Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Old Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, July 19, 1874.

I hope the congregation will give their attention and pray for the Holy Spirit to be shed forth upon all those who are upright in heart, that we may be edified and instructed by the inspiration and power thereof, for this is one of the objects which we have in view in assembling ourselves together, from Sabbath to Sabbath, to be instructed in the things pertaining to the kingdom, and also to partake of the emblems of the death and sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We find ourselves here, upon this creation, intelligent beings, and questions no doubt arise in the minds of almost every man and every woman in relation to the future destiny of the human family, and what is the object of our being placed here on this earth for a short season and then passing away. It is a question not only asked by intelligent beings who believe in divine revelation, but the heathen and semi-barbarous nations, in fact all people reflect, more or less, concerning the object of their existence here, and what awaits them in the future. Mankind gain very little light on this subject unless through the medium of divine revelation, hence we find among all people a great variety of views in relation to this matter. Our American Indians have some ideas of a future state of existence—they cannot persuade themselves to believe that man is destined, when he lays aside this mortal tabernacle, to be annihilated, but they look forward to a future state, and the pleasures they will hereafter enjoy in their happy hunting grounds. Some people believe one principle and some another in relation to this matter, and the only way man can be satisfied on a subject of so great importance is by receiving revelation from that order of beings—far in advance of us—who have a knowledge of the future state and condition of man.

We find recorded in the revelations of the Most High, called the Bible, as well as in the Book of Mormon and the various modern revelations which God has given, that man is destined to live forever. God having revealed this fact to ancients and to moderns, raised up witnesses to bear testimony to the children of men that they are immortal beings, and that this change which comes upon them, denominated death, is not an annihilation of their being or an end of their existence, but it is merely a casting off or laying aside of the mortal tabernacle; that man lives in the eternal world even after he appears to be dead, and that, if a righteous man, he has joy and happiness, but if a wicked man, he has the gnawing of conscience, and misery, and wretchedness; and that he expects, according to divine revelation, to receive again, in due time, the tabernacle that he has thrown off for a moment. It is sown in weakness, says the Apostle Paul, it is raised in power; it is laid down as a mortal body, it is raised up as an immortal body.

If we, by study or research, could discover some method or principle by which we could remain in this world and live in this tabernacle forever, we should be willing to do so with all the inconveniences of the present order of things, and still be joyful in our hearts. If any man could by research or learning discover some kind of a way, or means or medicine that would give immortality to the children of men, even in their present state, he would be considered one of the greatest men that ever lived, and the one who had bestowed the greatest blessing upon his fellow creatures; he would be lauded to the very skies, and his name would be handed down among all people and nations as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind; so earnestly do we feel to cling to life and desire to live, that we would be very willing to put up with the inconveniences of the present state if we could only remain and the monster death have no power over us. But it is in the order of God that man should die. Man brought this upon himself by transgressing the laws of heaven. By putting forth his hand and partaking of that which God had forbidden, he brought this great evil into the world. Death not only came upon our first parents, who committed the first great transgression, but the curse has been inherited by all their generations. None can escape the curse so far as the mortal body is concerned.

I think, perhaps, this broad assertion may be contradicted in the minds of some. They may tell us of Enoch, who was translated to heaven; they may speak of Elijah, who was caught up in a chariot of fire, and say, “Here, at least, are two exceptions to the general rule.” But what do we know concerning translation? What has God revealed in all the revelations contained in the Old and New Testaments in relation to a translated being? Are we assured that such beings never will have to undergo a change equivalent to that of death?

Our new revelations that we have received inform us of a great many individuals that were translated before the flood. We read that a great and mighty Prophet of the Most High God was sent forth in the days of Adam, namely Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, who lived contemporary with his ancestor Adam; that in his days a great number of people heard the plan of salvation preached to them by the power of the Holy Ghost that rested upon Enoch and those who were called with him; that they received this plan of salvation and gathered themselves out from among the various nations of the earth where they had obeyed the Gospel; that they were instructed, after they assembled in one, in righteousness, for three hundred and sixty-five years; that they learned the laws of the kingdom, and concerning God and every principle of righteousness that was necessary to enable them to enter into the fullness of the glory of heaven; they were instructed to build up a city, and it was called a city of holiness, for God came down and dwelt with that people; he was in their midst, they beheld his glory, they saw his face, and he condescended to dwell among them for many long years, during which time they were instructed and taught in all of his ways, and among other things they learned the great doctrine and principle of translation, for that is a doctrine the same as the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which is among the first principles of the plan of salvation; and we may also say that the doctrine of translation, which is intimately connected with that of the resurrection, is also one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. They were instructed in relation to this government, the object of it, &c.

According to the light and knowledge which the Latter-day Saints have upon this subject, revealed in the revelations given through Joseph Smith, we find that those people, when they were fully prepared, having learned the doctrine of transla– tion, were caught up into the heavens, the whole city, the people and their habitations. How much of the earth was taken up in connection with their habitations we are not informed. It might have been a large region. You may ask—“Where was this city of Zion built in ancient days?” According to new revelation it was built upon this great western hemisphere. When I speak of this western hemisphere I speak of it as it now exists. In those days the land was united; the eastern and the western hemispheres were one; but they dwelt in that portion of our globe that is now called the western hemisphere, and they were taken up from this portion of the globe. No doubt all the region of country occupied by them was translated, or taken away from the earth.

Does this prove that they were immortal beings from the time of their translation? No; it does not prove any such thing. How are we to know anything about it? We cannot learn anything in relation to it, except by revelation. God has revealed to us that they are held in reserve, in some part or portion of space; their location is not revealed, but they are held in reserve to be revealed in the latter times, to return to their ancient mother earth; all the inhabitants that were then taken away are to return to the earth.

Some five thousand years have passed away since they were caught up to the heavens. What has been their condition during that time? Have they been free from death? They have been held in reserve in answer to their prayers. What were their prayers? Enoch and his people prayed that a day of righteousness might be brought about during their day; they sought for it with all their hearts; they looked abroad over the face of the earth and saw the corrup– tions that had been introduced by the various nations, the descendants of Adam, and their hearts melted within them, and they groaned before the Lord with pain and sorrow, because of the wickedness of the children of men, and they sought for a day of rest, they sought that righteousness might be revealed, that wickedness might be swept away and that the earth might rest for a season. God gave them visions, portrayed to them the future of the world, showed unto them that this earth must fulfill the measure of its creation; that generation after generation must be born and pass away, and that, after a certain period of time, the earth would rest from wickedness, that the wicked would be swept away, and the earth would be cleansed and sanctified and be prepared for a righteous people. “Until that day,” saith the Lord, “you and your people shall rest, Zion shall be taken up into my own bosom.” Ancient Zion should be held in reserve until the day of rest should come, “then,” said the Lord to Enoch, “thou and all thy city shall descend upon the earth, and your prayers shall be answered.”

They have been gone, as I have already stated, about five thousand years. What have they been doing? All that we know concerning this subject is what has been revealed through the great and mighty Prophet of the last days, Joseph Smith—that unlearned youth whom God raised up to bring forth the Book of Mormon and to establish this latter-day Church. He has told us that they have been ministering angels during all that time. To whom? To those of the terrestrial order, if you can understand that expression. God gave them the desires of their hearts, the same as he gave to the three Nephites, to whom he gave the privilege, according to their request, of remaining and bringing souls unto Christ while the world should stand. Even so, he granted to the people of Enoch their desire to become ministering spirits unto those of the terrestrial order until the earth should rest and they should again return to it.

Joseph inquired concerning their condition, whether they were subject to death during that period, and was informed, as you will find in the history of this Church, as printed in the Millennial Star and other publications thereof, that these personages have to pass through a change equivalent to that of death; notwithstanding their translation from the earth, a certain change has to be wrought upon them that is equivalent, to death, and probably equivalent also to the resurrection of the dead. But before that change comes they minister in their office unto those of another order, that is the terrestrial order. Strangers will not understand perhaps what we mean by the terrestrial order. If they will take the opportunity of reading the doctrines of this Church, as laid down in the revelations given through Joseph Smith, they will learn what our views are in relation to this matter. God revealed by vision the different orders of being in the eternal worlds. One class, the highest of all, is called the celestial; another class, the next to the celestial in glory, power, might and dominion, is called the terrestrial; another class, still lower than the terrestrial in glory and exaltation, is called the telestial. This middle class, whose glory is typified by the glory of our moon in the firmament of the heavens as compared with the sun, are those who once dwelt on this or some other creation and, if they have had the Gospel laid before them they have not had a full opportunity of receiving it; or they have not heard it all, and have died without having the privilege. In the resurrection they come forth with terrestrial bodies. They must be administered to says the vision, and God has appointed agents or messengers to minister to these terrestrial beings, for their good, blessing, exaltation, glory and honor in the eternal worlds.

Enoch and his people understanding this principle sought that they, before receiving the fullness of their celestial glory, might be the instruments in the hands of God of doing much good among beings of the terrestrial order.

We read in the New Testament concerning certain angels that are in the eternal worlds, and the question is asked by the Apostle Paul—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation?”—not for those who were already heirs of salvation, but for those who shall be—those who were to be redeemed, that were to be brought forth and exalted. Enoch and his people were appointed to this ministry, holding the Priesthood thereof, with power and authority to administer in order that those beings may be exalted and brought up, and inherit all the glory that they are desirous to receive.

Much might be said concerning these different orders of glory, but we feel to pass on, and we will speak a few words now concerning the resurrection from the dead of those who have fully prepared themselves for the highest glory, the glory of the celestial kingdom, the highest of all, the holiest of all, the kingdom where God the Father sits enthroned in glory and in power, ruling and governing all things. There is a certain law, which God ordained before the foundation of the world, an irrevocable decree that those who would obey that law should have this great and most glorious of all the resurrections, be raised to celestial power, thrones and exaltations, where they could dwell in the presence of their Father and their God, throughout all the future ages of eternity.

Do you enquire what this law is which God revealed, and which was foreordained in the counsels of eternity, to be made manifest unto the sons and daughters of men for their exaltation to this highest heaven? Do you desire to know the road, the ordinances, the principles, by which we may attain to that highest of all exaltations? I will begin and say to all, that every individual that ever attains to the fullness of that glory, I mean those who have come to the years of understanding and maturity not referring at all to little children—must be born of the water and of the Spirit in order to be prepared to enter that highest glory of all. No one gets there upon any other principle. No ordinances, principles, laws or institutions laid down by the children of men that vary from that principle, will ever bring us into the celestial kingdom. We have the words of Jesus on this subject, when speaking to Nicodemus—“Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” It is an impossibility, because the word of the great Jehovah has gone forth, and will not be revoked, and unless we are born of the water and of the Spirit, we cannot enter there.

What do we understand by being born of the water? What we understand, what God has revealed to us, as well as to the ancients, is, that we must be laid under the water and be brought forth out of the water, typical of birth, for this is a birth of the water. Who is a fit subject for this birth of the water? None but those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world; those who believe that he died to redeem the world and that he shed his blood to atone for the sins of the world; those who believe this and truly repent of all their sins are the only subjects who are justified before God in going down into the waters of baptism, being immersed in the water and brought forth again out of the water, which is the new birth of the water. It will do no person any good to be baptized a hundred times if his baptism is not connected with true faith in God and in Jesus Christ, and in his revelations and commandments; and unless he sincerely and truly repents of his sins, reforms his life and enters into a covenant with God to serve him in all righteousness, humility, meekness and lowliness of heart, his baptism would be good for nothing, it would not be acknowledged in heaven, it would not be recorded in the archives of eternity to his justification in the great judgment day. Let me go still further, and say, that if we have repented of and been baptized for the remission of our sins, if we do not seek after the birth of the spirit also, our baptism will avail us nothing; they must go hand in hand—the birth of the water first and then the birth of the spirit.

What do we understand by the birth of the spirit? I answer, that there is a birth of the spirit, in other words, those persons who receive the Holy Ghost are filled with it, are immersed within it, they are clothed upon therewith, and consequently are born anew of it, and they are without desires to do evil, their desires to do that which is wrong are taken away, and they become new creatures in Christ Jesus, being born of the spirit, as well as being born of the water. Here then are certain laws, ordinances or principles, as a beginning or starting point, by which we may gain an entrance into that highest glory of which I have been speaking.

Another thing to be considered in receiving these ordinances—I may be ever so sincere and humble and ever so willing to repent of my sins; I may have ever so much faith in God and in his Son Jesus Christ, and yet if I am not baptized by a man holding divine authority from God, having the right to baptize me in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, my baptism will not be legal, it will not be the new birth, and I cannot enter into the kingdom of God, according to the words of Jesus. What then does it require to constitute a man having divine authority? Can anyone by a mere impression upon his mind consider that he has divine authority to baptize his fellows? No; it needs a call from heaven, it needs a new revelation cotemporary with the individuals that act, a revelation from God calling the persons by name, setting them apart, ordaining them and calling them to officiate, commanding them to administer. Any other person who attempts to administer baptism will not be acknowledged in heaven. But a man holding the right by virtue of his divine calling and ordination, and by virtue of the power that God has bestowed upon him and the commandment that God has revealed to him, can go down and administer the baptism of water, and it will be recognized in heaven; it will not only be recorded on earth among the Saints in the Church here on the earth, but it will be recorded in the books of eternity, the records that are kept on high, and in that day, when all men shall be judged out of the books that are written, it will be found that the books kept here on earth will accord with those books that are kept in heaven, and by these books will parties be justified, and by these books will the legal ordinances that have been administered be acknowledged and recognized in heaven.

This calls forth another query by the world—“Why is it that you Latter-day Saints are so exclusive in the administration of the ordinances that you will not admit me, a Baptist, to join your society on my old baptism? I have been immersed,” says the Baptist; “I was sincere, I repented of my sins, and yet you Latter-day Saints will not receive me into your communion and to become a member of your Church unless I am baptized by one of your authorities.” The answer is, we do not recognize, as I have already stated, the authority of the Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Roman Catholics, nor of any Christian society upon the whole face of our globe to administer in the sacred ordinances, unless God has called them by new revelation, even as Aaron was called in ancient days. Have they been thus called? Ask them, and they will tell you no. Ask them if there has been any later revelation than the Old and New Testament, and all these societies will tell you that God has not given any revelation, raised up any Prophets or inspired Apostles, sent any angels, or given any visions, since the day that John the Revelator, the last of the Apostles, closed up his writing. Oh what an awful condition they must be in if this is the case! And who, with the exception of the Latter-day Saints, I ask again, among all nations, kindreds, peoples, tongues, and religious denominations, upon the face of our globe, has any divine authority? Not one, hence their baptisms are illegal, their administrations of the Lord’s Supper are illegal, and all their administrations in ordinances are not recognized in heaven. If God has not said anything since the days of the ancient Apostles, no wonder that he commanded, in these latter days, that we should not receive any into our Church unless they came in by the door of baptism.

But we have only told you some of the first principles of the Gospel of the Son of God, which are necessary to prepare the human family to enter into that highest glory that is spoken of by the Apostle Paul—the glory of the celestial. He says in the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians—“There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for as one star differs from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead.” The glory of the sun is the highest, it is called by Paul the celestial, and I have told you some of the first principles of the celestial law. If you would inherit a celestial glory you must be willing to abide by the celestial law, otherwise you will come short. But do we stop with these first principles? No, there are many other great and glorious principles, connected with the celestial law, which God has revealed, and set forth as necessary for his people to receive, in order to prepare them to enter into that glory. I will name one—marriage.

We know very little about the order of heaven, so far as marriage is concerned, and all that we do know God has revealed. He has told us in the New Testament, “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” It seems then that there is a marriage wherein God officiates, or in other words, he officiates by his power and authority, he officiates in the uniting of men and women in marriage, hence it is called joining them together of God—what God joins, not what man joins. It is a divine institution, it cannot be administered by the lawmaking department. There may be marriages under the civil law; Congress, or the Legislatures of the various States and Territories may pass laws regulating the marriage institution, and marriages performed according to the provisions thereof would be legal, so far as the laws of man are concerned. But has God anything to do with these marriages? Just as much as he has with baptism when it is administered illegally. I have already shown you that a baptism administered by a man without authority is good for nothing; and a man and woman united in marriage by any civil law ever framed since the world began, are illegally married in the sight of heaven; to be legal there, it must be performed by a man called by revelation and ordained and commanded to celebrate that ordinance.

Now I want to say a few words to our young people who dwell in different parts of the Territory. I have heard that some of them, perhaps through a want of understanding of the laws of God, have suffered themselves to be married by the civil law—for instance, by a justice of the peace, alderman or judge. That will do very well so far as the laws of the land are concerned, but has God anything to do with such marriages? Nothing at all. Has he ever authorized marriages to be solemnized after this order? Not at all. Are children born of such marriages your legal sons and daughters in the sight of heaven? Not at all; they are in one sense bastards. That is a pretty hard saying, is it not? They are actually bastards. For instance, there are many old people who never heard of the divine appointment and authority which God has sent forth from heaven in relation to marriage, who have been married according to the laws of the countries in which they resided before they heard of this work. They complied literally with their laws, and so far as the law was concerned that was all right. But were they, legally, in the sight of God, husband and wife? Just as much as I would be a son of God and born of water, if I were sprinkled by a sectarian priest, or baptized by a Baptist priest, just as much. Could we claim a celestial glory, and all the privileges and blessings and exaltation that God has ordained from the foundation of the world to be bestowed upon those who comply with the celestial law, unless we complied with this law? Could our children, in the morning of the resurrection, come up and say unto us—“We claim you as our legal parents;” “I am your son,” “I am your daughter, and you are my parents, and therefore I claim the privilege of partaking of all the glory that you partake of, and of receiving thrones and dominions and kingdoms and powers and principalities in heavenly places in Christ Jesus?” They could not claim any such thing; neither could the parents have a claim upon these children; neither could they be gathered together and organized into a family capacity. Why? Because the celestial law has not been attended to. Inquires one—“Do you mean to make us all out bastards?” Not in the eyes of the law, but in the eyes of heaven. I am pointing out the difference now between the two laws—the law of man and the law of God, or the celestial law. Parents, if you would have your families connected with you in a social capacity hereafter, you must take steps to secure them by obeying the celestial law.

Inquires one—“Is there any remedy for these illegal marriages that we entered into before we heard the Gospel?” Yes, God has ordained from before the foundation of the world, laws and institutions adapted to the condition of all the human family, which, when revealed, if they are attended to by the children of men, will bless and exalt them, and consequently the propriety of gathering. God has not revealed a law in relation to marriage which may be officiated in everywhere, at random, without any record; he has ordained that in the last days, in Zion and in Jerusalem, and in the remnant whom the Lord our God shall call, there shall be deliverance. Deliverance from what? From all our former foolish traditions, and from the powers of darkness and everything evil. For this reason the people are gathering up from the nations of the earth, that they may be taught the law of deliverance; that they may be taught, legally and properly, how to become connected as husbands and wives in the sight of heaven; and inasmuch as our children have been born unto us under the covenants of the civil law, that our marriages may be renewed under the new covenant that God has revealed, and be recorded and sealed on earth and in heaven for the benefit of our children and their posterity forever and ever. You will find, when you learn further concerning the celestial glory, Paul’s words to be true, that in that glory, those who are in God must themselves be connected in marriage; for says the Apostle Paul, “the man is not without the woman in the Lord, and the woman is not without the man in the Lord.” This is an eternal principle, an eternal law pertaining to that glory. You may try to get the fullness thereof singlehanded, but you can’t do it, for God has made this a point of order and law, that all beings who are exalted to that highest glory shall be united in the Lord, as husband and wife.

Inquires one—“Do you mean that such relationship is going to continue after this life in the eternal worlds?” Yes, that which God has appointed and ordained in eternity, in relation to the creations and worlds that he has made, must be fulfilled. There is no such thing as a woman dwelling separately and independently, and inheriting a fullness of the glory of heaven, or a man either; they must be united together in the Lord.

Now you begin to understand a little of the principle of marriage, as believed in by the Latter-day Saints. We might point out a great many other principles of the celestial law, necessary to observe in order to attain the highest glory, but as the heat is intense, it would not be wisdom to detain you. Let me say to my young brethren and sisters, do not transgress the law of heaven. These things could be done without any very great condemnation by people abroad, but when we are at the place where we can be taught and instructed in the ways of the Lord, if we then, with our eyes wide open, go and get our marriages celebrated by the civil authorities of the land alone, we shall find ourselves under great condemnation. God will judge the people according to the light they have, and if you have been properly instructed in regard to his laws and ordinances do not transgress them, but attend to them according to the order of heaven, as you are instructed. Let all your marriages be, not for time only, according to the Gentile system of marriage, but let them be covenants for eternity, and let them be sealed upon you by a man of God having authority to do these things; and let them be recorded, and let these records be such that, when the books are opened, they will be found to accord with the records of heaven, then, if you are faithful, you will be entitled to your wife and your children, to all eternity, by virtue of the covenants which you have entered into, and which have been sealed on earth, by divine authority, and sealed in heaven in your behalf. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in The New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, July 12, 1874.

I rejoice, today, in the opportunity which I have of meeting with my brethren and sisters, but it would give me much greater satisfaction to sit and look upon their faces, and to listen to the voice or voices of others, than to occupy the time myself. I am thankful, however, that I am in your midst, and that circumstances are so favorable with us as they are.

I expect, from all I have heard, that this past season has been one of some degree of anxiety on the part of the Latter-day Saints in the Territory of Utah. But I do not believe that your happiness has been much interfered with, if I am to judge of your feelings by my own. We have had so many things to contend with all the days that we have been asso– ciated with this work, and we made calculations when we espoused it upon the character of the opposition to be contended with, that when we meet it there is no disappointment. In this respect the Latter-day Saints differ from every other people with whom I have met. If any other people in this government were assailed as the Latter-day Saints have been, and were to have so many intolerant and sweeping measures suggested for legislation by the Congress of the United States, real estate would be of very little value, and all kinds of business would be unsettled and ruined. But I cannot perceive that values, business, or your faith in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has been in the least disturbed.

I have been questioned a good many times since I returned, as to my feelings during my absence. My reply has been that I never felt better in my life than during the past eight months. I have been absent from home a good many times, and I have traveled in a good many lands, and mingled with many people under a variety of circumstances, but I can say truly this day, that at no period in any of my travels, or under the different circumstances in which I have been placed, have I ever felt better than I have during my recent absence from home.

This may surprise some who are not acquainted with this work, and, in fact, it may excite some degree of surprise in the breasts of those who are familiar with it; but my theory is that when a man is conscious, or a people are conscious, that he or they are in the path of duty, doing that which is right in the sight of God, they should always be happy, no matter what the circumstances may be which surround them. I think that God has created us to be happy, and my belief is that he has placed happiness within the reach of all, and it is man’s own fault if he is not happy and does not enjoy himself every day of his life. This is one of my reasons for liking my religion, this system called “Mormonism,” because it bestows full happiness and joy upon its believers. They can be happy in the midst of the most adverse circumstances; they can rejoice when surrounded with enemies, and when their lives are imperiled. During my absence my feeling has been that God was with his people; I also felt that the faith of the Latter-day Saints was greatly exerted in my behalf, and that it was sustaining and strengthening me.

In some respects my position as delegate from this Territory was not an enviable one, and from the time that I reached Washington until the close of Congress there was one paper, at least, which poured out unlimited abuse upon myself and upon my constituents. Scarcely a day passed that some falsehood was not circulated or some vile slander or charge published about the people in these mountains, or about myself. Appeals of every imaginable character were made to the Congress of the United States, that is, to the House particularly, to take instant measures to expel me, and when, as these writers thought, a disposition was manifested not to comply with their demands, recourse was had to the charge of bribery—that we were spending money, and that members of Congress were paid to prevent their action upon my case. In this respect the condition of a delegate might be considered an unenviable one, but I felt a strength, I felt a power, I had an influence, or thought I had, at least, that no other member of the House of Representatives possessed. For instance, the members of the House generally were constantly harassed with the thought as to what their constituents would think of them, how they would view their action, how they would like their votes, &c., whether they would be displeased with such and such a measure, &c. Their future election, they knew, depended upon their having a popular record, and to secure this required considerable thought and ingenuity upon the part of many. I was divested of this fear, I had no thought as to what my constituents would think of me, it never cost me a single moment’s reflection, because I knew that I had the entire confidence of the people whom I represented; and I knew that whatever I did, so long as I did the best I could, I should be sustained in doing it by you and by all the people throughout these valleys, and in this respect I had a strength which no other one had. I often told members, when it was convenient and appropriate to speak in this strain, that I had the faith of the entire people, and that they were praying for me. This would amuse a good many, but I have never failed, during my absence, to convey, whenever I could, the idea that we were a people who believed in and prayed to God, and that we had faith in our prayers. One of the great lessons that we have to teach the world today is faith in God, and though a member of Congress, dealing with political questions and matters which are considered foreign to religion by the great majority of men, I have not thought that religion was like a Sunday garment, to be worn on Sunday in the meetinghouse, tabernacle, chapel or church, and to be laid aside again on Monday morning. I have never had that idea of religion, I do not have it now.

There is at the present time an almost entire absence of faith in God among men. I have been struck with this more than any other feature that I have witnessed during my absence. Converse with well meaning, intelligent men, men of good moral character, and you will be surprised at the extent of the unbelief there is in the world. There seems to be an idea that God our Eternal Father resides in some remote place so far removed from us that he takes no special cognizance of us or of our actions, that he governs the universe and the affairs of men by great natural and unalterable laws, that there are no special providences in favor of men, but that man prospers according to his wisdom, strength and talent, and that weak men and a weak people stand no chance in opposition to the strong; hence the remark was made to me, I may say, hundreds of times during my absence—“You people must conform to the ideas of the rest of the world, or you will go to the wall.” “You people must abandon your strange ideas and your peculiar views, or you will inevitably be overthrown.” On such occasions I would not fail to give the ideas that we believed in God, that we believed this was God’s work, that God had sustained and delivered us in the past, that we were still willing to trust him for the future, and that he would provide a way of escape. But while men would listen patiently and kindly to such remarks, you could see incredulity on every lineament of their countenance, a sort of pitying incredulity, as though they looked upon you as very well-meaning, but in this respect a very much mistaken person. The idea that prevails is that God or Providence is on the side of the strongest artillery, and that if we are weak and are warred against we must go down because of our weakness.

Of course, where this idea prevails there can be but little faith in God’s special providences. If this were a correct idea, there would be little use in prayer, in supplicating God, in entreating him for his blessing and his power to be bestowed upon us. But we have proved the efficacy of prayer so often ourselves, that there is no need for us as a people to be fortified upon this point, or to have arguments urged upon us. My own life is full of incidents—as is the life, doubtless, of every individual present who has faith in God—which are evidences of his interposition in answer of prayer, and my feeling is that one of the great duties devolving upon us is to teach the world that there is a God, and that he has power to save today, as much as in ancient days, those who are willing to trust him. It is this peculiar feature that makes everything connected with this work so incomprehensible to men. Those of you who have kept posted in relation to affairs, know how wonderfully matters have been arranged for our good. When I look back at the seven or eight months that are past and see what has been done, I am amazed, knowing how thorough have been the measures and the efforts to strip us of every right and to bring us into bondage. No less than eight or nine bills were introduced into Congress early in the session, for the express purpose of reaching the “Mormon” case. These bills were referred to various committees, and arguments had to be made upon them before these committees; but there was a determination on the part of a great many members to vote upon any bill, no matter what its features might be, that might be introduced into the House from a committee. You cannot judge, however, in every instance, of the private feelings of men by their votes. A great many members of Congress would rather not cast their votes against us if they could have their way; but the timidity of members upon the “Mormon” question is the strength of the enemies of the people of Utah, and they count upon that as a means of insuring the success of their schemes of villainy. They are well aware that there is a feeling of reluctance on the part of public men to place themselves on the record in favor of anything that would look like sustaining or giving countenance to what is called “Mormonism.” Our enemies counted upon this last session. In the beginning of the session they depended upon that as the means by which they would prevent me from taking my seat in the House of Representatives. Disappointed in that, they then commenced operations before the committee on elections and, as you are doubtless well aware, did everything in their power to precipitate that question upon the House. I need not rehearse to you how these attempts have been overruled. To my mind the hand of God is as plainly manifest in all these circumstances as is this light, or these objects which I see before me in the light of this day.

When the bills against Utah were introduced, they were referred, as I have said, to committees. They were principally copies of the bill that passed the Senate in the last session of the forty-second Congress, called the Frelinghuysen bill. One of these was introduced by the chairman of the Committee on Territories and was called the McKee bill. This bill was argued at great length before the Committee on Territories, and it was reported to the House.

To the astonishment of its reputed author, a point of order was raised upon it for which he was not prepared, and, before he scarcely knew it, the bill was taken out of his hands and referred to the committee of the whole and virtually defeated for that session. Of course, our enemies were not suited with that arrangement, they wanted some other bill passed, and hoping that the Poland bill would be the least objectionable and would pass the easiest, they brought that forward and urged its passage before the Judiciary Committee. A number of meetings were held, arguments were made for and against the bill, and finally, through laboring hard with prominent members of that committee a modification was obtained in one important section of the bill, namely, that referring to the selection of jurors. As the bill originally stood it possessed the same feature that all the rest did, giving to the Judge of the District Court, his clerk and the U.S. Marshal, the right to select all our jurors. This section was fought earnestly, and finally Judge Poland was induced to modify it sufficiently to have three commissioners appointed, who should have the selection of jurors. Eventually another change was made in that section, and the feature that now stands in the law as it passed was introduced giving the right to select jurors to the Probate Judge of each county and the clerk of the District Court, each to select alternately a juror from lists already prepared. I felt that this, itself, was a very great triumph, because as the bill originally stood it virtually left us, our lives, our liberties and all our property, at the mercy of three individuals who, judging by past experience in this Territory, would pack juries upon us without any scruples; and I felt that it was a great advantage to us that the infamous raid had been made upon us two years ago by the Judge of this district and those associated with him, for it gave me an opportunity of setting forth what had been done in the past when there was no law to sustain such operations, and to argue what we might expect if there were a law to sustain them.

When the Poland bill was brought before the House there seemed to be a forgetfulness on the part of its sponsor—not its author but its sponsor—Judge Poland, that there was a rule in operation requiring every bill that contemplated an appropriation from the federal treasury to be referred to the committee of the whole. He had forgotten the point that had been made on the McKee bill, and when his reputed bill was introduced that point was again made, and sustained by the Speaker. Judge Poland saw that he could not carry it over the decision of the Speaker and the decision of the best parliamentarians in the House and, to save his bill from being referred to the committee of the whole, he withdrew it. At this point a man who had been down there, very anxious to get legislation, and urging it with his might, met me on the floor of the House, and said—“Mr. Cannon, before you left Salt Lake you told me that God was on your side, and I’ll be d—d if I don’t begin to believe it.” I told him He was, and was on the point of telling him that he would be damned if he did not believe it, when we separated. For the moment, his fears being alive, I suppose he thought there was some power with us, as this was the second bill that had been so nearly killed for that session. Judge Poland succeeded afterwards in getting the privilege of reporting the bill to the House and having it there considered as in committee of the whole, and this saved the point of order.

As I have told you, the strength of our enemies did not consist in the justice or rightfulness of their cause; it did not consist in the strength of their arguments; it did not consist, in fact, in anything of this character that could be brought before members; but their principal reliance was upon the circulation of abominable falsehoods and slanders and the unreasoning prejudices which existed against the people of this Territory, which made members timid in dealing fairly with our question. A people who profess the characteristics of many of the residents of this Territory, and who have shown such willingness to suffer all things for what they consider the right, have difficulty in comprehending how men in power can be timid where principle is involved. But the power of members of Congress is very ephemeral. The tenure of office of many is frequently based upon slight grounds. Some have to struggle hard to get to Congress, and they struggle still harder to keep there. Viewed from their standpoint such reason in this wise: I follow politics as a profession; I expect to live by that profession; I reach Congress with difficulty, for my district is closely contested. I must vote in a way not to lessen my majority in my district, or to decrease my influence. There is a prejudice against the Mormons, and if I seem to favor them, my opponents would use it against me on the stump in the next campaign, even if I should succeed in getting a nomination from the convention of my party.

As you know, the Poland bill passed the House and was sent to the Senate. It was expected that it would pass the Senate almost instantaneously; that it would be referred, as a matter of form, to the Committee on the Judiciary and be instantly reported back for passage. But the members of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, although the Frelinghuysen bill had passed during the previous Congress, were not disposed to pass this hastily through. There had been considerable said, a good many arguments made, and conversations held with Senators, and the true state of affairs, as far as possible, had been represented to them, and they had this fear—that this whole attempt at legislation was merely a pretext by which a raid could be made on the property of the “Mormons” in Utah Territory.

There were two very powerful aids that I had in Washington. One, that idea to which I have just referred, that all this was a scheme on the part of certain interested parties for the purpose of getting up a raid under cover of polygamy and “Mormonism” to rob the people of their hard-earned possessions. Many Senators and members had been to Utah and were aware of the increased value of property through the discovery of mines. They had no faith in carpetbaggers, hence there was a reluctance on the part of considerate men to lend themselves to anything like a scheme of this character.

The other great aid I had were the looks of the men who were urging legislation. All I had to do was to point to these men and ask Senators and members how they would like to have power put in the hands of such persons if they resided in Utah Territory? The argument was a conclusive one if they had the opportunity of seeing the persons who were urging legislation at that time. I do not exaggerate when I say that those who went down there to contest my seat and urge legislation were the best aids that could have been furnished me. Some have thought I ought to have had some help, but I tell you truly that they were the best helps that could be sent. I have been asked repeatedly what we paid one of them at least to be there. The first time the question was put to me I was a little surprised at it, and could not help expressing my surprise, not understanding exactly its drift. I said—“We pay him nothing, what do you mean?” “Well,” said the gentleman who asked the question, “if you do not pay him you certainly can afford to pay him to keep him here.” These were strong reasons on our side, and they contributed materially to help our cause.

When the bill, as I have said, came from the Judiciary Committee to the Senate, it came in its original form except the striking out of one section which extended the common law over this Territory. But there was a disposition to so modify the bill that it could not be used in the way that it was designed by its originators, and you know how it has been pruned. To me, as I have said respecting this other matter, so I can say concerning it, that the hand of God was very visible to me, and I felt that he was laboring on our side, and that he would help us and deliver us as he had delivered others in other times and in past ages; and the Lord did soften the hearts of men, cause them to feel favorable to us and to feel favorably disposed to our cause.

It has been said as an explanation of this, so I have understood, that we have used money at Washington to defeat legislation. I have not seen these statements myself, for I made it a point never to read books or papers which vilify this people. I really have too little time to read the works and papers which are instructive and pleasant to me, and with which I ought to be familiar, to spend one moment of time in reading abusive, lying and slanderous writings concerning this people or myself. While I was absent, there was a paper published in Washington that had almost daily, as I have remarked, articles against you and myself. I made it a point never to read one of them. I did not want to be disturbed in my feelings. “Where ignorance is bliss,” the poet says, “’tis folly to be wise.” I thought the scheme was a blackmailing one; I knew the influences which were put in operation to keep up this abuse and I was determined it should not annoy me. Whenever the use of money has been alluded to in the hearing of President Young he has stated, emphatically, that so far as he was concerned he would not spend one cent of money to preserve our rights, or to obtain extended liberties for us as a people. This has been his emphatic declaration, his expressed determination. His views on this subject have been accepted as every way correct.

I want to say to you here, today, my brethren and sisters, that not one cent of money has been spent with any man for the purpose of influencing him. I believe my word can be relied upon by this people; you have known me all my life, and when I say this you can put implicit and perfect reliance in what I say. We have had no aid of this kind, we have used no means of this character, we have had no lobbyist. That which has been done has been fairly and above board, and it has been the blessing of God upon us in answer to the united faith and prayers of this people that has produced the results that we have witnessed. I am thankful that we have been enabled to take this course and that we can trust in God and rely upon him, for he will save to the very uttermost.

I recollect writing home a letter some weeks ago, some weeks in fact before the adjournment, in which I said that so far as the sight of the eye, the hearing of the ear, and na– tural judgment were concerned men might be justified in thinking there would be legislation that would be very severe, and that I would lose my seat. And yet I can truly say that from the day of my election up to the time that I left Washington I never had a single doubt, not a shadow of a doubt as to my keeping my seat—it never cost me one moment’s thought. I knew when I left here that I would be admitted to my seat; I knew when the attempt was made to expel me that it would be unsuccessful; I knew further, that every attempt to get legislation such as was contemplated would be defeated, and if a bill did pass it would be in a comparatively mild form. Of course, having these ideas, I have felt, as I stated in the commencement of my remarks, very happy. I have had joy all the time, I have had peace all the time, and I have had good cause to be thankful to God our heavenly Father for his blessings upon me.

That I was not expelled from my seat, however, was not due to the absence of effort on the part of the person who wanted it. It was really amusing to hear the pathetic manner in which the poor creature and his confederates alluded to the technical and legal reply which I made (and which was published in this city), to his charges against me in his notice of contest for the place of delegate. He had piled charge upon charge against me, nothing being too false, vile or malignant to embody in these accusations, and because I acknowledged nothing, but threw the onus of the proof upon him, he murmured considerably. It would doubtless have been very gratifying to him to have had his case completed for him. As it was, recourse was had to the most despicable methods to obtain such evidence as was thought necessary. Spies pried into my domestic affairs, and from them and apostates cooked affidavits were obtained with which it was hoped the desired end would be achieved. If vile slanders, base falsehoods, false affidavits or atrocious attacks could have had the desired effect I would not have kept my seat in Congress. If grossly libelous newspaper articles, if shameless and indecent lectures, if frantic appeals to popular prejudice, or the secret circulation of documents signed by perjured affiants could have influenced Congress to take hasty and ill-considered action, the place of delegate from Utah might have been declared vacant. My opponents attacked me for being a “Mormon” of the most ultra and pronounced type; their great efforts were to prove that in the enunciation and practice of every feature of my religion I was bold though shrewd and not a whit behind the foremost, and because of this should not have a seat in Congress. This endorsement, if it had been worth anything, would have pleased me. But it did not always suit to give me this character. For circulation here, another plan was adopted. I was accused of not standing up to my principles. This charge was false but did not displease me, any more than the others pleased me. I am thankful to say that I have learned to view all such charges with complete indifference. Conscious of the propriety of my own course and that I had the confidence of my constituents, my enemies’ attacks gave me no concern. Indeed, I accepted them as compliments. I was quite willing to be investigated. I had tried to live so that I had no fear of a microscopic investigation of the acts of my life. At the same time I never conceded that Congress had the right to investigate my domestic affairs. I have no idea that I shall ever be convinced that it has that right.

So far as my personal treatment has been concerned, I have been treated with respect and consideration. A few individuals, a few members, have sought to do us injury; a few men can make a great disturbance on a question upon which men are so tender as this question of “Mormonism.” But by the great majority, by ninety-nine hundredths of the men with whom I have been brought in contact, as members of the House, as senators, as heads of departments, I could not ask any better treatment than I have received, I could not expect it. I have endeavored to deport myself as a gentleman in all the relations of life, to treat everybody with the consideration and respect that were due to them, and I have, in return, been treated in the same manner. I take pleasure in bearing this testimony, because one might imagine, from reports that have reached here, that I have been in a constant war and difficulty. It has been a constant war, but it has been a war that has been confined to fighting and counteracting the lies, the machinations, the slanders and the miserable schemes of those who have been plotting against us. And I wish to bear testimony to you this afternoon, that if you will put your trust in God he will never desert you. I never felt for a moment concerned about our affairs but once, and that was when I heard of the divisions in our elections here; that gave me concern. If these Latter-day Saints are only united, if they will keep the commandments of God and do his will, let me say to you that there is no power on earth or in hell that can injure us or retard the onward progress of this work. I know this as well as I know I stand here. But you be divided, you lose your faith, you array yourselves one against another, and then where is your strength? You are no better than any other people, and God will visit you with scourges and with disaster, and you will be punished and your enemies will have power over you. I hear of men being in doubt concerning their faith in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am astonished at it. It seems to me that every evidence that is necessary to convince people of the divinity of this work, people who examine it carefully and prayerfully, has been given unto us as a people.

I thought I knew something, before I left here, concerning the power of God; I thought I knew something of the providences of God our heavenly Father; but I never had such an experience in my life as I have had while I have been absent. I know that God is with this people. I know that God has chosen Brigham Young to be his servant, and to preside over his Church on the earth. I know this as well as I know that I live, and I might as well doubt my own existence, doubt the existence of the heavens above my head, or the earth on which I stand, as to doubt this, and I know that those who follow his counsel will be blessed and will be delivered, while those who reject his counsel will have to suffer therefore.

This may sound strange that a man should have this power given to him in these days, but it is consistent with the plan of salvation as revealed in ancient days. Recollect the power that Jesus gave to Peter—that he should bind on earth and it should be bound in heaven, and that he should loose on earth and it should be loosed in heaven. What great power this was to give to one man. Jesus said to him, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

When God chooses a man to be his servant, he expects all his children to honor that man when they became acquainted with the character of his mission, and those who honor him He will honor, and they who despise him He will despise, and I know that the Latter-day Saints have prospered, it has been the experience of my entire life, from my boyhood up to this day, in obeying the counsel of God’s servant. During the days of Joseph, when the Latter-day Saints obeyed his counsel they were prospered; and since his death, for thirty years now, when they have obeyed the counsel of Brigham they have been blessed and prospered. And there is this evidence, which I consider one of the greatest evidences that we can have—whenever we do that which is required of us we have peace in our hearts, and when we oppose it we are disturbed in our spirits. I look upon this as one of the best guides to judge of the character of a spirit by which we may be assailed, or which may present itself for admission to our hearts. Whenever a spirit presents itself that produces disturbance of feeling, agitation, pain, darkness or doubt, we can know if we will judge as we should do, that it is not of God; but a spirit that produces peace, a spirit that produces joy, light and happiness, comes from God, and as a people we should be able to judge between these two classes of influences.

I said, in the commencement, that it is the privilege, in my opinion, of every man, every human being on the face of the earth to be happy, if he will seek happiness in the right direction. The heathen who lives up to the light God has given him can be a happy man. The idolater, no matter what his condition or belief, if he lives up to the light God has given him, can be happy if he will observe those laws which God has made plain unto all of us. Now, my brethren and sisters, there are lying spirits gone forth in the world who seek to deceive. The spirit of falsehood reigns today in the midst of the earth. Men delight in slander and in that which is false. You have proved this sufficiently, and if you are not careful you will be assailed by this spirit and partake of it before you are aware of it. How can you know a good spirit from a bad spirit? By the effect it produces upon your minds. I know that there are some who think that unless a man doubts he cannot acquire knowledge. This to me is great folly. I do not think it at all necessary to doubt or to hold controversies with the devil in order to acquire knowledge. I never saw a man who pursued that course who was not disturbed in his mind and darkened in his understanding. Seek for that which produces a good effect upon your minds; if we follow that it will bring us back to God. We need never be deceived by any spirit or influence, and we may always know the truth when we hear it. We have a guide within ourselves, which all of us carry, and that is the power to detect truth from error, right from wrong, good from evil, the spirit of light from the spirit of darkness. I want no spirit within me that produces any unhappy feeling. I want no spirit to enter into my heart that produces darkness and doubt. I want a spirit that produces peace and joy, and that will cause me to rejoice in the midst of my enemies and when threatened by danger; or if I have to walk that narrow and dreadful path that leads to death because of my faith, or any other terrible consequence, that I can walk it and have the Spirit of God, the spirit of peace, joy and resignation therein, without doubt or darkness assailing me. That is the spirit that we as a people should seek for. And when you are disturbed in your feelings and assailed with doubt and do not feel happy, withdraw yourselves from the world, leave the cares that press you, lay them aside, withdraw to your secret chamber, and bow yourselves down before your God and entreat him, in the name of Jesus, to give you his Spirit, and do not leave your chamber until you are, as it were, baptized in the Spirit of God and full of peace and joy, all your cares and troubles dissipated and dismissed. This is the course we should take as Latter-day Saints, and this will be far more profitable to us than anything else we can do during that period. There is nothing like communion with the Holy Spirit, there is no blessing to equal it. I have proved it abundantly during my absence, and I rejoice that I can bear this testimony to you today.

I expect it sounds strange for a man who has been occupied as I have been to talk in this strain; but there is nothing of greater importance to me, according to my understanding, than the salvation of the human family, temporally and spiritually, in the kingdom of God our heavenly Father; nothing of greater importance than teaching men and women how to live so as to be always in the enjoyment of light and wisdom and the peaceful Spirit of God our heavenly Father.

That God may bless you, that God may preserve you, that God may unite your hearts and make you one, and make you a people who shall prove to the inhabitants of the earth that God still lives and that he is unchanged, that he is the same today that he was yesterday, and that he will be the same forever, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, Brigham City, Sunday Afternoon, June 28, 1874.

I should like the people to keep as quiet as possible, I have a few words to say to them concerning the inheritances of the Saints. I will talk to those who are believers in the Old and New Testaments, as this book which lies before me is called—the Bible, and in the mission of the Savior. I will ask the Latter-day Saints if they believe that the man Christ Jesus, who was crucified at Jerusalem, over eighteen hundred years ago, was the Savior of the world, and that he paid the debt contracted by our first parents, and redeemed the children of men from the fall? Of course, they will answer in the affirmative. You believe, then, in the mission of the Savior to the earth? “Of course we do,” is the answer. Do we believe that the Savior is heir to this earth. I will answer for all Saints and all believers in the Savior and say we do. Do we believe that this man Christ Jesus has received his inheritance; has he finished the work which he came into the world and was manifested in the flesh to accomplish? I will answer for all Christians and say he has not, as yet, finished his work or received the kingdom. As for the proof of this you can go to the Bible and all the other revelations that we have in our possession, and you will find it there. Are we co-workers with the Savior to redeem the children of men and all things pertaining to the earth? I will answer for the Saints and say that we most assuredly believe we are. All who, while in the flesh, received and were faithful to the Priesthood, labored with the Savior while they remained here, and when they passed into the spirit world their labors did not cease, but they passed into the prison, and, to this day, they are preaching to the spirits there, and laboring for the salvation of the human family and for the earth and all things pertaining to it.

Have these men, who have lived upon the earth and enjoyed the blessings of the holy Priesthood, received their inheritances? I take the liberty of answering for all Saints in the negative. They have not received their inheritances, but they have received promises like Abraham of old when he was shown the land of Canaan, and it was promised to him that it should be his inheritance, and that of his seed after him forever and ever. To this day they have not inherited the land according to the promises that were made to Abraham. So it is with all others. Have any of us, in the latter days, received inheritances upon the time of this earth that shall be everlasting? No, we are not prepared to receive them, and they are not prepared for us. I am telling you these things that you may know and understand that, when we talk about property, or anything else that we seem to possess, we have not yet received anything for an everlasting inheritance. If we are faithful we shall receive after a long time, that is, it may seem long to us who reckon time by years, months, weeks, days, minutes and seconds. I should like to have the Latter-day Saints understand what their labor is, and to have each one understand his duty, and then understand the reward of obedience to that duty.

We get a great many good gifts here—we enjoy a great deal that the Lord gives us; gifts that we will say are inherent natural gifts. What a beautiful gift the power of the eye is for a man to enjoy! What a beau– tiful gift the power of hearing is to the people, and all our senses—tasting, smelling, &c., and the passions when they are governed and controlled, how beautiful they are! Shall we inherit them forever and ever, or shall we take a course that they shall be taken from us?

We are talking now to the brethren about being one, operating together, submitting all to the kingdom of God. What for? Am I to give what I have? “Why, this is my house, this is my farm, these are my cattle!” We only seem to have them, they are only in our possession for the present. “This is my wife, these are my wives, here are my children!” We seem to possess them, but whether we shall possess them forever depends entirely upon our future course. How long will this state of things last? Until we have passed the ordeals allotted to finite, intelligent beings, and have passed from one degree and state to another; until the work is completed by the Savior, pertaining to this earth, and our eternal salvation is sealed to us. While we live here in the flesh we are subject to turn to the right and to the left, and we have the vanities and allurements of the world to contend with; and we see Latter-day Saints, after traveling five, ten, twenty, and even forty years, faithful in the kingdom of God, turn away from the holy commandments. They will be lost, and all that they have had, and all that they think they have will be taken from them and given to those who are faithful; and those who are faithful will not receive their inheritances, so that they can say they are their own, until they have passed all these ordeals, and until the Savior has completed the work of redemption. He is now trying to get the people to avail themselves of the advantages of his atonement, and we, professedly, are enjoying these advantages, but how slow and slothful we are! What trifling, frivolous shadows, I may say vain ideas, will turn the hearts and the affections and judgment and will of man from the principles of truth! I want you to understand that you have not your eternal inheritances, although you may have an inheritance here in this city.

By and by the Center Stake of Zion may be redeemed. We may go there, and Zion may be built up and spread abroad and we receive our inheritances; and if we are faithful we shall receive all that has been promised to us. But suppose that we turn away from our covenants, all will be taken from us and given to others.

When shall we receive our inheritances so that we can say they are our own? When the Savior has completed the work, when the faithful Saints have preached the Gospel to the last of the spirits who have lived here and who are designed to come to this earth; when the thousand years of rest shall come and thousands and thousands of Temples shall be built, and the servants and handmaids of the Lord shall have entered therein and officiated for themselves, and for their dead friends back to the days of Adam; when the last of the spirits in prison who will receive the Gospel has received it; when the Savior comes and receives his ready bride, and all who can be are saved in the various kingdoms of God—celestial, terrestrial and telestial, according to their several capacities and opportunities; when sin and iniquity are driven from the earth, and the spirits that now float in this atmosphere are driven into the place prepared for them; and when the earth is sanctified from the effects of the fall, and baptized, cleansed, and purified by fire, and returns to its paradisiacal state, and has become like a sea of glass, a Urim and Thummim; when all this is done, and the Savior has presented the earth to his Father, and it is placed in the cluster of the celestial kingdoms, and the Son and all his faithful brethren and sisters have received the welcome plaudit—“Enter ye into the joy of your Lord,” and the Savior is crowned, then and not till then, will the Saints receive their everlasting inheritances. I want you to understand this. We seem to have something now, but how long shall we keep it?

The Latter-day Saints are believers in the atonement of the Savior, and I would like to have the Elders of Israel understand as far as they can all the points of doctrine in regard to the redemption of the human family, that they may know how to talk about and explain them. No one who believes in the Bible and in the mission of the Savior believes that the wicked are going to possess this earth; but they believe that when it is prepared it will be given to the Saints and they will inherit it. The Savior has requested us and all of his disciples to remember him as oft as we meet together, and to break bread in remembrance of his body which was broken for us, and to drink from the cup in remembrance of the blood that was shed for us. We meet, as we are doing today, and partake of the bread and the water in compliance with this request of the Redeemer. We have a great work before us; and that portion of it we are now trying to inaugurate is not new. The doctrine of uniting together in our temporal labors, and all working for the good of all is from the beginning, from everlasting, and it will be forever and ever. No one supposes for one moment that in heaven the angels are speculating, that they are building railroads and factories, taking advantage one of another, gathering up the substance there is in heaven to aggrandize themselves, and that they live on the same principle that we are in the habit of doing. No Christian, no sectarian Christian, in the world believes this; they believe that the inhabitants of heaven live as a family, that their faith, interests and pursuits have one end in view—the glory of God and their own salvation, that they may receive more and more—go on from perfection to perfection, receiving, and then dispensing to others; they are ready to go, and ready to come, and willing to do whatever is required of them and to work for the interest of the whole community, for the good of all. We all believe this, and suppose we go to work and imitate them as far as we can. Would it be anything derogatory to the character of a gentleman or a lady? I think not. As far as I understand true principles the title of gentleman should not be applied to any man on the earth unless he is a good man. No gentleman takes the name of the Deity in vain. Some who do take his name in vain may be called gentleman, but it is a mistake, they are not gentlemen. A gentleman carries himself respectfully before the inhabitants of the earth at all times, in all places and under all circumstances, and his life is worthy of imitation. She who is worthy of the title of lady adorns her mind with the rich things of the kingdom of God; she is modest in her attire and manners; she is prudent, discreet and faithful, and full of all goodness, charity, love, and kindness, with the love of God in her heart. Such a woman has a right to the title of lady, and I do not consider that any others have, whether they are elect or not.

We will try to imitate in some small degree, the family that lives in heaven, and prepare ourselves for the society that will dwell upon the earth when it is purified and glorified and comes into the presence of the Father.

For us to think that we have an inheritance on the earth is folly, unless God has declared, and sealed it upon us, by revelation, that we shall never fall, never doubt, never come short of glorifying him or of doing his will in all things. No person, unless he is in the possession of this blessing, has the least right to suppose that he has an inheritance on the earth. For the time being we have our wives, children, farms and other possessions, but unless we prove ourselves worthy, what we seem to have will be taken from us and given to those who are worthy, consequently we need not worry with regard to the defects of one another. I say to the brethren, you need not have the least concern in the world about meeting a man in the celestial kingdom that you, if you are worthy and are so happy as to get into the celestial kingdom, cannot fellowship; and if you should happen to be the one that is in fault and you cannot pass the sentinel, and your neighbor or brother does, he will not see you there, you need not be concerned in the least about being joined to any person by the holy sealing power, that will not do right in the next world. I say to my sisters in the kingdom, who are sealed to men, and who say, “We do not want this man in eternity if he is going to conduct himself there as he does here”—there is not the least danger in the world of your ever seeing him in eternity or of his seeing you there if he proves himself unworthy here. But if he honors his Priesthood, and you are to blame and come short of doing your duty, and prove yourself unworthy of celestial glory, it will be left to him to do what he pleases with you. You will be very glad to get to him if you find the fault was in yourself and not in him. But if you are not at fault, be not troubled about being joined to him there, for no man will have the privilege of gathering his wives and children around him there unless he proves himself worthy of them.

I have said a number of times, and I will say again, to you ladies who want to get a bill of divorce from your husbands, because they do not treat you right, or because you do not exactly like their ways, there is a principle upon which a woman can leave a man, but if the man honors his Priesthood, it will be pretty hard work for you to get away from him. If he is just and right, serves God and is full of justice, love, mercy and truth, he will have the power that is sealed upon him, and will do what he pleases with you. When you want to get a bill of divorce, you had better wait and find out whether the Lord is willing to give you one or not, and not come to me. I tell the brethren and Sisters, when they come to me and want a bill of divorce, that I am ready to seal people and administer in the ordinances, and they are welcome to my services, but when they undertake to break the commandments and tear to pieces the doings of the Lord, I make them give me something. I tell a man he has to give me ten dollars if he wants a divorce. For what? My services? No, for his foolishness. If you want a bill of divorce give me ten dollars, so that I can put it down in the book that such a man and such a woman have dissolved partnership. Do you think you have done so when you have obtained a bill of divorce? No, nor ever can if you are faithful to the covenants you have made. It takes a higher power than a bill of divorce to take a woman from a man who is a good man and honors his Priesthood—it must be a man who possesses a higher power in the Priesthood, or else the woman is bound to her husband, and will be forever and ever. You might as well ask me for a piece of blank paper for a divorce, as to have a little writing on it, saying—“We mutually agree to dissolve partnership and keep ourselves apart from each other,” &c. It is all nonsense and folly; there is no such thing in the ordinances of the house of God; you cannot find any such law. It is true Jesus told the people that a man could put away his wife for fornication, but for nothing short of this. There is a law for you to be obedient, and humble and faithful.

Now, brethren, the man that honors his Priesthood, the woman that honors her Priesthood, will receive an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of God; but it will not be until this earth is purified and sanctified, and ready to be offered up to the Father. But we can go to work now and live as near as we can like the family of heaven, that we may secure to ourselves the blessings of heaven and of earth, of time and of eternity, and life everlasting in the presence of the Father and the Son. This is what we want to do. Remember it, brethren and sisters, and try to live worthy of the vocation of your high calling. You are called to be Saints—just think of and realize it, for the greatest honor and privilege that can he conferred upon a human being is to have the privilege of being a Saint. The honor of the kings and queens of the earth fades into insignificance when compared with the title of a Saint. You may possess earthly power, and rule with an iron hand, but that power is nothing, it will soon be broken and pass away; but the power of those who live and honor the Priesthood will increase forever and ever.

Now I am going to yield for my brethren to talk to you. I have said a few things. Remember the exhortation I gave you this morning. Live according to the faith of our religion. Let contention, all contention cease; cease finding fault with and casting reflections upon those who are not exactly with us. Let us show by our daily walk and doings that we have something better than they have. I will say to you who enter this Order, with regard to your temporal affairs, cease your extravagance. The Lord has said he would make the Latter-day Saints the richest people on the earth; but all he will do is to give us the ability and place means in our possession, and we must go to work and organize this means and make ourselves rich; and the first step is to stop our extravagance, cease this needless expense, learn to make that which we wear, raise that which we eat, live within ourselves, accumulate the good things of life, and so make ourselves wealthy.

I pray the Lord our God to bless you and to inspire every heart to faithfulness, that we may be prepared for a better place than this—for this world when it shall be sanctified and glorified, that we may then enjoy the society of each other without sin and without these annoyances.

Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Bowery, at Brigham City, Saturday Morning, June 26, 1874.

A few of us have come to talk to the people in this place upon the things of the kingdom of God, as our calling is to preach the Gospel, initiate people into, and proceed with, the organization of the kingdom of God as far as we can, preparatory to the coming of the Son of Man. We have commenced to organize, I will say partially, in the Holy Order that God has established for his people in all ages of the world when he has had a kingdom upon the earth. We may call it the Order of Enoch, the Order of Joseph, the Order of Peter, or Abraham, or Moses, and then go back to Noah, and then step to our own position here, and say that we will organize as far as we have the privilege, taking into consideration and acting under the laws of the land. Many branches of industry have been organized here to help to sustain each other, to labor for the good of all, and to establish cooperation in the midst of the Church in this place.

In most of the business transactions of this Church and people, as far as I have directed, I have waited for business to be presented, and endeavored to so live that the Lord will dictate according to his own mind and pleasure, and, at the very time it is necessary, have that knowledge which will enable us to perform every labor acceptably to God and to the heavens, and to discharge our duties one to another, and to accomplish in every particular the work which our Father in heaven has given us to do. I am a minuteman. It is very seldom that I take thought what I shall say or what I shall do. When we meet in the capacity of a Conference, the business matters are presented, and I generally know what to do, and I do not know but what I understand the workings of the kingdom of God upon the earth, by the manifestations of the Spirit at the moment, as well as I should if I had studied them for months; and I can truly say that I have fulfilled one of the sayings of the Savior tolerably well—to take no thought what ye shall say, for in the very hour or moment when you need it, it shall be given to you.

I hope that, during our meetings here, the people will be edified and comforted, and that the system of laboring together for each other’s good will be wisely and satisfactorily laid before them, and that each and every one of us, with ready minds and willing hearts, will proceed to do the things that are required of us by our heavenly Father.

Much can be said upon the doctrine of life and salvation, but I will say this to the Saints in this place concerning the workings of the king– dom of God upon the earth—all good comes from heaven, all good is of the Lord; whatever promotes the happiness of mankind and the glory of God, whatever increases peace and righteousness upon the earth, and leads the people in the way of godliness, comfort, contentment and enjoyment, and tends to increase health and wealth, and life here and hereafter, is of God; and, in laboring for each other’s welfare and happiness, if we cannot do all that we want to do, let us do what we can, and leave the event with the Lord, and wait for the time when we can fully enter into the organization of the kingdom of God upon the earth, and fully upon those initiatory steps which will hasten the perfection of the Saints, and prepare them to enter into the joy of their Lord. When we are permitted to do in part, we will step forward and do in part, go as far as we can, and do as much as we can to perfect ourselves and prepare for the building up of the Center Stake of Zion.

We hope and pray that all who may speak during our meetings here will be filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and that those who pray, sing and hear may be filled with the same Spirit, that we may increase in knowledge and wisdom, and grow in the things of God. This is what we desire and what we pray for, and we hope that our meetings will be profitable to all.

This is a hard place to speak in, and we request the brethren and sisters to be as still as they conveniently can, so that they can hear what is said. Let all be quiet, and every heart be lifted to God, that we may learn his mind and will concerning us; then ask for power to do his will, for a disposition to give us victory over every passion and slothful feeling, that we may be awake to righteousness.

Salvation and life everlasting are before us; it is our business to secure them in the kingdom of our God, and to prepare for the restoration of the inhabitants of the earth who have slept without the Gospel. Let us do what we can to bless ourselves, our posterity and our progenitors, and to save the human family, and so fulfill the mission which the Lord has given us.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, June 14, 1874.

There seems to be at the present time a great deal of interest manifested among the Latter-day Saints, and even among those who are connected with our Church, in regard to some instructions that have been imparted to the Latter-day Saints in relation to their temporal affairs. The instructions which have been imparted, and which the people are, in some measure, receiving, are comparatively new in their estimation, that is, it is supposed they are new, and something which we, in times past, have not practiced. But if we appeal to the revelations of God, we shall find that no new thing has been required of us. It is generally termed, however, by Latter-day Saints, the New Order. You hear of it in all parts of the Territory. What is meant by the New Order? Is it really new in the revelations of God, or is it something new for us to practice it? We have been required, in the year 1874, to come back again to an old order, as taught in ancient Mormonism. What I mean by ancient Mormonism is Mormonism as it was taught some forty-three or forty-four years ago. There is a generation now living on the earth who seem to be comparatively ignorant of the doctrines which were taught some forty years ago to men who are now old and have grey heads and gray beards. Since that time a new generation has arisen; and they begin to think that something new, something that will turn things upside down, is being introduced into Mormonism. I will say to all who have such ideas, you are entirely mistaken, it is not so; we are trying to get the people to come back again to the old principles of Mormonism, to that which God revealed in the early rise of this Church.

Every man, whether he is or is not a Latter-day Saint, when he comes to study our written works, the written revelations which God has given, will acknowledge that the Latter-day Saints cannot be the people they profess to be, they cannot be consistent with the revelations they profess to believe in and live as they now live; they have got to come into the system which the Saints call the New Order, otherwise they cannot comply with the revelations of God.

I believe that I will quote a few revelations this morning, in order to show you what God said in relation to property or temporal things, in the early rise of this Church. The first revelation that now occurs to my mind will be found in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, on page 217; it was given in March, 1831, forty-three years ago last March. In the third paragraph of this revelation we read these words:

“For, behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance. But it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.”

Do you believe this revelation, Latter-day Saints? “Oh, yes,” says one—“we believe Joseph Smith was a Prophet.” Have you practiced it? Oh, that is another thing. How, then, are we to know that you believe this revelation if you do not practice it? How are the world to know you are sincere in your belief, if you have a revelation which you profess to believe in, and yet give no heed to it. I do not wonder that the world say that the Latter-day Saints do not believe their own revelations. Why? Because we do not practice them. “It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.” There may be some strangers here, and they do not believe this book, but I will tell you what they would say as men of reason, they would say that if you Latter-day Saints call this your book of faith, and doctrines, and covenants, to be consistent you ought to comply with it. That is what they would say, and it is really a true saying, and consistent and reasonable. If we believe this, let us practice it; if we do not believe in it, why profess to believe in it?

I will now refer you to a revelation given on the second day of January, 1831, it is on page 120 of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. I will tell you how this revelation was given, for I was present at the time it was given. The Church, then, was about nine months old. The Prophet Joseph, who received all the revelations contained in this book, was then living in the State of New York, in the town of Fayette, Seneca County. He called together the various branches of the Church that had been organized during the nine months previous in that State, and they assembled together in the house in which this Church was organized, namely, Father Whitmer’s house. You will recollect, in reading the Book of Mormon, that the sons of Father Whitmer, young men, are noted as witnesses of the Book of Mormon, David Whitmer having seen the angel, and the plates in the hands of the angel, and heard him speak, and the hand of the angel was placed on his head, and he said unto him—“Blessed be the Lord and they that keep his commandments.” And he heard the voice of the Lord in connection with three other persons testifying out of the heavens, at the same time that the angel was administering, that the Book of Mormon had been translated correctly by the gift and power of God, and commanding him to bear witness of it to all people, nations and tongues, in connection with the other three that were with him. These were some of the individuals also who saw the plates and handled them, and saw the engravings upon them, and who gave their testimony to that effect in the Book of Mormon. It was in their father’s house where this Church was organized, on the 6th of April, 1830; it was in their father’s house where this little Conference was convened on the 2nd of January, 1831, and this Conference requested the Prophet Joseph Smith to inquire of the Lord concerning their duties. He did so. He sat down in the midst of the Conference, of less than one hundred, I do not know exactly the number, and a scribe wrote this revelation from his mouth. One item contained therein, in the fifth paragraph, reads thus—

“And let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practice virtue and holiness before me. And again I say unto you, let every man esteem his brother as himself. For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there—and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just? Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.”

Perhaps the Saints may think that this has reference to spiritual things alone, and means to be one in doctrine, principle, ordinances, faith, belief, and so on, and that it has no reference whatever to temporal things; but in order to show you that this has reference to temporal as well as to spiritual things, let me quote that which God said a few months after this in another revelation. I have not time to turn to all these revelations, but I will quote them. The Lord says—“Except ye are equal in the bonds (or bands) of earthly things, how can you be made equal in the bonds of heavenly things?” Here was a question put to us: How can you be made equal in the bonds of heavenly things, unless you are equal in the bonds of earthly? Surely enough, we cannot be made equal. If we are unequal in this life, and are not one, can we be entrusted with the true riches, the riches of eternity? I believe I will read to you a small portion of another revelation that was given on stewardships. The Lord commanded certain ones among his Servants to take charge of these revelations when they were in manuscript, before they were published, that they might be printed and sent forth among the people, and he also gave them charge concerning the Book of Mormon, and made them stewards over these revelations and the avails arising from them. And the Lord said—“Wherefore, hearken and hear, for thus saith the Lord unto them, I, the Lord, have appointed them and ordained them to be stewards over the revelations and commandments which I have given unto them, and which I shall hereafter give unto them; and an account of this stewardship will I require of them in the day of judgment; wherefore I have appointed unto them, and this is their business in the Church, to manage them and the concerns thereof, and the benefits thereof, wherefore a commandment give I unto them that they shall not give these things unto the Church, neither unto the world, nevertheless, inasmuch as they receive more than is needful for their necessities and their wants, it shall be given into my storehouse and the benefits shall be consecrated unto the inhabitants of Zion, and unto their generations, inasmuch as they become heirs according to the laws of the kingdom.”

Now, you notice here, the Lord did not intend those individuals whom he named to become rich out of the avails of the sale of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and other revelations and the literary concerns of his Church, he never intended that they should become rich while others were poor, that was not the order; but inasmuch as they received more than was needful for their support what should they do with it? Should they aggrandize themselves while their poor brethren were destitute? No, not at all; they were to give all the surplus, over and above what was really necessary to support them, into the Lord’s storehouse, and it was to be for the benefit of all the people of Zion, not only the living but for their generations after them, inasmuch as they became heirs according to the laws of the kingdom of God.

There was a certain way to become heirs according to the laws of the kingdom of God. Heirs of what? Heirs of the avails arising from the sale of the revelations which all the inhabitants of Zion were to be benefited by. Says one—“But perhaps that was limited to these six individuals who are here named, and did not mean the whole Church.” Wait, let us read the next sentence—“Behold, this is what the Lord requires of every man in his stewardship, even as I the Lord have appointed or shall hereafter appoint.” From this we learn that all the stewards which the Lord had appointed; and all that he should appoint, in a future time, to stewardships, were to hand over all their surplus—all that was not necessary to feed and clothe them—into the Lord’s storehouse. None who belonged to the Church of the living God are exempt from this law. Does that law include us? It includes all who belong to the Church, not one is exempt from it. Have we been doing this, Latter-day Saints, for the last forty-three years, since this revelation was given? Have we been complying with the order we undertook in the year 1831, to enter into? This old order is not a new order that you talk so much about.

In the year 1831, we commenced emigrating to the western part of the State of Missouri, to a county, quite new then, called Jackson County; most of the land at that time was Government land. When we commenced emigrating there the Lord gave many revelations. The Prophet Joseph went up among some of the earliest to that county, and God gave many revelations contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in relation to how the people should conduct their affairs. Among the revelations then given was the commandment that every man who should come up to that land should lay all things which he possessed before the Bishop of his Church. Another revelation, given before we went up to that land, speaking of a land which the Lord, at some future time, would give us for an inheritance, commanded that we should consecrate all our property into his storehouse. If we had wagons, horses, mules, oxen, cows, sheep, farming utensils, household furniture, gold and silver, jewelry, wearing apparel, it mattered not what it was, the Lord said, in a revelation given in February, 1831, that it should all be laid before the Bishop of his Church, and that it should be consecrated to the Lord’s storehouse. This reduced us all on a level. If a man had a million dollars when he gathered up to Jackson County, if he complied with the law, he would be just as rich as the man who had not one farthing. Why? Because he consecrated all he had, and the poor man could not do any more than that, hence all who complied with the law were equally poor or equally rich.

What was the next step after this consecration? In those days we had but one Bishop—his name was Edward Partridge, and he was called by revelation—and the next step after this general consecration, the Lord commanded the Bishop and his two counselors to purchase all the land in Jackson County, and in the counties round about, that could conveniently be got, the general price being one dollar and a quarter an acre. And what next? After purchasing these lands as far as they had the means to do so, every man that had consecrated his property was to receive an inheritance. Now recollect, none except those who consecrated, none who disobeyed that law, were to receive an inheritance or stewardship; but all who consecrated their properties according to this law were to receive their stewardship.

What is the meaning of a stewardship? A steward is one who is accountable to somebody for the property that he manages, and that is his stewardship, whether it be landed property, farming utensils, wagons, cows, oxen, horses, harness, or whatever may be committed to him. To whom were the brethren in Jackson County accountable for the stewardship committed to them? To the Bishop. The Bishop was called in these revelations a common judge in Zion, ecclesiastically speaking, not according to the civil laws; so far as our ecclesiastical laws were concerned he was to be a common judge, and each person was to render an account of the stewardship which he had to the Bishop. I do not know how often; perhaps once a year, perhaps longer than that, perhaps oftener. I do not know that there was any specified time given in these revelations about how often these accounts should be rendered up. But how were the people to live out of the avails of the stewardship committed to their charge? They were to have food and raiment, and the necessary comforts of life. Well, of course, a wise and faithful steward, having health and strength, and perhaps a good deal of talent, might so take charge of a stewardship that he might gain more than he and his family needed, and keeping an account of all these things, and rendering the same when required, some of them would have a considerable surplus above that which they and their families needed. What was to be done with that? Why, as stewards, they would have to consecrate it into the Lord’s storehouse, the Lord being the owner of the property and we only his stewards.

There were some men who were entrusted with a larger stewardship than others. For instance, here was a man who knew nothing about farming particularly, but he might be a master spirit as far as some other branch of business was concerned. He might understand how to carry on a great cloth manufactory and everything in the clothing line necessary for the inhabitants of Zion. Such a man would require a greater stewardship than the man who cultivated a small farm, and had only himself and a wife and two or three children to support. But would the fact of one man having a greater stewardship than another make one richer than another? No. Why not? Because, if one received fifty or a hundred thousand dollars to build and stock a large manufactory for the purpose of manufacturing various kinds of fabrics for clothing, although he might have a surplus of several thousand dollars at the end of the year, he would not be any richer than the farmer with his few acres of land, and let me show you how they would be equal. The manufacturer does not own the building, the machinery, the cotton or the flax, as the case may be, he is only a steward, like the farmer, and if, at the end of the year, he has five, ten, or fifty thousand dollars surplus, does that make him a rich man? By no means, it goes into the Lord’s storehouse at the end of each year, or as often as may be required, thus leaving him on the same platform of equality with the farmer and his small stewardship. Do you not see the equality of the thing? In temporal matters it is not given that one man shall possess that which is above another, saith the Lord.

Now did the people really enter into this, or was it mere theory? I answer that, in the year 1831, we did try to enter into this order of things, but the hearts of the people had been so accustomed to holding property individually, that it was a very difficult matter to get them to comply with this law of the Lord. Many of them were quite wealthy, and they saw that on that land a great city called Zion, or the New Jerusalem, was to be built; they understood that from the revelations, and they said in their hearts—“What a fine chance this will be for us to get rich. We have means and money, and if we consecrate according to the law of God we cannot get rich; but we know that people by thousands and tens of thousands will gather up here, and these lands will become very valuable. We can now get them at the government price, a dollar and a quarter an acre, and if we lay out a few thousands in land, we can sell it out to the brethren when they come along at a thousand percent profit, and perhaps in some cases at ten thousand percent, and make ourselves wealthy, so we will not consecrate, but we will go ahead for ourselves individually, and we will buy up the lands to speculate upon.” These were the feelings of some who went up to that country; but others were willing to comply with the word of God, and did just as the revelation required, and they laid everything they had before the Bishop, and received their stewardship.

After he had organized these things, Joseph the Prophet, in August of the year 1831, went back to Kirtland, about a thousand miles east, and while there the Lord revealed to him that the inhabitants of Jackson County were not complying with his word; hence Joseph sent letters up to them containing the word of the Lord, chastening them because of their disobedience and rebellion against the law of heaven. He did this on several occasions, and one occasion, especially, as you will find recorded in the history published in some of our periodicals. I think you will find it in the fifteenth volume of the Millennial Star, in language something like this—“If the people will not comply with my law, which I have given them concerning the consecration of their property, the land shall not be a land of Zion unto them, but their names shall be blotted out, and the names of their children and their children’s children, so long as they will not comply with my laws, and their names shall not be found written in the book of the law of the Lord.”

In another revelation, published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord says—“The rebellious are not of the blood of Ephraim, wherefore they shall be plucked up and shall be sent away out of the land.” When this revelation was given all was peace in Jackson County. We had no enemies there any more than we had elsewhere, wherever the Church might be located; all was comparative peace. But the Lord said that the rebellious should be plucked up and sent away out of the land. The people thought there was no prospect whatever of that revelation being fulfilled. All was peace, and to say that they were to be plucked up and driven out of the land was out of the question. They did not repent, that is all of them, but continued in their disobedience, neglecting to consecrate their properties, according to the requirements of the law of the Lord; and hence, when they had been there about two years and five months from the time of their first settlement or location, they were literally plucked up and cast away out of the land. You have the history before you. Their enemies arose upon them and began to tear down their houses, and they burned two hundred and three of the dwellings our people had built in that land. They burned down their grain stacks, hay stacks and fences, and chased the Latter-day Saints around from one part of the county to another, sometimes tying them up to trees and whipping them, in some instances until their bowels gushed out. They tore down the printing office and destroyed it, also one of our dry goods stores, and scattered the goods through the streets; they went into houses and, taking therefrom the bedding and furniture, piled them up in the streets and set fire to them, and thus they continued their persecutions until, finally, they succeeded in driving the Latter-day Saints from the county, and thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled which said—“I will pluck them up and send them away out of the land, for none but the obedient shall eat of the good of the land of Zion in these latter days.”

Another revelation God gave, to warn the people, in which he told them to remember the Book of Mormon, and the new covenant which he had revealed, and which, if they did not observe, he said—“Behold, I the Lord have a scourge and a judgment which shall be poured out upon your heads.” This was given between one and two years before we were driven out of that county, in Kirtland, Ohio, through the Prophet Joseph, and sent up to them to warn them. Another revelation said if the people did not do thus and so, they should be persecuted from city to city, and from synagogue to synagogue, and but few should stand to receive an inheritance—meaning those who had gone into that county.

Now go through this Territory, from one end thereof to the other, hunt up the greyheaded and greybearded men and the old ladies, who were once in Jackson County, and see how many you can find who lived there then, and you can judge whether the word of the Lord has been fulfilled or not. I guess that you will find but very few if you hunt, all through the Territory.

Let us read a little further in the revelations, and see whether God has cast us entirely off or not. In one of the revelations, given after we were driven out across the Missouri River into Clay County, and into the surrounding counties, the Lord said, concerning the people who were scattered and driven—“Behold, I have suffered these things to come upon them because of their sins and wickedness; but notwithstanding all these afflictions which have come upon my people, I will be merciful unto them, and in the day of wrath I will remember mercy, wherefore I, the Lord, will not utterly cast them off.” Though but few should stand to receive an inheritance, the Lord said he would not utterly cast them off.

What next? He gives an inferior law, called the law of Tithing, suited and adapted to us. After we had been driven for neglecting to comply with the greater law of consecration of all we had, he thought he would not leave us without a law, but he gave us an inferior law, namely, that we should give in one-tenth part of our annual income. This law was given in May, 1838, I do not remember the exact date, and I believe that we have tried to comply with it; but it has been almost an impossibility to get the people universally to comply with it.

There is another item connected with this law of Tithing that has but seldom been complied with, namely, the consecration of all surplus property. Now go round among the Saints, among the emigrants who have gathered up from time to time, and there has been only now and then a man who had any surplus property, let him be the judge. If a man had fifty or a hundred thousand dollars, he said in his own heart—“I really need all this, I want to speculate, I want to buy a great deal of land to sell again when the price of land shall rise; I want to set up a great store in which to sell merchandise to the people, and if I consecrate any of this it will curtail my operations, because it will diminish my capital, and I cannot speculate to the extent I should if I retained it all, and I shall therefore consider that I have no surplus property. Now an honest-hearted individual would have a little surplus property, and he would put it in; but from that day until the present time I presume that the tenth of their annual income has been paid by the majority of the people. I do not really know in relation to this matter, at any rate the Lord has not utterly forsaken us, hence I think we have kept his law in some measure, or in all probability he would have cast us off altogether.

But how is it that we have been smitten, driven, cast out and persecuted, and the lives of our Prophet and Patri– arch and hundreds of others destroyed by rifle, cannon, and sword in the hands of our enemies? How is it that such things have been permitted in this free republic? “Oh,” says one, “It is because you practiced polygamy.” I answer that we did not practice polygamy in the days of the persecutions which I have named, they came upon us before we began that practice, for the revelation on polygamy was not given until some thirteen years after the rise of this Church, and that was after we had been driven and smitten and scattered to and fro, here and there by the hands of our enemies, hence, it was not for that that we were persecuted. But if we take the printed circulars written by our enemies, we can give you their reasons for persecuting us. One of their reasons was that we believed in ancient Christianity, namely, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing the sick, etc.; and our enemies did not believe in having a community in their midst who claimed to have Apostles and Prophets and to enjoy the gifts of the Gospel the same as the ancient Saints. Our enemies said they would not have such a people in their society, and if we did not renounce these things they would drive us from our homes. You can read this with the names of the mob attached to it, in connection with a great many priests and ministers of different denominations. The Rev. Isaac M’Coy and the Rev. Mr. Bogard, and many others who might be named, were among the leaders of the mob who persecuted the Latter-day Saints.

Now, why is it, Latter-day Saints, that we have been tossed to and fro and smitten and persecuted for these many years? It is because we have disobeyed the law of heaven, we have not kept the commandments of the Most High God, we have not fulfilled his law; we have disobeyed the word which he gave through his servant Joseph, and hence the Lord has suffered us to be smitten and afflicted under the hands of our enemies.

Shall we ever return to the law of God? Yes. When? Why, when we will. We are agents; we can abide his law or reject it, just as long as we please, for God has not taken away your agency nor mine. But I will try to give you some information in regard to the time. God said, in the year 1832, before we were driven out of Jackson County, in a revelation which you will find here in this book, that before that generation should all pass away, a house of the Lord should be built in that county, (Jackson County), “upon the consecrated spot, as I have appointed; and the glory of God, even a cloud by day and a pillar of flaming fire by night shall rest upon the same.” In another place, in the same revelation, speaking of the priesthood, he says that the sons of Moses and the sons of Aaron, those who had received the two priesthoods, should be filled with the glory of God upon Mount Zion, in the Lord’s house, and should receive a renewing of their bodies, and the blessings of the Most High should be poured out upon them in great abundance.

This was given forty-two years ago. The generation then living was not only to commence a house of God in Jackson County, Missouri, but was actually to complete the same, and when it is completed the glory of God should rest upon it.

Now, do you Latter-day Saints believe that? I do, and if you believe in these revelations you just as much expect the fulfillment of that revelation as of any one that God has ever given in these latter times, or in former ages. We look, just as much for this to take place, according to the word of the Lord, as the Jews look to return to Palestine, and to rebuild Jerusalem upon the place where it formerly stood. They expect to build a Temple there, and that the glory of God will enter into it; so likewise do we Latter-day Saints expect to return to Jackson County and to build a Temple there before the generation that was living forty-two years ago has all passed away. Well, then, the time must be pretty near when we shall begin that work. Now, can we be permitted to return and build up the waste places of Zion, establish the great central city of Zion in Jackson County, Mo., and build a Temple on which the glory of God will abide by day and by night, unless we return, not to the “new order,” but to that law which was given in the beginning of this work? Let me answer the question by quoting one of these revelations again, a revelation given in 1834. The Lord, speaking of the return of his people, and referring to those who were driven from Jackson County, says—“They that remain shall return, they and their children with them to receive their inheritances in the land of Zion, with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads.” There will be a few that the Lord will spare to go back there, because they were not all transgressors. There were only two that the Lord spared among Israel during their forty years travel—Caleb and Joshua. They were all that were spared, out of some twenty-five hundred thousand people, from twenty years old and upwards, to go into the land of promise. There may be three in our day, or a half dozen or a dozen spared that were once on that land who will be permitted to return with their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren unto the waste places of Zion and build them up with songs of everlasting joy.

But will they return after the old order of things that exists among the Gentiles—every man for himself, this individualism in regard to property? No, never, never while the world stands. If you would have these revelations fulfilled you must comply with the conditions thereof. The Lord said, concerning the building up of Zion when we do return—“Except Zion be built according to the law of the celestial kingdom, I cannot receive her unto myself.” If we should be permitted, this present year, 1874, to go back to that county, and should undertake to build up a city of Zion upon the consecrated spot, after the order that we have been living in during the last forty years, we should be cast out again, the Lord would not acknowledge us as his people, neither would he acknowledge the works of our hands in the building of a city. If we would go back then, we must comply with the celestial law, the law of consecration, the law of oneness, which the Lord has spoken of from the beginning. Except you are one you are not mine. Query, if we are not the Lord’s, who in the world or out of the world do we belong to? Here is a question for us all to consider. There is no other way for us to become one but by keeping the law of heaven, and when we do this we shall become sanctified before God, and never before.

Talk about sanctification, we do not believe in the kind of sanctification taught by the sectarian religion—that they were sanctified at such a minute and such an hour and at such a place while they were praying in secret. We believe in the sanctification that comes by continued obedience to the law of heaven. I do not know of any other sanctification that the Scriptures tell about, of any other sanctification that is worth the consideration of rational beings. If we would be sanctified then, we must begin today, or whenever the Lord points out, to obey his laws just as far as we possibly can; and by obedience to these laws we continually gain more and more favor from heaven, more and more of the Spirit of God, and thus will be fulfilled a revelation given in 1834, which says that before Zion is redeemed, let the armies of Israel become very great, let them become sanctified before me, that they may be as fair as the sun, clear as the moon, and that their banners may be terrible unto all the nations of the earth. Not terrible by reason of numbers, but terrible because of the sanctification they will receive through obedience to the law of God. Why was Enoch, and why were the inhabitants of the Zion built up before the flood terrible to all the nations around about? It was because, through a long number of years, they observed the law of God, and when their enemies came up to fight against them, Enoch, being filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, and speaking the word of God in power and in faith, the very heavens trembled and shook, and the earth quaked, and mountains were thrown down, rivers of water were turned out of their course, and all nations feared greatly because of the power of God, and the terror of his might that were upon his people.

We have this account of ancient Zion in one of the revelations that God has given. What was it that made their banners terrible to the nations? It was not their numbers. If, then Zion must become great it will be because of her sanctification. When shall we begin, Latter-day Saints, to carry out the law of God, and enter upon the process necessary to our sanctification? We are told by the highest authority that God has upon the earth that now is the accepted time and now is the day of salvation, so far as entering into this order which God has pointed out is concerned. Shall we do it? Or shall we say no? Shall there be division among the people, those who are on the Lord’s side come out and those who are against the law of God come out? I hope this division will not be at present. I hope that we shall take hold with one heart and with one mind. The time of the division will come soon enough. It will be in the great day of the Lord’s power, when his face shall be un– veiled in yonder heavens, and when he shall come in his glory and in his might. Then the heavens will be shaken and the earth will reel to and fro like a drunken man. “Then,” saith the Lord, “I will send forth mine angels to gather out of my kingdom all things that offend and that do iniquity.” That will be time enough for this great division. Let us not be divided now, Latter-day Saints, but let us manifest our willingness to comply with the word and law of the Most High, and be prepared for the blessings which he has in store for us.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 24, 1874.

About two days since the daily papers announced the arrival, in this city, of General A. W. Doniphan, of Liberty, Clay County, Missouri. This circumstance brought to my mind incidents thirty-six years passed by, to which I shall briefly refer on the present occasion. There are few men whose names have been identified with the history of our Church, with more pleasant feelings to its members, than General Doniphan. During a long career of persecution, abuse and oppression characters occasionally present themselves like stars of the first magnitude in defense of right, who are willing, notwithstanding the unpopularity that may attach to it, to stand up and protest against mob violence, murder, abuse, or the destruction of property and constitutional rights, even if the parties who are being thus abused, robbed, murdered or trampled under foot have the unpopular name of “Mormons.” The incident of General Doniphan exercising his influence by which means he prevented the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and some other Elders, who had had a mock trial by court-martial, in the State of Missouri, some thirty-six years ago, is familiar to the minds of all the Latter-day Saints who are acquainted with the history of that period, and there is one man in the Territory who was present on the occasion, that is Timothy B. Foote, of Nephi, who witnessed the court-martial. It was represented to Joseph Smith, by a man known among our people as Colonel Hinkle, that Major General Lucas and certain other parties wished to have an interview with him. In the vicinity of the town of Far West there was at that time a large body of armed men, under the orders of the Governor of Missouri, but temporarily under the command of General Lucas, of Jackson County, Mo., who was the ranking officer. It is understood by us that Hinkle had deceived Joseph Smith and the brethren with the idea that the interview was to be of a peaceful and consultory character; but when they came, as they supposed, to hold the interview, they were taken prisoners, tried by a court-martial and sentenced to be shot; the execution, however, was prevented by the protest of General Doniphan, who, at that time, was commander of a brigade, composed, I believe, of the militia of the County of Clay, and who declared that the execution of that sentence would be cold blooded murder.

It was not long after this that General Clark, who had been appointed by the Governor to this command, arrived and took command of this militia. General Atchison was the ranking officer, being the general of a division on the north side of the river, commanding a division containing, I think, six counties, but he was superseded by the appointment of Clark. If I remember right there were as many as thirteen thousand men ordered out, and there were probably five or six thousand collected together on the ground, their object being to expel the Latter-day Saints from the State of Missouri.

The number of Latter-day Saints at that period is not accurately known, but there were, I suppose, in the neighborhood of ten or twelve thousand. The settlements had been rapidly formed. They had occupied the County of Caldwell when there were only seven families in it. A party of Elders visited Caldwell County to look for a location. On their arrival they fell in with these seven families, who were living in log cabins and had made very little improvements. They said the country was a worthless, naked prairie, there was very little timber in it, and, their business being bee hunting, they had hunted all the bees out of the woods, and they wanted to go somewhere else, as they learned there was better bee hunting and more honey to be ob– tained up Grand River; and within an hour after the arrival of the first of these Elders, every one of the seven men had sold their places and received their pay, congratulating themselves on their good fortune in leaving a country where the taking of wild honey had ceased to be a paying business, and there was not a family, other than Latter-day Saints, residing in the county. A good many of our people were settled in Ray County, a few in Clay, and some in Livingstone, Davies, Clinton and Carroll. I understand that three hundred and eighteen thousand dollars had been paid to the United States for lands in the State of Missouri, the titles of which were held by Latter-day Saints. The Order of Governor Boggs exterminated these people from the State. To be sure they owned their lands, and they were industrious and law-abiding. They were increasing rapidly and making vast improvements. The city of Far West had several hundred houses, and other towns and villages were springing up. United firms were being organized, which were putting into cultivation very extensive tracts of land in addition to the large amount already brought under improvement.

In consequence of the influence exerted by General Doniphan, General Lucas hesitated to execute the sentence of his court-martial, and he delivered Joseph Smith and his associates into the charge of General Moses Wilson, who was instructed to take them to Jackson County and there put them to death. I heard General Wilson, some years after, speaking of this circumstance. He was telling some gentlemen about having Joseph Smith a prisoner in chains in his possession, and said he—“He was a very remarkable man. I carried him into my house, a prisoner in chains and in less than two hours my wife loved him better than she did me.” At any rate Mrs. Wilson became deeply interested in preserving the life of Joseph Smith and the other prisoners, and this interest on her part, which probably arose from a spirit of humanity, did not end with that circumstance, for, a number of years afterwards, after the family had moved to Texas, General Wilson became interested in raising a mob to do violence to some of the Latter-day Saint Elders who were going to preach in the neighborhood, and this coming to the ears of Mrs. Wilson, although then an aged lady, she mounted her horse and rode thirty miles to give the Elders the information. Year before last when I was in California, attending the State Fair, I met with a son of Mr. Wilson: he was president of an agricultural society, and was attending the fair, and I named this circumstance to him. He told me that his mother deeply deprecated the difficulties with the Mormons, and did all she could to prevent them.

You can readily see from what I have said that our community, at that time, was very handsomely situated. The poorest man in it, apparently, owned his forty acres of land, while some of the richer had several sections. Farms had been opened, and prosperity seemed to smile upon the people everywhere. Mills were built, machinery was being constructed, and everything seemed to be going on that could be desired to make a community prosperous, wealthy and happy, when suddenly, in consequence of the exterminating order issued by Lilburn W. Boggs, and executed by General Clark, and those under his command, the people were driven from the State. If we would renounce our faith we could have the privilege of remaining, but we were told pointedly that we must hold no prayer meetings, no prayer circles, no conferences, and that we must have neither Bishops nor Presidents, and that if we indulged in any of these forbidden luxuries the citizens would be upon us and destroy us. A very few accepted the conditions and remained, and I believe that, to this day, one or two families occupy their inheritances who then renounced their faith.

This people landed in Illinois destitute. Most of their animals had been plundered from them during the difficulties, and, to use a comparative expression, they arrived in that State almost naked and barefoot. They were, however, a very industrious people, and they immediately went to work; anywhere and everywhere that they could find anything to do their hands laid hold upon it, and prosperity very soon began to smile upon them. Joseph Smith was kept in prison during the winter, but in the spring he and several of his fellow prisoners, among them Bishop Alexander McRae of the 11th Ward, escaped and made their way to the State of Illinois.

Our people had a very singular idea of justice and right; they supposed, having paid their money to the United States for their lands, having actually purchased and received titles for them, that it was the business of the United States to protect them thereon; having little acquaintance with law they entertained the somewhat wild idea that that was no more than justice on the part of the Government. Of course, the government could only be expected to protect them against any adverse titles that might arise; but so far as protecting them from mobs or from illegal violence from the State in which they lived, from oppression from those in authority, or from marauders who might burn their houses, or murder them and ravish their wives, this was no part of the business of the United States; but in their lack of knowledge on these subjects they fancied that the United States should protect them on their lands, hence Joseph Smith and several of his brethren went directly to Washington, carrying the applications of some ten thousand persons, and asked the Government to protect them in the possession of their lands and in their rights, and to restore them to their homes. They had an interview on the subject with Mr. Van Buren, at that time President of the United States, and the answer that he gave has become almost a household word. Said he—“Gentlemen, your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you.” Joseph accordingly returned to his friends in the western border of Illinois, and they commenced purchasing lands in the vicinity of Nauvoo, and they laid out and built a city and remained there.

This occurred in the Spring of 1839, and Joseph remained there until the Summer of 1844, during which time he had several very grievous lawsuits, which arose out of attempts on the part of the authorities of Missouri to carry him back to that State. He was arrested several times, and had one trial, and was discharged on habeas corpus in the circuit court, before Judge Stephen A. Douglas; one trial, and discharged on habeas corpus before Judge Pope, United States judge in the district of Illinois; and one trial before the municipal court of Nauvoo. These several trials cost a great deal of money and a great deal of time, and were a very discouraging feature in the progress of the settlements in that vicinity, though the industry and enterprise of the people were such that they purchased a large portion of the lands in that county and in adjoining counties. They laid out and built the city of Nauvoo, containing some twelve thousand inhabitants, and they were building a Temple and making other improvements, when Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered, which took place on the twenty-seventh of June, 1844.

I will say in relation to the progress of the work, that missionaries, among them the Twelve Apostles, had been sent abroad to preach, and a great many people had received the Gospel. The Apostles took their departure directly from the recommencing of the foundation of the Temple in the city of Far West, on the 26th of April, 1839. They went on a mission to Europe for about two years, baptizing some seven thousand persons, and laying a foundation for the gathering from the old world, which has continued up to the present time. The circumstances connected with the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith were such as to impress upon their enemies even, the disgrace inflicted upon the State by their murder, and upon the world the importance, of their mission. The governor of the State pledged himself, when they gave themselves up, that they should be protected and have a fair trial, but he placed them in the hands of men, who, he was assured by many, were their enemies, and who would murder them if they had the power. Joseph Smith had been brought before legal tribunals forty-seven times, and had in every instance been acquitted. Everything in the shape of a vexatious lawsuit that could be trumped up against him had been, and in this instance he was arrested on the affidavit of a man, whose word would not have been taken at a saloon in Carthage for a glass of grog, who swore that he was guilty of treason, and he was thrown into prison, and murdered while being detained waiting for an examination. The governor, in a communication to the Elders in Nauvoo, said that the people felt that it was very wrong that he should be murdered in that way, but the great mass of them was very glad that he was dead; and I have reason to believe that this feeling was caused by religious prejudice, which arose from the fact that he came preaching what was considered a new doctrine, which attacked all the hireling priests and religious crafts, and offered free, to all people, a religion, plain and simple and in accordance with the Bible, and which, if accepted, would have a tendency to throw a large portion of the hireling clergy of the age out of employment, or compel them to do as the Apostles did in the days of Jesus—preach the Gospel without purse and scrip. Vexatious lawsuits, mob violence, tar and feathers, and finally, bloodshed were successively adopted in hopes of stopping this religion, and it was believed by those who regarded “Mormonism” as a wild theory, that the death of Joseph would scatter the people and destroy their faith in the work. They did not realize that he had laid the foundation of a living, truthful organization, which would be likely to increase the faster the more it was persecuted. But so it was, for the people continued to gather, and the public buildings—Temple and Nauvoo House—were being pushed forward more rapidly than ever, and when this was ascertained, there was an organization formed which expelled the people from the State.

The authorities of the Church at Nauvoo being aware of this combination, petitions were sent to the government of the United States, and also to the governor of every State in the Union, asking each one to give us an asylum in his State. The governor of Arkansas gave us a respectful answer, all the rest treated our petition with silent contempt.

In September, 1845, the mob commenced burning houses, and they continued burning in different parts of the settlements, mostly in Hancock County, until they burned one hundred and seventy-five houses. The governor and authorities of the State were notified, and finally the sheriff of the County took a posse, mostly Latter-day Saints, and stopped the house burning. The instant this was done the people of the nine adjoining counties rose up and said—“You ‘Mormons’ must leave the county or you ‘Mormons’ must die.” They then made an agreement that we should have time to move away and dispose of our property, and that vexatious lawsuits and mob violence should cease. This we kept most faithfully, but so far as they were concerned the agreement was never observed, mob violence continued, house burnings and murders occurred occasionally, vexatious lawsuits were renewed; and before the remnant of the people were permitted to get out of the county they were surrounded by armed mobs, as many as eighteen hundred in a single body, and cannonaded out of their houses.

The people thus driven commenced a journey to seek the home where we now reside. The white settlements extended sixty or seventy miles west of the Missouri River, Keosauqua was the most western one. From that place we made the roads, and bridged the streams, some thirty in number, across Iowa, to Council Bluffs, arriving there in June, 1846. The people who started on this journey started under the most forlorn circumstances. They left their houses, lands, crops, and everything they had if they could get a yoke of cattle, wagons without iron tires, carts, or anything of which they could make an outfit, and commenced a journey to hunt a home somewhere where so-called Christians would not be able to deprive them of the right to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences, a right which is actually more dear than life itself.

I think between thirteen and fourteen hundred miles of road were made, though we occasionally followed trappers’ trails, and on the 24th of July, 1847, President Young led the pioneer party—numbering one hundred and forty three men—on to this ground, then a portion of Mexican Territory and one of the most desolate, barren looking spots in the world, and dedicated it to the Most High, that we might once more find an asylum where liberty could be enjoyed. We should most probably have reached this place before we did, but the United States, the year before, invited our camps to send five hundred men to aid them in the war with Mexico, which they did, and they were mustered into service on the 16th of July, 1846, and made the route through from New Mexico to the Pacific coast.

It is a remarkable fact in history, that while these five hundred Latter-day Saints, mustered into service at Council Bluffs, were bearing the American flag across the desert, from New Mexico to the Pacific Coast, a march of infantry characterized by General Cook as unparalleled in military annals, the remnant of their families in Nauvoo were surrounded by eighteen hundred armed men and cannonaded, and driven across the river into the wilderness, without shelter, food or protection, in consequence of which very many of them lost their lives.

Our friends pass through here and they say—“What a beautiful city you have got! What beautiful shade trees! What magnificent fruit trees, what grand orchards and wheat fields! What a splendid place you have got!” When the pioneers came here there was nothing of the kind, and a more dry and barren spot of ground than this was then could hardly be found. Still the little streams were running from the mountains to the Lake. We knew nothing, then, about irrigation, but the streams were soon diverted from their course, to irrigate the soil. For the first three years we had but little to eat. We brought what provisions we could with us, and we eked them out as well as we could by hunting over the hills for wild segoes and thistle roots. There was very little game in the mountains, and but few fish in the streams, and hence we had but a short allowance of food, and for three years after our arrival there was scarcely a family which dared to eat a full meal. This was the condition in which this settlement was commenced. There was no intercourse except with Western Missouri, and it was ten hundred and thirty-four miles to the Missouri River, if we struck it at the mouth of the Platte, where Omaha is now; and our supplies, which were generally brought, by way of that place, were all purchased in Western Missouri.

In 1850 a sufficient crop was raised here to supply the inhabitants with food, but previous to that time we had divided our scanty supplies with hundreds and thousands of emigrants, who drifted in here in a state of starvation while on their way to California, for the discovery of the gold mines there had set the world almost crazy. Many people started on the Plains without knowing how to outfit or what to do to preserve their supplies, and by the time they reached here their outfits would be completely exhausted. We saved the lives of thousands who arrived here in that condition, many of them our bitter enemies, and we aided them on their way in the best possible manner that we could.

There are several incidents which occurred here in early times which, to us, were miraculous. The first year after our arrival the crickets in immense numbers came down from the mountains and destroyed much of the crops. The people undertook to destroy them, and after having done everything they could to accomplish this object, they gave it up for a bad job; then the gulls came in immense numbers from the lakes and devoured the crickets, until they were all destroyed, and thus, by the direct and miraculous intervention of Providence, the colony was saved from destruction.

While crossing the Plains we had to form in companies of sufficient size to protect ourselves against the Indians, there being from fifty to a hundred men in each company. In these companies existed our religious organization, and we also had a civil organization, by which all the difficulties that arose in the companies were settled; and then a militia organization, composed of ablebodied men, whose duty it was to guard the camps from attacks by Indians, and from accidents. We had our meetings every Sabbath, at which the Sacrament was administered; we had days also set apart for washing, and occasionally we had a dance, and our travels were so regulated that the cultivation, enjoyment and associations of society were experienced almost as much as when living together in a settled and well regulated community.

When we started on our journey we knew very little about Indians, but we exercised towards them such a spirit of justice, and such vigilant watchfulness, that we lost very little, and suffered very little on account of difficulties with them during the many years that we were crossing these plains.

Before we left Nauvoo we had covenanted, within the walls of our Temple, that we would, with one heart and one mind, abide by each other, and aid one another to escape from the oppressions with which we were surrounded, to the extent of our influence and property, and just as soon as the brethren were able they formed a perpetual emigration fund in Salt Lake City, and in 1849 Bishop Hunter, with five thousand dollars in gold, was sent back with instructions to use that and what other means he could gather in helping those to come here who were not able to come before; and from year to year this work has continued, being a grand system of brotherly love and united cooperation. In a few years after reaching here we sent a hundred teams back to the frontiers, each team being a wagon and four yoke of oxen or six mules or horses; and as we increased in strength, we sent annually two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, and finally six hundred, to bring home those who wished to settle in these valleys; and even at the present time, our system of emigration has been extended across the sea, to gather all who wish to gather with the Saints. There are many thousands of people in these valleys who, had it not been for the organization of the Latter-day Saints and the kind and fatherly care of President Brigham Young, would never have owned a foot of land, or any other property, but they would have been dependent all their lives upon the will of a master for very precarious subsistence.

Our plan of settlement here was entirely different from that we had adopted in any other country in which we had ever lived. The first thing, in locating a town, was to build a dam and make a water ditch; the next thing to build a schoolhouse, and these schoolhouses generally answered the purpose of meetinghouses. You may pass through all the settlements, from north to south, and you will find the history of them to be just about the same—the dam, the water ditch, then the schoolhouse and the meetinghouse. Crops were put in, trees were planted, cabins were built, mills were erected, fields were enclosed, and improvements were made step by step. This Territory is so thoroughly a desert that unless men irrigate their land by artificial means they would raise comparatively nothing. The settlements at the present time stretch some five or six hundred miles, extending into Arizona on the south and into Idaho on the north.

We have had some difficulty with the Indians, resulting principally from the interference of outsiders. Those of you who have read the history of John C. Fremont’s journey through Western Arizona, may remember that he gives an account of some of his party killing several of the native Piute Indians. From that time the war seems to have commenced between the Indians and the whites. Some of you may also remember the declaration, in regard to the Indians, made by Mr. Calhoun, one of the early governors of New Mexico. He informed the government that the true policy in regard to the Digger and Piute tribes, in the western part of the Territory, which then embraced Arizona and portions of Utah, was to exterminate them, that it was utterly useless ever to attempt to civilize them, or to do anything else but exterminate them. This was the policy adopted by a great many travelers who passed through, and when they saw an Indian, the feeling was to shoot him. This was especially the case in the district of country now comprised in the southern portions of this Territory and the western part of Arizona.

When we came into the country our motive was to promote peace with the Indians, to deal justly with them and to act towards them as though they were human beings, and so long as we were permitted to carry out our own policy with them we were enabled to maintain peace, and there were but few instances in which difficulties occurred. A band of men, rowdies, from Western Missouri, on the way to the mines, shot some Snake squaws and took their horses, up here on the Malad. This aroused the spirit of vengeance in the Indians, and they fell upon and killed the first whites they found, and they happened to be “Mormons” who were engaged in building a mill on the northern frontier, just above Ogden. This difficulty, of course, had to be arranged, and a good many circumstances of this kind, at various times, have made it difficult to get along without having a muss with the Indians.

Again, we had people among us who were reckless in their feelings, and who were not willing always to be controlled and to act wisely and prudently. All these things considered, when we realize that we always had four frontiers, and that we were about a thousand miles from any white settlement in any direction, that the Indians were on every side of us, and many of them very wild and savage, it is perfectly wonderful that we have had as little diffi– culty with them as we have. But the United States, in sending agents here, have frequently been not altogether fortunate in their selection, and in some instances have not sent very good men. Some who have been sent have been very good men, but they were totally ignorant of the business of dealing with, controlling or promoting peace with the Indians. This, of course, has been more or less detrimental to the settlements, and it has cost them a great deal to supply the natives with food and to aid them in getting along, for it is much cheaper to feed the Indians than to fight them. But the general feeling among the Indians is, that as far as the “Mormons” are concerned, they desire to deal with them in a spirit of justice and friendship. There is now little difficulty except from distant Indians, and we sometimes think that white men, perhaps, have employed Indians to plunder ranches and drive off cattle four or five hundred miles and sell them. Some instances of this kind may have occurred, but we have got along wonderfully well.

The people here have shown a vast amount of enterprise in the construction of the roads through the Territory. Strangers who come here run down to this city, go down to Provo and up to Logan, and to various other places on the little branches of our railroad system; but if they were to travel through these mountains and extend their investigations into the valleys, which are well worthy the attention of any traveler for their beauty, they would find that in many places they are so rugged that it is almost a wonder there were ever men enough in the country to make the roads. Then the telegraph wires have been extended some twelve hundred miles through a number of the settlements, north and south; these wires have sometimes been used to prevent the plunder of the ranches by the Indians. From year to year we are extending our railroad system. We have had no encouragement from the General Government in relation to railroads; we have never been permitted even to have the right of way, by act of Congress, over a foot of ground, until we have occupied it with a railroad for a year or two, and sometimes not then; and we are extending our railroad system without any aid from Congress or any other source, but our own ingenuity and means, and that of our friends.

We are doing all we can to unite our brethren to cooperate in the building of factories, in the construction and establishment of machinery of various kinds, in commercial operations, in the building of railroads, the enclosing of farms, and in every branch of business possible we are endeavoring to unite the people in order to save labor, economize, and produce within ourselves as many articles as we possibly can that we need to consume, and some to sell, for our history for the past few years has proved that we have traded too much—we have bought more merchandise than the products of the country would justify, and a system of manufacturing is very important, and our people have constructed some very fine mills for the manufacture of woolen and other goods.

While we are tracing, for the consideration of our friends, our progress, we here say that we have had very little encouragement from the outside. Our mines were worthless in this country until the railroad was built. In 1852, we presented to Congress, by our Delegate, Dr. Bernhisel, a petition for a railroad across the continent. Members of Congress then ridiculed the idea as being a hundred years ahead of the age. Our Delegate invited his friends to come and see him when the road was constructed, and some of them have done so. The memorial was presented six or eight times, being repeated session after session, before any steps were taken by Congress towards the construction of the road, and it was finally completed much earlier than it would have been had it not been for the cooperation of the people of this Territory, who made the roadbed for four hundred miles over the worst part of the route, and, also furnished a good deal of business for the road to do when it was finished.

As soon as the railroad was completed mines here, containing lead, with a small percent of silver, became valuable. They were not worked before. Of course we worked them a little when we wanted a little lead, but the silver mines, as they are termed now, were not worth a dollar then. But as soon as the great railroad and our branch lines were completed the mining property of the country became valuable. It would have seemed that a wise government would have encouraged such enterprises, but this has not been the policy of the General Government towards Utah. They have seemed to think that all that was necessary was to send governors and judges, and to pick the most bigoted men they could find to fill these positions; though I must say that, during the twenty-four years that we have been a Territory, we have had many very excellent men sent here, including very good governors, and very good judges, and some who, I think, would have been better employed in other callings. It is really an unfortunate circumstance to pick up men and send them to any country, to occupy important offices, who are totally unacquainted with the country and who have no interest in it, and whose prejudices are against the people. The better policy is the one announced in the Declaration of Independence, that, in relation to these United States, the consent of the governed should be had. This would be a better policy, more republican and more agreeable, but we seem to be a special people, and, of course, acts have to be performed for our special case.

There is one ground of complaint that is alleged against us here, and that is, we believe in a plurality of wives. A great many men and women have practiced this principle rigidly, in all good faith; and until we can find some man who can show us a single passage in either the Old or New Testament, that actually prohibits it, we feel justified in following the examples of Prophets, Patriarchs, and holy men, fathers of the faithful, believing that if it were right in their case it cannot be wrong in ours. We are told that the Old Testament sets forth such an example, but that the New Testament condemns it, for that the Savior did it away. The only question I would ask in reference to this subject is—If the Savior did away with plural marriage, why didn’t he say so? If the Apostles put it down why did they not tell us of it? In the last two chapters of the Bible we have an account of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the gates of which we are told are to be named after the twelve sons of four wives by one father; and if we enter the gates of that city we face this polygamy, and if we cannot face this polygamy we cannot enter the gates into the city. So we understand the New Testament. On account of our belief in and practice of this Scriptural doctrine, extraordinary legislation has been asked against us, that our lives, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness may be at the control of four or five individuals. This is the extreme of folly.

In considering this subject, let us ask where, in all the world, has a Territory been settled under as many disadvantages as this? Where have a hundred and fifty thousand people been collected together and exhibited more order, and given proof of more industry and prosperity under the circumstances than we have? Nowhere. Brigham Young, as President of the Church and leader of the people, from the death of Joseph Smith to the present time, through the influence that he has exercised with his brethren and friends throughout the world, has been able to bring thousands of people from America and other nations, and to locate them in these valleys and put them in possession of happy homes, and to make thriving, flourishing and prosperous communities. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Then, the true policy is to leave men to the enjoyment of their religion, to the enjoyment of the holy Gospel as they may receive it, extending liberty, peace, good order and happiness to all. I believe today there is no Territory so lightly taxed and, with all the drawbacks, none so well governed as this. It is true that since the railroad has come here there has drifted in a population in favor of sustaining grog shops. I notice that in the last week a petition has been signed by four thousand ladies, asking the City Council to shut up the drinking hells. These institutions are a portion of civilization that has followed the railroad, and that would have caused astonishment here a few years ago. I wish the City Council would grant the petition of the ladies; I suppose they may be restrained by a decision of a court which claims to question their jurisdiction; but I have no doubt the City Council will shut up these hells if it is in their power, consistent with the relations that exist between the Territorial authorities and those of the United States. But I am ashamed of our Congressmen, I am ashamed of our judges, I am ashamed of our federal authorities for fastening upon a people such a system of drunkenness, licentiousness and debauchery, while they are making such a terrible howl over a man who may have two wives, and who labors hard for their support, and for the education of their children, and acknowledges them honorably before the world. Everybody to his taste.

When Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, the author of what is termed the anti-polygamy bill of 1862, told me that he would not care anything about plurality of wives if it were not in the United States, and he was afraid that Vermont was partly responsible for it, I told him that they had a system of licensing prostitution in Vermont. I, however, should raise no objection to that, but I felt myself disgraced and ashamed because I was associated with a State that licensed such a system as that; and that if I could put up with Vermont, he could put up with Utah, that was no more than fair, it was shake for shake.

I heard it stated, or read, not long since, that a hundred thousand infanticides annually occur on Manhattan Island. That is a most horrible state of affairs if it is half true, or quarter true. Can nothing be done to change this system? I will refer my friends to the pamphlet published by a very learned minister, Rev. Doctor Tood, of Pittsfield, Mass., showing the spirit of death, corruption, licentiousness, and mur– der that exists, even in the churches among professing Christians in Massachusetts and other parts of New England. I felt not a little surprised to go back into the neighborhood where I was raised, where they used to have fifty scholars annually, to find that they were borrowing one or two from another neighborhood to make out fifteen, so that they could draw the public money. There were as many houses in the neighborhood as formerly, and a few more, new ones, had been built; there were also more families in the neighborhood, but they had stopped having children. I, as an American citizen, feel myself disgraced to be associated with any community who have adopted these expedients, at the same time I do not expect, under any circumstances, ever to undertake to interfere with their local regulations, and I simply ask my fellow men to give us the same opportunity.

The Lord has blessed us with many children, and there is no Latter-day Saint, who has an abiding faith in the Gospel and in the great command which God first gave to the children of men, to multiply and replenish the earth, but what rejoices in them, and regards them as a blessing from on high; and nobody in the mountains that I know of has ever complained of the number of children, except some of our friends up here in Idaho. When they ran the southern line of Idaho, it was found that several settlements and parts of three counties, before then supposed to be in Utah, were in that Territory. The people of Idaho have a school law and a school fund, and the most that had been done before with this fund was to give it to the officers; but with the addition of the “Mormon” settlements to the Territory, there was an addition of several thousand “Mormon” children, and they were included in the school report. The officers said—“This cannot be, this must be a humbug, there cannot be anything like this number of children;” but when they came to investigate and count noses they found it verily true, and there were “Mormon” people raising hearty, hale little fellows to walk over these mountains and make them blossom like the rose.

I remember once, in traveling through the State of Indiana, encountering a gentleman who called himself Professor Jones, connected with a university there. He asked me a great many questions about our system in the mountains, and wanted to know how we did this and how we did that. I explained it to him as correctly as I could. I traveled with him a day or two, and he kept asking questions and making notes. When we parted he said he was very much surprised, he had supposed that our system was one of immorality, but he had learned to the contrary. He did not pretend to say anything about its justness and correctness; of course he did not sympathize with it, but one thing was sure, said he, “If you continue the course you are now pursuing, you will produce a set of men in those mountains who will be able to walk the rest of mankind under their feet.” I suppose, like enough, he may be one of the men who would like to proscribe us now. I know this, if the reports of learned men are true, the course now being pursued by a great many of our Christian friends in the East, will, in a few generations, wipe out the race of ’76 and give the country into the hands of strangers. It is time that somebody was fulfilling the great command of God, to multiply and replenish the earth, and put away licentiousness, and labor for the upbuilding and welfare of the human race.

Men take up “Mormonism,” and they say it is a humbug. There is where they make a mistake. My friends, the Gospel, as preached by the Latter-day Saints, is true. “Mormonism” is no humbug. Joseph Smith was a true Prophet; he revealed a true religion, and all attempts to destroy it will prove vain. I bear this testimony, I know this to be true, and I warn my fellow men to receive this faith, and to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins and be baptized for their remission, and receive the laying on of hands, that you may enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost, for that Spirit will rest upon you if you receive and obey this Gospel with full purpose of heart. Then add to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, to your knowledge temperance, to your temperance patience, to your patience godliness, to your godliness brotherly kindness, to your brotherly kindness charity, and if these things be and abound in you, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ. You will know these things for yourselves, and you will testify, as I testify, that you know this work is the work of God.

May God enable us to do so, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered at the Adjourned General Conference, held in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 10, 1874.

I rise on the present occasion, desiring the faith and prayers of the brethren and sisters that I may be able to address them by the majesty of the Spirit of the Almighty. When we come before the Lord to partake of the Sacrament, in memory of his death and suffering, we witness unto him that we do remember him, that we love one another, and that we are willing to endeavor to do all in our power to fulfill our several duties on the earth.

One of the first and most responsible duties that rest upon us is the education, training and cultivation of the minds of our children. A child learns from us by our examples, the actions or examples of the parents being ever remembered by the children. A pious old deacon who may, by the way, have been a hypocrite, and had two half bushel measures, one to buy, and the other to sell with, may be very sure that his children will be dishonest. So it may be with our children if we do not act before them as becometh Saints; our precepts may be very good, but their effect will not be very powerful unless our examples correspond.

We are more or less careless as to the observance of the Sabbath; and, in consequence of the neglect of the Latter-day Saints in this respect, I feel anxious to stir them up to diligence in attending meetings on the Sabbath and on fast days, and in having their children do the same. I have visited a number of Sunday schools, and I have found that there was a good deal of interest manifested in them, and that much benefit to the rising generation is resulting from spending a couple of hours on the Sabbath in giving them religious or such other instruction as may be necessary to cultivate their minds; and, I wish the Bishops and presiding Elders, on their return to their several Branches, to stir up the minds of the brethren and sisters to the necessity of encouraging the Sunday schools, that they may be interesting and agreeable as well as instructive. Stir up the parents, too, that they may be alive and awake in getting the children ready for school in season, and that punctuality in attendance be encouraged. Endeavor also to induce parents and other elder members of families who can do so, to attend the Sunday schools, that there may be no lack of teachers, for one of the most useful callings for persons who can possibly or reasonably attend to it, is to teach the youth in Sunday schools.

I also advise that the “Juvenile Instructor” be circulated extensively among our children. It is a work calculated to inform their minds on the principles of the Gospel; from its pages they may also gain a knowledge of the history of the Church, as well as a variety of other useful and entertaining information. It is a very useful publication, and the benefits it is capable of conferring upon our young people are numerous and great. While speaking on this subject, I will refer to other papers published by our brethren in these valleys—the “Deseret News,” the “Salt Lake Herald,” “Ogden Junction,” “Provo Times,” and the “Beaver” and “St. George Enterprise,” all of which contain a good deal of information about our home affairs specially, and of events in the world generally. I hope that, in all the Stakes of Zion, the people will manifest a spirit and determination to support papers which are published for their benefit. The “Deseret News,” daily, semi-weekly, and weekly, besides the general news of the world, also contains many of the sermons of President Young and others of the Church authorities, and it should be widely circulated in all the settlements of the Saints. The mails now run to all parts of the Territory, and though we cannot boast a great deal about the punctuality of some of them, yet in nearly every settlement a mail comes along once in a while bringing the “Deseret News,” and a man is pretty safe on the main thoroughfares in taking the weekly, and in many localities the semi-weekly or daily may be ventured upon.

We must do something more in relation to printing. The Women’s Relief Society are publishing a paper called the “Woman’s Exponent,” which is a very ably edited sheet, and one containing a great deal of information. I am surprised that all the gentlemen in the Territory do not take it. I invite all the Elders, Bishops and presiding officers in the Stakes of Zion, on their return home, setting the example themselves, to solicit all their brethren, and especially the sisters, to become subscribers to this little sheet, for I am sure that they will be interested in the instruction and information it contains. I will say that we expect in a short time, through the patronage of the brethren and sisters, that the ladies will be able to enlarge this paper, and to extend its influence far and wide.

It has been my privilege to make visits to, and to become acquainted with the Ladies’ Relief Societies in many of the settlements in the Territory, and I am convinced that great good results from the labors of these organizations; and I feel certain that unless the ladies take hold of any movement designed to forward the work of the Lord in the last days, its progress will be tardy. In all parts of the world, when nations are at war, unless the women take an interest in the matter, the war goes on very heavily. I am of the opinion that in the next war between France and Germany, the French will get the best of it. Not but what I have a great opinion of German skill, energy and pluck, but I am satisfied, from traveling and personal observation, that the women of France are thoroughly aroused, and that in the next war between those two nations, the Prussians will have to fight the women of France, and then France will be likely to win.

I say to our sisters of the Relief Societies, be encouraged, meet together and discuss all questions that are calculated to interest or benefit the community, as you have the ability; and as no man can be elected to office in this Territory without the vote of the ladies, make yourselves thoroughly acquainted, not only with the politics of the country, but with every principle of local government that may be advanced, and then, whatever is calculated to benefit the people in their private or domestic circles, you will be enabled to vote intelligently, and to carry it through without difficulty.

We spend a great deal of money in following vain fashions, and in purchasing a great many articles that are useless. These societies, if they choose, can make their own fashions and they can make them according to wisdom, and so as to promote health; a great many of the fashions of the world are calculated to destroy health. A hundred questions connected with domestic economy—housekeeping, cooking, making bread and kindred subjects, that are of importance to the stomach, health and longevity of every man and woman in the Terri– tory may be properly discussed in these Relief Societies, and useful information disseminated. A great many of the women in these valleys have not had good opportunities to become acquainted with the art of cooking, and that is an art which has something to do with every person’s happiness. The example of the ladies, and the influence which they exercise, have a tendency, above all things else, to maintain, create, and preserve good morals. Men are apt to behave themselves in the society of women, and if women act wisely and prudently in guiding and controlling the course and conduct of each other, they will be able, to a great extent, to guide, control, and regulate the morals and the conduct of men. We think, however, that the policy of the Christian world, in throwing the responsibility, so far as morality is concerned, entirely upon the heads of women, is a blunder; the men should be held responsible for their own acts, and when they are guilty of that which is corrupt, low or degrading, they should be looked upon as transgressors and cast aside until, by repentance and uprightness, they prove that they are worthy of confidence.

I have been, from the commencement of the formation of this Territory, more or less identified with its politics. I was a member of the Legislature of Deseret, before Utah Territory was organized, and while it was a provisional government. I was a member of the first Legislature of the Territory, and served twenty years. During that period I was brought in contact with five different sets of federal officers, and I had a pretty good knowledge of some forty-eight or forty-nine judges. They were men sent here, from different parts of the country, to administer the law. They had a general know– ledge of politics, and of the law as administered in their own immediate localities. But few of them were of high minds and noble sentiments, and many of them were incapable of occupying, with honor, the high positions they were selected to fill. Our people here in these mountains did not take much pains to acquaint themselves with the politics of the country. We had been five times robbed of all we possessed. Our leaders had been murdered and we had been expatriated and driven from the United States into these valleys, then a portion of the republic of Mexico, but afterwards acquired by the United States. We were a great way from any other settlement. It took a month, generally, to get a mail, and for about twelve years we had about seven mails a year; and in the latter part of October or about the first of November, portions of the mails for the winter before would be brought in here with ox teams. This was our condition in early days. We did not pay a great deal of attention to politics; we were not very much divided and hence we cared very little about our elections, and did not pay much attention to them; and a good many who came from abroad were so careless that they did not obtain their naturalization papers, although, from time to time, we advised them to attend to this matter; and I now call upon the Bishops and presiding Elders, when they return home, to recommend the foreign brethren who are not naturalized to see to this; and in all localities or districts which are favored with judges who have more respect for the law than for religious bigotry, let the brethren take all pains to get naturalized, that they may have the benefits of the laws of our country, and be permitted to perform any duty required thereby, and be faithful to do so in all cases; and never let an election go by, or any other occasion in which it is important for us to take part, without paying attention to it. This advice is for the ladies as well as for the gentlemen, for every lady of twenty-one years of age, who is a citizen of the United States, or whose husband or father is a citizen of the United States, has a right, under the laws of Utah to vote; and no one need hope to hold office in Utah if the ladies say no.

I wish to call your attention to the Saint George Temple. We have got the foundation of that Temple up to the water table, about eighteen feet from the ground, and a very nice foundation it is. The building is about one hundred and forty-one feet long and about ninety-three feet wide, and when the walls are up they will be about ninety feet high. We have a very fine draught and design. The building is in a nice locality and in a very fine climate, where, all winter, and in fact the whole year, there is almost perpetual spring and summer weather; and when the Temple is completed there will be an opportunity to go there and spend the winter and attend to religious ordinances or enjoy yourselves; and if you want to go there through the summer you can eat as delicious fruits as ever grew out of the earth in any country I believe. As far as I have traveled I have never seen anything in the way of fruit that I thought was superior to that which is produced in St. George. We invite a hundred and fifty of the brethren to volunteer to go down there this summer to put up this building, and to find themselves while they are doing it. We shall call upon the Bishops, presiding Elders, teachers and others from the various stakes of Zion to take this matter in hand when they reach home, and find brethren, if they can, who are willing to go and do this work, so that by Christmas the building may be ready for the roof, that we may, in a very short time, have the font dedicated and the ordinances of the holy Priesthood performed in that place. We appeal to our brethren and sisters in behalf of this St. George Temple. Our brethren in that vicinity are doing all they can to push forward the work, but five or six months’ help from a hundred or a hundred and fifty men is very desirable.

I will invite all the brethren and sisters from the settlements who may visit Salt Lake City this summer to step on to the Temple Block and see what we are doing for the Temple here. See the beautiful stones that have been quarried in the Cottonwood and brought here, every one cut and numbered for its place. And it is the duty of the brethren to call upon the Lord for his blessing upon the work and upon the workmen. I also call upon the Bishops and teachers in all the stakes of Zion, to be on hand and to see that, in the building of this Temple, in the Center Stake of Zion in the mountains, we are not under the necessity of involving ourselves in disagreeable liabilities in order to move the work forward. For the last year we have had from sixty to ninety men engaged in cutting stone on this block, and a number of other mechanics to supply them with tools and other necessaries; last summer we had a considerable force of men laying these stones on the walls. In Little Cottonwood Canyon we have continually at work a force of from twenty-five to sixty men quarrying granite, and every day, Sundays excepted, two or three carloads of this granite, from ten to twelve tons each load, are brought from the quarry to the Temple Block. It is really a delightful thing, to a person who has never seen it, to go on to the block and see the skillful manner in which our architects and workmen pick up these big stones and pass them all over the building, and lay them in their place to a hair’s breadth. It shows what can be done with a little management, skill and ingenuity.

We earnestly appeal to all Saints, tithe payers, to donate liberally and punctually for the prosecution of this work. While we employ so many skilled mechanics and other laborers, their families constantly require a supply of not only home products, but of money, and merchandise which costs money, and unless the brethren furnish the means to supply these necessities, we shall be obliged to dismiss many of the workmen. We have already incurred liabilities which press upon us, and we call upon the brethren to supply the means necessary to enable us to maintain our credit and continue the work.

It is the design of the teachers and superintendents of Sunday schools, to get up a children’s musical jubilee. Some songs have been composed, and they are being learned and practiced, and they calculate to assemble some eight or ten thousand children in this building and have a general time of grand musical song. The enterprise is a very laudable one. We do not know when the festival will take place but brother Goddard, the Assistant Superintendent, and a number of others who are interested in Sunday schools are doing all they can, and we ask the cooperation of the Bishops, presidents, teachers and brethren and sisters in the several Stakes of Zion to take a part in it, and make it one of the finest festivals of the kind ever held. The progress of our Sabbath schools will be encouraged, and the elevating ten– dency of music may be appreciated by all who participate therein. We ask our brethren to act wisely and prudently in carrying this matter out, that it may be done in such a manner as shall be satisfactory; and if a little means is necessary on the part of parents or friends let it not be wanting. In the course of my year’s travel I visited schools in various parts of the world, but I found none superior to our own. I think that ours compare favorably with them, and in many respects they are superior to most that I visited, and I hope that a spirit to encourage them will be developed.

I wish to see the common school system encouraged as far as possible. The brethren in many settlements are forming Branches of the United Order, and as soon as they get fairly to work they will be able to introduce improved systems of teaching. I notice, in visiting our settlements, more or less carelessness in relation to schools. Very little pains will make a schoolroom quite comfortable, and I wish to stir up parents to the importance of visiting the schools and seeing what their children are doing, and what the teachers are doing, find out whether the little fellows are sitting on comfortable seats; whether they put a tall boy on a low seat, or a boy with short legs on a high seat, making him humpbacked. The happiness and prosperity of the whole life of a child may be a good deal impaired while attending school through a blockhead of a teacher not knowing enough to get a saw and sawing the legs of the seats his pupils sit upon, so as to make them comfortable. It is the duty of the people to look after the comfort of their children while at school, and also to procure proper books for them; and to see that the schools are provided with fuel, that in the cold weather they may be warm and comfortable. In a new country I know there are a good many disadvantages to contend with, but I feel anxious that nothing, within our power to promote the welfare of our children, should be neglected. There is no need, however, to send to the States to buy school benches. There is plenty of timber in these mountains, and a few days’ work properly applied will seat any school room perfectly comfortable, for we can make just as good benches in this country as anywhere else, it is only a question of time and attention. Of course if we can do no better, send and buy; but in order that we may have means to buy what we are forced to buy, it is necessary that we exercise prudence and economy and supply our own wants as far as possible. The wholesale Cooperative Store here imports probably five million dollars’ worth of goods per annum. One-half of these goods could be produced at home with our own labor; it is only a question of time and management to do it. If we were to produce one-half of these goods we should be in easy circumstances all the time, and should have plenty to buy everything we wanted to buy. We could also produce many things to sell; but by purchasing, in such immense quantities, articles that we can make ourselves, we impoverish ourselves all the time, hence we advise our brethren and sisters, in all their councils, meetings, orders, associations, and relief and retrenchment societies, to take into account every question where economy can be exercised and prudence observed, and where we can save a dollar instead of spending one let us do it, for by taking this course we can lay a foundation for permanent comfort at home, and this will prevent us from being dependent upon abroad. This is a part of my religion and this I shall continue to preach.

In relation to this United Order, I will say to those who are entering it, if questions arise that trouble you and that you wish to have explained; or if anything should arise upon which you wish for advice or counsel, if you will write your queries and send them along here to the President’s office, we will answer them, and show you that the whole affair can be carried out with perfect ease. Only let this people act with one heart and one mind, as the Nephites did, and success is certain; and in a short time a great many will wonder, as some in the southern settlements have already expressed it, “Why did we not unite before?” I feel satisfied that the spirit which has been manifested here and elsewhere on this subject, is the same spirit which bore testimony to you, when you went down into the waters of baptism, that this was the work of God; and when we have this spirit in our hearts we can move forward with joy and thanksgiving, and can accomplish that which is required of us.

I wish to return my thanks to our musicians—those who direct and all who have participated in the musical exercises of our Conference. I have enjoyed them. I have visited many parts of the world, and have been to see their organs and to hear their music; but I have heard none with which I am so well pleased as with our own. There is something sweet and lovely here, and I feel that the Spirit of the Lord has warmed the hearts and inspired the souls of those who have made melody for us during the Conference. I pray that God may bless them, that he may enlighten their minds, enliven their souls, and make their songs songs of glory forever. Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered at the Adjourned General Conference, held in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 9, 1874.

The principles which we have presented before us in the plan of salvation require of us an effort, for we are told that if we would have the blessings of exaltation, we must continue unto the end; and, in the Lectures on Faith, contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, we are informed that if we would attain to the blessings of eternal life, we do it at a sacrifice of all things. The principles connected with this law call upon us to study our acts, designs and intentions in life.

We came into the Church in different parts of the world, under the influence of the Spirit of the Almighty, and we gathered here by the aid of our brethren, or by our own efforts. We came to this land to learn the ways of the Lord and to walk in his paths; but we fail to understand or appreciate, altogether, the importance of a strict attention to our faith, and we become negligent and thoughtless, we are anxious to obtain wealth, and there arises among us a scramble, a kind of emulation one with the other, to obtain a greater amount of this world’s goods than our neighbors. On this account many of us neglect to pay our Tithing, notwithstanding we are very anxious to receive the ordinances which are administered in a Temple. The real time to pay Tithing is when we have the means. When we receive money, merchandise or property, if we, in the first instance, go to Bishop Hunter and pay the tenth, making our record square with our faith, we can then use the remainder with a conscience void of offense, and we shall be blessed therein.

Men may commence reasoning on this subject, and say, “We will figure all the year, and if at the end of it we find that we have saved anything, we will pay some Tithing; but if we do not save anything, we think the Bishops ought to pay us something.” The spirit which prompts this feeling is entirely wrong, and those who come to this conclusion will, in the end, feel that if they lose a crop any year they ought to keep back their Tithing for several years after to make up that loss; but the fact is that a Tithing of what we receive from the Lord is due to him, and the residue we are entitled to use according to our best wisdom. The Prophet Malachi says—“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Jesus said, he that gives a cup of cold water, in the name of a disciple, to one of these little ones, shall in no wise lose his reward; but in order to have the blessing of faith connected with the payment of Tithing, it is necessary to realize the importance of the commandment of God concerning it, for no man can attain to the faith necessary to salvation and eternal life without a sacrifice of all things. Now, if we prefer the things of this world and the pleasures of life to the things of the kingdom of God, we can have our own choice, but, so far as the comparison is concerned, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive,” the glory that is in store for those who keep the commandments of God, and live in accordance with his requirements. If we are to adopt the order of Zion now, it should become in our hearts a cherished desire, an earnest and determined purpose that, in all our actions, we will seek to love our neighbor as ourselves, that we will labor for the good of Zion, and put away selfishness, corruption and false principles.

We have been instructed upon the necessity of economy, of living within ourselves, and of sustaining ourselves by the production of our own hands, yet we carelessly drift in another direction. How often we have been counseled to avoid getting into debt. When the Order of Enoch was organized in Kirtland the brethren were commanded, in the laws, not to get into debt to their enemies, and on a certain occasion it was commanded that we should make it our object to pay all our debts and liabilities, and that we should take measures to avoid the necessity of incurring more. One of the earliest things I can remember in my boyhood was an answer to the question—How to get rich? The answer was—“Live on half your income, and live a great while.” We know how easy it is to live beyond our income, and to go on the credit system. Credit is a shadow, and debt is bondage, and I advise the brethren to realize that the balloon system of credit so general in our country and among ourselves is dangerous in its nature, and it is our duty, at the earliest time in our power, to close up all our liabilities, pay all our debts, and commence living as we go. I would rather walk the streets in a pair of wooden soles that I own and owe no man for, than in the finest morocco that some merchant was presenting a bill to me to pay for; I should, in my estimation, be more of a gentleman and more of an independent man with the wooden soles than with the fine boots, and I would advise our brethren, if necessity requires, to adopt the wooden sole leather in preference to being in debt.

I visited the land where my ancestors lived in America, the graves of three or four generations of them, and I saw on the old farm, still occupied by some distant kinsmen, a shoe shop. Said I—“What are you doing here?” Said they—“Here is where we make our money, we work the farm in the summer, and in the winter we sit down here and earn three or four hundred dollars making shoes.” “Where do you sell them?” “We make them for some houses in Salem and Lynn, that send them to California and the western Territories and sell them there.” Now, brethren, think of this, a man can learn to make a shoe very quick if he has any ingenuity, and many of us spend our time in partial idleness through the winter, and we buy our shoes from manufacturers in the East, when we could just as well make them ourselves. Another bad feature connected with imported shoes is, that when we put them on and walk into the streets, if the weather is wet, our feet are damp very quick, and I believe, as a matter of health as well as economy, that if, in wet weather, we were to adopt the wooden sole, it would save our children from much sickness, and a great many of us from rheumatism, sore throats and coughs, for much of the imported sole leather is spongy, and that holds the water and makes the feet damp and cold, producing sickness; and I am inclined to believe the statement made by the agricultural societies of Europe, that the use of wooden soles for shoes has a tendency to prevent a great many diseases which are incident to the use of leather. But if we are determined to wear leather, if we set ourselves to the work with a will, we can produce as fine leather of every variety, and as fine shoes and almost every other necessary within ourselves as we import, and a great deal better. But we must stop sending away our hides by the car load and must tan them ourselves. We have plenty of workmen who understand the business, and more can be trained, and we shall then not be compelled to ship carloads of hair from the States for the use of our plasterers, in mixing the lime to finish our walls. This is true political economy.

When I went to St. George last fall, I had a very good pair of boots, made of nice States sole leather, under my feet. The soil of St. George has a cold mineral in it, and although it may be dry and pleasant to walk about, a man wants a thick sole under his feet. I have bled a great many years from a rupture of the left lung which I got while preaching in the streets of London in 1840, and I have suffered a great deal from it, and the moment I would go out to walk on the streets of St. George, a shock, almost like electricity, would strike, through the spongy leather of my boot, from the hollow of my foot to this lung and cause a pain there. I went and got an extra sole put on and a thickness of wax cloth put between the soles, and in this way I wore, all winter, a boot just as stiff in the sole as a clog, and had no rheumatism and escaped cold. This set me to reflecting why I should pay two dollars for those soles, brought from the States, when a piece of cottonwood was just as good, and would answer my purpose just as well. Says one—“Why not wear overshoes?” Who wants the air kept from their feet by wearing a coat of india-rubber, which sweats them and makes them tender? They keep the feet dry, it is true, but for my own part it is not convenient to wear overshoes, and never has been, and on this account I have been compelled to go without. I also observe that some of those who do wear them, if they are not very careful, or if they should happen to forget and step out into the wet without them are almost sure to take cold, and have an attack of rheumatism, especially if they have delicate health. But with us throughout the Territory, I believe it has become almost a financial necessity that we economize our shoe bills. Think of these things and remember that it is within our power to manufacture just as good leather and as much of it, and as good and handsome shoes here as anywhere else, only let us take the time neces– sary to do it.

The same thing may be said in relation to hats and clothing, and in fact about nine out of every ten articles that we import. One carload of black walnut brought here from the States, and paid for as a lower class of freight, will probably make half a dozen car loads of furniture, and we have the mechanics who know how to make it up; and if we lack the necessary machinery we can procure it. If we please we can also bring lumber for every variety of furniture that we want, that our mountain lumber will not make. The same rule will also apply to wagons, carriages and agricultural implements. This course will be much better than wasting ourselves by being slaves to others, and paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars for furniture of a not very durable quality, and other articles that we can manufacture ourselves.

With me this is a very important item of religion, and it is time for us to cease importing shoes, clothing, wagons and so many other things, and that we manufacture them at home. This will reduce instead of increasing our expenses. When a man buys imported articles for the use of his family he helps to create difficulties for himself, for by and by the bills begin to come, and bonds and mortgages and all this sort of thing have to be met, and then he begins to worry and stew; but if he used homemade products the means is kept in the Territory, and he has a chance of working at some branch of trade which will in a short time bring it back to him again; whereas if it is sent out of the Territory it helps to impoverish all. Why not retrench? Says one—“I want to wear as good clothes and as fine shoes as anybody else, and I think I should be laughed at if I were to put clogs on.” Well, if they did laugh they could not do a more foolish thing. Why not feel proud and independent of our own high character, that what we have is our own, and we are slaves to nobody? That is my feeling about it. By continually importing we run into debt and cast our ways to strangers, when it is perfectly in our power, if we will do it, to be independent, comfortable and happy, and owe no man anything.

Discourse by Elder Erastus Snow, delivered at the Adjourned General Conference, held in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday Morning, May 8, 1874.

The United Order of Zion, proposed for our consideration, as will be seen from the remarks that have been made by former speakers, and from the articles which were read yesterday afternoon, is a grand, comprehensive, cooperative system, designed to improve us who enter into it, financially, socially, morally and religiously; it will aid us, as Latter-day Saints, in living our religion, and in building up Zion, and help us, by a combined effort, to cultivate every virtue, to put from us every vice, to conduct ourselves and our children sensibly, and to dispense with childish follies; it will enable us to adopt sensible and discreet fashions and habits of life and style of dress and manners; all of which can be effected by combined efforts, but not easily in our individual capacities. For what man, however good be his desires, can control himself and his family in their habits and manners of life and fashions, without the aid of the surrounding community? What sensible man can hold me or my brethren responsible, in all respects, either for ourselves or our households, unaided by the community and while the community are all working against us? But when the community learn to work together, and are agreed in a common purpose, what is it that they cannot accomplish? Union is strength, and a combination of labor and capital will give us power at home and abroad. Our former cooperative systems in this Territory have accomplished very great good for us, but they have been only combinations of capital; the proposed system embraces labor as well as capital, and it designs to make the interests of capital and labor identical. True, there is one feature in the articles read yesterday which may require a little modification; it is at least a good subject for mature reflection and consideration before their final adoption; and these articles are presented before the people for this purpose.

The combination of labor and capital in this order will enable us to promote all branches of industry which shall appear, in the judgment of the common Order, to be for the general good. At present, capitalists are loath to engage in any enterprise which does not vouchsafe to them profitable returns. It has been said by some among us that the best argument in favor of cooperation, was large dividends; but this is an argument that appeals only to cupidity and avarice, and is especially acceptable to the man who sees nothing but the God of this world to worship. Large dividends corrupt the morals of a community, just as large speculations and the profit resulting therefrom; for however desirable in a financial point of view to those engaged in them, their tendency is always to intoxicate the brain, and lead those engaged therein to further follies, until they overreach and ruin themselves. Moderation is as valuable in financial affairs as in social ethics, moderation in all speculation and in all business, fair profits for labor, fair dividends for capital, and the use of that capital and labor to promote the greatest good of the greatest number, and not for my own dear self. The selfishness that is limited to our own persons savors of the lower instincts of our natures, and comes not from above.

Objections arise in the minds of some. “Shall we not by entering into this order, surrender our manhood, our personal liberty, and those rights so dear to every human being?” I answer, no, not in the least. We do no more than what all people do in the formation of government, of every kind, or associations for any purpose, whether charitable, religious or social. All organizations, corporations, and business firms agree to surrender certain personal privileges in order to secure mutual advantages. All govern– ments, societies, corporations and firms are founded upon the principle of mutual concessions to secure mutual advantages. Without this there could be no government, no power to arrest and punish criminals and protect the rights of the citizen and the sanctity of home.

The Order proposed before us affords the utmost freedom and liberty. All things shall be done by common consent, and all the Branches of the Order, throughout all the land, are to be organized by the selection of the wisest, best and most experienced persons in their midst, to form their councils, and to direct their business affairs and the labors of the community, for the best possible good of the whole, and not to the individual advantage of a few, who may be schemers or who may have acquired an education by which they are enabled to overreach their fellow men financially.

The grand principle upon which the Gospel of life and salvation is founded and on which Zion is to be built, is brotherly love and good will to man. This was the theme of the angels of God in announcing the birth of the Savior. Hitherto, under our old systems, it has been “every man for himself, and the devil for us all;” but the principle which the Lord proposes is that we should square our lives by a higher and holier one, namely, everyone for the whole and God for us all.

Will this Order benefit the rich? Yes, it will afford security for themselves and families and their capital. It is a mutual insurance institution. Will it afford security and protection to the poor and the honest laborer? Yes, it will lay a foundation for wealth and comfort for them, and their families after them. Is it a free school system? It is a mutual education system. Free? Not to the lazy, vicious and wicked, but it is a mutual education system for the good and industrious, who abide in the Order and fulfill the obligations thereof. Who shall be heirs of the common property? Every child who is born in the Order. Heirs to the whole of it. No, nobody will be heir to the whole of it. To what portion of it will they be heirs? Just what they need. Who shall be the judges? Themselves, if they judge correctly; and if they do not, somebody will judge more correctly for them. “Well, shall I surrender my judgment to anybody else?” Of course, you will; we all agree to that, if it must needs be. But he who judges for himself correctly shall not be judged, but he who is unable to judge himself, but covets everything that he sees, and wishes to scatter and destroy what others are seeking to accumulate and preserve, must have a bit put in his mouth and some, who are more sensible, must handle the reins. This is no agrarian doctrine, to level those who are exalted, down to the mean level of those who are in the mire, but it is the Godlike doctrine of raising those who are of low estate and placing them in a better condition, by teaching them economy, and prudence; it is for the strong to foster and bear the infirmities of the weak, for those who possess skill and ability to accumulate and preserve this world’s goods, to use them for the common good, and not merely for their own persons, children and relatives, so as to exalt themselves in pride and vanity over their fellow men, and sink themselves to ruin by worshiping the God of this world. This is beneath the character of those who profess to be the people of God. We have done that long enough, but the word of God to us is to change our front, and to learn to love our neighbor as ourselves and so cultivate the spirit of the Gospel.

As to the minutiae of the workings of the various Branches of this Order, the details of the business and the relations of life, one meeting of this kind would not suffice to tell, nor could the people comprehend it if we were able to tell it; but it will be revealed to us as we pass along, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, and everything necessary will appear in its time and place, and none need be overanxious to pass over the bridge before they reach it. God does not reveal to us everything at once, for our minds are not prepared to comprehend it. Like children we must have experience as we pass along. One thing is sufficient for us to understand, and that is that this Order has made all nations and peoples who have entered into and practiced it prosperous.

If anyone doubts for a moment the success and final triumph of these principles, that doubt is founded only in his own weakness, and in the weaknesses of his fellow men around him, and the selfishness that is in our natures. If we are determined to make it a success there is no power beneath the heavens that can make it a failure. If we engage in it with full purpose of heart, with faith towards God, and seeking to cultivate confidence towards one another, and are outspoken and frank in all our business relations and intercourse with each other, and do all things by common consent, with a just and honest purpose of soul, there is no power that can hinder our succeeding in our undertaking. But if we are determined to be selfish, and seek to build ourselves up on the weaknesses of our fellows, instead of building up the kingdom of our God, we ought to go down, and the sooner the better. For the last dozen years many of this people have been going on in the way that our fathers and the world generally walk in; and instead of building up Zion, have been after their personal and individual interests. Forty years have passed over us as a people during which we have been trying a little to carry on the work of God; but we have been like the wary trout in the stream, we have been nibbling around the hook, but we have never swallowed the bait. Now the hook is placed before us naked, and we are simply asked the question, “Will you take it or not?” “What, are we going to be caught?” Yes, this is the fear—“We are going to be caught by the wily fisherman—we are going to be enslaved. Has not somebody got an eye on our property? Does not somebody wish to have our horses and carriages, our fine houses, our substance, and the property we have gathered together?” Yes, the Lord has an eye on all this, for it belongs to him. Which of us has anything that does not belong to him? Where have we got that which we possess? Who has given us ability to accumulate and preserve? To whom are we accountable for our talents and gifts, as well as our substance? The Lord has his eye upon all this. Is he anxious about our property? No. This anxiety is in our own breasts, and if we have any idols the sooner we put them away the better. The Lord cares nothing about our houses and lands, our goods and chattels, our gold, silver or raiment, for all upon the earth belongs to him, and at the best it is only something that perishes with the using. He requires us to be faithful in the use of it, for he has said, “He that is not faithful with the unrighteous mammon, who shall commit to him the true riches?” True riches relate to eternity; the riches that relate to this life all perish with the using. Our houses, horses, carriages, clothing, and our gold and silver perish with the using, together with our tabernacles. We look to a glorious resurrection, to a new and enduring earth, to riches that are immortal, to the habitations that shall not pass away, to a glory that is beyond the grave, as the only true riches, which the Gospel enjoins us to look after. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all things else shall be added unto you.” They will be added in God’s own way, and he wishes to show us a better way, and, in order to deal with us as a kind father does with his children, he proposes to enlighten and instruct us, and he will impart to all of his people who will obey his voice the wisdom that is necessary to make them the richest people on the earth. This is the purpose of the Lord concerning Zion and his people—they are to possess this world’s goods in abundance, not to be foolish with them and to destroy themselves and their children, but that they may preserve themselves and their children from falling into the vices and follies of great Babylon. He will raise up in their midst wise counselors to provide for the welfare of the whole.

Will our trading and trafficking with the outside world cease? Of course not. As long as we are in the world, gathering Saints, preaching to the nations and building up Zion, Zion will be as a city set on a hill, which cannot be hid. But the Lord proposes to preserve his people as far as possible from the influences of Babylon, and the transactions outside of the Order will be carried on through the Council of the Order; agents will be appointed by the voice of the Order, that what we bring from abroad may be bought from first hands and in the lowest market, that we may derive the benefits of it, instead of giving the profits to middlemen who are not of us; and what we have for sale we will sell in the best markets, and so enjoy the benefits of our labor, and not by interior competition and underbidding and underselling each other to “scatter our ways to strangers,” as we have done in times past. By this combined effort we shall be able to obtain the full market value of our products—the products of the farm, dairy, orchard, vineyard, the products of the woolen and cotton factory, of our shoe shops, and every mechanical appliance, to enable us to procure all labor-saving machinery, by our combined efforts, which men in their individual capacity are not able to do. We shall also be enabled to start new enterprises, and if they do not pay at first, they are bound to pay in the end, if they are necessary adjuncts to the prosperity of society. Our common fund will nourish these infant establishments, instead of individuals failing and breaking down in their vain efforts to build up new enterprises in a new country, as is often the case now. And if funds are needed from abroad to aid us in any general enterprise, we shall have the combined property and credit of the community as a guarantee to capitalists abroad, instead of individuals mortgaging their inheritances to procure money to carry on individual “wildcat” speculations by which thousands are ruined. If they were operating in a United Order and would submit their enterprises to the candid deci– sion of that Order, many an enterprising man would be saved from foolish ventures and from ruin, and the wise and prudent would receive the necessary encouragement and financial aid, to make their undertakings a success for the benefit of the whole.

Will our merchants be worse off? No, our merchants, those who belong to this Order, will be just as well off as any of the rest of the Order. They will work where they are appointed, go on missions when called, or tan leather, or make hats or wooden shoes, if they are better adapted for that than for standing behind the counter; but if they are best suited to handle the products of the people and to carry on mutual exchanges among ourselves within the Order and with branch Orders and with the outside world, we will appoint them to this labor and service, and hold them to an account of their stewardships, and the results of their transactions go into the common fund. Then they will not be stimulated to avarice, overreaching, lying and deception, to put what they call an honest, but what I call a very dishonest, penny into their pockets. We will endeavor thus, by a union of effort, to take away temptations from our midst to be dishonest, and let the dishonest share the fate of Ananias and Sapphira; but let the virtuous, upright and good be frank and outspoken, and give their sentiments, the witness of the word of truth in their hearts, for the good of the whole. Those who lack business capacity and experience will labor where they can be useful, that the ability of all may be available for the general good.

These are the principles embraced in the instrument we heard read yesterday afternoon. As to these little personal objections that arise in the mind, we shall find that they exist only in the imaginations of our own hearts, arising from our ignorance or a want of proper understanding, and partly from knowing each other too well, and comprehending each other’s selfishness and weaknesses; because of this we are afraid to trust each other. The remedy for this is for everyone to set himself to work to better his own condition, first establishing confidence in his own heart between himself and his God, and so deporting himself that he can command the respect and confidence of his brethren and sisters. Every man and every woman should set themselves to do this, and should enter into this Order with a firm determination to do this. Confidence will then soon be restored in our midst. Then every man and every woman will speak the honest sentiments of their hearts, and vote as they feel to do on every question, in the selection of officers and in the transaction of all business, and we will do whatever we do for the general good, according to the light that is in us. Such a people are bound to draw down from the heavens above the revelations of light and truth; they will tap the clouds from above; every man will be a lightning rod to draw electricity from the clouds, in other words, the revelations of light and truth, into their own hearts and minds; they will possess a combined intelligence that will accomplish all they undertake in righteousness, and they will prevail before the Lord and before the world, and will command the respect and honor of the virtuous and good, at home and abroad. Those who refuse to engage in these enterprises, and to enter into the holy Order, will become the unpopular ones; and after we have once succeeded in this effort, we shall marvel and wonder that we did not enter into it before.

We have been over forty years trying to learn these lessons, and all the time putting them off to a future day, waiting for our children to carry them out; but we shall marvel that we did not rise up and carry them out before. Thousands of Saints have been anxiously waiting and might, perhaps, have entered into this before now; but we have been continually throwing new clay into the machine, drawing new materials from abroad and raising new elements at home, and the elements brought from Babylon has brought Babylon with it, and our habits, customs, notions and individuality have been so prominent, that we could not see the benefits of mutual concessions to secure the mutual advantages and benefits of combined labor.

I am aware that some capitalists will object to the idea of drawing only fifty percent of what remains to their credit, if they should conclude to withdraw from the Order. Be this as it may, I can see no principle appertaining to the Gospel and to the building up of Zion, no principle of justice between man and man, which would permit the capitalist today to bring his capital into the Order and surrender it to the custody and care of stout hearts and strong arms to protect and preserve it and to increase it by the erection of factories and machinery and buildings and improvements, by the combined labor of the people, and then all the original capital, together with all the dividends, to be left at the disposal of the few capitalists originally composing the firm, and they be permitted, fifty years hence, to get up and walk off with the whole of it, leaving the great mass of the community, that have grown up from infancy, and preserved and insured and made it valuable, without anything but their daily wages, which they have eaten up as they passed along in supporting themselves and their growing families. I say I see no justice in allowing a few capitalists to draw the whole of their original deposits, together with the whole of the dividends and profits which have been made by the labor of the whole community, and I consider the provision which limits that withdrawal to half the original amount and half the dividends both wise and necessary. It is a question in my mind whether we should, in this Order, recognize the right of capital as above that of labor. This is a point which will bear criticism. But I will pass that over now.

There are many objections which will arise in the minds of the people. The enemy will endeavor to throw every possible objection before our minds; but the more we scan it, and the more we seek to understand the principles of this Order, as set before us in this instrument, the more we shall see the wisdom of God manifest therein, and the revelations of light and truth; the more this spirit goes abroad among the people, the more will their hearts be opened and prepared to receive it. I praise God that he has moved upon the heart of his servant Brigham to call this people to “right about face,” that they may enter in at the strait gate, which may God grant we may be able to do in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the Adjourned General Conference, held in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City Friday Morning, May 8, 1874.

We had a request given to us, at the opening of the Conference, yesterday morning, by President Young, to give evidences for and against the United Order of Zion. I do not know that I should be a very able advocate against it. I have been looking over in my own mind, the arguments which might be brought against it, and there are a few things I will name. If we were to undertake to unite according to the spirit and letter of this order it would, in one sense of the word, deprive us of having half a dozen candidates at elections, as is the custom generally in the Christian world. It would, in a measure, deprive these candidates of the opportunity of spending a month or two stump-speeching to get the votes of the people; then, when the election came, of paying for two or three barrels of bad whiskey to treat those who are going to vote for them. Then it might deprive Alderman Clinton, or some other justice of the peace, of the chance of collecting two or three hundred dollars as fines from those who had committed a breach of the peace. It might deprive the Benedicts and other surgeons of the opportunity of collecting five hundred or a thousand dollars for mending broken arms and legs got in free fights. Probably it would deprive the people of the opportunity of spending fifty or a hundred thousand dollars a year in importing mustard into this Territory, and require the farmers to collect and use that which is now a nuisance on their fields. It might also deprive us of the privilege of paying a hundred thousand dollars for imported brooms, and require us to plant two or three hundred acres of broom corn. These are about the only objections that I can think of against the order, though you might carry it out in detail, perhaps, a good deal further; but with regard to the benefits arising from it, they are so numerous that it would take a long time to enumerate them. I do not think it requires a great deal of argument to prove to us that union is strength, and that a united people have power which a divided people do not possess.

I am very glad that I have lived long enough to see a day when the hearts of the people can be united so as to carry out these things, while they also act upon their own agency in receiving and obeying them. We have been a good many years preaching up the necessity of the Latter-day Saints being one in temporal as well as in spiritual things, and I have felt, for a long time, in my own mind, that there must be a change among us. The way we have been drifting, has not seemed to have a tendency, as a general thing, to carry out the purposes of the Lord, and to prepare us, as a people, for those events which await us.

In our spiritual labors we have been united in a measure, and in some things perhaps in a temporal point of view. Now, for instance, the case I referred to in regard to our elections. I do not think that, for the twenty-four years we have resided in these valleys, any man has ever paid a sixpence in order to obtain any office to which he has been elected by the votes of the people, whether as Delegate to the Congress of the United States, Governor of the Territory, member of the legislature, probate judge, or any other office. I do not think that any man who has been in office has ever even asked for it in any shape or manner. So far as this is concerned we have been united, and we have one consolation in regard to our officers, I do not believe there has ever been a single defaulter among them in the whole Territory, so far as dollars and cents are concerned, in any office. In this respect then we see the advantage of being united.

There are very many advantages that will accrue to us if we unite our hearts, feelings, labors, interests, property, and everything that we are made stewards over. One thing is certain, we cannot continue in the course that we have pursued in regard to temporal matters. It is suicidal for any people to import ten dollars’ worth of products while they export only one, and it is a miracle and a wonder to me that we have lived as long as we have under this order of things. We have sent millions of dollars out of the Territory every year, for articles for our home consumption, while we have exported but very little; hence I say that the establishment and success of this new order among us will bring about our temporal salvation.

We occupy a different position from the rest of the world. We believe in the revelations of Jesus Christ contained in the Bible as well as in the record or stick of Joseph in the hands of Ephraim—the Book of Mormon, which gives a history of the ancient inhabitants of this continent. We also believe in the Book of Revelations, which were given through the mouth of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, to the Latter-day Saints and to the inhabitants of the earth. Inasmuch, then, as we believe these things, we, if we carry out our faith, must of necessity go to and prepare ourselves for the fulfillment of the revelations of God. When we are in possession of the Spirit of God, we understand that there is a change at the door, not only for us but for all the world. There are certain events awaiting the nations of the earth as well as Zion; and when these events overtake us we will be preserved if we take the counsel that is given us and unite our time, labor and means, and produce what we need for our own use; but without this we shall not be prepared to sustain ourselves and we shall suffer loss and inconvenience thereby. I am satisfied that as a people, pursuing the course we have pursued hitherto, we are not prepared for the Zion of Enoch or the kingdom of God. There was an order carried out anciently by the people of this continent and by the people of the city of Enoch, wherever that was located, which was very different from the practice which has prevailed among the Saints of latter days; and as far as such a system being any injury to us I can see none in the world. I can see no injury that can overtake the Latter-day Saints, by their uniting together, according to the law of God, and producing from the elements that which they need to eat, drink and wear, and I feel as though the time has come for such an order to be instituted; and the readiness with which the people receive the teachings of the servants of God in regard to this matter is a testimony that the time has come to favor Zion. The Spirit of God bears witness to the congregations of the Saints of the importance of the principles which have been given unto us, and hence their readiness to receive them.

From the commencement of this work to the present day, the labor has been harder with the servants of God to get the people prepared in their hearts to let the Lord govern and control them in their temporal labor and means than in regard to matters pertaining to their eternal salvation. It was hard work for Joseph Smith to get the minds of the people prepared even to receive the Gospel in his day. But the Lord opened the way, the Gospel was preached and the Church was organized in its purity and in the order in which it existed in the days of Jesus Christ and the Apostles, and wherever the Gospel has been sent the ears of the people have been more or less opened and a portion of them have been ready to receive it. This Gospel has been preached in every Christian nation under heaven where the laws would permit, and people from these various nations have overcome their traditions so far as to obey it; but, as I remarked before, it has been hard work for the Latter-day Saints to bring themselves to such a state of mind as to be willing for the Lord to govern them in their temporal labors. There is something strange about this, but I think, probably, it is in consequence of the position that we occupy. There is a veil between man and eternal things; if that veil was taken away and we were able to see eternal things as they are before the Lord, no man would be tried with regard to gold, silver or this world’s goods, and no man, on their account, would be unwilling to let the Lord control him. But here we have an agency, and we are in a probation, and there is a veil between us and eternal things, between us and our heavenly Father and the spirit world; and this for a wise and proper purpose in the Lord our God, to prove whether the children of men will abide in his law or not in the situation in which they are placed here. Latter-day Saints, reflect upon these things. We have been willing, with every feeling of our hearts, that Joseph Smith, President Young, and the leaders of the people should guide and direct us in regard to our eternal interests; and the blessings sealed upon us by their authority reach the other side of the veil and are in force after death, and they affect our destiny to the endless ages of eternity. Men, in the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of Jesus and the Apostles, had blessings sealed upon them, kingdoms, thrones, principalities and powers, with all the blessings of the New and Everlasting Covenant. The question may be asked, are these eternal blessings of interest to us? They are, or should be. Are these blessings worth our earthly wealth, whether we have little or much? Is salvation, is eternal life worth a yoke of cattle, a house, a hundred acres of land, or anything that we possess here in the flesh? If it is, we certainly ought to be as ready to permit the Lord to govern and control us in all our temporal labors as we are in our spiritual labors.

Again, when a man dies he cannot take his cattle, horses, houses or lands with him; he goes to the grave—the resting place of all flesh. No man escapes it, the law of death rests upon all. In Adam all die, while in Christ all are made alive. We all understand that death has passed upon all men, but we none of us know when our turn will come, though we know it will not be a great while before we shall be called to follow the generations who have preceded us. When we reflect upon these things I think we all should be willing to let the Lord guide us in temporal matters. In the Book of Mormon we learn that the ancient Nephites, who dwelt on this continent, entered into, and continued in, this order for nearly two hundred years. They were wealthy and happy and the Lord blessed them. They had no poor among them. They were united in heart and in spirit, and the blessings of the Lord rested upon them. It is true they occupied a different position in one sense to what we do. They entered into this order just after the Lord had brought judgment upon the whole nation on account of their wickedness, and many of the wicked had been destroyed: their cities had also been destroyed, and it was while humbled by these judgments that they entered the United Order. But a reign of peace and prosperity rested upon them and continued until they broke the order and began to go, every man for himself and the devil for them all, then utter destruction soon overtook them.

It is different with us. We are entering this order before the wicked are destroyed. We commence it to prepare us for the great events which are at the door, for if the judgments of God ever were at the door of any generation it is this. The whole volume of Scripture points these things out to us in plain language, and all the unbelief of the inhabitants of the earth will not alter the fact, it will not change the hand of God nor stay his judgments, which are at the door of Great Babylon. She will come in remembrance before God, and he will hold a controversy with the nations; his sword is unsheathed and it will fall on Idumea, the world, and who can stay his hand? These things have been proclaimed by almost every Prophet who has ever spoken since the world began. They point to our day, and their words must have their fulfillment.

Over forty years the Gospel of Christ has been proclaimed to this generation and to the whole Christian world as far as we have had opportunity. Light has come into the world, but men have rejected it because their deeds are evil, hence the judgments of God will rest upon the nations of the earth in fulfillment of his word through the Prophets. The Lord has called upon us to unite together and take hold of this work, and to prepare ourselves for the great events which are at hand, that when the destroying angels go forth to reap the earth, beginning at the sanctuary, they need not destroy any man upon whom is the mark set by the writer with the inkhorn, who cried and mourned because of the abominations done among men. The Prophet, in seeing the vision of these things in the last days, saw that the earth was reaped, and the reapers began at the sanctuary, and the wicked were cut off by the judgments of God.

The world now do not believe this any more than they believed in the days of Noah and Lot, and they are no more prepared for it, and they are growing wickeder and wickeder every day of their lives. Wickedness is increasing, for the devil has great dominion over the hearts of the children of men. The Lord is trying to direct and dictate his Saints and I feel that it is our duty, as a people, to unite our interests together, also our time, talents, labor, and all that we are stewards over, that as men who have faith in God, we may be prepared for those things which await us, and for the coming of the Son of Man. We are observing the signs of the times, and we can readily understand the necessity of entering into this order. I think we can all see this if we enjoy any portion of the spirit of our religion and the work of the Lord, which we profess to be engaged in. I can see everything in favor but nothing against the United Order. These teachings are of the Lord; the servants of God have been moved to call upon the people, and the Lord has moved upon the people, and their hearts are being touched by the light of the Holy Spirit, and they are entering into this organization; and my feeling is that if you and I, who profess to be the friends of God, and have entered into a covenant with him, withdraw our hearts from him that we do not see the necessity of uniting ourselves according to this law of God, we shall begin to dry up, and what little life, light, or spirit we have will leave us and we shall go down and we shall not walk in the light of the Lord. I view it as a day of decision to the Latter-day Saints throughout the whole Church and kingdom of God, and we shall find it to our advantage to decide rightly, and to walk in the path marked out for us by the servants of the Lord.

I feel to say God bless the Latter-day Saints and the honest in heart and meek of the earth throughout the whole world, and I pray that the nations may be prepared for that which is to come, for as God lives there is a change at the door, and what the ancient patriarchs and Prophets said will be fulfilled; and if I were to express my feelings as the spirit reveals to me it would be a good deal as Daniel said, that all who will not prepare themselves for the coming of Christ must get out of the way, for the little stone that was cut out of the mountains without hands will shortly grind them to powder, and they will be cast away as the chaff of the summer threshingfloor. The kingdom of God, which Daniel saw, the Zion of God in embryo, is on the earth, and is here in these mountains; and it will rise and rise, until it is clothed with the glory of God.

May God help us to prepare for his coming and kingdom, for Christ’s sake. Amen.