Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, July 7, 1872.

The administration of the Sacrament is an occasion which calls us, one and all, to reflection, to inquire of ourselves in relation to our course of conduct in life—whether the journey we have pursued, the paths that we are traveling, are in accordance with the holy principles of that reli– gion which has been revealed for our salvation, and which we have received. While I have visited the cities of the East, I have observed that a great amount of means has been expended in the construction and ornamenting of churches and edifices for public worship. Every city, every village is beautified with magnificent buildings, stately domes, elegant spires, erected in honor and for the purpose of religion, and I have reflected upon the influence of this religion upon the minds of a community. In visiting friends I found many who are professors of religion, who seem to have an utter disregard for any forms of worship whatever, and who totally neglect prayer in the family and grace at the table. I am not aware, of course, whether or not this is general among Christians; but I notice among the Latter-day Saints, that it seems to be very natural to be slothful and negligent and careless in relation to our everyday, simple duties. We may build temples, erect stately domes, magnificent spires, grand towers, in honor of our religion, but if we fail to live the principles of that religion at home, and to acknowledge God in all our thoughts, we shall fall short of the blessings which its practical exercise would ensure.

While the Sacrament is passed around, and we take the emblems of our Savior’s death and suffering, and realize the sacrifice which he made for our salvation, we should ask ourselves, Do we remember him in all things? Do we acknowledge his hand in the providences with which we are surrounded? Do we call upon him in our families and in secret? Or do we neglect our duties, do we miss praying with our families in the morning, and have not time to do so in the evening, and are in such a hurry that we cannot even ask his blessing upon our food, and cannot take time to attend meeting on the Sabbath, nor afford to devote the day to rest, meditation and study? Let us also ask these questions of ourselves, Are we honorable in our relations with each other? Do we do by our neighbor as we would that he should do unto us? Are we just in our dealings? Are we honoring those principles of morality which alone can prepare us to inherit celestial glory? Brethren and sisters, if we ask ourselves these questions, and, after examining our conduct and career, can answer them honestly and truthfully in the affirmative, then we may partake of the bread and water in the presence of our heavenly Father worthily. If, on the other hand, we have been negligent and careless, we should repent, for repentance is our first duty.

Since I last saw you, I have visited the scenes of my childhood, and the place of my birth, after an absence of about forty years. My ideas of right and wrong were formed there; my associations with the people, up to fifteen years of age, were such as to give deep and strong impressions of their character, and of the principles by which they were governed. I cannot say that my visit was without its painful character. Forty years sweep from the face of the earth more than a generation. I understand statisticians to estimate that thirty-three years carry as many souls from the earth as dwell on it at one time. I went into my native town after forty years’ absence, and inquired for those who were the businessmen in my boyhood, for the magistrates, ministers, merchants, farmers and mechanics with whom I was acquainted then. Where were they? Nearly all dead; a very few of the old faces, like ancient oaks, remain. On my father’s farm there was a beautiful grove of maple—some two hundred trees, standing when I was there before, with no other timber among them, the ground sown with white clover—it was one of the most beautiful lawns I ever saw when I left it. I drove up before the house in which I was born, and said to the man who was residing there, “Is that grove standing?” “Not a maple tree on the farm,” was the reply. “Not a single one?” said I. “No,” said he, “not a maple on the farm.” I had not even the curiosity to drive across the farm, for in my mind that grove was the feature of all others, it was the place of my dreams.

Many of you know that in 1853 we had difficulty with the Indians in Southern Utah. At that time I was military commander of the Southern Department. Previous to every attack on the settlement, my dreams would carry me back to that grove, and there I would see, or get some intimation of, the coming trouble with the Indians. Now there is not a tree left. It would have been about so with the people if I had stayed away a few years longer.

I went into the school district where I had resided some six years, and visited Mr. Porter Patterson, with whom I was well acquainted in my boyhood, and began inquiring for the neighbors. “Why,” said he, “they are all gone but four: myself and wife, and Mr. John Stafford and Mrs. Garfield are all the married people that remain that lived here when you went away, thirty-nine years and two months ago.” “Then,” said I, “I must go to the graveyard.”

These reflections would bring to my mind the sermons that I had heard in my youth. I went to the cemetery, and saw the graves of a great many of my old comrades. There were headstones with inscrip– tions to many whom I had known, and some whose funerals I had attended, and I could recite texts, and a portion of the sermons preached at those funerals. They were generally passages like this—“Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” Passages of this kind were generally selected as warnings to all to be ready for death.

From the monuments in the graveyard I found that a good many had been summoned in their youth, for there were the graves of boys and girls with whom I had associated, some of them my relatives. I visited three cemeteries with a like result—the one in our own neighborhood, one in Colton and the other in Potsdam village, in all of which I had been more or less acquainted.

Latter-day Saints, in their preaching, call on men and women to prepare to live, and they teach them how to live, believing that if any person is prepared to live as he ought to, he will certainly be prepared to die whenever the summons shall come. It was never a part or portion of our teaching to attempt to scare men to heaven. I went to the meetinghouse, or rather to the site of the meetinghouse, for the old frame building had been replaced by another of bricks, and it converted into a lecture room for the normal school. In that old frame building I had been most solemnly sentenced to eternal damnation, nine times, by a Congregationalist minister forty years ago. He had gone to his grave, and nearly all the persons present in the congregation at the time, had followed, or preceded, him. The object of this sentence, in the eloquent and solemn language in which it was pronounced, and so oft-repeated, was, no doubt, to stir in the minds of impenitent sinners, and of me particularly, a conviction that would secure conversion to Christianity, as I was considered impenitent; and I do not know but the proper phrase would be, to scare me to heaven. But it did not have that effect with me, I never could understand nor realize certain portions of the teachings which I there heard. That I must become so thoroughly in love with the justice of God as to be perfectly willing to be damned to all eternity for his glory, and suffer all the miseries which they so eloquently described, was to me an impossibility, I could see no justice in such doctrines. But those were times of great religious excitement, when revivals and protracted meetings were common all over the country, and the souls of many were stirred to the very core, as it were, by the idea, then so strongly advocated, of the punishment and misery which were to be eternally inflicted upon all those who were finally impenitent. Those sermons divided the Christian world into two classes, one was made celestial, inheriting all the blessings and glory which a God could bestow; the other was banished to eternal misery.

When the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints were preached to me I could understand them. I could believe in faith and repentance, in the principle of obedience, and in the doctrines of baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and that God had provided for all beings that he ever created, a glory, honor and immortality in accordance with their works, whether good or evil, giving, as a matter of course, to the faithful Latter-day Saints, the reserved seats; or to use the language of the Apostle Paul, I could believe that there was a glory of the sun, a glory of the moon, and a glory of the stars, and that the glory of the stars differed as much as the stars differ in brilliancy; and that all sects, denominations and classes of people would receive punishments and rewards in accordance with his divine justice. Every Latter-day Saint that abides in the truth, faithful, to the end, may expect the glory of the sun; and every man that acts in accordance with the light that he possesses lays a foundation for greater glory and honor than eye has seen, or than it has entered into the heart of mortal man to conceive.

I did not visit these graves with the feeling that some of the ministers of orthodox churches sought to impress upon my mind in my youth—I did not believe that they were consigned to eternal punishment because they believed differently from what I did. I went there feeling a confidence that honorable men and women would receive honorable treatment from a just God. In speaking on this subject, I designed simply to wake up the hearts of my brethren and sisters to the necessity of maintaining this honor, and to the fact that, as we advance in the things of the kingdom, greater sacrifices and more faith and diligence are required on our part.

I visited, in the course of my journey, the place where Joseph Smith’s father was born—Topsfield, Massachusetts. I was in the house he was born in, and upon the farm where the family had resided three generations previous, they having resided in that county—Essex—as early as 1666. One object of my visit was to obtain some historical information in relation to the family of Joseph Smith. It was about eighty-one years since my grandfather moved away from that place, at which time my father was eleven years old, and Joseph’s father twenty-one, they being bro– thers. It would seem strange that, after the lapse of eighty-one years, I should find anyone who knew my grandfather, yet I saw several persons who stated that they were personally acquainted with him, although they could not remember when he moved away; but after doing so, he returned to that neighborhood, and visited his relatives and acquaintances, and they had distinct recollections of him, and gave me reminiscences of his history.

The graveyard at Topsfield contained no monuments over about eighty years old. I do not recollect the exact date. Among the oldest were the names of my great aunts and other relatives. Being a firm believer in the doctrine of baptism for the dead, I was anxious to procure the names of those departed persons wherever our records might be deficient, and I have, I believe, a prospect of obtaining the names of about nine hundred of the kindred of my great grandmother—Priscilla Gould.

The old portion of the burying ground at Topsfield, used by the early inhabitants, is totally without monuments—no gravestones whatever, so that I presume they simply used headboards or monuments of wood; and the place is now reserved as a sacred precinct in which, we were told that any of the kindred of those ancient worthies of the town might plant gravestones if they choose, but no person is allowed to be buried there. The cemetery had been enlarged, and from eighty years ago down to the present time there had been placed there many gravestones and handsome obelisks, some manifesting the pride and aristocracy of those who placed them there. I noticed one particularly, on which was inscribed a notice to the effect that the person buried there was a millionaire. It did not say whether he obtained money honestly or by some other means.

In visiting the office of the town clerk, I examined the record kept by my great grandfather in 1776-8, at which time he was the clerk of that town. I also found, by examining the records ten years before then, that he had represented the town in the Legislature of the Colony of Massachusetts, and was a very firm supporter of the Revolution. Just as I was about leaving the office to go to the railway station, I was told by the clerk that he had a list of the names of the children of Robert Smith in the town record. Robert Smith was supposed by us to be the first of our family who settled in Massachusetts, sometime previous to the year 1665. I there ascertained what our family records fail to show. Our records show that he had a son Samuel, and that Samuel had a son Samuel, and that Samuel had a son Samuel and a son Asael, and Asael was our grandfather; but I ascertained that this Robert Smith had a large family, and their names are contained in that old town record.

The Genealogical Society of Massachusetts has got out books containing the records of some hundreds of the families of the oldest settlers of the colony. If our friends here, whose ancestors were buried in New England, would unite in purchasing an entire set of these works, they would be enabled to find collateral, if not direct, branches of their kindred; and so obtain a key to help them in making the necessary records to attend to the ordinances for their dead. But our faith is, brethren and sisters, that when we have exhausted all the powers within our natural reason and reach to obtain a knowledge of our dead, and the Lord is satisfied with us, revelations will be opened to our understandings by which we will be able to trace back our genealogy to the time when men were within the pale of the principles and laws of the Priesthood, before these ordinances were changed and the everlasting covenant broken.

In conversing with Mr. Zaccheus Gould and his wife, of Topsfield, over eighty years old, and Dr. Humphrey Gould, of Rowe, who were cousins, of my father, I was enabled to pick up many very satisfactory items of information. I am also under obligation to Mr. John H. Gould, of Topsfield, and to the town clerk of that place, Mr. Towne, for valuable letters and papers relating to the history of our family, all of which, as they relate to the ancestry of Joseph Smith, will form an interesting page in connection with his history when it shall be published.

I do not design, in conversing with you at the present time, to enumerate the visits I made, though they remind me of a remark made concerning me by my grandfather on the last day of his life. He died in his eighty-eighth year, I being then in my fourteenth year. Said he, “George A. is a rather singular boy. When he comes here, instead of going to play as the rest of my grandchildren do, he comes into my room and asks me questions about what occurred seventy or eighty years ago.” It seemed to me, while I was absent that I was pursuing the same course yet, for although I had got pretty well along in years, I still wanted to talk with the old folks.

At Woonsocket, R. I., I visited Mrs. Tryphena Lyman, a cousin of my mother, in her 94th year, who was living with her unmarried daughter, an agreeable young lady in her 70th year. I had a very pleasant visit with them, and from them I learned some interesting incidents of my mother’s ancestors. From my cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Simon D. Butler, of South Colton, N.Y., I obtained a copy of the family record of my great-grandfather, Deacon John Lyman, written by his own hand in his family Bible—now 200 years old. Mrs. Butler has been my most faithful correspondent among all my relatives, and my meeting with her and her husband was more like meeting a brother and sister than cousins.

It is very well known that, by the election of a convention of delegates from all the counties of this Territory, held in this city, Ex-Governor Fuller and myself went to attend the Republican Convention at Philadelphia. Persons appeared there and objected to me because I was a “Mormon,” and the committee on credentials did not think proper to allow the representatives of the people of Utah a seat in that convention, consequently we retired, believing, fully, that the time would come in our country when men will not be questioned in relation to their religious faith or practice, when called upon to perform the duties of citizens, but that if they are firm and upright supporters of the Constitution and laws of their country, that will be all that will be required of them. I then took the opportunity to make these visits, which I had designed doing years before, and which I believe will result in good. I did not seek to be publicly known; I made no attempts to preach, though invited at different times to do so; and I must say for the credit of New England, that I had the offer of a Christian church to preach in. I say this to show that New England is improving in its religious faith, that is, there is less bigotry there now than there has been at certain periods. I could have had numerous opportunities to preach, but I wished to make my journey one of rest, and addressed but one public congregation, and that was last Sabbath in the Latter-day Saints’ Hall, Brooklyn.

While at Philadelphia I met Mr. E. W. Foster, Supervisor of Potsdam, my native town, he being a member of the convention, and one of the committee on credentials before whom our claim to a seat was contested. After leaving Philadelphia I visited Potsdam, and an incident occurred there which I will name. On landing at the railway station, Mr. Foster happened to be there, and recognizing me, he called me by name, and bid me welcome to the town. A very respectable-looking aged lady, hearing the name, stepped up to him and inquired if I was George A. Smith, and being answered in the affirmative, she seized my hand and said, “I want to thank you, your father saved my life.” “Why, when?” “A good many years ago.” “How?” “We were broken through the ice into the lake, and at the risk of his own life he saved mine.” The cars were about starting, and she rushed from me and said, “My name was Eliza Courier.” I really thought the incident worth naming, as occurring in the place of my birth, and from which I had gone nearly forty years before.

By the courtesy of General N. S. Elderkin, I had the privilege of visiting the State Normal School at Potsdam, and was very much pleased with the institution. The vast improvements which have been made in buildings, machinery, roads, transportation, and telegraphs, have certainly not been altogether inapplicable to the progress of education. When I received my education, an ordinary school master received nine dollars a month, and twelve if he was a first class teacher; and he could cut blue beech switches enough in a day, and perhaps less, to thrash the scholars the entire winter, and they were applied very freely. I used to think I got more than my share. I thought I could not watch the schoolmaster as well as some others, my eyes were not quite so good. But I noticed on my visit a very desirable change in their school government; the cultivation of the mind is the object sought now, and the teacher has become the friend as well us the preceptor of the pupil. The blue beech seems to be pretty well banished, and there is a marked improvement in the whole system of education, as well as in telegraphing, railroading, machinery, and architectural works generally.

I met several of my old schoolfellows, who were glad to see me, and treated me with courtesy. Among these I should mention General Elderkin, a man of influence and who never, in the darkest hour of our persecutions, has failed to recognize me as an old schoolfellow and friend, notwithstanding he had high religious notions. I met other gentlemen of this kind.

We are all passing to the tomb, and we want to leave a good record, that is, one that will be pleasing to the Lord. It is not a very lofty ambition for a man to spend his life so as to have it recorded on his tombstone that he died worth a million dollars; but if he spend his life in doing good, that will be a record that will be to his everlasting honor, and will prove to him treasure in heaven. People say, “You Mormons believe all will be damned except yourselves.” We know for ourselves that this is the work of God, and we know that every Latter-day Saint that is faithful to his profession and calling will attain to celestial glory. We also further know that God has extended, in his order, to all the human race, glory, honor, immortality and blessings in accordance with their works, whether good or evil. Read the vision in the Book of Covenants, and the 13th chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians and judge for yourselves; and while we should struggle to obtain the greater blessings, we should never disparage those who may fall short of attaining the highest glory. There is a glory of the sun, the Apostle informs us, also a glory of the moon, and a glory of the stars, and as one star differeth from another, so do these different degrees of glory differ. But in these various glories will be found all denominations and all honorable men—every one in accordance with those things which he has done in this life; and, says the Savior, “Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

As I passed by the site of the old academy, I said to General Elderkin, “There I received my Presbyterian baptism.” “So did I,” said he. I did not wish to raise a question in relation to the subject with him at all. He is now, I believe, a member of the Episcopal Church, and I, of course, am a Latter-day Saint; but the man who sprinkled the water on our foreheads, taught that hell was full of infants not a span long. The idea was horrible to me from the time I first heard it. “Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven,” says the Savior; and if we live in the sight of God as innocent, pure and holy as little children, we shall attain to the glory of the sun. May God enable us to do so through Jesus our Redeemer. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Brigham City, June 9, 1872.

If I can speak so as to be heard, I will talk to the brethren and sisters a few minutes. It requires stillness and close attention to hear those who speak in this bowery. A great deal has been said with regard to the salvation of the human family. I might say that more should be done, then we could talk less. Of necessity, through the weakness of human nature, a great deal has to be said; but if the people could understand the principles of life and salvation, and would act accordingly, it would require a great deal less talking. Words are wind, they go into the ear and are forgotten; still there is a certain portion that will be retained by a few, and they will be profited thereby. The work in which we are engaged is not magnified in the least by talking about it; it is only in the weak capacity of man that these principles become exalted through the hearing of the ear. The principles we preach are the gospel of life and salvation; and we have entered into covenant with God to observe the rules, ordinances and laws pertaining to this life and salvation. The question arises, Do we perform this labor, in keeping the sayings of the Lord as strictly as we should? No, we do not.

Suppose that we name a few of the rules and regulations by which we are to live. If I attempt to classify them, perhaps I shall get them imperfectly in the science of the law of God. But first, to me, after hearing and believing that there is such a character as the Savior of mankind, who has acted his part well and performed his duty in purchasing redemption for the human family, and is now pleading for his brethren, I at once inquired what he requires of me. This is the inquiry of my reflections, and I learn that faith is the starting point. If I believe sincerely and honestly, I must obey, and the next step in the plan of salvation, as laid down by Jesus and his disciples, is for me to be baptized for the remission of my sins. To the Christian world, to the heathen world and the infidel world, we can say that all things are spiritual, all things are temporal, all things are natural; all things are natural, all things are temporal, all things are spiritual; and there is not that being on the earth, and never was, that I have any knowledge of, that can divide them. But in the act, and in the performance of the duty of those who believe in this plan of salvation, we can define our faith in our secret closet by exercising faith in the name of Jesus, and seeking unto the Father secretly in our hearts. Here we find a difference and a distinc– tion between this and the actual performance of rising up from my seat, going down into the water and being baptized for the remission of my sins. Still the work is the same, consequently it is spiritual, it is temporal, it is natural; it is natural, it is temporal, it is spiritual.

Well, now, this is the work that we have before us; not that I am going to have time to preach on these points, or delineate them to any length; but these are the facts. If we believe, we obey, we are baptized for the remission of our sins, which is the commencement of the labor, the outward performance and manifestation of obedience to God, through faith in the name of his son Jesus Christ. Then comes the blessing by the imposition of hands upon the head of the individual who has received baptism for the remission of sins, and he receives the Holy Ghost. This is the blessing and the consolation of believing in the truth; and this stimulates the individual to still exercise faith and to continue in obedience to the commandments of the Lord, to pray always, without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks; his heart uplifted to God, day by day, from morning until evening, and from evening until morning, for the blessings of heaven to be with him, for his feet to be guided in the path of rectitude, and that he may be preserved from speaking, thinking, and doing in anywise, that which is wrong. This is simple and plain, and can be understood by all classes of the children of men who are endowed with the common sense and ability that are given to man.

The duty of the Latter-day Saints is to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks, to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all things, and to be subject to his requirements. We, as Latter-day Saints, can say that our duty is laid before us. We can read it, not only in the faith and feelings of the individuals of the community; but it is actually printed, it lies upon the pages of our history, and we can read at our pleasure. We meet together for the express purpose of having somebody or other tell us that which we know and have known all the time. We have read it over and over; we have thought of it and meditated upon it, yet we meet together and hear our brethren speak to force these things into the affections of the people; and if we can persuade them to hearken to every requirement of heaven, then we are not under the necessity of talking so much. We are freed from this task and toil.

What is our duty? To pray. Pray always? Yes. To pray in our families? Yes. Let no man be in a hurry, but what he can get up in a morning and pray with his family before he permits himself to partake of refreshment. Let every man and every woman call upon the name of the Lord, and that too, from a pure heart, while they are at work as well as in their closet; while they are in public as well as while they are in private, asking the Father in the name of Jesus, to bless them, and to preserve and guide in, and to teach them, the way of life and salvation, and to enable them so to live that they will obtain this eternal salvation that we are after.

Now, besides being our duty to pray, it is our duty to live in peace one with another. It is also our duty to love the Gospel and the spirit of the Gospel, so that we can become one in the Lord, not out of him, that our faith, our affections for the truth, the kingdom of heaven, our acts, all our labor will be concentrated in the salvation of the children of men, and the establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth. This is cooperation on a very large scale. This is the work of redemption that is entered into by the Latter-day Saints. Unitedly we perform these duties, we stand, we endure, we increase and multiply, we strengthen and spread abroad, and shall continue so to do until the kingdoms of this world are the kingdoms of our God and his Christ.

We can read that these are our duties in the Bible, Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other sayings that we have from the Elders, which are just as true as any in these three books; and all combined are a way-mark pointing us to life and salvation, and we can read for ourselves.

We might say, if one man has a difficulty with another, let him, in the first place, go to him privately and talk with him, and see if he will be reconciled, or take another, and so on. We can say of a truth, that if there be hard feelings in the midst of the Saints, they should be eradicated from our bosoms by taking the proper course to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord instead of the spirit of animosity and strife. All these things you can define and enlarge upon at your leisure. It is our duty to observe our sacraments, to observe our fast days and offerings; it is our duty to observe our tithings and to pay them. There is a great deal said by our enemies with regard to the members of this Church paying tithing. We are as free from taxation as any other church on the earth, right or wrong, true or untrue, and we pay as little as any other people, and if my tithing is required let it be paid. That is the way to get rich. We have entered upon a great system of cooperation for the building up of the kingdom of God, and, when it is built up, it is ours, we own it. If we are Saints of God, and sanctify ourselves through his Gospel, then we shall be worthy to possess all things. The kingdoms of this world will be ours, all will be ours, the heavens and the earth, and the fulness thereof will be ours, and we are the Lord’s, we are his servants, and we possess all things in common with him. That word “all,” perhaps, conveys too much to the minds of some; but that is no matter. With regard to the Latter-day Saints, in the performance of their duties, we could tell them what to do to be saved. The path is as clear and plain as this highway is here for the travel of teams and the people. But when we inquire about the character of our Father, there are some things connected therewith that men do not understand, neither should they understand them. It is not in accordance with the mind and will of him we worship as our God, that the inhabitants of the earth, in their weak and wicked capacity, and in ignorance, should understand them. It was mentioned here yesterday, and is frequently mentioned by myself and others, that those who profess Christianity are in the dark, and why? They mystify everything; they read the Bible as a sealed book, and they believe it when it is closed and laid upon the shelf. They do not know how to read it any other way, they do not know how to believe it any other way, and it is right and reasonable that they should not; but as for detailing the reasons why this is so, we have not time. Suffice it to say, all things are done in the wisdom of him who knows all things. It is not right, I will say, for people to know the truth and live in disobedience to it; it is not right for them to understand the ways and providences of God as they are dealt out to the people on the earth, when they live and are determined to live in violation of every commandment and law of God; and because they do so live, ignorance covers them as with a mantle, shuts out the light of truth from them, and keeps them in darkness; and if the light were to shine upon them, as it does now and as it did in the days of the Apostles, would they receive it? No, they would not. Light has come into the world, but the wicked choose darkness rather than light? Why? It was told in days of old that their deeds were evil. That is the fact today—“they choose darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil,” and their hearts are fully set in them to do evil; and here I might venture to say to all the inhabitants of the earth, high and low, rich and poor, to the king upon his throne and to the beggar in the street, if they had the truth and loved it they would rejoice in it. But they will not receive it. Is not this lamentable? It is; but we cannot help it. We can declare the truth to the people, but we cannot force them to receive it. If the inhabitants of the earth were honest, they would receive the truth; and there is not a man or woman now living on the earth, or ever did live on it, who would speak, write, think or act against the Gospel of life and salvation as they do, were they not in darkness; but they are kept in ignorance through their own wickedness and unbelief, and they nourish and cherish the spirit of evil, and that prompts them to reject the words of life. We can say this to all the human family; but to the Latter-day Saints, you believe, now obey; and if we obey, all will be right, and we shall gain the salvation that we are after.

I am happy, brethren, for the privilege of being in your midst. I frequently shake hands with my brethren and sisters, and they rejoice, they congratulate me on my freedom. I have been free. I do not feel, and have not felt, that I was bound in the least. The question can be asked, Were you not a prisoner for some five months through the indiscreet, unmanly, inhuman, disloyal and rebellious decision and doings of our officials? It seemed so; it had the appearance that I was confined, and had not my liberty, through the ill-treatment, mistaken ideas, selfishness and prejudice of the ungodly. But I did not feel that I was in prison, or that I was confined. I will say to the Latter-day Saints, my heart has rejoiced for the privilege of resting. I have rejoiced for the privilege, as it was observed here, by Elder Hyde, yesterday, of entering into my closet, that is, I entered into my closet just as he did into his. He kept himself where he had a mind to, and I did the same. He entered his closet, and I into mine, or into my house, and there I abode, and continued to abide, for a time, and was thankful for the privilege. Now I have the privilege of going here and there without having anyone to accompany me, only those I invite. I was very happy for the privilege of being quiet, still and retired in my own house last winter. My companion, not my sleeping companion, but my companion in tribulation and confinement, for the gentleman who was with me, I really think was, in his feelings, confined more than I, a great deal, and felt so, would urge me to ride, or to go to this party or that, or to the theater. I kindly declined and thanked him for his kindness in offering to accompany me; and I would say, “You go and enjoy yourself, and I will stay here,” and I got him to go occasionally.

I say this with regard to myself, that you may know my own feelings. But I can say still more—the Lord Almighty has guided and directed the ship of state in our behalf and for the deliverance and protection of the innocent and the honest. Victory has perched on Zion’s banner. We have obtained that that we could not have obtained had it not been for the persecuting spirit that has followed on the heels of the Latter-day Saints within the two years that are past. How could we, without this very conduct of our enemies, have ever approached the highest tribunal in this government to have it give its decision with regard to right and wrong, law, legality, that that is equitable and according to the spirit of our government, and that which is contrary thereto? How could we have approached that body? How could we have had our cause before it, had it not been for the acts of our enemies, with which they designed to bring us to death? For there is no question that, in their own feelings, the knot was tied around the neck of your humble servant, and he hung dangling in the air. But God designed this for good, for the deliverance of the humble and the meek. What have we to say? We acknowledge his hand in these things as well as everything else, and say, God be praised!

I will not occupy more time, I want others to talk. I will close by saying a few things to you with regard to your duties. Attend to your meetings, attend to your prayers; attend to your daily labor. Be honest and upright with one another; be punctual, keep your word, preserve yourselves inviolate in all things. Be chaste, preserve your faith before God, do not demoralize or prostitute yourselves, and all will be right. I can say that when a man comes along and turns his cattle into his neighbor’s field without liberty, he prostitutes his own feelings—his virtue, truthfulness, honesty and uprightness before God and angels. If we will preserve ourselves in purity, in the integrity of our hearts, it will be well with us.

We have quite a number of the people present from the settlements of this county generally, and from Cache Valley. I see you have a little railroad here, and the people are building it. I am thankful to see this enterprise. Go ahead, brethren, build this road and own it, and do what you please with it. It will be a fine piece of improvement; it will open up this northern country, and give you facilities that you could not otherwise enjoy here. How beautiful that is! How comfortable, yes, that is the word—how comfortable and easy it is for me to get into a coach, or a good carriage, and run over this railroad, from Salt Lake City to this place in less than three hours, as we did yesterday morning. In less than three hours from the time we left the depot of the Utah Central in Salt Lake City, we were in this bowery; and, this evening, we expect, in less than three hours from the time we leave this bowery, to be in Salt Lake City—a distance of over sixty miles. It is very comfortable, very consoling! And if we can see these things as they are, they open up a field for the contemplation of the wise to improve upon, that we may shape our lives for the benefit of ourselves and the human family and to promote truth and righteousness upon the earth.

God bless you. Amen.

Discourse by President Daniel H. Wells, delivered in the Bowery, Brigham City, Saturday, June 8, 1872.

I feel glad of the opportunity of bearing my testimony once again to the principles of salvation that have been revealed in the day in which we live, to the children of men. There is an impression resting upon the people of every nation on the face of the earth, that some great events in human history are about to take place. In the Christian world there is a general belief that the time is approaching when the God of heaven will assume the reins of power. They talk about the reign of Christ, the great millennial day, when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ.

It is hardly possible for any person to live to the years of maturity without having some impression, some anxiety concerning his future state; all persons, at some period of their existence, have such impressions. They come from the Lord, and their effect on the mind is as plain as the mark of the type on the paper; and the reason we experience them is because we are the children of God. There is a link existing between God and his children here on the earth, and that draws them towards him, and enables all who listen to the promptings of his good Spirit to increase in good, and to overcome that which is evil. This is natural, and exists to a greater or less extent in the hearts of all the children of men.

There is evil in the world—evil influences that strive against and destroy that which is good. Men’s names are written in the Book of Life, and will forever remain written there unless they do something to cut the thread and to blot them out. Men are naturally religious in their feelings, and it is a perversion of their nature to go into wicked and by and forbidden paths. The practice of evil brings with it no peace or true happiness. It destroys the vital thread of life that reaches into the eternal bowers of peace and salvation. The Lord our God has never given a commandment to the children of men but that would, if observed, be for their happiness and well-being here on the earth, and it is for ourselves that we serve God and keep his commandments. All that he has done, all the commandments he has given, are for our benefit, not for his. It would be well for us, as the President has just observed, if we would walk in the channels of truth and virtue, and in strict obedience to the commands of God, for thereby we promote our own welfare and secure to ourselves an eternal inheritance in the realms of joy and happiness. The kingdom is ours if we will live for it. We may come to an inheritance of all that is worth desiring or possessing, of all that will be of any benefit to us either here or hereafter, if we will live for it.

God, our heavenly Father, has restored the authority of the Holy Priesthood, through the channel of which a communication has been opened up between the heavens and the earth; and through that channel we can learn to know God, whom to know is life eternal. The way to this is opened to all the children of men, and the invitation has gone forth unto all people to repent of their sins, and return to God and receive the blessings. There is no true enjoyment but what can be obtained through this channel, and it is within the purview of the kingdom of God here upon the earth. The people should not be afraid of the government of God; it is only calculated for their benefit, and it will be a blessed day when it can take the place of the wicked governments that now exist on the face of the earth, and its establishment should be hailed as the grandest and best event that could take place among the children of men. In the kingdom and government of God is every blessing that is enduring, and it will confer upon those who abide its laws all the peace, joy and happiness they can conceive of. Outside of it there is nothing worth having; all real true happiness, all that can serve our best interests comes within its purview.

Are we obliged, in order to secure present happiness and enjoyment, to go outside the kingdom of God? By no manner of means, although it is so esteemed in the religious world. A great many so-called religious people feel that they are restrained of their liberty and enjoyment by being members of their churches. This is a wrong view. Our Father in heaven does not wish to restrain his children in anything that is right, and it is right for people to enjoy themselves, and the very acme of happiness is to be obtained by obeying the behests and commands of our Father in heaven. Men may indulge in things they call happiness, but there is often no real happiness in them, for they bring punishment along in the sting they leave behind. It is not so with proper enjoyments—enjoyments within the scope of reason and right, where there is no infringement upon each other. The great law of demarcation between that which is wrong and that which is right is not to infringe upon the rights of another. No man has a right to infringe upon another. We serve ourselves, then, by serving God and keeping his commandments, and the way is so plain that no person can err therein. Our boys who have been properly raised and tutored in the Church and kingdom of God, who have attended Sunday school, learned the catechism and become conversant with the principles set forth in the Scriptures, in the Book of Mormon, and in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, and have been endowed with the authority of the Holy Priesthood, can teach men the way of life and salvation; and if they will follow their teachings they will bring them back into the celestial kingdom of God, they are so simple and so easy to be comprehended.

There are a good many ways pointed out by the children of men, which they call the ways of life and salvation, but the end thereof is death. The Lord is not the author of the confusion that exists in the religious world. Satan stands there, ready, and has religion at his fingers’ ends, already manufactured, to suit the notions of men. Men get notions and ideas foreign to the truth, and they find religion manufactured to their order, and can get any kind that they have a mind to order, just as one who goes to a huckster’s shop can purchase anything he has a mind to pay for. They have their manufactured religion to pay for, for Satan does not work for nothing.

There is but one way, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man; he has made it manifest unto the children of men in the day and age in which we live. It has been told to us here, today, and is frequently reiterated in our hearing, that God is full of mercy, and would rather that all men should turn from evil and live. He begs people to turn from their evil ways. He says “Take upon you my yoke, for it is easy, and my burden, for it is light; and come, partake of the waters of life freely, without money and without price.” These words, are sounded in our ears continually, for the Lord would rather that all men would turn and live and come to him. Why so? He is merciful, and the invitation is as widespread as the vast domains of the world: it reaches every human being, every son and daughter of Adam upon the face of the whole earth. Holy messengers of salvation are sent forth by the direction of the God of heaven, through the channel of the holy priesthood that he has revealed and instituted again among men, warning the people to turn from their evil ways, and to become partakers of this great happiness and glory and to sustain his government upon the earth. It is true the impression has gone forth in the midst of the nations, and it is a true impression, that he will establish his government upon the earth. This earth belongs to God, he has a right to rule and govern it, and it is his intention to do so. Prophets, in ages gone by, have disclosed this, and modern prophets have done the same in our day through the channel of the Holy Priesthood. That Priesthood has been organized according to the ancient pattern, for God set in his Church, first Apostles, second Prophets, and so on. It has been reorganized according to this pattern, and the proclamation has gone forth—“Repent and give glory to God.” The Gospel has been restored by the angel which John saw flying through the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, saying, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.” This message has been sounded in the midst of the nations, and the greater portion of the people who have gathered to these valleys have listened to this proclamation. It reached their ears and made an impression upon them, and they gathered up from the midst of the nations of the earth to these valleys of the mountains to be taught in the ways of the Lord, that they might walk in his paths, instead of walking in the vain imaginations of their own hearts and in ways of error, because, as the ancient prophet says, “They have inherited error and lies from their fathers.” Behold, this has been fulfilled in the day in which the angel has brought forth and revealed the Gospel. Now we can see wherein we and our fathers have been in error. We have been taught the precepts of men instead of the commandments of God; but in our day we have been touched with the light of truth and with the Spirit of the living God, through obedience to the principles of the Gospel. The Saints of the Most High, having heard these principles proclaimed in their ears, had faith in them and in God, and they repented of their sins and went forth into the waters of baptism, according to the words of our Savior—“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Having been obedient to these principles and having had hands laid upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost, it has been given unto us, and we know, ourselves, concerning these things, and bear testimony this day that they are true. It has come from God, it is not any “guess so;” it is not a hope within a hope, that we have a hope, but we bear testimony that we verily do know that God has spoken, and we warn all people to repent and turn to God, and partake of the waters of life freely, without money and without price.

This is what has brought this people together in the valleys of the mountains; and they are laboring now to bring forth and establish the Zion of God upon the earth, according to the words of his Holy Prophets, whose prophecies have been and are being fulfilled in the history of this people. The kingdom of God is actually transpiring right before our face and eyes, but the world cannot see it, because they are not born again. They cannot enter this kingdom, because they are not born of the water and of the Spirit, and because they do not comply with the requirements of the Gospel and render obedience to the great plan of salvation devised in the heavens before the foundation of the world. This plan was understood and was in the program before the morning stars together sang for joy, and who can better it? Puny men undertake to do so, but their efforts are vain, and they only betray their own folly and presumption. Our Father in heaven knew better than any of us what was for our best interests, and he has condescended to make it manifest to his children here, and if they would walk in accordance therewith they would lay the foundation for eternal power, dominion and glory.

It is the duty of the Latter-day Saints to live by every word proceeding from the mouth of God.

He has told us to keep the words of wisdom, and has said that they are adapted to the capacity of all who can be called Saints, even the weakest. But, see the frailty of humanity! We think we know and understand better than the Lord, what is best for us. We say this by our acts a great many times; but we might as well learn, first as last, that the Lord knows best, and that his way is better than ours, as much so as the heavens are higher than the earth. He has trodden the path, and has had the experience that we have not had, and has kindly condescended to make known a little of his experience in regard to these things. He has told us that it is not good for us to take spirituous liquors; but a great many of us think a little will do us no harm, and it is better for us to have it than not to have it. He has told us not to swear, not to take the name of the Lord in vain, not to give way to our evil passions. Our passions are good, and planted within us for a good and wise purpose, to give us strength and energy of character; but they should be governed and controlled by that heaven-inspired intellect and reason with which every person is endowed; in other words, our passions should be our servants and not our masters.

If we are thus governed and influenced, kindness, love and charity will fill every heart; but depart from that, let passion bear sway, then the evil influences that attend us take possession and cause us to go astray into by and forbidden paths. When passion rules it dethrones reason and intellect, and makes a beast of a man; and he who has no more command of himself than to be governed by passion has fallen far beneath the dignity of true manhood, and the end of such a course is death.

These are some of the things that we have to be told of so often, because we are so forgetful, and we oftentimes let the cares of the world choke the word of life. The latter is sown in the hearts of the children of men, and sometimes it takes root and grows fairly for a little while, and then withers and dries up. Some– times it falls into good ground, takes root downward and bears fruit upward; and where it does not do this it is owing to the frailties of human nature, and to its proneness to wander from the way of life and to disregard the truths of heaven.

One of the greatest boons that could be conferred upon the children of men would be to have the government of God established on the earth. Can they see it? No, they stand in fear of it. What makes men fear it? What makes them afraid of the Lord, or of his government being established on the earth? Is it not because their deeds are evil, and because they are afraid of receiving the punishment due for the same? The word has gone forth, and most men believe it, that every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or evil. And when men are conscious of evil deeds, and know they do not pay allegiance to the kingdom and government of God, they have reason to fear and dread the future; and let me say here, the time will come when they will call upon the rocks and mountains to fall upon them to hide them from his presence. But it should not be so. We need not be afraid of the rule and government of God, it is only calculated to benefit the children of men, and it will be a glorious happy day when it shall be established on the earth in its fulness. Men should fear to do wrong, to commit iniquity; they should do themselves the kindness to honor the principles that pertain to their well-being, and to eternal life and exaltation. Such principles should be hailed with joy, gladness and delight by all the children of men. The time will come when the government of God will prevail over the whole face of the earth, notwithstanding all that mankind, and all that the powers of evil can do against it. The principles which underlie the kingdom and government of God are those of truth and virtue, and they will endure; while sin, iniquity, disobedience and unbelief will be swept away, and the man who builds his house or castle on such a foundation will find that it will not stand in the day of the Lord Almighty. When the storms come and the winds beat upon that house it will be swept away; in that day too, men will be stripped of all their hypocrisy and iniquity, and they will stand forth in all their naked deformity, then they will call upon the rocks to fall upon and hide them from the presence of the Lord. Men should live so that they can bear the scrutinizing eye of the Almighty. Persons may think they can commit this or that evil, and no one will know it; they may be very secretive in doing wrong, and think they will never be found out. But if I commit evil I know it, and when I know it, one too many knows it; and the Lord knows it as well as I know it. We cannot hide it from him, and we had better not commit ourselves in any such a way, for in the great day of the Lord these things will be revealed; man will stand forth in his naked deformity, and the wickedness of wicked men will be made to appear, and it will be written where it can be read by all people when the veil shall be taken from before the eyes. Then let us repent and turn to God with full purpose of heart, and the promise to everyone who will do this in sincerity is that their sins shall be forgiven, and that they shall receive the testimony which we bear this day—namely that the Gospel we preach, is the Gospel of the Son of God and has been revealed for the salvation of the human family.

This promise is certain and sure, there need be no doubt about it; it will be fulfilled to all whom the Lord our God shall call—to everyone who repents of his evil ways and renders obedience to its mandates. The minister in the pulpit needs it as much as anybody else. Why? Because he has taught error; he has assumed to himself the authority of high heaven, which has never been given to him. He has run before he was sent, and has taught the traditions of the fathers instead of the commandments of God. He needs to repent of his evil ways, and not only to repent of but to turn from them.

No man can get a greater testimony of the forgiveness of his sins by the Lord, than a knowledge within himself that he has turned away from his evil deeds. He knows it then, for God has promised to forgive everyone who will comply with the requirements of the Gospel and turn from evil; and the man who forsakes evil knows it, and if he has no other testimony of his forgiveness, this is as great a one as he can possess.

I know that this is different kind of preaching from what people get in the world, but that makes no difference. We are a different people from any other, God has made us so by the instructions that he has imparted unto us through his servants. He has taught us another and a better way—the true way, the way that leads back to him, the way of life, truth and salvation. The Scriptures—the history of God’s dealings with his children in past ages when the authority of the Holy Priesthood was on the earth, also bear testimony that this is the work of God, and that all who receive it, and remain true and faithful, may become coworkers with our heavenly Father in bringing to pass his purposes and establishing his kingdom upon the earth, if we will only let him work with us; but we must do this. He will establish his work anyhow, independent of us, if we do not see proper to aid him in this great enterprise. If we do not do it, he will find somebody who will, for the day of redemption, the set time has come for the commencement of this great work. An impression has gone forth among all the children of men that the time is rapidly approaching to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, and the establishment of his kingdom on the earth. No matter whether it be Gentile, Jew, bond or free, heathen or Christian, this impression has been made on the minds of all classes of the children of men in all the nations of the earth, and it is true. The set time has come when God will put forth his hand to establish his kingdom, and everybody knows it. We proclaim in the ears of the people that the angel has come and brought again the everlasting Gospel to preach to all the inhabitants of the earth—to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. Let those, then, who have not received it, make some inquiry concerning this work. It is not a thing done up in a corner, but it is like a city set on a hill, that cannot be hid. The kingdom of God is transpiring before the eyes of the children of men. Let them take heed and not raise their heel against it, because if they do, it will only redound to their own discomfiture. Then they had better not do it, they had better receive it, or at least investigate, and then, if they do not receive it, they had better withhold their hands instead of seeking to destroy and overthrow the work and kingdom of God. All efforts to do so will be futile, they will do the kingdom no harm, for nothing can prevent its increase and triumph in the earth. God will not be thwarted in his purposes and designs. The set time has come for him to favor his people, and to establish his kingdom, and the puny arm of man will be powerless to prevent it. Have they not been trying for forty years? Are the lessons of the past of no benefit to the world? It would seem so, indeed. They are slow to learn this lesson, peradventure they may learn it after awhile, but not so long as evil predominates as it does at present in the hearts of the great majority of the children of men. We may be scattered and driven and have many afflictions to endure, but will that stay the work of God? No. How has it been? Let our past experience teach us and the world at the same time. It has only increased and given greater velocity to the work of God. Phoenix like, it has risen from its ashes and, if there is anything about it formidable, it has presented a more formidable face than ever before, notwithstanding the most strenuous exertions of its adversaries. My testimony is that the experience of the past will be renewed in the future, if the enemies of Zion work for its overthrow. They may succeed in taking the lives of some of the servants of God; they have done that in the past, but it never obstructed the work, and all their efforts in the future will be as powerless as in the past.

It is for the Saints to ponder these things in their hearts, and with renewed confidence and greater faith to press forward in their high calling. Their past observation and experience have proved to them the necessity of continual diligence. Many who have borne faithful testimonies to the truth of this work have apostatized and forsaken the truth because they have neglected some duty and have gradually given way to evil, and the counsels of their mind have become darkened to the principles of truth, and they have finally forgotten that they ever knew them to be true.

Then let us take heed to our steps. “Let him who standeth take heed lest he fall,” is a very good exhortation. We are none of us independent, and none have got so far along but we find it necessary to live humbly before the Lord. We should pray without ceasing, and let our hearts be drawn towards the Lord continually, never forgetting him, or the principles that he has revealed unto us; but we should be actuated by them in all we say and all we do. If we do this, the Spirit of the Lord will be within us like a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. It is necessary that everyone should live thus humbly before the Lord, in order to have full possession of this Spirit. This will bring peace, joy and comfort under all difficulties that may assail us and seek to prevent our progress in the kingdom of God.

What is a man good for who flies the track the very moment obstruction or difficulty presents itself before him? Nothing. He has not proven his integrity, and he cannot prove it in this way. We have undertaken to follow the Lord through evil as well as good report; and the Lord, and his ways, his teachings and government are in evil report in the world; and he who has independence and courage enough to strip himself of his surroundings in the world, and seeks to establish the kingdom of God, has to meet these difficulties which present themselves before him. He has to stem his ear to the popular stream. It is easy to float with the stream; but it requires more courage, and independence of character and greater nerve to stem the tide of corruption in the world than to go down with the current; and the man who takes this course is far more in– dependent than he who has not the courage to do so.

Then let us take courage and press onward if we have received the truth, as we know we have; if we have received the testimony of Jesus—the spirit of prophecy, as we know we have, let us take heed to our steps and continue faithful, never swerving to the right hand or to the left, for of all people in the world, the Latter-day Saints are the people who cannot afford to lay off the armor of righteousness for a moment. The tempter, the evil one, is at our elbow, ready to enter in and take possession and blind our understandings and cause us to make shipwreck of our faith if possible.

The Saints should live humble, be courteous, be civil and live for God and his kingdom. That is the only job we have on hand. Let us work on that job as long as we live on the earth. Our religion is not a matter of enthusiasm, to last a day or a week, and then evaporate into thin air, like the religions of the world; but every hour, every day, every week, every year, as long as we live on the earth, it should be first with us, for it is only he who endures faithful and true to the end that will be saved, and will inherit everlasting habitations. We need not lay to our souls the flattering unction that we can go hand in hand with the devil all our lives and inherit celestial glory. That is not in the program. We can do as we please about receiving or rejecting the principles of life and salvation as they have been revealed. We have this power, because we are free agents, to act as we please in this matter; but we cannot go back into celestial abodes and inherit celestial glory unless we keep the law pertaining to that kingdom. And so with every other kingdom, even a telestial kingdom; we must abide a telestial law or we cannot participate in the glory appertaining to it.

I do not wish to continue. I feel thankful for the privilege of bearing my testimony, although I do yet count myself a preacher. But the principles of the Gospel make preachers of us all, for they make us bear testimony of the same to the children of men. They impel every heart to say something, to bear testimony, if nothing more, to the truth of the principles we have received. This lifegiving power, the Holy Ghost, I say, impels every person who has received it to bear this testimony according to the sphere and position he fills, and the duties he is called upon to perform. A person may be called to plough, sow, reap, build a railroad, work in the canyon or to go and preach to the nations of the earth, and one calling is as legitimate as another, inasmuch as he who is filling it is working in the legitimate channel, and aiding to build up the kingdom of God.

Every person who has obeyed the Gospel has a share of responsibility to bring forth and establish this work upon the earth. None can shirk this responsibility, but it is shared by all according to their spheres and positions. Those engaged in raising families are doing their part to establish the Zion of God, just as much as in the performance of any other labor.

Let us ponder these things in our hearts, receive the impressions made from the heavens above. This will exalt us above the groveling things of earth and cause us to attain those which are before us with cheerful hearts and willing minds.

May God preserve us in the purity of our most holy faith, and enable us to endure to the end, that we may inherit everlasting habitations prepared for the righteous, is my prayer for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 2, 1872.

I have a request to make of the Bishops and Elders, of fathers and mothers, and of the brethren and sisters in general. There are a few points upon which I feel that I should like the people to receive a little counsel. One is, I would be very much pleased, and I do not think I would be any more satisfied than the Spirit of the Lord would, to have the Latter-day Saints pay a little more attention to the Sabbath day, instead of riding about, visiting, and going on excursions. There has been a great deal said upon this subject. We are continually teaching the people how to be saved, but they seem to forget the responsibilities that are upon them. I am as liberal in my feelings with regard to using the Sabbath for anything and everything, where duty demands it, as any person living, and believe that the Sabbath was made for man, instead of man for the Sabbath. But it is a day of rest. The Lord has directed his people to rest one-seventh part of the time, and we take the first day of the week, and call it our Sabbath. This is according to the order of the Christians. We should observe this for our own temporal good and spiritual welfare. When we see a farmer in such a hurry, that he has to attend to his harvest, and to haying, fence making, or to gathering his cattle on the Sabbath day, as far as I am concerned, I count him weak in the faith. He has lost the spirit of his religion, more or less. Six days are enough for us to work, and if we wish to play, play within the six days; if we wish to go on excursions, take one of those six days, but on the seventh day, come to the place of worship, attend to the Sacrament, confess your faults one to another and to our God, and pay attention to the ordinances of the house of God.

How many ears will hear this, and how many hearts will receive it and treasure it up? That is the question. Words go into the ear and are forgotten; but I say to you, Latter-day Saints, it is your duty and my duty to pay attention to the Sabbath day. When my brethren, my friends, and my family have business on hand, and manage to start it on a Sunday morning, I head them off if I possibly can, by throwing some obstacle or other in the way, or by persuasion get them to omit it on that day. As far as I can, I also persuade my own family to observe the hours of meeting. Not that I can say that my family is as fond of meeting as I am myself. I like to meet with the brethren, and I like to go to a place of worship; I like to hear, and learn and pay attention to the ordinances of the house of God. I teach my family in these respects, and I do not know that I have any more fault to find with my own family than others have with theirs; perhaps there may be some credit due to them. But I say to the brethren and sisters, in the name of the Lord, it is our duty and it is required of us by our father in heaven, by the spirit of our religion, by our covenants with God and each other, that we observe the ordinances of the house of God, and especially on the Sabbath day, to attend to the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Then attend the Ward meetings and the quorum meetings.

Another thing: I do wish that parents would urge upon their children to cease playing in the streets as much as they do. There are sufficient places of resort in various parts of the city without the boys being compelled to play in the middle of the streets. Every time I travel through the streets I see children playing in them. And will they turn out of the way for a carriage? No, they will not, and some of them will sometimes even dare you to drive over them; and sometimes people have to stop their carriages to save the lives of children. We have been more fortunate, here, I presume than in any other city in Christendom where they drive as many carriages as we drive in our city, in having so few accidents; but this I attribute to the kind hand of Providence. But we see children in the street, daring teamsters to run over them, and whether they are in a carriage, wagon, buggy, or cart it is no matter, they will not give the road for a horse team. I will say this to all Israel, to every man that carries himself discreetly—as a gen– tleman, if one of my boys attempts to obstruct the highway, so that you cannot drive along and attend to your business, leave your carriage, take your whip and give him a good sound horsewhipping, and tell him you will do it every time you find him in the street trying to obstruct the highway. I will not complain of you, although I can say this, I think, of a truth, that a boy of mine never did this, never. I have no knowledge of it at least. Look upon a community like ours, see the conduct of the youth in this respect, it is a disgrace to civilization; it is a disgrace to any people that profess good morals. Well, I wish to say this to the Saints, keep your boys from the streets, and from playing ball there. There are plenty of grounds for them to play upon and use at their pleasure, without going into the streets; and when we are so numerous that we have no place of resort for our boys to pitch quoits and play ball, there is plenty of ground on the earth, and we will thin out a little here and go where we can have a little more room. But we have plenty here at present.

Now, remember, my brethren, those who go skating, buggy riding or on excursions on the Sabbath day—and there is a great deal of this practiced—are weak in the faith. Gradually, little by little, little by little, the spirit of their religion leaks out of their hearts and their affections, and by and by they begin to see faults in their brethren, faults in the doctrines of the Church, faults in the organization, and at last they leave the kingdom of God and go to destruction. I really wish you would remember this, and tell it to your neighbors.

And furthermore, how many Latter-day Saints, who live in this city, and are perfectly able to go to meeting, are away today? We have people enough in this city to fill this small building to overflowing every Sabbath, if they liked to hear the words of life. In the morning, it is true, there are many in the Sunday school, and that we recommend; but in the afterpart of the day, where are these school children? Are they playing in the streets, or are they visiting? In going to Sunday school they have done their duty so far; but they ought to be here. In their youth they ought to learn the principles and doctrines of their faith, the arguments for truth, and the advantages of truth, for we can say with one of old, “Bring up a child in the way it should go, and when it is old it will not depart from it.” If we are capable of bringing up a child in the way it should go, I will assure you that it will never depart from that way. Many persons think they do bring up their children in the way they should go, but in my lifetime I have seen very few, if any, parents, perfectly capable of bringing up a child in the way it should go; still most of us know better than we do, and if we will bring up our children according to the best of our knowledge, very few of them will ever forsake the truth.

Now, I beseech you, my brethren and sisters, old and young, parents and children, all of you, try and observe good, wholesome rules! Be moral, be upright, be honest in your deal. I do not wish to find fault with the Latter-day Saints, but I assure you, my brethren and sisters, we take too much liberty with each other; we do not observe the strict order of right and honesty in many instances, as much as we should, and we have got to improve in these things. We have been hearing, today, how the kingdom of God is going to prosper on the earth. So it is, that is very true. Do we think that we will prosper and abide in it, in unholiness and unrighteousness? If we do, we are mistaken. If we do not sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and live by every word that proceeds out of his mouth, and shape our lives according to the rules laid down in Holy Writ, and by what the Lord has revealed in latter days, we will come short of being members of this kingdom, and we will be cast out and others will take our place. We need not flatter ourselves that we are going to prosper in anything that is evil, and have the Lord still own us. It is very true that he is merciful to us and bears with us. “Wait another day,” he says; “Wait another year, wait a little longer, and see if my people will not be righteous;” and those who will not, will be gathered to their own place; but those who will sanctify themselves before the Lord will inherit everlasting life. God bless you, Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Ogden City, Sunday Afternoon, May 26th, 1872.

I am happy for the privilege of standing before this congregation and speaking to them. I am thankful to see the spirit that is manifested by the people to inquire after the truth, to learn the way of life. I rejoice to see the disposition manifested by the Latter-day Saints to attend places of worship. But this is a small part of our faith. I wish to say to the Latter-day Saints that the Gospel of life and salvation is the best institution that we, as mortal beings, can invest in. Go into the financial circles of the world, and you will find men gather and project their plans for business, for railroads, for ship companies, for merchandising, and various other pursuits. You will see those engaged in these companies associate together, confer with each other, lay their plans before each other, investigate them, scan every branch, and every part and particle of their business. We are engaged in a higher-toned branch of business than any merchants or railroad men, or any institution of an earthly nature, and it is pleasing to see the Latter-day Saints meet together to talk over this matter, and to learn the course they should pursue to gain the object of their pursuit. If an inquiry arises in any of your minds with regard to this, I will answer it by saying that we are in pursuit of all there is before us—life, light, wealth, intelligence, all that can be possessed on the earth by mortal man, and then in a higher state, where there will be a more perfect development of the smattering of knowledge than we received here, and all that can be enjoyed by intelligent beings in the celestial kingdoms of our God. Is this our object? Certainly it is. We are not in the same attitude that the people were a few thousand years ago—they were depending on the Prophet or Prophets, or on having immediate revelation for themselves to know the will of the Lord, without the record of their predecessors, while we have the records of those who have lived before us, also the testimony of the Holy Spirit; and, to the satisfaction of all who desire a testimony, we can turn to this book and read that which we believe, learn the object of our pursuit, the end that we expect to accomplish—the end of the race as far as mortality is concerned—and the fullness of the glory that is beyond this vale of tears; consequently we have the advantage of those who lived before us. We are in pursuit of knowledge; and when you meet together, if you have a word of prophecy, a dream, a vision, or a word of wisdom, impart the same to the people.

Let me ask you, my brethren and sisters, Do you want wealth? If you do, do not be in a hurry. Do you want the riches pertaining to this world? Yes, we acknowledge we do. Then, be calm, contented, composed; keep your pulses correct, do not let them get up to a hundred and twenty, but keep them as nigh as you can, ranging from seventy to seventy-six; and when there is an appointment for a meeting be sure to attend that meeting. If there is to be a twodays’ meeting in Ogden, come to it; spend the time here and learn what is going on. Watch closely, hear every word that is spoken, let every heart be lifted to God for wis– dom, and know and understand every word of prophecy, every revelation that may be given, every counsel that may be presented to the people, that you may be able to weigh, measure, comprehend and decide between that which is of God and that which is not of God. Refuse the evil, learn wisdom, and grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. If there is a meeting appointed for the Seventies, let them come together, and let no man say “I am in a hurry in my work, and have not time to attend.” Every man that belongs to these quorums should be on hand at the time appointed, and not say, “I will work to the last minute, before I start for the meeting.” Take time, prepare yourselves, be at the place of gathering promptly, to the minute, that you may hear the first word, then you will hear every word that is spoken and every counsel that is given.

If there is a Bishop’s meeting, let every Bishop, Priest, Teacher and Deacon attend, and no man among them say, “I must go and water my grain,” “cut my hay,” or “gather my harvest;” but attend the meeting, sit until it is out and hear every word. If you have to speak, speak; if you are to hear only, hear every word that is said. If there is a prayer meeting appointed, go to that prayer meeting; go to the ward meetings, attend every meeting that is appointed. I am telling you this, so that you can get rich.

I will say to the Latter-day Saints, there cannot that community be found on the face of the whole earth that, as a community, is as well off as we are here in these mountains. There are more women and children, with their husbands and fathers, sleep under their own roof in the midst of the Latter-day Saints than in any other community on the face of this earth, in civilization; and less women and children go without food and clothing than in any other community in Christendom. Looking around among the Latter-day Saints I will ask, How many are there who have been taken from cellars, from pits under ground, or from their little rooms, where one pound, or five dollars, would buy everything they possessed on the face of the earth, and brought to this country and taught how to plant their potatoes, beans, beets, carrots, how to raise their cucumbers and squashes, their corn and their wheat, how to milk a cow; feed a calf, take care of the chickens; how to build a pigpen and put a pig in it; to take the offals of the house and give to the pig, and how to raise a calf or a colt, experience they never had before in their lives? Yet they have learned this economy, and some of them, I am sorry to say, lift their heel against the Almighty and his anointed. I am happy to say, however, that the large percentage of those who have been thus rescued from poverty, and placed in circumstances of comfort and independence, are still in the faith. How many are there here today who never owned a chicken or a pig, and could not keep a cat because they had nothing to feed one on, who now ride in their wagons, have their carriages, horses, fine harness, fine stock of cows, and have butter, milk, cheese and wool at their command, and granaries full of wheat, and their barns, if they have them, full of hay? Do not the facts which present themselves before us, prove that this very desirable change has taken place in the circumstances of many? Then come to meeting. Appoint your meetings, Elders, and call the Saints together and instruct them in the things of the kingdom of God. We have missionaries that are travel– ing through our settlements, and no people need preaching more than the Latter-day Saints. They know the way, but they are forgetful, and they want somebody or other to come along and holloa to them, and say, comparatively, “I will warm your ears, my lady;” “Brother, I will warm your ears.” “Wake up!” “What are you doing? Are you after this mine? Are you after that job? Are you after that piece of work? Did you pray in your family this morning?” “No.” “Why?” “I was in too much of a hurry.” Stop! Wait! When you get up in the morning, before you suffer yourselves to eat one mouthful of food, call your wives and children together, bow down before the Lord, ask him to forgive your sins, and protect you through the day, to preserve you from temptation and all evil, to guide your steps aright, that you may do something that day that shall be beneficial to the kingdom of God on the earth. Have you time to do this? Elders, sisters, have you time to pray? This is the counsel I have for the Latter-day Saints today. Stop, do not be in a hurry. I do not know that I could find a man in our community but what wishes wealth, would like to have everything in his possession that would conduce to his comfort and convenience. Do you know how to get it? “Well,” replies one, “if I do not, I wish I did; but I do not seem to be exactly fortunate—fortune is somewhat against me.” I will tell you the reason of this—you are in too much of a hurry; you do not go to meeting enough, you do not pray enough, you do not read the Scriptures enough, you do not meditate enough, you are all the time on the wing, and in such a hurry that you do not know what to do first. This is not the way to get rich. I merely use the term “rich” to lead the mind along, until we obtain eternal riches in the celestial kingdom of God. Here we wish for riches in a comparative sense, we wish for the comforts of life. If we desire them let us take a course to get them. Let me reduce this to a simple saying—one of the most simple and homely that can be used—“Keep your dish right side up,” so that when the shower of porridge does come, you can catch your dish full.

I am not going into the details, to instruct my brethren particularly how to get wealth; but in the first place, do not be in a hurry. I make that as a general remark. Do you want your house neat and clean? Do you want to keep your children neat and clean? Do you wish to see every portion of your dwelling, from the cellar to the garret, from the woodhouse to the parlor, neat and clean? Certainly, every sister wishes this; then do not be in a hurry. I shall tell you a little circumstance that occurred some eighteen years ago, when we had been on a visit to the Indians. We had reached Farmington, on our way home, and stopped at a certain house. I think there were twelve of us in company. Our teams were taken care of. When I alighted from my carriage I looked at my watch and we went in, sat down, and chatted with the master of the house, while his wife prepared dinner for us. I noticed this lady. She whispered to a little girl to take her baby out of doors and amuse it; then, when her baby was out of the way, she moved about without the least noise—not a word was heard from her. She brought everything she needed from the buttery and cellar to the kitchen where she spread her table, and she mixed and baked her bread, cooked her fruit and meat, and from the time we alighted from the carriage until she came and whispered in the ear of her husband, “Dinner is ready,” it was just fifty-five minutes. Said I to myself, “There is a housekeeper.” I could not help but see this; every time she walked back and forth she accomplished a certain amount of business. I saw this and was gratified. Now, sisters, you may do likewise, if you are not in too big a hurry. Instead of shouting, “Sally, where’s the dishcloth?” “Susan, where’s the broom?” or, “Nancy, have you seen the holder? I want the holder,” be calm and composed; you are in too much of a hurry. Hold on, be easy, never let your nervous system rise above your judgment and the collection of your thoughts, and have a place for everything, and everything in its place. Let your judgment be master, and when you start to do a thing you will know exactly what you want to do. I have seen hundreds of ladies fly to the cupboard, and then say, “Well, now, I declare I don’t know what I came for.” They were in too much of a hurry. It is just so with men. I see them through the world, I have watched their progress for many years, and I see that many of them are too much in a hurry. If we are not in too much of a hurry we can attend these twodays’ meetings, and talk to each other. Are you full of faith? You can tell whether I am or not by looking at me. You can tell whether the brethren who have been speaking to you are full of faith in the Gospel by the look of their countenances. You can see this if there is not a word spoken; we can tell by our feelings when we look at a congregation whether they have faith or not. I see there is a great amount of faith in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, and I wish there was a little more patience and obedience. Perhaps I have said enough with regard to these meetings. Elders, appoint your meetings, and invite the people to come to them. I want now to go to other matters.

I will tell you, my brethren, my own feelings with regard to the conduct of the Latter-day Saints. In the first place I will say that we are governed and controlled too much by the feelings and fashions of the world. We lust after the leeks and onions; we yield ourselves to the spirit of the world too much. You will excuse me, for I must say a few words with regard to this. It is true we are bound, and it seems that men’s bounds are set by each other, more or less. If I, for instance, were to have a coat made to suit my own taste, I do not know any of my family and perhaps my friends, and especially the tailors, merchants and business men, but what would say, “You are an oddity,” and they would think, “You are not fit for society, because you do not fashion and pattern after others.” I commence here, you know, at myself. Well, I will say that I am bound, I cannot accomplish my own wishes in these things altogether. Perhaps others cannot. I go to a tailor and say, “I have a piece of cloth, and I want you to make me a coat.” He cuts that coat to suit himself. I do not see a fashion that suits me. What use or comeliness is there in putting the legs of the pantaloons on my coat?” Well, perhaps the tailor will be a little moderate, and will cut it down considerably; but if I were my own tailor I certainly should leave off—what shall we call them? “Bustles,” “Grecian Bends,” or what shall we call them? Though these coat sleeves are not exactly like the sleeves of the frocks or dresses worn by the ladies forty or fifty years ago, which they used to call mutton-legged sleeves, shaped just like the ham of a mutton. I recollect there used to be considerable said about them. Sometimes a paper would come out and tell of the wreck of a ship, on board of which were a hundred and fifty passengers; but, they would say, “Thanks be to kind Providence, the ladies took all the male passengers into the sleeves of their dresses, and went ashore.” Such narrations as these, you know, were only meant as a satire upon the fashions of the day. Now I am coming right to the point, and I wish to say to some of my sisters, not to all, that if I were my own tailor I should cut my own coat to suit myself. “What would be your fashion” says one? I will tell you. I have a coat here which you can see—if I were to take hold of a swillpail, this part of the skirt must drop in; and if I took hold of a milkpail I must take the coat around by the other end, and hold it, or else it is in the milk. I see no convenience or beauty in it. That which is convenient should be beautiful; and I want my coat cut so that when I lift a pail of water, or a milk or swill pail the skirts shall not fall into it; and so with the pockets, I would have them convenient. If I were a lady and had a piece of cloth to make me a dress, I would cut it so as to cover my person handsomely and neatly; and whether it was cut according to the fashion or not, custom would soon make it beautiful. I would not have eighteen or twenty yards to drag behind me, so that if I had to turn around I would have to pick up my dress and throw it after me, or, just as a cow does when she kicks over the milkpail, throw out one foot to kick the dress out of the way. That is not becoming, beautiful or convenient—all such fashions are inconvenient. Take that cloth and cut you a skirt that will be modest and neat, that does not drag in the dirt nor show your garters, but cut it so that it will clear the ground when you walk, when you are passing over the floor it will not drag everything on the floor, or in the street as you pass along. Put enough into the skirt to look well, and if we are to go into particulars, of course, we would have to say, we must use enough to cover the person. I do not expect mother Eve even did this. We could relate some little incidents of our past experience, that perhaps would not entertain the people, and still, perhaps, they might learn something from them. For instance, in some circles it has been fashionable for a lady to wear, perhaps, twelve yards in the skirt of her dress, but when it came to the waist, I guess three-quarters of a yard would have been enough. I will relate a circumstance of which I heard, that took place in the metropolis of our country. A gentleman, a stranger, was invited to a grand dinner party there. The ladies of course were dressed in the height of fashion, their trails dragging behind them, and their—well, I suppose there was a band over the shoulder to the waist, but I do not recollect whether the gentleman said there was or not; but one gentleman present, who knew this gentleman was a stranger, said to him, with all the loveliness and elegance in his heart that one could imagine—“Is not this beautiful? Did you ever see the like of this?” “No sir,” said the party questioned, “never since I was weaned.” Well, all this, you know, is custom and fashion.

Now, I wish to say to my sisters, If you will be just a little more moderate, I should like it very much. Some of you, and especially the young sisters, may say, “Why, Brother Brigham, how do your daugh– ters dress?” I will say, to my shame, many of them, and many do not. Then I must have a great many, for if I have many that do and many that do not, that will amount to a great many. But I guess I will let it go. Some of them are modest, delicate, neat, and look beautiful, and do not want twenty-four yards for a dress, nor seventeen. But this is uncomely, uncouth and ill-looking. What shall I call it? A camel’s back? You will say they go from the lady to the camel, and from the camel to the lady, and so on and so forth. They are called, I believe, “Grecian Bends,” but I do not think this term is exactly proper. Are they comely in appearance? No, they are not. Then I should like my daughters and my sisters to lay them aside. They should dress neatly and comely, and to suit themselves, but not to suit anybody else. We have the ability to tell what looks well, just as well as anybody else. We need not go to New York, London, or Paris to tell whether a coat looks well if it has a collar half an inch wide. Do you recollect when collars were not more than that? I do, and I recollect when they were about six or seven inches in width. Now we need not go to Paris to ask them whether a coat looks just right with a half-inch or a five-inch collar; we are the judges, and can decide that just as well as anybody else on the face of the earth. I would not swap my eyes with any living person for beauty and comeliness. I would rather trust to my eyes for beauty, excellency and comeliness in dress, than any other person’s eyes I know of. We should be our own judges. This, I say, to my sisters. Pause, reflect, look at the facts in the case as regards the folly and expense of fashion. Take the people of this city, and if you can form a correct estimate of the cost of the useless articles they wear. (I think I brought this subject up a year ago this summer, when here.) Just take these useless articles that do no good to the body of the persons who use them, and we would find that the means expended in their purchase would enable us to relieve many poor, suffering, distressed creatures abroad in the nations of the earth, and bring them here and put them in a situation in which they would be healthy, wealthy and happy. If we make a calculation on this subject we shall find that the waste of the Latter-day Saints is immense. There is a little town, south of here, the ladies of which—the F. R. Society, took it into their minds, along in the latter part of the winter, when we commenced calling upon the people to assist the emigration of the poor this summer, to give the eggs that their hens laid on Sunday. If they did not serve the Lord themselves they resolved to make their hens do it one-seventh of the time; and over a month ago I heard they had raised by this method about eight hundred dollars. Would they miss this? No, they could do without these eggs very well. Suppose the ladies of Ogden, who, on account of the many ribbons and needless articles they require, are unable to give anything else they have, should give one-seventh part of the services of their fowls to the bringing of the poor here! If Ogden had commenced this last January, thousands and thousands of dollars might have been raised by this time. Can you think of such a trifling thing as this? Suppose that every man who practices the disgusting habit, says to himself, “I will stop eating tobacco, and the means I spend in buying it I will give to emigrate the poor;” or, that, “what I pay out for liquor I will give to emigrate the poor;“ and each of the ladies says, “What money I pay out for my tea or coffee” (and tobacco, liquor, tea and coffee are four very useless articles) “I will give to emigrate the poor,” how much could be saved, do you think, in this little community? Go to the stores, and ask them how much tobacco they have sold for twelve months past. Take these little retail stores, and then go into the retail departments of the wholesale stores, and we should find in this little town, I will ensure, that within the twelve months past, more than twelve, yes, twenty thousand dollars have been paid for tobacco, and I will say ten or twelve, and perhaps twenty thousand more for liquor; and then I will say twenty-five or thirty thousand more for tea or coffee, and I guess I could go up to forty thousand dollars, right here in Ogden. It is immense, the people have no idea of it, unless they go and look for themselves. Get the statistics, and then you will know with regard to the facts in the case.

Now suppose we say we will take the means we are spending for tea and coffee, liquor and tobacco, and useless articles in dressing, and we will give this to the poor; we would soon have a wealthy purse. Who has given anything this season? How many of you have given the first five dollars this season to bring the poor to Zion? If there is a man or woman in this house that has given anything for this purpose, do me the favor to hold up your hand? (One or two hands were held up.) I have given a very little, just a trifle. Sometimes I give a thousand, sometimes two thousand, mostly two thousand, and that is but a trifle. I suppose many would say, “Why, that is no more for you than five dollars for me.” Well, perhaps it is not. I have nothing but what the Lord gave me, that is certain; and if he wanted the whole of it, for the gathering of the poor this year, he is just as welcome to it as I am to eat with you when you invite me to your houses. But one thing I can say of a truth, I have not been in a hurry, I have taken things moderately, kindly, calmly, and have “kept my dish right side up.”

Well now, you who want to give a little to help the poor, please hand it over to Bishop Herrick. Bishop Herrick, will you please get the bishops together, and request them to ask every ward in this county to give something for the gathering of the poor, and see who will assist in this good work?

If we will not be in a hurry, and will pray in our families, pray in secret, attend our meetings, be patient and live so that the Spirit of the Lord will dwell within us, and witness to God every day of our lives, by faithful obedience to his requirements, that we are his, I will say we are bound to get the wealth of the world. We read in this good book (the Bible) that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” Everything belongs to him, and he is going to give it to his Saints; and all our concern and care should be, to be sure that we are Saints. Then it is all right, it is by a deed of warranty—a warranty deed, and he will warrant and defend it, if we will serve him, and be satisfied with his providences, turning neither to the right nor to the left, but serving him with an undivided heart all the days of our lives. If it pleases him, and he wishes us to travel and preach, go to the right or to the left, to the east or to the west, to the north or to the south, to live here or live there, to do this or to do that, to have little or much and be perfectly satisfied and contented, his blessings will be se– cured to us by a warranty deed, and he will warrant and defend it.

If we are not Saints it is a great pity. We have the experience of those who lived before us, we have the testimony of the fathers, we have the sayings of Jesus and his Apostles, and we can peruse them and can exercise faith in the name of Jesus, and be guided by the Spirit of the Lord by which these testimonies were given; and we can know whether we are Saints or whether we are not. It has been proclaimed that there is a great difference between us and the Christian world. There is. Is the difference because we believe in another religion? By no means. The difference arises from the fact that we believe this Bible, wide open, from Genesis to Revelation. They believe it, sealed up, never to be opened again to the human family. They believe it shut, we believe it open; they believe it in silence, we believe it proclaimed on the house top; and when we scan the Bible and the feelings of the Christian world, we find that it is, as has been proclaimed here—there probably never was a day on the face of the earth when infidelity reigned more completely in the hearts of the children of men than it does now. We, as Christians, believe in God, in Christ and in his atonement, in repentance and obedience, and in receiving the Spirit; but what are the facts in the case? We are persecuted, our names are cast out as evil, we have the world arrayed against us. And who are at the head of this? The Christians. You go to a real infidel—one brought up to disbelieve in, and pay no attention to, this book as the word of God, and we receive little persecution from him; none whatever in comparison with what we receive from those who profess to believe it. Where are their witness and testimony that they are right and that we are wrong? We have the Scriptures to testify to the right and righteousness of the cause we have espoused. They shut up the Bible, say they are Christians, and cry, “False prophets, false teachers, delusion, delusion, heresy, outcasts, kill them if you cannot get rid of them without, they must leave, we cannot endure them any longer!”

Where is their proof, where is our proof? What criterion shall we go by? We have the Scriptures, we have the Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles; we have the revelations of the Spirit of God to ourselves; we have the truth within our hearts, and all this is proof to us of the validity of the faith that we have embraced; and if it is correct, and the Bible is correct; if it is true, and the Lord has spoken through his servants, they must be wrong, and their own mouths shall judge them in the latter days; and if they are to be judged by the Saints or by the Almighty you will find the secret, and that will be out of their own mouths they will be judged. We have the testimony of all this for ourselves.

How are you going to know whether this work is true, whether the Bible is true, whether Joseph was a Prophet, whether Jesus was the Savior, and his Apostles were correct in their teachings? There is no way for you and me to know these things but by the Spirit of God; and if we live so as to enjoy the light of that Spirit, the light of revelation, it will be in us like a well of water springing up to everlasting life. If we do not live thus, we are in the dark as well as they.

All religion is a mystery. Do we know this? Certainly. I have an experience in this, and so have the elder members of this community: we have lived with the Christians. What have been the declaration and the sayings of the wisest of the wise among them? Is God a personage of tabernacle? “I know not.” Does God dwell anywhere, is he a local being, or is he a traveling being? “I know not.” Does he possess a body, parts and passions? “I know not.” What of his Son Jesus? What of the evil? Acknowledge there is evil in the world—that character that fell from heaven—the Son of the Morning, has he a located place where he dwells? “I know not.” That is the answer. What do you understand by the Scriptures? “We do not know what to understand, they are a mystery, and beyond our comprehension, we cannot comprehend them. We are students of divinity, but the Scriptures are a mystery to us.” I recollect once, in my early career, well nigh forty years ago, conversing about two hours with a cousin of mine, who had finished his studies to be a priest. As I left him he said to me, “Cousin Brigham, I have learned more divinity from your mouth today than I have learned in my four years’ study. You have told me things that I know are in the Scriptures, and I know they are correct, for I feel in my heart and can testify to the truth of them; but,” said he, “they are not in the books, neither in the mouths and hearts of our teachers; our preceptors do not understand them, and I have learned more divinity from you in two hours than in all my life before.” This is their experience. Have they knowledge? Go after it, and you will find an aching void, a shadow instead of a substance, words which are wind, instead of realities.

We would take the world of mankind by the hand and lead them to life and salvation, if they would let us. It was said in my office, a few days ago, by a party of railroad men, while conversing with me about us as a people, “President Young, you are not known, your people are not known; we shall know you better hereafter, and they need not publish about you as they have, or, if they do, we shall know better than to believe them. Why do they publish such things? We are glad to become acquainted with you.” I replied, “For over forty years I have been striving with all my might, in my weak capacity, and with my limited knowledge, to make the world acquainted with us and our doctrines. There are also thousands and thousands of Elders who have traversed this earth over, without purse or scrip, trying to get people to learn who the Latter-day Saints are, and what they believe in, and why have you not known us? The Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, are published to the world with other works, giving to the whole reading world the principles we are proclaiming. Why are we not known? I will tell you why: the liars are industrious, and, according to the old saying, a lie will creep through a keyhole and travel leagues and leagues while truth is getting up, wiping her eyes and putting her shoes on. That is the reason, and you believe lies instead of truth. “And,” said I, “from this time henceforth, when you read an article about the people of Utah, read it candidly and honestly, and the Spirit will tell you whether it is true or a lie, and believe the truth about us.”

I will say again, brethren and sisters, do not be in a hurry. Brethren, if you want to get rich, live so as to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. You will then know exactly what to do in all matters. You want the spirit of wisdom in all your business transactions, and just as much in farming as anything else. We want the Spirit of the Lord from the least chore of labor that we perform, to the highest spiritual duty devolving upon the highest man in the kingdom of God. We want the Spirit of the Lord to guide and direct us through this world, to teach us in spiritual things and in temporal things, that we may learn how to gain to ourselves the riches of eternity, and secure to ourselves eternal lives.

God bless you. Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, May 26, 1872.

I am pleased to have the privilege of meeting with the Saints in this place, and of speaking to them such things as the Lord may place in my mind to communicate. I am well aware that I do not know how to speak, and that you do not know how to hear, unless we are all under the influence and guidance of the Spirit of the living God. We are spiritual beings, and liberal and temporal beings; we have to do with time and eternity, and, as we can know nothing about eternity and nothing about God only as he shall reveal it unto us, it follows as a necessary consequence that all the theories, ideas and dogmas of men can be of no avail in instructing the human family in things pertaining to God and eternity. This holds good in regard to all of our affairs in life, whether it be the life that now is or the life that is to come. We know very little about the world we live in. We know very little about ourselves, about our own bodies, about the spirit and mind of man, or the operation of the Spirit of God upon that spirit and mind, and much less about eternity, about God and heaven, and about the designs and purposes of the Almighty; and it is folly for man, unaided and undirected by the Almighty, to attempt to teach things pertaining to the kingdom of God or to the welfare and happiness of the human family. We, as human beings, and especially as Latter-day Saints, who have given some attention to these matters, and feel ourselves identified with the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth, have ideas that differ very materially from those of the world, and that difference may be traced to the influence and operation of the Spirit of God upon our minds through obedience to the first principles of the Gospel of Christ; for, while the world of mankind generally have repudiated the order of God and the institutions of his house, we as believers in him and in the establishment of his kingdom upon the earth in these latter days, occupy a very different position from that of the rest of the world.

The Scriptures definitely inform us that no man knoweth the things of God but by the Spirit of God. The Gospel teaches us how we may obtain a knowledge of that Spirit, and that is, by repenting of our sins, being baptized in the name of Jesus for their remission, and having hands laid upon us for the reception of the Holy Ghost. And as we have complied with the first principles of the Gospel of Christ and partaken of the Holy Ghost, we have had some slight manifestations of the will, designs and purposes of the Almighty in relation to us, to those who have lived before us, and those who shall come after us; in relation to the worlds that are and that are to come. I say that we have had some slight idea of these things, and that it has originated from the peculiar position that we occupy through our obedience to the first principles of the Gospel of Christ. Other men do not— cannot—comprehend things as we do; they have not the means of demonstrating the truth of the Gospel as we have, not having complied with its first principles. That which is light, intelligence, intelligent, happifying and glorious to us, is confusion and darkness to them. They cannot conceive of it; they cannot comprehend the laws of life, nor understand anything pertaining to the kingdom of God. I do not care what intelligence they may possess in regard to other matters; I do not care how profoundly learned they may be in the arts and sciences of the world; they may have studied mathematics, examined the physiology of the human system, and may have made themselves acquainted with geology, mineralogy, and the structure of the earth on which we live, and of the planetary system and the motion of worlds with which we are surrounded; they may have made themselves acquainted with history, geology, botany, law, physics, literature and theology, and all this knowledge, and much more than this, and if they are not in possession of the Holy Ghost, the principle of revelation, the light of eternal truth, they cannot comprehend the kingdom of God.

You have all read about Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night. Nicodemus thought there was something good about Jesus, but there was not enough manhood about himself. He was something of a sneak, the same as you sometimes see some men now. He wanted to come to Jesus, but he had not manhood to do so by daylight, so he came by night—under cover of darkness, and said he, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus did not understand this, and he said unto Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” He could not even see the kingdom of God unless he was born of water, and he could not enter into it unless he was born of water and of the Spirit.

This was the statement of Jesus, and it may account for the singular feeling we see manifested among the children of men towards us as a people. Men of ability and learning will come into our midst and say, “You have a remarkably fine country here, and you have exhibited a large amount of intelligence, industry and perseverance. We do not know anything about your religion, nor about its principles. We were inclined to think unfavorably of it from the many reports we heard abroad concerning you; but now that we see your order, diligence, perseverance, improvements, your beautiful cities and villages, your railroads and the various enterprises you have engaged in; when we see your freedom from the vices which generally prevail in the world, we think there is something peculiar about it, but what it is we do not know.” They cannot see the kingdom of God—they have not been born of water, that is the trouble with them. I frequently talk with ministers of various denominations on these subjects, but they are as blind as bats—they do not know anything about them. They can talk about politics and history, and they can discourse philosophically on various branches of art and science, but when you come to the kingdom of God they are egregiously ignorant, and they fulfill the words of Jesus, that no man can see that kingdom unless he is born again.

Take a retrospective view of the history of this people. See their position and the position of the Church and kingdom of God, years ago and now, and then look at the things to come; talk of the kingdom as it was, as it is, and as it will be. There is something great, magnificent, and glorious to reflect upon—something which every Latter-day Saint, who has his mind lit up with the Spirit, intelligence and revelation which flow from God, admires; and he feels to say in his heart, as one said in former days: “Let this people be my people, let their God be my God; where they live let me live also, and where they die let me be buried; and let me be their associate and mingle with them in time and in eternity.” This is the kind of feeling that the Spirit of God imparts to every Latter-day Saint who lives his religion and keeps the commandments of God.

We are engaged in a work that God has set his hand to accomplish, and he has made use of us as instruments, and he will also use others who shall yet be gathered, to build up his kingdom, and to introduce correct principles of every kind—principles of morality, social principles, good political principles; principles relative to the government of the earth we live in; principles of salvation pertaining to ourselves and our progenitors and to our posterity, and pertaining to the world that was, that is and that is to come; and as I said, he is using us as instruments. It is true that we blunder and stumble; it is true that we are surrounded with all the weaknesses and infirmities of human nature, but with all our weaknesses and foibles clinging to us the Lord has called us from the nations of the earth to be his co-adjutors and co-laborers, his fellow workmen and assistants, in rolling forth his purposes and bringing to pass those things that he designed before the world was. It is true that the Lord made man perfect, but man has found out many inventions, and he is very much degenerated, and is all the time prone to weakness, corruption, folly and vanity, and God knows it, and he knew it when he selected us. But what could he do? He could not select angels to associate with him in regenerating the earth and its inhabitants, for they were not very proper associates. He had to select just such beings as there were, and in the first place he revealed himself from the heavens to Joseph Smith. He made known to him some of the first principles of the Gospel of Christ, and then unfolded unto him certain things pertaining to the organization of the Church of God upon the earth, the Church in its organization, with Presidents, Apostles, High Priests, Seventies, Bishops and their councils, high councils, for their instruction and guidance, and with teachers, priests and deacons, and so forth. He organized his Church here upon the earth, and revealed unto these various quorums their several duties, and placed upon them certain responsibilities, told them what they were, and revealed unto Joseph Smith all things pertaining to the first organization of his kingdom upon the earth. He told his disciples, as Jesus told his, to go forth without purse or scrip, to preach the Gospel to every nation and kindred and people and tongue—to call upon them to repent of their sins, to be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of their sins, to have hands laid upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost; to lay hands upon the sick and to cast out devils, just as Jesus told his disciples to do; and said he: “Freely you have received, freely give.” “Go without purse or scrip, trust in me, I am your father, I am the God and father of all the spirits of all flesh. I have you under my special control, I will stand by, I will sustain you, my spirit shall go with you, mine angels shall go before you to prepare the way for you.” This is what he told Joseph Smith, and the Elders went forth, according to the word that God had given them, and they told you and told others to repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of them. And what then? You should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which should take of the things of God and show them unto you; it should unveil the heavens to one, give the spirit of prophecy to another, the gift of interpretation to another, the gift of healing to another, and so forth, the Spirit dividing to each man severally as he saw fit.

These Elders went forth and preached to you Latter-day Saints now before me, this very Gospel I have been laying before you, and there was something in your spirit ready to receive it. You could not tell why or wherefore, but you believed it to be a message sent from God, and you went forth into the waters of baptism and were baptized, and you received the gift of the Holy Ghost, and you then knew for yourselves of the truth of that doctrine which God had committed unto them; and you, in turn, were ordained, and you also went forth to preach the same Gospel, with the same results, for you saw the power of God manifested. You saw the sick healed, and the power of God attend your ministrations. You saw the lame leap for joy, those who were downcast, inspired and led to rejoice through the principles of eternal life, and thus the Lord has perpetuated the same thing until the present day. Mixed up with that have been other things. We have been gathered here. What for? What did we come here for? Who knows? We came here because God said he would build up his Zion in the latter days.

Under the teachings of Joseph Smith and President Young, the Elders of the Church have preached the gathering, and this is a gathering dispensation. But there is something else to be done besides simply being introduced into the spiritual ordinances of the Church of God: there is a kingdom to be established. We have gathered from the east and the west, from the north and the south, for a spirit rested upon the people to gather together, and no man could prevent them. All of you know how this feeling operated upon you, just as much as when it operated upon you by baptism—when you had the Spirit of God upon you you could not resist it. I remember a circumstance that transpired in Liverpool some thirty years ago. We were told at that time by Joseph Smith not to preach the gathering, for we had been driven from Missouri, and as there was no particular specific place, he thought it was not well to say anything about gathering until a place should be prepared, then we should have instructions and could teach it. That was all well enough, but we could not keep it from the people. Why? They had received the Holy Ghost, and that took of the things of God and showed them to the people, and you could not hide the gathering from them. I remember a sister coming to me on one occasion and saying, “Brother Taylor, I had a curious kind of a dream the other night.” “What was it?” “Well,” said she, “I dreamed there was a whole lot of Saints standing at the pier head down below here, in Liverpool; and there was a vessel there and it was going off to America, and we were going to some place they called Zion. I was going, you were going, and the Saints were all going. I thought I would ask you the meaning of it.” I told her I would tell her one of these times. We could not keep it away from the people. If we had been told not to baptize and lay hands on them we could have kept it from them, but when they had been baptized and had hands laid upon them they received the Holy Ghost, and that Spirit showed the things of God to them and we could not hide them from them, hence from the time the people in the nations began to obey the Gospel to the present there has been a feeling in their hearts to gather up to Zion. The Saints abroad have desired to come here, and the Saints here have desired that they should come, and this is why we have sent as many as five hundred teams in a year to fetch our brethren from the Missouri River who were unable to come without assistance. What have we done this for? Well, some people may say it is a grand emigration scheme; but we say it is a scheme of the Lord to build up his kingdom and to gather the people together, according to the saying of the old prophets—“I will take one of a city and two of a family and bring them to Zion.” “What, will you do with them?” “I will give them pastors after my own heart, who shall feed them with knowledge and understanding,” that is what I will do with them when I get them to Zion.

Well, we have gathered from the nations year after year, until today we find ourselves a large people, actually occupying a Territory some five hundred miles in length. What is the result of this? Why we have got to have a political organization—we cannot avoid it. The Church has gathered us together, the Spirit of God has operated on our minds, and we are here an integral part of the United States of America, and we cannot help ourselves. If we wished to do so we could not annihilate ourselves or blot ourselves out of existence, and we do not want to if we could. But the necessities of the case have forced us into the very position that we now occupy—namely, a Territory in the United States of America; and as we are here, we like other people, have to eat, drink, wear clothing, build houses, make farms, and so on. God has ordained all these things before, and we, as part of his creatures, have to do our part towards beautifying his footstool.

Finding ourselves in this capacity, we must have our courts. It is true that, formerly, our individual matters were regulated by our High Councils, Bishops’ Councils, teachers, and so forth: but in some of the revelations it says, “Let him that steals be delivered up to the laws of the land.” Well, here we are, and we occupy a political position, and we cannot help it, and nobody else can help it. You who live here, form a city, and you must have city regulations. You want police to guard you from the inroads of wicked men, either among ourselves or outsiders, no matter who, to protect the peaceable, industrious, honest and virtuous, and you must have some kind of government to do it. In a church capacity, whether here or abroad, we could cut the thief or drunkard from the Church if we had a mind to, but here, if we cut a man from the Church, we cannot cut him from the State, he is still a citizen of the United States, and in the United States. In other places they make laws to punish theft, licentiousness and other crimes. It is true they do not carry them out; they do not care to do it, but they have such laws, and a variety of others to regulate property matters, and so forth. And we are compelled to enact such laws for safeguards around the whole community, for among other things we are beginning to possess property. We have farms, and they are in the United States, and we have to apply for patents for them, just as they do anywhere else, and we have to conform to the processes of law in all these matters, the same as any other people have. We have also to plow the ground, and to fence it, and to have our neighborhood, city and county regulations in Utah among the Saints, just as the people do elsewhere, for, as I have already said, we are part of the body politic of the United States.

It has been thought good to apply for a State government for us. Here is Brother George A. Smith going down for that purpose. Why so? Why do you do that? Is not that of the world? Yes, and we are of the world and in the world, and we cannot get out of it until we are called out of it by old age or some accidental death. We are here and we have got to act, and we live, move and have our being, like other people. We are not here to interfere with the rights of anybody. People may want to rob us, but we do not want to rob anybody. We want to protect ourselves in every legal and equitable way from the aggressions of those who would seek our overthrow, and the overthrow of the kingdom of God on the earth.

Well, finding ourselves thus organized, what have we to do? Why, we have our bodies and our spirits, we are temporal beings, we are immortal beings; we have to do with time and with eternity. We had very little to do with coming here, we came by some manner of means, we hardly know how, and we have to leave when the time comes, and we cannot help ourselves. Then the only thing we ought to do is to act as wise, intelligent beings before God. The world have no idea of God, and they do not acknowledge him. He may develop, through one person, the principle of electricity, but the world will say it is some wise man that did it. He may, through another, develop the power of steam, but they say, Some wise man did it. Through another, God may make known the light-giving power of gas, to another the tapping of the earth to bring forth oils for illuminating purposes; but the world say, “Some wise man has done this.” Men do not like to acknowledge God; it is just as the Scriptures say: they will not acknowledge him in all their thoughts. They want to get rid of him, and they give the glory to men for doing this, that and the other. Fools that they are! What do they know about these principles? Who organized the principles which they found out? Did man? Did he organize the principle of electricity or give it its vitality and power? Did any of our savants? No, they could not. Who placed the principle of power in steam? Did man? No, he could not do it. They want to throw off God where they can, while we want to bring him in and have him one of our crowd; that is the difference between us and them. They find out something which God has made, just as the little child when it discovers its fingers for the first time. It had them long before, but when they first attracted its attention it seemed to fancy it had made a great discovery. God organized the child and placed its spirit within its body, and it at last found out that it had a hand. And the scientific babies of the world just discover some of the properties of matter, some of nature’s laws created by God long before, and like Nebuchadnezzar they cry, in the pride of their hearts, “Is not this great Babylon which I have built?” Yes it is, and it is as much of a Babylon or Babel as the other was.

Well, God has commenced to do a work, and he began, in the first place, with the very first principles of the Gospel, and he has led us on gradually, until we find ourselves in our present position, and we have got a beautiful land here, haven’t we? And yet they call our leader a murderer, and those who are his co-laborers the most infamous blackhearted scoundrels that ever existed. Are these the works of murderers that you see around here? Excuse me for referring to these things, but I do it to contrast between one thing and another. We always knew they were liars, and do today.

What are we after? What are the world after? Say they, “Is not this great Babylon that we have built?” They tell us what magnificent stripes and stars, and what glorious freedom we have got here in this land of liberty; and in our Fourth of July orations we talk about the great blessings that we enjoy, and how we have got bigger flags, higher mountains, taller trees and deeper rivers than anybody else, and we are the most magnificent people in existence. All over the land this is the kind of talk and feeling that prevails, and men boast of their wisdom, intelligence and prowess. But they are in the hands of God—this nation and all others are in his hand, and he will deal with them just as he sees proper. By and by he will cause the nations to tremble to their foundations. Empires will be overthrown, kingdoms destroyed, and the powers that be will fade away like “the baseless fabric of a vision;” and he will exalt and ennoble those who put their trust in him, and work the works of righteousness. We are here to do a work; not a small one, but a large one. We are here to help the Lord to build up his kingdom, and if we have any knowledge of electricity, we thank God for it. If we have any knowledge of the power of steam, we will say it came from God. If we possess any other scientific information about the earth whereon we stand, or of the elements with which we are surrounded, we will thank God for the information, and say he has inspired men from time to time to understand them, and we will go on and grasp more intelligence, light and information, until we comprehend as we are comprehended of God. This is what we are after. We are here to introduce correct principles upon the earth on which we live; but we cannot do it any more than any of these men can understand the laws of nature, unless God reveals them to us. The world is all confusion, and men need the illuminating influence of the Spirit of God.

We talk sometimes about our political status, and think that we have been dreadfully oppressed and crowded here. Why, there are millions and millions worse off in the United States than we are today. We need not grunt much. Besides, we expect that the wicked will grow worse, deceiving and being deceived. You Elders of Israel, have you not prophesied about it? And if you have, are you surprised that men begin to expose themselves, and to manifest the works of the devil in every form—religiously, socially and politically, trampling under foot every principle of honor and integrity? Are you surprised at it? I am not, I expect it, and I expect it to grow worse and worse. But don’t you think we have got over all our difficulties. Not quite; not by a long way. I expect things will grow worse and worse. As we increase in power, the power of Satan and his emissaries will increase also. I expect that all the time; but in the future God will put the opposers of his cause and people to shame, as he has done the wretches now in our midst. I expect that he will stand by Israel, maintain his kingdom, uphold his people, and lead them on from victory to victory, from strength to strengh, from power to power, from intelligence to intelligence, until “the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever,” until a universal hosannah shall go up from the nations of the earth, and “blessing, and glory and honor, and power, and might, majesty and dominion shall be ascribed to him who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb forever.”

We are associated with these principles today. God is our God and our Father. We approach him and we say: “We thank thee, O God, our Father, for the mercies thou hast vouchsafed to thy people. We humble ourselves before thee, because thou art our Father, and thy mercy endures forever.” This is the kind of feeling we have when we feel right.

Well, we are here, and God is going to build up his kingdom. He will do it, and we need not trouble ourselves about outsiders and their notions, or about foolish men or their thoughts, practices and calculations. It is a matter of very little difference to us. God is at the helm—he manages, he guides, he directs and controls, he influences his people, and he will continue to influence them. Well, we are here, in the capacity, say, of a kingdom, and people tell us that we are different from anybody else. Of course we are; we do not expect to be like others. It is true that smoke goes out of our chimneys, as out of the chimneys of others, because it is a law of nature. It is true that potatoes, wheat and corn grow here as elsewhere. It is true we have to attend to the common affairs of life—eat, drink, sustain ourselves, clothe and keep ourselves warm, as others do, and we have to take care of and protect ourselves from the incursions and machinations of those who seek to destroy us. In all these respects we have to take the same course that other people do; but the difference between us is—we have an organization, a Church organization, given by revelation from God, and which does not exist anywhere else in this little world.

But what about other things relative to temporal affairs? If God can organize us as a Church, if he can unveil the heavens to us, draw aside the curtain of futurity, and enable us to penetrate the veil and gain a certain knowledge in regard to the future, certainly he can make known or reveal something about a few temporal things, such as plowing, sowing, building, planting, trading, manufacturing, making railroads, and a thousand other little things that have to be attended to in this world. If he can do the bigger things, I think he can do the less.

“Well, we are capable of doing that ourselves,” say some people, some of these philosophers I have referred to—they are all wise men, and you would think wisdom would die with them, but it will not be entirely extinguished when they are gone, not quite. God will still lead, govern and direct his people. “But,” say they, “we think we could do things so much better than somebody else. Well then, go at it and try; there is plenty of room in the world for you to exhibit your intelligence.

We are in the hands of God. We have come here. What for? The Lord says, “I will take them one of a city and two of a family, and bring them to Zion.” What will you do with them? “Give them pastors after my own heart, who shall feed them with knowledge and understanding.” It is a fact, today, that the wise men and great men, and statesmen, and men in position in various parts of the world, as they come here to visit, us with all our failings and infirmities, tell us that we are the best and most orderly people they have ever seen. And they say we have a beautiful country, and that we are governed by wisdom, by sage counsels, and by a high order of intelligence. That is the opinion of the leading statesmen of this day who pass through our midst, and many of them come through here. The question naturally arises, Where does this wisdom come from? Why, God inspired Joseph Smith; then he inspired President Young with the same kind of spirit and feeling. Then he inspired the devil, or the devil inspired his imps—one of the two—and drove us from our former possessions, and it all worked together, the Lord inspired on the one hand, and the devil on the other, and by hook or by crook, we got here, just as we are today.

We commenced to build a temple in Kirtland, and we built it. We built another in Nauvoo, and we are building another here. We are attending to the ordinances pertaining to the Church of God, temporal and spiritual, ordinances pertaining to the body, and ordinances pertaining to the spirit. And then, as men having to do with the world on which we live, with the Territory that we possess, we have to enact laws, and we have to conduct ourselves properly, and seek the assistance of the Almighty to direct us in all our affairs, and the Lord has promised if we would do that, he would show us that the wisdom of God is greater than the cunning of the devil. Well, he does keep showing that from time to time, and if we do right he will keep on doing it. But to ensure this there is something devolving upon us.

Says one, “If I could have so much money, such a farm, or this, that, and the other, I would feel satisfied.” I say, get the Spirit of God in your hearts! Let the light of revelation burn in your bosoms like living fire, then you will know something about God, something about the blessings of salvation, something about the benefits that will accrue to Zion. “But, sometimes, I have to make a little sacrifice if I carry out the counsel given.” Well, make it then. If it is a sacrifice, it ought to be a pleasure to help build up the kingdom of God, establish righteousness, plant the standard of truth, and to be on the side of God, angels and eternal realities, to be saviors of men. To be thus situated is the most honorable position in this world or the world to come. Now, God could not get the world to do anything towards building up his kingdom, they would not do it, they could not see it, and he had to get you baptized before you could see it; and seeing it now, will you barter it away for the follies of this world, for the smiles and promises of the ungodly? Or are you going to cleave to the truth, live by it, and, if necessary, die by it? What are you going to do?

I am glad we have come here. I am pleased that these meetings have been instituted, that the people get together, and that we have a chance to talk with them, in their assemblies, about the things of God. We are God’s people, God is our Father, and we should spend a little time in these things. This is our duty, and we should feel an interest in them. That is what we set out for, and we mean to go forward, and we will go on and on, for our motto is eternal progress. This kingdom will advance, the purposes of God will roll forward, and no power on this side of hell, or the other either, can stop it. God will sustain his people, and Israel will rejoice and be triumphant.

Now then, we come to the management of our affairs. Talking of the wise men of the world, why we have had many of them ever since the world was. And what have they accomplished in the nations of the earth? They have built cities, and some have raised themselves to fame by trampling under foot thousands of others. They have waded through seas of blood sometimes to get upon the throne of power. What to do? That they might trample still lower poor humanity, and bring men down, as it were, to the dust of death, and make serfs of them. What else have they done? They have established every kind of government, as they have every kind of religion. Do you not think that we need revelation about government as much as anything else? I think we do. I think we need God to dictate to us as much in our national and social affairs as in church matters. Some people are willing to have their souls looked after, but they think they are smart enough to look after temporal affairs themselves. In the world they want a doctor to look after their bodies, a parson to look after their souls, and a lawyer to take care of their property. In these respects we differ from them. We begin with God. Our light comes from him, our religion is from him, and we need his guidance and instruction in all these other matters. Is not that simple, plain and reasonable? They are in confusion in the world about their religion, because there is no God in it. That is what’s the matter. The Scriptures say, “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, who is in all and through you all.” They have a religion without God, and they are going to heaven without God, and when they get there they will find no God, and they will still have a chance to have their own way inasmuch as the Lord will let them.

Well, as I said, we begin first with God, religiously, spiritually if you please—teaching first, the first principles of the Gospel. Then we go on to other matters—to temporal matters. A Bishop, you know, in the world, is a kind of being who has nothing to do but to attend to spiritual matters, and he does very little of that. Our Bishops have to take care of the poor, and see that they are provided for, that is, see they have something to eat, and they have also to attend to many secular affairs that are naturally connected with common humanity. Well, what then? We build churches and temples, and we administer in those temples, according to the revelations which God has given to us. And they would like to know something about that, but they cannot, for that belongs to the Saints only. Then, what next? We find ourselves, as I said before, in a governmental capacity, and perform our duties as good citizens and attend to all the duties and responsibilities thereof. But then it is no trouble for us to keep the laws of the land. What difficulty is there for other people? Can they live then? I am sure we can. No law of any land will interfere with or molest the man who does not cheat or defraud his neighbor, but pursues an honorable, honest, upright course. Laws are made for the unruly and turbulent, for lawbreakers and for men who violate right. Then there are many other things besides these in which we differ from the world, in their social, political and religious affairs. I will refer to one—their method of treating the acknowledged head of the Government, the President of the United States. At one time it was “Hurrah for General Grant,” he was almost a demi-god. What do they say now? If you can believe the papers, he is one of the biggest rascals that was ever unhung. I do not know whether they told the truth before or now, but they do talk these things, and who would stand by him if he were thrown out? Very few. Here is President Young, whom his enemies have been calling a murderer; did anybody forsake him? No, oh no! Did any of your knees tremble? Perhaps a little, not much; but still you had faith in him, and you would as soon see him today as any other man on God’s footstool, wouldn’t you? (Congregation answered “Yes.“) There is the difference. There is a principle implanted in the hearts of men, that no man can tear therefrom; the Spirit of God plants it there, and there it dwells and will remain, and it cannot be rooted out. It is true you act foolishly about here, sometimes. I know you do, because we do among us yonder, and you are just as we are, and you act very foolishly sometimes; but when we let the Spirit of God operate upon our minds, it is “Hurrah for Brigham Young,” “Hurrah for the Twelve,” “Hurrah for the kingdom of God!” That is the feeling, isn’t it? Well, now let us carry it out, and live it, and do what is right and God will bless us. Don’t be particular about having your own way, for it is not always the right way, and that which seems pleasing in our eyes is not always right, and that which looks the most profitable is not always right. It is the most profitable and right for the Saints of God to keep the commandments and be governed by the counsels of God; and if you are governed by that he will lead you on from light to light, from strength to strength, from intelligence to intelligence until you will be exalted among the Gods, there to rejoice forever and ever. We have commenced the race and we will go on and win it; we have commenced a battle, and we shall triumph, for the kingdom of God will go on, and no power can stop it.

May God help us to be faithful in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, May 19, 1872.

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem.

The portion of the prophecy of Isaiah which I have read indicates that at a certain day and under certain circumstances, spoken of by the Prophet as being holy, seven women would claim to be called by the name of one man. Most of us have a different opinion with regard to the application of this prophecy. God inspired the Prophet, and it might be necessary, peradventure, to inquire what it all means. Seven women are to lay hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” What is the meaning of this last sentiment? We will let the Bible explain it. You remember that when Rachel, the second wife of Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel, found herself barren, while the other wives of her husband were bearing children, she prayed to the Lord that he, in his abundant mercy, would give her children, and when God heard her prayer and worked a miracle in her favor, causing her who was barren to become fruitful and bring forth a child, she said, God had taken away her reproach. This illustrates the meaning of the text. I did not make the prophecy, neither had I anything to do with making the history of Rachel, or even chronicling the event named.

In relation to Father Jacob, it is true he had four wives, and they bore him twelve sons, and their descendants are the twelve tribes of Israel. We are told by the Apostle John that the names of Jacob’s twelve sons—the sons of a polygamist and his four wives—will be written upon the gates of the holy Jerusalem; and there are none of us who expect to enter in through those gates but will have to acknowledge the truth of that doctrine. It is true that the principle of plurality of wives was adopted by the Church of Latter-day Saints in consequence of the revelation and commandment which God gave to Joseph Smith, and which, through him, were laid upon the heads of this people; and we quote the passages that we do quote, in relation to the principle of celestial marriage from the Old and New Testament, to prove that God is consistent with himself; that if he revealed to his Saints in the last days, the doctrine of plurality of wives, it was in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah and others of the Prophets, and in accordance with the example which was set by Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and by holy men of ancient days.

In relation to the word “reproach” in our text, I will make another reference. In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, verses 23 and 24, we find Elizabeth rejoicing because God had taken away her reproach. She though she had been barren, became the mother of John the Baptist.

These passages tell in so many plain words why it was that seven women wished to be called by the name of one man—it was that they might have the privilege of bearing children.

Now, if God brings to pass this prophecy in the glorious day which our text speaks of, when holiness and righteousness are to rule, and when truth is to have dominion, and peace dwell in the earth, although all the world may have been opposed to it, we cannot be responsible. Until some person can find a passage in the Old or New Testament that definitely forbids a plurality of wives, with the many incidents of history, items of law, and declarations of Prophets in relation to the practice by the ancient Saints of that doctrine, we are able to assert that the Bible is a polygamous book, and that no man can believe it without believing plurality of wives, under some circumstances to be correct. I know it has been said that the Old Testament permitted plurality of wives, but the New forbids it. The Savior said he came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it, and that not a jot or tittle of the law or Prophets should pass away, but all should be fulfilled. The new dispensation did not annihilate the principles of law and right, as revealed in the Old. Both John the Baptist and the Savior denounced all sins with an unsparing hand, and especially adultery, fornication and divorce; and not a sentence is found in the New Testament which prohibits plurality of wives, though the Savior and his Apostles lived in a country where it was practiced; and it is impossible to believe that if it were a sin it would have escaped definite rebuke and absolute condemnation.

The petition to Congress which has been read here today is a perfect wonder, I presume, to those who have heard it. It is astonishing to me, and doubtless to all who listened to it, and especially those who reside here, that such a statement could be got up by any individual whatever, that any imagination could be so tortured as to manufacture so unmitigated a tissue of utter and absolute falsehoods; and much more that persons could be found who would think so little of their reputation as to sign such a statement. We understand, however, that many of the persons whose names are on that petition did not see the original. Many of them thought they were simply signing a petition against the admission of Utah as a State, without bringing personal charges against a people among whom they have lived in perfect safety, and in a country where peace and order have prevailed, and where all have enjoyed the uniform protection which our Territorial laws and the general organization of society give. I regret exceedingly that such a document should be made public; but as it is, with the list of names attached to it, was published by order of the United States Senate, it was thought proper to read it to the congregation that all might have a chance to know what it was and judge for themselves.

I came to this valley in 1847, being one of the 143 pioneers who searched out and made the roads from the Missouri River here. The ample property we possessed in Illinois we had left there; and we made the roads, about 300 miles, or nearly across the State of Iowa, bridging about thirty streams, and passing through a wilderness totally uninhabited save by a few scattered Indians. That was as far as we could get the first year. The second year—1847—we made the roads from what we termed Winter Quarters, about five miles above where Omaha is now situated. We traveled on the north side of the river, established our ferry across the Elkhorn, and made our road, striking the old Oregon trail, as it was called, at the mouth of Ash Hollow; that is, we went up on the north side of the Platte to the north fork; while Independence road went up on the south side, and struck the north fork at Ash Hollow, probably a hundred and eighty miles below Fort Laramie. We thought some of crossing the river and taking the trapper’s trail, but we found it difficult, so we continued making a new road on the north side until we reached Fort Laramie. There we crossed and made a road a portion of the way, and followed the old trail a portion of the way through to Fort Bridger. On this route we encountered some companies who were going to Oregon, and being unable to get across the Platte and Green rivers we got up the means of ferrying, and ferried them across both these rivers, and they proceeded on the route to Oregon, while we worked our way across this Wasatch range into this valley.

When we reached here we found the place very barren; but it was the best prospect we had seen for five hundred miles. The creek we now call City Creek came out of the mountains, and divided into branches, and finally sank down into the ground, apparently without reaching Jordan River. It had about its sinks some green spots of rushes and grass, but except that the country was very naked and barren. The city plot here did not even bear good sage; and there was a little grass, but it was very dry. Along the stream were a dozen or so of scrubby cottonwoods and a few willows. The rest of the ground was naked, except being nearly covered with immense numbers of large, black crickets, which had devoured most of the leaves of the cottonwoods and willows; and when we went to work to cut a ditch to carry the water down to the place known as Old Fort block, where we first built our fort, so dry was the soil of the ditch that it took the whole stream two and a half days to reach the desired point.

It was in this desolate place—1034 miles from the Missouri River, and thirteen or fourteen hundred from Nauvoo—the place whence we had been expelled, that we commenced our location. It was understood that a party had undertaken to cross west here, some year or two before, and had perished. The name of the man who led the party was Hastings, and the route west is called Hastings’ cut off. It is said that John C. Fremont had been in this valley the fall previous, but we had no report of his explorations. We had an account of him visiting the north end of Great Salt Lake, and the south end of Utah Lake; but so ignorant was he at the time of the country between the two lakes that his map, published after his return from his exploration, shows Salt Lake and Utah Lake to be one body of water, whereas there is a river about fifty miles long between them.

In a few days after we reached here another party arrived, increasing our numbers to about four hundred. We had but very little provisions, which we had brought with us. The country was destitute of game, and the most rigid economy was necessary in order to subsist. We remained about a month, when a portion of the pioneers, myself among the number, started back for our families, who were still encamped at Winter Quarters, on the Missouri River; and on our way back we met about seven hundred wagons with families moving on for this place. These families came in late, and enclosed themselves in the Old Fort block, and the two blocks south of it, where they lived in security from the Indians, and during the winter they succeeded, partially, in enclosing a field, making preparations for irrigation, and sowing several thousand acres of grain. They found it necessary to ration themselves on account of the scarcity of their provisions, and I believe that almost every family allowanced themselves to half a pound of flour a day, that is, if they had it, many to less; and they went over these hills digging the sego—a wild, bulbous root, sometimes eaten by the Indians, and everything that they could get that had any nutriment in it. In those days the animals that were killed, having crossed the plains, were generally very poor; but they were used with the greatest economy, hides, feet and tail, all being eaten. I believe they tell a story of a certain rule among the Mahomedans, in relation to eating swine’s flesh. Some of them refuse it, but as a general thing the various classes of them only refuse certain portions—some reject the snout, some the ear, others the feet, others the tail, and so on; but among the whole Mussulman race they “go the whole hog.” Among the earliest settlers in this valley there was no rejection; and there are some, who lived here the first two years after our arrival, who will now say that they never tasted any food so sweet as boiled rawhide. About the time our first crop began to head out, the crickets made their appearance, and devoured the greater portion of it. This was awfully discouraging. Our nurserymen had collected their seeds, and planted them, and some twenty or thirty thousand trees had got up, may be five or six inches high, and one day, while the nurserymen had gone to dinner, a swarm of crickets came down and destroyed all the trees but three. That was the commencement of our nursery business in this city. It is believed, fully, by the Latter-day Saints of that time, that God delivered them from utter starvation by sending flocks of gulls from the lake, which ate up the crickets, and saved a portion of their crop. The crickets have not troubled the agriculturists in the valley, materially, since, but the flying grasshoppers have come in immense numbers, and in 1855 reduced all the families in the Territory to half the allowance of food they needed; and for several years back this plague has probably destroyed from one-third to one-half the fruits of the farmer’s labors. These are very material drawbacks to our prosperity with which we have had to contend here in Utah. Persons unacquainted with the manner and difficulties of irrigation cannot realize the immense labor, care and attention that are necessary to commence this work. Friends come in and look over our city, and say, “Why, how nice this water is that runs through all the street!” But the fact is, there is not a tree, bush, or spear of grass grows in these low valleys without being irrigated naturally or artificially, and there is only very few and very small spots where natural irrigation is attainable. By natural irrigation I mean that the water is so near the surface of the ground as to moisten it sufficiently to make it produce vegetation, and these places are only found about the sinks of creeks. Just turn the water that passes through these streets back into the original channel, and next fall would see most of the trees dead. All the results you see here, in the way of agriculture, were made, are held by main strength and constraint and continued diligence.

During the days of our early settlement, it was necessary that measures be taken to supply the wants of those who were without food, and for years a fast was held every month, and sometimes every week. The amount of food that would have been consumed by a family during that fast was presented to the needy, and in this way, struggling for three years in succession, the people were sustained, and nobody perished. When we did finally succeed in raising the necessaries of life, thousands of strangers came pouring in here, a great many of them destitute of bread. They had started for the gold mines without knowing how far it was, what outfit to take, or how to take care of themselves; and great numbers of them, when they reached here, had to be assisted on their journey, and there were thousands who went to California during the early days of the gold excitement there, who must have perished had it not been for the assistance they obtained from the settlements of these valleys.

We came here full of enterprise, and our only hope for subsistence was in agriculture. We found mines of lead, and minerals of various kinds; but we could do nothing with them. The Legislative Assembly memorialized Congress for a railroad and a telegraph line across the continent, and they set forth in that petition, in 1852, that the mineral resources of these mountains could never be developed without a railroad; and that if they would build a railroad, or make the necessary arrangement for one, the trade of China and the East Indies would pass through the heart of the American States. We have lived to see these predictions fulfilled.

You may pass, friends, over the Territory at your leisure; go from the north to the south, and you will find the inhabitants, generally, industrious, temperate, moral, straightforward, diligent and honest, very few spending their time about gambling hells or drinking saloons; in fact very few villages support such establishments, and wherever you find them you may be sure that modern civilization has made inroads there. When you see a gang of men standing round, loafing about a place, smoking cigars, drinking whiskey, and looking for something to turn up, you may generally set it down there is no Latter-day Saint there, or if there is a “Mormon” mixed up with them he is becoming demoralized. If the faith of the Latter-day Saints be adhered to as it should be, men would be temperate and moral, and they would avoid using profane language; and one of the injunctions of their religion is that the idler shall not eat the bread of the laborer.

We have fed thousands and tens of thousands of strangers who have passed through here without means, and no person has been permitted to go hungry in our midst if we knew it, admitting at the same time that our means of subsistence were limited, and all that we have wrenched from the soil has been by main strength.

I would like to draw a little comparison: I moved my family in ’49. I came out in ’47, and went back again and made arrangements to get back with my family, the earliest possible, which was in ’49. I brought in two hundred pounds of flour a head for the family, which I ran out in short allowances to each one of them, and I divided some to the neighbors, there being numbers of them around who had got out of food, and we eked it out little by little, little by little. If a friend called and had his dinner with us, why, we had to shorten our allowance of bread. There was no place we could go and buy a little flour or a little beef, for nobody had any but what they wanted themselves, and what they must have themselves, and if we divided our little out we, ourselves, must go hungry. If we lived fast today, we must starve tomorrow, and in this way we stretched the matter along. God, in his mercy, blessed us with good health; we had good health, hard work and short allowance of food. There was one thing we were very thankful for: We had been mobbed a number of times—five times driven from our homes. We had left our inheritances in Missouri and Illinois, and had got nothing for them, and here, whatever other things we lacked, we had the privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of our consciences, and we could go to meeting, and preach and pray without anybody interrupting us; for although there were thousands and thousands of strangers constantly passing through our territory, they generally treated us with kindness and consideration. How is it now with us with regard to the necessaries of life? If a man is out of bread he can hardly find a house but what, if he enters and says, “I am hungry, give me something to eat,” the reply will be, “Yes, we have plenty.” And there are thousands of men and women who have come from the States and from Europe. We have contributed immense sums, and sent our teams by the hundred to the Missouri River to bring them here; and when they got here, their labor, industry and economy would enable them at once to obtain food and the necessaries of life, plain, to be sure, but an abundance of such as the country afforded. No one that is hungry can go to a house or a family and ask for bread and not obtain it. Look at the contrast; and it has been effected by years of fasting and united industry, poverty and toil, by the pioneers of this country. To be sure we have had plenty of the sayings of the Savior upon our heads to satisfy us that we were right in one particular. He says: “Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you, and say all manner of evil concerning you, falsely, for my sake.”

We bid welcome to our friends. The fields are wide and open, and the mountains are, no doubt, full of mineral. At any rate, every man has his chance, if he will dig for it. Dig for the treasures, and open the fields and the farms, but do not trespass on the rights of your neighbors. Worship God according to the dictates of your conscience, observe the law of heaven, but never, under any circumstances, intrude upon the rights of others. These are the principles which rule here. Look at these things, and realize that it is to the efforts of the inhabitants of this country, their labors, toils and sacrifices, that we owe our present comfort. We commenced by hauling carding machines and printing offices across the mountains; we built factories, and undertook to raise wool; we labored to produce flax and hemp, not very successfully, but we did all we could. Thousands of our brethren did not believe it possible ever to raise fruit; but God tempered the climate, and, although in the tops of the mountains, we have raised abundance of fruit in many of our settlements. Our sheep have become productive, our herds have increased, and we have laid a foundation for plenty; and any pilgrim who comes along, who wishes to obtain food and raiment, can obtain it, for it is here; and he can go into the mountains, and if fortune favor him he may strike something which he may desire, though I must honestly confess that, so far as I am concerned, I believe the plan for any man to pursue who wishes to lay a foundation for future independence, is to procure a piece of land and make a farm. He might, peradventure, strike an “Emma” mine; but I think that kind of luck will be the exception instead of the rule; but, as a general thing, the man who labors industriously to make himself a farm, creates around him a good, comfortable home in a few years. Of course, if men go prospecting for minerals, they know it is a good deal like a lottery. Our railroad is going south, and as it progresses, new mines and new mining interests will, without doubt, be opened and developed; and as a result of the labors of developing the resources of the Territory, I realize that millions will be benefited.

There is one thing that our friends do not realize. When they come here they make up their minds that “Mormonism” is a humbug, and their mistake is, it is true. Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and the plan of salvation revealed through him is the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and every man and every woman who rejects it, rejects the truth, and will be responsible for it; and every man and every woman who walks in obedience to its precepts will receive glory, honor, immortality and endless lives. I am not talking something I guess, I know these things are true; and it is the wisdom and prudence, the light and the intelligence of the Almighty, revealed through his servants to the Latter-day Saints, that have gathered a hundred thousand people from the four quarters of the earth and planted them down in comfortable homes in Utah, and it is only the inspiration of the father of lies that circulates the false reports and the abuse concerning them.

May God bless you my friends. You are welcome in this land. Go and be blessed; and as you go to your homes, to the four winds of heaven, tell the truth about the Latter-day Saints. May God enable us to overcome and be faithful in all things, that we may finally inherit his kingdom, through Jesus our Redeemer. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, April 28th, 1872.

I am very happy for the privilege of meeting with the Latter-day Saints, and I have reason to be thankful that I am able to speak a little to them. It brings many things to our reflections and causes many thoughts to arise. When we look over the human family what a variety we see and especially upon the subject of religion. We take Christianity, for instance, and as nations, as people, we believe in and on the Lord Jesus Christ. Most of Christian professors believe in the ordinances, or some portions of the ordinances of the house of God. Most of Christians believe in the breaking of bread, in blessing it and partaking of it in remembrance of the broken body of our Savior; also in taking the cup, consecrating it and then partaking of it, in remembrance of his blood that was shed for the sins of the world. And then take up the hundreds of different denominations and what a motley mass we present in our faith, feelings, sympathies, judgment, passions and conduct; man against man, priest against priest, people against people. Now let the Christian denominations come here: “Yes, the Latter-day Saints believe in taking the Sacrament, it is true, but what a pity,” say they. “They profess to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh dear! I wish they did! Yes, they seem to manifest great confidence in the atonement, in the ordinances and commandments. I wish they were a better people! What a pity it is that they are such an outlawed, sinful race of beings as they are! What a pity!!” “How we Christians do pity the Latter-day Saints.” Then again, how we Latter-day Saints do pity the Christians! What a spectacle! And see us, as Christians, warring with each other! What for? For our pure faith, for our holy desires, for our great charity to each other, for the love of Christ, for the salvation of the souls of the children of men.

Now is not this a spectacle to present to angels? Why if the Lord Al– mighty was not beyond the conception of humanity in charity and love, in mercy and long-suffering, in patience and kindness to his creatures, where would we have been ere this? We would have been weltering in his wrath, we would have been drinking his hot displeasure. But he is more merciful than we are. I have thought a great many times I was very thankful I was not the Lord Almighty. I should be consuming my enemies. How I should contend against those who hate me. I am glad I am not the Lord. And to see the Latter-day Saints here following the example of the Savior when he took his disciples into an upper room, and bade some of them go and prepare to partake supper with him the last time before his crucifixion. He took the bread and blessed and brake. “Take and eat ye all of this, for this is my body in the New Testament.” He took the cup and blessed it; “Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood in the New Testament.” Here we are doing the same today. What more? Do this until I come, for I will neither eat nor drink any more with you in this capacity until I drink anew with you in my father’s kingdom on this earth. Will he do it? Certainly he will. “Do this in remembrance of me until I come.” We are doing this today. Do not other Christians do the same? They do. How do we Latter-day Saints feel towards them? Were we to yield to the carnal passions of the natural man and we had the power of the Almighty we would spew our enemies out of our mouths, yes, we would hiss them from the face of human society for their evils, their malice, for the revenge and wrath they have towards us. But we are not the Almighty. I am glad of it. I am happy in the reflection that I have not the power, and I hope and pray I may never possess it until I can use it like a God, until I can wield it as our Father in heaven wields it, with all that eternity of majesty, glory, charity, with his judgment, discretion, and with every faculty of compassion. I am happy in the reflection that I do not possess the power. I am glad you elders do not, I am really glad you do not. Will he ever grant power to his Saints on the earth? Yes, they will take the kingdom, and possess it forever and ever; but in the capacity they are now, in the condition that they now present themselves before God, before the world and before each other? Never, never! Until we are sanctified, until we are filled with the wisdom of God, with the knowledge of God, will he bequeath the power that he has in reserve for his Saints; never will the Saints possess it until they are prepared to wield it with all that judgment, discretion, wisdom and forbearance that the Lord Almighty wields in his own capacity, and uses at his pleasure. How do you feel about it, brethren? Do not you wish sometimes you had power to pinch their ears? Do not you wish you had power to stop them in their mad career? Let the Lord Almighty do this. You think his eye is upon the work of his hands? It is. His ears are open to the prayers of his children, he will hear their prayers, he will answer their desires; and when we as a people possess the abundance of that patience, that long-suffering and forbearance that we need, to possess the privileges and the power that the Lord has in reserve for his people, we will receive to our utmost satisfaction. We shall not have it now. The Lord says, “I cannot give it to you now.” This church has now been traveling over forty-two years—forty-two years the sixth day of this month since it was organized with six members. What have we learned? We assembled in Missouri, at the place of gathering on the borders of the Lamanites, and there we bought our farms and built our houses; but could we stay there? Were we prepared then to enter into Zion, to build up the Zion of God and possess it? We were not, we must suffer. “You Latter-day Saints, you, my children,” says the Lord, “are not prepared to receive Zion.” Why, we have heard detailed by Elder Carrington the conduct of Elders at the present time, dishonest in the matter of a few shillings or dollars. Dishonest, covetous, selfish, grasping for that which is not our own; borrowing and not paying; taking that which does not belong to us; dishonest in our deal; oppressing each other. Are we fit for Zion? I say nothing to the Christian world with regard to this. Let them bite and devour as much as they please, it does not belong to the Latter-day Saints at least. Could we stay in Independence? No, we could not. What was the reason? Here are some hearing me talk who were there—some who are aged, some here who were then children and infants, some who were born there. But we stayed a very few years—two or three—and we must get up and march. Why did we leave? Why the enemy is upon us, our enemies are gathered around us, our foes are besetting us on every hand. There goes a house burned up; there is a man that is whipped; there is a family turned out of doors! What is the matter with all you Latter-day Saints? Can the world see? No. Can the Saints see? No, or few of them can; and we can say that the light of the Spirit upon the hearts and understandings of some Latter-day Saints is like the peeping of the stars through the broken shingles of the roof over our heads, when we are watching through the silent watches of the night and behold the glimmer of a twinkling star. “Oh yes, I see, I see, that we are not prepared to receive the kingdom.” Another one says, “Yes, I can see, we were too selfish.” Another one says, “I see, the wicked must be prepared for their doom as well as the Saints for their exaltation, and that the wicked are a rod in the hands of God to chasten the Saints.” Here are the two classes—the righteous and the unrighteous, and the righteous must be prepared by suffering and by rendering strict obedience to the commandments of heaven. It seems to be absolutely necessary in the providence of Him who created us, and who organized and fashioned all things according to his wisdom, that man must descend below all things. It is written of the Savior in the Bible that he descended below all things that he might ascend above all. Is it not so with every man? Certainly it is. It is fit then that we should descend below all things and come up gradually, and learn a little now, and again, receive “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.” But hark, do the people hear it? Do the people understand it? Scarcely! Scarcely! Do the Latter-day Saints understand these principles, and are we prepared to receive Zion? Are we prepared to receive the Kingdom and are we prepared for the blessings that God has in reserve for his children? Stop, think, consider, look around us! How is it? Are not the sordid things of this life before our eyes, and have they not thrown a mist before them so that we cannot see? Are we not of the earth, and still earthy? Certainly we are of the earth and still earthy. What do we know of heavenly things? It is very true we have the Bible; but when we come to our elders, men of limited education and moderate read– ing, they are able to teach the whole Christian world theology. Take them from the anvil, from the plow, from the carpenter’s bench, or from any occupation, if they possess good common ability and the spirit of our holy religion that God has revealed in these latter days, they understand more of the Bible and the building up of the Kingdom of God than all the world besides that are destitute of the priesthood of the Son of God. And yet what do we know? Comparatively we have hardly learned the first lesson.

Could our brethren stay in Jackson County, Missouri? No, no. Why? They had not learned “a” concerning Zion; and we have been traveling now forty-two years, and have we learned our a, b, c? “Oh,” say a good many, “I think we have.” Have we learned our a b ab? Have we got as far as b a k e r, baker? Have we got through our first speller? Have we learned multiplication? Do we understand anything with regard to the building up of the kingdom? I will say, scarcely. Have we seen it as a people? How long shall we travel, how long shall we live, how long shall God wait; for us to sanctify ourselves and become one in the Lord, in our actions and in our ways for the building up of the kingdom of God that he can bless us? He defends us, it is very true, and fights our battles. When we were driven from Missouri and had to leave the State I recollect very well, Gov. Boggs said, “You must leave;” Gen. Clark said, “You must leave;” the mob said, “You must leave,” and we had to leave. And after we had signed away our property, I’d see a widow send up her little boy to brother Such-a-one, “Will you let me go to your timber land and get a load of wood for my mother?” “Tell your mother that I have got no more timber than I shall want, I do not think I can spare her a load of wood.” I recollect very well of telling the Latter-day Saints, there and then, “I hope to God that we never will have the privilege of stopping and making ourselves rich while we grind the face of the poor; but let us be driven from State to State until we can take what we have got and dispose of it according to the dictation of the spirit of revelation from the Lord. Said I, “You will not stay here;” but long faces would come down, you know, with a gentle, mild scrowl, “I can’t spare you a load of wood.” Excuse me. When are the Latter-day Saints going to be prepared to receive the kingdom? Are we now? Not at all! We are prepared for some things, and we receive just as fast as we prepare ourselves. Well, what can we do, what more can we do? We can do just what we please to do. It is in our power to do just what we please to do with regard to sanctifying ourselves before the Lord, and preparing ourselves to build up his kingdom. Have we not the liberty to build this Temple here? We have, although earth and hell are opposed to it, and arrayed against it. Have we not the privilege of preaching the Gospel to the nations? We have. Have we not the privilege of uniting our faith and our efforts for the benefit of the whole community? Yes, we have.

Now come down, for example, to our present circumstances and condition. Year after year, I labored with our merchants to unite their efforts together to supply the wants of the people without taking from them everything they had got; and when I assembled these merchants some years before we entered into our present cooperative institution in this mercantile trade, said I, “Will you unite your efforts and your means, and start a business here that we can put goods into the hands of the people that we will not take their last sixpence? Have a calico dress at forty cents a yard when it should be only eighteen, twenty or twenty-two, and so on and so forth?” After a long conference one of the gentlemen present got up, walked the room back and forward, and finally said, “President Young, if you will furnish the money we will do as you say,” as much as to say, “it is none of your business what we do with the means that we have.” I dropped the conversation and said to myself. “Well then, gull the people, take what they have got.”

You recollect a man here in the time of the Buchanan war by the name of A. B. Miller. He was a merchant here for Russell and Majors. Our people were not merchandising much then. Well, the merchants met together and wanted to put up their goods to a certain notch, a dollar a pound for sugar, for instance. This A. B. Miller—a gambler, though there were a great many good things about him, he just turned in and damned them. Says he, “Gentlemen, to turn in and cut the throats of these ‘Mormons,’ and take what they have got, we might do, but for being so damned mean as to ask a dollar a pound for sugar, I will not do it.”

Now then, is this cooperative institution one step towards bringing the people to a union? Yes, but it is a very small one, and there is danger of it growing into a condition that will cease to be one step in the right direction. Let men say, “Here is what God has given me, do what you please with it,” and we shall be in the path of progress. But how is it now? “Brother, have you paid any tithing? You have made fifty thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, one thousand or five hundred dollars as the case may be, have you paid any tithing?” “Well, no I have not yet, but I think perhaps, I will by and by;” and this is said with stammering tongue, faltering voice, and covetous heart. Who gave you your money and possessions? Who owns this earth? Does the Devil? No, he does not, he pretended to own it when the Savior was here, and promised it all to him if he would fall down and worship him; but he did not own a foot of land, he only had possession of it. He was an intruder, and is still: this earth belongs to him that framed and organized it, and it is expressly for his glory and the possession of those who love and serve him and keep his commandments; but the enemy has possession of it.

Now then, a few other items, brethren and sisters. Can you do anything for the poor? “Well I do not know, but I can give you fifty cents to gather the poor.” “Brother, can you pay that debt? You recollect you borrowed some money of a widow woman in England. Do you recollect you borrowed a little money of such a brother? Can you pay that?” “Well yes, I am going to.” You heard what Brother Carrington said about it, what fellowship does the Lord Almighty have for such men? I think not the least. What fellowship do angels have for such men? I should think not much. What fellowship do I have for them? Not one particle. What ought to be done with them? I will answer the question—they ought to be disfellowshipped by the Saints: they are not fellowshipped in the heavens, and they ought not to be here.

“Well, now then, Brother Brigham, what are you at, what do you want?” I want you to do just that which will displease the enemies of the kingdom of God, and that which will please the Lord Almighty and the heavenly host to perfection. What is that? Do as you are counseled to do by the spirit of revelation from the Lord. What is the cry against us? “Brigham Young has too much influence! All the people hearken to Brigham Young! All these poor deluded Latter-day Saints take his counsel!” I wish it was so. If this were the fact you would see Zion prosper upon the hills and upon the plains, in the valleys and in the canyons, and upon the mountains. Go to with your might, seek unto the Lord your God until you have the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ upon you, until your minds are open, and the visions of heaven are plain to you. Then follow the dictations of the spirit, and watch Brother Brigham, and see if he counsels you wrong. I hope to see the time when I can say to the Latter-day Saints, if I preside over them, go and do this or that, and not ask a sixpence of this man or a dollar from that, or a hundred dollars from another. “Here is what I have, it is the Lord’s. He has given me all that I possess, it is only committed to my charge to see what I will do with it. The heavens are his, the earth is his; the gold and silver are his, the wheat and fine flour are his, the wine and the oil are his; the cattle upon a thousand hills are his. I am his, I am his servant, let the Lord say what the wants. Here I am, with all thou hast given me.” How displeasing this is to the devil is it not? I cannot help it, this is the true track and path for the Latter-day Saints to walk in. Walk up, O ye Latter-day Saints, and wake up! Come to the Lord, forsake your covetousness, your backslidings, forsake the spirit of the world, and return to the Lord with full purpose of heart until you get the spirit of Christ within you, that you, like others, can cry,” Abba, Father, the Lord he is God and I am his servant.”

Do you think it would be difficult then for us to accomplish anything we undertook? No. Very true the enemy, this potent foe that we have to contend with, we know but little about him, very little; but he is watching every avenue of the heart, rapping at every door and every window, and if there is a crevice between the clapboards, through the roof, or the brick or adobie wall, he throws a dart into the feelings of each and every individual. “Take care, think for yourselves, judge for yourselves; do not be led astray, do not you wander off after these deluded people, and their delusion. Be careful, there is danger in believing in the Lord, there is danger in being a Saint; there is great danger in you yielding your judgment in another man.” Oh, what a pity! Where do you get your judgment? Where did it come from? What is your judgment? I tell you that the judgment of the world now is pretty much for all to do just as they please if they possibly can, to the injury of their neighbors, for their own aggrandizement.

Can I not use my judgment in doing well just as much as in doing evil? Am I not just as independent in performing a deed of charity as a deed of cruelty? I contend that I am, what do you say? Have I not got my liberty just as much, and exercise it just as freely, in feeding the poor and clothing the naked as I have in turning them out of doors, or in lifting myself up against God and his anointed? Has a man got to apostatize from this kingdom, from the faith of Christ, to be independent? Am I not as independent in believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as I am in denying him? Am I not as independent in believing the Gospel as I am in believing in the whisperings and mutterings of these spirits that are floating through the air, rapping at everybody’s door, sometimes tearing the clothes off their beds, rapping, thundering and telling this, that and the other? You hearken to that still small voice that whispers eternal truth, that opens the visions of eternity to you that you can discern, understand and follow, and the foul spirits that throng the air, and that fill our houses if we let them in, will not have power over you.

Be just as independent as a God to do good. Love mercy, eschew evil, be a savior to yourselves and to your families, and to your fellow beings just as much as you possibly can, and go on with your independence and do not yield yourselves servants to obey an evil principle or an evil being.

God bless you. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, April 28, 1872.

A word to the Latter-day Saints. Good morning. (Congregation responded, “Good morning.“) How do you do? (Congregation replied, “Very well.“) How is your faith this morning? (”Strong in the Lord,” was the response.) How do you think I look after my long confinement? (Congregation replied, “First rate.“) I do not rise expecting to preach a discourse or sermon, or to lengthen out remarks. I spoke a few minutes yesterday in the school, but I found that it exhausted me very soon. I will say a few words to you. The Gospel of the Son of God is most precious. My faith is not weakened in the Gospel in the least. I will answer a few of the questions that probably many would like to ask of me. Many would like to know how I have felt the past winter, and so much of the spring as is now past. I have enjoyed myself exceedingly well. I have been blessed with an opportunity to rest; and you who are acquainted with me and my public speaking can discern at once, if you listen closely to my voice, it is weak to what it used to be, and I required rest. I feel well in body and better in mind. I have no complaint to make, no fault to find, no reflections to cast, for all that has been done has been directed and overruled by the wisdom of Him who knows all things.

As to my treatment through the winter, it has been very agreeable, very kind. My associate, my companion in tribulation, I will say, has acted the gentleman as much as any man could. I have not one word, one lisp or beat of the heart to complain of him. He has been full of kindness, thoughtful, never intruding, always ready to hearken and, I think, in the future, will be perfectly willing to take the counsel of his prisoner. So much for Captain Isaac Evans. I will say this to you, ladies and gentlemen, you who profess to understand true etiquette, I have not seen a gentleman in my acquaintance that possesses more of the real spirit of gentility, caution and of true etiquette than Captain Evans. He has passed the window where I have lodged through the winter every morning to his breakfast and every afternoon; he has walked in the street in front of my office and on the opposite side, and he has never yet been seen gazing and looking at my buildings, or to see who was at the window, or even look at my window. He has never looked into the second room in my office unless invited there—never. Can you say that for other gentlemen? They are very scarce; there are very few of them.

I have no reflections to cast upon these courts. How much power, ability or opportunity would I have to possess, do you think, if all were combined, to disgrace them as they have disgraced themselves? I have neither the power nor the ability, consequently I have nothing to say with regard to their conduct. It is before the world; it is before the Heavens continually. The Lord has known the thoughts of the hearts of the children of men, and he has overruled all for his glory, and for the benefit of those who believe and obey the truth in Christ. I will say this: when they started out with a writ for your humble servant, and I had news of it before it was served, I told my brethren that all their efforts would avail them nothing, and that they would end in a grand fizzle. Do you think we have come to it? I think we have.

Have you nothing to say, brother Brigham concerning the Supreme Court of the United States? A few words. I am happy to learn that there are yet men in our government who are too high-minded, too pure in their thoughts and feelings to bow down to a sectarian prejudice, and to hearken to the whinings and complaints of prejudiced priests, or those who are wrapped up in the nutshell of sectarianism; men of honor, nobility, judgment and discretion; men who look at things as they are and judge according to the nature thereof without any discrimination as to parties or people. I am thankful that this fact does exist. Have they decided in favor of the Latter-day Saints? Yes. Why? Because the Latter-day Saints are on the track of truth; they are for law, for right, for justice, for mercy, for judgment and equity, consequently they are for God. Would I admire the conduct of a jurist on the bench who would decide for a Latter-day Saint if he were guilty? If he would justify a Latter-day Saint and condemn a Methodist? No, I would despise him in my heart. I might look upon him with pity, it is very true, and without malice, anger or bitterness, and pity him in his ignorance; but if he was a man of knowledge and understanding I would condemn him as quickly for justifying a Latter-day Saint, or one called a Latter-day Saint, in evil, as I would a Methodist. And a man who sits as President of the United States; as a Governor of a State or Territory, or as a judge upon the bench, or a member of a legislative assembly, who would reduce himself to the feelings, and narrow contracted views of partyism, is not fit for the place. As I said before a gentleman here, I think it was last summer, who was stump-speeching through the country and proclaiming his right to the Presidency “He that most desires an office is the least fit for it.” Perhaps I made a mistake in that declaration, for though on general principles it is true, it may not be true in every case. Some may desire an office for the sake of the good work that they perform, seeing that others have abused it. This is as much as I wish to say upon these subjects.

As I shall probably desire to speak a little in the afternoon, I shall soon bring my remarks to a close. I will say a few words with regard to the Perpetual Emigration Fund. Perhaps you have had a good deal said to you in the course of this Conference concerning gathering the poor, but if you have I have not learned it. I have not heard of any man coming forward and putting down his name for a thousand or two thousand dollars. At the commencement of the Conference I donated two thousand dollars for the gathering of the poor, but I have not heard of anybody adding another figure to mine or placing one under it. How is it? It is very true we gather the Saints; and when they get here and gather around them the comforts of life, and become the possessors of a little wealth, the spirit of the world enters into a few of them to that degree that it crowds out the Spirit of the Gospel. They forget their God and their covenants, and turn to the beggarly elements of the world, seek for its riches and finally leave the faith. But we had better gather nine that are unworthy than to neglect the tenth if he is worthy. If they come here, apostatize and turn our enemies, they are in the hands of God, and what they do will be to them everlasting life or everlasting condemnation. For the good, for the wise, or for the froward and the ungodly, it is our duty to do all we can. It is our duty to preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth, to gather up the pure in heart, and to lend a helping hand to the poor and needy; to instruct, guide and direct them, and when they are gathered together to teach them how to live, how to serve their God, how to gather around them the comforts of life, and glorify their Father in heaven in the enjoyment of the same.

When I cast my eyes upon the inhabitants of the earth and see the weakness, inability, the shortsightedness, and I may say, the height of folly in the hearts of the kings, rulers, and the great, and those who should be wise and good and noble; when I see them groveling in the dust; longing, craving, desiring, contending for the things of this life, I think, O foolish men, to set your hearts on the things of this life! Today they are seeking after the honors and glories of the world, and by the time the sun is hidden by the western mountains the breath is gone out of their nostrils, they sink to their mother earth. Where are their riches then? Gone forever. As Job says, “Naked I came into the world.” Destitute and forlorn, they have to travel a path that is untried and unknown to them, and wend their way into the spirit world. They know not where they are going nor for what. The designs of the Creator are hidden from their eyes; darkness, ignorance, mourning and groaning take hold of them and they pass into eternity. And this is the end of them concerning this life as far as they know. A man or a woman who places the wealth of this world and the things of time in the scales against the things of God and the wisdom of eternity, has no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no heart to understand. What are riches for? For blessings, to do good. Then let us dispense that which the Lord gives us to the best possible use for the building up of his kingdom, for the promotion of the truth on the earth, that we may see and enjoy the blessings of the Zion of God here upon this earth. I look around among the world of mankind and see them grabbing, scrambling, contending, and everyone seeking to aggrandize himself, and to accomplish his own individual purposes, passing the community by, walking upon the heads of his neighbors—all are seeking, planning, contriving in their wakeful hours, and when asleep dreaming,” How can I get the advantage of my neighbor? How can I spoil him, that I may ascend the ladder of fame?” That is entirely a mistaken idea. You see that nobleman seeking the benefit of all around him, trying to bring, we will say, his servants, if you please, his tenants, to his knowledge, to like blessings that he enjoys, to dispense his wisdom and talents among them and to make them equal with himself. As they ascend and increase, so does he, and he is in the advance. All eyes are upon that king or that nobleman, and the feelings of those around him are: “God bless him! How I love him! How I delight in him! He seeks to bless and to fill me with joy, to crown my labors with success, to give me comfort, that I may enjoy the world as well as himself.” But the man who seeks honor and glory at the expense of his fellow men is not worthy of the society of the intelligent.

Now, a few words to my friends here—my colleagues the lawyers, and others. I gave a little counsel here, I think it is a year ago this last sixth of April, for the people of this Territory and through these mountains not to go to law, but to arbitrate their cases. I will ask if they do not think they would have saved a good deal of money in their pockets if they had taken this counsel? And to see our streets lined with lawyers as they are! Why they are as thick as grogshops used to be in California. What is the business of a lawyer? It is the case with too many to keep what they have got, and to gather around them wealth, to heap it up, but to do as little as possible for it; to give a little counsel here, and a little counsel there. What for? To keep their victims in bondage. Say they: “Let us stick to him as long as he has a dollar in his pocket.”

I will tell you a story. A man was going to market, a pretty wicked swearing man, with his cart full of apples. He was going up hill, and the hindbeard as the Yankees call it—the Westerners call it the hindgate, slipped out of his cart, and his apples rolled down the hill. He stopped his team and looked at the apples as they rolled down the hill, and said he, “I would swear if I could do justice to the case, but as I cannot I will not swear a word.” I will not say a word more than to class dishonorable lawyers with other dishonest men.

Now what are the facts? Why this world is before us. The gold, silver and precious stones are in the mountains, in the rivers, in the plains, in the sands and in the waters, they all belong to this world, and you and I belong to this world. Is there enough to make each of us a finger ring? Certainly there is. Is there enough to make us a breast pin? Certainly there is. Is there enough to make jewelry for the ladies to set their diamonds and precious stones in? Certainly there is. Is there enough to make the silver plate, the spoons, platters, plates and knives and forks? There is. Is there enough to make the goblets to drink out of? There is. There is plenty if we want to make the wine casks of gold, there is plenty of it in the earth for all these purposes. Then what on earth are you and I quarrelling about it for? Go to work systematically and take it from the mountains, and put it to the use that we want it, without contending against each other, and filching the pockets of each other. The world is full of it. If it goes from my pocket it is still in the world, it still belongs to this little ball, this little speck in God’s creation, so small that from the sun I expect you would have to have a telescope that would magnify millions of times almost to see it; and from any of the fixed stars I do not expect that it has ever been seen only by the celestials—mortals could not see this earth at that distance. And here people are contending, quarrelling, seeking how to get the advantage of each other, and how to get all the wealth there is in the world; wanting to rule nations, wanting to be president, king or ruler. What would they do if they were? Most of them would make everybody around them miserable, that is what they would do. There are very few men on the earth who try to make people happy. Occasionally there have been emperors and monarchs who have made their people happy but they have been very rare. But suppose we go to work to gather up all that there is in the bosom and upon the surface of our mother earth and bring it into use, is there any lack? There is not, there is enough for all. Then do look at these things as they are, Latter-day Saints, and you who are not Latter-day Saints, look at things as they are. And I do hope and pray for your sakes, outsiders, and for the sakes of those who profess to be Latter-day Saints, that we shall have good peace for a time here, so that we can build our furnaces, open our mines, make our railroads, till the soil, follow our mercantile business uninterrupted; that we may attend to the business of beautifying the earth. I see around me a few of my neighbors who are beautifying their gardens. How beautiful! There is one here in the Seventh Ward—Mr. Hussey’s. I never drive out but I want to drive by it. How much better that looks than it would be for him to quarrel with his neighbors! Beautify your gardens, your houses, your farms; beautify the city. This will make us happy, and produce plenty. The earth is a good earth, the elements are good if we will use them for our own benefit, in truth and righteousness. Then let us be content, and go to with our mights to make ourselves healthy, wealthy, and beautiful, and preserve ourselves in the best possible manner, and live just as long as we can, and do all the good we can.

Now, brethren and sisters and friends, I have said a few words about lawyers; but I could pick up other classes of men just as bad, and we can find fault with all. Let us be honest, let us be upright, full of charity one toward another; and live as agreeably as we possibly can here on this earth that the Lord has given to man to cultivate and improve for his own benefit, and to prepare it for an everlasting inheritance. There is a great deal before us, and it is for us to live so that we will be able to perform our part well in this great work. And I say to the Latter-day Saints, it is for you to put forth your hands this season in emigrating the poor. We will receive any amount. If it is not more than a hundred dollars or so, we will be willing to receive it. Talk about this people being poor, why we will get so rich by and by that we will refuse to pay our taxes; we have got so rich now that we cannot pay our tithing. The rich do not pretend to pay any tithing, or but very few of them. I think I have mentioned one fact with regard to our merchants. A few years ago in the other tabernacle, I said that our merchants who lived on the business part of East Temple street and professed to be Latter-day Saints, if they were not very careful, would deny the faith and be damned, and it would be by the skin of their teeth if they ever got into heaven. How is it with the rest of us? About the same. No matter about this. But here is one of our merchants—William Jennings—about whom a great many have remarks to make. Well, it is no matter about his trade. I want to say to the rest of the merchants that he has paid a good many thousand dollars tithing, more than all the rest of them put together. That is for William Jennings. We are paying our tithing in the Cooperative. I would not consent to go into the business on any other terms only that the tithing should be paid on all we made. But the other merchants, if they pay tithing on what they make it has to come hereafter, for they have never done it yet; and I think the more they make the less tithing they pay. But you are welcome to give something to the poor; if you will help us a little with regard to the emigration we will be very much obliged to you, but you will have to trust in God for the future blessings.

God bless you, Amen.

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 8, 1872.

We have had a very good Conference; we have heard a great deal of testimony from the servants of the Lord, and that testimony has been true. The building up of the Zion of God in these latter days includes, I may say of a truth, every branch of business, both temporal and spiritual, in which we are engaged. We cannot touch upon any subject which is lawful in the sight of God and man, that is not embraced in our religion. The Gospel of Jesus Christ which we have embraced, and which we preach, includes all truth, and every lawful calling and occupation of man. One subject that we are deeply interested in I wish to say a few words upon. In the first place I wish to give notice in this stage of my remarks to the members of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, that they are requested to meet, at the close of this meeting, at the Historian’s Office, to appoint their president and board of directors for the coming season, for the times demand that we should hold a State fair in this city this fall.

Strangers may think this a very strange subject to present in a religious meeting, but we are building up the literal kingdom of God on the earth, and we have temporal duties to perform. We inhabit temporal bodies, we eat temporal food, we build temporal houses, we raise temporal cattle and temporal wheat; we contend with temporal weeds, and with temporal enemies in our soil, and these things naturally give rise to the necessity of attending to and performing many duties of a temporal and arduous nature, and they, of course, are embraced in our religion. In building up the Zion and kingdom of God in these latter days, our agricultural and manufacturing interests are of the most vital importance; in fact manufacturing and agricultural pursuits are of vital importance to any nation under heaven. Show me a nation whose people cultivate the earth, and manufacture what they need, and I will show you a rich and independent nation. Show me a nation that lives entirely by mining and I will show you a poor nation—one that is ready to run out and become obsolete. You see this manifest in the history of all nations under heaven. What gives England her wealth today? Her coal, iron, and the products of her soil, in connection with her prodigious manufactures; and it is so with all the nations of the earth. What makes the United States what she is today? Her products and the cultivation of her soil, and the constant efforts she has made to supply the wants of her people. Not but what mining is all right, there is no fault with the development of the resources of the earth under favorable circumstances. When we came here our position demanded that the very first thing we did was to plant our potatoes and sow our wheat, or we had starvation before us; and I will here say that the Saints and the Elders of Israel have gone before the Lord day after day and week after week, and prayed the Almighty to hide up the treasures of these mountains, lest even the Latter-day Saints, with all the faith they had, should be tempted to turn away from the cultivation of the earth and the manufacture of what they needed; and the Lord heard our prayers, and we dwelt here many years and filled these valleys for six hundred miles with cities, towns, villages, gardens, orchards, fields, vineyards, hundreds of schoolhouses, and places of worship, until we made the desert blossom as the rose, and had a supply of wheat, bread and clothing upon our hands. Then, I do not know but the Elders ceased praying for the Lord to hide up the treasures of the earth—I guess they did, for very soon after mines began to be opened, and now silver mines are being worked in many parts of the Territory. A few years ago General Connor and others, who dwelt here, with soldiers under them, spent very many days in prospecting these mountains from one end to the other for gold and silver, but they could find none; today you may go over the same places, and if you dig into the earth you may find plenty of silver, and you may find it almost anywhere in these mountains. I suppose this is all right, I have no fault to find with it; but I still say that the interest of the Latter-day Saints in these mountains is to cultivate the soil and to manufacture what they use.

Through the influence of President Young we have many manufactories for wool and cotton already established in this Territory. He has done more than any man living in these last days, according to the means he has had at his command, to establish these branches of business in the midst of these mountains. We have now many large factories in this Territory that have to stand still for want of wool. I want to say a few words on this subject to the wool growers of Deseret. Instead of sending our wool out of the Territory, to eastern States to be manufactured into cloth, and purchasing it and paying eastern manufacturers a large percentage for it when brought here by railroad, I feel that it is our duty, and it would be far wiser for us, to sell our wool to those who own factories in this Territory, and to sustain ourselves by sustaining home manufactures.

One of the first commands given to Adam, after being placed in Eden, was to dress the garden; and he was permitted to eat of the fruit of every tree except one. After a while Adam and his wife, Eve, partook of the fruit of this tree, and the history of the Fall is before us and the world. After Adam was cast out of the garden the Lord told him that there should be a curse on the earth, and instead of bringing forth beautiful flowers, fruit and grain spontaneously, as before the Fall, it should bring forth thorns, briers, thistles and noxious weeds, and that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow; and from that time to the present mankind has had this curse to contend with in the cultivation of the earth. In consequence of this the inhabitants of Utah, in their agricultural operations have to fight against the cockle burr, the black seed and sunflower, as well as thorns and thistles and many other noxious weeds, which, if not eradicated, speedily take advantage of us, and to a great extent, mar the result of our labors. It will pay us to pay attention to these things; it will pay us to dress the earth, to till it, to take care of and spend time and means in manuring and feeding it; it will pay us to gather out these noxious weeds, for the earth will then have a chance to bring forth in its strength. This, with the blessing of God upon our labors, has made the soil of Utah as productive as it is today. I wish to see this interest increase in our midst; and I hope, in addition to this, that those who are raising sheep—our wool growers—will pay attention to and carry on that branch of business systematically, and that we will sell our wool to those who manufacture it at home, instead of sending it out of the Territory to be manufactured. I feel that this is our duty, and the course which will promote our best interests, and it is a principle which is true, independent of religion, in any community or nation; it is a self-sustaining principle.

God has blessed us, he has blessed the earth, and our labors in the tilling of the soil have been greatly prospered. As has been said by some of our brethren in their remarks, when the pioneers came here, no mark of civilization or of the white man, was found. If those who are now so anxious to obtain the homes we have made, had seen Utah as we saw it, they would never have desired a habitation here, but they would have got out of it as soon as they could. It was barren, desolate, abounding with grasshoppers, crickets and coyote wolves, and these things seemed to be the only natural productions of the soil. We went to work by faith, not much by sight, to cultivate the earth. We broke almost all the plows we had the first day. We had to let streams of water out to moisten the earth, and by experience we had to learn to raise anything. The stranger comes into Salt Lake City and sees our orchards, and the trees in our streets, and he thinks, what a fruitful and delightful place it is. He does not think that, for twenty or twenty-four years, almost every tree he beholds, according to its age, has had to be watered twice a week through the whole summer season, or they would all have been dead long since. We have had to unite upon these things, the Lord has blessed our labors, and his mercies have been over this people.

If we had not cultivated the earth, but had turned our attention to mining, we should not only have starved to death ourselves, but thousands of strangers, who have passed through, would have shared the same fate. Utah Territory has been the great highway to California, Nevada, and all the western States and Territories, and they have all looked, in a measure, to Utah for their bread. Nobody but Latter-day Saints would have lived here, and endured the trials and afflictions that we endured in the beginning; none others would have stayed and fought the crickets one year, as we had to do year after year. Any people but the Latter-day Saints would have left this country long ago. Not only so, on account of the things I have already named, but I will here say that no other people could have lived here—no, they would have knocked each others brains out on account of the little water they would have had in their irrigating operations. When men saw their crops and trees withering and perishing for the want of water, the selfishness so general in the world would have worked up to such an extent, that they would have killed one another, and hence I say that none but Latter-day Saints would have stood it; but they, by the training and experience they had before received, were prepared for the hardships and trials they had to encounter in this country.

Brethren and sisters, let us continue our efforts in cultivating the earth, and in manufacturing what we want. And I still urge upon our Female Relief Societies, in this city and throughout the Territory, to carry out the counsel President Young gave us years and years ago, and try, as far as possible, within ourselves, to make our own bonnets, hats and clothing, and to let the beauty of what we wear be the workmanship of our own hands. It is true that our religion is not in our coat or bonnet, or it should not be. If a man’s religion is there it is not generally very deep anywhere else. But God has blessed us with the products of earth and the blessings of heaven, and his Spirit has been with us; we have been preserved, and the Lord has turned away the edge of the sword, and he has protected us during many years past and gone, and we all have to acknowledge his hand in these things.

I do not wish to detain this Conference. I felt as though I wanted to make a few remarks on these subjects. I hope, brethren, that we will not slacken our hands with regard to the cultivation of the earth. In the prosecution of our labors in that respect we have everything to contend with that man has been cursed with for five thousand years. We should clean our fields, as far as we can, of the noxious weeds, and our streets of sunflowers. These things encumber the earth. We have one difficulty to contend with, unknown save in those portions of the earth where irrigation is practiced. It is true that a man may clean his fields of sunflowers, cockle burrs, blackseed and every other noxious weed that grows, and the very first time he waters his land here will come a peck or a bushel of foul seed from the mountains, and fill every field through which the stream flows. These difficulties we have to fight against, but we must do the best we can. As farmers, we should clean our seed, and not sow the foul along with the good. One man, in a few hours, with a good wire sieve, can sift enough seed for ten acres of land, and perhaps for twenty; while, to pull that bad seed out when grown will cost from one to five hundred dollars, for it will take a score of men days to do it. We should use our time, judgment and the wisdom God has given us to the best advantage in all these things.

I want the brethren to come together this afternoon and elect their officers, for we desire to hold a fair this fall, in which the agricultural and manufacturing interests of the Territory may be represented and interested. Let us not be weary in well doing; let us not slacken our hands, either in cultivating the earth or in the manufacturing of what we need. Cooperate in agricultural and mercantile matters, also in our tanneries, and in the making of butter and cheese. One man may engage in these branches of business with advantage if he have skill and experience to guide him; but in cooperation the wisdom of all is combined for the general good. This plan has been adopted with advantage in other communities, cities, States, Territories and countries, and it can be in this more extensively than it has been hitherto.

I pray that God will bless us, and bless this whole people; and I pray that the testimony which we have received here during this Conference, which is true, may not be forgotten by us. I can bear the same testimony. I know this work is of God. I know Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. I have heard two or three of the brethren testify about brother Young in Nauvoo. Every man and every woman in that assembly, which perhaps might number thousands, could bear the same testimony. I was there, the Twelve were there, and a good many others, and all can bear the same testimony. The question might be asked, why was the appearance of Joseph Smith given to Brigham Young? Because here was Sidney Rigdon and other men rising up and claiming to be the leaders of the Church, and men stood, as it were, on a pivot, not knowing which way to turn. But just as quick as Brigham Young rose in that assembly, his face was that of Joseph Smith—the mantle of Joseph had fallen upon him, the power of God that was upon Joseph Smith was upon him, he had the voice of Joseph, and it was the voice of the shepherd. There was not a person in that assembly, Rigdon, himself, not excepted, but was satisfied in his own mind that Brigham was the proper leader of the people, for he would not have his name presented, by his own consent, after that sermon was delivered. There was a reason for this in the mind of God; it convinced the people. They saw and heard for themselves, and it was by the power of God.

May God bless you. May he give us wisdom to direct us in all things, and promote all the interests of Zion for Jesus’ sake. Amen.