Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered at the General Conference, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Monday Morning, April 7, 1873.

There are a few minutes to spare, and I wish to lay some matters before you. I will say, first, that the Lord Almighty has not the least objection in the world to our entering into the Order of Enoch. I will stand between the people and all harm in this. He has not the least objection to any man, every man, all mankind on the face of the earth turning from evil and loving and serving him with all their hearts. With regard to all those orders that the Lord has re– vealed, it depends upon the will and doings of the people, and we are at liberty, from this Conference, to go and build up a settlement, or we can join ourselves together in this city, do it legally—according to the laws of the land—and enter into covenant with each other by a firm agreement that we will live as a family, that we will put our property into the hands of a committee of trustees, who shall dictate the affairs of this society. If any man can bring up anything to prove to the contrary I am willing to hear it. But no man can do it.

Brother Pratt has told you, in his explanations this morning, what the Lord has revealed and how he has been merciful to the people; and when we have not been willing to be Latter-day Saints altogether, but only in part, he has said, “Well, you are the best there is, and I will accept of you. I cannot get anybody else who is willing to be part Saints, and I will lead you, my people, as long as you will let me, and I will forgive you your sins this time, and I will accept part of your property if you will not give it all,” etc., all showing the kindness and forbearance of our Father in heaven; but he has not the least objection in the world to our being perfect Saints.

I have a few things to lay before the Conference, one of which is—and I think my brethren will agree with me that this is wise and practicable—for from one to five thousand of our young and middle-aged men to turn their attention to the study of law. I would not speak lightly in the least of law, we are sustained by it; but what is called the practice of law is not always the administration of justice, and would not be so considered in many courts. How many lawyers are there who spend their time from morning till night in thinking and planning how they can get up a lawsuit against this or that man, and get his property into their possession? Men of this class are land sharks, and they are no better than highway robbers, for their practice is to deceive and take advantage of all they can. I do not say that this is the law, but this is the practice of some of its professors. The effort of such lawyers, if they are paid well, is to clear and turn loose on society the thief, perjurer and murderer. They say to the dis– honest and those who are disposed to do evil, “Go and lay claim to your neighbor’s property, or to that which is not your own, or commit some other act of injustice, and pay us, and we will clear you and make your claim appear just in the eye of the law;” and officers and judges too often join in the unrighteous crusades for the lawyers to wrong the just. I have been in courts and have heard lawyers quote laws that had been repealed for years, and the judge was so ignorant that he did not know it, and the lawyer would make him give a decision according to laws which no longer existed. Now, I request our brethren to go and study law, so that when they meet any of this kind of lawyers they will be able to thwart their vile plans. I do not by any means say these things of all lawyers for we have good and just men who are lawyers, and we would like to have a great many more. You go to one of the pettifogging class of lawyers, and get him to write a deed for you, and he will do it so that it can be picked to pieces by other lawyers. Employ such a man to write a deed, bond, mortgage or any instrument of writing, and his study will be to do it so that it will confound itself. This is the way that such men make business for their class. We want from one to five thousand of our brethren to go and study law.

If I could get my own feelings answered I would have law in our school books, and have our youth study law at school. Then lead their minds to study the decisions and counsels of the just and the wise, and not forever be studying how to get the advantage of their neighbor. This is wisdom.

My mind is so led upon the subject brother Pratt has been speaking upon with regard to the orders that God has revealed that I can hardly let it alone when I am talking to the people. He said there are many rich men who are willing to do anything that the Lord requires of them. I believe this, and there is quite a number of poor men, likewise, who would like to do anything if they could only know that it was the will of the Lord. I am about to make an application of my remarks with regard to the willingness of men. But in this I shall except brother Pratt, for the simple reason that I do not know a man who is more willing to do what he is told than he is. If he is told to teach mathematics, he is willing to do it; if he is told to make books, preach the Gospel, work in a garden or tend cattle, he is willing to do it, and I know of no man more willing to do anything and everything required of him than he is. But I want to say to our willing, kind, good brethren that, so far as obeying the orders which God has revealed, I can bring the rich into line quicker than I can get many poor men who are not worth a dollar, and who do not know how to raise a breakfast tomorrow morning. I have tried both, and know. Who is there among us who came here rich? It was alluded to by brother Pratt. Look over our rich men, where are they? Who is there among the Latter-day Saints that is wealthy? When I came to this valley I was a thousand dollars in debt. I left everything. I think I got about three hundred dollars, a span of horses, and a little carriage, for all my property I left in Nauvoo. But I bought cattle, horses and wagons, and traded and borrowed and got the poor here by scores myself; and I have paid for these teams since I have been here.

When I got here I was in debt only about a thousand dollars for myself and family to a merchant in Winter Quarters, but I was in debt for others, and I have paid the last dime that I know anything about. When I reached here I could not pay one-tenth—I could not pay my surplus—I could not give my all—for I had nothing.

Here is Horace S. Eldredge, he is one of our wealthy men. What did he have when he came here? Nothing that I know of, except just enough to get here with his family. William Jennings has been called a millionaire. What was he worth when be came here? He had comparatively little. Now he is one of our wealthy men. William H. Hooper is another of our wealthy men. He is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. How much had he to pay as surplus when he came here. He could pay no surplus, for he was worth nothing; but he is now wealthy. If he had gone to California I believe he would have been poor today.

There is any amount of property, and gold and silver in the earth and on the earth, and the Lord gives to this one and that one—the wicked as well as the righteous—to see what they will do with it, but it all belongs to him. He has handed over a goodly portion to this people, and, through our faith, patience and industry, we have made us good, comfortable homes here, and there are many who are tolerably well off, and if they were in many parts of the world they would be called wealthy. But it is not ours, and all we have to do is to try and find out what the Lord wants us to do with what we have in our possession, and then go and do it. If we step beyond this, or to the right or to the left, we step into an illegitimate train of business. Our legitimate business is to do what the Lord wants us to do with that which he bestows upon us, and dispose of it just as he dictates, whether it is to give all, one-tenth, or the surplus. I was present at the time the revelation came for the brethren to give their surplus property into the hands of the Bishops for the building up of Zion, but I never knew a man yet who had a dollar of surplus property. No matter how much one might have he wanted all he had for himself, for his children, his grandchildren, and so forth.

If we are disposed to enter into covenant one with another, and have an agreement made according to the laws of our land, and we are disposed to put our property into the hands of trustees, and work as we are directed—eat, drink, sleep, ride, walk, talk, study, school our children, our middle-aged and our aged, and learn the arts and sciences, the laws of the Priesthood, the laws of life, anatomy, physic and anything and everything useful upon the earth, the Lord has not the least objection in the world, and would be perfectly willing for us to do it, and I should like, right well, for us to try it. I know how to start such a society, right in this city, and how to make its members rich. I would go to now, and buy out the poorest ward in this city, and then commence with men and women who have not a dollar in the world. Bring them here from England, or any part of the earth, set them down in this ward and put them to work, and in five years we would begin to enter other wards, and we would buy this house and that house, and the next house, and we would add ward to ward until we owned the whole city, every dollar’s worth of property there is in it. We could do this, and let the rich go to California to get gold, and we would buy their property. Would you like to know how to do this? I can tell you in a very few words—never want a thing you cannot get, live within your means, manufacture that which you wear, and raise that which you eat. Raise every calf and lamb; raise the chickens, and have your eggs, make your butter and cheese, and always have a little to spare. The first year we raise a crop, and we have more than we want. We buy nothing, we sell a little. The next year we raise more; we buy nothing, and we sell more. In this way we could pile up the gold and silver and in twenty years a hundred families working like this could buy out their neighbors. I see men who earn four, five, ten or fifteen dollars a day and spend every dime of it. Such men spend their means foolishly, they waste it instead of taking care of it. They do not know what to do with it, and they seem to fear that it will burn their pockets, and they get rid of it. If you get a dollar, sovereign, half-eagle or eagle, and are afraid it will burn your pockets, put it into a safe. It will not burn anything there, and you will not be forced to spend, spend, spend as you do now. See our boys here, why if my boys, by the time they are twenty, have not a horse and carriage to drive of their own, they think they are very badly used, and say, “Well, I do not think father thinks much of me.” A great many things might be said on this subject that I do not want to say.

Brethren, we want you to turn in and study the laws of the Territory of Utah, of this city and other cities, and then the statutes of the United States, and the Constitution of the United States. Then read the decisions of the Supreme Court. I do not mean the self-styled “United States Supreme Court for the Ter– ritory of Utah;” but the United States Supreme Court that sits at Washington—the seat of government. Read up their decisions, and the decisions of the English judges and the laws of England and of other countries, and learn what they know, and then if you draw up a will, deed, mortgage or contract, do not study to deceive the man who pays you for this, but make out a writing or instrument as strong and firm as the hills, that no man can tear to pieces, and do your business honestly and uprightly, in the fear of God and with the love of truth in your heart. The lawyer that will take this course will live and swim, while the poor, miserable, dishonest schemers will sink and go down. We live by law, and I only condemn those among the lawyers who are eternally seeking to take advantage of their neighbors.

Now we will close, and adjourn until 2 o’clock this afternoon.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the General Conference, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7, 1873.

One of the proverbs common among the Saints of God in the dispensation in which we live—the dispensa– tion of the fullness of times, is, “The kingdom of God or nothing.” President Young has been trying to get us to labor to build up the kingdom of God. This kingdom has been given into the hands of the Latter-day Saints to establish on the earth, and unless we labor for its advancement we shall certainly fall short of salvation, for all the salvation there is, whether for Jew, Gentile, Saint or sinner, is in connection with this kingdom.

We have had a great many plain truths presented before this Conference, and if we will observe the counsels that have been given we shall be led to salvation. Every one of the propositions made by President Young has this tendency. It is our duty as Latter-day Saints to sustain the Zion of God on the earth. What he has said to us is true. We have heard it thousands of times. We have been counseled for many years to try to lay a foundation for our own independence in these mountains. It is a well known principle in political economy, that any nation or people that expend more than they produce, or buy from other nations more than they sell in return, will grow poor. We should produce what we use—what we eat and wear, and as for what we drink, why the mountain streams supply that of the purest quality.

There are several items to which I would like to call your attention. President Young has taken the lead in establishing woolen factories in this Territory. Others have assisted in this work, but he has done much more than any other man, and now we have several good mills for the manufacture of cloth and other fabrics owned and run by the Saints in Utah. Still we send many large quantities of wool abroad instead of using it in our own mills, and import goods of outside manufacture instead of making them at home. How long will it be before we are poor, and our Territory drained of all the money we can raise, if we continue this? We should not send our wool to be manufactured in the States, and then pay our money for cloth brought from there here. Where are our wool growers? What are they thinking about when they do this? This is an item which I consider of vital importance to the Latter-day Saints. We should keep our wool at home, and we should manufacture this wool into cloth, and we should buy and pay for that cloth, and support home manufactures. This is a principle which we have neglected in a great degree; but we have got to come to it sometime. We have got either to make ourselves self-sustaining, or we shall have to go without a good many things that we now regard as almost indispensable for our welfare and comfort, for there is not a man who believes in the revelations of God but what believes the day is at hand when there will be trouble among the nations of the earth, when great Babylon will come in remembrance before God, and his judgments will visit the nations. When that day comes, if Zion has food and raiment and the comforts of life she must produce them, and there must be a beginning to these things.

This is the Zion of God, this is the work of God. The servants of God have borne record and testimony to this now for more than forty years, and the Lord has backed up their testimony, fulfilling his word in the events which have transpired in the earth. The Lord says, “I am angry with none except those who acknowledge not my hand in all things.” As a people, we have been obliged to acknowledge the hand of God in our salvation and guidance. Some of the speakers have referred to the drivings and persecutions of the Saints in the past. The Lord says, “Offenses must needs come, but woe to him by whom they come.” If we had not been driven from Jackson, Caldwell and Clay Counties, and from Kirtland and Nauvoo, Utah today would have been a barren desert, there would have been no railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and we should not have fulfilled, I may say, thousands of the revelations of God as we have done. The hand of the Lord has been manifest in all these matters. He has watched this people, and over this work from its foundation until today, and he will continue to do so. But it is certainly true that, as a people, we must heed the counsels of the Lord through his servants, for these counsels, if observed, will secure us salvation, and lead us to prosperity, union and happiness.

President Young, as an instrument in the hands of God, has brought his tens of thousands from the old world who never were worth, I may say, a farthing, who never owned a horse, carriage, wagon, cow, pig or chicken, and hardly had bread enough to keep soul and body together. There are thousands upon thousands now in these valleys of the mountains who were brought here by the donations of the Saints of God, and the mercies of God unto them. They are now settled through this valley for six hundred miles. They have enough to eat, drink and wear, houses and lands of their own, and plenty of this world’s goods to make them comfortable.

Everything that leads to good and to do good is of God, and everything that leads to evil and to do evil is of the wicked one. I will ask, Has not good grown out of the whole work of God from the organization of this Church until today? Has not this Gospel been offered for more than forty years to the nations of the earth in its plainness, truth and simplicity, as it was anciently by Jesus and his Apostles? It has, and thousands who are in this Territory today can bear testimony to its truth. The example is before the world. Zion is like a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. She is a beacon to the nations of the earth. The Saints of God are fulfilling the revelations of God; they are fulfilling the prophecies and sayings of the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets, who spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and no prophecy is of private interpretation. If those holy men of God spoke the word of God, what they said will have its fulfillment, and no power can stay this work.

The set time has come for the Lord to establish his kingdom of which Daniel spoke, that Zion which Isaiah saw and portrayed, and about which he and many other Prophets have left so many sayings in their prophecies. The history of the progress of this Church is before the world. It is the work of God, and not a saying ever made about it by an inspired man, whether in the Bible, Book of Mormon, or in the Doctrine and Covenants, will fail of its fulfillment. No matter whether these words came by the voice of God out of the heavens, by the ministration of angels, or by the voice of the servants of God in the flesh, it is the same; although the heavens and the earth may pass away, they will not go unfulfilled.

This is the foundation upon which the Latter-day Saints labor, and upon which they have labored from the beginning of this Church. Joseph Smith has often been termed an illiterate, unlearned man. He was a farmer’s son, and had very small chance of education. What primer had he to reveal the fullness of the Gospel to the world? None at all, only as he was taught by the administration of angels from heaven, by the voice of God and by the inspiration and power of the Holy Ghost. The principles which have been revealed to the world through him are true as the throne of God. Their influence is already felt in the earth, and will continue to increase until the coming of the Son of Man; and the blood of the Prophets which has been shed in testimony thereof will remain in force upon all the world until the scene is wound up.

What other people on the face of the earth are preparing for Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus Christ is coming to reign on earth. The world may say that he delays his coming until the end of the earth. But they know neither the thoughts nor the ways of the Lord. The Lord will not delay his coming because of their unbelief, and the signs both in heaven and earth indicate that it is near. The fig trees are leafing in sight of all the nations of the earth, and if they had the Spirit of God they could see and understand them.

The Latter-day Saints cannot stand still; we cannot become stereotyped. God has decreed that his Zion must progress. We cannot remain in one groove or position. This kingdom has continued to progress from the beginning, and the little one is now more than a thousand, and it will hasten to become a strong nation, for it is God’s work, and its destiny is in his hands. It becomes us, as Latter-day Saints, to realize these things as they are, and also our position and calling before God. We must build up the Zion and kingdom of God on the earth, or fail in the object of our calling and receiving the Priesthood of God in these latter days. The full set time has come, which the Lord decreed before the foundation of the world—the great dispensation of the last days, and a people must be prepared for the coming of the Son of Man. How can they do it? By being gathered out from Babylon. How often has the question been asked, “Why cannot the Latter-day Saints live abroad in the world and enjoy their religion?” We can hardly enjoy it as we are today—gathered together, the wicked will follow us up; and then we are overwhelmed like a mountain with tradition. But we have gathered together that we may be taught by Prophets, Patriarchs and inspired men, and we are endeavoring, under their instructions, to throw off the trammels with which we and our forefathers have been bound for generations. We are not prepared for the coming of the Son of Man, and if he were to come today we could not endure it. There is no people on the earth prepared for that. But the Lord is laboring with us, he has carried us through a school of experience now for forty years, and we should certainly have been dull scholars if we had not learned some wisdom. The Lord intends that we shall unite ourselves together, and in building up the Zion of God, if we cannot attain to all that is required of us today, we will do what we can, and progress as fast as we can, that the way may be prepared for the fulfillment of the words of the Lord.

Here is the Bible, the record of the Jews, given by the inspiration of the Lord through Moses and the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets. Is it an imposture, and as the infidels say, the work of man? No, it is not in the power of any man who ever breathed the breath of life to make such a book without the inspiration of the Almighty. It is just so with the Book of Mormon—all the ingenuity of all the men under heaven could not compose and present to the world a book like the Book of Mormon. Its principles are divine—they are from God. They could never emanate from the mind of an impostor, or from the mind of a person writing a novel. Why? Because the promises and prophecies it contains are being fulfilled in the sight of all the earth. So with the revelations given through the Prophet Joseph Smith contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—they are being fulfilled.

We, the Latter-day Saints, have this great almighty work laid upon us, and our hearts should not be set upon the things of the world, for if they are we shall forget God and lose sight of his kingdom. The counsels, exhortations and instructions which we receive from the servants of God are just and true. As a people if we will do the will of God we have the power to build up Zion in beauty, power and glory, as the Lord has revealed it through the mouth of the Prophet. It rests with us, the Lord working with us. We are called upon to work with the Lord just as fast as we are prepared to receive the things of his kingdom. But I am satisfied there has got to be a great change with us in many respects before we are prepared for the redemption of Zion and the building up of the New Jerusalem. I believe the only way for us is to get enough of the Spirit of God that we may see and understand our duties and comprehend the will of the Lord.

This is a great day, an important time—a time in which great events await the world—Zion, Babylon, Jew, Gentile, saint and sinner, high and low, rich and poor. Great and important events will follow each other in quick succession before the eyes of this generation. No generation that ever lived on the earth, lived in a more interesting period than the one in which we live; and when we consider that our eternal destiny depends upon the few short years that we spend here, what manner of persons ought we to be? Men spend their lives for what they call wealth or happiness, but they seek not after the way of life, and in a few years they lie down and die and open their eyes in the spirit world, and they will come forth at some time and be judged according to the deeds done in the body.

A great deal has been said with regard to “Mormonism” and the strange people who dwell in these mountains. Many strangers have come to visit this city, thinking that their lives were hardly safe because of the horrid stories they had heard about these terrible “Mormons,” when the fact is, if they had only known it, they were a great deal safer here, than in any of the great cities of the world.

The Lord has been working, and this people have been working, and the object of their labor has been and is to establish the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to spread truth and righteousness. We came here, a few pioneers, on the 24th of July, 1847, and we found a desert. It looked as though no white man could live here. We have to acknowledge the hand of God in all the blessings we have today. This Territory is now filled with cities, towns, villages and gardens. The earth has blossomed like a rose, and the desert has brought forth streams of water from dry places. The Lord has blessed the people, we have to acknowledge his hands in this. This is only a beginning. The world have opposed us from the beginning, even very many honest-hearted men, ignorant of the nature and object of “Mormonism,” have opposed us. If the veil were lifted one minute from the eyes of the world, and they could see the things of eternity as they are, there is not a man living, not excepting our friend brother Newman, or President Grant, or any other man that breathes, who would not bow down before God and pray for Brigham Young and the prosperity of this work. But there is a veil over men’s minds. Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the minds of the nations, and this is to prove whether they will or will not walk in the covenant of the Lord. There are a few who have had sufficient independence of mind and stability of character to obey the celestial law. But how few friends the Almighty and his servants have had in this age of the world? As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. The numbers of the servants of God are few. Let the Lord Almighty send a message to the world now as he did in the days of Noah, Enoch, Lot, Jesus Christ and the Apostles, and few among the nations of the earth would be willing to receive it. In the days of Jesus the High Priests, Sadducees, Essenes, Stoics and every sect and party then known in the Jewish nation cried—“Crucify him! Crucify him!” So it was with Joseph Smith. From the day that he laid the foundation of this work, Priest and people, doctors and lawyers, high and low, rich and poor, with but few exceptions, have been ready to crush it to the earth. Why? Because, ignorant of its character and mission, they have believed that it interfered with their religion. Joseph Smith had to walk in deep water, he had to row uphill or upstream all the days of his life in order to try and plant the Gospel in the midst of the sons of men. A few here and there heard and were disposed to receive that Gospel, and the Spirit of God bore record unto them of its truth, and they went before the Lord and asked him if it was true, and the Lord revealed it unto them and they embraced it. From that day until the present this message has gone to the world. I have preached it to millions of my fellow men, so has President Young, and I may say the same of hundreds of the Elders of this Church; and I do not believe that ever a man, with his ears open, stopped a moment to listen to the testimony of the servants of God about the truth of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith being a Prophet of God, and the restoration of the fullness of the Gospel, but what a measure of the Spirit of God has backed up that testimony to him. When men have rejected these testimonies they have done so against light and truth, and herein is where condemnation rests upon this generation—Light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.

“Mormonism” is not popular, and few, comparatively speaking, have embraced it. Jesus Christ was never popular in his day. The old Patriarchs and Prophets had but few friends, yet they were called and inspired by God, and held in their hands the issues of life and death, the keys of salvation on earth and in heaven. What they bound on earth was bound in heaven. Whosesoever sins they remitted were remitted, and whosesoever sins they retained were retained. Yet the world was ready to destroy them. It is so today. But the unbelief of this generation will not make the truth of God without effect today any more than it did in any other period of the world. Therefore I say to my brethren and sisters, let us try and prepare our minds and hearts by prayer before the Lord, that we may obtain enough of the light of the Spirit, and of the influence of the Holy Ghost, to see and be preserved in the path of life, and when we receive the teachings and counsels of the servants of God, that we may be disposed to treasure them up in our hearts and practice them in our lives.

We shall soon pass away; in a little while we shall be on the other side of the veil. There is no man or woman who has ever lived on the earth and kept the commandments of God who will be ashamed of, or sorry for it, when they go into the presence of God. Our eyes have not seen, our ears have not heard, it has not entered into the heart of man to conceive the joy, glory and blessings which God has in store for his faithful Saints. As President Young told us yesterday, whether men believe or disbelieve, the Lord Almighty has wrought out salvation for the world. We are laboring for this; the Prophets and Patriarchs in days past and gone did the same. In these latter days Saviors have come up on Mount Zion, and they are laboring to save the world—the living and the dead. The Lord requires this at our hands, and if we do not labor to promote this cause and to build it up, we shall be under condemnation before him.

The Gospel is the same today as it was in the days of Jesus Christ. The word to his disciples was—“Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” That is a very plain and simple declaration, yet it involved the destiny of the whole human family. It is just so today. The Gospel has been offered to the world now for over forty years, in its purity, plainness and clearness, according to the ancient order of things, and the Elders of Israel have promised the world that if they would receive their testimony and be baptized for the remission of their sins, they should receive the Holy Ghost. When a man receives the Holy Ghost he has a testimony that cannot deceive him or anybody else. In the days of Moses and Pharaoh the magicians could work as many miracles as Moses, almost; and you may go into our theater here, or any other, and you may see and hear that which will deceive your eyes and ears, and all the senses you have; but get the Holy Ghost and you have a testimony that cannot deceive you. It never deceived any man, and it never will. It is by this power and principle that the Elders of Israel have been sustained from the first day they commenced their labors until today. It was this power which sustained Joseph Smith from his boyhood up, in all his labors until he planted the kingdom of God on the earth to be thrown down no more forever. He lived until he accomplished all that God raised him up to do here in the flesh, then he went to the other side of the veil to fill his place and mission there. His works will follow him there, and he and his brethren will labor for the accomplishment of the purposes of God there, as we are doing here. The Lord raised up President Young to be our leader and lawgiver, and he has been so from the day that Joseph was taken away. His works are before the world and before the heavens; they show for themselves. The tree is known by the fruit it brings forth. The Lord has revealed in this day every key that was ever held by any Patriarch or Prophet from the days of Father Adam, in the Garden of Eden, down to the days of Joseph Smith, that was necessary for the salvation of the sons of men. They have been sealed on the head of Brigham Young and other servants of God, and they will be held on the earth until this scene is wound up. What a glorious thing it is that we, like the ancient Saints, can be baptized for the dead, and thus open the prison doors and set the prisoners free! The Lord is no respecter of persons, and the fifty thousand millions of human beings who are supposed to have lived on the earth from the days the ancient servants of God were put to death, to the restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, never having had the privilege of hearing the Gospel, are not going to remain in the eternal world without the privilege of hearing the Gospel; but they will be preached to by Joseph Smith and the Prophets, Patriarchs and Elders who have received the Priesthood on the earth in these latter days. Many of them will receive their testimony, but somebody must administer for them in the flesh, that they may be judged according to men in the spirit, and have part in the first resurrection, just the same as though they had heard the Gospel in the flesh. The Lord has revealed this to us, and commanded us to attend to this duty, the same as Jesus, while his body was in the grave, preached three days and nights to the spirits in prison who were rebellious during the long-suffering of God in the days of Noah. They lay in prison until Jesus went and preached to them.

This and every other principle which the Elders of this Church preach and teach are from heaven—the Lord has revealed them. They are before the world, and all who hear them will investigate if they are wise. If there is a man on the face of the earth who has got a true principle that we have not, will he please let us have it? As President Young has said many a time, we will change a dozen errors for one truth, and thank God for it. We are after light and truth. We are not afraid of the doctrines of the inhabitants of the earth being presented before us or our children. We have truth, we have been called to present it to the world. We have done it. If they have truths that we have not we would like to obtain them.

I will say by way of conclusion that I thank God for the privilege of attending these Conferences for so many years, and for seeing the increase and progress of his work. Here we meet from every nation under heaven, just as the Prophets said. We have been gathered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I had the privilege, last night and this morning, of meeting with Father Kington, the old patriarch whom I met with over in Herefordshire, England, where, like John the Baptist, he was a forerunner of the Gospel of Christ. Through his administrations the people in that county had been prepared to receive the Gospel, and when we went and preached to them, he and all his flock but one, numbering six hundred, entered into the kingdom, and that opened a door which enabled us to baptize eighteen hundred in about seven months’ labor. I never expected to see him again in this city, but he came to my house last night, and he came to meeting today, and I felt more pride and joy in meeting him than I should if it had been the Emperor of Russia. I thank God that I have the privilege of meeting with the Saints with whom I ate and drank in foreign lands, who have listened to the voices of the Elders of Israel, have received their testimonies, have been baptized for the remission of sins, and received the testimony of the Holy Ghost.

Brethren and sisters, we are in the school of the Saints. Let us progress, and try to improve and set our hearts on the things of God and truth, and carry out and do the work of righteousness for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Discourse by President Orson Hyde, delivered at the General Conference, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Monday Morning, April 7, 1873.

It is very gratifying to my feelings this morning, my brethren and sisters, to have the privilege of meeting with you in the capacity of a General Conference. I have not spoken much in public of late, in consequence of being, for the last six weeks, considerably afflicted, and confined to my room, and a good portion of the time to my bed. I do not feel like entering into any special or particular subject; but I rejoice in the opportunity of mingling and associating with my friends. We are separated for some six months in the year, and when we come toge– ther and meet with our co-laborers, it is joyful to look upon their countenances. I rejoice in this opportunity of meeting with my brethren of the Twelve and the First Presidency, and beholding them mostly in the enjoyment of good health.

We have been endeavoring now, for more than forty years, to establish the kingdom of God and bearing our testimony to the nations of the earth. I, for one, do not know how much longer my voice may be heard among the living, but I rejoice in the opportunity of bearing testimony to the truth whenever strength will permit and opportunity offer. I take occasion to say to my brethren and sisters, this morning, that as the time is drawing near the cause seems more and more precious to me. It is part of myself, and myself, I trust, a part of it. I rejoice in saying that I know this is the everlasting Gospel, the truth of Heaven. Having experienced it for more than forty years, I know it is true and faithful, and no man can impeach my testimony. Not because there is so much sterling worth in me, as there is in the cause that I feebly advocate. It is true I lived in the days of the martyred Prophet. I was associated with him, and bore my testimony with him, and I feel no less like bearing my testimony this morning.

I want to say a few words in relation to the place whence I came, and where I mostly labor. We have had some affliction there, in the shape of small pox. There have been many cases of that disease, but it was of a mild type, and I am happy to say that it has nearly left us, and we are again comparatively free. But we have been afflicted with a disease that is much more to be dreaded than the small pox, and which we have generally called “spotted fever.” The small pox is no more to be compared to that disease than the bite of a flea or mosquito is to the bite of a rattlesnake. There have been about sixteen deaths, mostly children, from spotted fever, and there are some half dozen cases yet remaining, but no new ones. They have lingered for ten or twelve weeks, and they, apparently, can neither live nor die, and are mere skeletons. I feel sorry to see children, who should grow up and develop an intellect and a power equal if not superior to any that now live, thus afflicted; and to see them cut down in the morning of their ex– istence grieves me very much. But the word of the Lord unto us has declared that scourges in the shape of sickness shall be sent forth, beginning first at his house, and from thence they shall spread and make the nations quake.

We are living, my brethren and sisters, in an important period of time, and when I read over the testimony of the martyred Prophet, and the word of the Lord through him, it seems that in comparing the signs of the times at present with his testimony, there would be ample evidence to convince any rational being that God, our heavenly Father, sent him. I read of disasters by sea and by land. I read of a receding from the principles of honesty, and that great men go into wild speculations and dishonesty, and involve the country in ruin unless there be a speedy arresting of their course. The murders that are committed at the present time, show to me that the word of the Lord is true where he declares through the Prophet, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” As the Spirit of the Lord forsakes the people, bloodshed, corruption, confusion and anarchy must follow, and all these are increasing in our country. I cannot take up a paper without seeing the fulfillment of some of the sayings of our martyred Prophet, and of our brethren who are sitting behind me, on this stand. And what power is there that can arrest the course of evil? There is nothing but genuine repentance and obeying the everlasting Gospel. That is the only remedy that Heaven has provided; the only fountain of life and salvation for the nations exists among these poor, despised Mormons, and I know it. Brethren and sisters, I rejoice in the Lord our God, that he has moved graciously in favor of the Latter-day Saints; and inasmuch as we will forsake all evil and cleave unto him we shall find that his words unto us will be fulfilled, where he declares, “I will fight your battles.” I would rather live near to God and serve him with all my heart and soul, might, mind and strength, than fight my own battles. If the Lord will fight our battles there can be no treason in that, he is too high for treason to attach to him. He is beyond the reach of the power of this world and he can hurl his storms and blast the prospects of the most sanguine, and accomplish wonders, and none can stay his hand or say—“What doest thou?” The increase, in a thousand forms, of evils, accidents, and calamities through our land and the nations of the earth should admonish us to live near to the Lord our God, to remember our prayers, and the obligations we are under to the Most High, and to seek with all our hearts to discharge them with fidelity. Those who have held fast to the iron rod, and have remembered their God, Savior and prayers, feel to thank God, and to praise his holy name that they have endured. Let that feeling ever fill your hearts, and may the peace of God rest upon Israel, and confusion come upon them that seek to destroy the best and choicest principles that heaven ever revealed to man.

I was thankful to hear the definition and distinction, given yesterday by the President, of the words “enemies” and “friends” of mankind. It was true and faithful. He is my friend who is the friend of truth and humanity; he is my enemy who seeks to trample under foot the truth of heaven and those who are striving earnestly to serve the Lord. Brethren and sisters, be faith– ful to him who has called you and from whom you have derived every blessing you possess today. Remember our brethren and sisters who are scattered and are anxious for deliverance. Strikes have been inaugurated in various portions of the old world, and thousands of people are out of employment in consequence thereof. Similar operations are threatened in our own country, and they are likely to seriously affect the welfare and interest of the nation. In what shape troubles may come I do not know, but it will be a wonder to me if bloodshed does not result. Well did the angel say, forty-five years ago, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” This is the reason why the Saints are gathering from the countries of their nativity. Yet when the people see the Saints gathering they frequently say, “What folly, what folly!” Go to the fowls of heaven and learn a lesson. When you see the fowls, in the fall of the year, going to the south, creeping as they go, you say that winter is nigh; so when you see the Saints gathering together, remember that disaster awaits the countries they are leaving. God has declared it, and his arm is sufficiently potent to fulfill his words.

I rejoice in the truth, and I bear my testimony, today, before you, that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the true and living God. I bear my testimony that brother Brigham Young, the President of the Church here in Zion, is a man of God, and that he is carrying on the work that Joseph Smith began. When we came here how was it with us? We had nothing but a few worn-down teams and a few old wagons, very much demoralized. They were so in the start, because we could not get any other kind. But when we got through here, having brought seed, provisions, and implements such as we could command, our case was a pitiful one. But the Lord has had mercy on us and he has blessed us, and now we are beyond the reach of present want. I am thankful that all this has been brought about under the administration of our present honored President, and the world is trying to kill him and those who sustain and uphold him. It is a great warfare, it is a great wrestling; but I am aware how it will come out. It will be with the enemies and opposers of God and truth as it was with the Irishman who, as he was crossing over a bridge, saw the moon in the stream, and believing it to be a cheese, he said to his companion—“Let us go down and get that cheese.” Well, one held on to the railing of the bridge and the other slipped down and hung to his heels, thinking that he would reach down and obtain the cheese. By and by, says the one that was holding to the bridge to his friend below—“Pat, hold fast below till I spit in my hands above,” and down they went. That is the way the contest between the world and “Mormonism” will terminate—while they are saying, “Hold fast below till I spit in my hands above,” crash goes the whole concern.

Brethren and sisters, God bless you, Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered at the General Conference, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Monday Afternoon, April 7, 1873.

I will make a few remarks to the ladies of the Relief Societies. First of all I can say of a truth that, in sustaining the poor and ministering to the sick and afflicted, much credit is due to them for the good they have done; but I wish to add a little to their labors. If these societies will take into consideration the further duties and obligations that we are under to each other, and the importance of becoming self-sustaining, we wish to enlist their interest to aid us in making paper, by taking steps to collect the rags. We have an excellent paper mill here, and can make our own paper, as well as to send abroad and pay out our money for it, and then bring it here. We should cease importing paper, for paper-making is a branch of manufacture for which we have all the necessary facilities, and if we carry it on it will benefit us. We want the ladies of the Relief Societies to enlist the sympathies of the children, in their respective Wards throughout the Territory, to save the pager rags; we want mothers to do this, and also to show their children how to do it. When you see them throwing them out of doors, say, “Stop, my child, put that into the basket,” or other place designated. “We will wash these rags, and when we get enough of them we will sell them and buy some books for you to read.” If we can only enlist the feelings of the sisters on behalf of this great interest, it will lay the foundation for printing the books that we need in our own community, and then we can save this expense also. This is the first step. We want these cart loads of cloth saved that we now see kicked around the streets and lying around the yards. Go to the poorest family in this community, and I will venture to say that they waste rags enough every year to buy the schoolbooks that are needed for their children, and do even more. This is slothfulness and neglect, and produces wickedness. To be prudent and saving, and to use the elements in our possession for our benefit and the benefit of our fellow beings is wise and righteous; but to be slothful, wasteful, lazy and indolent, to spend our time and means for naught, is un– righteous; and we might think of this, and contemplate the facts in the case until our feelings and interests are so far enlisted that we will save our paper rags, and take them to the paper mill.

When this is done I want the sisters to so far use the abilities which God has given them as to learn to set type, and have your printing office and carry it on. It looks very unbecoming to me to see a great, big six-footer stand and pick up little type and put it in its place to make a word or a sentence, a book or a paper; and when he has got his stick full, taking the type out of the stick and setting it on the galley. To see a great six-footer doing this, and measuring off tape, which is about the same, has always appeared to me, according to that which I understand, as if men were out of their place. I have thought so all my days. I have occasionally seen women in the harvest field, ploughing, raking and making hay, and sometimes, though very seldom, I have seen them pitch and load hay. I think this is very unbecoming, this hard, laborious work belongs to men. But when you come to picking up type, and making a book of it, that belongs to the women. I know that many arguments are used against this, and we are told that a woman cannot make a coat, vest or a pair of pantaloons. I dispute this. It is said that a man is stronger and that he pulls his thread stronger than a woman does. I will take any of these ladies to a tailor’s shop, and they will snap every thread a tailor sews with. Tell me they cannot pull a thread tight enough, and that they cannot press hard enough to press a coat, it is all folly and nonsense. The difficulty is the tailors do not want them to do it, and they try to shame them out of it or to make them believe they cannot sew a seam, press a collar, wristband, sleeve or body of a coat, and if women do it ever so nice the tailors will say it is good for nothing, and so the great, big six-footer sits there crosslegged sewing. This is not the order of prudence and economy; neither is it according to the nature of the calling and the ability that God has given us as men and women, to see a man measuring tape, and such light work, it is far more suitable for women. “Well but,” say some, “a woman cannot do press work.” I recollect what was said to me in my youth by a journeyman printer. We were working off Ball’s Arithmetic together and we boarded together. I did not eat meat at that time, and he was very fond of it. We went into the office one day from dinner and he said to the workmen, “Young never eats any meat;” and said he, “I can just throw any man that don’t eat meat.” I said to him, “Mr. Pratt, if you will step here into the middle of the floor I will show you how to dirty coats.” But he dared not try it. They say ladies do not eat enough to make them strong—why I have seen scores and scores of them that could pull a hand press, and we do not use them now; they would have nothing in the world to do only to take the paper and lay it down. “But don’t you let a woman know she can do this, don’t say to a woman that she is capable of setting type, or of setting a stick of type on a galley, and making up a form and locking it up with a little mallet that weighs eight or ten ounces. Do not tell a woman she can do this—no, no, it would spoil our trade.”

Suffice it to say we want to enlist the real understanding and good sense of these women, and to tell them what their duty is. We want to make our own schoolbooks. We are paying now from thirty thousand to sixty thousand dollars a year for schoolbooks that can be made here just as well as to send and buy them abroad. This is carrying out the plan and principles of building up Zion, whether you know it or not. We may preach until Doomsday, and tell how Zion will look, how wide her streets will be, what kind of dwellings her people will have, what kind of carriages and what fine horses they will have, and what a beautiful looking set of people they will be, but it is all nonsense to talk about that we will never reach if we do not stop our folly and wickedness. We have the privilege of building up and enjoying Zion, and I am telling you how to do it. We want the women, from this time forth, to go to work and save the paper rags, and we will make the paper for them. And they can learn to make type. I can pick hundreds and hundreds of women out of this congregation that could go into a shop and make type just as well as men, it is a trifling thing. And they can learn to set type, and they can learn how to write for our schoolbooks. We have plenty of men and women that know how to write books, and how to teach too. We have just as good schoolteachers here as any in the world.

While on this subject I will say that I am ashamed of our Bishops, who cannot have anybody but a stranger for a schoolteacher. Let a “Mormon” come along, who can read all around and over and under him, and who, as far as learning is concerned, is his superior in every way, but because he, the “Mormon,” does not come in the guise of a stranger, the Bishop will not hear him. Bishops, I wish you would just resign your offices if you cannot learn any better than to get such characters into your schoolhouses. Not but what there is once in a while a good man comes along as a schoolteacher who is not a “Mormon;” but, as a general thing, what have these men done? They have planted the seeds of infidelity in the hearts of the children, decoyed the hearts of their female pupils and led them to ruin, and they have turned round and cursed us. That is the character of some of the men our Bishops get into their schoolhouses. There are many of our Bishops not fit to set type, measure tape or to teach a scholar. That is saying a good deal for the Bishops, is it not? But it is a fact. In many instances they have not wisdom enough to guide themselves one day without getting into error. They do not know truth from error, they do not know a Saint from a sinner, or righteousness from unrighteousness.

Will you, Relief Societies, devote your time and talents and take hold of this business? We want you to commence forthwith. Say we take thirty thousand dollars, and that is only a portion of what we will pay out for schoolbooks in 1873, and devote that to making paper and for paying brethren and sisters for making books, and then distribute them among our own people. If this work is done by us there is so much saved. Will my sisters enlist themselves and endeavor to make this movement successful?

We have no societies or persons to assist us in our efforts to school ourselves and our children; we never have had, and the feeling that is now exhibited, and which has always been shown towards us since the organization of the kingdom of God upon the earth, is that those who are our enemies would rather spend ten, yea, a hundred dollars to deprive us of the least privilege in the world, than give us one cent towards schooling our children. When we were leaving Nauvoo, in our poverty, we sent our Elders hither and thither to the principal cities of the United States, to ask the people if they would assist the Saints. Our brethren told them that we were leaving the confines of the United States, having been driven by the violence of mobs from our homes, and how much do you think we got in the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and a few smaller towns? Their hearts and hands were closed against us. From the whole people of the United States, after making an appeal to them in our deep distress and poverty, we got but a few dollars, and we were then starting into the wilderness, and how we were going to live God only knew. Well, we have got to help ourselves, we have to school ourselves. Has Government given us the privilege of one acre of land to educate our children here? No. The school land is kept from us, and we get no benefit therefrom.

I want to say a word or two here with regard to our schools. There are many of our people who believe that the whole Territory ought to be taxed for our schools. When we have means, that come in the proper way, we can make a fund to help the poor to school their children, and I would say amen to it. But where are our poor? Where is the man or the woman in this community who has children and wishes to send them to school, that cannot do it? There is not one. When the poor complain and say, “My children ought to be schooled and clothed and fed,” I say, no sir, not so, you ought to yield your time and talents to the kind providences of our Father in the heavens according to the dictation of his servants, and he will tell each and every one of you what to do to earn your bread, meat, clothing, schooling, and how to be self-sustaining in the fullest sense of the word. To give to the idler is as wicked as anything else. Never give anything to the idler. “The idler in Zion shall not eat the bread of the laborer.” Well, they do eat it; but it is a commandment and a revelation as much as any other, that the idler shall not eat the bread of the laborer in Zion. No, let every one spend every hour, day, week and month in some useful and profitable employment, and then all will have their meat and clothing, and means to pay teachers, and pay them well. Not that they should receive more pay than others. If men have learning, and they have the faculty of imparting it to others, and can teach children to read and write, and grammar and arithmetic, and all the ordinary branches of a common school education, what better are they than the man that plows, hoes, shoves the plane, handles the trowel and the axe, and hews the stone? Are they any better? I do not know that they are. What better is the man that can dress himself nicely and labor in a schoolhouse six hours a day, than the man who works ten or twelve hours a day hewing rock? Is he any better? No, he is not. Are you going to pay him for his good looks? That is what some of our Bishops want to do. If they can get a man, no matter what his moral qualities may be, whose shirt front is well starched and ironed, they will say—“Bless me, you are a delightful little man! What a smooth shirt you have got, and you have a ring on your finger—you are going to teach our school for us.” And along comes a stalwart man, axe in hand, going to chop wood, and, if he asks, “Do you want a school teacher?” Though he may know five times more than the dandy, he is told, “No, no, we have one engaged.” I want to cuff you Bishops back and forth until you get your brains turned right side up.

Here I am talking to thousands of men and women who know that if we are ever helped we have to help ourselves, with what God does for us. We have heard considerable from some parties in this city about what they call free schools, which they say they have established here. I say, now, come out, and be as liberal as you say you are, and teach our children for nothing. If they knew the “Mormons” were willing to accept of their charity and send their children to these so-called free schools, their charity would not weigh much. Their charity is to decoy away the innocent. Send your children to their schools and see how far their charity would extend. We sent to them when we were in the wilderness without bread, without shoes, without coats, and ploughing our way through to get away from our murderers, and asked them for help. No, they would not give us anything to save the lives of women and children in the wilderness. When we were right in the midst of Indians, who were said to be hostile, five hundred men were called to go to Mexico to fight the Mexicans, and said Mr. Benton—“If you do not send them we will cover you up, and there will be no more of you.” I do not want to think of these things, their authors belong to the class I referred to yesterday—the enemies of mankind, those who would destroy innocence, truth, righteousness and the kingdom of God from the earth. We sent these five hundred men to fight the Mexicans, and those of us who remained behind labored and raised all that we needed to feed our– selves in the wilderness. We had to pay our own schoolteachers, raise our own bread and earn our own clothing, or go without, there was no other choice. We did it then, and we are able to do the same today. I want to enlist the sympathies of the ladies among the Latter-day Saints, to see what we can do for ourselves with regard to schooling our children. Do not say you cannot school them, for you can. There is not a family in this community but what we will take and school their children if they are not able to do it themselves; and we do not do it through begging in the East and telling what others have told there about this people, and about their own efforts to establish free schools here. I understand that the other night there was a school meeting in one of the wards of this city, and a party there—a poor miserable apostate—said, “We want a free school, and we want to have the name of establishing the first free school in Utah.” To call a person a poor miserable apostate may seem like a harsh word; but what shall we call a man who talks about free schools and who would have all the people taxed to support them, and yet would take his rifle and threaten to shoot the man who had the collection of the ordinary light taxes levied in this Territory—taxes which are lighter than any levied in any other portion of the country? We have no other schools but free schools here—our schools are all free. Our meetings are free, our teachings are free. We labor for ourselves and the kingdom of God. But how is it with others? Have they a meeting without a plate, basket, box or hat passed round? And, “Have you got a sixpence for us? Put in your sixpences, your half dollars, your dollars, or your five dollars.” No, it is beg, beg, beg from one year’s end to another. Ever see this in a “Mormon” meeting? I don’t think you have in this city, if you ever did anywhere else. Are the “Mormons” eternally begging and sending round the hat and the plate, and asking every stranger, “Have you a sixpence for me?” No, we do not want your money, we have enough of our own, and we earned it and got it honestly, we have not stolen it nor lied for it either. Now that I am upon free schools I say, put a community in possession of knowledge by means of which they can obtain what they need by the labor of their bodies and their brains, then, instead of being paupers they will be free, independent and happy, and these distinctions of classes will cease, and there will be but one class, one grade, one great family.

Now, sisters, what do you say? Will you give your attention to this? We want to erect a house for you to do printing in. Some one, perhaps, will use some little argument against women doing anything of this kind. But the truth is women can set type, and read and correct proof as well as any man in the world, if they learn how. Men have to learn it before they can do it, and when they tell you that that is not a woman’s business, you tell them they do not know what they were born for. They were not born to wash dishes, to dress the babies, nor to have babies, they were born to go into the field and do the work that the women cannot do, and should not do for fear of exposing themselves. Keep the ladies in their proper places, selling tape and calico, setting type, working the telegraph, keeping books, &c.

See a great big six-footer working the telegraph. One of them will eat as much as three or four women, and they stuff themselves until they are almost too lazy to touch the wire. There they sit. What work is there about that that a woman cannot do? She can write as well as a man, and spell as well as a man, and better, and I leave it to every man and woman of learning if the girls are not quicker and more apt at learning in school than the boys. It is only occasionally that a boy is met with who will keep up with the girls in learning reading, writing, spelling and grammar; as a general thing the girls will go ahead of the boys in these branches, and yet we are told they are not capable of doing these light kinds of work, such as I have mentioned. Shame on the boys, and shame on the great big, fat lazy men! Let these women go to work; and let those who have children teach them to handle the needle and sew, to make lace, to raise silkworms and the mulberry tree, to pick the leaves and feed the worms, and then to wind and weave the silk, that they may make themselves good, nice silk dresses. I saw a very pretty piece of silk made into a garment in St. George, that a woman had made from the silkworms. She tended them, reeled their silk, wove it and made some beautiful cloth. This is far better than teasing the husband or father to get you fine dresses and then drag them after you in the street. Learn some good, solid sense. Learn how to raise silk, how to make the silk into dresses, and make it as neat and beautiful as you possibly can. Then another thing—may I say it? Girls, learn to comb your hair in the morning, and fix up your head dress. “Well, but, pa will not buy me a chignon.” Well, then, fix your own hair, that is all you ought to have. Wash your face nice and clean, and your neck, and comb your hair neat and nice; put on your dress comely, and make it look neat and nice. I do not mean protruding out behind like a two-bushel basket. And when you come down stairs look as if you were wide awake, and not as if your eyes needed a dish of water to wash them clear and clean. Young ladies, learn to be neat and nice. Do not dress after the fashions of Babylon, but after the fashions of the Saints. Suppose that a female angel were to come into your house and you had the privilege of seeing her, how would she be dressed? Do you think she would have a great, big peck measure of flax done up like hair on the back of the head? Nothing of the kind. Would she have a dress dragging two or three yards behind? Nothing of the kind. Would she have on a great, big—what is it you call it? A Grecian or Dutch—Well, no matter what you call it, you know what I mean. Do you think she would have on anything of that kind? Not at all. No person in the world would expect to see an angel dressed in such a giddy, frivolous, nonsensical style. She would be neat and nice, her countenance full of glory, brilliant, bright, and perfectly beautiful, and in every act her gracefulness would charm the heart of every beholder. There is nothing needless about her. None of my sisters believe that these useless, foolish fashions are followed in heaven. Well, then, pattern after good and heavenly things, and let the beauty of your garments be the workmanship of your own hands, that which adorns your bodies.

Now, sisters, will you go to work and help us to get up our school books? Whether you do or do not belong to the Relief Societies, we want you to join in and help us, and save your rags to make paper, and then go and set type and make the books. You who feel like doing this, hold up your hands. (Hands up.) There is a pretty good showing, enough to carry an influence—the day is ours. If you will only carry this out we will make our own schoolbooks, and keep the money in the Territory that we now send out for them.

Elders of Israel, I want to tell you how to save a little. You want to get rich. Go to the mines and you will be so poor that you never can pay any tithing. This is proved. I want to tell you now, how you can pay your tithing. You trade off your horses and mules and harness, just as quick as circumstances will let you. Raise the calves that will make oxen, break them and work with them; and let this community take this course, using oxen instead of horses, and mules for all their farming and teaming, and in one year they will save one million dollars, and this will increase year by year, and that will enable you to give a little to emigrate the poor Saints from the old country. I want you to swell this Perpetual Emigrating Fund so that we can send for a good many of the poor this year. What have you to give? Some will say, “I have not anything, brother Brigham.” “What have you been doing?” “Oh, I have been mining, and it takes all my time and labor to support my family. I have a splendid claim—I am just going to have a hundred thousand dollars for it.” We have plenty of this class around, and whenever I see a man going along with an old mule that can hardly stand up, and a frying pan and an old quilt, I say, There goes a millionaire in prospect! He is after a million, he calculates to find a mine that he can get a million for next summer. These millionaires are all over our country; they are in the mountains, on our highways and in our streets. But ask them, “Can you give me a sixpence to buy me a morsel of meat?” “No, I have not got it, I am just going to have plenty of money, but I have not got it now. Cannot you lend me a little to keep me from need, I have no bread for my family, but I am going to have a fortune in a little while.” There are numbers of the Elders of Israel in this position. Ask them if they can pay a little tithing? “No, not a dollar.” “Give anything to help the poor?” “No, I have not any, will you lend me a little to buy some flour for my family?” And so they go on year after year. Why? Because they will not take the counsel of the wise. When you hear a man, outside or inside of the kingdom of God, finding fault, complaining or casting reflections, that President Young has got so much influence over the people called Latter-day Saints that they (the grumblers) are afraid of him, you just tell them that he has not a hundredth part of the influence he ought to have. He ought to have all the influence imaginable with them, he is deserving of it, he earns it, and he knows what to do with it, and he directs and guides for the advancement of the kingdom of God on the earth. Just think of these men, trailing through these canyons, running after shadows—jack-o’lanterns—all over creation for something in prospect! They are just like some business men I have seen in my life—they have got their eye on a picayune, away off yonder in the distance, and they start after that and stub their toe against a twenty dollar gold piece; but they kick that out of the way, they do not see it. By and by they start again, and they pass fifty dollars in their path, and so they keep on, passing right by ten, twenty or fifty dollars. “Oh, that picayune does so dazzle my eye, for God’s sake let me get it!” They are fools, they know nothing about life, nor sustaining themselves, they are worse than children. Well, now, brother Brigham ought to have influence enough over these Elders of Israel to keep them from deceiving themselves as much as they do; and when they run after this shadow and tire themselves out and fall in the mud, they lose the spirit of their religion, find out that “Mormonism” is not true and away they go to the devil.

I am going to stop talking to the sisters, and will conclude by asking them, Will you be printers or clerks in stores? The brethren will keep every one of you out if they can, and I do not know but I shall have to go and keep store myself independent of every other institution, and hire ladies to tend it. I want them also to telegraph for us, set our type, write our books, and save the rags to make the paper.

Remarks by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered at the General Conference, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Monday Morning, April 7, 1873.

It is a pleasure to me to bear testimony to the great work which God has revealed, and which he is establishing on the earth. It has been a pleasure for me to do so for nearly forty-three years. In the early rise of this Church, when I was but a youth of nineteen, God revealed to me the truth concerning this great latter-day work, and I have felt from that day until the present time to bear my testimony to the same, being commanded so to do. I have esteemed it above all other things. The things of this world have been nothing to me, when compared with the ministry, or declaring the truth to mankind. We have one of the most important messages to deliver to the children of men that has ever been communicated to mortals—a dispensation of the same Gospel as was committed to men in the early ages of the world, and in the different dispensations down to the coming of Christ. In addition to this, which renders our message of still more importance to the human family, is the fact that we are living in the last dispensation that will be given to mankind, called the dispensation of the fullness of times. All preceding dispensations have come to an end, apparently, and those who have embraced the doctrines or principles communicated to them have passed away, and darkness has intervened. But in this last dispensation which God has given to man, there will be no uprooting and destruction of his kingdom from the earth—it is established never more to be thrown down, in fulfillment of ancient prophecy. This is what makes this dispensation of greater importance than all which have preceded it.

Here in these mountains is established a kingdom, not earthly or transient in its nature, with officers who are called by uninspired men but a kingdom that is divine, and which acknowledges the Great Redeemer and Savior as its King and Lawgiver. It must endure forever.

I look back with great pleasure upon the history of this people from the commencement down to the present time. I see what God has wrought in their behalf; I see what he has accomplished among the nations. It is true that we have not continued as faithful in all things as we should. We have not made that progression in this kingdom that we ought. We have been perhaps slow to hearken in all things to the counsels which God has given, and the order which he has revealed, and which was intended to be of the greatest advantage to, and to produce the greatest amount of happiness among the Saints of the Most High. I say that, in some respects, we have been slow to obey the order of Heaven. In many things we have done well. When the doctrines of faith, repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost through the laying on of the hands of the servants of God, were taught to us, we laid hold of them with full purpose of heart. We covenanted before high heaven that we would keep the commandments of the Lord according to the best of the ability which we had. We did well in embracing these heavenly principles.

When God spake to us some forty-two or forty-three years ago, and commanded us—then scattered about in the State of New York—to gather up to Ohio, we did well in hearkening to that commandment, and coming together in Kirtland—then in Geauga County. Again, when God gave a commandment through his servant, the Prophet Joseph, to gather up from all parts of the United States and form a nucleus in Jackson County, in the State of Missouri, we did well in obeying that commandment. When God, by the mouth of his servant, commanded that we should go forth and officiate and be baptized for and in behalf of our dead kindred, we did well in performing that which we were commanded to do. When he commanded his Saints, scattered abroad in foreign countries, to gather to this continent, all who gathered in obedience to that requirement, with full purpose of heart to do his will, did well. When we were driven from our inheritances in Jackson County, Missouri, and our lands and houses and goods were spoiled, we did well in being faithful to God. When our enemies, a few years after, rose en masse and drove us from our beautiful city of Nauvoo into these inhospitable western wilds, where to all human appearance we must perish of starvation, we did well to brave the dangers of the desert, and the difficulties we had to encounter in coming to these mountains. In many other things, too, we have done well. There are some few things, however, which I wish to name, wherein I think a great reformation is needed among the people of God. I read in this book, called the Book of Mormon, of a certain order, in regard to temporal things, which existed soon after the days of Christ, which was revealed and established by him for he benefit of the Saints who lived on this Western Hemisphere. It was the highest order and law of the kingdom of God in regard to temporal things. I read that the ancient Saints upon this continent entered into that order with all their hearts. They were not a small handful of people like the Latter-day Saints, but they were spread over the whole of North and South America. Millions on millions of people dwelt in large and populous cities in the four quarters of this great Western Hemisphere, and they all entered into this heavenly order which God had established on this continent and continued therein for 167 years.

What was that order? They had all things in common. Not an isolated few where Jesus ministered to them; not a few individuals who dwelt in a certain region of country, but the Savior having chosen twelve disciples from among the multitude to whom he appeared, they were sent forth upon all the face of the land, and so great were the evidences given, concerning the appearance of Jesus, that the whole people were converted unto the Lord, and they were willing to be guided by those servants who were called and ordained to administer in their midst.

Prior to that time there were rich and poor among the people, and, from the history given, no doubt an order of things existed on this continent in those days resembling that which now exists among all the nations and kingdoms of the earth—some lifted up in pride and popularity because of their great wealth, others bowed down in the dust because of their poverty, and class distinctions prevailed until this new order of things was established. What a blessed people! How happy they must have been! No poor either in North or South America. No beggars in the streets of their great cities, but all the property—the gold and silver, the flocks and herds, and everything that was calculated to make life happy in the possession of and enjoyed, as stewards, by the whole people. No inequality, so far as this was concerned, for the pattern was after the order of heavenly things.

Now let us ask the question—has God ever revealed to the Latter-day Saints the necessity of entering into this heavenly order in regard to their wealth? He has. When? When we gathered up to Jackson County in the State of Missouri. In the year 1831, the land was consecrated and set apart by revelation for the erection thereon of a great and heavenly city unto the Most High God. Not the old Jerusalem, but a new Jerusalem, a city of Zion. God, by the mouth of his servant Joseph, who for a short space of time dwelt in the midst of the people there, revealed the law of consecration, not the law of tithing, but the law of consecration. Let me repeat that law, Latter-day Saints, for as it is a law which will come in force at some future period of our history, it will not be amiss for us to understand its nature and to prepare to approximate to its requirements, so that when it is introduced amongst us we may take hold of it with all our hearts. When we went up to that country in 1831, the commandment of the Most High to the Saints was that they should consecrate all that they had. Not one-tenth merely, not the surplus of their property, but, all that they had, whether it was gold, silver, household furniture, wearing apparel, jewelry, horses, cattle, wagons, mechanical tools, machinery, or whatever wealth or property they possessed, they were to consecrate the whole and deliver it unto the Lord’s judge in the midst of Zion. Who was he? The Bishop. In those days we had not the necessity of so many Bishops as now. We were a small people then, and the Bishop in Zion, under the direction of the highest authorities of the Church, he being guided and inspired by the Holy Ghost, was to take charge of all the consecrations of the people of the Most High. This made them all equal, every person stood upon the same platform, possessing nothing to begin with. All was consecrated and became the common property of the Church.

Now how was this common property to be used? First, the Saints needed land, they needed means to build habitations; they needed farming utensils; they needed flocks and herds; they needed manufacturing establishments; they needed mercantile and all kinds of mechanical business to be introduced into their midst, just as fast as they procured means sufficient. By whom were the stewardships of the Saints laid off? The Lord’s judge or bishop in Zion purchased land from the United States, and then laid off to each man his stewardship according to the number of his family. Those who were mechanics received the tools necessary to work with; those who were called upon to engage in some business wherein a greater amount of capital was needed had a capital accordingly. That is, that was the intention as the common property of the Church should increase.

Perhaps the question may be asked, could this equality be maintained from that time, henceforth and forever? If there had been no law given instructing us how this equality could be maintained the people, before twelve months had passed away, would have been unequal again. Why? Because a man, perhaps, of small talent or ability, might mismanage his stewardship or inheritance, and instead of gaining anything he would lose. Another man, having a little more talent and industry, and perhaps a little more wisdom, would gain a little. Another man’s business tact and knowledge were perhaps such that he could carry on a large manufacturing establish– ment, and in a short time he would gain his thousands, and thus in the course of a year we would again have had rich and poor if God had not provided against it.

What provisions did the Lord make in order to maintain this equality among his Saints permanently? He made this arrangement by law—that every man should be considered a steward first, and prove himself a wise steward before he could be entitled to an everlasting inheritance. These stewards were to render an account to the judge in Zion of their stewardships, or in other words, as it is written in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—“It is required of every steward to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and eternity.” (Doc. and Cov., Sec. xc: Par. 1.)

To whom does he render this report or account? To the Lord’s bishop or bishops, as the case may be; he reports what he has done with the means entrusted to his care. If a man has been entrusted with fifty or with a thousand dollars, or with a million, to carry on some branch of business he must, at the end of the year, render an account of that stewardship. If a man is only entrusted with a small farm, he renders an account of his stewardship at the end of the year, and thus all those who are occupied in these different branches of trade, render accounts of their stewardships, consecrating, at the end of the year, all that they have gained, excepting what it has cost to feed and clothe them. Are they not equal? Yes, and this maintains a permanent equality; for the man who has gained a hundred thousand in his stewardship consecrates all that he has not used; and the man with a smaller stewardship who in the whole year, has only gained fifty dollars over and above what he has used, consecrates that fifty. The man who has gained most consecrates most, the man who has gained least consecrates the least. This reduces them yearly to the same position and condition as they were in when they commenced this heavenly order.

Did the people carry out this law? No. Why? Because they had imbibed the notions which had prevailed among the people of the whole earth, and these notions were in direct opposition to the order of heaven. The notions and traditions of the world were that every man must be for himself, every family for themselves, and they must labor with their might, mind and strength to gain all they possibly could gain, and use it only for themselves and their generations after them, caring nothing at all about their neighbors. These traditions had been instilled into our minds, and we were too full of covetousness and of false notions about property to carry out the law of God, and hence many, when they came up to Zion, looked abroad upon that beautiful, rich soil, and the excellent groves of timber, and the fine prairies and meadows, with springs breaking forth in numerous places, as they do in Jackson County, and their souls lusted after these things, and the rich man said, “No, I will not consecrate all my property, I will go to the General Land Office and purchase for myself, and I will buy largely in order that I may sell to my poor brethren when they come up here. I will buy land and speculate upon it, and make my fortune.” That was the feeling which existed in the hearts of some of the Latter-day Saints. God saw this, and reproved us by revelation, and he said to the people in Jackson County, by the mouth of his servant Joseph, that if they did not repent of this covet– ousness he would pluck them up and send them out of Zion, for said he, “The rebellious are not of the blood of Ephraim, wherefore they shall be plucked up, and sent away out of the land.” God fulfilled this revelation—he did pluck up the people; he did cast them away out of that land in the year 1833. Some two years and a few months after we first began to settle that country we were cast out of the land—plucked up, just as the Lord had predicted, and we were told that it was because of our sins and covetousness that we were sent away.

Did the Lord forsake us? No; he had compassion upon us, as he had upon ancient Israel, when they were cast away out of their land from time to time. In what respect did he have compassion upon us? When he saw the hold that the traditions in which we had been trained had upon our hearts, he revoked, for the time being, the law of full consecration. Says one, “What! God revoke a commandment?” Yes, that is the way he did in ancient times, and he is the same God yet. He did it for our good; for if that law had been in full force this people would not have been in these mountains this day. Our selfishness and covetousness are so great that, as a people, we never would have complied with it. A few amongst us might have done so, but as a people we should have been overcome and ruined; but owing to that law being revoked, many of us will now, perhaps, be saved.

In the year 1834, a few months after, we were driven out from that goodly land. God said unto us in a revelation, given on Fishing River, “Let those laws and commandments which I have given concerning Zion and her properties, be executed and fulfilled after her redemption.” Thus you see, Latter-day Saints, that we are not under the law of full consecration, and if not under the law we are not under the penalty thereof. Where there is a law there is a penalty, and when we transgress the law we incur the penalty; but having been relieved, for a period, from the execution of that law, we were placed under another law, which, in some respects, may be considered an inferior law. When was that law given? In 1838, some five years after we were driven forth from our stewardships. What is that law? It is called the law of tithing. What is the law of tithing? Part of that law enjoins it upon the Saints as a duty to pay into the Lord’s storehouse one-tenth of all their annual income. But let me refer you to the fulness of the law of tithing, for, although an inferior law, I fear that as a people we have not kept it. The first part of that law requires every man, when he comes into the midst of the people of God, to consecrate all his surplus property, reserving to himself a certain portion. This is not a full consecration like the higher law. Latter-day Saints, have we kept this inferior law? Has the man who possessed great riches, when he came to these mountains and numbered himself with the people of God, consecrated all his surplus property, and afterwards paid a tenth of all his annual income? I will tell you what we have done—as a general thing we, rich and poor, have kept all the property we had when we came here, and some have consecrated one-tenth part of their income, and so far as this is concerned the people have no doubt done very well, with some few exceptions; and I am happy to be able to state, from information I have obtained from some of the Bishops of the Church, that the Latter-day Saints, now, are showing more determination to pay their tithing, than they ever have done heretofore.

But let us come back to the other portion of this inferior law. Have we felt a disposition to consecrate our surplus property? Go east, west, north and south, into all our settlements, and you will find that the men are few and far between who consecrated their surplus property, when they came here. In the first place, there have been but few wealthy persons who have come amongst us, and the people have been their own judges. Every man thought that he had no surplus, when he came here. If he had a hundred thousand dollars on his arrival he has said or thought, “O, I have made such and such calculations. I wish to become a merchant in the midst of the people, and I need thousands and thousands of dollars to set me up. I wish to make thirty, forty, fifty or a hundred percent out of these poor people, and to enable me to do so I do not think that any of this hundred thousand dollars can be called surplus property. I need it all, I cannot carry on my merchandising unless I have it all to set me up.

Another man who wishes to start some other branch of business makes his calculations so as to cover up all his property, for he thinks he will need it all to enable him to carry out the particular branch of business which he wishes to introduce into these mountains, for he wants to get exceedingly rich before the law of full consecration comes. When they are thus left to be their own judges, where is the man who is honest enough in his feelings to say, “I think I can spare fifty, twenty, ten, five or one thousand dollars as surplus property?” This in my opinion is wrong. They should not be their own judges: Who should be the judges in this matter? The Bishops whom the Lord has appointed in Zion, under the counsel of the First Presidency of his Church and the counsels of the Holy Ghost which rest upon them to guide their minds. The people should be honest enough when they come up here with means, to say to the Bishops—“Here, I have so much means, judge ye, how much of this shall be surplus, and how much I shall retain.”

The reason I make these remarks is that I want this people to fully understand that there is a law given, a law inferior to that of full consecration, and for every man to enquire whether he has carried out this law according to the letter thereof. Perhaps the time has not come even for this law to be fulfilled in all its exactness. At any rate we are drifting along in about the same channel that the world does, so far as our property is concerned, with the exception of paying one-tenth of our annual income into the Lord’s storehouse, and the consequence is, there have become rich and poor in Zion, some possessing their hundreds of thousands, and others digging, in the dust, as it were, from year’s end to year’s end.

How shall this be remedied? Is the time come for us to execute the higher law of consecration? In undertaking to do so in the settlements of this Territory, what a revolution it would produce! How many would apostatize and go away from the Church? How many of those who are comparatively wheat would be plucked up with the tares if we were to undertake to enforce the higher law of consecration, or the law of tithing in all its fullness? And it would produce the same revolutionary results in most of the old settlements, because we are not prepared for it. I do not see, for my part, how we can begin to approximate to that law of oneness in regard to our property unless we commence in some new place, where the Church and the settlers might be gathered together and set a pattern for all the rest. I do not know but we might accomplish it in that way. I hope that we shall see something that will do away with these distinctions of classes. I hate to see them in the midst of the people of God.

There are many men of wealth, good, honest, upright men who would be willing to do anything that the Lord required at their hands; while there are others who hug their property close to their hearts, as though it were dearer to them than anything either in this world or in the world to come. There are certainly existing now among us distinctions of classes which if not checked, may prove the overthrow of many. For instance the rich can educate their sons and daughters in the best schools, academies and universities; others cannot do this, because of their poverty. This makes the children of the rich feel themselves above the children of the poor. Have we not seen in our gatherings for amusement these distinctions manifested? I have. I have seen those who were poorly dressed come into our parties and take a back seat, and there they would sit, as the old saying is, like “wallflowers,” during the whole party. Who would be out on the floor enjoying themselves? The rich. But in many instances there are parties of pleasure and amusement got up among the Saints, to which the poor are never invited; they are got up only for those who can dress in fine style, who can sweep the floor of the ballroom with two or three yards of their dresses dragging after them.

With the feelings engendered by these distinctions of classes, there is not that fellowship that should exist among the Saints of the living God. If we wish, brethren and sisters, to go back and build up the waste places of Zion, and to see the New Jerusalem erected upon the consecrated spot, let us endeavor to approximate more nearly to the celestial law, that when we do get back there, and that law more fully comes in force, we may be able to enter into it; for thus saith the Lord, in this Book of Covenants, “Zion cannot be built up only according to the law of the celestial kingdom, otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.” We have got to come to that, and it is well for us in my opinion, that we begin to approximate as fast as possible, that when the time shall come, we shall be prepared for full consecration.

How long our President has labored in the midst of the people here to get them to introduce home manufactures? How long and loud he has lifted his voice, in connection with his counselors, and the Twelve Apostles, to bring about this thing; but the people, instead of hearkening to their counsel, have imported from abroad almost everything they needed. The President is willing, but some of the people are not. Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, April 6, 1873.

In my remarks to you I want your eyes, ears, attention and faith. This is the Forty-third Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we have assembled together for the purpose of being benefited. We like to see and hear each other, we like to give and receive counsel, and we like, above all things, to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. In singing, praying, speaking and hearing, and in all duties devolving upon us upon such occasions as this, the Spirit of the Lord is the best of all.

I have a great many reflections with regard to the Latter-day Saints and the work in which they are engaged. I have many reflections in regard to the world of mankind. We all enjoy the power of sight, but how differently we look at and comprehend things! And we are very much like the people who have lived before us. We are a strange and curious composition—no two alike. Of all the faces before me this afternoon there are no two alike. We might possibly find those whose judgment would be pretty much alike on various subjects, still there are no two whose judgments are precisely the same. Human life is a great stage, and it contains a very great variety of scenes and scenery, of thought and of action. Some are not very beautiful, others are, and they are painted with fine colors. We see all this before us, and each and every person has the privilege of judging for himself, and upon each different impressions are produced.

I see a large congregation before me this afternoon of people called Latter-day Saints. If the world of mankind were to give their opinion concerning us they would use terms I heard frequently this morning—“enemy,” “enemies,” “our enemies.” These expressions would be frequently heard from the inhabitants of the earth about the Latter-day Saints, for the impression has existed and has been growing stronger for years past, that this strange people—the Latter-day Saints—are the enemies of mankind. I do not wish to convey the idea that all the inhabitants of the earth consider this people their enemies, but there are those who wish to have this impression or belief prevail. I hear many of the Elders of Israel refer to the outside world as enemies. I do it myself at certain times and on certain occasions, for certain deeds wrought by those who wish to destroy the truth from the earth, for every person who would uproot the truth of God is mine enemy, he would destroy me if he had the power. What shall we say of those who desire peace and whose hearts are filled with good will towards their fellow men? We say peace to such persons, and give them ours and God’s blessing.

Who is the enemy of mankind? He who wishes to change truth for error and light for darkness; he who wishes to take peace from a family, city, state or nation and give the sword in return. He is my enemy, he is your enemy and the enemy of mankind. Who is the friend of mankind? He who makes peace between those who are at enmity, who brings together those who, perhaps, through some misunderstanding, have been at variance with and lost friendship and fellowship for each other, and shows them that their ill-will is without foundation and existed simply because they did not understand each other. To illustrate, we will suppose that two men come in the same car to this city. One of them is full of deception and carries false colors. If he speaks a word that would become a gentleman, it is not because he feels it, for in his heart he is cursing and damning, and his purpose is to sow discord and enmity among the people in a neighborhood. He delights to set the members of one family jarring with each other. He will teach the youth to believe that such or such persons are their enemies and it is no harm to burn their houses down, to take their horses, cut their carriages to pieces, to open the gate of their garden or field and let somebody’s cattle in. Such a person is an enemy of mankind. But the other one is a friend. If he sees his neighbor’s gate open, he shuts it; if cattle are in a neighbor’s field, he tells him of the mischief that is being done. If he sees a fence down, and there is none of the family to come and put it up, he gets out of his carriage, or off his horse, or if he is afoot, he steps to the fence, turns the cattle out, puts up the fence or shuts the gate and prevents further mischief on his neighbor’s premises. Who is your enemy and mine? He that teaches language that is unbecoming, that presents falsehood for truth, that furnishes false premises to build upon instead of true, or that is full of anger and mischief to his fellow beings. I call no others enemies, except such characters as I have named. There is no question that many have done much mischief while in ignorance of what they were doing. I have no doubt that the soldiers who were commanded to nail the Savior to the cross did not realize what they were doing. They treated him as they did the thieves, whom they knew to be worthy of death; but through prejudice, over-persuasion and much talk by the priests, Scribes, Pharisees and people, they perhaps supposed they were doing God’s service when they crucified Jesus. But it was an enemy that did it, it was a bad act, a very heinous crime, it—but I pause. The question may be asked, What would have been the consequence suppose the Savior had not been crucified? I can only answer by saying that he was. The Scriptures say that offenses must needs come, but woe to him by whom they come. But we will resume our subject. Who is the man that is an enemy to his nation? The one that breeds mischief, prompts strife, and brings sorrow among the people.

Now to the Latter-day Saints—What are you here for? Can you answer this question? Many of you can. One brother says, “Why, I came here to join the Saints.” “Where did you come from?” “I lived in Scotland. I worked in the mines, or in the factory, or in iron works.” “What did you come here for?” “When I heard the Gospel preached I believed it, and I received a desire to leave my neighbors. I believed the Bible and the Book of Mormon; I believed that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. My neighbors said, ‘Oh folly, oh fool. There goes a Mormon,’ and they pointed the finger of scorn at me.” This is the spirit of the world, but if there had been no persecution whatever in the feelings of his neighbors, he would have had a desire to leave his home and old associates to join the Saints, for the Spirit he received prompted him to do this. Ask a sister, “What are you here for?” “Why, I came here so that I could live my religion a little better than I could in Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Scandinavia,” or wherever it might be that she came from. Ask another man, “What did you gather to these mountains for?” “Well, I think I came here because of my religion. I used to think I wanted to gather up with the Saints. I liked their society, and when I came up here I really delighted to be with them.” “What are you doing now, brother?” “Well, I am trying to do about the best I possibly can. Here are a few dollars I want to pay on Tithing.” “Have you paid your Tithing this year?” “No.” “Did you pay it last year?” “No.” “Have you not paid Tithing lately?” “No.” “What is the reason?” “Why, I am after gold and silver, and the riches in these mountains, in this trade, I am after the world, I am after Babylon.” This is the conduct. I do not ask for words, I do not ask anybody to get up and declare that their affections are turned away from the holy Gospel of life and salvation, and turned to the world. Let me see their daily walk and know their life, and I know what their thoughts and feelings are. And the sister that comes here for the Gospel’s sake, her mind is so frivolous and easily wrought upon that she is led by every wind and breeze of fashion that blows through the streets here. “Oh, don’t you see that lady’s dress?” “Here, look here, did you see that lady walking down the street?” “Yes.” “What a beautiful dress she has got on! Oh dear, how I want such a dress!” Go down the street and you can see it; go up the street and you can see it; go into the workshops, and even into the canyons, and you can see it. What of it? Latter-day Saints, what of it? “Oh, I do love Babylon so well.” “I do want a new dress.” “I do want to go into the mines and dig.” “I have a claim, and I am just going into the mountains to dig,” says a brother. Another one says, “I have served the Lord about long enough, and I am going to serve myself now.” This is the way with one here and another there, and if they have not got Babylon they want to get it. And here comes along a man who professes to be a Latter-day Saint, and the first you know he is using the name of the Deity in vain, and it is “curse” this, and “curse” that, with the name of our Father in heaven attached to it. Is that according to the faith that we have embraced? Mingle with the Latter-day Saints, and see them playing on the stage of life, and watch how some of them will change their colors and their coats, and some come out in one fashion and some in another, according to the circumstances in which they are placed.

Here we are assembled in the capacity of a general Conference. Babylon is in the hearts of the people, that is to say, there is too much of it. What did you come here for? “Why,” says one, “I understood they were getting rich in Utah, and I thought I would gather up with the Latter-day Saints and get rich also.” Without making many remarks on this subject, I want to say to every one of those who come up here, their minds filled with Babylon, and longing for the fashions and wealth of the world, you may heap up gold and silver, but it will leave you, or you will leave it, you cannot take it with you, and you will go down to hell.

Perhaps I may be considered their enemy by some of those called Latter-day Saints, and by outsiders, for telling them these things. That is no matter, it is for their life and salvation that I tell them. If I should see men and women going blindfolded to an awful precipice, and not hail them and warn them of their danger, I should be guilty, and perhaps their blood would be found on my skirts. I will say, at once, not prolonging my remarks or multiplying words, that if my brethren and sisters do not walk up to the principles of the holy Gospel of life and salvation, they will be removed out of their places, and others will be called to occupy them. Elders of Israel, High Priests, Seventies, High Councilors, Presidents, brethren and sisters, no matter who, if you have an idea that you are going to take Babylon—I use this term, because it is well understood that Babylon means confusion, discord, strife, folly and all the vanities the world possesses—if you have the idea that you are going to take Babylon in one hand, and with the other cling to the Savior and drag yourselves into his presence, you will find yourselves mistaken, for he will drop you, and you will sink. You may just as well believe this today, and shape your lives accordingly, as to betray yourselves.

There are a great many who say, “Why, yes, I say my prayers, I do not use the name of the Lord in vain, I do not injure my neighbor.” That is true. How many of the Latter-day Saints live like this? I am pretty well acquainted with them. I see and understand their feelings by their works, and I can say that a large majority of the Latter-day Saints are a good, obedi– ent, faithful, Godfearing, God-loving people, and yet we fellowship those who are full of iniquity and evil, individuals who are full of the spirit of anti-Christ. I talk and tell the truth to the good and to the evil, and I wish to comprehend the whole; and I tell you today that if our minds are not made up to serve God, if we are not for Christ, and for his kingdom upon the earth; if we are not willing to devote our time, talents, means, influence and everything that he has given into our possession, we are not in the way we should walk. I know that it may be said, and with great propriety, “Why, my brother, we cannot be sanctified in one day, we cannot overcome every evil and every passion in one day.” That is true, but this holy desire can dwell in the heart of every individual from the time that he or she is convinced that God reigns, that he is establishing his kingdom on the earth, that Jesus is our Savior, that the holy Gospel has presented to us the way of life and salvation, and we believe it and can receive it with our whole hearts—I say we can have that holy and pure desire from that moment to the end of our lives, and in possessing this we have faith and favor before the Lord, and his grace is with us by the power of his Holy Spirit, and by this we can overcome temptations as we meet them. This is my experience, that is pretty good proof, is it not? And I have more evidence than this—this is the experience and testimony of every Latter-day Saint who has lived his or her religion since obeying the Gospel. Their testimony will corroborate mine, and strengthen the faith of all.

I have not preached much to you this winter, and I pause and think. I was in the stone quarry the other day, and saw the men breaking a large granite rock. They first drilled the holes so as to break the rock in a direct line. I saw one man take up his hammer and give a blow. It was too hard. Said I, “My father taught me in my youth that light knocks would split great blocks. Tap light next time.” The quarryman did this and pretty soon the rock divided almost as evenly as though it had been jointed. I wish to make an application of this to this people assembled here. If I and my brethren had strength, we would meet together here about one week, to begin with, then go to our work for a few weeks, and then we would come together again. By continuing this course, I expect that in about three months we could get the feelings of this people warmed up like wax before the flame, so that we could get at their judgment and affections and we could actually mold them over, and make them realize the work that they are engaged in. But to do it in one day would be like driving the wedges so fast that you would split the rock where you would not want it split. Still, many who want to receive the word can, and I say to all, you and I must be Latter-day Saints or we are not walking in the path that God has marked out for us. “What do you mean by that, brother Brigham? I want to know what you mean by that, I cannot understand it.” This is the difficulty, but thank kind heaven, I have found out in my experience, that learning a, b, c, d, does not hinder me learning e, f, g. I thank my Creator that the principle is implanted within us, that we can learn, if it takes a long time, and by a close application of the ability that God has given us, we can improve and in time become Saints in very deed. Were it not for this I should have been discouraged long ago. But, know that we can learn to be Saints if we are disposed to. Practice your religion today, and say your prayers faithfully.

Says a brother, “I pray in my family sometimes, and sometimes I do not feel like it, and I do not pray in my family. Sometimes I am in a hurry, my work is driving me, my cattle are in mischief, and I do not feel like praying.”

If I did not feel like praying, and asking my Father in heaven to give me a morning blessing, and to preserve me and my family and the good upon the earth through the day, I should say, “Brigham, get down here, on your knees, bow your body down before the throne of Him who rules in the heavens, and stay there until you can feel to supplicate at that throne of grace erected for sinners.”

“Well, but I am in a hurry, and my cattle, perhaps, are in mischief and my work is driving me.” I should say, if the cattle are in the corn, “Eat away;” if they are in the wheat, “Eat away, eat the wheat, we have more than we can use any how;” and if the children are in mischief and this wants seeing to, and that wants seeing to, I say, “Kneel down before the Lord and there stay until this body learns obedience, until my tongue learns to praise his name, and to ask for the blessings I need.”

“Well, but are you not afraid you will come to want?” Bless me, if I had all the gold and silver on the earth and no prayers, I should be in greater want than I should be with the prayers and without the gold and silver. I will make an application of this with regard to the feelings of the people. It is true that you and I cannot learn everything at once, but we can learn one thing at once and the one thing above all others that we should make it our business to learn is to yield strict obedience to the requirements of heaven, and we can learn that today just as well as any other time, and just as well as to spend a lifetime in doing it.

Now, Latter-day Saints, do you know what you are here for? You know there is a field opens before us in talking about what we are here for, why the Lord suffers what we now behold, and why he permits this and permits that. It is all perfectly reasonable and rational, all according to his providences and his dealings with the children of men. I can say to all that you have got to learn this one fact—the Lord will have a tried people, and if my wife or my daughter cannot see and pass by, as things of naught, the follies of fashion, she has not learned her duty, she has not learned the spirit of her religion, and is not in the full enjoyment of the Spirit of God. Fashions are nothing to me, one way or the other. How long is it since ladies wore bonnets into which you would have to look with a spyglass if you wished to see their faces, and then from their faces to the crown of the head. From this fashion they got to one in which one flower or leaf and five yards of ribbon made a complete head dress. What of these fashions? They are nothing here nor there, and by trying we can learn to pass by every needless fashion, and to stop the use of every needless word, and to carry ourselves correctly before the Lord.

Now let us consider, are we for the kingdom of heaven? “Oh yes,” “Oh yes,” everybody says, “certainly we are.” Are we for happiness? Yes, certainly, the whole world is with us there. There is no person but what would say, Give me power, give me influence, give me wealth, give me gold and silver, houses and lands, goods and chattels, tenements, horses, carriages, friends, families, associations, &c. The whole world will join in saying, Give us heaven and happiness; but talk to them about “Mormonism,” and they will say, “your doctrine is a speculation.” The cry with regard to brother Joseph was, “He is a money digger, he is a speculator.” Well, how long was it before the whole world was on his track digging money? It was no disgrace just as soon as the world commenced digging money, but when there were only a few accused of it, it was a disgrace. How things are changed! How differently we look upon our bonnets now! If a lady were to enter this building wearing an old-fashioned headdress everybody would be looking at her. If a lady were to come into this assembly with sixteen yards of cloth—I am talking extravagantly now to illustrate—in her two sleeves, and only four in the waist and skirt of her dress, how ridiculous it would appear, would it not? And yet something very much like that was once the fashion.

I look at this and make the application. The world would say, “Yes, if you are going to have happiness, we want some; if you are going to have gold and silver, look here, we shall come in for a share.” Very good, all right. I used to tell the people—bless your heart, you accuse me of being in a speculation, and so I am. You cry out that the “Mormon” leaders are for speculation, for money making. We go in for wealth. I used to tell the people, and I tell them the same now, I do not go in for a few millions, I go in for the pile, and I calculate to have it. “How are you going to get it?” By serving God with all my heart and being a Saint indeed, and when the earth and its fullness are given into the hands of the Saints, I shall go in for my share—the whole pile. I used to say, “Why, brother Joseph is the greatest speculator I have heard of in modern times—he is going to have the whole earth. Jesus is coming to earth to reign King of nations, and he is going to share the gold and silver with his brethren. That is not all—all things are yours for time and eternity—the heights and depths, the lengths and breadths, crowns of glory and immortality and eternal lives are yours.” Well, I go in for the pile.

I want to ask, Am I an enemy of mankind? Is a Latter-day Saint an enemy of mankind? No. I say to the intelligent world, if they did but know it, we in connection with God, Jesus the Mediator, angels, the good that are on the earth and the good that have been, are the only friends of mankind upon the face of the earth. That is a great word to say, and some may think it is extravagant. They say, “See what our benevolent societies, our ministers, our kings and our rich people are doing for the poor, and then say that the Latter-day Saints are the only friends of mankind.” I want to say to all the world that no good or benevolent act, no act that sustains innocence, virtue and truth and does good to the human family will go unrewarded of the Creator. Do not be discouraged. Have they done any good? Yes, a great deal of it. The Christian world have sent forth their missionaries and they have done a great deal of good, but they could do a great deal more if they had a mind to. They hedge up the way and try to destroy the little good they have done by instilling into the hearts of the people the necessity of dwelling in darkness and remaining in ignorance, and preventing them from receiving the Gospel. This is their practice, and in this they are doing injury, but they have done a great deal of good.

What are we hated for? What do men lie about us for, and send forth their lies to the world right from this place? Are they who do this the friends of mankind? No, they are their enemies. They plant falsehood in the hearts of thousands of people. One liar is like a bad king. A corrupt and wicked king can corrupt a whole nation. One liar can deceive thousands. They are not the friends of mankind. Why are we hated? Is our religion obnoxious? Why?

“Because of this one man power, because of the great influence there is in the midst of the people to unite them together.”

Do you not read in your Bibles that except ye are one ye are not the Lord’s? Do you not read in the Bible, that you have had all your lives, that you must love God with all your hearts, that you must be united, that you must receive the Gospel of Christ? Do you not read that there is but one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all, &c.? Certainly you do. Well, we believe these things, but does that prove that we are the enemies of mankind? No, it proves that we are their friends. Why do we differ from them, and why do they differ from us? I can tell it in a few words—it is simply because we are disposed to believe the truth, and they are disposed to reject it. They are disposed to live and drink water, if they can get it, from cisterns that will hold no water. Is there anybody, do you think, who has transgressed the laws of God? Has anybody ever changed the ordinances of the house of God? Was there ever any such thing done as to destroy the principles pertaining to the ordinances of the house of God? Why, yes, in ancient days.

Well, we know the reason why, we know why they did it—they hewed to themselves cisterns that would hold no water. Do we, as Christians, teach the Gospel according to Saint Mark, St. John, St. Luke, Matthew, Paul, Peter and James and the rest of the apostles and the disciples of the Lord? Do we teach the same doctrine as the Christian world? No, we do not. Do we teach the same doctrine as Jesus and his Apostles? Yes, we preach the same Gospel. How many modes of baptism have the so-called Christian world? I do not know how many. One is by immersion, or being buried in the water. Another is to get down on your knees and have water poured on the head; another is to stand up and have water poured on the head; another is to have somebody dip his fingers in water and touch the forehead with it; another is to plunge face foremost, and how many more modes of baptism there are I do not know. How many there are who say that all these are outward ordinances and that they are nonessential? Did God ever say this? No. Jesus? No. Any of the Apostles ever say anything of the kind? No, they did not. Has any man in modern times received a revelation from heaven, doing away with the ordinances of the house of God? No, only false revelations; and we ask the simple question, If our doctrine is not true, and if there is no necessity for the ordinances of the house of God, will you not be pleased to tell us the name of the man who received, and the place where he received a revelation from God doing away with his own ordinances, and declaring that all miracles were to cease? &c. It is true that we differ from the Christian world in our faith in regard to these things. Does this prove that we are their enemies? No, it proves that we are their friends. We believe in doctrines that they do not believe in, and we disbelieve in some fanciful ideas that they profess to hold as doctrine. For instance they hold that God is an imaginary being. They cannot tell where nor how he lives, nor anything concerning his character, whether he is material or immaterial; but, like many of the most eminent divines, who have spread it through their pages for the people to read, they have come to the conclusion that the center of God is everywhere and his circumference nowhere—one of the most vain ideas that could be conceived by any intelligent being. Then what is their idea of the soul of man? That it is an immaterial substance. Who ever heard of such a thing? Ask any true philosopher if he can explain the meaning of an “immaterial substance.” It is like the center of a being everywhere and his circumference nowhere, or like being seated on the top of a topless throne. These are self-confounding expressions, and there is no meaning to any of them. We differ from them in our ideas of God. We know that he is a Being—a man—with all the component parts of an intelligent being—head, hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, cheek bones, forehead, chin, body, lower limbs; that he eats, drinks, talks, lives and has a being, and has a residence, and his presence fills immensity as far as you and I know. We differ with them, for we know that the Lord has sent forth his laws, commandments and ordinances to the children of men, and requires them to be strictly obeyed, and we do not wish to transgress those laws, but to keep them. We do not wish to change his ordinances, but to observe them; we do not wish to break the everlasting covenant, but to keep that with our fathers, with Jesus, with our Father in heaven, with holy angels, and to live according to them. We differ with them in the tenets of our religion, we cannot help it. We would not believe “Mormonism,” as it is called, if it were not for one thing. I never would have believed it if it had not been for one simple thing. What do you think that is? It is true. I believed it because of that. What a strange idea! If it had not been true I would not have believed it, but being true I happened to believe it.

Now there is quite a difference between me and the man who stands up to teach the people what he says is the way of life and salvation, and who has transgressed every law that God ever gave, who has changed every one of the ordinances of his house, and broken every covenant that he has made with the children of men. What do you know, Mr. Divine, about glory, exaltation, happiness and eternal lives? I will answer for him, and say, nothing at all. What do you know about God? Nothing at all. What do you know about his dwelling place? Nothing at all. What about his person? Nothing at all. Pardon me for making these expressions, but look on this stage which I brought before the congregation—the human family acting and bringing out what they have behind the scenes. What a spectacle it presents!

Are we the enemies of mankind? No, we are their only friends, and we calculate to hang on until we save the last son and daughter of Adam and Eve that can receive salvation. We calculate to be co-workers with Jesus, our Savior, until the last man and woman that can be saved is placed in the kingdom or mansion prepared for them, and none will be lost or turned away except those who sin against the Holy Ghost. What do you think of it? An enemy of mankind! Shame on the expression! And shame on those who give utterance to it when speaking of the Latter-day Saints. We have the oracles, the law and the commandments; we have all the laws or ordinances necessary to reach and take hold of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers and those who have lived before us, and to bring them up to eternal life. What divine teaches this doctrine? If there is no resurrection, says Paul, why then are ye baptized for the dead? It is the only expression that alludes to the doctrine of baptism for the dead in the New Testament, but it is true. We have this law, we have the ordi– nances. We have a knowledge of the covenants necessary to reach and pick up the last man and woman that has lived on the earth, and we calculate to preach the Gospel to the living until the line is drawn and Jesus comes to reign King of nations as he does King of Saints, and the separation is made. But until then the wheat and the tares will grow together. We are together now, the wheat and the tares are here.

Now let us see your wheat heads bow down as though you were fully ripe or preparing to be so, your whole hearts and labors for the kingdom of God. The wicked may flourish for awhile like a green bay tree, but by and by they will be cut down, and the righteous will go forth and inherit the kingdom, which may God grant to be our happy lot for Jesus’ sake. Amen.