Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.

This is the place to give items of instruction to the people. I am satisfied that it is my duty to improve this opportunity, and should be very happy if I could speak with ease; if I could do so I should talk a great deal more than I do.

Ask a Bishop by what authority he is acting as a Bishop; “I suppose I am a Bishop according to the Priesthood.” By what Priesthood do you act as a Bishop? “I really cannot answer that question.” Are you a High Priest? “Yes.” Why do you so officiate? “Because I have been ordained to so officiate; the First Presidency ordained Bishop Hunter to ordain me a High Priest, and set me apart to be a Bishop in this district.” After a person is ordained a High Priest he then has authority to act in all the duties of the lesser Priesthood, when called upon by the proper authority so to do. Some of the Bishops understand their true position and some do not, for which reason a few remarks in addition to those I made this forenoon will, perhaps, not be amiss.

There is no retrograde movement in ordaining a High Priest to the office of a Bishop, for, properly speaking, he is set apart to act in that office. When we ordain a man to officiate in a branch of the Church as a Bishop, he does so according to the best of his knowledge; and now and then one believes that he has a right, when ordained as a Bishop, to officiate and preside over every temporal and spiritual interest in his district by virtue of his Bishopric; he believes that he ought to go into a Seventies’ Council in his Ward and preside because he is a Bishop: and under this impression he dictates, guides and directs all things in his district; he baptizes, confirms and administers the sacrament as a Bishop, performing, under this impression, every spiritual and temporal duty. Were we to inquire of the Bishops of this Church what duties are assigned to the Aaronic Priesthood they hold, and what are assigned to the Melchizedek, those who could answer correctly are in the minority. I am satisfied of this, for I have been placed in positions that made it necessary to propound questions to some of our most intelligent Bishops relating to misunderstandings and difficulties that have occurred in their districts touching their authority, when their answers convinced me that they knew little about it; perhaps from not having an opportunity of finding out, or, in a word, they have not so lived that the heavens have been opened to them to teach them so fully and effectually their duties that they need no man to teach them. The duties and powers of a Bishop cease the very moment he steps over the Aaronic Priesthood, which is to officiate in temporal things; when he passes this he immediately begins to officiate by the authority and power of the Mel– chizedek Priesthood, though he may not know it.

We have scores of branches of this Church in different parts of this country, and had we better now place officers, helps and governments in these branches, or wait till the people come to understanding, and learn to appreciate and honor such appointments? It is chiefly because of the ignorance of the people that we often concentrate in one man these different offices and callings, but when the people are sufficiently informed and have advanced further in the knowledge of the truth, it will not be so, but every branch will have its full quota of officers—a Patriarch, President, Bishop, High Council, and all officers that are necessary for the work of the Ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ. Until the people can receive and honor these helps and governments, and be benefited by them, the different offices will be concentrated in as few men as possible, for men will contend for power, and as to which shall be the greatest, until they are better informed.

If the people fully understood and would observe the relationship these offices have to each other, there would never be a word of altercation. In this city we have no altercation about authorities. We but seldom get up a trouble for a High Council case. When the people come to sufficient understanding, we shall not put the onerous task upon one man to act both as President and Bishop, but we will give you a full organization of helps, governments, &c.; but at present we shall take a course to confine the offices of the Church in such a manner as to give the least cause for contention and trouble. There are men who have a contentious disposition; they will contend against a Bishop, a Magistrate, a Judge, or any man holding an office; in short, they wish to destroy every power in Heaven and on earth that they do not hold themselves. This is the spirit of Satan that was made so visibly manifest in Heaven and which proved his overthrow, and he now afflicts this people with it; he wants to dictate and rule every principle and power that leads to exaltation and eternal life, and those whom he influences wish to walk underfoot every person who stands in authority over them.

I now wish to say a few words about assisting the mail and telegraph companies. It has been asked, “Shall we assist these companies? Shall they be supplied with grain and that help which is necessary to facilitate the expeditious and safe carrying of the mail?” I say, yes. Shall the telegraph company receive favors at our hands? Yes. I do not know of two greater temporal blessings of the kind that can be bestowed upon this people. If we happen to lay in bed a little later than usual, by the aid of the telegraph wires we can read the news of the morning from Washington and New York; and by-and-by we may be favored with the news of yesterday from London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, and all the principal cities in the old world. We are among the people of this world; our bodies are of the earth, and our spirits are like the spirits of other people and from the same source, only we are trying to establish the kingdom of God on earth, to introduce righteousness, and prepare the people for the reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. One man says, “I have agreed to do thus and so.” Then go and do it. Fulfill your contracts and sacredly keep your word.

What should be the course of this people in these matters? Let them act by the counsel of the men who understand such things better than they do. When I say supply so much labor, or so much grain, or do so much hauling, you will be justified, otherwise you will not. If I might dictate this matter and get my pay for it, I would fill this whole mail route with “Mormon” boys who would labor faithfully, conduct honorably, and see that the mails were carried safely and promptly. If it were left to me, I would fill this whole route, as we would have done a few years ago if the contract had not been unjustly taken from us, with a line of conveyances, wherein men might sleep by day or by night in perfect safety as to their persons and property; and if a pocket book dropped out of a pocket it would be as safe as though it were under lock and key, so far as its being stolen is concerned. How is it now?

If A, B, and C say they will begin to sell whiskey, then if it is right for them to sell whiskey in the streets of this city, it is right for me. Whiskey is useful in making vinegar, and we need it for cutting camphor gum, for medicine, washings, &c., but is it necessary to keep a whiskey shop? No. And if it is right for one man to keep a whiskey shop, it is right for another, until all become whiskey peddlers and whiskey drinkers, and all go to the devil together. It does not require much illumination of mind to comprehend that unless the selling of spirituous liquors is managed by proper persons, it will result in the ruination of many of the community. So with the selling and disposing of our produce to outside interests; for those who expend their means and labor in a way that does not enrich and build up Zion will apostatize and go out of this kingdom, sooner or later. When you are appointed to haul grain here or there, you will feel justified. Or, if you wish to drive a train, or to go as a guard on the mail route, or to attend to this or that, and the counsel is yes, go, and be honest and upright before God and man and deal justly with everybody, and if you do not so conduct, you will be brought home and dealt with, then, if you go in this way, you will be justified. Whatever is done let it be done by counsel and common consent; then we can be paid for our labor and our produce; wealth will increase around us, which we can put to use in gathering home the poor Saints from all nations by hundreds and by thousands. In the course the people have taken they will make themselves poor, while we might be rich. I feel very friendly towards Mr. Street and many others connected with the telegraph line. They have treated this community as gentlemen will. I have rendered them some assistance, and am ready to render them more; and they have been very accommodating to us. The Overland Mail company brings our letters, books, magazines, &c., and is as great an accommodation as can well be until we have a railroad through here, which I hope we shall have ere long, if it is right. They should be assisted, and that by the Counsel of the Kingdom of God in these mountains; and let it be done by common consent, or no longer say that we are one with the interests of this kingdom. If you are one with the vine, you are one with the main branch; if you are not thus one, you will be severed from the vine and will wither and die.

May the Lord bless the Latter-day Saints, is my prayer all the time. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.

Brethren and sisters, I have been highly edified this morning, as I presume you all have, and I doubt not but the seed has fallen upon good ground, and when we return to our homes we shall feel sensibly that the seed sown has done good.

It has been in my mind to remark that the office of both President and Bishop are in our President, and therefore he has the undoubted right to place those two offices on one man, or to ordain two separate men as he may see proper. There may possibly arise circumstances that may appear to cause the authority of the two to conflict, and thus to be incompatible one with the other, but this is only on account of the ignorance of the people. We ought so to live as all to be capable of being Presidents and Bishops, for there is certainly ample room for us all to do all the good we can; but I have thought in the present state of our limited knowledge it would be better to dispense with the office of President in the country settlements. I am happy to inform you that I have never heard of any feeling of difficulty between the President and Bishop at Spanish Fork. Brother Young did not know of a single exception to the rule, but I am informed by all parties that these brethren have never conflicted. [President B. Young: I wish I had never heard anything to the contrary.] My reason for desiring to have this matter brought here was to have the duties of Bishops and Presidents defined, thinking that probably the result of the investigation would be the abolishing of the office of President for the present in the country Branches, and I can truly say that I feel thankful, brethren and sisters, for what I have heard, and I can say with regard to the people in the region where I have labored there is a good degree of union there among the people. In fact, I rejoice to say that there is no schism in that region; we have no difficulty there with our High Priests, none with our Seventies, only what we have been enabled to arrange. A good feeling exists there, and I am glad and happy to know that there is an increase of good feeling with the people of Sanpete. I feel thankful that when the people from all quarters meet here the spirit and the atmosphere seem to bear witness to what I have said.

Well, brethren and sisters, I have spoken before, and I do not wish to occupy much time at the present, but the spirit that is here is good, and all things that have been done feel like a balm to my soul.

God bless you all. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”—Hebrews v. 12, 13 and 14 verses.

It may seem to my brethren and sisters a little surprising, that I should introduce the remarks which I have the privilege of addressing to you this morning, by reading the sentiment which is conveyed in this text. For when for the time we ought to be teachers, we have need that one teach us again the first principles of the oracles of God. But how often is it necessary, and has it been necessary, for those who are inspired of the Lord to complain of the brethren making such slow progress in the things of the kingdom of God? How often do we hear our Presidency lament the ignorance, folly and vanity that are exhibited by many of those who are called upon to be and who should be teachers indeed. I have thought that in some circumstances there was a neglect in the Branches of preaching to and rehearsing in the ears of the rising generation, those first principles of the Gospel which were taught to us when we received the Work of the last days, and especially the principle of faith. We grow up in this community and the principles of the Gospel become, to a great extent, natural to us. But many of the young are untried and without experience, and they lack the power to contrast the principles of truth with those of error, and hence it is regarded as important by the Elders that they should have the opportunity, at some period, of going abroad to preach the Gospel and have a chance to test, by actual experience, the power of the principles of truth when brought in contact with the wild fanaticisms which the world has dignified with the title of religion.

It was remarked yesterday, that the progress of the people was so slow, that the Presidency could not develop those principles which were for the benefit of the people, for their glory and exaltation, only at a very slow rate, powerful as we may think the “Mormon” mill to be. The President tells us that he has to regulate the feed very moderately, or injure the weak minded. Some of the brethren, for want of a more perfect understanding perhaps, give way to temptation and turn away, and become to a considerable extent like a man who comes out of the dark into a well lighted room, he is blinded with the light, his eyes are unprepared to meet such brilliancy. This is illustrated very clearly in the organiza– tion of the several Branches, settlements, and stakes of Zion throughout Deseret. To use a figure, in almost all the Branches containing from one hundred to three hundred families, it has been found necessary to combine all the authority of Presidency in one man, at least I will say this has been the case in many instances; there are a few exceptions to this rule, but not many. A Bishop while he presides at the meetings looks after the spiritual welfare of the settlements; he preaches on the Sabbath day, gives counsel to the people, spiritual and temporal; he gives counsel in relation to the donations, public buildings, the erection of schoolhouses; and almost everything is made to devolve upon the head of the Bishop.

In the first instance many of these places were organized with a President and Bishop who were expected to act in concert, and, with their counselors, work and exert themselves for the general good of the people, and with a strong hand all pull together and strive to strengthen each other. And when for the time these men ought to have been teachers they have proven that they required to be taught, for the very first question that would arise, was “which of us is the biggest man, for it is important that we should know the precise line between our authority, to know where the jurisdiction of the one ends and the other begins.” A man of this disposition and feeling would want a rule and tape-line to draw his line of jurisdiction on the ground and stake it out. Then it would be, Bishop you must toe this line, and President you must keep your side of it. No familiarity. You must not tread on my toes, remember that.

Now, I have had experience in these matters to some little extent, by visiting and attempting to regulate, explain and set in order these diffi– culties. At one place, containing about three hundred families, the President held the doctrine that the Bishop was a mere temporal officer, and therefore he had no right or business to talk on the Sabbath day on temporal matters. If he wished to talk about donations, emigration, teams, building meetinghouses, or of Tithing, he was told that that was temporal business and that he must call a meeting on a week day. Elder E. T. Benson and myself went to that place after they had been contending upon this subject, and it had become well understood that no man must talk there on temporal subjects on the Sabbath day. But we occupied the whole day in telling how to make bread, build cities, make farms, fences, and in fact we told them how to do every useful thing that we could think of. We asserted that a certain amount of temporal preparation was necessary in order that a man might enjoy his religion. We also asserted, that if a man made no preparations for the future he was constantly subjected to annoyances. For instance, a man lives in one of our agricultural villages, and he makes little or no preparation for taking care of what he has around him; he neglects to fence his field and stackyard. Now, I have thought that a man could not enjoy his religion as he should do unless he had a good fence around his field and stackyard; for if he has no fence, or only a poor one, when he gets ready for praying there is perhaps a rap at the door, and when the door is opened, the message delivered is, “there are twenty head of cattle destroying your wheat in your stackyard.” “The Devil there is,” says the man, “and whose are they?” He puts them in the astray pound, and he puts an exorbitant tax upon them, and charges the poundkeeper not to let them go until he gets this pay, say, damages to the amount of $50. The next thing is, another neighbor who is religious also, but perhaps a little later in his devotions, is aroused by the report, “your cattle are all in the astray pound and there is $50 damage against them.” “The Devil they are, who put them there?” Why brother—; his feelings of reverence and devotion having been badly shaken by this report, he rises from his prayerful mood in a rage and uses very violent language; and, suffice it to say, that much trouble is caused by men not having a good fence, and it is exceedingly doubtful whether many men can preserve an even temper of mind under such circumstances. Now, all this was the result of ignorance. If that Presidency had known their duties they would never have closed a meeting without asking the Bishop if he had anything to say, or any business to attend to; it was a matter of courtesy and of duty also; and instead of pulling against each other they should have united and all pulled together for the accomplishment of the same object. For this reason we have had to organize several Branches with a Bishop and his counselors only, and, as I express it sometimes in the settlements where I visit, we have had to use a wheelbarrow instead of a six horse coach. The Bishop must do this, that, and the other, in fact everything. He must preach, collect the Tithing; for if we set another man to assist him, men are so ignorant, they have learned so little that they will immediately start up and strive for the mastery, and hence contentions have risen among the brethren acting in the capacity of Bishops and Presidents.

In most of the settlements there have been quorums of High Priests organized, and they call meetings and watch over each other, blow the coal and keep the fire alive within each other’s bosoms, and see if they can keep one another wide awake. The same thing has occurred in reference to the Seventies, and the organizations are very numerous. Well, the question arises have these Quorums a right to call meetings at the same time the President has called a public meeting of the whole Branch? Here comes a question of jurisdiction. For instance, when half of the males in a Branch are Seventies, the President of the Mass Quorum notifies that they are to have a meeting at 10 or 11 o’clock, the very hour that the President of the Branch has his meeting. Has the President of the Seventies a right to do this? No, he has not; it is a discourtesy. Every Quorum should so arrange its appointments that there will be no difficulty, no necessity for any law to regulate the matter, but that of common decency and common manhood, and it does seem that a man with less than half a share of discernment could see that while the meeting called by the President is going on all the Branch ought to be there, and therefore that there should be no other meeting held at the same time.

Brethren, we should so arrange our appointments when our High Priests and whatever other Quorums meet, as not to conflict, and in this way have and show our respect to the President of the Branch. Have our meetings of course, but submit to the President of the Branch as the first to be attended to, and then have our other meetings subordinate in point of time.

Well, now, almost any man in the world would say that a man is a fool that would raise such a question, but men that have been ordained Elders, High Priests, and Seventies are just such teachers, for when, for the time that they should be teachers, they have need to be taught, for they seem to operate like children and pull against each other; they labor to define each others duties, to mark out the whereabouts of the line of demarcation, whereas they should each and every one strive to build up the kingdom of God, and so live as to enjoy the Holy Spirit; each man should strive to be humble instead of exalting himself; instead of drawing the line and saying I belong just here and nobody must interfere with my rights, he should feel to sustain the hands of his brethren. I will here say that there have been places where these two organizations have existed for years without any difficulty, and there are other places where the two have existed at the same time, and the matter has been taken up by the people and worked at until it has been found necessary to reduce the organization by uniting the Presidency and Bishopric in one person, or, as I term it, the wheelbarrow arrangement, or if you please, a three-wheeled coach.

There was one settlement where the people got so very wise that the Bishop had to have two sets of counselors, and they had to be selected according to the wishes of the parties that took sides with the President, or rather that were in favor of having one, and then those who were willing to be contented with a Bishop had to have their choice, and thus was formed what I call an unlimited democracy.

The fact is that as soon as the brethren can realize that they are to be servants of God, and that it is their individual duty, to sustain each other and put away that jealousy which in many cases, exists at the present time, and which in fact is the chief cause of all this trouble; and so soon as they find that they are not to be as large as they desire to be, and as they think they ought to be, it will be found that these organizations will be increased in numbers; they will also increase in faith, in good works and in power and influence with the heavens, and if they will be faithful the idea will be fairly illustrated that a man with a wheelbarrow cannot travel as fast nor accomplish as much as the man who drives a four horse coach. Still, I know, that owing to the ignorance and shortsightedness of the people, a case of this kind will occasionally occur. There seems to be a disposition to put everything in a nutshell. For instance, a few years ago, there were some Bishops sent out of Salt Lake City to explain to the country Bishops their duties. These brethren would go into a settlement where there were both a Bishop and a President, and they would go on and tell the Bishops what their duties were, and in doing so, embrace the whole circle of duties required of both Bishop and President, and never think that in that Branch of the Church those duties were not united or centered in one man but divided between two. And in some instances, there would be a sort of half sharp-looking fellow get up and ask what the President was to do, if all those explained and fully defined duties were centered in the Bishop. “O,” they would say, “we were not sent to instruct anybody but the Bishops;” and as might be expected, the result was a contention, if not among the authorities, among the people, and I had some of these difficulties to settle, and I found that the best way to do it was to dispense with one of the officers.

There are several stakes of Zion in the country, where High Councils have been organized, composed of twelve Councilors and a President of the Stake and his two Counselors, in settlements where, in the commencement, the inhabitants were very small in numbers, and it was natural that some member of the Council should represent or be personally interested in each and every party in the town that might be litigant before that body. In some such instances it has become necessary to dissolve the High Council altogether. The fact is, that every High Council should have enough of the Spirit of the Lord with them to investigate every case, so that when the decision is given, it will be the decision of Heaven. Instead of this, little petty disputes arise among the brethren, and two or three members of the Council, perhaps, would have their minds made up beforehand what they would do. There is one thing I have noticed in regard to High Councils; the organization is well understood. One portion of the Council takes the side of justice and investigates the facts in the case, presenting them as they should be presented by an honest attorney; then the other portion of the Council brings up the defense and shows what the side of mercy is, in an unprejudiced manner. After the Council have investigated the subject before them thoroughly, the case is submitted by both complainant and defendant. There have been cases where men have tried to drag in attorneys to plead their cause before these councils, and in some instances, it has been permitted. If this kind of practice were allowed, and pettyfogging, contriving lawyers allowed to practice before the High Councils, the organization of heaven would soon be superseded altogether. I wish to see all High Councilors magnify their own callings. I do not know that I would carry out this rule strictly myself, but I believe that, if I were a judge, and a lawyer were to come before me and assert an absolute lie, and I should find it out, I never would allow him to plead in my presence again; I should set him down as a lawyer not of good moral character, and not legally entitled to be a member of the bar. It appears that I have got off from religion to law, still I believe that however a man may try to pour on the oil and soft soap, the decision of the High Council will be according to the principles of equity. If there is to be an investigation before a council of this kind, it is the duty of that body of men to strive to learn the truth for the sake of doing justice to both parties; and if a man for the sake of a fee, for the sake of gain, if bound and will come into court or council, and state a lie, he has no business there, and I am sorry to believe, if this principle was tried, it would pinch some of our brethren who have dabbled in the law. (President B. Young: I wish it would pinch them to death.)

I believe that there never was a more correct organization of a court on earth than our High Councils, for these men go to work and investigate a case, hear the testimony pro and con, the Councilors for each party litigant present the case, it is submitted to the President who sums up, gives his decision and calls on the Council to sanction it by their vote, and if they are not united, they have to go to work and try the case over again in order that they may ascertain more perfectly the facts in the case and be united in their decision. Why, all the courts in the world are boobies compared to it. It is an organization that shows its own authenticity and divine origin.

Perhaps it is not well for me to further describe the operation of the High Council, but I will take the liberty of saying that men occupying this high position in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should constantly cultivate the principle of justice and study to know what is right and what is wrong, always keeping within them the Spirit of the Almighty. If they have got prejudices against anybody, they should do as the President said yesterday. And so long as a man acts upon this principle upon which Presi– dent Young gave us instruction, he has me for a friend, and just so sure as a man comes up without envy or prejudice, simply to learn what is right, and I understand my position and my duty, and so long as I can vindicate myself, I will put that man in the path of right and in the way of salvation.

What has caused the corruption and wickedness that exist in the world at the present day? It is the feeling that exists among the people that one man cannot tell another his faults, because he tells them to everybody else to the injury and prejudice of the guilty party. The Prophet Joseph in his day would tell a man of his faults to save him from error and destruction, but he offended many because he told them of their faults; they thought he wished to injure them, because they were unwilling to forsake their follies, but his purpose in thus reproving was to redeem, to bless and to save. It frequently happens that men who commit faults are not aware of it. The man who can and will show you your faults, your follies and blindness, and make you fully aware of your position, can awaken up in your mind those reflective powers that will cause you to square yourselves up with correct principles and cause you to prepare yourselves to inherit life, light and glory. But the very moment that a “Mormon” Elder can be instructed by the wicked, and allow those acts of folly and vice to creep in in all their hideous deformity, that man is on the road to destruction. The Elder, Priest, Teacher, or any man in this kingdom that will suffer position to cause him to compromise principle for wealth, is blind and cannot see afar off, and is bound to destruction.

We have got to turn right round from that track, if we have been walking in it; if we have coveted other men’s goods, if we have suffered or caused our hearts to fall in love with property that is not our own, we are laying the foundation for destruction.

I can look over the history of this Church, the great apostasy there has been from it at different periods, and I can see that the apostasy of many has been the result of dishonesty, adultery, selfishness, and wickedness in general, and this has been the key to the whole trouble.

These are my sentiments, the honest convictions of my heart, drawn from long experience and attentive observation; and I know that the man who would stand upon the holy hill of Zion, his hands must not be filled with bribes.

Brethren, I know these principles to be true, and it is my desire to walk so that I may be prepared to stand upon the holy hill of Zion. This is what I labor and strive for. I can tell you, if you encourage a spirit of faultfinding and complaining, you will suffer the cankerworm to gnaw at your vitals, to cause you to distrust everybody, and you will begin to say that you have not been respected, put in office and encouraged as you ought to have been. Suffer these feelings to come into your bosoms, and they will speedily gain possession and control of the whole passion.

What a glorious thing it is for men to meet the Elders of this Church, as some met me in the States in 1856! They would say, we should have been with you still if we had been treated right! What a glorious consolation it will be when a man lifts up his eyes in hell and says, I should have been up there in heaven if I had been treated right!

Brethren and sisters, let us ever remember that it is our business to tread ourselves right.

May the Lord enable us to do right, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1862.

Brethren and sisters, I am called upon and requested to make a few remarks to you this afternoon, in which privilege I feel thankful to my heavenly Father, and also for the privilege of meeting with the Saints in general Conference.

The representatives of every part of the Territory are here, and to be privileged to speak, though perhaps but a few minutes, still it is a gratification; and to look upon you and your countenances is a privilege that I prize. If we were prepared to enter into heaven, to do according to our ideas of heaven, or as we have been used to believe, and should get up there in the presence of God, or in the presence of the spirits that are greater than we are, and undertake to teach and instruct them it would not seem exactly in place, and yet perhaps it might be in place, for those spirits might wish to know what was in us. It is in this manner that I do it at this time; it is not with a wish to instruct those that bear rule in the kingdom of God, but I suppose that they would like to know from us who have been at a distance, to know what kind of spirit we possess. Therefore as liberty is given to speak upon whatever subject is desired by the person addressing you, it may be supposed that every speaker will speak upon some favorite theme, that our spirits may be weighed in the balances and compared with the principles of the Gospel. I feel when I contemplate the principles of our holy religion very much as I do when I go into a very nice orchard and get hold of a good ripe peach, I naturally exclaim, this is excellent! I taste another, and say that is very good; of another I say it is luscious. Then I meet with some apples; I get hold of a Rhode Island Greening in the season thereof, and of course I say this is the finest going; then I get hold of a golden pippin and I think this is the finest of all. So I think with the spirits of great and good men in the Gospel; they are all best, and I do not know which to select of the principles of life and salvation. President Young gave us a key some time ago, to certain principles, and I thought I would make a few remarks upon a principle that seems to present itself to my mind. Suppose that there is in this town a man of honor, a man who fulfils his contracts, who never was known to cheat the laborer or cut him down in his price. His character is known; you enlist in his employment, and you have no doubt but you will be rewarded, and you know he is abundantly able and qualified to fulfil his word and promise, and you have no doubt or hesitancy in regard to receiving pay for your labor. You go on working and laboring, and you are confident that you will get your pay; not the least doubt in the world. Well, really, that is no more than we should do; it is no very high compliment to us, if while trusting in that individual and believing that we will get our pay and get justly rewarded unless we turn the tables and ask the question to ourselves, “Has that individual who has employed us got confidence in us, that we will execute and perform according to his wishes?” It is good to trust in the Lord, to repose confidence in what he has said to us, but it is better to secure and be sure that we have the confidence of the Almighty. When a man that you have employed in this service has proven that he is worthy, that he is faithful, wise, discreet, and understands what belongs to his duties in every branch of his profession, and who understands well how to keep all things in order, then he can be trusted and promoted according to his master’s pleasure.

Your employer has looked down upon you and seen your wisdom and the interest that you have taken in his affairs, till by-and-by it comes to something that is wanted to be done, then the employer goes to his master and says, “Sir, how shall I execute this piece of work? In what manner shall I perform this branch of business?” “Why,” says the master, “you understand my policy, and you understand that I have full confidence in you, therefore go and do it in a manner that will suit yourself.” Now, an employer won’t say that to every individual, but he might say it to one in whom he had the most unlimited confidence. May we not arrive at a point where we can secure the confidence of the Almighty, so that he will say, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. You know my policy; I have full confidence in you, indeed the light of Heaven shines in your hearts, and with this go and do as seemeth good unto you.” Arriving at this point may we not get the entire confidence of our heavenly Father in regard to all the duties that lie before us.

Now, it would not be a very high compliment for us to trust in that wealthy man who has plenty of means and who never violated his word, still it is good to trust in him; it shows that we consider him abundantly able and willing to fulfil his contracts. It is good to trust in the Lord, but what fool would not? There are some men who would not, especially if that trust touched their pockets. The gold, the silver, and everything that we own belongs to him, and we cannot trust too much in him. It is no very high compliment for us to say that we trust in the Lord; still it is good, it shows that we appreciate his policy and goodness; but when we can take a course of life to cause the Almighty to trust in us, and whenever he can find us to be a people in whom he can trust, then all those blessings referred by the President this morning will be poured out upon us. What will he put upon us when we show our obedience to his laws? He will take from the world their sovereignty and leave only desolation and confusion, and he will take the power which they claim to have and will transfer it to his chosen and anointed ones, just so soon as he can feel safe in doing so.

Well, brethren and sisters, I just wanted to impress this idea upon our minds. I say our, because I take it to myself, and it is my determination to pursue that course in all my teachings and in all my operations that will secure to me the confidence of our heavenly Father, the Lord being my helper. My heart is fully set to secure the confidence of the Almighty, and also of all the just ones.

May this be the desire and determination of every heart, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 9, 1862.

I am very much gratified with what I have heard from our brethren today. I think they have spoken well. I have been interested and instructed.

As I have often told you, I am unable to draw the dividing line between the spiritual and the temporal. We set apart one day in the week for the purpose of meeting together to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and to speak upon things which pertain to building up the kingdom of God on the earth. This is our business—this labor is upon us—and I do not know that we have anything else to do, for it comprehends the whole existence of man. Thus far we have been successful in this great work; in it we have been blessed, and in it we delight to be blessed.

Every person is seeking after happiness, and all persons pursue a course that seems to them to lead to the possession of happiness; when they pursue an opposite course to that they are fully aware of it. The most profligate and wicked person is always ready to acknowledge, when willing to tell the truth, that he knows that he does wrong and is not happy in doing so; and that, if he ever enjoys happiness, he must cease to do evil and learn to do well. We wish to obtain happiness; we wish to obtain our rights.

In regard to our political rights, I will ask, have we ever seen a day, since Joseph found the plates from which was taken the Book of Mormon until this day, in which the Christian, the moral, and the political world, or any other portion of the inhabitants of the earth, ever gave to Joseph Smith and his brethren one blessing that they could possibly keep from them? They have withheld every favor, every blessing, every accommodation that was possible for them to hold from the Latter-day Saints. Yet every move they have made has actually tended to sustain, build up, strengthen, and increase the very power they were trying to destroy. They have tried to destroy the truth, to hinder the increase of the Latter-day Saints, to lessen their numbers, rob them of their location and homes, and last of all drive them from what is called civilization. But the results of all these acts, instead of accomplishing what they desired, have given the Latter-day Saints territory and comparative independence. All the evil they have sought to bring upon us the Lord, through his inscrutable providence, has converted into blessings for his people.

We are infinitely more blessed by the persecutions and injustice we have suffered, than we could have been if we had remained in our habitations from which we have been driven—than if we had been suffered to occupy our farms, gardens, stores, mills, machinery, and everything we had in our former possessions. Had we not been persecuted, we would now be in the midst of the wars and bloodshed that are desolating the nation, instead of where we are, comfortably located in our peaceful dwellings in these silent, far off mountains and valleys. Instead of seeing my brethren comfortably seated around me today, many of them would be found in the front ranks on the battle field. I realize the blessings of God in our present safety. We are greatly blessed, greatly favored and greatly exalted, while our enemies, who sought to destroy us, are being humbled.

We want our political rights, and they are here within our reach; we need not go to California, Oregon, Washington Territory, Nebraska, Missouri, nor New York to obtain them. The people are here, and they possess rights. We have a right to labor, to accumulate food and clothing, to gather the various products of the earth, to cut the timber and saw it into boards, to make adobies and quarry rock and build habitations, and then we have a right to inhabit them. We have a right to drink of the water that flows from the mountains, and we have a right to get up in the morning when we are sufficiently rested. We have a right to go to the canyons after wood, or to harness our teams and go on a visit to Davis, Utah, or any other county. We have also a right to assemble, as we did a short time ago, in the capacity of a mass meeting, and we have a right to say that we will have laws, rules, and regulations for the public good, and officers and adjudicators of the laws. It is our right to frame our own laws, and to elect our own officers to administer them.

We were told this morning, that some brethren prayed but did not believe they would receive an answer. I do not find fault with them for this, but I say, pray on until you can make yourselves believe that your prayers will be fully answered according to that which is best for you to receive. Self-argument is the most effectual argument that can be used. Let each person argue himself into the belief that God will grant to him his request in righteousness. Some people are naturally of a doubtful mind, and have to contend continually against unbelief.

The enemies of God and truth do not love us any better this year than they did last year, nor will their love for us increase in the year that is to come. They would dethrone the Almighty, and would have destroyed Joseph Smith, when he had not three men to stand by him, had they the power to do so; and they would blot out every vestige of this kingdom if they could. The body may be destroyed, but the spirit still lives.

According to the Constitution of our Government, we have rights in common with our fellow countrymen. We have a right to settle in any unoccupied and unclaimed part of the public domain owned by our Government, where the machinery of the Government has not extended, and there govern and control ourselves according to republican principles; and the Congress of the United States is not authorized in the least, by the Constitution that governs it, to make laws for that new settlement, and appoint adjudicators and administrators of the law for it, any more than we have a right to make laws and appoint administrators of the law for California, Ohio, Illinois, or Missouri. This, however, is done by the Congress of the United States; but it is an assumption of power not within the Constitution of the American Republic. When Congress, or the President of the United States, appoints a governor for a territory, that appointment is not according to the Constitution, though it is according to laws enacted by Congress. In “Amendments to the Constitution of the United States,” articles nine and ten, it is definitely stated that, “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

We were told this morning that we shall not always be driven. Were we driven in 1857 and 1858? No. And they might have traveled up and down Ham’s Fork to this day, and we still would have remained here enjoying our safe retreat. They had no power, and did not exercise any.

I say to the enemies of truth that I can tell them the words that are spoken in their private counsels. The very thoughts of their hearts are made known to me. They lay their plans to accomplish such and such a work in so long a time, and then plan a movement to destroy the “Mormons.” That is what they talk about and what is in their hearts, but they will be disappointed in it all. Every time they make a movement against this kingdom they will sink still lower in the scale of national power, while the kingdom of God will rise more and more in influence and importance in the eyes of all people.

If any of you are afraid, think not that you can escape danger by fleeing to the States east, or west to California, “For it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare.” Again, “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”

The valleys of Utah are the safest places in the world. There is not another place upon this globe where a people can with more safety assert their rights before the heavens and in the face of all men. Look at those ranges of rocky peaks with which we are surrounded, for “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.” “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” “The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.” Therefore, O Israel, fear not. If any are afraid, search out among the caves of the impregnable rocks safe places to store up grain and other nutritious substances, and when trouble comes you can retire and crawl into your hiding places, while the more courageous of your brethren shall fight your battles, and we will whip your enemies soundly, God being our helper.

When I think of the weakness and littleness of men, and the folly of their trying to thwart the purposes of the Almighty, it makes me feel like the Prophet Elijah—“For it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” I laugh at their folly; God laughs at their folly. So long as the Latter-day Saints will live their religion, they shall never be confounded, worlds without end. Never be afraid; your hearts are brave, your arms are strong, and God is our defense. There are those among us who are timid, and are apt to flee from under the protecting care of our heavenly Father, and be caught weak and unprotected by the very enemy they are trying to escape from.

We will cling to the Constitution of our country, and to the Government that reveres that sacred charter of freemen’s rights; and, if necessary, pour out our best blood for the defense of every good and righteous principle.

I heard a gentleman say, not long ago, that he was going to stick to the Union. When the Southern revolt transpired, it was asked of him, “Where is the Union now? There are now two Governments, instead of one.” His reply was, that he should stick to the Government that protected him in the possession of freemen’s rights. The spirit and letter of our Constitution and laws will always give us our rights, and under them we could have served God in Missouri and Illinois as well as in the courts of high heaven. But the administrators of the law trampled it under their feet, and willfully and openly desecrated the holy principles held forth in the Constitution of our country.

The kingdom of God has sustained me a good while, and I mean to stick to it. We shall form a State Government, and you need not fear any consequences that may arise from such a course. You may tell your neighbors that in this step we do not violate any law, nor in the least transcend the bounds of our rights. If we do not do this, we are living beneath those rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence, and the privileges granted to us in the Constitution of the United States which our fathers bought so dearly for us. Let us unfurl the stars and stripes—the flag of our country; let us sustain the Constitution that our fathers have bequeathed to us in letters of blood; and those who violate it will have to meet the crushing and damning penalties that will bury them in the mire of everlasting disgrace. If we sustain it, it will be sustained; otherwise it will not.

Let us so live that the spirits and power of our religion will be constantly with us; that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion, opening for us an unobstructed intercourse with our heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ, and all is right—there is no danger then. Our own evils make for us danger; and if chastisement comes upon us, it is the result of our own unrighteous acts. But if we live our religion, honor our God and his Priesthood, then we shall honor every wholesome government and law there is upon the earth, and become aliens to all unrighteous, unjust, and unlawful administrators, wherever they may be found. In the various nations, kingdoms, and governments of the world are to be found laws, ordinances and statutes as good as can be made for mortal man.

We have forsaken the kingdom of darkness, have come out in open rebellion to the power of the Devil on this earth, and I for one will fight him, so help me God, as long as there is breath in my body, and do all in my power to overthrow his government and rule. And if he complains that I am infringing upon his ground, I shall very politely ask him to go to his own place, where he belongs. If any among this community want to sustain the Government of the Devil, in preference to the kingdom of God, I wish them to go where they belong. I want to sustain the government of Heaven, and shall stick fast to it, by the help of God. If we sustain it, it will build us up and crown us with victory and eternal life.

There is not a man upon the earth who can magnify even an earthly office, without the power and wisdom of God to aid him. When Mr. Fillmore appointed me Governor of Utah, I proclaimed openly that my Priesthood should govern and control that office. I am of the same mind today. We have not yet received our election returns; but, should I be elected Governor of the State of Deseret, that office shall be sustained and controlled by the power of the eternal Priesthood of the Son of God, or I will walk the office under my feet. Hear it, both Saint and sinner, and send it to the uttermost parts of the earth, that whatever office I hold from any Government on this earth shall honor the Government of heaven, or I will not hold it.

There was a notice read today for the High Council to meet next Thursday. I would like to see the High Council and Bishops and all Judges filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, that when a person comes before them they can read and understand that person, and be able to decide a case quickly and justly. When men have a just appreciation of right and wrong, their decision can be made as well the first minute after hearing a statement of the case, as to waste hours and days to make it. I would like the Bishops and other officers to have sufficient power and wisdom from God to make them fully aware of the true nature of every case that may come before them. But there are some of our great men who are so ignorant that a personal favor will so bias their minds that they will twist the truth and sustain a person in evil. This principle is to be found, more or less, in the old, middle-aged, and youth. Some, with a trifling consideration, can so prejudice the mind of a High Councilor, a High Priest, a Bishop, or an Apostle, that he will lean to the individual instead of the truth. I despise a man that would offer me money to buy me to his favor. Goodness will always find stout supporters in the good, and need not to buy favor. The man who tries to buy the influence of another to cover up his iniquity, will go to hell.

The kingdom of God is indebted to no man; though a man should give to it all he possesses, he has only given that which the Lord put in his possession, and is not excusable in sin on that account, for in giving his all to the kingdom of God he has done no more than his duty. I hate to see a man bought. I hate to see High Councilors bought. It is good to hold on to an old friend; and, no matter how many new friends I have, I always hold fast to the old ones and never let them go, unless their wicked conduct breaks the thread of fellowship between us. But with all the friends I have, I hope in God never to see the day, while I live, that I cannot decide a case as the Almighty would, whether it goes against friend or foe. What my friends have done for me, and the deep affection I bear them, are not taken into account in the consideration of right and wrong. Let me judge in righteousness before God, if it cuts off every friend I have.

May the Lord bless you. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Ezra T. Benson, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, March 8, 1862.

I do not arise with any desire to interfere with the call of brother George A. Smith for brethren to go to the cotton district of our Territory, for I am very much in favor of brethren going to locate in the different settlements of Washington County to raise cotton and such other staple articles as are necessary for the welfare and prosperity of the Saints, and for the building up of Zion in the last days.

I live in the north part of the Territory, in Cache Valley, as most of you are aware, and I wish to say to those who are not wanted to go south, that if any of you feel like moving into the country, we would like to strengthen the settlements in our valley, and especially in the northern part of the County. By way of inducement we can promise you plenty of bread, if you will go there and help to till the earth and put in the seed in the season thereof, paying proper attention to your crops in the season when irrigation is required. It is a new country, possessing good facilities for stock raising, and in fact every facility for making home and friends comfortable and happy.

So far as I am individually concerned, it matters not to me what part of the Territory I go to labor or to reside in, if I can know and feel that I am doing the will of Heaven and carrying out the counsel and instruction of my brethren who preside in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From the experience I have had in traveling with the President on his last mission south, I am able to say in all sincerity before God and my brethren, that all my prejudices are removed, and I feel perfectly willing to labor in any part of the Lord’s vineyard wherever my services are required.

Now we want about a hundred good sturdy fellows that feel themselves able to go to work to raise wheat and cattle, and to do all that is necessary for the beautifying and building up of Zion. It is a good place to raise flax, hemp, and vegetables. To be sure the altitude is considerably greater than it is in many other parts of the Territory, but this should not prevent us from performing our duties. If we are called to labor there that is the place for us to exert ourselves. It is sometimes argued that there is too much water there, and others will urge that there are too many Indians there; but, my feeling and the feeling of the brethren up there is to follow the counsel of our President and leader, and to labor in concert with all those who are set to guide our footsteps in the building up of Zion. We feel perfectly satisfied in doing this, for we know that while we pursue this course we are performing the duties that devolve upon us as Saints of God. We feel satisfied with our lot and place, and rejoice in the blessings that are bestowed upon us in that portion of our mountain home, and we feel to pray that we may ever be so in whatever position we may be called to labor for the accomplishment of the purposes of the Almighty.

May the Lord our God bless us and enable us to carry out the instructions that have been given us this day. This conference has been a happy time, and I can truly say that I have never felt better in our holy religion than I do today, and I know that the counsel that has been given to us is for our salvation.

You all know when you feel well, and you all know the Gospel of the Son of God, and there is nothing will give you satisfaction but the doctrines taught by the servants of God.

I bear my testimony to the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed by the Prophet Joseph, and to the correctness of the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; also to the revelations given through the prophets of God both ancient and modern.

May God Almighty preserve us in the faith, enable us to round up our shoulders, and assist in bearing the burden of the kingdom. When we have anything to say to our families let it be according to the counsel of the Spirit of God, that union may prevail. We all know that there is plenty for the Saints to feast upon, but some are too apt to look upon the dark side of the picture, instead of remembering the blessings promised to us by the Prophets of God. Why should we shrink from our position for one moment, when we have so many glorious blessings promised unto us?

Let us strive to be of one heart and one mind and all will be well with us. God bless you, my brethren and sisters, is my sincere prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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

The spirit and the body are the soul of man, and one is not perfect without the other, any more than we can be perfect in the immortal state without those who have gone before us, or they without us. There will be a restitution of all things in heaven and on earth to make things perfect. That which we call this present life, in reality, has no end; that which we call time is in reality eternity. We say the dead have departed this life as though they had departed to some other life. This, however, is not so; dying is like going from one room to another, or from one part of the earth to another, the life still exists though the body decays, but the life which dwelt in it is indestructible.

We read of men who have been translated, but they must pass through a change which is equal to death, for it is appointed that all men shall die, and after that cometh the judgment. These things are not new to you, but it is well to speak of them that we may constantly be reminded that we shall live forever in some state. If this were not so, then immortality would be as an idle tale, and utter annihilation must follow the dissolution of this body. By observing strictly the precepts of the Gospel, we can learn how to live forever, and how to receive our tabernacles again in the morning of the first resurrection, to dwell on this earth forever. To attain the possession of these blessings, we must live worthy of them.

There is no sin more heinous in the sight of God than the sin of ingratitude. All beings that pertain to this earth, whether visible or invisible, draw their sustenance from it. The heavens and the earth associate together and minister one to the other. If the earthly is separated from the heavenly, or the temporal from the spiritual, then is the earthly or the temporal dead; the one is necessary to the other for a fulness of joy and an endless duration. The earth abideth the law by which it was made; if it could break that law it would have to receive damnation. If we violate the law by which we were made, then we forfeit our title to exaltation and eternal lives. The earth is the mother of us all, and from its bosom we are fed, and receive our growth and strength as an infant receives its nourishment from the maternal breast. I want us to obtain power to dedicate and consecrate the earth unto God, that his Spirit may continue upon it forever; that by this means the earthly may partake of the attributes of the heavenly, and become sanctified and prepared to enter the presence of God.

It is often said here that this people are blessed above all other people; this is truly so. We are in the mountains; we did not come here of our own accord, but we came by the will of the Father. We are in the tops of the mountains where the prophet said the people of God would be in the last days. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” The ancient prophets have joy in seeing the fulfilment of the words they spoke when they were upon the earth. Jesus spake a parable to the Pharisees and Scribes, saying—“What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray? And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” We are here at home in the tops of the mountains; and there was joy in heaven when we embraced the truth and were gathered into this safe fold. The sheep that are still scattered need our aid and pity. Those that are at home, many of them, think they ought to be pitied now more than anybody else, when there are thousands still wandering from the true fold. We shall be the saviors of men sooner or later if we are faithful, and shall have power to redeem and save mankind through the atonement made by Jesus Christ.

Why should those who are in the house, well fed and clad, be jealous and envious of a poor sheep I may seek and save? If we cannot save a person temporally, it is a very hard case to save him spiritually, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” That is, let every man save himself as far as he can. The Saints that are yet scattered among the nations are as good people as we are, but they cannot get away from their present bondage; they have not the means necessary to work out their temporal deliverance. This year we will probably give you a chance to help to gather in the sheep that are still wandering in the desert, seeking the friendly shelter of this fold which we so happily enjoy. I understand President Young intends to call for five hundred teams this season to send to the frontiers for the Saints. Some have supposed that so many teams could not be loaded. The teams we sent down last year were loaded to the brim, and those this year will be to their utmost capacity. It is a true saying that “God helps them that help themselves;” and the Savior says, “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you.” If we send down teams and say to the poor Saints among all nations, Come—shall we be frustrated in our noble design? We shall not, for that would not be in keeping with the character of God, nor with the character of his angels.

Who are his angels? They are men who stood fast through tribulation; they are prophets and apostles and patriarchs who once lived upon the earth, and bore testimony of the truth of the Gospel of the Son of God, the same Gospel that we preach. If we try to gather the poor, the Lord and his angels will help us and open the way before us, and as we return with the poor Saints to this land he will shut up the way behind us. It is our privilege to step forth and show ourselves approved, and if it is not the mind of the Lord we should prosper in the way and at the time we wish, let us be contented, knowing that we have shown our good will. If the Lord tells us to do anything and our enemies hinder us, the Lord will require it at their hands and they must pay that debt, and fully satisfy the demands of justice. One half of the people we gather may not be true Saints, but that makes no difference, for if there is not more than one Saint to ten who profess to be Saints, the Almighty will preserve the ten unworthy persons for the sake of the one good Saint. For the sake of a few true-hearted Saints traveling in a large company, the Lord will preserve their ships, the cars they travel on, and their teams; this I know from actual experience from the first day I entered into this Church to this day. God is the same today as he was in the days of the great flood, he loves and respects his friends, and so should we love and respect the faithful and true, and nourish and cherish them. We have not proved the Saints that are scattered abroad, nor they us; they may have proved themselves with their brethren in their own country and kept the commandments; but out of a thousand persons whom we emigrate, if we get only one hundred Saints how great will be our joy with them in the kingdom of our Father.

Let the brethren be ready when the call is made upon them to supply teams, and if the call is not made, then they are prepared to go to plowing and cultivating the ground and filling the earth with seed.

We are now partaking of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper; when we partake of the bread, let us pray the Father that strength may be given to our bodies that they may not wither, but be strengthened to reach a good old age; when we partake of the wine—or water, which is emble– matic of his blood, let us ask the Father that our blood may never be spilled unless it is necessary for the advancement of his Kingdom and the glory of God. We are in the true fold and are fed with the bread of life, the Word of God, which, if we receive faithfully and truly, will create within us that which will be as a well of water, springing up to everlasting life, and we shall never be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of God, for we shall partake of the attributes of our Heavenly Father. My prayer is that our hearts may become pregnant with the word of God and with the power of God, showing our connection with God, with Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Ghost, with the angels, and with the prophets and apostles that dwell in heaven.

I will make another remark regarding angels. God sent an angel to John on the Isle of Patmos, and John says, concerning it, “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God.” Men are made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, but when men are clothed with the holy priesthood and sent forth to minister the word of life, the comparison between them and the angels is somewhat different. “And of his angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” While in the act of ministering the Gospel, the servants of God may be considered angels. “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for some have entertained angels unawares.” The servants of God are angels in one sense, sent forth to gather the house of Israel from the four corners of the earth; and the Elders of this Church in their labors have fulfilled, partly, the sayings of the Savior, when they have found two working in the field, one has received the Gospel and been gathered, and the other left; two working in a mill, one has been taken and the other left; two lying in a bed, the one has been taken and the other left. But no doubt these sayings will have their final and complete fulfilment about the time of the second coming of the Savior. “For as in the days of Noah that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Again, there are hundreds who profess to receive the Gospel from our hands, and the sacrament, but they do not receive the power of God, and do not gather with the true sheep into the sheepfold. There are scores of people in England that I baptized twenty-six years ago, who are there yet, firm and steadfast, so I hear—they will be gathered to the fold in due time. The angels of this Church travel without purse and scrip, they are destitute of the means necessary to bring them along; but we are watching for an opportunity to deliver them, before universal destruction shall come upon the wicked nations.

The Lord sent three angels to watch over Abraham and Lot anciently. They stayed with Abraham, and Sarah baked a cake apiece for them; Abraham killed a calf, and supplied butter and milk to refresh them, after they had washed their feet. Jacob, on one occasion, wrestled with an angel all night long, but could not throw him. Jacob had hold of a being full of spring and power like unto a man, and he did not know the difference; he was a man and an angel. We are exhorted daily to conduct ourselves like the angels of God, to try and be like them: we are ex– horted to be godlike; and to be godlike is to do as God wishes us to do. God feeds the wicked and the good, clothes the righteous and the unrighteous, and is merciful to all the workmanship of his hands. I see the necessity of being more pure, more merciful, more faithful, and more true. If we pursue this course, my brethren and sisters, how great will be our blessings. No blessing will be withheld from the truly faithful. When a man is placed to preside over us, let us nourish and sustain that man as though he were an angel direct from the presence of God. I wish you to understand and appreciate what I say, and treasure it up.

A man who raises up his puny arm against the priesthood of God on the earth, is measuring arms with the Almighty. If an unfaithful wife shall raise the standard of war against her husband who is faithful to God, she is making war against the Almighty, and she will be wasted away, and she will ultimately curse God and die.

May God bless his people from the rivers to the ends of the earth, in all their settlements and abiding places. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered by Elder George A. Smith, September 4, 1859

At the request of my brethren, I arise to offer a few remarks. And in order to give them to some extent the character of a sermon, I will read the seventh verse of the third chapter of the Prophet Amos—“Surely the Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

It is my design merely to draw the attention of our friends to the subject presented in this text. When God has a people upon the face of the earth he can own and bless as his, he always has Prophets among them. “Surely,” says the Prophet Amos, “the Lord will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

Now, it is not certain that the Prophet always reveals those secrets unto the people. It may happen in many instances, that the Lord will reveal unto his servants the Prophets many things that are to come, and yet leave those who are not enlightened by the Spirit of Prophecy to wait until those things transpire before they are apprised of them.

There appears to be in the midst of the Saints a very great stress laid upon the word “prophet,” and the words of Amos seem to be definitely pointed at in the minds of a great many individuals, to show, as it were, there was but one. But when the Spirit of the Lord was poured out in the camp of Israel, and Eldad and Medad began to prophesy, persons whose minds were contracted went to Moses and complained that Eldad and Medad were prophesying. “Would to God,” said Moses “that all the Lord’s people were prophets!” There are in the Church a variety of gifts, and these gifts are all combined together, and are necessary for the development of the principles we understand, the diffusion of knowledge, and the complete organization of the whole body. There are Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers, and all these officers bring about the great and complete organization of the whole. In tracing through the history of the sacred writings, we find that the Lord in some instances chose men that were ignorant. I presume he did this in many instances from necessity, for those who had been learned in the world were seldom found to possess humility enough to humble themselves before the Lord to get the Spirit of Prophecy, and to be a Prophet is to have the Spirit of Prophecy, and to have the testimony of Jesus, “for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” nothing more nor nothing less. The man who can testify that Jesus is the Christ has this testimony, and as he improves upon his gift he becomes a Prophet. It is not one individual, it is not three, it is not twelve individuals, but it is for all the Saints who have the testimony of Jesus and live in the exercise of that testimony. A man that does not foresee by the Spirit of God, who does not learn things to come by it, is not living up to his privilege and profession, is not living in the enjoyment of that testimony which he has received; he is blinded by the mists of darkness and is liable to fall into a snare. The Apostle Peter in exhorting his brethren tells them that it was necessary they should add to their faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, that you will be made partakers of the Divine mind, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you will know for yourselves of the principles and the doctrines which you have received. The storms of adversity which surround us amount to nothing with the man who has this knowledge planted in his breast, he cares not for slanders, for abuse, for sacrifices or losses of earthly goods. He who does not possess this testimony, and is not made a partaker of the Divine nature, and does not struggle to attain to exaltation, is turning away and falling into darkness. It is strange to me that persons who have been many years in this Church, who have borne their testimony of the truth of the work of God in the last days many times, should finally come to the conclusion that they have gone astray, and must go in some other direction. Why is this? It is simply because they have suffered the mists of darkness to overcome them; they have not lived up to the principles they have professed, and instead of advancing to be made partakers of the divine nature and overcome the wiles that are in the world through lust, they suffer them to have dominion over them, and they fall back into darkness. When the storm of persecution surrounds us, then, of course, we are apt to be zealous, but when we are as it were left to ourselves we are tried in another way; and when the Lord commenced giving revelations to this people he said to them, through his servant Joseph, that they should be tried in all things. If there is any one thing that is calculated to try us more than another, that thing we may expect to encounter. I know this people will bear poverty and affliction, they will bear persecution, they will suffer their houses to be burned, their property to be destroyed, and sacrifice what the Lord has given them of earthly goods, expose themselves to suffering and hardship for the sake of the principles they have received, joyfully; but how many of these, when the smiles of Providence have beamed upon them, when prosperity has surrounded them, and they have been blessed and are in affluent circumstances, have forgotten the Lord, like the Prophet said of Jeshurun, “They waxed fat, and kicked, and forgot the Lord.” Such is the fact with hundreds of Latter-day Saints. Now a man that expects to be exalted to thrones and dominions must be just as good a Saint when he is surrounded with wealth, with the comforts and blessings of life in abundance, as he is, when he is in poverty—when being robbed of his possessions, and deprived of the means of subsistence; and the one condition is just as necessary to try some individuals as the other condition is to try any other.

From the time that I first became acquainted with the principles of this Church, I have watched the progress of the development of the Spirit of Prophecy among the Saints. I have never made pretensions to prophesy, though many things have been made manifest to me before they were fulfilled. I have foreseen many results which have been astonishing, in many instances, to others. The man that wishes to know the future let him study well the present, let him be careful that the present is all right; that the principles which he professes are not abused; that he lives up to the doctrines which he has received, and that he maintains his integrity towards his fellow beings as God requires at his hands; let him do this, and the future will be unfolded to him, and he will be prepared for it just as fast as necessary.

As Elder Middlemas said, he knew some things that were manifested to him, and knew how it would be beforehand. There are hundreds that can foresee by the Spirit of the Almighty, the Spirit of Prophecy, things that are to come to pass, without being able to know the precise manner how it will be effected. But I can tell you from the day of Joseph Smith’s first commencement to testify of the things of God unto the present, that the very results that have been predicted have come to pass, but the manner has seldom been understood until it came. When the Saints were in Jackson County, surrounded by our enemies who were determined to destroy us, and had no other idea but what the steps that were being taken would put an utter end to our organization as a religious society, the future was as plainly laid open to thousands, and the present time was as plainly understood by hundreds of the Saints as it is now. The future is before us and many can look into it and know its results. This is the work of the Almighty. God has set his hand in the last days to esta– blish a people on the earth, he has not only commenced to do it, but is now accomplishing it—all the efforts of our enemies to hinder it to the contrary; and all efforts to stay its progress will be futile. They may cast men into prison, cause men to make great sacrifices, cause them to be brought into trying circumstances and endure much suffering, but the result is a fixed fact, no man can help it, no power can interfere with it, even the folly and corruptions of men that profess to be associated with the Saints cannot stay its progress. The work has commenced and onward it will roll, and no power can stay it. I know it is so. They may destroy my life, they may destroy yours, they may cause us to see much sorrow and trouble, place us in a hundred unpleasant positions; the corruptions of our own brethren may cause our hearts to bleed; our blood may be spilled, our enemies may beset us on every side, but we are engaged in the work of the Almighty God who says in the Doctrine and Covenants, “I will save those who fall in the defense of Zion.” Brethren, let us then be faithful, and diligently observe and do all things that are required at our hands by our heavenly Father, that the light of his countenance may constantly shine upon us, for we are engaged in the great and glorious work he has commenced in the last days. His hand steadies the ark, his arm guides and sustains it, his Divine mind, will and power control it, and all that has been done by those who have interfered with it, simply shows the weakness and vanity of men that think to stay the hand of the Almighty. And this testimony I bear continually. It is a day for us to act, to act upon principle, to conquer ourselves by doing right, and while we conquer ourselves by doing right we are enabled to control others. What we do, we should do because it is right, and refuse to do wrong.

And the great questions that should reign in our breast are, What is right? What is wrong? And when we are not certain, wait until we understand, until we know we are right, and then go ahead. May the blessing of Israel’s God rest upon us, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.