.

Brethren, there is a subject which has been spoken of during this Conference in regard to the mission to the cotton growing district of our Territory, to which I desire to again call your attention.

We have been instructed in the principles of the kingdom to a wonderful extent during this Conference. The instructions which we have received have been of a character that they may be reduced to practice by every person whose feelings are so disposed.

The President remarked that he desired to strengthen the missions to the cotton country by sending down two hundred more families. It will be recollected that a request was made last year for the brethren to volunteer to go on that important mission. There were a few who came up and gave in their names, but the great mass of the brethren did not feel to do so. They were aware that it was the wish of the Presidency that certain things should be done, but they seemed as though they needed taking by the ears and shaking to make them sensible of the great importance that ought to be attached to this mission. It appeared as if some of the brethren (to use a figurative expression) had become fastened to the earth with tremendous roots, so that it was with considerable difficulty that they could be got up, but they had to be taken up root and branch.

We, as a Conference, voted that the President should call, but none of us felt like volunteering. [President B. Young: I volunteered, on the condition that the people would consent to it.] Yes, the President volunteered, but it is well known that the Presidency are required here; most of the time they must be present to superintend the building of the Temple and direct the affairs of the Church in all the world, but the Elders are set apart to go into all the earth and labor as directed by the Presidency. It is also well known that the master builder has influence and power here and that he understands how the foundation, the walls, the timbers, the roof, and all connected with the Temple of our God should be put together. It is likewise well known that the Presidency never ask men to do a service except that their labors are required in that new position. One particular remark which I wish to make is, that notwithstanding the unprecedented high water in Washington County and the damage and disappointment consequent upon the flood, the settlements made by the last year’s mission have proved a decided success. That mission has proven the nature of the climate more perfectly than it had before, it has tested the soil, and accomplished many other things of immense advantage and worth. It was stated by many that the mission would prove a failure, that there was no country there, but the truth is, that the elements, including the water, the soil and all that surround them are actually aching for the brethren to combine them together and make them into good cotton and other choice productions of a mild climate; all these elements are ready to render aid to build up Zion.

I consider that we should feel ready and willing to do anything that may be required of us, to lend our exertions to establish the kingdom of God permanently upon the earth.

When the people first settled in San Pete Valley some were discouraged, they never thought that wheat could be produced in such a country as that; they did not believe that anything would grow there; the white-colored soil alarmed them, but it is now the granary of the mountains. Now, there has recently been just such a feeling in regard to Washington County, but the past year’s experience has demonstrated more fully that most excellent cotton, sugar cane, grapes, peaches and many other commodities of life can be successfully raised there in that desert-looking country.

There are quite a number of men who have remarked to me that they would willingly go if they were called on. I wish to say to such brethren that they are called on now, and I sincerely wish that two hundred brethren would volunteer today by giving in their names to me at the Historian’s office. By going this fall you have all winter to prepare, and the advantage can be taken of the early spring season, thus giving the brethren an excellent opportunity to raise a crop of cotton the first year. By sowing wheat in October tolerable crops can be raised, and by planting corn early in March two crops can be raised in one year, or one good crop of cotton. The fact, in brief, is, that so far as the country has been tried it has proven a success, and many of the brethren have said that the country is a great deal better than they expected to find it.

I hope all that has been said by the brethren in reference to the culture of hemp, flax, indigo, and in fact all that will tend to build up Zion will be attended to, for let it be remembered that it is coming to this necessity of producing for ourselves or to go without, and the question resolves itself into the simple proposition, “Clothes or no clothes.” We must make our own woolen, flax, hemp, and cotton goods or we must go naked. We cannot get these articles much longer from the States, according to the present prospect. The vengeance of the Almighty is sweeping the land with the besom of destruction; millions of men are forsaking their industrial pursuits for the purpose of destroying each other. Let us each and all attend to this, that the beauty of our garments may be the beauty of the workmanship of our own hands, or we shall find ourselves without many of the necessaries of life altogether.

May God bless the people, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Discourse by Elder Amasa M. Lyman, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1862.

I do not know that it is necessary for me to tell you that I am glad to be here. If you have but a little of the feeling that influences me, you know very well that I am glad to be here. I am not glad to be here because my mission is ended, for such I do not consider to be the case at all. We often say we have been on a mission, and have fulfilled a mission, and have returned as though that something had been completed and accomplished. I have been on a mission, but I have not come from a mission, or from that mission. I have been on a mission; I have come home on a mission; I am still on a mission. The obligations of that mission, I feel, are not ceasing, not becoming less, but they increase from day to day and from year to year with the increase of knowledge and understanding and the apprehension of the principles of truth. I am here today for the same purpose, for the prosecution of the same labor that I have been in, in every place that I have occupied as a minister of the truth since I first became acquainted with its principles, and by such acquaintance I became connected with the Work of God.

My text is furnished me in the people that are before me today. Who could look upon this assembly and be so dull, so stupid that the inquiry would not arise in his mind, What are we here for? Why all this gathering together of this mixed multitude of people; people from so many nations; people of different tongues, of different customs, different traditions and notions, yet having one and the same feeling in reference to a few of the details that make up the great aggregate of life’s actions? For what purpose have we been gathered together from distant nations? Some may have thought that our gathering here was only for the sake of being together, for the sake of creating a multitudinous community. The multitude we see assembled here today are here because the kingdom of God is to be built up; for if the kingdom of God is to be built up, there must be people to constitute it; there must be a people to be ruled, or the rulers would have nothing over which to rule. If the mere assembling of the people together constitutes the kingdom of God now, why has it not constituted the kingdom of God at other times? People have assembled together before; communities have existed before, yet the existence of such communities has not and does not now constitute them the kingdom of God. One reason why the gathering together of the people does not constitute the kingdom of God is, that the mere gathering of the people is not particularly an intellectual operation, it does not of itself particularly inform the judgment or enlighten the mind in reference to God, and man’s relationship to God and his purposes.

We commenced our labors with you in lands far distant from this we preached the Gospel to you; listening to that, and receiving the testimony of the servants of God and following the course that was indicated by them, you have become changed in your circumstances and locality. You were located in other parts of the globe and were citizens of other nations, but now you are here located in the peaceful vales of Utah. It is now time for the gathered Saints to begin to learn still more, if they have not already begun to do so; and if they have begun to learn, to continue to learn something of the reason why they are gathered together, that they may be able to discover the true relationship between the actions they perform, the labors, duties and services that are required of them, and the development, increase and growth into strength and power of the kingdom of God on the earth. When we talk about the kingdom of God our thoughts are apt to travel away from scenes of earth, as though it were a matter of the ideas alone and not connected with our earthly operations, labors, duties and services.

There is no action in life, no labor that we perform, no relationship that we sustain to God and one another, but what should be connected directly with the development of the kingdom of God. Says one—“We must become perfect and holy; we must become Godlike; we must become like the angels or like the spirits of the just who dwell with God.” This is true; but where is that transformation, that change in our condition, feelings and circumstances to be wrought out—in heaven or on earth, at home or abroad? Where is the school in which we are to be taught the plain, simple, unvarnished administrations of truth in a way to bring it within the range of our feeble comprehension of truth that we may understand it? Are we to learn it in any one place to the exclusion of all others? No. Are we to learn God and truth where we live? Yes. If not, where in Heaven’s name do you expect to learn of him? Do you live in heaven with God and his angels? No; you live here on the earth, here in Utah among the rugged mountains that are around us. All you know you know here, and all you can learn you must learn here while you are here. To acquire a knowledge of God is eternal life. That appears to many to be a great something. I say something, because people know nothing of God. Where are you going to obtain a knowledge of God.

People talk about going to heaven, but when we find ourselves in heaven we shall find that we have reached it, without going to it. Heaven is a development of internal powers and external changes. We learn to know God now as human beings, influenced by the effects of sin and folly, degraded and surrounded with darkness, misery and wretchedness. Shall we wait until these are put off before we can learn of God and get to know that which will constitute in us that knowledge which is eternal life? No. We came here to the valleys of Utah in obedience to the requirements of the Gospel, simply that we might here continue to be taught. We came to this distant region to learn of God. How? By, in the first place, learning ourselves. Can we know God in this way? Yes; we can know him in no other way. We cannot go to where he is, to be taught of him personally and to associate with him. What have we in this world that gives a truthful indication of his character to the mind that is open to the light of truth? We have ourselves been made in the image of God. Then it is essentially necessary that we should learn ourselves as an all-important step to the knowledge of God. We must learn to correct our lives and our actions; we must learn to govern ourselves and sanctify our affections, that we may be prepared to hold communion with heavenly intelligences.

The kingdom of God is established now for the development and increase of its principles within us, to reflect light on the darkness that surrounds us and reveal to our understanding the true relationship we sustain to God, and the reason why the requirements of the Gospel are laid upon us and why we can be saved by listening to them, and why we are not saved if we refuse to listen to them.

When the sound of the Gospel first reached me, I used to have this childish idea, that if I ever knew the truth it must be because the heavens would be opened for me to gaze upon the glory that is within the veil, and this would be the only assurance I could receive that the Gospel is true. I lived under the influence of this idea until I passed measurably from the condition of childhood, of hearing as a child and understanding as a child. When I began to approximate towards a riper condition of mind, I became satisfied that it was not by merely looking at something that the mind became enlightened; that it was not by merely guessing at something that is incomprehensible that knowledge is developed in the soul. I learned that the Gospel was true in a very simple way. The Gospel required me to pursue an upright, just, virtuous, honest course of life with all the world around me and to live at peace with all men. I commenced living in the world without quarreling with anybody; I followed the dictation of the Gospel and its requirements, and it has saved me from war, contention, and strife with my fellow man, from quarreling with my family, with my brethren, with my friends and with my neighbors. In this way I found out that so much of the Gospel was true, and I did not have to go to heaven to find this out neither. This is the way I want you to begin to learn God, and the consequences will be peace and the joy that springs from peace. Then heaven will be in the home where you dwell, in the land and country where you live, in your associations with your friends and neighbors and kindred in all life’s varied relations. Another conse– quence will be a constant indwelling of the Spirit of God; that Spirit that brings life and light, and knowledge and understanding to the soul of man, that quickens the intellect of man and sanctifies every power to hold communion with still higher and holier principles.

We say we want the Holy Spirit; then let us so live our religion that we may have the Holy Spirit, which will improve our condition continually, making us better and better citizens of the kingdom of God with every degree of gain over ourselves. In this way we may cultivate and develop in us individually the principle of immortality that will constitute, when applied to the great body of the people of God, the immortality of his kingdom, the basis of its eternal and deathless perpetuity. Then the development of the kingdom of God in power on earth, temporally, depends upon the self-culture of its members, upon the culture of the feelings that rule the soul and that give character to the action of the creature. When we consider that purity of life is necessary and requisite to qualify a man to be a citizen of the kingdom of God, we shall cultivate that quality and labor for its development and increase. To how many of the infinitesimal details of life’s actions does this principle extend? It should extend to them all. We cannot do any wrong that will render us acceptable to God and make us better. That is right which improves and gives life. There is a right way and a wrong one to all we do.

If we cultivate the ground there is a way which, if pursued, will be fruitful of consequences the most disastrous, while an opposite way will produce profit and reward us for our labors. There is a way that is fruitful of noxious weeds where something better should grow, and this is as truthfully the result of the conduct of the farmer as is the rich harvest of healthy grain that affords him bread and sustenance. Some people think they can pray the weeds out of their fields and gardens, but their prayers can only be effectual when accompanied with a reasonable amount of honest labor rightly and wisely applied. I am in favor of praying. I love to pray myself, and I love to have the Saints pray. But when you have a great many weeds growing on your land, pray for your land, and do not forget to go out on to that land and pull up, remove and destroy by your diligent labor the weed-plants that so much annoy you.

We have been told that the Lord will not plant our grain for us and cultivate our fields. We are here to learn how to do that for ourselves, if we do not know. This part of our education we have to gain, if we have not already gained it; and this will enable us to aid in the building up and development in its greatness and power of the kingdom of God. Let our labor be so applied, that when we bow down before our heavenly Father to ask him to bless anything we have or do, that we can do so consistently. Let us hoe up the weeds and enrich our fields, and ask God to give us a bountiful crop to reward our toils. We will do all we can do, and then ask God to bless that labor and leave the result with him. If your wagon has been fixed in the mud get hold of the wheel yourself and lift all you can, and then ask somebody else to help you if you need help.

There is another field that is equally taxed with the support of a noxious growth: I refer to ourselves at home. We carry about with us our notions, our habits of thought; and our habits of thought give character to our actions. When, for instance, the storm of passion is aroused in our bosom, we yield ourselves up to it without an effort and unresist– ingly allow ourselves to be carried away by its influence from a course of propriety and right, and we do wrong and say wrong things. Let rising anger be suppressed; let the place where it had its incipient being become its grave. Never let the mouth utter the word that should not be spoken. This counsel is just as applicable to myself as it is to you. I have learned long since that I was not called to preach the Gospel because I had no improvement to make on myself, or because I could not become any better. I have come to the conclusion that the more I talk about the right and the less I talk about the wrong, and the more I become occupied with the right the less danger I shall be in of becoming occupied by the wrong. This is good for me, and, being good for me, I recommend it to the Saints. I want them to live peaceably and quietly with one another and learn to do the little things in life’s duty right. That we may learn to do this, it is necessary that we should control our passions, for if we do not control them they will control us, and under such control we do wrong. When we control ourselves, the result is equanimity of feeling such as is necessary to the exercise of an enlightened judgment, if such judgment exists within us. Cannot God help us? It altogether depends upon whether we are disposed to help ourselves or not. God will help and bless us when we pursue the course that is acceptable to him. If we strive to subdue stormy passions within us, he will assist us in the good work until the Spirit of God is not merely a casual visitor, but a constant dweller within us to increase our store of knowledge, extend our views and make our conceptions of God and truth more as they should be. Let us live in this way and we shall speak kindly of one another and be more charitable to all men.

The result of our education is differences of feeling and differences in our way of life; we have brought these differences with us from our distant homes. We have brought with us to Utah more or less of the old notions that have grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength; throughout our lives their influence has been upon us. So far as these are in opposition to the truth and the right, they must be overcome, for as we learn the truth we must exchange our incorrect notions for notions that are correct in reference to living with one another and in reference to our general conduct in life. It is not some service we have to perform at some remote place from where we are now living that will benefit us, but it is how we deport ourselves here towards one another and towards God; how we shall make our farms, cultivate our grounds, and how to use that which we have been blessed with as faithful stewards of the manifold mercies of God. We have much yet to learn; the improvements we have not yet made are all to be made, whether they relate to the cultivation of our fields and gardens or to the cultivation of our minds; it is our duty to garnish and embellish them and make them beautiful and lovely as the residence and heritage of intellectual men and women. This will bring into existence God’s temporal kingdom on the earth; then the sanctified and holy and acceptable of his children will dwell in palaces, will be surrounded with wealth, and there will be no desire of their hearts but what may be satisfied. There will be a fountain opened to them where they may satisfy their thirst, however intense it may be for ought that is good, great and ennobling.

Learn, sisters, when you teach the truth to your children who prattle around your knee, and are trying to cultivate a love of it in them, that you are determining their destiny and your own, and their relationship unchangeably with the increase, perpetual and eternal growth of God’s kingdom. Think of this, and do not for a moment pass by those labors of love to your children as matters of comparatively little value, for in them are your hopes of glory, heaven, happiness, bliss, and joy in that great future of glory we are looking for. How can a mother teach her children the right if she is reckless of it herself? How can a father do that if he neglects to set before his household the example of propriety that should constitute the constant and ceaseless labor of a father? Then, let us remember that all this work is upon us; it is to redeem the earth, to be learning how to cultivate and improve its condition; it is to bring into existence a holy nation of men and women before God.

Who are they which constitute the bright hosts that worship around the throne of God? They are men and women and children, such as we see here today; intellectual beings like ourselves, who have been educated, taught, trained, led onward and upward from a condition of ignorance to the possession of that infinitude of knowledge that makes so incomprehensible a difference between us. As we are, so were they; and as they are in all their brightness and glory around the throne of God, so may we be with our wives and children, friends and associates in the kingdom of God on earth, when we have traveled along to that state of exaltation to which they have attained, when we have learned to vanquish the monster of sin and death, rising above him to live in the elements of truth and holiness in a state free from corruption and sin. This has had its beginning here, in all our life’s labor, care and relationship to one another; the existence beyond this is only the finished constellation of the glory which is commenced here, an advanced stage of its development. We are not so blind and dumb that we cannot comprehend the difference between the household where the words of righteousness are uttered, where examples of purity are set, and that household where such noble examples are not seen. Would you see your children around the throne of God? Would you see them clad in glory and crowned with immortality and eternal lives? Then teach them truth while they prattle around your knee; learn them to lisp the truth, teach them to love it ere they can fully know its worth, and as they grow in capacity to reason and understand they will then bless the father and mother that taught them truth and purity, and to hate and despise the wrong and choose the good. Truth will regulate all life’s details; I care not how numerous they may be, all will yield to the saving, sanctifying, hallowed influence and supreme love of truth. When we teach the truth to our children, it is one of the best proofs that we love the truth ourselves with all our minds, might, and strength. If we take this course we shall see the kingdom of God growing; its outward embellishments will appear, its wealth will increase and its power will spread abroad on the right hand and on the left until untold millions of earth’s children will repose in security, safety, and happiness, and be blessed beneath its banner. Then, its temples will rise in beauty, grandeur, and glory, and the home of every Saint will become a temple where God will delight to reveal the richness of his blessings to his faithful children. If our God shines as the perfection of beauty out of Zion, Zion must reflect that beauty; it must have an existence in Zion reflecting its beauty outwardly upon the world around. The glory of Zion must be created by the children of Zion. We cannot attain to this all in a moment. We first begin to make our homes tidy and to subdue every enemy to our peace, that we may have more comfort. If we wish our children to have an exalted taste for the lovely and beautiful, create something lovely for them to look upon, let them behold a practical example and exhibition of the beautiful and lovely when they are at home; when they go into the garden let them see the development of beauty, and when they come to maturity and remove far away they will think of the paternal home with delight and pleasure as the place where peace reigns, where joy is developed, where the odor of sweet flowers are inhaled by the visitors, greeting our early rising or cheering us when we retire to our rest. This is the picture of the home of a Saint, of him who loves to beautify Zion and exalt the children of Zion above all other people on the earth.

It does not follow of necessity that the poor man must possess broad acres. If your garden is no larger than this stand, cultivate it properly, plant fruit trees and other useful plants, and rivet the attention of your growing family to the contemplation of their duty; let them see an example in you from day to day and from year to year which will exercise a salutary influence upon the minds of your children throughout their future lives. If I have not myself been able hitherto to make such a home, it is the home that lives in my mind. I show you the ladder over which you may travel from any condition of degradation and ignorance to all that is noble, exalted, and Godlike. We must start from where we are, and we shall soon see better houses, more fruitful and lovely gardens; the residences of the Saints will grow into beauty and the cities of the Saints into magnificence.

The Prophet Joseph once took me by the arm in the street, and said, “I have so many blessings, and there is nothing but what you can enjoy in your time and place the same as I do, and so can every man.” But I have prayed this prayer, “If the bestowal of wealth upon thy servant, O Lord, will make him a fool and cause him to forsake the truth, may I remain poor until I can bear it.” We might as well complain that we were not all born at the same time as to complain of any disparity that may exist between us in pecuniary matters. Let the Saints who have just come to these valleys from their fatherland learn to be contented in whatsoever position they are placed in, that is, when you are in circumstances that neither you nor your friends can change for the better. To complain of circumstances that cannot at the present be improved would simply be a waste of your time, and your time is precious, for we are not going to live many years according to the common course of things to improve ourselves here. It will be to our advantage to live in this world as long as we can improve, and the longer we live here and improve, the stronger grow the ties that bind us to this existence. I want to see the kingdom of God grow from this small beginning that is right around us, until the whole earth is filled and blessed with its glory as it now blesses and fills the valleys of Deseret in a degree. We are connected with an enterprise that is great, noble, and honorable, with an enterprise that is not satisfied with a limited acquisition, with a small victory over sin, but it is an enterprise that grasps the world’s emancipation from sin, darkness, and death; it looks at no smaller object than the world’s freedom from sin and its consequences.

Being connected with so great an enterprise, I do not feel any more that I am a worm of the earth, but that I am associated with the Gods of eternity, and that angels are my kindred and of my family. This is the way I want the Saints to feel. If they feel this way they will shun all wickedness, and seek for right and try to do it all the time. I for one am engaged in the great work of building up the kingdom of God upon the earth, and I want to get the Saints to see the value of that practical purity of life that will utterly destroy the power of sin, purge out the transgressor from our assemblies and render us more and more acceptable to God all the time, because better calculated to bless the world.

God bless you: Amen.

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made at the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1862.

I do not wish to monopolize the time to the exclusion of my brethren, and I do not design to detain you long, still a few remarks, perhaps may not be unacceptable. I thank my Heavenly Father for the privilege and blessing of meeting with the Saints, and for allowing my spirit to mingle with yours, to increase each other’s joy.

The words of edification and instruction we have had from our brethren are truly cheering to all of us, and I trust that the spirit of the living God may continue to abide with us, that wherein we have received an increase of light and truth we may carry it to our homes, and revive the work of the Lord in our towns and villages, and in short carry this feeling and influence to every quarter and part of the kingdom of God. Truly the remarks made this morning were cheering and good. The spirit of the Lord is calculated to remove everything that may be in the heart which is opposed to that which is good, to Godliness and peace.

Much is said about the tribes of Israel from which most of us are supposed to have descended. With some there is quite a feeling of choice in regard to the tribe from which they sprang, but let me say that whether we sprang from Judah, Ephraim, Manasseh, or from a family of Gentile origin, that of all these tribes and classes, whoever receive the Gospel and are molded and fashioned by the spirit of the living God, will be entitled to a place in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. Hence it is written “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” And again it is written, “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”—Col. i. 16 and iii. 10, 11.

I feel that in these two particulars we are distinguished from the world, while we are made one by being baptized into one spirit and all embracing the one faith, becoming members of one body, having one common father, even the King of Heaven. And by submitting to be guided by his spirit, and obeying the precepts that are given by him in our daily deportment we are transported into the image of that lovely being of whom it is said, that at his name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.

Brethren, I feel happy and childlike in your presence today, and I intend to continue in well doing that I may ever have the Spirit of the Lord to guide me aright. If, by my labors, I can make others feel as well as I feel myself, it is the joy of my heart, it is that for which I labor and toil. I feel at many times that I would rather sit down and muse in silence than to speak.

When I think of our friends in the east I feel sorrowful; their condition is deplorable. I have no enmity towards anyone, but my general feeling is, Heaven bless the Saints and may Heaven destroy every influence that is arraigned against Zion. And the Lord will do this; and I will prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Hosts that if we continue to walk in the light of truth, to labor to build up Zion, that cup of trembling spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah shall never return to your lips nor to our habitations, but we will float along increasing in power and strength from day to day, continually rejoicing in the truths of our holy religion.

God bless you all forever: Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Hyde, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1862.

Brethren and sisters, being invited to address you, I cheerfully arise to make a few remarks, for I truly feel thankful for the privilege I enjoy of speaking to you this morning. Be patient, my friends, I will start on as high a key as I can so as not to break down. I feel thankful for the opportunity of meeting with the Saints in General Conference, and of mingling my testimony with this vast number of Saints in endeavoring to advance the interests of the kingdom of God, according to the intelligence I possess; and I feel truly thankful to the Lord for the experience I have had. I do not know that I can feel thankful for all the experience I have had, but suffice it to say that I am spared by our heavenly Father.

I do not at present know what I shall select for the foundation of my remarks. Sometimes I take my text from the spelling book, sometimes from the Bible, also from the Book of Mormon, and from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, besides another Book which seems to be above all other books—the Book of Nature; one page above and the other beneath. There we behold the finger of God; it is plain and legible to every heart that is inspired of the Almighty, that is filled with the love of God, and burning with the light of truth.

On this occasion there is a scripture that occurs to my mind, where our Savior in his parables puts forth a sentiment like this, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”—Matt. xiii., 44. The Savior taught a great deal in parables, and the servants of God in these days teach by parables and comparisons in order that we may understand the more clearly, and that we may take a larger view of things than we should or could from the plain, simple statement of facts in common language.

Now, brethren and sisters, we are all seeking the kingdom of our God, we are seeking to become heirs of that kingdom, to be lawful and loyal subjects of the same. With this a question arises, whether we shall attain to a place in that kingdom at any less cost than did those I have quoted the Scripture about in your hearing. The man purchased the field and hid his treasure there. He went silently, lest, if he made a great bluster, some other individual might go and steal the march upon him and purchase the field of treasure, then the bargain would have been complete; but no, he was wide awake, and sold all that he had and purchased that field, for he was determined to have that treasure. It took all that he had to purchase it, but the treasure concealed there was far beyond the cost of purchase in value, and in purchasing it he knew that it would increase in time and throughout all eternity, for that treasure was the kingdom of God, and salvation to that man’s soul.

A question comes up in the minds of some; I have frequently heard persons say, “What becomes of our Tithing? And what is the propriety of paying so much? The calls come from this quarter and calls from that; and what are we doing when we are buying that field in which the treasure lies concealed?” Did we ever think, when responding to the calls on the right and on the left, that we were purchasing that field, and that having gone to the extent of our power and ability in that transaction, that there is our deed and title to the kingdom of God, signed, sealed, and delivered?

Look back upon our privations that we have undergone, and there is joy and gladness, there is hope which is full of immortality. The kingdom is ours. We have purchased it, and by it our salvation is secured, by faithfulness in the kingdom. Now do we expect to get something for nothing? If we do, the transaction is not suspended upon an even balance. To expect something for nothing is just what many in our community want to do in their trading and trafficking, and putting on prices that are far above the standard. You naturally call such persons dishonest, and such they truly are. If you expect to gain the kingdom of our God without purchasing it by your labors, with me the question is, Will you not be mistaken in your calculation?

This parable to which I have invited your attention is a good lesson for all of us, and we should endeavor to so conduct ourselves as to show that with us the kingdom of God is all in all. This parable is an ensample for us to copy and adopt. A word to the wise is sufficient on this subject. You have considered this matter having read about it, and by reciting it over it may be of service to you. It is no matter what that man did, or what the other said, so far as the field spoken of is concerned, for I do not suppose the purchaser gave him any trouble whether he paid out his money for this, that, or the other. It was the field that he paid it for; he wished to have the field containing the treasure. It is not the price we pay for the kingdom, it is the kingdom of God we are bound to purchase at any price.

Enough upon that subject. As short sermons seem to be the order of the day, I may be allowed to touch upon that which will benefit myself, that which will increase our faith and tend to our education and good, that we may go to our homes rejoicing in the truth and in the privileges of the new and everlasting covenant.

Now with regard to the poor, I have a few words to say. I have a text about sending to the Missouri River to bring home the poor. The Lord says, “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.”—Psalm xli., 1, 2. Such an one will be blessed of the Lord for sending out his beasts, and for taking the poor, even the stranger to his house; his light shall shine in darkness, and shall appear as at the noonday. Now then we have considered the poor, we have sent our teams, our oxen and all that was necessary to bring them to our houses. And I will here observe that I wish, that inasmuch as they have come to our mountain home, to the threshold of Zion, that every man would so conduct himself as to meet with the approving smile of Heaven, then their light would break forth and shine in the darkness as resplendently as the noonday sun. We all want our brethren and sisters at home; then let us lend a helping hand. Now just go down there to the public square and see what you can do. Take the poor home to your houses, and God Almighty bless you from this time henceforth and forever. It is our imperative duty to walk in the light, to see that our pathway is clear and plain before us, and let us so live that it may be clear.

Bishops, allow me to say a word to you. In the vicinity where I have been laboring for the last two-years-and-a-half, I have seen the evil of spreading out so far. We are and have seemed to be anxious to take up all the land that we could find, and then keep putting in seed until the first we put in is ripe and ready for harvesting. This has been the case with all of us, more or less, in fact it has been so much so that neither man nor woman has had time to clean out the filth and bedbugs, so much so that they have got the upper hand of us. We talk of subduing nations, of becoming kings and priests unto God, but amidst all our great talk we have not subdued the vermin with which we are pestered in our newly created homes. We sometimes talk about messengers coming from heaven to visit us, but I doubt whether the angels will come to commune with us until we are in a different situation.

I will now go back to the wheat field, and speak a little of that. The brethren in our section thought they would not plant so much grain but let the ground rest. In process of time the wheat came up in large quantities; we had water plenty, and we had such immense crops that we had not men enough to reap the grain that was raised, and hence we had all the work to do ourselves. We did all we could, but much of the grain has gone back into the earth because we had not help enough to gather it. Our wives and sisters volunteered to assist their husbands and fathers, and they did all they could. We hear a great deal of talk about women’s rights at times, but if you will come down to Sanpete you will see women’s rights conventions, and they take especial pleasure in doing as they like.

To return to the subject of grain, I can truly say that we can sustain our present population and all the emigration that is coming this year. We have this to say of our blessings in return for sending all our teams to gather the poor; no we did not send them quite all, there was one yoke of oxen left to five farms, after filling up the bill for the Missouri River. In addition to these we had a few first-class horse teams, and thus we managed to put in a little grain, but a great deal of it grew without our doing anything to it ourselves, and thus the Lord blessed us with the desires of our hearts, and with a rich reward for what we had done towards the gathering of his people.

We are now showing that we can raise fruit down there, and by-and-by I may have the satisfaction of eating the fruit of my own raising in Sanpete, for I have no doubt but our apple trees will produce good fruit in due time.

Our teams are now returning; I met some of them as I was coming to Conference, and I felt to say the Lord be praised, you have performed a good mission, and the Lord has blessed our labors and also the labors of those who have been out on the plains. I feel that the crops that have been raised in such great abundance with so little labor have been by the goodness of the Almighty, and I feel that we have worked ourselves almost into life everlasting.

You may think that I am going into a great many things, but I do not expect to hit them all, but I shall touch a few of them as they come up before me. I want to say to the Bishops, that it is their business to direct the energies of the Saints, and where they see a man who is inclined to spread out and sow some forty or fifty acres of wheat, I want them to tell such men to go to work and build good houses. Tell the blacksmiths to go to blacksmithing, the carpenter to his trade, and every other mechanic to his business, and do not let us be as we have been heretofore. When a man has wanted anything doing by a mechanic it has been almost impossible to get it done. For instance, I would go to a blacksmith’s shop and say I want a horse shod, “Oh,” says the smith, “I can’t, I must go and cut my grain, or I must go and irrigate it;” and there are perhaps half-a-dozen men that are in this manner cut short of their labor, by one man refusing to work at his trade, and all men being determined to be farmers. Then I say let the blacksmith attend to his blacksmithing and let him charge a reasonable price for his labor, and not, as has been the custom, charge three or four prices. Let the joiner do likewise, working constantly at that which will most conduce to the building up of Zion, and let the farmer raise the grain. Where you find a man who has plenty of grain to serve him from three to five years, and plenty of teams and wagons too, tell him to go to work and build for his family a comfortable dwelling house, and point out to him that he is in this way finding employment for the mechanics, making his family comfortable and building up Zion. Teach each man to work at his trade and calling, and let the farmer take hold with his might of that which is his profession, but have a little time to breathe and rest. As it is now, we go into the garden and we work like Sam Hill, leaving no time for rest. “By-the-by that means me,” but I must hew to the line, no matter who is hit. (A voice: Never mind yourself, just go ahead.)

Now then for the flax. Have we got it on hand that we can make our own ropes? No, only a very little in comparison to the demand. We have a rope factory, and we have hemp growing in our county, and we have made many attempts to raise flax, and we do raise a little but we never use it. It is either left in the sun till the coat is burnt off, or we allow it to be trampled down in the yard by the cattle. In this country we cannot rot the flax in the dews, we must put it into water, a shallow pond is the most suitable, so far as I understand the matter. Now, it is better for each of us to raise about ten acres of wheat, and then devote the rest of our time to the flax and hemp. I was raised to wear a tow frock, but the tow would wear off in a short time. If we would raise some and devote a little time to the proper culture of it, attend to each department in its season, the rotting, the hetcheling and the spinning and weaving we should be much better off than we now are. But no, it takes us the whole time, and it seems that we must devote the entire season to raise and take care of our grain, and especially the wheat. The time has now come for us to classify our labor and change our policy. I believe I have said as much as is necessary on these subjects, as I wish to say a few things concerning the times and seasons.

Now concerning the times and seasons in which we live. The Lord says by the mouth of Isaiah, “Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.”—Isaiah li. 22 and 23. What are you going to do with this text, my friends? I will put it into the hands of them that have afflicted thee. What was that army up here for? They were sent as agents of the Almighty to take away this cup of trembling, which had afflicted us for so many years, and they carried it away with them down yonder, and they then began to drink of it and have been drinking of it ever since. Do you know that there was a kind of tremor with some of us at that time? But I tell you what it is, the nerves have become settled, and those who sought to make us drink the dregs are drinking them now, and they will continue to do so until the dregs are all drunk out. I have no feeling against anyone, and I regret exceedingly that these of whom I speak should have brought upon themselves these terrible calamities which now afflict our once happy country.

If I understand the spirit that I am of, those that do the will of God will not hereafter feel that pitta-pat of trembling which they have been accustomed to feel, for the Lord says, “I will take it away from them,” and he has done it, and we feel it. If they have not got the cup full yet, and do not get it in 1863, all I can say is I will wait till they do, for the Almighty will make them that have afflicted his people drink the dregs of that bitter cup of trembling. And this is not all, I can look very far into the future, but as far as I can see it is a dark and gloomy picture. I could not but be forcibly struck with the remarks of brother Young in relation to the nation growing more guilty and more corrupt, therefore are they being scourged so severely. The Prophet and Revelator John says, “And I heard a great voice out of the temple say to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.”—Rev. xvi. 1—7.

Did not the enemies of the Lord attempt to feed the martyrs Joseph and Hyrum Smith with the flesh of their brethren? Look at the testimony of Hyrum Smith. Now they have set the example of war, of cruelty, and it will come double upon their own heads; but, says the Lord, upon my house shall it begin. And now these afflictions have been rolled off from our shoulders onto them, and they will be sorely punished for their iniquity. These things will come to pass. I need not predict anything about these calamities, greater men than I am have predicted in reference to these things, therefore I only need to bear my testimony to the truth of that which has been predicted. In the fierceness of the battle the fainting soldier will bow down to slake his parched thirst with the blood of his fellow. If this has not transpired it may in the future, for the horrors of war will be terrible to contemplate. Many curious things lie hid in the future which will astonish the world.

It is now a great time for digging gold; and this reminds me that I had a dream, in which I learned how to dig gold. I saw the gold wherever I went, lying about on the ground; I could pick it up in the night, but in the day time it could not be seen by anybody. While contemplating this, the Spirit said unto me, “Don’t you know that light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not?” Now here it is, in the form or shape of a reward that cometh to the faithful, and with our purified gold we are called upon to buy that field, even the kingdom of God. Never ask yourselves what the seller of that field does with the price of it; this is nothing to you or me. And if there are liabilities upon the President of this Church let us raise them from his shoulder, and let the servants of God go as free as the lark of the morning.

Brethren and sisters, I do not wish to occupy more than my share of the time, therefore my remarks I bequeath to you with the best feelings of my soul, and I feel that if the services of such an humble individual as myself can be of use, I shall feel ever ready to render this service.

God bless you forever. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 6, 1862.

I will offer a few remarks in relation to the difference between this and the next state of existence. The next state of existence is a spiritual one. The spirit which is now clothed with mortal flesh will be set free from that encumbrance, and the spirits of Saints will be free from the power of sin and Satan.

This state is a state of trial, wherein the spirit clothed upon with flesh labors to sanctify, redeem and save the flesh, that in the resurrection the spirit and the body may be made eternally one, through the power of the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The next state of existence is the paradisiacal state of the spirit, a state of waiting until the body shall pass through the purification and refinement given to it by passing through death and the grave; then cometh the resurrection which bringeth to pass the reunion of the body and the spirit. “O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirit of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body are restored to each other again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls,” &c.

From the state of embryo to the time of birth, and from infancy to ripe old age, unseen dangers lurk in our path to mar our bodies or to render our senses inefficient; hence we see the lame, the maimed, the blind, the deaf, dumb, weak, sickly, and so on.

I think it has been taught by some that as we lay our bodies down, they will so rise again in the resurrection with all the impediments and imperfections that they had here; and that if a wife does not love her husband in this state she cannot love him in the next. This is not so. Those who attain to the blessing of the first or celestial resurrection will be pure and holy, and perfect in body. Every man and woman that reaches to this unspeakable attainment will be as beautiful as the angels that surround the throne of God. If you can, by faithfulness in this life, obtain the right to come up in the morning of the resurrection, you need entertain no fears that the wife will be dissatisfied with her husband, or the husband with the wife; for those of the first resurrection will be free from sin and from the consequences and power of sin. This body “is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” “And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

God has done his part towards putting us in possession of celestial glory and happiness, by providing the means whereby we may attain to it; and if ever we possess it, we must do so by conforming to the means provided. God has given the children of men dominion over the earth and over all things that pertain to it, and has commanded them to subdue it, and to sanctify themselves before him, and also to sanctify and beautify the earth by their industry, and by their wisdom and skill which cometh from God. Learn, for instance, how to yoke together a pair of oxen, how to manage and drive them across the plains, how to get timber from the canyons, how to make brick, and how to hew stone and bring them into shape and position to please the eye and create com– fort and happiness for the Saints. These are some of the mysteries of the kingdom. To receive the Gospel and believe and enjoy it in the spirit, is the simplest part of the work the Latter-day Saints have to learn and perform.

God has made man lord of all things here below, and it is the labor of man to bring all things unto subjection to God, by first subjecting himself to the will of God, and then subjecting all things over which he has control, in their time and order. The will of God is eternal life to his people and to all they control.

May God bless you. Amen.