Discourse by Elder Joseph F. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, October 7, 1873.

To say I have been very much interested in the instructions that we have had at this Conference is but faintly to express my feelings. We have had much very excellent teaching, which we will do well to give heed to. I cannot believe that the congregations that have attended this Conference will cast lightly aside these teachings. Certain it is that all the preaching that can be done by those who are most competent, and most richly endowed with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, will not benefit the people in the least, unless they will receive it, and will realize that the counsels which are given are designed expressly for themselves. It is not for us to say, “that does not mean me,” and “that applies to my neighbor;” or “that has reference to the doings of so and so.” We should each feel that the instructions given have direct reference to ourselves individually; that counsel or that commandment is for me, and it is for me, as a individual, to put it into practice. This is the only course that will benefit, and fit us for the responsibilities that will de– volve upon us in the future. It will not do for us to say—“If brother so and so, or sister so and so, will observe and carry out that counsel, I shall be satisfied to remain as I am.” We cannot obtain blessings from God by taking this course; the only way to secure them is by diligence on our own part. When we are prepared, by our own works and diligence, to receive the blessings that God has in store for the faithful; then, and not till then, shall we receive them. It will not do for us to be satisfied for our brother to prepare himself to receive the blessings God has promised to his children, and to rest content with seeing him receive the light of truth, the blessings of the Gospel, and manifest a willingness to work righteousness in the earth. That will not reach us, only so far as we adopt his course and follow his example.

This is how I look at the requirements which God has made upon his people collectively and individually, and I do believe that I have no claim upon God or upon my brethren for blessing, favor, confi– dence or love, unless, by my works, I prove that I am worthy thereof, and I never expect to receive blessings that I do not merit. Who does? I do not know that anybody does, yet if we were to judge by the actions of some, we must come to the conclusion that they are satisfied by seeing others live their religion.

I love the society of the good, honorable and pure, of those who love virtue and work righteousness. To associate and be numbered with such and to have my portion and my lot with them in this life, and to live so that I can secure that association in the life to come, throughout the countless ages of eternity. I take no pleasure in the society of the wicked, for this reason—the pleasures of the wicked will cease and be forgotten, and the wicked will die and will not be regretted, their names will be cast out from the presence of God and from the things of the righteous forever and ever. I, therefore, want no part with them, but I want to cast my lot with those who are securing to themselves eternal riches and happiness. To obtain these blessings I must be found walking in their footsteps and following their examples, otherwise I shall come short.

This is how I understand the principles of the Gospel and the work we are engaged in. It is an individual work. You and I must secure the blessings of eternal lives for ourselves, through obedience and the mercy of God. We have the volition of our own wills and we can choose evil or good, the society of the wicked or that of the good; we can enlist under the banner of Christ, or under that of Belial. We have this option, and can do whichever we choose. Therefore we must look well to our ways, and see that we choose the right course, and build upon a foundation that will not wash away. We have got to learn to stand or fall for ourselves, male and female. It is true that we are taught in the principles of the Gospel that man is the head of the woman, and Christ is the head of the man; and according to the order that is established in the kingdom of God, it is the duty of the man to follow Christ, and it is the duty of the woman to follow the man in Christ, not out of him.

But has not a woman the same volition that the man has? Can she not follow or disobey the man as he can follow or disobey Christ? Certainly she can, she is responsible for her acts, and must answer for them. She is endowed with intelligence and judgment, and will stand upon her own merits as much so as the man. That is why the brethren, during this Conference, have been teaching the sisters that they must refrain from the fashions of Babylon. They must use their own judgment and agency as to whether they will obey this counsel or not. If they will not obey it, they will be responsible as much as the men are responsible for their acts. The man is responsible for the woman only so far as she is influenced by, or is obedient to, his counsels. Christ is responsible for the man so far as the man walks in obedience to the laws and commandments he has given, but no further, and so far will his atoning blood redeem and cleanse from sin; so far as they obey them will the principles of eternal life revealed in the Gospel have effect upon the souls of men, so also with women. So sisters, do not flatter yourselves that you have nothing to answer for so long as you may have a good husband. You must be obedient. Obe– dience is the first law of heaven. Without it the elements could not be controlled. Without it neither the earth nor those who dwell upon it could be controlled. The angels in heaven would not be controlled without it, and in fact without obedience there could be no union or order, and chaos and confusion would prevail. When we are obedient we may be guided to the accomplishment of all that is required of us by our heavenly Father, for it is on this principle that the designs and purposes of God are accomplished. The elements are obedient to his word. He said, “Let there be light and there was light.” He commanded the land and the waters to be divided, and it was so. When Christ commanded the storm to be still, and the sea to be calm, the elements were obedient to him. The earth, and all the worlds which God has made are obedient to the laws of their creation, for this reason there are peace, harmony, union, increase, power, glory and dominion, which could not exist without obedience. For the lack of obedience the whole world today lies in sin, for except the little existing among this people, obedience cannot be found on the face of the earth. Go to the religions of the day, do you find obedience manifested by the people? No, but you find man everywhere self-willed and untractable, therefore confusion and anarchy reign. It is said in the Scriptures that all things are possible with God; but he only works in accordance with the principles by which he himself is governed; and hence he cannot convince nations of the truth against their will. As the poet says—

Know this, that every soul is free, To choose his life and what he’ll be; For this eternal truth is given, That God will force no man to heaven. He’ll call, persuade, direct aright— Bless him with wisdom, love and light— In nameless ways be good and kind, But never force the human mind.

That is the way that God deals with man, therefore I say, he cannot work with this generation. They have set him aside and made themselves supreme. They have fulfilled the words of the prophet Paul when he said, “That in the last days perilous times should come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affections, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” &c.

No one could better describe the condition of this generation, and yet light has come into the world, but it is rejected, and for this reason the world lies in sin, and under condemnation. The people of God lie under condemnation too, so far as they are disobedient to the counsels of God’s servants. We talk of obedience, but do we require any man or woman to ignorantly obey the counsels that are given? Do the first Presidency require it? No, never. What do they desire? That we may have our minds opened and our understandings enlarged, that we may comprehend all true principles for ourselves; then we will be easily governed thereby, we shall yield obedience with our eyes open, and it will he a pleasure for us to do so.

The Lord does not accept obedience from men except that which they render cheerfully and gladly in their hearts, and that is all that is desired by his servants. That is the obedience we ought to render, and if we do not we are under condemnation.

What matters what the world say in regard to us? Nothing. What do I care? Have I spent thirty years of life, with the opportunities that have been afforded me, and am yet ignorant of the way of eternal life. If I have, then I am to be pitied. “Why then,” says the blasphemer, “do you yield obedience to the servants of God?” Because it is meat and drink to me to do so. Because it is for my safety and for my best good. I ask no odds of the world. I have learned that it is the very best thing that I can do, and I should be a fool indeed not to do that which is for my best good. I intend to do it, and I do not care what the world say about me.

I am sorry to say that there are some of those who profess to be Latter-day Saints, who meet with the Saints on the Sabbath and partake of the Sacrament, witnessing that they are willing to take upon them the name of Christ, and to follow him through evil as well as good report, and yet in their hearts they oppose the plans and projects of those whom they pretend to upheld and sustain. I know and could call the names of some of these men. Shame on them! I say, in the name of manhood, come out and show your colors! Say you will not be obedient, and cease to be hypocrites, cease lying in the presence of God, and trying to deceive yourselves and your brethren. Tell us what you are, take your stand where you belong, and do not deceive the unwary. You cannot deceive those who have the Spirit of God, for they can discern your hearts.

I love the cause of the Gospel. I love this people, because, of all others on the face of the earth they have enlisted under the banner of King Emanuel. They have covenanted with God to keep his com– mandments, and they are the most willing of any on the face of the earth to hearken to God’s inspired servants. I love them for this reason, and I want to be identified with them, not only in time but throughout eternity. Without them I would have no home, no friends. I want none without them.

Let us keep the commandments and counsels that have been given to us, let us not be hearers of the word only, but let us be doers of it as well as hearers. Let us put away the foolish fashions of the world, live up to the truth, and seek to find out God, whom to know is life eternal. The road to this knowledge is obedience to his laws and to the whisperings of the still small voice in our own hearts. That will lead us into truth if we will hearken, and do not blunt the monitor that is within us. Let us do our duty, and be for God and his kingdom. Let our motto be—“The kingdom of God or nothing.” Because in the kingdom there is everything, and outside of it nothing at all. We heard here, the other day, from the President, that the Gospel embraces everything that is good and true or desirable to the pure in heart. I have said that outside the kingdom of God there is nothing, but there is something. What is it? Disappointment, sorrow, anguish and death, and everything that will make us miserable; while everything that is good, desirable and worth possessing eternally is to be found only in the Gospel of Christ.

Says one, “Do not people who are not Latter-day Saints have a great many blessings and enjoy a great many good things?” Certainly they do, they enjoy gold, silver and worldly honors—they have a plentitude of greenbacks, houses, lands, carriages, horses, luxury and ease. Dives had all these, in this world, while Lazarus crawled at his feet and begged for the crumbs that fell from his table; but afterward Dives lifted up his eyes in hell and saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom enjoying the good things that he had formerly possessed in the world, and he begged Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to alleviate his parching tongue. But even this poor boon was denied him, he being informed that there was an impassable gulf between them; and said Abraham to Dives—(in effect), “When you were in the flesh you had Moses and the Prophets, you had the Gospel preached to you, but you rejected and refused to obey it. You had your good portion and your enjoyments in the world, now you are denied them, they are given to Lazarus.” How long do the honors, wealth, and pleasures of the worldling last? Until death claims him for its own, then he ceases to enjoy them, because he has failed to secure his title to them, they have not been sealed upon him by the authority of the Priesthood of the Son of God, which has power to bind on earth and it is bound in heaven. If they have wives and children, when death calls them they are no longer theirs, because they have not been sealed unto them by the power of God. They do not obey the truth, they do not receive the ministrations of the Priesthood, and consequently they are deprived, not only of their wealth, but of their wives and children.

We are not living only for the few miserable years that we spend on this earth, but for that life which is interminable; and we desire to enjoy every blessing throughout these countless ages of eternity, but unless they are secured to us by that sealing power which was given to the Apostle Peter by the Son of God, we cannot possess them. Unless we secure them on that principle, in the life to come we shall have neither father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, nor friends, nor wealth nor honor, for all earthly “contracts, covenants, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, connections, and associations,” are dissolved in the grave, except those sealed and ratified by the power of God. It is said in the Scriptures that the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s, and that they are to be given to the Saints of the Most High God, and they are to possess them forever and ever.

You know that those who have not faith in the Gospel call us exclusive and uncharitable; they say—“You cast out all except those of your faith.” Then enroll yourselves under the banner of King Emanuel, to whom the earth and its fullness belong, and when it shall be given to the Saints of the Most High God, you will come in for your share, and only in that way can you do so. Obedience to the Gospel of Christ is the only way to secure blessings for the life that now is, or that which is to come. We are not talking in parables, neither are we ignorantly repeating the words of the ancient Apostles. Our declarations are founded upon modern revelation and inspiration, and we know whereof we speak. We know that angels have come to earth and that God has spoken in our day, that he has raised up Apostles and Prophets, restored the holy Priesthood, and shown himself to man and revealed his truth to those who dwell on earth. We know these things, it is this that makes us bold to declare it to the world. We are not ashamed of it, because we know it is the power of God unto salvation.

May God help us, and all who love the truth, to keep an eye single to his glory and to the building up of his kingdom on the earth, that we may be among those who shall be counted worthy to possess the earth and its fullness forever and ever, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-annual Conference, Tuesday Afternoon, Oct. 7, 1873.

The position we profess to occupy as a religious body, is a subject for profound reflection. We testify to having received a knowledge, through the revelations of heaven, concerning the restoration of the ancient Gospel and holy Priesthood, whereby we have been authorized to preach by inspiration, and administer to the world the principles of life and salvation. All profess to have experienced some understanding or knowledge of this wonderful work, through divine blessing or peculiar manifestation. In consequence of these divine intimations which have followed the administration of this restored Gospel, this vast audience of over twelve thousand people, are here assembled, having gathered from many climes and nations. The Latter-day Saints did not gather to these valleys for the purpose of knowing this Work to be of God, but in consequence of having previously obtained this inspired knowledge through the administrations of the Gospel in their native lands. And having come to a knowledge of these important facts, it certainly becomes us to be devoted to the work in which we are engaged, and do our best to promote its interest. In building up the kingdom of God, which is the work assigned us, our whole attention and highest efforts are demanded, that we may be qualified, through the Holy Spirit, to properly magnify our respective callings in the holy Priesthood.

I wish this afternoon to confine my observations to the subject of our temporal interests and obligations. Before we are prepared to return to Jackson County, to build up the Center Stake of Zion, I believe that a system or order of things will be introduced for our practice, requiring more faith and devotion than, I fear, some of us possess at the present moment. This will call forth a perfect submission in respect to our temporal affairs, equal to that in which we now yield ourselves in spiritual matters. This principle of devotion and obedience in temporal affairs, as being connected with the plan of eternal life, is fully illustrated in the conversation between the Savior and the young man who applied for information on the subject of salvation, recorded in the New Testament. On being questioned by this young man what was required of him in order to inherit eternal life, the Savior replied, “Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The answer was, that all these duties had been performed from his earliest youth. But, still one thing was lacking to make him perfect in the sight of the Savior, viz., to allow his means and property to be controlled in the cause of God, and by the will of God. “Sell all thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and follow me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. In all other duties he had been faithful and blameless, but in this, his selfishness and love of riches held complete control, which called forth the remark of the Savior, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” This saying created great amazement among the disciples, who asked, with astonishment, “Who then can be saved?”

This principle of submission, and being controlled in property matters, is a doctrine which belongs to the Gospel and the building up of the kingdom of God. It was preached and practiced in the Apostolic dispensation, also by the Nephites upon this continent, after the introduction among them of the Gospel in its fullness, as recorded in the Book of Mormon. It was also a doctrine introduced to us, over forty years ago, which we find set forth in various revelations contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.

This consecration, or yielding our temporal interests to be directed for the work of the Lord, as being a fundamental element in the work of salvation, and in the union and per– fecting of the Saints, is very clearly shown in the second and fourth chapters of the Acts of the Apostles: “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the Apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.” Ananias, and Sapphira his wife, also sold their possessions, but fearing, perhaps, that this scheme of things might not operate altogether successfully, they therefore concealed a portion of their means, and made a false report, but were fearfully punished for their duplicity and hypocrisy, showing that this principle of consecration was acknowledged of the Lord, and that he regarded disobedience with the utmost displeasure.

When the Church was established among the Nephites, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, this doctrine was preached by them, and practiced nearly two hundred years, resulting in peace, union, great prosperity, and miraculous blessings, greater than were ever experienced by any people of whom we have record. The most remarkable miracles were constantly wrought among them; their sick were healed, and in some instances their dead restored to life. These extraordinary manifestations of the approbation of God continued so long as they remained one in their temporal interest, or were controlled in their financial matters according to the Order of Enoch. At the close of two hundred years they began to separate their interests, and each one to control his own financial affairs to suit his individual and selfish pur– poses. Upon this change, strife and divisions arose in every quarter, wars ensued, and misery and total destruction followed. The first starting point of these people in wickedness and apostasy, appeared to be a disregard of this heavenly system of holding property in common, and refusing to be controlled in temporal matters.

In the first instance referred to, in the case of the young man, he cut himself off from the blessings of eternal life by refusing submission to the Savior’s counsels in reference to his possessions. In the case of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, sudden destruction visited them, in consequence of dishonesty and hypocrisy in those matters. Also in the case of the Nephites, as we have seen, the whole were destroyed by the judgment of God, after having ignored these principles. But, we have an example in our own time, of the judgments of God falling suddenly upon a people, because of refusing to comply with this order of consecration.

In the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 18, page 146, the Lord says: “And now I give unto you further directions concerning this land. It is wisdom in me that my servant Martin Harris should be an example unto the church, in laying his moneys before the bishop of the church. And also, this is a law unto every man that cometh into this land to receive an inheritance; and he shall do with his moneys according as the law directs.” Again, the Lord says, sec. 13, page 125: “If thou lovest me thou shalt serve me and keep all my commandments. And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken,” &c. Again, on page 235, the Lord says: “Verily I say unto you, the time has come, and is now at hand; and behold, and lo, it must needs be that there be an organization of my people, in regulating and establishing the affairs of the storehouse for the poor of my people, both in this place and in the land of Zion—For a permanent and everlasting establishment and order unto my church, to advance the cause, which ye have espoused, to the salvation of man, and to the glory of your Father who is in heaven; That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things. For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things; For if you will that I give unto you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you.” Again, on page 288, the Lord says: “Behold, all these properties are mine, or else your faith is vain, and ye are found hypocrites, and the covenants which ye have made unto me are broken; Snd if the properties are mine, then ye are stewards; otherwise ye are no stewards.”

But we learn that the Saints in that early period of our history, refused to be governed in those matters. The Lord says, page 284: “Therefore, inasmuch as some of my servants have not kept the commandment, but have broken the covenant by covetousness, and with feigned words, I have cursed them with a very sore and grievous curse. For I, the Lord, have decreed in my heart, that inasmuch as any man belonging to the order shall be found a transgressor, or, in other words, shall break the covenant with which ye are bound, he shall be cursed in his life, and shall be trodden down by whom I will; For I the Lord am not to be mocked in these things.” Also on page 295, the Lord says—“Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even now. But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I require at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them; And are not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom; And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself. And my people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they suffer. Therefore, in consequence of the transgressions of my people, it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion—That they themselves may be prepared, and that my people may be taught more perfectly, and have experience, and know more perfectly concerning their duty, and the things which I require at their hands.”

Hence we learn that the Saints in Jackson County and other localities, refused to comply with the order of consecration, consequently they were allowed to be driven from their inheritances; and should not return until they were better prepared to keep the law of God, by being more perfectly taught in reference to their duties, and learn through experience the necessity of obedience. And I think we are not justified in anticipating the privilege of returning to build up the Center Stake of Zion, until we shall have shown obedience to the law of consecration. One thing, however, is certain, we shall not be permitted to enter the land from whence we were expelled, till our hearts are prepared to honor this law, and we become sanctified through the practice of the truth.

The Lord required that those lands in Missouri should be obtained, not by force, but by purchase, through the consecrations of the properties of the Saints; and the manner was pointed out how these consecrations should be made, but it was disregarded. I mention these points, partly in view of their being intimately connected with the principles of Cooperation, which is now strongly recommended by our President to the attention of the Latter-day Saints in the various settlements of the Territory.

I view cooperation, when properly understood and practiced, as being a steppingstone to the Order of Enoch, and will enable the Saints who receive it in a proper spirit, to gradually prepare themselves to enter, in due time, more fully into the practice of principles necessary to accomplish the building up of the kingdom of our God. We must have experience in order to properly understand how to sustain temporal institutions, and manage financial concerns, and wisely use concentrated means. Cooperation is of little benefit unless the people understand, appreciate, and feel disposed to sustain it; and in order for this we must be taught and instructed in regard to its object and advantages. “Wait a little season, for the redemption of Zion, that my people may be taught more perfectly, and have experience, and know more perfectly concerning their duty and the things which I require at their hands. For behold, I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfill, I will fight your battles.” But this he does require of us, that we attain to a devotion of heart and sanctification of feeling, that we be willing that all our substance be controlled by counsel for the advancement of the kingdom of God. It is more than forty years since the Order of Enoch was introduced, and rejected. One would naturally think, that it is now about time to begin to honor it, and that we had gained sufficient knowledge and experience in the Lord’s dealings with us, to prepare us with faith and devotion to cheerfully comply with all its principles and requirements. But how many of us, upon such a requisition, would follow the example of the young man referred to—turn away sorrowfully?

I notice the great interest which is now being taken by the Saints in the various settlements in establishing cooperative institutions. These embrace the great principles, in connection with the Order of Enoch, which are intended to join together our hearts, feelings and interests, and effectually build up the kingdom of God and redeem the earth.

The people of Brigham City have been operating a number of years upon these principles, and are beginning to derive therefrom various financial advantages, as well as many spiritual blessings. The hearts and feelings of the people are being considerably united through practicing this system of cooperating in our temporal interest.

Honesty, ability and devotedness are required in order that cooperation may be successfully carried out, and the Spirit and wisdom of the Lord are necessary, as much so as in proclaiming the Gospel or administering in its holy ordinances. Some Elders are very devoted and wholehearted in going on missions and in most everything that pertains to the advancement of the spiritual interests of the kingdom of God, and almost blameless, and seemingly without fault, but, strange to say, in temporal affairs they are highly remiss, if not dishonest. When Saints feel like this they cannot act to advantage or with profit in cooperation; they cannot inspire confidence nor exercise a proper influence. In temporal administration, the same as in spiritual, one should exhibit in his labors a self-sacrificing principle when necessary, that is, he should show that he labors for the interests of the people rather than for building up himself. With this spirit one will be very sure to maintain an influence, and instill into others the same character of feelings.

When one goes into cooperation with proper spirit and proper views, to superintend or operate in any of its departments, he has a lawful claim to the Spirit of inspiration, to aid him in his calling. We read that Jacob, through his honesty of purpose, fair-dealing, and freedom from selfishness, was assisted by an holy Angel with information how to increase and multiply his flocks. It is far better to build up the kingdom of God, in its temporal interests, by the Spirit of God and the wisdom of God, than by the spirit of man and the wisdom of man; on the latter principle we shall always fail, but on the former the results will always be successful.

Our Cooperative Institution, at present, in Brigham City, comprises eight distinct departments, and is generally very well sustained by the people. It embraces a mercantile department, a tannery, a butcher shop, a boot and shoe shop, a woolen factory, a farm, a sheep herd, a cattle herd, and a dairy. These branches aid in sustaining one another. The profits of the mercantile department help to furnish the necessary cash to carry on other industries—to purchase hides, dyestuffs, cotton warps, &c., &c. The tannery supplies our boot and shoe shop with what leather is required, and our sheep herd, in part, with wool for our factory. A considerable share of our clothing is now furnished at our factory, and our boots and shoes at the shoe shop, and a sufficient supply of meat at the butcher shop, all of which can be obtained on dividends, labor, or exchange of products. This is a great blessing to the people, especially at the present time of scarcity of money. Many of our manufactured articles are nearly as fine as, and much more substantial than, the same class of imported articles.

I engaged a suit of clothes, last fall, of a tailor in Brigham City, the material of which was made at our woolen factory. I wore this as a traveling suit through Europe and Palestine, and felt rather proud in exhibiting it as a specimen of “Mormon” industry, amid the vales of the Great West. While in France, we had an interview with President Thiers and his cabinet; this was at Versailles, and it so happened I then was dressed in this homemade suit, my aristocratic one being locked in my trunk at Paris, twelve miles distant. It was agreed by our party that I looked sufficiently respectable in my home product boots and suit, to appear with them in the presence of the President of the French Republic. I respected their judgment and honored their decision. I was received by the President as cordially, and I believe he shook hands with me as warmly and fervently, as though I had been arrayed in superb broadcloth. In several other instances, in our interviews with consuls and American ministers, and men of rank and station, my reserved suit was not come-at-able, so I had an opportunity of showing a specimen of what we are doing here in the mountains, which was an occasion of both surprise and commendation. On my return to London, this suit was nearly as good as when I left Brigham City. I made a present of it to President Wells’ son, one of our missionaries now preaching in London.

Lest some of my friends in this audience, may imagine that I have apostatized from these humble practices of sustaining home institutions, permit me to say, that this suit I now wear, is not imported broadcloth, as you probably imagine, but was made and manufactured in Brigham City, and the boots I have on are those worn through my Palestine tour, and nearly as good as when first put on in Brigham City. We manufacture, per annum, over thirty thousand dollars worth of various kinds of cloth, which is principally used by the people of Brigham City, and in the adjacent towns and settlements. This year we shall manufacture probably over fifteen thousand dollars’ worth of boots and shoes, which will be used in the same localities, and in our dairy we will make over thirty thousand pounds of cheese, equal in quality to any that can be imported.

Our Cooperative cattle herd, together with our sheep herd, and hogs kept at the dairy, supply our butcher shop, and partially our tannery with hides, and our woolen factory with the raw material. All these, together with other branches of industry, working in union, afford us important advantages in the present financial crisis, and supply, in a great measure, our real wants in a way that is easily come-at-able by the very poorest in the community.

The Bishops and presiding Elders, no doubt, many of them, will lead out in cooperation, in view of which, I will simply say, much prudence, carefulness, wisdom, patience and perseverance, aided by the Spirit of God, will be necessary in operating upon these principles. They need to enter upon this business with their whole heart and soul, as upon a sacred mission. The people must be taught and led in all kindness, and not forced into measures which they do not comprehend and have no heart or willingness to enter. Move gradually, take one thing at a time, make each, at least partially, successful, before introducing another, in order that the advantages and object of what we are doing may be felt and understood. The difficulty in obtaining means to establish cooperation is not so great, perhaps, as that of finding men of ability, wisdom and devotedness to manage in a proper manner such means when gathered, and get the people up to that standard of proper feeling and knowledge, to be comparatively satisfied when their means are justly and wisely managed.

May the Lord bless us with his Holy Spirit, that we may be wise and devoted in all our thoughts and administration, spiritual and temporal. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, Oct. 7, 1873.

I will call the attention of the congregation to a portion of the word of God contained in the third chapter of Malachi—“Behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple; even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in, behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts, but who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth, for he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

I have read these words, because of the peculiar prophecy which is contained therein, of what the Lord will perform about the time of his coming. A prophecy that the Lord would come, and the nature of that coming should be such that but a few comparatively will be prepared to endure that day; that when he does come, he will have a Temple on the earth, to which he will come. A part of the program which was read yesterday morning, if I recollect right, for the Elders to speak upon during Conference, was in relation to building Temples. The building of Temples of the Lord is promised in his word, for there we read that in the latter days he would have a house built on the earth. I know that in the ears of this generation it will sound very strangely to talk about the Lord having a house built on this globe of ours; yet we have such a promise, strange as it may be, and that when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, and shall sit as a refiner’s fire and as fuller’s soap on the sons of Levi, to purify them as gold and silver, he will, in that day, come to his Temple, and come very suddenly. That shows, at once, that he must have a Temple on the earth in the latter time.

There are two other Prophets, besides Malachi, who have spoken of the house of the Lord. Isaiah, in his second chapter, refers to the building of the Lord’s house in the latter days. I will repeat the passage—“It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and nations shall flow unto it. Many nations shall say, Come, let us go up unto the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he shall teach us of his ways and we shall walk in his paths;” and “the Lord shall rebuke strong nations afar off”—meaning nations at a great distance from Jerusalem, where the Prophet delivered the prophecy. “He shall rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruninghooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” The fourth chapter of Micah contains a similar prediction, which it is not necessary for me to repeat, as it reads, almost word for word, like that in the second chapter of Isaiah, showing plainly and clearly that in the latter days God would have a house built on the earth.

Perhaps there may be objections by our Christian friends to the Latter-day Saints proclaiming in the midst of Christendom that the Lord intends to have a house built on the earth. They will probably say—“He has hundreds of them, and has had for many generations. God has houses scattered here and there throughout all the Christian nations, and there never has been a time since the days of the Apostles but what the Lord has had a house, either at Corinth, Athens, or somewhere else; and you can read the inscriptions upon them as you pass through the towns and cities of Christendom.” These houses are called the houses of God, or Jesus, the church of St. John, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Mark and others, and all of them are considered the houses of God. Would to God that this were true! Would to God that he had given some directions concerning the building of some of these houses! But alas! When we come to inquire concerning their origin, we find that they were built by uninspired men, that the architecture and everything pertaining to them has been devised by the cunning and wisdom of men. Ask them if God commanded them to select the particular location on which one of these houses stands? They will say—“No, God does not direct now-a-days. There was a time when the Lord did direct in such matters, but now we have wise men, we have bodies of learned men who have studied theology. We do not need the Lord to interfere in our day; he don’t speak anything to the people in the age in which we live; these houses were constructed according to the best plans and architecture we were acquainted with by our wisdom, without any commandment or revelation from the heavens.” Very well, then the Lord has nothing to do with them. What I understand by the building of a house of God, is to build one after the pattern that he shall give. I do not mean a pattern that was given in ancient times, but one given to the very people to whom the revelation comes to build a house to his name. Has such been the case with the houses of worship throughout the Christian nations? Not in one instance. You may travel all through this great Republic, from one end thereof to the other, and among all the Christian denominations who deny new revelation, is there one house which God commanded to be built? Indeed these very prophecies would seem to indicate that, in the day when they should begin to be fulfilled, there should be no house of the Lord on the earth. Is it not a peculiar kind of a saying that in the latter days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and be exalted above the hills? It shows that for a long period prior to the erection of the house of God in the mountains, no such thing could be found on the face of the whole earth, and it was needful for the Lord, in the latter days, to begin a work of that kind. No place for Jesus to come to. He is to come in the clouds of heaven, in flaming fire, in power and great glory, clothed upon with all the brightness of the celestial heavens; his face will outshine the sun, and cause it to withhold its light in shame. No place for this glorious personage to come to—no Temple prepared into which he can come. When he does come, however, this work will have been accomplished—he will come to his Temple suddenly. It will not be like his first coming. Then, instead of coming to his Temple suddenly, we find him born in a very low condition, not even in the common mansions or dwelling places of the inhabitants of Palestine, but in a stable or manger. When he visited the great Temple at Jerusa– lem, when about twelve years old, and also after he began his ministry, when about thirty years old, instead of sitting upon the sons of Levi and purifying them as gold and silver in a furnace of fire, that they might offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness, who was it who rejected the Son of God in that day? The sons of Levi. They cried out against and persecuted him; they were his greatest enemies; they crucified him. They were not purged and prepared to offer in the Temple of the Lord an offering in righteousness. The glory of God did not appear in their midst, and their offerings were not acceptable in that Temple before the Lord, but he found his house, in that day, a den of thieves, occupied by moneychangers and brokers, speculation going on in the midst of the house of God, and he was under the necessity of making a small scourge and driving them out by whipping them. Not so in the latter times, when he comes to his Temple. In that day, when the mountain of the house of the Lord is established in the tops of the mountains, it will be an indication of a great period of peace, a period which is so often spoken of by the mouths of the ancient Prophets, in which nation shall no more lift up sword against nation, when they shall no longer have use for firearms or weapons of war, or anything that is calculated to destroy life; but these deadly implements will be converted into useful articles of husbandry. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more. That time has not come, and such a period was never known on the earth.

There is another thing connected with the building of the Temple in the latter days. When it is built, on the place, and according to the pattern that the Lord shall designate, it will be so strange to the nations, that they will actually come up from all parts of our globe. Many of them will say one to another—“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the house of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.” “What do you want to go up there for? Why do you want to travel several thousand miles across land and sea to go to the mountain of the house of the Lord?” “That he may teach us of his ways, that we may walk in his paths?” “Can you not be taught in his ways in your own chapels, which you have built in England, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Austria, or wherever you may have resided? Can you not worship in your own chapels?” “Oh, no, there is no house of the Lord, we have no teachers authorized of God, no Prophets and Apostles inspired by and called of God to officiate like the ancient Apostles; no one to say to us ‘Thus saith the Lord God,’ by new revelation; no visions are manifested among us; no angels have honored our houses of worship with their presence; no glory, no fire descending from heaven to light up these chapels and sanctuaries which we have built, and we have lost all confidence in our teachers, consequently let us go up to yonder mountain on which God’s house has been built, and when we get there, he will teach us in his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” “Is the only object you have in going to the mountain of the house of the Lord to receive teachings?” No, there are other things to be attended to in the house of God or in Temples that may be built in the tops of the mountains besides teaching. We have a great many important duties to perform pertaining to the house of God, duties that cannot be performed anywhere else acceptably in his sight.

Would you like to know some of the uses of these Temples or houses of God? I will read a little from one of our modern revelations, given through Joseph Smith, in Nauvoo, on the 19th day of January, 1841. I have not time to read the whole of the revelation, but will select a few sections. Speaking of building a house to his name, the Lord says—“Verily I say unto you, let all my saints come from afar”—this we have fulfilled so far as the gathering is concerned.

“And again, verily I say unto you, let all my saints come from afar. And send ye swift messengers, yea, chosen messengers, and say unto them: Come ye, with all your gold, and your silver, and your precious stones, and with all your antiquities; and with all who have knowledge of antiquities, that will come, may come, and bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth; And with iron, with copper, and with brass, and with zinc, and with all your precious things of the earth; and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein. For there is not a place found on earth that he may come and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fullness of the priesthood. For a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead—For this ordinance belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to build a house unto me. But I command you, all ye my saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me; and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me.”

I want this Conference to understand that it is not only the Saints who are here assembled, but all in this Territory, and wherever our settlements extend, all who have entered into covenant with the Lord are under this command. I will read further.

“But behold, at the end of this appointment your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these things at the end of the appointment, ye shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God. For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead cannot be acceptable unto me; For therein are the keys of the holy priesthood ordained, that you may receive honor and glory. And after this time, your baptisms for the dead, by those who are scattered abroad, are not acceptable unto me, saith the Lord. For it is ordained that in Zion, and in her stakes, and in Jerusalem, those places which I have appointed for refuge, shall be places for your baptisms for your dead.

“And again, verily I say unto you, how shall your washings be acceptable unto me, except ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name? For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was. Therefore, verily I say unto you, that your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi, and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations, and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of revelations and foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name.”

It seems to be a standing command to the Saints, wherever they may be located, to build a house unto the Lord, wherever there is a stronghold pointed out for the gathering of the Saints, such as Kirtland, Nauvoo, Jackson County, Mo., and other places which are mentioned in revelation. The Lord has commanded his Saints in all these places to do a work, which will be effectually accomplished in due time. They are always commanded to build a house unto the Lord.

We have been here twenty-six years and have only a foundation and a few tier of rock laid towards a house of the Lord. It is true we have a large tabernacle which will contain some fifteen thousand persons when they are closely seated, and the standing room also occupied. But this is not a Temple of the Lord. We meet here to sing praises, and to be instructed in our duties as Saints, but this is not a house of ordinances; it is not a house for the baptism of the dead, or in which the Saints receive their washings and anointings; it is not a house in which you will receive statutes, and judgments, and laws pertaining to the kingdom of God. God has ordained a building of a different pattern wherein laws, statutes, judgments, and ordinances are to be revealed for the benefit of his people. “And verily I say unto you, let this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people; for I deign to reveal unto my Church things which have been kept hid from the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fullness of times.”

I think that portion of this revelation which I have read, will give you a general idea of the sacredness of the house of the Lord, which is to be built in the latter times, a place wherein the angels may come and visit, as they did in the ancient Temple; a place wherein you can receive all those ordinances which the Lord has revealed, and which he will, hereafter reveal, from time to time, preparatory to the great day of the coming of the Lord.

Now let me mention over some few things which should be administered in the Temple of the Most High. Marriage, for instance, is an ordinance of God. We know it to be not only an ordinance administered among the various nations according to their civil laws, but know also that it is a religious ordinance, administered by authority from God. If anyone wants any proof on this point let him read the 6th verse of the 19th chapter of Matthew. “What God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” It seems, then, that in marriage there is such a principle as the Lord officiating through his servants, in joining persons in this sacred and holy ordinance. There are a great many marriages that may answer the requirements of the civil law of different countries and nations, and there are some marriages performed even in our Territory, but the Lord has not directed them, neither has he directed his servants in their administration. He has not particularly forbidden these marriages, he permits and suffers them, but he has no particular hand in their performance. Do you wish me to explain this matter? I will. For instance, in the distant settlements of the Territory oftentimes a young man and woman desire to be married. They go and find a justice of the peace, or an Elder of the Church, as the case may be, and he officiates in the ceremony and marries them, somewhat similar to what people are married among the various nations. Does God really accept of this marriage, or does he merely suffer it to be so, for the time being? Has he joined them together, or has the justice of the peace, by virtue of his civil office? “How is it?” Says one—“I suppose it must be a legal marriage.” It is legal so far as the laws of the Territory are concerned. If a young man and woman in any part of this Territory wish to be married, there is nothing illegal in a justice of the peace performing the ceremony, he has a right to do it, according to the laws of the Territory. But is it legal in the sight of heaven? No, it is not. Why not? Because God has appointed a place in which this sacred ordinance should be administered, and he has appointed certain authority to officiate in its solemnization, and a certain form, when it is done in the place and by the authority he has ordained. It is then legal in the sight of heaven, then they are married or joined together, not for time alone, but the union is to exist throughout all the ages of eternity. This is the real order of marriage. This is one of the purposes for which God has commanded us to build a house, that our young people may have the privilege of entering into that sacred union not only for time, or until they are parted by death, but that they may have a legal claim, by virtue of the marriage covenant, upon each other after the resurrection.

Some may say—“I think I will wait until after the resurrection and then I will secure me a wife for eternity; or perhaps I will merely marry a women here for time, and put off the eternal part, until after the resurrection.” What says Jesus on this subject? “In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage.” Why not? Because that is an ordinance, like baptism, that must be administered by those in the flesh. If, while in the flesh, we fail to secure to ourselves the remission of our sins, and the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost by going down into the water and being baptized for the remission of our sins, by one having authority to administer this ordinance, we cannot attend to it in our own persons after the resurrection. That is an ordinance that cannot be administered after the resurrection; if it is not done until then, it must be done by some person still living in the flesh, for and in behalf of the one who has gone into the spirit world. Those in the spirit world have no claim upon blessings for eternity, unless they are secured while in the flesh. It is so with all the ordinances pertaining to eternity, they must be performed in the flesh, and not in the next life. Hence if an individual is so unfortunate that he fights against a principle, or becomes careless and indifferent; or if he goes to a justice of the peace, thinking that he will secure to himself a wife for eternity, he is grandly mistaken; and if he dies, having been married according to this form, he has no promise whatsoever that, after the resurrection, he will have a wife; for in that world, this sacred ordinance cannot be attended to.

Another thing which I wish to explain is, that, in the sight of heaven, their children are illegitimate. Of course they are legitimate according to the laws of the country. Such children can claim the property of their parents, they are the legal heirs to the property descending from parents to children by virtue of the laws of the country. But when I say illegitimate I mean in the sight of heaven. Now, all you young people who have been married in this Territory or abroad, by justices of the peace, or even by Elders of the Church only for time, when you have the opportunity of coming up here to the house of God, and receiving these ordinances, and do not, your children are illegitimate in the sight of heaven.

Perhaps you may enquire, “What is there to be inherited in eternity that makes it really necessary that our children should be legitimate, so far as divine authority is concerned?” The Lord our God is a God of law, his house is a house of order; and all blessings, and honor, and glory, and inheritance, that are to be received in the eternal worlds must be according to divine law and divine ordinances, and whosoever complies with the law of heaven has a legal claim in eternity. That which is performed by man, without divine law, however perfect human law may be, has no bearing upon eternity. Man’s works are one thing and God’s works another. A blessing bestowed upon men, such as the legitimate heirship to the property of their parents is one thing, and a blessing bestowed by the Eternal Father in the heavens is another. He performs all of his works by law, and he bestows blessings upon his children, by ordinances and by law. It must be secured here in this life, if we secure it at all in our own persons.

It may be said, “I do not understand this principle. What will become of our good fathers and mothers who have gathered up from the nations that were married before they heard this Gospel?” “Indeed, were they married?” “Yes.” “How?” “According to the laws of their respective nations. Their offspring are legitimate, so far as the civil laws of their native countries are concerned, but they are not husbands and wives for eternity in the sight of heaven.” “How are you going to remedy this?” asks the enquirer. “In the house of God. Temples or houses of God must be built to remedy this thing.” “How can it be remedied there?” They must be married over again, not according to the laws of men or nations, but according to the laws and institutions of heaven.” “Will that make their marriage legitimate?” “Of course.” “But they have many children before they gather up here; you tell us they are illegitimate: how are you going to remedy this?” God has provided a remedy for all children born out of the covenant.” “What do you mean by that?” enquires one. “I mean the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, that has a bearing upon eternity as well as time. All who are born before their parents enter that new and everlasting covenant have to be made legitimate heirs.” “In what way?” “According to the ordinance and law of adoption.” I may be asked—“Is this important?” “Yes, it matters a great deal. If there are family regulations, to preserve good order, in this world, you will find that God is more strict, in such regulations, in regard to the world to come. If patents hold certain authority over their children in this life, you will find that such authority, though in higher perfection, is transferred to the eternal worlds, and in that world there is a certain jurisdiction which parents hold over their children through all future ages of eternity. But in order that parents may have their children legitimately under their control, it is necessary that the ordinance of adoption in the house of God should be performed in regard to the children born before their parents entered into the eternal covenant of marriage. This shows the use or necessity of a Temple.”

Then again, we heard on Sunday afternoon considerable on the subject of baptism for the dead; it is not necessary, therefore, that I should dwell upon this subject. It is one thoroughly understood by the Latter-day Saints, and has been long preached to them, and they know that this, as well as the ordinance of marriage, pertains to the house of God. To be acceptable to him there must be a font, the same as there was in the Temple of Solomon. You recollect there was a brazen sea, a large place in the basement of the Temple of Solomon, underneath which were twelve oxen, their heads pointing to the four points of the compass—three to each point. This great brazen sea, standing upon these oxen, was a place intended for baptisms for the dead. As was said last Sabbath, it was underneath those courts, where the living, from time to time, assembled to attend to their worship; thus representing those that were in their graves, underneath the living. That was the reason it was placed in that position; and as that was intended for sacred and holy purposes, the administration of holy ordinances, so God has commanded, in these latter days, that there should be a baptismal font, and the ordinance of baptism for the dead must be performed in the place that God designates, in order to be legal and acceptable in his sight.

We are told in the revelations which God has given, through his servant Joseph Smith, something about the pattern of this sacred and holy ordinance. We are told that the living are not only to be baptized for and in behalf of the dead, by being immersed in water in their respective names, but that they are also to receive the ordinance of confirmation by the laying on of hands, not for themselves, but for the dead, as far back as they can trace them. Hundreds of millions of people died before God gave this revelation, in these latter times, and they had not the opportunity of being married for time and all eternity, no man on the earth, in their day, having the authority to unite them. Would you deprive them of the blessings of this eternal union, because they did not happen to live in a day when God revealed and restored anew, from the heavens, these ordinances? No. God is a consistent being, and to say that people who die in ignorance, without having an opportunity of attending to the ordinances of the house of God, should not be made partakers of the blessings thereof, would be imputing injustice to the great Jehovah. To say that our fathers and mothers, who were only married for time, must be deprived of a union in the eternal worlds, because of their ignorance of these things, because there was no person having authority to administer to them, would be apparently unjust, and would almost seem to impeach the attributes of Jehovah, if we could suppose such partiality was his design. But we cannot suppose that God is an inconsistent Being. And if we have the opportunity of attending to the ordinance of marriage in the house of the Lord, and of securing certain eternal blessings for ourselves, our ancestors, who are dead, must have a plan devised, adapted to their condition, by which they also may be exalted to the same blessings. But it must be done by law. No haphazard work, no work of chance or confusion, but everything must be accomplished by the laws, ordinances and commandments of the Great Jehovah; then, what is done by his servants here on the earth, being sealed here is sealed in the heavens, and hence, we not only keep a record of all the names of the dead, but of all the ordinances attended to for and in their behalf; and in the great judgment day, when the books are opened, it will be found that such and such parties have been baptized for, confirmed for, and administered for, in the marriage ordinance, and that these various ordinances were recorded in the presence of witnesses.

The records kept by authority here, will agree with the records kept in heaven, for they keep records there, as well as we; and the books on earth, when they are kept by divine authority, will agree with the records in heaven. When there is divine authority in the administration of an ordinance here on the earth, that ordinance is sacred and holy, and is recorded here and in the heavens, and the records of heaven will agree with the records of earth; and by these records and books will mankind be judged. The dead will be judged according to men in the flesh, or, in other words, as we shall be judged according to our works in the flesh. When we have been baptized, and it is recorded on the earth, it is for ourselves, and we will be judged by that, and if we are faithful, we shall receive the blessings and glories which the Lord has in store for those who are baptized here and are faithful to the end. So will the dead be judged according to the works which are done for them; and when the books are opened, and it is found that they have been officiated for, by those works will they be judged. Why? Because they have their agency in the spirit world, to reject what has been done for them, or to receive it, the same as we have the agency while living here to reject or to receive what Jesus did through the atonement of his blood. We have that agency here; it also exists among those in the spirit world. You need not suppose that their agency is destroyed because they are baptized for, and because ordinances are administered for and in their behalf; you need not suppose that this will be a security to them that they cannot resist. They will have the same freedom there to resist, that we have here.

If the Latter-day Saints want some evidence or proof in relation to the agency of spirits that are in prison, or in the spirit world, let me refer them to the prophecy of Enoch, with which they are familiar, though strangers may not be acquainted therewith. Enoch saw the people that should perish in the flood; he saw that there was a prison house prepared for them, and that they dwelt there for a long period of time, until the Son of God was manifested, crucified and rose from the dead; and he saw, when that event should take place, that as many of the spirits in prison of the antediluvian world who perished in the flood, as repented, came forth and stood on the right hand of God. As many as repented had this privilege. Does not this show that there were some who probably would not repent? Indeed, the very next sentence says that those who did not repent “were reserved in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day.” Hence, the agency of spirits, as well as the agency of men here in the flesh.

A Temple is needed for the Saints who come from abroad, that their marriages may be recorded on the earth and in the heavens, that they may not only be for time, but for all eternity; that when they come forth, male and female, in the morning of the first resurrection, they may embrace each other as husband and wife by virtue of the covenant they entered into in the Temple of the Lord, while they were in the flesh.

Strangers will, perhaps, think that this is rather a partial doctrine, on one account. They may say, “Your fathers, whom you speak of, are not known; their names, in general, cannot be obtained for more than two or three generations back; in a very few instances, perhaps, they may be found eight or ten generations back; but what will be done with all the generations, nations, and ages, that have lived since the Priesthood of God was upon the earth, and since those holy ordinances were administered in ancient times? How are they going to receive any of the benefits from this baptism for the dead, seeing that the very names of the nations, to say nothing of the individuals, are lost?” Here comes in, again, the use of a Temple of the Lord. The Most High says—“I deign to reveal unto you hidden things, things that have been kept hid from the foundation of the world.” Among these hidden things that are to be revealed are the books of genealogy, tracing individuals and nations among all people, back to ancient times.

It may be inquired—“How can all this be done?” We answer, by the Urim and Thummim, which the Lord God has ordained to be used in the midst of his holy house, in his Temple. You may inquire—“What is the Urim and Thummim?” We reply, it is a divine instrument, prepared in ancient times, by which he who possessed it could call upon the name of the Lord, and receive from him answers to all matters it was necessary that he should know. Aaron, the chief Priest in the midst of Israel, had this instrument in his breast plate, in the midst of rows of stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel; and when he passed certain judgments, he did not do it by his own wisdom, but he inquired of the Lord and received the same, by this sacred instrument. When that instrument is restored to the house of God, to the Temple of the Most High, our ancestry, that is, the ancestry of all the faithful in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be made manifest. Not all at once, but by degrees. Just as fast as we are able to administer for them, so will the Lord God make manifest, by the manifestation of holy angels in his house, and by the Urim and Thummim, those names that are necessary, of our ancient kindred and friends, that they may be traced back to the time when the Priesthood was on the earth in ancient days.

If they could not be traced back, there would be a great chasm, a broken chain in the genealogies, and it would not be perfect, but when the Lord God comes suddenly to his Temple, he will come to a people who have made themselves per– fect by obedience to his commandments. They have sought after the redemption of their dead from generation to generation, until they can link on all those who were not officiated for in ancient times, and thus carry it back from one dispensation to another, until it reaches to our father Adam in the Garden of Eden, and then, the saying of Scripture will be accomplished—“The hearts of the children will be turned to their fathers,” and the hearts of all those ancient fathers, who lived thousands of years ago, will be “turned to their children, lest the Lord should come,” as the Prophet Malachi says, “and smite the earth with a curse.”

Why smite it with a curse? Because the people are careless and do not look after the salvation of their dead, do not let their hearts be drawn out after their ancestry, do not seek to perform those ordinances that are necessary for their redemption, that they may be redeemed by law. If we would not be smitten by a curse, let us seek after the redemption of our fathers, as well as of ourselves, for says the Apostle Paul, “they without us cannot be made perfect, neither can we without them be made perfect.” We may do all that we please for ourselves, and yet if we, through our carelessness and indifference, neglect to seek after the salvation of the dead, the responsibility will be upon our own heads; and the sins of the dead will be answered upon us, because we had the power to act for them, and we were careless and indifferent about using it.

Many more things might be said in relation to the dead, and what is necessary to be done in Temples. It was asked, by one of the speakers, in relation to inheritances, “What man or woman among the Latter-day Saints has an inheritance sealed to them?” What man among all this people can determine the very spot of ground that the Lord intends that he should inherit for an everlasting possession? Not one of us. The Lord has told us that he intends to give a certain land to his people, for an everlasting possession. He told the ancients, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the same thing; but they wandered as strangers and pilgrims in their day; and the martyr Stephen said they had not as much as to set their foot upon. Yet they had a promise which secured it to them after the resurrection, and also to their seed, and that personally, for an everlasting possession. Have you got any such promise? You have, as far as the great mass is concerned, the promise of a great region of country. We know where it is, God has pointed it out. But is there an individual among us who knows what portion of that great country he shall receive for his future inheritance, to possess either before or after the resurrection, and after this earth shall have passed away, and all things are made new? No. Why have we not got it? Because we have no house of the Lord built. When we have a house built, whether there be property, or inheritance, or union for eternity, or blessings for ourselves, or washings or anointing, or anything that pertains to eternity, it will be given to us by the ordinances of God’s holy house, according to law. No wonder then, that the nations afar off will say—“Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us of his ways, that we may walk in his paths.” He has a great many ways to teach the people, pertaining to the salvation of the dead, many ordinances, many principles and laws, statutes and judgments, and the law will go forth from Zion, and he will rebuke strong nations afar off, and fulfill and accomplish that which he has spoken; and wisdom, and knowledge, and glory and intelligence, the laws of the Most High, and the ministrations of angels will be unfolded to the Latter-day Saints, just as fast as they are prepared to receive them.

Wake up, then, Latter-day Saints, and prepare yourselves Temples in the places that shall be designated, by the oracles of the Most High God, so that your aged fathers that are in the southern part of the Territory may not be under the necessity of traveling some six hundred miles, back and forth, to attend to the ordinance of baptism for the dead. They must have a Temple there, wherein these ordinances may be administered; another here, another in the northern part of the Territory, and multiply them according to the wants of the people; for the work is becoming continually greater and greater, and the Latter-day Saints must wake up to these principles, and not have their minds absorbed with the things of this world, forgetting the great plan of salvation revealed from heaven.

May God bless the Saints, and wake up their minds to these important duties. Amen.

Remarks by Elder David McKenzie, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, October 7, 1873.

I feel very thankful for the privilege of standing before this congregation this morning, notwithstanding it is with some degree of diffidence; yet, in common with my brethren, I have reason to rest assured that when an Elder stands up before a congregation with a desire to bless them with a portion of the good news that emanates from the eternal throne, I say I have reason to believe that that Being whom we serve and worship will not be unmindful of us, inasmuch as we draw near unto him with confidence and with prayerful hearts. I rejoiced exceedingly at the words of our beloved President, President George A. Smith, when he requested the congregation to lift up their hearts in silent player to Jehovah, that the Elders might receive the words of life to give unto the people. This is our privilege, brethren and sisters, and it is one that I esteem of the greatest value; and when I come to a meeting to listen to the words of truth, I make it an invariable rule to lift up my heart in silent prayer that the Lord will administer to us, for without his aid and assistance our words are of very little value to the Saints.

I realize, this morning, that I am addressing a congregation of Latter-day Saints. If I were speaking to the people of the world, who know nothing about our holy religion, I might be directed to admonish them to be baptized for the remission of their sins. But I realize that I am talking to a people who are already acquainted with the first principles of the Gospel. I see before me those who have left all that was near and dear to them—forsaken their homes, the graves of their fathers, the associations of their friends, and have gathered here to serve the true and living God—that Being who has revealed himself in this, the dispensation of the fullness of times, for the winding up of the affairs of this earth, according to the program that was made before the world was. Inasmuch as we have done this, and have covenanted with God, the Eternal Father, that we would serve him and keep his commandments, if I can give you a word of comfort, or of exhortation, I pray that it may be so given to me from God that it may do you good.

We have had some very excellent instructions given to us during the Conference. President Young brought the Gospel before us, as it were in a nutshell, when he told us that if there was anything good or beautiful, anything that savored of virtue and righteousness, anything that tended to true happiness, it was a portion of the creed of the Latter-day Saints. I use the term “creed.” It is of itself a word that circumscribes, a word that limits, but there is no limit to our creed. It is unbounded, it comprehends all truth that is, was or is to be. Whatsoever is good and noble, whatsoever tends to the salvation of the children of men and to happify their being here and hereafter, to bring up, to improve, to increase according to the order of the Gods, that is the religion of the Latter-day Saints, that is what constitutes their religion.

It is fashionable to designate that as education which gives the young, an acquaintance with letters, numbers, science and philosophy; while that which tends to a future state, to happify hereafter and to prepare us for the presence of God is called by the world religion. With the Latter-day Saints it is all education, or it is all religion, just as you please. That which prepares us to live and enables us to provide for ourselves the necessaries and comforts of life, as well as that which prepares us for the presence of God our heavenly father, that we may dwell with him through all eternity with us is all education or all religion. We know not where to draw the dividing line, bearing this fact in mind, that whatsoever is good comes from God, and that whatsoever is evil comes from an evil source.

I trust that we are awake to these things, that we do not let the time pass by unimproved, for to us is committed a great and important work—not only our own salvation but the keys for the redemption of the children of men from the earliest ages to the winding-up scene. That is the work the Latter-day Saints have before them. It is well to have this continually in our minds, that we may not trifle away the time, but that we may be awake to the signs that are looming up on every hand, and pointing out, as with the finger of Jehovah, that the time is drawing near when he whose right it is to reign will come and take the kingdom. Men have had it a long time their own way. When I read and reflect upon the history of the past I am led to believe that the Lord has let men take things into their own hands to a certain degree, to see what they would do for themselves. You all remember the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which Daniel interpreted, wherein he saw a great image, the head of which was of fine gold, the breast and arms of silver, &c. Images are the work of men’s hands. To Nebuchadnezzar was given dominion over all the earth, a kingdom which was comparatively pure, and which was compared to fine gold; but in process of time the kingdom degenerated, and was weakened and subdivided, as represented by the feet of the image—which were part of iron and part of miry clay. But in the last days the God of heaven was to set up a kingdom. A kingdom that was not a part of the image, it was not the work of man, it was the work of God, and was likened to a stone cut out of the mountain without hands. Mark the phrase—“without hands,” it was not the work of men, it was a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, that is, a kingdom set up by God, which was to smite this image—the work of men, and an order of things was to be instituted in accordance with the mind and will of Jehovah.

I bear testimony to you this day, brethren and sisters, that God has set up his kingdom; that it has been revealed to me, to my understanding, to my most positive conviction, so that it is no longer a matter of doubt of uncertainty; but it is as substantial and real to me as the assurance that I am. And there are hundreds, yes, thousands in this congregation, who could bear the same testimony were they called upon.

Do we as Latter-day Saints act up to this knowledge? Do we bear in mind that we have made certain covenants with God, and that we are responsible whether we keep them or neglect them? I am afraid, brethren and sisters, that, although the majority of the Latter-day Saints are doing very well, there are many men with talents, gifts and abilities given them by God, who might be bright and shining instruments in his hands, who are negligent and who are wandering after idols, and are worshiping idols just as much as the heathen who prostrate themselves before things of wood and stone. What are they doing? Forgetful of the great aim and object which they should have in view as Latter-day Saints, they wander off after the things of this world, they seek to heap to themselves riches, and spend their time as if there were nothing beyond the veil. This course is not wise, even so far as this world is concerned, for what is the condition of such persons today? Their ideal does not give them that true lasting happiness that comes from God. It brings care and anxiety, and increases the lust for gain, and what they seek to obtain flees further from them. The acquisition of wealth entails greater responsibility as to what use they will make of it to acquire still more. Looking at it in this light it seems to me a self-evident fact, that although we are ostensibly engaged in seeking for and promoting our happiness, we are on the wrong track when we take a course of this kind. There is a proper course for us to pursue in order to increase our happiness. We have been thrown together on this planet, in pretty much the same circumstances in many respects. We are sensitive to pleasure and to pain, we have a desire to increase our enjoyments, and there are many things I might mention wherein we are all very much alike. Now don’t you think that the Being who created you and me knew of a certain plan which, if we would adopt, a certain course which, if we would pursue, would give us the greatest among of happiness? It is a very reasonable conclusion.

What course is that likely to be? The same course that our Father in heaven has taken before us. How shall we get to know what that is? Let us read the revelations, let us refer to our beloved Savior when he was upon the earth. What course did he pursue? He went about doing good. His admonition was to do good to all, to love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and to do unto others as you would have them do to you. These were some of the principles laid down by our Savior and Redeemer. He said he came not to do his own will, but the will of his Father. Don’t you think, brethren and sisters, that if we were to follow these golden rules we should see a very different state of things to what we now see? What would be the result if they were observed? Every man would be as willing to promote the welfare and advantage of his neighbor as he would his own. When two went to trade together it would not be—“Now let us see who will get the best of the bargain,” or, “I don’t care what you get, I want to get as much as I can.” The desire would be that each should be satisfied. In a state of society in which these golden rules were observed by all, there would be no grinding the face of the poor that the rich might pile unto themselves wealth, which is a cankerworm; no, but we would be able to enter into the Order of Enoch, and live it, so that we might intensify our faith in God and receive and understand more of his will concerning us, and we should see a state of things, which you and I have never dreamed of, if we would overcome these feelings of selfishness which proceed from a power that is evil and that is opposed to our growth, and to the progress of the kingdom of God.

Is it within our power to inaugurate and bring to pass such a condition of things? We have the priesthood of the Son of God bequeathed to us for this very purpose. Is it in the mind and will of Jehovah to pour out blessings upon His people, to increase upon them everything that is calculated to happify them here and hereafter. He has designed to make a nation of kings and priests, according to His promises made to Abraham. That promise has yet to be fulfilled, and will as assuredly be fulfilled as that the heavens are above us. He would pour out blessings on His people, but if they are not able to receive them, alas! they would prove curses. He has given us laws, and with every law given there are conditions. If we magnify them, blessings are promised, of which we are as sure to be the recipients as that we live. Why are we required to pay Tithing? What does the Lord want with a tenth of our substance? I will tell you what He wants with it. He wants you and me to manifest by this thing that we are His servants, that we respect his commandments, that we do not wholly set our hearts on filthy lucre, but that we do willingly, cheerfully and understandingly bring forth one-tenth of our substance, and say—“Here am I, O Father, ready and willing to lay down what Thou hast required of me, that I may manifest to Thee my integrity and prove that I am fit to receive more of Thy blessings.” That is the law of Tithing as I understand it. That is the condition, that is the reward, if you please, which attends a person who pays it.

Many times the Saints wonder why we do not progress faster than we do, and sometimes it creates a feeling of regret; but I realize that there is an abundance of things before the people which they do not live up to. We have the oracles of God in our midst. I may sit down and read the Scriptures of the past, the commandments given to the children of Israel engraven on the tables of stone, or the carnal commandments, but they benefit me comparatively little. What you and I want today is the word of the Lord to ourselves. Are we not His children as much as were the children of Israel in the days of Moses? Most assuredly. We want the word of the Lord today, and we require to walk up to it when we get it. As I said, we have the living oracles in our midst, and if we receive from them admonition, counsel, and commandments if you please, that is as much the word of the Lord to this people as is the doctrine of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.

We all look forward to the time when the Order of Enoch will be established on the earth. But in our present condition, with our feelings of selfishness, lusting after the things of the world, and craving after Babylon, we cannot expect that the Lord would have so little regard for his people as to require us to live this law, when it would be likely to prove our condemnation. But the servants of God who stand at the head of this people, with hearts yearning for their prosperity, with constant prayers ascending to God, for the advancement of his kingdom upon the earth, have seen fit to propose that we enter into a system of cooperation, as a step towards establishing this order that we contemplate will exist at no distant day. What should be our feelings at hearing of the organization of such a thing? We should give thanks and praise to Almighty God that there is a chance—a door opened—by which we may take a step towards establishing the Order of Enoch. It is a step in the right direction, and if we understood our true interests we would step forth in that direction, we would make everything bend to it, we would center our faith upon it, we would give our might and our means for the advancement of this institution called the Cooperative Institution. It should be as the apple of our eye. The support of this cooperative system is just as much a commandment of God, as I said before, as the doctrine of baptism for the remission of sins. What makes it so? Because it has been revealed to us as such by the living oracles. And what do we care for the printed word, as compared with the living oracles? Is it not of more importance to you and me to know what we should do today? Most assuredly. We live in the present, we live today, and if we live right today, we are ready for tomorrow. It is of the utmost importance that we should know how to regulate our conduct today, because we are not only living ourselves today, but we have our families to train, instruct and educate, that they, in turn, in their day, may be enabled to carry out the mind and will of God. If we understood our true interests as a people we would know that we had not a single individual interest outside the kingdom of God. If this fact is not apparent to our minds it is because we are more or less in the dark. What do we seem to possess here? I say seem to possess advisedly, because we have no control in and of ourselves. Who can guarantee himself one hour of existence? Who is assured of it? Even the very ability we have to gather around us the necessaries and comforts of life comes from God. Who of us has an inheritance? As President Smith remarked, not a soul of us on the earth has received an inheritance that we can call our own; and when we as a people have an opportunity given to us to unite our faith and energies in any one given direction, we should hail it as one of the greatest blessings that can be bestowed upon us.

It is in that light I look upon the Perpetual Emigrating Fund for the gathering of the poor—it is a Godsend to us because we are permitted to concentrate our faith and energies and means in one direction to accomplish a great and a good work. It is in that light I rejoice in the establishment of the Cooperative Institution, because, we are privileged to unite our energies and faith as a people in one direction, for a beneficial result. It is the same in the paying of Tithing; and what would we have today without these institutions? Have you any idea to what extent Tithing has been the means of bringing to pass the many improvements that have grown up around us? Many have not, but I am fortunate enough to be thrown into that position where I am able to see and understand and be acquainted with the figures and I know the use that Tithing is applied to, and that it is first and foremost in all improvements for the advancement of the cause of truth upon the earth, and setting an example for others to follow in the same wake, and one of the great sources of the prosperity of this people is due to the fact that there is at least a certain portion of Tithing paid into the Lord’s storehouse.

It has been remarked here that Salt Lake City is, as it were, a battlefield between the powers of light and the powers of darkness. I never, as an individual, felt better in my life in this Church than I do today. I care nothing about the outside pressure so far as I am individually concerned, and I notice with the Saints who are awake, that the greater the opposition the stronger they get in the things of God. It is very true the young are growing up around us, and they have not had the experience of those of riper years, and are liable to be led astray. There is a great responsibility resting upon the parents of the young that they set their children wise and prudent examples; that they admonish them of the evils that are extant and that are encroaching upon the people today. When we see Babylonish fashions coming in amongst us we should be very careful that we avoid setting our children the example of patterning after them. If we find that our young folks must run after fash– ions, let us go to work and set them some good examples, create fashions for ourselves that they may pattern after. Just reflect, sisters, for one moment, who is it that inaugurate the fashions which some of our so-called ladies patronize on the streets of Salt Lake City today? Where do those fashions come from? Would you like to be looked upon in the light those poor creatures are who inaugurated those fashions? If you must pattern after something, pattern after the good, righteous and pure, and shun the very appearance of evil. I will tell you one thing that we may pattern after profitably. A savings bank has been opened in this city. It is gotten up for a wise purpose, the people may therein throw their means together, and peradventure if they want to send for friends and relatives abroad, when the day rolls round to do so they will have something they can use for this laudable purpose. There is something to pattern after, involving a principle of saving, husbanding your resources. By putting your pennies together, by and by they become a pound. It is like the units of the actions of this people—when they are all aggregated together they amount to a mighty effort. Save your pennies instead of throwing them away on these foolish trifling vanities. It is the case with some of my brethren and sisters, they cannot allow a dollar to stay in their pockets a minute. They want to go to some of the stores to lay it out on some trash, for it is a fact, patent to all, that this is a day of humbuggery, and the things you get in the stores are more or less counterfeit and sham, outside show and gingerbread gilt instead of sound, substantial things that we ought to seek after. For instance, the cloth that we wear, you go to a store and buy an article of wearing apparel, how rare it is that you can get the thing that is represented. No, you get a sham, a counterfeit, an imitation of the genuine stuff, and that is just what the world is rapidly coming to. By and by there will be nothing among them but sham and counterfeit. Let us prefer, rather, that which is good and substantial, that which we can use and which will be a benefit to us rather than that which is only for display. Let us seek, brethren and sisters, after those things which will benefit and improve our condition today, and leave Babylon alone.

I tell you that if we would keep ourselves to ourselves, you would see very few of those institutions flourishing in Salt Lake City that are springing up around us that are now getting the patronage, I am afraid, of some of the Latter-day Saints. Let me beseech you, for your own sakes, and for the sake of Israel abroad to quit patronizing Gentile institutions and abominations, and turn your attention to building up the kingdom of God, for therein are all the interests you have on the earth for time and for eternity.

May God bless us and help us so to do is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, October 6, 1873.

The subjects that have been dwelt upon this morning are such as must interest every one who has a desire to comprehend the principles of salvation, as believed in and practiced by the Latter-day Saints. To my mind there has been an evidence of their truth accompanying every word that has been spoken. The Spirit of God bears testimony to the things of God, and there would be no difficulty in convincing the inhabitants of the earth of the truth of the principles believed in by the Latter-day Saints, were it not for tradition and the prejudices which exist in men’s minds in relation to the truth. Let a man start out with the Bible in his hand, determined to receive the truth wherever it may be found, and commence examining the various institutions and churches that exist among men, and he would, if he believed the Bible, and were not prejudiced by tradition and education, expect to find, when he found the Church of Christ, a Church organized in every respect like that of which the New Testament gives us an account. He would expect to find Apostles and Prophets, and the ordinances of baptism, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost in that Church; he would expect to find the gifts of prophecy, revelation, tongues, the interpretation of tongues, healing, wisdom, the discernment of spirits, and all the gifts that existed in the Church of Christ in ancient days. He would look for just such a church as this, and if he did not find it he would conclude that that church had been withdrawn from the earth. The evidences that abound in the Scriptures all go to prove that this was the character of the Church of Christ in ancient days, and that there should be no change, for the Scriptures tell us that God is the same today, yesterday and forever, and that if men, in this day do the same things—exercising the same faith as they did in ancient days—the same blessings will follow their obedience. If we examine the Bible there is nothing to sustain the idea that there should be any change in any of these things; and when men hear it proclaimed that God has restored the everlasting Gospel, and they have a desire in their hearts to comprehend the truth, there is a spirit accompanies the testimony of the servants of God which bears witness to their spirit that these things are true. But immediately another spirit steps in, and the reflection arises in the minds of many—What will my parents, relatives or friends say? What will the world say if I believe this doctrine? There is ignominy associated with belief in these doctrines. There is shame to be encountered if I go forward and join a people so despised as these. What will men say of me? In what light, shall I be viewed? These reflections arise, and the testimony of the truth is extinguished in the hearts of many. It requires, therefore, on the part of people now, as in ancient days, great strength of mind, great moral courage, and great love of the truth, an overpowering desire to obtain salvation, and the Spirit of God to aid them, in order to enable people to receive the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence it is that so few, comparatively speaking, in every age have received the truth. It requires courage to sustain men when opposed by every kind of treachery and of violence. It required courage to enable men to go forth to the stake, to be cast into dens of wild beasts, or fiery furnaces, to be crucified, beheaded, sawn asunder, or to be exiled as was John the Revelator. It required, in ancient days, and it requires it in our days, this kind of sublime courage to enable men and women to receive the truth; and in view of all this, we can see and compre– hend the truth of the words of the Savior when he said—“Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it,” and “wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” It has been so easy for men to reject the truth and flow with the current; it has been so easy for men to spread their sails, catch the popular breeze and glide before it; and it has been so difficult for men to stem the tide of opposition which they have always had to contend with when they have embraced the truth, that it requires on our part, brethren and sisters, devotion to the work which God has restored. Every man and woman who has entered this church, however ignorant and illiterate, and has been humble and truly repented, has received a testimony from God that this is the truth. God bestows his holy Spirit upon those who obey his Gospel as he bestows light upon the earth. There have not been a privileged few, there has been no hierarchy, there has been no monopoly of knowledge, for some exclusive set to receive while the rest would be destitute; but it has been diffused like the blessing of air—it has been to all who have believed it, and every man and woman has received a testimony for himself and herself respecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it has been revealed and taught in these last days. Hence you travel from one end of this Territory to the other and you find all the people bearing testimony, when called upon, that they know this is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, restored in its ancient purity and simplicity. You go to foreign lands, and they bear the same testimony everywhere. Illiterate, humble, uneducated, weak men have gone forth, and proclaimed this truth, authorized by God, and God has condescended to confirm the truth of their testimony and administrations among the people, and we are now brought together in this land. We are surrounded by peculiar circumstances, we are in a place to be tried and tested, as we never have been before. There are many tests, temptations and trials now assailing the Latter-day Saints, with which they never had to contend before. We have had mobs, expulsion from our lands, from the temple of God that we reared, and from the pleasant homes which we had created, from the graves of our friends and kindred whom we buried after they had fallen victims to the land which we had redeemed from the condition in which we found it. We have passed through these scenes and there has been but little faltering considering the circumstances we have had to contend with. Men have bravely stood all these things, and feeble women have been filled with courage and strength to pass through these privations without their faith failing them.

I hope that we shall not have such scenes to endure again. I pray that we may be delivered from the violence of our enemies, that they may not have power over us again as they have had in the past. But we must make calculations on having trials and difficulties to contend with, and having tests for our faith to be endured and passed through. We cannot expect to accomplish the work that God has laid upon us without being tested and proved. Men and women need not expect that they will attain unto the glory which God has in store for the faithful without being tested in all things. If we have a weakness, or anything about us that is not thoroughly sound, we may expect that sooner or later, that weak spot in our nature will be found, and we will be tested to the very uttermost. If we expect to sit down with Jesus and the Apostles and those who have fought the good fight of faith, and who have laid down their lives for the truth in past ages, or in our age, we must expect, like them, to be proved and tried in all things, until everything in our nature that is drossy shall be purified, and we be cleansed and made fit to sit down with them, pure and holy—their peers.

Can I then, or can you, give way to lust? Can you love the world, and the things of the world more than you do the things of God? Here is the danger that is before us as a people—it is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the lust of wealth, the fondness for worldly ease and comfort. We are being assailed by these trials. As a people we are increasing in wealth. Wealth is multiplying upon us on every hand. I know of no people, today, who are prospering as the Latter-day Saints through these valleys are. God has blessed our land, rendered it fertile, and made it most productive. He has placed us in the center of the continent. We occupy the key position, and may be termed the keystone Territory or State of the West. Wealth is pouring into our lap, and we cannot help being wealthy, that is, if we follow the course that has been indicated to us. We are as sure to be a wealthy people as that the sun shines. It is the inevitable consequence of our position, habits, union, &c.

There are more dangers in wealth than in mobocracy. There is more danger in having abundance of money, houses, lands, comforts, carriages, horses and fine raiment, than in all the mobs that ever arrayed themselves against us as a people from the beginning until we came here. We should realize this, and there is only one way that we can escape the evil consequences thereof. Wealth has ruined and corrupted every people almost that ever lived and attained unto power. It has sapped the foundation and vitality of the most powerful peoples and nations that ever existed on the face of the earth. We are human as they were; we are exposed to the same trials and temptations as they were, and we are liable to be overcome as they were; and the only safeguard for us is to hold everything that we have subject to the counsel and will of God our heavenly Father, until a different order of things shall be instituted among us as a people.

I see young men growing up, and in their growth is the love of wealth, the love of ease and worldly comfort, and the desire and greed for money. I will tell you that the man who has the greed or hunger for money within him, and does not repress it, cannot be a Latter-day Saint. A woman who has the love of finery and of earthly ease and comfort within her, and that is the paramount feeling in her heart, cannot be a Latter-day Saint. No man can be a Latter-day Saint in truth and in deed who does not hunger after righteousness and the things of God more than he does after everything else upon the face of the earth; and whenever you see or feel this money hunger, this dress hunger, this hunger for worldly ease and comfort, in yourselves or others, you may know that the love of God is being withdrawn from you or them, and sooner or later it will be extinguished, and the love of the world will grow until it becomes predominant. I do not know anything more corrupting than this greed, hunger and lust for the things of this life, or anything more degrading and debasing in its effects, except it be the love or lust for women. As a people we believe that lust for women is, next to murder, shedding innocent blood, the most deadly of all sins. Committing whoredom or adultery destroys the man who indulges in it, and next to that, in my estimation, is the love of wealth—the lusting after the things of this life; and there ought to be, and is in every rightly constituted nature, a constant warfare against this evil. We have this to contend with. We should watch it in our children and in ourselves, and we should endeavor to govern and bring all our feelings and desires into such a position that they can be controlled by the love of the truth.

God has most wisely designed, in my humble view and opinion, that, as a people, we should be called upon from time to time to make sacrifices in order that we may be weaned from the love of the things of this life, that our love may be concentrated upon Him and upon the salvation of our fellow men, for the mission that is entrusted to us is to save the inhabitants of the earth. And what a glorious field spreads out before us in this direction, when we see the thousands of poor, perishing souls who are dying for the want of the blessings that we enjoy. We build Temples, we organize emigration societies, and expend our means that we may be the instruments in the hands of God of saving and bringing salvation to the inhabitants of the earth—our brethren and our sisters.

God required Abraham to sacrifice that which was most dear to him, and he will also require at our hands that which is most dear to us. If you have wealth, and are increasing in wealth, one of the best things, under such circumstances, is to be always particular in doing that which God requires of us. He requires of us one-tenth of all that we have. Let us be liberal in this. He requires that we shall pay means for the emigration of the poor from the distant nations of the earth. Let us be liberal in this also. Then, if he requires our time and talents and all that we have, let us be willing to devote ourselves to his Work, for he blesses us with everything that our hearts desire. There is nothing we have ever desired as individuals or as a people, that has been good for us, and proper that we should have, that he has withheld from us. On the contrary, he has multiplied blessings upon us, and he will make us wealthy if we will only be devoted to him. There is no danger that we shall not become wealthy, the danger is that we shall become wealthy and not be willing to use our means to his glory and for the advancement of his kingdom. That is the danger with which we are threatened.

God bless you, my brethren and sisters, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, October 6, 1873.

Last October Conference I asked permission to take a journey to visit the land of Palestine, and some other portions of the old world, expecting that I should be absent, probably, about eleven months. I was accompanied on that journey by President Lorenzo Snow and several others; the party including eight. We visited Palestine and many other countries, a portion of us calling at the Fair in Vienna. But in consequence of my selection, by the Conference last April, to do the duties of Trustee-in-Trust, I returned home a little sooner than I anticipated, though we were all well satisfied with our journey and visit, and with every interview we had on the entire journey, and were very thankful to our heavenly Father that we had the means given us, through his mercy, and I, individually, through the kindness of my friends, to make such a journey. We feel that the results will be felt and realized hereafter, as having done much good. I feel, individually, to return my thanks and blessings to all those who contributed to aid me on that journey, and to all those who desired to, but had not the means. I feel that the blessing of the Lord, which we invoked on the Mount of Olives, will rest upon his people, and that the time is not very far distant when God will fulfill his promises concerning Israel; though, so far as we saw of the remnants of Judah, their hearts are very hard, and it will require the exercise of great power on his part to soften them. But as his word will not fail, and his promises are sure, we look forward to their fulfillment with regard to Israel. In the meantime we, with all our hearts, might, mind and strength, should take warning by the example of Israel, and not fall into the same snares. They neglected their Tithes and offerings, violated the Sabbath, forgot their prayers and worshiped other gods, and for these things God cursed them and scattered them to the four winds of heaven, and the curses rest on the land, and, as was predicted by the Prophet, the rain has been turned into dust.

We, as Latter-day Saints, having had revelation from the Lord, and the fullness of the Priesthood revealed unto us, should be exceeding careful that we do not neglect the Gospel, turn from our duties, neglect our Tithes and offerings, Sabbaths and prayers, forsake the Lord and go astray after other gods, lest peradventure the curse of the Almighty fall upon us, and the kingdom be rent from us and given to another people. I feel that the de– solation, waste and barrenness of Palestine, and the degradation of its people should be a lasting and permanent lesson to us in all things, to keep the faith and obey the commandments, to remember our Tithes and offerings, to be friends to the poor, to remember our prayers, to remember the faith which God has revealed unto us, and to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints, that we may have and enjoy all its blessings.

We have had a glorious season, an abundant harvest and a good time to gather it. The weather has been fine and agreeable, and now, brethren and sisters, let us gather together a few days to talk with and strengthen each other upon the principles of the Gospel of peace. The Elders can bear testimony, for I know that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that God has revealed it to us for our salvation; and our covetousness, and disposition to make a display in the world should not interfere in any way whatever, with us in devoting our time, talents, energies and our all to the upbuilding of his kingdom, for that is the greatest interest and glory, and the grandest speculation there is on the face of the earth.

These are my sentiments and views. I wish all persons in the congregation, when they see a man rise to speak, to lift up their hearts to the Lord in prayer that the Lord will have mercy upon us and fill that man with the power of the Spirit, that he may speak to us directly by revelation from heaven, that every voice that is elevated may be elevated by the power of the Almighty.

Discourse by President Daniel H. Wells, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, Oct. 6, 1873.

It is with great pleasure I rise to bear testimony to the great truths that have been announced here this morning. The President has given some reasons for the testimony that he has borne, and the testimony that the servants of God bear to the truths of the everlasting Gospel. I, too, can say that I know this to be the Gospel of the Son of God, which is the power of God unto salvation. The great plan of salvation, devised by our heavenly Father before the world was organized, when it is said the stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy, has again been revealed in accordance with the prophecies of the servant of God. The Lord made his own selection, he chose from among the children of men whom he would, and Joseph Smith was the favored individual who received the visit of the angel bearing to this generation the Gospel of salvation to be preached unto those who dwelt on earth. It was taken away in fulfillment of prophecy. If it had not been taken away what necessity would there have been to restore it? If it had not been taken away the Apostle could not have seen in the future the angel flying through the midst of heaven, bringing it back to earth to preach to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people. We bear testimony that it has been restored. It is not a new Gospel—it is that which existed from the beginning, and which was devised before the world was made for the salvation of those who should come to dwell upon the face of the earth.

It is true that the terms of the Gospel are inexorable. Every son and daughter of Adam will have to bend the knee to this plan of salvation, either here or somewhere else. The ordinances of the Gospel pertain to this existence, and they have to be attended to in the flesh or by those in this state of existence. Except a man is born of water he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. There is no getting around this, it is the declaration of the Savior, the Son of the living God, and I count that this is pretty high authority. Every man and every woman, including those who have died and passed behind the veil without hearing the Gospel, before they can enter heaven, will have to render obedience to the Gospel ordinances, and as they cannot be administered to in the spirit, those in the flesh will have to administer for those in the spirit. You cannot grapple a spirit to baptize it, neither can you perform the sealing ordinance in the spirit, hence the Savior said there was neither marrying nor giving in marriage in the resurrection. It is an ordinance pertaining to this state of existence, and by those dwelling in the flesh upon the earth have all these ordinances to be performed. If they are not by ourselves during this life they must be done by someone acting for and in our behalf still existing in the flesh, and in the authority of the holy Priesthood, which has come down from heaven.

The acts and ordinations of that Priesthood are just as legitimate here as in any other state of existence. It is the same authority as exists in the heavens. Through the authority of the everlasting Priesthood, channels have been opened up between the heavens and the earth, by which we may seal upon earth, and it is sealed in heaven. This is the same authority that has always existed in the Church and kingdom of God when it has been upon the earth. Why? Because it is the same authority that exists in the heavens; it is the authority by which the Gods are governed, and by which the worlds are organized and held in existence. It has been conferred from time to time upon the servants of God in the flesh, to enable them to perform the ordinances which pertain to this state of existence, and reach back again within the veil.

Having been called of God we stand ready to administer the ordinances of the Gospel and of the house of God to the children of men; we stand ready to bear off this Gospel to the nations of the earth, this great plan of salvation devised by our Father. There has never been any other, and there never will be. Men have tinkered at it; but their efforts do not change God’s plan, it is like its author—the same yesterday, today and forever. God is the fountain of truth, righteousness and grace. All true science and every good thing emanate from him. It is from this heavenly source we draw our information and our inspiration, and, as a matter of course, it comprehends everything good and worth having. Within the kingdom of God is everything enjoyable that is lasting. If we do not build upon this basis, then are we lost, because it is the only foundation that will stand. Everything else will be swept away in the due time of the Lord. The people are suffered to go their own way, to walk after the imaginations of their own hearts, to do this and do that, because they are agents unto themselves, to do as they please. We can accept these principles or reject them; it makes no difference in regard to their truth. They are true, whether we receive or reject them, and they are calculated to save all the children of men. The plan is ample and will save all who will let it; and if we are not saved by this, we shall be condemned.

Now may God help us and all the nations of the earth to see the light, that we may all come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved in his kingdom, is my prayer for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Discourse by President Orson Hyde, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 5, 1873.

As this day’s services may be considered introductory to our Conference, which will commence tomorrow, I have been requested to make a few remarks. I cannot say whether they will be few or many, but let this be as the good Spirit of the Lord will. I am very happy to meet with my brethren in Salt Lake City, and from the adjoining settlements, and I presume, ere our Conference shall come to a close, all the Branches of Zion throughout the Territory will be duly represented here.

I have come from a point about one hundred and forty miles southeast of here. The people of my immediate field of labor, I am pleased to say, are generally healthy. There is some little sickness among our children, and some of them have been called away; but as a general thing, among the adult population, there is good health. We have had a peculiar season, yet very passable crops, and a most beautiful time to gather them. This year, so far, we have had peace with the Indians, for the first time for quite a number of years, and I do assure you that it is a relief to us. The Indians had an idea that they could do with us as seemed them good—prey upon our substance and murder our men, women and children whenever they felt like it, and the military of the Government would wink at it, because they thought the Government wanted to get rid of us; anyhow, they seemed to entertain little fear with regard to the consequences of the crimes which they committed amongst us. But last year, when General Morrow and a few companies stationed here at Camp Douglas, came and paid us a visit, it rather led the Indians to think that it was not altogether as they had considered it, and though there was no fighting done, from the fact that the Indians retreated, and hid themselves, yet the presence of the soldiers was a protection to us while we gathered the most abundant harvest that ever crowned the labors of our people in that section, and it was a very good thing, and the Indians begin to think, perhaps, that the soldiers would chastise them if they did not behave well. But from the sudden and unexpected recall of the troops from our county, and the apparent unwillingness of the Government to grant us any com– pensation for years of military service rendered in the defense of our settlements, in which time, nearly one hundred of our men, women and children, were mercilessly slain by the red-skins, besides hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock driven off by them—some of our people were foolish enough to think that the Indians were more than half right in their views. Be this as it may, it is all in a lifetime, and will come out right in the end. I feel thankful that we have had peace with the red-men, and that no particular depredations have been committed by them since, with the exception of a dozen or twenty horses which they have stolen.

We are not mining in Sanpete County. I do not know whether there are any mines there or not; we do not trouble ourselves a great deal about that, and consequently we are not afflicted with people who will dabble with mining, some of whom, when disappointed, will resort to stealing and other crimes. We have not that class amongst us, and I am glad of it, yet the more men who come amongst us with good and honest hearts, the better. It matters little whether they are Jews or Gentiles, if they possess honest hearts, we are apt to convert them and bring them into the Church. That has been the case up to the present time, and the consequence is, there are very few outsiders there.

The Cooperative stores established in our various settlements are a great blessing to us. They bring whatever we want, right to our doors, and although the dividends are not very great in favor of the stockholders, the benefits resulting from the establishment of these institutions afford us ample remuneration for the advance of the capi– tal necessary to commence the business. We do not increase rapidly in wealth, but we increase a little all the time, especially when the Indians let our stock alone. Our Cooperative Institutions are doing a very safe and good business. I do not think that any of them in Sanpete County are very much in debt to the parent institution in this city. I have cautioned them against it, and advised them to pay fairly and squarely, and not to trust their goods out, but to do a close, safe and secure business, that every person may be accommodated with what he wants; and if they should not happen to have what we need in every store at the time, they will kindly bring us whatever we sent for, especially when we give them the money to operate with. This is all that we can expect. Our books are open, and have never been closed against the admission of capital. Stock is for sale in every institution in Sanpete County, from twenty-five cents and upwards, and our little boys and girls, taking advantage of the opportunity thus presented, put in two bits once in a while, and by and by it gets up to five, seven, eight or ten dollars; and they can get a share, and there is quite an effectual door open for our youngsters to begin and show their financial accommodation to the people.

Well, brethren and sisters, I will say nothing further about the part of the county from which I came, but I will make a few remarks upon the idea of our being a peculiar people. You know that we are regarded as such, and if we look upon ourselves from a proper point of view, we shall readily admit that in this respect outsiders have given us an appropriate name; for we are a peculiar people whom God has chosen to serve and honor him. But the form of government of this people a great many have taken serious exceptions to: they think that one man is armed with too much power, and sways an influence over so many that it becomes a dangerous power and should be suppressed. I was reading, a few weeks ago, a statement made by a reverend gentleman living in Provo, and the most serious thing he had to complain of—and he complained of a great many things—was the one-man power which exists, and is tolerated and sustained in Utah.

I wish to speak a few words in relation to the one-man power, and in the first place I will say that it is what every aspirant, politician and statesman labors to acquire. I do believe that Mr. Grant, as good a man and as brave a soldier as he is, if he could get the hearts of all the people so that they would rally round his standard and sustain and uphold him, it would be the pride and joy of his heart. But if any man is thwarted in the desires of his heart in this respect, that is no reason why he should oppose others in gaining influence over his fellow men. All men love money, you know, more or less, hence they are digging here in the mines to obtain it. I have no fault to find or censure to bestow upon them for this operation; they are anxious to obtain money. Some only get a little, very little, while others, perhaps, make their millions. Now let me ask, Should the few who are fortunate and gain their millions be cast out and crushed because of their financial power, because they have struck a good lead and have been successful, by the many who have gained only a few dollars, or who, perhaps, have lost instead of gained? If then, this principle is to be tolerated in financial matters, why not when applied to influence and power in general?

I read that, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It seemed to be a kind of one-man power that was engaged in the very act of rolling creation into existence. I do not know how much of Democracy or of Republicanism there was in the beginning, I was not there that I know of, or if I was it is so long since that I have forgotten it. Judging by the accounts we have of matters then, the government was a kind of one-man power; and if we look at things as they really are, we shall find that sin entered the world, and death by sin and that was by one man. Oh, that was grievous! That drew a veil of gloom over the face of creation. That was one-man power. By and by we read of another one-man power that came along and counteracted this, and that was the Lord from glory—another kind of one-man power.

Now, while I compare these things with the present order of things which exists throughout our world, I do not wish to be understood as depreciating our own government, for it is the best earthly government in existence upon the face of the earth. It was ordained, organized and suffered for a wise purpose in God our heavenly Father, which, perhaps, I may be able to exhibit to you ere my remarks shall come to a close; but be this as the Lord will, I do not wish to say one word against our government; it is a good government, it answers the times and fills a vacuum that perhaps nothing else could. But I am looking at matters as they were from the beginning.

You know Jesus, when the Jews asked him about divorce and mar– riage, told them that Moses permitted them, for certain causes, to put away their wives; but he also told them that it was because of the hardness of their hearts that Moses permitted this, but that from the beginning it was not so. Now whether it was because of the hardness of men’s hearts, or because of the softness of them, I am not going to say, but I want to show the order of things as they were in the beginning, and as they emanated from the bosom of the Almighty. That which was first must be last, and that which was last must be first—a similar order of things, redeemed, rescued and brought out of chaos, and returned to the Father as they came from him, for he will accept nothing unless it be what he gave; for, said the Savior, “Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Hence, he will receive nothing only what he gave. He gave us immortal spirits, he sent them down here to be tabernacled in the flesh, and he expects that they will return to him, and they all will in some grade, return to him who gave them.

Well, the Savior of the world came to counteract the acts of the first Adam. And what was the nature of the work he had to do? Why, to bring life and immortality to light, to resurrect the dead, and to implant a hope of eternal life in those who trusted in him; and this, be it known to you, was accomplished by one-man power. Ye Roman soldiers who guard the tomb, ye Jews, who had a temporary triumph by the death of him whom ye crucified, know that the angel of God descends, the stone is rolled away from the door of the sepulcher, the Lord of glory rises, the dark curtain of death is rolled away and gives place to life and immor– tality, which dawn upon the world, in the person of the resurrected Savior. This was produced by one-man power. Said this one man in view of the responsibilities that were upon him, and smarting under the pangs that he endured—“Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” Why did not that one-man power resist the mind of his Father and say—“Do you think I am going to lay down my life, to sacrifice my existence to please you? No, I have an independent mind and will and I am resolved to gratify them.” That would have been in accordance with the ideas of our day, but it did not correspond with the program of the Eternal Father, and the object of his only begotten Son in coming to this world was to accomplish and carry out his part of that program, “Not my will, by thine be done.” This should be the feeling of the Latter-day Saints in relation to the requirements of heaven upon them. “Not my will, by thine, Oh God, be done.” If the world reproach you for submission to the will of God, refer them to the Savior, whose motto was, “Not my will, by thine be done.” How much honor and glory does the Savior of the world enjoy at the present time? It is beyond the conception of mortal man. But how much would he have enjoyed, and who among us would have had salvation had he faltered in his hour of trial and said—“I will not submit to this sacrifice?” Despise not this one-man power, for before I come to a close I shall endeavor to show to you that every son and daughter of Adam will be compelled to bow to it, and the more they fight against it, the harder it will be for them to submit to it in the end. Take it kind of moderately, then, and look at it in its true light.

Now my friends and brethren, I want to tell you that our country is a republic, and not a despotism, although some say it is rapidly approaching to that. I cannot tell how that is, I am not much of a politician, and do not give myself a great deal of concern about it. But I comfort myself with the idea that the Lord rules anyhow, and that he will, in time, have all things as he designs to have them, and hence I take little interest in politics. But one thing I will say, that is, that when the Government of the United States, although it is republican, has any very difficult task to perform, in which the interests of the country are largely at stake, it casts off republicanism and adopts despotism. Perhaps you may think that is slander, by I will suppose a case to illustrate the truth of my proposition. For instance, the fate of the nation is suspended upon an important battle about to be fought. Now, what kind of a government prevails in that army? The most vital consequences hang upon the issue of the battle, and that issue depends, to a very great extent, upon the orders of the commanding General being carried out. He issues his orders, and his subalterns are required to carry them out rigidly. The soldiers who constitute the army must submit in every respect, they have not the right, by virtue of their own opinion, to file off and deviate, in the least degree, from the orders of the commander. The same is true of the subaltern officers, and if any of them should adopt such a course they are subject to be tried by court-martial and possibly to be executed. Where is the republicanism or democracy in this? I tell you that when it come to a vital point republicanism has to be laid aside, and the one-man power has to be strictly obeyed.

Go, if you please, on board the ships of war of the United States, and what kind of government will you find there? There again the one-man power is absolute. I recollect reading an anecdote of General Jackson, when defending New Orleans against the British. He put the city under martial law, and in so doing some said he exceeded the bounds of his authority. I cannot say whether he did or not, I do not care whether he did or not; any way he saved the city and obtained a victory. But in preparing for defense he took cotton bales out of the warehouses and made a breastwork of them. A certain planter came to New Orleans at that time, and hearing that his cotton bales had been taken by the General, he made a terrible ado about them, and finally went to the commander-in-chief of the American forces and requested that they be returned. Said General Jackson—“Have you any cotton bales in our breastworks?” “Yes, sir, I have so many, and they have been taken from the place where they were deposited without my permission.” The General turned to an officer standing by, and said he—“Sergeant, furnish this man a musket and an outfit.” The articles were brought. “Now, sir,” said General Jackson, “if you have any cotton bales here, step into the ranks and defend them.” That was one-man power, and it was a noble exercise of it, it showed that the commanding general had the interest of the country at heart. You see, whenever there is a vital question at stake, and matters of life and death are involved, the one-man power has to be introduced in spite of everything, and that is all right.

Well, we expect that the work of God in the last days will be more important and will involve more vital questions than any other that has ever been undertaken or accomplished on the earth, and consequently the one-man power will be most loudly called for in connection with it, and Heaven seeing this has given power and influence to his servants. Have they got it by the sword or by oppression? No, but they secure it just as the sun secures its votaries. In the cool or cold season of the year, the reptiles and many animals seek protection in dens and caves and they are not allured therefrom by the lightning’s flash or the thunders of heaven, but when the rays of the glorious sun again warm and revivify the face of nature, these animals and reptiles again come forth to bask in his enlivening rays. So it is with the servants of the living God. They do not obtain influence over the hearts of the children of men by the sword or musket, but it is the light of truth, distilling like the dews of heaven, and warming the hearts of those who love truth that gives this influence, and you and I like to be under it. When I have been in the cold shade and chilling winds, I like to come out to the friendly sunshine, it is just as natural for me as it is to live, and this is the reason why the Latter-day Saints rally under the influence of the one-man power. There is the light: there are the rays that warm the heart, cheer the affections, open up prospects for the future, and make life agreeable.

Now I want to show you that we have all got to obey it. If you can get rid of death and scale the walls of eternity without passing through the dark valley of the shadow of death, then perhaps you may escape this one-man power; but if you cannot do that, you cannot es– cape it. I will quote you Scripture to show that such is the case. In the last day, the Lord will gather the inhabitants of the earth, just as a shepherd gathers his sheep; and in the process of gathering some will be gathered who may be likened to goats, while those who love to do the Master’s will may be called the sheep. A separation will take place between the sheep and the goats, the sheep will be put on the right hand, and the goats on the left. It may be said that goats are very good, their skins are useful and their flesh is fit for food, but still they are goats, they are not sheep, they do not produce wool, and they are separated from the sheep. So the people of the whole world will be separated, and the righteous, or the sheep, will be placed on the right, and the wicked, or the goats, on the left. When that separation time comes, we will see who will obey and who will not obey the one-man power. Says the Lord, the Righteous Judge, to those on the right hand—“Come ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Do you think they will need any urging to obey? I do not think they will. I hope I shall be among them. I shall be happy to see you there too. “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.” Oh joyful invitation! A heavenly influence rests upon us, and the light of joy beams upon our countenances. He now turns to the goats, and instead of saying to them, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,” they hear the dread sentence, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Do you think they will go? I am inclined to think they will be compelled to go; I think they will have to obey this one-man power.

Now, do not be displeased, jealous, or angry, because God has selected men and placed them in the front rank to plead the cause of Zion. Let God have his own way, and it will be better for you and better for us all. The old Prophets were very singular men, they liked to have things their own way, because they had their commissions from heaven, and they liked to execute them, and God bore them out in it.

The other day I sent a note, a friendly warning to the New York Sun. It was published and, I believe, copied in to some of the papers published in this city, and yesterday I was reading the objections to it in one of them. I will tell you what their reasoning made me think of. When I was between six and seven years old, fatherless and motherless, I was kicked and cuffed about the world, and grew up a good deal like a wild plant, with very small opportunity for cultivation, except that which I have accomplished by my own efforts. When I was a little fellow, I recollect there was a man by the name of Michael Hughes, who professed that, on a certain day, some six weeks from that time, the world would come to an end. It disturbed me, for I was only six years old, and I turned every way to get comfort and consolation; there was quite an excitement among grown people upon the subject. There was a certain lady teaching school in the neighborhood, by the name of Miss Pindison, and I remember I sat down to reckon in my own mind whether her school would be out by the time this man said the world would come to an end, and I came to the conclusion that it would not come to an end because Miss P—’s school would not be out. And when I read the wonderful arguments in this city paper about railroad communication and the interests which the same would call into action, and the influence they would have in overturning “Mormonism,” I could not help thinking about my childish conclusions in regard to the end of the world and the lady’s school. The Lord does not care so much about railroads; I do not think he will delay the accomplishment of his purposes to accommodate any railroad institution, but he will do all he desired regardless of this, that or the other.

Now, my brethren and sisters, in the midst of all the conflicting scenes that transpire around us, the mining operations, speculations and worldly pride and vanity which are multiplying on every hand, remember the words of the Savior—“Except ye are one ye are not mine.” No doubt some of you have had vessels containing a little oil, and you may have dropped in, by accident or design, a few drops of water, and then, in the same vessel, you have had oil and water, but no matter how much you shook them, they would not unite. Why? Are they not both liquids? Yes, but they will not unite, because they are dissimilar in their natures, and there can be no chemical union between them. I have heard men say, and correctly too, no doubt, that they were thankful they had a name and a standing in the Church of the living God. I am thankful for the same today. But is that all? I want to show you that here is a man, for instance, who is required to pay his Tithing, and says he—“I will pay just enough to save my skin, to save my name and character, I will not pay a full Tithing, but just enough to whip the devil round the stump.” Here is another man who comes up and pays a full Tithing of everything that he has. Let those two men sit down and talk Tithing matters over together, and will their spirits run together? Are they not in the same vessel—the same Church? Yes. Well, do their hearts, spirits and interests unite? No, they are like the oil and the water in the same vessel—they are distinct and they will not amalgamate. This will serve to illustrate a great many other things which, for want of time, I am not disposed to follow out. But one thing I will name, and that is in regard to plural marriage. A great many men say—“Oh, well, I can get along, I can live, and I believe I shall only have one wife.” Well, that is your privilege, nobody compels you to take more than one; but with the commandment of the Lord before us like a blaze of light, can we disregard it and serve him acceptably? If we can, then why not retain those laws and commandments in heaven, and not send them down here to earth? These commandments are sent for our good, for our salvation and exaltation. Here is a woman who, in speaking of celestial marriage says, “It will do very well for others, but it will not do in my house;” “it may do very well for somebody else, because her feelings are not quite so fine as mine, she has been differently raised from what I have.” I do not know that the Lord will pay any particular respect as to how we are raised, and how fine and delicate our feelings may be, or how coarse and uncultivated they may be. I believe that if we submit to the law of heaven, that law has power to refine us and to fit us for immortality and eternal life. That is my opinion. Now hear this good sister, she says—“It will not do for me, I am not going to submit to it.” Another sister says—“I am willing to submit to the law of Christ.” Let these two sisters come together and talk over the law of marriage, and see whether their spirits will run together. They will no more run together than water and oil will unite.

Says Jesus, “Except ye are one, ye are not mine.” Here is a black man and a white man, raised in the same house, but is that any argument that they are both white or both black? No, it is no argument whatever. Under the sound of my voice today there may be the best men that ever lived, and there may be, for aught I know, just as bad as ever lived. I hope not. But then, because we are within the walls of this house, does that signify that we are blended together in heart and spirit? No, no more than it proves that oil and water will unite. If I understand it correctly, we have to be blended together, united together completely in heart and spirit. I recollect once a man coming to me with a watermelon in his hand. It looked so green, good and fine, thought I—“We will have a feast on this watermelon.” But as he came near I caught a glimpse of it somehow, and discovered that it had been plugged and the inside taken out, so that instead of a watermelon, he was bringing a mere shell. There was the appearance of a watermelon, but, alas! there was no meat in it, it had all been dug out. Now, it is not the form of the union that the Savior wants among his people; that will not suffice; it is the marrow, the fatness we want, and then we can be melted into one, and this is what the Savior meant when he said, “Except ye are one ye are not mine.” But tares will grow in the same field with the wheat, yet remember that tares are not wheat, neither is water oil. Come what will, life or death, or whatever it may be, never mind, trust in God, and he will bring you out all right.

I am thankful for this privilege of saying a few words. I hope I have done no harm, and that I have not said anything that is contrary to the will of God, or to the feelings of the pure in heart, for they are just as sacred to me as the law of God, and I do not want to unnecessarily offend the ungodly; but I am not so particular to spare or shield them. I want to tell the truth, and bear a faithful testimony. I have been in this Church about forty-three years—almost from the beginning, for I was baptized the 31st of October, 1831, and ordained the same day and sent to preach the Gospel, and more or less, most of the time since, I have been engaged in that work. I used to be very active and spry, but now I have got to be old and clumsy, and I cannot travel about much. I have to be very careful of myself and keep rather moderate and still. I yet enjoy life, and have very good health, but an inclination of blood to the head causes a flush on my countenance, which some may regard as an indication of better health than I enjoy. But you know all men try to put the best side out, and the women too; and if nature, in her operations, has caused a flush of health to bloom on my countenance, it is only following the fashions of the day—putting the best side out. God be thanked that it is as well as it is.

Heaven bless you, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Sept. 28, 1873.

It is written somewhere in this book—the Bible—that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” These words were recorded in the law of Moses, and referred to by our Savior, but in what part of the Evangelists they are recorded I do not remember. They occurred to my mind just as I rose to my feet. It seems to have been the method in which God has dealt with the children of men, ever since they have had an existence on the earth, to reveal certain principles, and to confirm them by as many witnesses as seemed proper to him.

Our Father, the Creator of this earth, has power, if he saw proper to do so, to give a vast amount of evidence to the children of men, concerning the divinity of a message which he might at any time offer to them. It would be a very easy matter, if he saw proper to do so, to inscribe, in the very heavens, in letters of light, testimony and evidence which would be so conspicuous, and powerful, and plain, and easy to be understood, that all the nations, languages, kindreds and tongues upon our globe would know the truth at once, and have no misgivings about the matter. But the Lord has not seen proper thus to deal with the hu– man family. He seems to require, in the first place, faith on good, sound, substantial evidence, instead of imparting knowledge at once.

There is a great difference between faith and knowledge. I am told that there is such a country as China on the eastern borders of Asia; but I never have been there; I never have seen that country; I cannot say, most positively, that such a country exists, only on the testimony of others I am informed that such is the case. I believe that testimony, but it is not a perfect knowledge to my own mind, obtained by my own experience. And so in regard to ten thousand other facts or events. We are in many, indeed in almost all, instances required to believe without a knowledge. The judge who sits in a court of justice to decide upon the liberties and lives of his fellow beings, does not decide from a knowledge; but from the testimony and evidence presented before him he pronounces sentence of imprisonment or death, because the evidence is sufficient to bear him out in passing such a sentence.

A person cannot be a witness to that which he merely believes. God requires mankind, or certain individuals among mankind, to be wit– nesses for him—witnesses of his existence—so that they can bear testimony to others. It is important and necessary that they should have a knowledge of the things whereof this testimony is given; hence, in some few cases among the inhabitants of our globe, there have been men raised up to whom there has been a knowledge imparted almost immediately, and they knew, most perfectly, concerning the things which they were to communicate to their fellow beings. They were true witnesses, and on their evidence and testimony the world have been condemned, and will be judged in the great judgment day. For instance, the Lord our God has revealed a system or plan of salvation to the human family, requiring all men to repent of their sins, turn away from everything that is evil, reform their lives, and to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, who died to atone for the sins of mankind; to believe in his Father as the great Supreme Being, the Creator of all things; to believe in that which God has ordained, pertaining to the Gospel, that is intended for the salvation of mankind, such as the ordinances of baptism, and confirmation by the laying on of hands, and the administration of the Lord’s Supper. All these are principles and ordinances which God has revealed to the children of men, making known to certain individuals that these are divine, and commanding them to go and bear testimony thereof unto others. Now, when a man stands up before an audience and says, with all boldness and with all humility, that God exists, the question might arise—“How do you know that he exists?” In reply, he says to his audience, “He exists because the Bible speaks of it, the works of Nature declare that there must be a Supreme Being, the wisdom that is manifested in the works of creation show forth his attributes—his goodness, his wisdom, and the adaptation of the various principles in nature to other principles, show that there must have been an all-wise Designer.” “But,” inquires an individual, of the speaker, “do you know anything about this being of whom you say the works of nature declare his attributes, and can you tell us whether he is a personal being, or a widely diffused spirit that exists throughout all nature?” If he cannot bear any other testimony than this, merely referring to the Bible or the works of Nature, his hearers can say, “We have the same evidence ourselves, and your testimony is no better than ours.” But if he stands forth as a servant of the Most High God, and declares that he knows God exists, because he has received a revelation to that effect, God has spoken to him, and his eyes have been opened to behold his person and his glory, and that he has heard his voice, then that man’s testimony is greater than the testimony of those who depend merely upon what God has said in past ages, written in the Bible, and greater than that which arises from beholding the beauty, glory, simplicity and wisdom that characterize the works of Nature. Such a testimony, as I have named, where a person can bear testimony to what his eyes have seen, and to what his ears have heard, concerning the Almighty, to what God has revealed to him, will condemn the world. Persons may pretend to be God’s witnesses, and preach fifty, sixty, or four score years in the ears of the people; but if they have never received this testimony, their evidence will be of no effect in the day of judgment. I have heard, in the course of my life, a great many Christian ministers of different deno– minations, many of them no doubt sincere, say to their congregations, “I will be a swift witness against you in the day of judgment.” Ask these Christian ministers, “Have you ever received a revelation from God yourself?” “Oh no.” “Has God ever spoken to you?” “Oh no.” “Have you ever had a heavenly vision?” “Oh no.” “Has the Holy Ghost given you a new revelation?” “Not at all.” “When did God last speak to the human family?” Says the Christian minister, “He has said nothing for about eighteen hundred years; the last he said or spoke to the human family is recorded in the New Testament.” Such a minister might preach all the days of his life, and so far as his evidence or testimony is concerned, it would not condemn a solitary individual. Such men are not witnesses for God. He never sent them, he never spoke to or revealed anything through them; they have never seen his face or heard his voice, consequently they know no more about him than the people in the congregation to whom they are speaking. When, therefore, we speak, in the language of our text, that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established;” when these witnesses are divine witnesses, sent forth to bear testimony of divine things, they must have a knowledge of those things; not merely a faith, not a speculative idea or opinion, but they must know, just as well as they know concerning their own existence, of the things about which they speak, and of which they bear testimony to the people. Then in the great judgment day God will say to that people, “Did I not declare my words unto you by my messengers whom I sent unto you, to whom I revealed myself, and who had a knowledge of the things they bore testi– mony of?” And that will condemn the people.

In order to apply this to one particular subject, which now occurs to my mind, I will take the Book of Mormon, for instance. This book professes to be a divine revelation; it professes to be the writings of a succession of ancient Prophets, the same as the Bible contains the revelations and writings given in different ages to inspired men; and while the Bible contains the writings of inspired men who lived on the eastern hemisphere, the Book of Mormon professes to be the writings of inspired men who lived in ancient times on the western hemisphere. One is called, if we may so speak, the Bible of the East; the other may be termed, with great propriety, the Bible of the West, both of them being of the highest antiquity.

Now, if these books are divine, what evidence is necessary to convince us of that fact? If the Book of Mormon is really a divine revelation, containing the writings of ancient Prophets who dwelt on this American continent before and after Christ, it is important that every man and woman in the four quarters of the earth should understand this; for if it be the word of the Lord, we shall be judged out of the Book of Mormon as much as out of the eastern Bible. If it be not a divine record and not the word of the Lord, it is absolutely necessary that we should know it, in order that we may reject it, and reject it understandingly. Take it either way, then, whether it is or is not a revelation from God, it is equally important that we should know it.

Now what evidence have we that the Book of Mormon is a divine revelation? I will bring forth some evidence upon this subject. Before this book was permitted to be presented to the inhabitants of the earth, the Lord raised up witnesses. Before it was printed, in the year 1829, three witnesses were raised up to bear testimony to it. Now, how could these witnesses get a knowledge that this book was divine? Were they merely told that it was so by the Prophet Joseph Smith, who translated the book from the metallic plates that were taken out of a certain hill in the State of New York? Was this all the information they had before they commenced bearing testimony to the world of the divinity of the book? If this was all, then all who knew Joseph Smith might be witnesses. But we are told in the forepart of the book the nature of their evidence and testimony. We are told that David Whitmer, Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery, in the year 1829, before this book was published, saw an angel of God come down from heaven, and take the plates from which it was translated, and he exhibited them before the eyes of these three men, turning them over leaf after leaf. They saw the angel descend; they saw his glorious personage; they beheld the light and glory of his countenance; they saw the plates in his hands, and they saw the engravings upon the pages of these plates. While the angel was doing this before them, they heard a voice in the heavens, declaring unto them that the plates had been translated correctly, and commanding them to bear testimony of it to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people to whom this work should be sent. They accordingly have prefixed their testimony to this book, which those who obtain the book can read at their leisure; we have not time on this occasion to read it.

What greater testimony concerning the ministering of angels has any person ever given to the human fa– mily, than the one I have named? We read about angels ministering in ancient times on various occasions, and for certain purposes—sometimes appearing in great glory, and sometimes withholding their glory. Hence it is written by one of the Apostles—“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for some, in so doing, have entertained angels unawares,” showing that angels have sometimes withheld their glory, and appeared like common men, and that they have been entertained as such. In other instances their glory was exhibited before those to whom they revealed themselves, and they bore testimony to the things they heard from the mouths of their divine visitants.

A question arises here, Is there any testimony in the Old or New Testament any more worthy of being received than that of these three modern witnesses? Do angels live at the present day as they did in ancient times? Everyone will say that they still live. Are they the messengers of the Most High now as they were in ancient times? Yes. Says one, “We suppose they are subject to the command of God now as they were in ancient times. Is there anything in the Bible that indicates that a period or day would come when the ministration of angels would no longer be necessary? No, not one syllable in all the Bible that indicates any such thing. To the contrary, we find that the Apostle Paul, in speaking of angels, says—“Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation?” Now, if there be any heirs of salvation on the earth in the 19th century, why not those ministering spirits be sent forth to minister for them? And if sent forth, why should they withhold their glory and their personal presence from those to whom they administer? Why not reveal themselves as they did in ancient times, personally and bodily, so that the eye of the individual to whom they administer may behold them? We can see nothing whatsoever that indicates, in the least degree, that these privileges are to be withheld from the children of men. Many, at the present period, believe the testimony recorded in the Scriptures concerning the ancient ministrations of beings called angels. They know not why they believe this, only because it is popular, and it is recorded in the Bible that they did appear. Ask these persons if they believe in the ministration of angels at the present time and they will tell you “no.” They cannot give you any reason why they disbelieve in their ministration now, only it is unpopular. It is popular to believe in the ministration of angels, anciently, but unpopular to believe in such a thing in modern times, consequently people go along with the popular mind and believe in former-day administrations of those heavenly messengers, but latter-day administrations of the same nature they reject.

If persons raised up in ancient times had a knowledge, by the ministration of angels, concerning the message which they communicated to the human family, and their testimony condemned the generation to whom they were sent, I ask, will not the same knowledge, communicated in the same manner, in our day, condemn this generation, inasmuch as the message is not received? Judge this for yourselves.

When the Book of Mormon was printed, early in the year 1830, with these witnesses’ names attached to it and presented to the human family, they had the testimony, not only of these three witnesses, but also the testimony of Joseph Smith, the translator, to the ministration of angels, and concerning the existence of these plates. Here then was the mouth of four witnesses, at least, that God gave to this generation. Besides these four, we have it recorded here that eight other men, men with whom I am, or was, well acquainted, some of them are now dead. Eight other persons besides these four, knew of the existence of the metallic plates, from which the Book of Mormon was translated. Their testimony is also prefixed to this work, their names given. They testify that they saw these plates, that they handled them with their own hands, that they saw the engravings upon the plates; that they took them in their hands, and that they knew of a surety of the existence of those plates. They did not bear testimony that they had seen an angel, but they bore testimony to that which they did know, namely, the existence of the plates, that Joseph Smith, the translator, was the person who exhibited the plates to them, and that the characters or letters contained upon the plates had the appearance of ancient work and of curious workmanship, and they bear their testimony in the most positive manner to this thing, declaring in the closing sentence that they bear testimony of these things, and “we lie not, God bearing witness of it.” Here then is the testimony of twelve witnesses, four of whom saw an angel of God. Is not this sufficient to justify the children of men in having faith in the Book of Mormon? Faith is not a knowledge, but faith is the evidence of things not seen. Now, I may not have seen the plates, you may not have seen the plates, but we have the evidence or testimony of things not seen, by a great number of witnesses who did see them.

“But,” says one, “suppose that these witnesses were interested persons, and they wished to combine together to deceive the children of men.” The same supposition might be made concerning ancient witnesses, the Twelve Apostles for instance. They were chosen by the Lord to bear testimony of the Gospel unto all nations, and, with the exception of Judas, there was not a disinterested person among them, not even the one appointed to fill the place of Judas; and these men bore testimony to the most important truths that were ever revealed to the human family. They did this with a perfect knowledge. The infidel world will say they were interested witnesses, just the same as the world say concerning the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. I would not give much for a witness who was not interested; I would not give much for the testimony of an individual who would come and say, “I have seen an angel from God, but yet I am not interested in anything that he said to me.” No, let that man who receives a communication from the Almighty, and who knows of a surety of the things that he brings forth and bears testimony of to the world, let him be interested in his testimony and show to the world by his works that he is an interested witness.

Says one, “We have some disinterested witnesses with regard to the truth of the Bible.” I deny it, you have not one. You have eight writers in the New Testament, but were they not all interested witnesses? Yes. “But,” says one, “were there not a great many not connected with the ancient Church who saw the miracles of Jesus?” If they did, we have not their testimony, not one. We find it recorded in the Acts of the Apostles that when Peter and John healed the lame man who sat at the beautiful gate of the Temple, there was a great multitude around about who saw this miracle, but have you the testimony and evidence of anyone of that multitude? No, you have not, no such evidence or testimony has been handed down to our day. But we have the testimony of the writer of the Acts of the Apostles that such was the case. He says so, and we have to believe it on his testimony. So in regard to the five hundred who saw Jesus after his resurrection. Paul declares that he was seen of five hundred of the brethren at once. But has one of those five hundred brethren handed down his testimony to the 19th century? Not one: it all depends upon the testimony of one writer. That writer says that five hundred men saw Jesus after his resurrection. So in regard to all the miracles that are recorded, said to be wrought by our Lord and Savior; so in regard to all the miracles, wrought after his ascension into heaven, by his servants and those who believed in his name. We have only the testimony of eight witnesses for the truth of the New Testament, and they were all interested.

Again. We know that there have been persons who have combined together to deceive their fellow men, and how are we to know whether these witnesses to the Book of Mormon were men of that class, or whether they were really witnesses of the things of God? We cannot know it at first; it is impossible for you and me to know that fact, unless we obtain our knowledge from heaven. We can believe it, or their testimony, but we cannot know it, or their testimony. Now the way I would do, if I were an outsider and really desired to know whether the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation or not, I should examine the nature of this evidence which I have referred to, and then I should examine the contents of the book. If I found the book contradictory in its history, prophecies or doctrines, I should set down these twelve witnesses, whose names are prefixed to the book, as impostors; but if, after a careful perusal of this book, I found no contradictions or inconsistencies in the prophecies interspersed through its different parts, if I found that the doctrine was plain and simple and easy to be understood, and not contradictory, then the next thing with me would be to compare these prophecies with those in the Bible, and the doctrines of the Book of Mormon with those of Jesus and his Apostles. If I found no contradictions between the two records, but that the same Gospel is taught in both, and that both contain the same great chain of prophecy in regard to the events of the latter days, only more fully exemplified and illustrated, perhaps in different language, in the Book of Mormon from what it is in the Bible, I should have no evidence whatever to condemn the book, or the witnesses contained in it.

Furthermore, if I found certain promises in the Book of Mormon, to the effect that all persons, in all the world, who would receive it, and the message that God has sent forth by the administration of his servants, and would repent of their sins, and be baptized by immersion for the remission of their sins, and have hands laid upon them in confirmation, should receive the Holy Ghost; inasmuch as I could find no testimony against the book, but all these things in favor of it, if I should repent of my sins, there would certainly be no harm in it. If I should reform my life from every evil, according to the requirements of the book, there would be no harm in that; if I should go forth and be baptized, by those having authority, for the remission of sins, I see no harm in that. If I should have hands laid upon my head, by those messengers, for the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, I should see no harm in this outward performance. If I did not receive the forgiveness of my sins, and did not receive the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, I should think there was no divinity in the book, or else that there was some fault on my part, one or the other. And if I examined myself and found that I had sincerely repented of my sins, that I had lacked nothing on my part, and did really receive the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, as they did in ancient days, then I should have a testimony for myself, independently of these twelve witnesses, and independently of the correctness of the doctrine contained in the book, as compared with the Bible: independently of these external evidences, I should have a testimony from God myself, by the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, that the book was true.

“But,” inquires one, “how are we to know when we receive the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost?” I think that every person may know this, for there are certain manifestations that accompany the Holy Ghost, that are of such a nature that they cannot be mistaken. I will mention some of them. I do not mean those manifestations we sometimes hear of under the name of “spirit rappers,” “table turners,” “writing mediums,” &c., but I mean those genuine, real manifestations, as recorded in the Bible. To one is given, says Paul to the Corinthians, the word of Wisdom by the Spirit, to another is given the word of Knowledge by the Spirit, to another is given the discerning of spirits by the same Spirit; to another is given the working of miracles, to another is given the gift of prophecy, to another is given the healing of the sick, speaking with tongues, the interpretation of tongues, &c. All these come by the selfsame Spirit, being given to every man, not to one or two, not merely to the witnesses, but to every man in the Church, according as the Spirit will.

Now then, if I receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, or if my brethren receive it, I should expect that we would receive the manifestations of these gifts, one receiving one gift and another another, according to the Bible pattern. If we did not receive these gifts, then we might doubt that we had received the Holy Spirit. We are commanded in the Scriptures to try the spirits, for there are many spirits who are gone abroad into the world who are false spirits. Try them: by what rule? Try them by the written word, and see if we have the gifts as recorded in the New Testament. If we have them, we may be assured that the Holy Ghost has been given to us. For instance, if a person receives the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, and the heavens are opened to him he is not mistaken. If the Lord inspires him to lay hands upon a sick child or a sick person, and he commands the disease to be removed, he knows that God is with him, and that he hearkens to the supplications and prayers which he offers in the name of Jesus in behalf of the sick. If a person has the vision of his mind opened to behold the future and to know that which will shortly come to pass, and he sees these things fulfilled, from time to time, he has every reason to believe that he has really received the Holy Ghost. So in regard to speaking in tongues. If an illiterate, uneducated man, who never understood any language but his mother tongue, is inspired at the very moment to rise and testify in an unknown tongue and to proclaim the wonderful works of God, he knows whether his tongue has been used by a supernatural power, or whether it is merely gibberish out of his own heart. He knows it very well for himself; and so we might continue throughout all the gifts mentioned in the Bible. If he beholds angels, and they descend before him in their glory, and he hears the sound of their voices, beholds the light of their countenances and the glory that radiates from their personages, he knows for himself, consequently this constitutes him a witness as well as those who proclaimed this Gospel before him.

I will ask the Latter-day Saints—those now sitting before me throughout this large audience, how did you know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God when you dwelt in England and had never seen the man? How did you know in Sweden, in Denmark, in Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Australia and in the various parts of the earth from which you emigrated? How did you know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God before you crossed the mighty ocean and came to this land? You learned this fact by a knowledge imparted to you by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost in your own native countries. There you have been healed, and have seen the manifestation of the power of God in healing the sick from time to time. There you have had the vision of your minds opened to behold heavenly things. There you have heard the voice of the Almighty speaking to you by revelation and testifying to you of the things of heaven. Many of you have experienced those great and blessed gifts, that are mentioned in the New Testament, before you emigrated to this land. You came here then, not to obtain a knowledge of the truth of this work, but because you already had a knowledge of it, and to be more thoroughly perfected in the ways of God, and to be taught more fully in the things pertaining to eternal life and happiness, than you could be in your own lands. Hence you are not dependent now upon the testimony of two or three witnesses, or upon the twelve witnesses in the Book of Mormon; but we have a vast cloud of witnesses raised up among all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and people to whom this work has been sent. They are flocking from the ends of the earth to these mountains, as doves to the windows, all bearing the same testimony—that God has spoken and that the Book of Mormon is true, for the Lord has revealed it to them. Moreover, in the early rise of this Church, the Lord said to his servants—“Go forth and bear testimony to the Book of Mormon and the doctrines contained therein, and I will back up your testimony by signs, by the gifts,” etc. Supposing this promise had not been fulfilled, would there be any tabernacle in this desert today? Not any at all. Would this desert be inhabited now by a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand people? Not at all. Would there now be a great highway cast up across this continent from ocean to ocean? Not at all. It is because God has confirmed the promise that he made to us in the early rise of this Church, that these great events have been accomplished. No people would have had the fortitude, courage and enterprise to come fourteen hundred miles from civilization, so-called, to these mountain wastes and deserts, to cultivate the land and perform the work that has been wrought by this people, unless they had a knowledge from heaven, concerning the truth of this great work. God fulfilled his promise when he said to his servants—“In the name of Jesus you shall heal the sick, you shall open the eyes of the blind, you shall unstop the ears of the deaf.” It is because of the fulfillment of this promise, that you have been gathered and accomplished the work that has been wrought out herein this country, and because of this stepping stone between the two great oceans, a halfway house as it were, others have ventured to come into these mountain wilds, and the Territory and regions round about are beginning to be settled. Through these facilities no doubt the railroad has been constructed something like a quarter of a century sooner than it would have been otherwise.

When we contrast the evidence which we have concerning the divinity of the Book of Mormon, with the evidence which this generation have of the Bible, we discern that the Book of Mormon contains a vast amount of evidence, thousands and thousands of witnesses of its divinity to where the Christian world have one of the divinity of the Bible. “How so?” you may inquire. These very Elders and missionaries who have gone to the nations have kept their journals, and have recorded the miracles which God has wrought by their hands. These are living witnesses. Those who saw these miracles are still alive. Now, how many wit– nesses have you that miracles were wrought in the days of our Savior or in the days of his Apostles who succeeded him? You have no person outside the Church only those who, like Josephus, bore their testimony from hearsay. Within the Church you have six witnesses. There are eight writers in the New Testament, but only six of these eight have borne any testimony concerning the performing of miracles, but you believe it on their testimony. The Book of Mormon, I presume, has more than six thousand, if not sixty thousand witnesses to its divinity and to the miracles that have been wrought in these latter days. Which is the greatest? Has anyone you have ever seen at the present day had an angel sent to him, who held up before him the tables on which the law of Moses was written, commanding him to hear testimony to the divinity of that law? No: no one in the Christian world makes any pretension to anything of this kind. Then is not the testimony in favor of the Book of Mormon superior to that which you possess in favor of the law of Moses? Yes. We can show you witnesses, men still living, to whom an angel appeared and told them that the Book of Mormon was a divine record. The Christian world have no such evidence as this in favor of the Bible, and they cannot, by any living witness, substantiate the divinity of the Bible. Moreover, we have another advantage; the Book of Mormon was translated directly from the original. Now, have you, either in the Old or New Testaments, a book that was translated directly from the original? Not one. Is there one that was translated from a secondhand copy even? Not, one. I presume there is not a book compiled in the Bible but what went through many hundreds of transformations before it fell into the hands of King James’ translators. How do you know that these copyists copied correctly? You have no access to the originals. It is true that you have Hebrew Bibles, but they are not originals; they are only copies. They were multiplied, before the art of printing was invented, for many generations, and the copies that were in possession of King James’ translators had perhaps been handed down through a thousand other copies of older date, and how can you be sure that they were correct? We are told by some of our archbishops and learned men, who have spent their whole lives in collecting copies of ancient manuscripts from which to translate the Bible, that they at last despaired of obtaining a correct copy of the work. One archbishop, mentioned in the Encyclopedias, had collected a vast number of copies of the Bible in Hebrew, as ancient as he could possibly get hold of them. But when he came to compare them he found about thirty thousand different readings. Almost every text would read different in one copy from what it would in another. Finally, he gave up the idea of making a translation at all, none of his copies being original; and consequently when the translators of the English Bible performed that work they did it according to the best judgment they had, and they no doubt did it well as far as human wisdom could, under the circumstances. Now, then, the difference between the Bible of the West—the Book of Mormon—and the Bible of the East—the Old and New Testament, is that one was taken directly from the original, the other from a multitude of manuscripts which differed almost in every text. It would seem, then, that when God saw the human family in this great state of uncertainty and darkness with regard to divine revelation, it would be nothing more than consistent to suppose that he would bring forth, by his own power, as he has done, revelation suited and adapted to the circumstances, revelation on which we could depend, being substantiated by witnesses raised up especially to bear testimony thereto, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses or as many as seemed him good, every word might be established, that the children of men might have no excuse in relation to these matters.

We might continue this subject and show you the fulfillment of many of the prophecies in the Book of Mormon. It has been printed now for upwards of forty-three years. During this time very many of the prophecies it contains have been fulfilled; prophecies, too, that no human sagacity could have perceived beforehand. Whoever would have thought that, in this very country of ours, under American institutions, where religious freedom has prevailed from one end of the country to the other; who would have thought, when the Book of Mormon was printed, that the blood of the Saints would cry from the ground of this free American soil, because of their persecutors? And yet it was all foretold in the Book of Mormon. Other sects had risen and multiplied by hundreds on the face of this land, some of whom experienced a little persecution; but who ever heard of their being butchered in cold blood as scores and scores of this people have been since the Book of Mormon was printed? We were told by revelation, forty-three years ago, when this Church was organized, that its members would be persecuted, and hunted from city to city and from synagogue to synagogue, and that the blood of the Saints would cry from the ground for vengeance upon the heads of their murderers. Has it come to pass? It has. We were told in the Book of Mormon, which was printed many years before it came to pass, that, if this nation would not receive this divine message when God should bring it forth in the latter days, he would bring the fullness of his Gospel and his Priesthood from among the nation. We did not know how this would be fulfilled, during the first seventeen years after the book was printed. We could read the prophecy, but how God would ever bring it to pass, we did not know, until the time of its accomplishment had arrived, then it was revealed that this people should flee and leave the nation to whom they had delivered their testimony for many years. When we came here the prophecy was literally fulfilled. Thus we might go on and relate prophecy after prophecy that has been fulfilled in confirmation of the divinity of this latter-day work. The same testimony accompanies the Bible. We believe it to be true because of the prophecies therein that have been fulfilled.

Many other prophecies contained in the Book of Mormon, hereafter to be fulfilled, are as great and marvelous as any that have been fulfilled. One of the prophecies contained in the Book of Mormon, delivered before there was a Latter-day Saint Church in existence, which has been remarkably fulfilled, was that the servants of God should go forth with this book to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and gather out from among those nations a great people. That has been fulfilled, and the inhabitants of this Territory are a witness to the truth of this prediction or prophecy. If Joseph Smith was an impostor, how did he know this work would go beyond his own neighborhood? How did he know it would ever live to be proclaimed to the different parts of the State where it originated, or where the plates were found? How did he know that it would be preached to the inhabitants of this great government, and then cross the waters, to other nations, kindreds, peoples and tongues. Such a prophecy uttered by an impostor, would be very unlikely to come to pass. Yet such a prophecy was uttered; such a prophecy has been fulfilled, and the nations of the earth, as well as the Latter-day Saints, are witnesses to its fulfillment. We have seen this people come forth year after year, crossing the ocean, first in sailing vessels, then in steamers, by hundreds and by thousands, until they are now almost a little nation here in the tops of the mountains. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Erastus Snow, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Sept. 14, 1873.

“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

“And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

“And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

“But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

“For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

“In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;

“And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.”—Micah iv, 1-7.

I have read this Scripture in the hearing of the congregation, believing, as I do, that it is a prophecy having direct reference to the latter times, and to the day and age now ushered in upon the earth. There are many things in the Jewish Scriptures, the fulfillment of which has become a matter of history. There are many other things which have been spoken by the mouth of God through his servants the Prophets, which remain yet to be fulfilled. It is a matter of great importance, to my mind, to be able to discern those things pertaining to the future, which God has revealed, which have yet to come to pass. He revealed, beforehand, to the antediluvian world, the approach of the deluge, and gave them a timely warning, sending his servants amongst them, calling upon them to repent of their sins and to prepare for that which was coming upon the earth. He foretold to Abraham the bondage which his seed would have to endure in the land of Egypt, their final deliverance by the hand of Moses, and their establishment in the promised land of Canaan. Moses, and other Prophets raised up after him, foretold the blessings which, through faith and obedience, should be poured upon Israel, and the scourges and judgments which should fall upon them through unbelief and disobedience. Whoever will read the prophecies of Moses contained in Deuteronomy, from the 28th to the 33rd chapter, will perceive there clearly foreshadowed the great events in the history of the seed of Abraham, from that time until the time of their restoration to their promised inheritance, which is referred to in the chapter from which I have quoted in Micah. All these great events have been the subjects of prophecy, and have been very clearly pointed out, and perhaps by none more plainly and clearly than by Moses himself, while he was the leader of Israel.

The dealings of God with the human family have been the subjects of prophecy and revelation, and more especially with the descendants of Shem, the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and not only the Chosen People, but the nations with which they were identified, and with whom they were more or less connected and allied in a national capacity. All these things have been the subjects of prophecy; but the burden of prophecy, from the beginning of the world down to the present time, seems to center upon our day—the time of the restitution of all things spoken of so frequently by the Prophets of God. By reference to the 3rd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we find that the Apostle Peter, talking to the wondering Jews assembled together gazing upon him and his brother John, at the time he healed the lame man at the beautiful gate of the Temple, and told them concerning Jesus, whom they had crucified, and whom the Father had raised from the dead, of which they were his witnesses, told them that this same Jesus had been taken up into heaven, and would remain at the right hand of God until the time of the restitution of all things spoken of by all the Prophets since the world began. Then he, Jesus, will descend again. From this Scripture we understand that Peter and his brother Apostles comprehended the doctrine of the restitution of all things, and that it should take place in the latter days preparatory to the second advent of the Savior.

This was also a theme for angels as well as prophets. We read in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, that Jesus led his disciples out to the Mount of Olives, and there lifted up his hands and blessed them; and while in the act of giving them their last commission—to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, a cloud overshadowed him, and he ascended from their sight; and as they stood gazing up into heaven after him, two angels stood by them, clothed in white apparel, and they said unto them—“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye thus gazing up into heaven? Behold, this same Jesus, which you now see go up into heaven: shall so come again in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

The time of the restitution of all things has not only been the theme of angels, Prophets and Apostles, but of all Saints whose understandings have been enlightened by the Spirit of revelation from on high. The chapter which I have read from, in Micah, brings it down to the last days, and is perhaps a little more explicit than some other prophecies. It says that “in the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it.” “The mountain of the Lord’s house”—this is a peculiar phrase, and was probably used by the Prophet because it was a common mode of expression in Israel in the days of David and many of the Prophets several hundred years after him, for, in speaking of Mount Moriah, on which the Temple of Solomon was built, they spoke of it as the mountain of the Lord’s house. Moriah is a hill in the city of Jerusalem, on which David located the site of the Temple, and on which his son Solomon built it, and it was called the mountain of the house of the Lord. This Temple suffered spoliation at the hands of the Gentiles, who made inroads on Israel from time to time, but it was repaired and kept intact until the days of the Savior. While he was on the earth he predicted its total destruction, because of the unbelief of the people. He said, Matthew xxiv, 2, the time should come when not one stone of that Temple should be left on another. The Prophet Micah predicted the same in the chapter preceding the one which I have read from. He says—“Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, you that abhor judgment and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us, none evil can come upon us? There– fore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.”

This last prediction has been literally fulfilled. It has become a matter of history that Jerusalem has become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house of the Lord has become as the high places of the forest, and has been ploughed as a field. It is a matter of history that the very site of that wonderful Temple was ploughed as a field, and its destruction was rendered so complete that every foundation stone was raised; and that there might be no vestige of it left, around which the Jews might cling, the Roman Emperor caused that it should be ploughed up as a field, thus literally fulfilling the words of the Prophet and the words of the Savior. This woe and destruction was predicted and overtook that people, and they were eventually scattered, because of their wickedness, and because of the corruptions of their princes, judges and rulers. But it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord through Micah, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. Here is a promise around which the house of Israel may cling, and to which they may fasten their faith, for God will not forever hide his face from his people; but he will make choice of a place or places named, and there he will build his house, and people from all nations will flow unto it.

This mountain of the Lord’s house, which is to be established in the tops of the mountains, seems to be, in the mind of the Prophet, located in a different place from the former house, which was located upon that hill in Jerusalem. This, in the latter days, the Prophet says, “shall be in the tops of the mountains.” Mark the expression, not on the top of a mountain, nor in the tops of the highest mountain, but in the “tops of the mountains”—the plural number is used; in other words, in the midst of the high places of the earth. Not on the borders of the seashore, for the only reason that we speak of mountains on the surface of the earth is because of their elevation above the general level of the ocean.

The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the tops of the mountains in the last days, and people from all nations shall flow unto it. And wherefore? What will be their object and purpose in fleeing from all nations? They will say—“Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths, for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Here we learn the object of the people in fleeing from all nations to the mountain of the Lord’s house: it is that they may learn of his ways and walk in his paths. “The Lord shall judge among many people,” says Micah, “and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. I will assemble her that halteth, gather her that is driven out, her that I have afflicted, even the chosen seed of Abraham, the house of Israel that has been scattered and peeled and driven. I will gather her that was scattered, and her that was cast afar off I will make a strong nation, and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion, from henceforth, even forever.”

Isaiah has used nearly the same language in the second chapter of his prophecies. Ezekiel, in the 37th chapter has used similar language, predicting the time of the restoration of the house of Israel and the gathering together of the people of God, and that the Lord shall reign over them and that a reign of peace shall be established on the earth.

That this and other prophecies of a similar character remain yet to be fulfilled, must appear evident to every reflecting mind, for since these prophecies were delivered there has never been a time in which the nations have beaten their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruninghooks, lived at perfect peace with each other, and walked in the ways of the Lord. But it has been predicted by the Prophets that such a period will arrive. The same thing was also foretold by the Savior, and by the angels who promised his second coming. Mark the object of the gathering—the nations shall say, “Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, for he will teach us of his ways and we will learn to walk in his paths.” How will this be brought about? Because the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. How can this be unless God shall begin to reveal himself to his people and minister in their midst as in ancient days, by his own voice, the voice of Prophets, the Spirit of revelation and the ministration of angels?

I am aware that many people of our time attempt to place some mystical and illusive construction upon the prophecies in the Bible, and there is a disposition to ignore the plain and obvious meaning of the declarations of the Prophets, and to give to them some private interpretation. But the Apostle Peter, in the first chapter of his second epistle, in writing to his brethren on this subject, says that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, but holy men of old spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. In order that they might be able to understand these prophecies, the Apostle counseled his brethren to give heed unto them as unto a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arose in their hearts.

It is true that the Prophets have told us of dreams and visions which they have had, and in some instances the Lord has explained or interpreted them, and as such we are to receive them. But where he has not deigned to give the interpretation we must wait until he does, for it does not belong to men to give their own private interpretation thereto. It is written, “Interpretations belong to God,” and where it has pleased him to interpret, it behooves us to accept it, and where it has not pleased him to do so it becomes us to wait until he does, and not attempt to obtrude upon mankind our private interpretation of what God has revealed. Where plain predictions are uttered, we are to receive them as we would the writings of any other author—according to the plain and obvious meaning of the language.

How then, I ask, can these prophecies be fulfilled, in the last days, except God shall again speak from heaven? Where shall the mountain of the Lord’s house be established in the tops of the mountains, except God shall make manifest where he will build his house and establish his Zion in the last days? How shall the law go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem in the last days, inducing people to flow unto it from all na– tions, unless God shall speak again from heaven, as he did in ancient days?

As Latter-day Saints we accept the words of the ancient Prophets and believe that they will be fulfilled literally. Has Jerusalem become a heap of ruins literally? Were the seed of Abraham in bondage and oppressed by the Egyptians literally? Were they delivered and brought out of that land with a high hand and with great power literally? Did God bring them literally into the land of Canaan, which he promised to Abraham? Have they been broken up and scattered from that land literally? Did the Savior come, born of a virgin, as the Prophets predicted, literally? Did he suffer for our sins and endure all that the Prophets had spoken of him literally? Did his enemies cast lots for his vesture and divide his garments among themselves literally? Were “the shepherd smitten and the sheep scattered” when Jesus was crucified literally? Yes, in all these particulars, history records, with the greatest minutiae, the literal fulfillment of prophecy. Was the house of the Lord thrown down and the very foundation thereof ploughed as a field, literally? Yes, then what reason have we to expect other than a literal fulfillment of the next part of the same prophecy, which foretells the establishment of the Lord’s house in the tops of the mountains, the gathering of people from all nations thereunto, that the Lord will rebuke strong nations afar off, and that the nations will beat their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruninghooks, that they will live at peace and learn war no more, and the Lord will reign over them, from henceforth, even forever?

Such a mighty revolution as is here indicated by the Prophet can never be effected upon the earth without the voice of God, without Prophets and Apostles, and the power of the Holy Ghost working mightily among the sons of men; and when that period arrives it will be the one referred to by the Prophet Joel, who says—“It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and then your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and upon my servants and handmaidens will I pour out my spirit in those days, saith God.” Thus will Moses realize the wish that he expressed at the time God took the spirit that was upon him and placed it upon the seventy Elders of Israel and they all began to prophesy. When two of these seventy who remained in the congregation felt the same spirit resting upon them and began to prophesy, Moses’ servant came running to him at the tabernacle and said—“Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp, my lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said unto him, “Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them.”

Joel predicts the coming of a time when the Lord’s people will all become Prophets, even the servants and handmaids will receive the Spirit and they will prophesy. Jeremiah speaks of a similar time, but he uses a little different language. He says—“I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and then no one shall say unto his neighbor, Know ye the Lord, for all shall know him, from the least unto the greatest, and they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” Here the Prophet Jeremiah predicts, as does Micah, a time when the Lord shall bring again Zion, and says that when he brings again Zion they shall see eye to eye and they shall no more use the proverb that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge, but every man shall die for his own iniquity, and the teeth of him that eateth sour grapes shall be set on edge, and every man will have the opportunity of knowing the Lord, learning his ways, and walking in his paths.

Are we to understand by these sayings of Scripture, that God will pour out the Holy Ghost upon the ungodly, the workers of iniquity—murderers, sorcerers, whoremongers, adulterers, false swearers, deceivers and liars? I do not so understand the Prophets, the Savior and his Apostles. I understand in the language of the Apostle, that the Holy Ghost dwelleth not in unholy Temples; and that if his Spirit is poured out upon the people so generally, it will be because their hearts are prepared to receive it, because their ears have been opened to the word of God, and faith has been begotten in them. They have listened to the call of the Almighty, and have received the message of salvation sent unto them.

But shall all people be thus converted unto the Lord? Shall the king upon the throne, the judges who have judged for reward, the Prophets who have divined for money, the priests who have taught for hire, the murderer, the idolater, the abominable, those who have oppressed and ruled mankind with a rod of iron, who have said to the souls of men, “Bow down, that we may walk over you?” Shall all these be converted unto the Lord of hosts and receive of these blessings? Would to God that it were possible! But the Prophets have not so pre– dicted. They and the Savior and the Apostles have all predicted that “he will punish the kings of the earth upon the earth, and the hosts of high ones that are on high, and they shall be gathered together into the pit.” They have predicted that judgments shall fall fast upon the ungodly who will not repent, and they shall be cut off and shall perish out of the land; and sore and terrible judgments shall come upon the nations who repent not, and who will not listen to the voice of God.

Malachi, in his last chapter, says, “But the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and the proud and they who do wickedly shall be stubble. The day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you who fear my name, saith the Lord, shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall, and shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I do this, saith the Lord of hosts.”

Thus we learn, my friends, that the warning voice of God will go forth among the nations, and he will warn them by his servants; and by thunder, by lightning, by earthquake, by great hailstorms and by devouring fire; by the voice of judgment and by the voice of mercy; by the voice of angels and by the voice of his servants the Prophets; he will warn them by gathering out the righteous from among the wicked, and those who will not heed these warnings will be visited with sore judgments until the earth is swept as with the besom of destruction; and those who remain, in all the nations, tongues and kingdoms of the world, will heed the voice of warning and will accept the salvation sent unto them by the Lord through his servants. The law of the Lord will go forth to all such from Zion, and judges will go forth among them from Zion; and all who are willing will be taught the ways of the Lord, and they will be baptized for the remission of their sins and they will receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands of the servants of God. Great and glorious will be that day. The old men will dream dreams, the young men will see visions, and even the servants and handmaids will prophesy, and out of the mouths of babes and sucklings will the Lord perfect his praise.

We are not the only people who believe in these things, and look forward with anxious expectation for the glorious reign of righteousness and peace upon the earth. It has been the faith and the hope of all the righteous upon the earth, the theme of their prophecies and of the songs of the inspired songsters of Israel. It is the hope of these things, and the faith which is begotten in our hearts, that the Lord has set his hand a second time to recover the remnants of the house of Israel, and to fulfill the glorious things which he has foretold through the mouths of his Prophets, that has brought us together in these mountains. It was the faith and hope that induced the pioneers, twenty-six years ago, to face the savages and to penetrate through a trackless, howling desert. To make the roads through the mountains, to bridge the streams, and to endure all the perils of establishing the people of Zion in the Rocky Mountains, when there were no human beings but the untutored savage for a thousand miles or more from them, when it was a thousand miles on the west, a thousand on the north, a thousand to the south, and thirteen hundred to the east to the nearest settlement. It was this faith in the latter-day work, the assurance we had received that God had spoken from the heavens, which prompted us to this great work. It was because God had spoken from the heavens by his own voice to his servant Joseph Smith, by the voice of his Son, and by the voice of angels, calling his people to gather from the nations into the heart of the mountains, that we are here today. I can place my eyes upon many in this congregation, and I know of many more throughout this Territory, who heard these things from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

When the pioneers left the confines of civilization, we were not seeking a country on the Pacific Coast, neither a country to the north or south; we were seeking a country which had been pointed out by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, in the interior of the great North American continent. When the leader of that noble band of pioneers set out with his little company from the Missouri River, they went, as did Abram, when he left his father’s house—knowing not whither he went—only God had said, Go out from your father’s house unto a land which I will show you. That band of pioneers went out, not knowing whither they went, only they knew that God had commanded them to go into a land which he would show them. And whenever the Prophet Brigham Young, the leader of that band of pioneers, was asked the question—“Whither goest thou?” the only answer he could give was—“I will show you when we come to it.“ The prayers of that band of pioneers, offered up day and night, continually unto God, was to lead us, as he had promised, unto a land which, by the mouth of his servant Joseph, he had declared he would give us for an inheritance. Said the Prophet Brigham—“I have seen it, I have seen it, in vision, and when my natural eyes behold it, I shall know it.” They, therefore, like Abram of old, journeying by faith, knowing not whither they went, only they knew that God had called them to go out from among their brethren, who had hated, despised and persecuted them, and driven them from their possessions, and would not that they should dwell among them. And when they reached this land the Prophet Brigham said—“This is the place where I, in vision, saw the ark of the Lord resting; this is the place whereon we will plant the soles of our feet, and where the Lord will place his name amongst his people.” And he said to that band of pioneers—“Organize your exploring parties, one to go south, another north, and another to go to the west, and search out the land, in the length and the breadth thereof, learn the facilities for settlement, for grazing, water, timber, soil and climate, that we may be able to report to our brethren when we return;” and when the parties were organized, said he unto them—“You will find many excellent places for settlement. On every hand in these mountains are locations where the people of God may dwell, but when you return from the south, west and north to this place, you will say with me, ‘this is the place which the Lord has chosen for us to commence our settlements, and from this place we shall spread abroad and possess the land.’”

It is this faith which has brought the multitude who have followed to this land, year after year, from then until the present time. This is the work and the mission that is upon the Latter-day Saints. “Come out of Babylon, O my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues. Gather yourselves into the midst of the mountains, where the Lord will establish his house and place his name, and teach you his ways, and where you will learn to walk in his paths.” We are not called to be of the world, to partake of the spirit and follow after the fashions of the world, the lusts of the eye and the pride of life. We are not called to set our hearts upon the world and the things thereof—upon the gold, upon the silver in the mountains, upon the precious things that are in the earth, the cattle upon a thousand hills, nor upon houses or lands, or aught else that pertains to the earth. We are called to set our hearts upon the living God, who has called us to be his people, and to worship him with full purpose of heart. If he gives us houses and lands, goods and chattels, gold and silver and the precious things of the earth, receive them with thanksgiving, and hallow and sanctify them and dedicate and consecrate them to the building up of Zion, the house of our God, the gathering together of his Saints, the preaching of his Gospel to the ends of the earth, and the accomplishment of the great work, whereunto God has called us in the latter days.

Blessed are all those who remember the high calling of God whereunto they are called. Blessed are those who seek to learn the ways of the Lord and walk in his paths. Blessed are those who seek to magnify the high calling of God which is upon them as Elders of Israel, to bear witness of the truth, and exemplify it in their lives and conduct; who deal justly, love mercy, walk humbly before their God, visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and keep themselves unspotted from the world. Blessed are all such of the sons and daughters of Zion, for they shall prosper and their children after them. They shall become saviors upon Mount Zion, and they shall be found worthy to stand when he appears, and their names and their generations after them shall be had in honorable remembrance in the Temples of the Lord our God. But woe unto the hypocrites in Zion, and to the proud and haughty, and those who love the world, set their hearts upon it, and worship houses and lands, gold and silver, goods and chattels and the things of this world! Woe unto those who refuse to tithe themselves and thus to sanctify unto the Lord this land, which he has given them for an inheritance! Woe unto those who pollute the land of Zion by their whoredoms, murders, thefts and working of iniquity, who refuse to consecrate of their substance unto the God of the whole earth, and to render to him the tenth which he requires as the interest of their stewardship!

May the peace of God rest upon the righteous! May the ignorant come to understanding! May the foolish learn wisdom! May the power of God rest upon those who have assumed the high callings of ministers and judges in Israel! May grace abound unto all the Israel of God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.