Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at Hyde Park, Sunday Evening, November 2nd, 1879.

I will read a portion of a revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, previous to the organization of the Church, dated April, 1829: “Oliver Cowdery, verily, verily, I say unto you, that assuredly as the Lord liveth, who is your God and your Redeemer, even so surely shall you receive a knowledge of whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that you shall receive a knowledge concerning the engravings of old records, which are ancient, which contain those parts of my scripture of which has been spoken by the manifestation of my Spirit. Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground.”

The point I wish to call your attention to is contained in the second and third verses of this revelation. The Latter-day Saints are in many respects like other people who are not Latter-day Saints. We are apt to entertain views which are not very correct, and which may be the result of our traditions and preconceived ideas. This is a peculiarity that pertains to mankind generally, that whenever they deal with the things of God, or speak about them, or contemplate them, and especially when they read the predictions made by the servants of God concerning future events, or events that may transpire right before their eyes, they are apt to get, sometimes, erroneous ideas, or, at least, exaggerated ideas, in relation to them. The prophets have foretold the events that should take place in connection with this work. There is one prophecy that comes to my mind, recorded by Isaiah and Micah, respecting the building of the house of God in the top of the mountains and the gathering of the people there, and the object for which they should gather, that they should come up and be taught of the Lord, etc. Now it might be supposed that when that prediction would be fulfilled it would be so prominent and remarkable in the midst of the nations of the earth, that all the inhabitants thereof who should witness it would say, “This is the fulfillment of the predictions of Isaiah and Micah.” And it might be thought that all the inhabitants of the earth who witnessed it would be convinced of the truth of it, and would say, “We have no further opposition to this work, because we behold the fulfillment of the predictions of those holy prophets whom we have been taught to regard, and whose writings we have read as authority from God.

And, doubtless, there are many of the Latter-day Saints who have thought, in the early days of their experience in this Church, when they have heard the elders predict concerning the great events that should take place in connection with this work—they have thought and felt in their hearts that when the wicked and those who oppose this work should see the fulfillment of these predictions they would be constrained to acknowledge that this is the work of God, and would cease from hostility and opposition, and would say they had been mistaken. For instance, the elders in the early days of this Church, predicted concerning calamities and wars and troubles of various kinds that would come upon the inhabitants of the earth. There was a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, in December, 1832, concerning the war that should take place between the Southern States and the Northern States. This was a definite prediction, stating the exact point where a certain trouble or rebellion or division in the nation should take place. Most of us who have been brought up in the Church knew about this revelation from early days. It has been published so that all the members of the Church, and the world also, could have it, and it was but reason– able to expect that so definite a prophecy as this, which stated the exact character of the difficulty that should take place between the south and the north, and that also stated with such definiteness the exact point where the division should occur—I say it was but reasonable to expect that when it should be fulfilled, it would have the effect of convincing unbelievers of the truth of the mission of Joseph Smith, and that he really was a man inspired of the Lord to speak the word of God to the people.

In 1860, Brothers Orson Pratt, Erastus Snow, myself, and others, were going on missions, and we arrived at Omaha in the month of November of that year. A deputation of the leading citizens of that city came to our camp and tendered to us the use of the Court House, as they wished to hear our principles. The invitation was accepted, and Elder Pratt preached to them. During the service, there was read the revelation to which I have referred—the revelation concerning the division between the South and the North. The reason probably, for reading it was that when we reached Omaha, the news came that trouble was already brewing, and several States were threatening to secede from the Union. Its reading made considerable impression upon the people. A good many had never heard of it before, and quite a number were struck with the remarkable character of the prophecy. It might have been expected, naturally speaking and looking at it as men naturally do, that the reading of such a revelation, at such a time, when the crisis was approaching, would have had the effect to direct men’s attention to it, and they would be led to investigate its truth and the doctrines of the Church and the found– ation we had for our belief. But if there were any converted in that audience I am not aware of it. Good seed was sown, but we did not remain to see what effect it produced. The revelation being so remarkable, and the events then transpiring being so corroborative of its truth, one might naturally think, as there were present on that occasion the leading and thinking portion of that community, that a great number would have been impressed with the probability of its truth, and would have investigated and joined the Church. You doubtless remember it was for a good while doubtful whether the rebellion should commence at South Carolina or not. I was in England at the time, and was engaged in publishing the Millennial Star, and took a great deal of notice of the American papers, and I well remember that to all human appearances it seemed for a while as though the trouble would break out at Fort Pickens, Florida. But the word of God had been spoken concerning that event, and consequently it had to be fulfilled as predicted, and the war did commence at South Carolina. It was fulfilled, as you all know, to the very letter, Fort Sumter being the place where the rebellion broke out.

Now, I allude to that, in connection with this subject, to show you that not only is the world mistaken in its views respecting the fulfillment of the predictions of the prophets, but even Latter-day Saints have doubtless, in many instances, entertained erroneous views respecting the fulfillment of revelation and prophecies of the Bible. I have no doubt there are many here tonight, who have had some experience in this, and can look back at times in their own lives, when they have thought: “Surely when these things which the prophets have foretold are brought to pass, the people will be convinced. My friends who now ridicule me will then be convinced, and they will be forced to confess that I did right in embracing the Gospel.”

No doubt there are some in this audience tonight who have had these ideas, and certainly there are good reasons for entertaining them. But experience has taught us that, while there may be a few who, when they have seen the predictions fulfilled, have acknowledged that our course is right, in the majority of cases throughout the earth where the Gospel has been preached, the fulfillment of the predictions of the prophets has not had the effect to convince the people of the truth of the ministry God has given unto us.

Even with this experience in the past, the Latter-day Saints themselves are not entirely divested of extravagant views respecting the effects which are likely to follow the fulfillment of predictions yet in the future. Are we not all inclined to look forward to many events which have been predicted by the servants of God as being of so great and wonderful, and I may say so supernatural a character, that when they shall be fulfilled they will even startle us, who believe they are coming, and will compel the unbelieving inhabitants of the earth to accept them as evidences of the truth? In our thoughts this seems to be the natural tendency. I notice it in myself; I notice it in others. When we read respecting the great events which are to take place in connection with this work, as predicted in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, are we not inclined to think that, surely, when these things shall come to pass all the earth, as well as ourselves, will be constrained to acknowledge this to be the work of God, and these events to be indeed those which have been predicted by the prophets?

Now I would not, for the world, say one word to lessen in the minds of my brethren and sisters the importance of these events; I would not say one word to weaken your proper expectations; but my experience has taught me that the Lord works in the midst of this people by natural means, and that the greatest events that have been spoken of by the holy prophets will come along so naturally as the consequence of certain causes, that unless our eyes are enlightened by the Spirit of God, and the spirit of revelation rests us, we will fail to see that these are the events predicted by the holy prophets.

I refer you again to that prophecy of Isaiah and Micah, respecting the gathering together of the Israel of God from the various nations to Zion. As we read of that in the Bible, we might think when that was fulfilled it would be done with such supernatural manifestations that the people would be constrained to acknowledge it was the work of God. Yet we see it every day. Our people are gathering, and men and women who emigrate bear testimony to the friends they leave behind, in almost the exact language that the prophets said they would, and yet it is not thought very extraordinary. Why is this? Because it has come along so naturally. And so with the great events that will take place in the future; they will come along in so natural a manner, the Lord will bring them to pass in such a way that they will not be accepted by the people, except by those who can comprehend the truth, as the fulfillment of the predictions of the prophets. It requires the Spirit of God to enable men and women to understand the things of God; it requires the Spirit of God to enable the people to comprehend the work of God and to perceive his movements and providences among the children of men. The man who is destitute of the Spirit of God cannot comprehend the work of God. A woman whose mind has not been enlightened by that Spirit, cannot see or comprehend any of these events that take place in fulfillment of the prophecies of the holy prophets.

You take two persons, one who has the Spirit of God, whose mind is enlightened by that Spirit—the spirit of revelation, the same spirit, that rested upon the prophets who wrote the revelations and prophecies we have—you take a man of that kind, and then take another who has none of that spirit, and put the two together, and the one man’s eyes will be open to see the hand of God in all these events; he will notice his movements and his providence in everything connected with his work and they will be testimonies to him to strengthen his faith and to furnish his mind with continual reasons for giving thanks to and worshipping God; while the man, who has not the Spirit of God, will see nothing Godlike in the occurrences: nothing which he will view as supernatural (as many suppose everything which exhibits God’s power to be), or nothing which he will accept as a fulfillment of prophecies; his eyes will be closed, his heart will be hardened, and to all the evidences of the divinity of these things he will be impenetrable.

To those who have mingled with the world, the reasons for this are very plain. Men do not believe in these days in the direct interposition of God in the affairs of men. If they even believe in God, they believe that he governs the universe by great natural laws. When, there– fore, a great and wonderful event occurs, they seek for its origin and explanation in some natural law. They ignore the fact that God works through natural laws; but seem to think that if he were to interpose at all, it would be by manifesting his power through the suspension of natural laws, by overriding and violating them, and in such a supernatural manner that mankind would be compelled to acknowledge it was his act, as they would be utterly unable to account for it by any laws known to them, or in any other way than as being through his power. Wars, famines, pestilences, cyclones, earthquakes, and the great variety of calamities which God has said shall be poured out upon the wicked nations, are therefore looked upon by men generally in these days as the results of certain well-defined and easily explained causes. When any of these calamities visit a city or a nation they immediately commence to investigate the laws which govern them, and by the violation of which they assert they are produced; and when they discover what they allege is the cause, they triumphantly point to it, and that is sufficient proof that the Lord has nothing special to do with it; for if it were a visitation from him, it is supposed it would be so supernatural as to be inexplicable. And thus men go on, hardening their hearts and denying God’s power, until they will be so completely given over to the evil one, that he will lead them captive according to his will.

My reason for calling your attention to the word of the Lord I have read to you is, that I have sometimes thought that our people do not appreciate as they should do the spirit of revelation, the spirit of prophecy, the power of God, that has been poured out upon us as a people. The fact seems to be overlooked that it was in the manner in which the Lord tells Oliver Cowdery that Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Lord said to Oliver: “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you, and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground.” How many of the Latter-day Saints are there who understand that this is the way in which Moses led the children of Israel so miraculously? How many are there who think that if we had a man like Moses among us, the people would be led differently and with greater manifestations of power than they are? How many are there who are dissatisfied with what God is doing at present, and are looking for some one to appear in the future who shall exhibit convincing and overwhelming manifestations of power? How many are there at the present time who are neglecting the precious and inestimable gift of revelation which God has bestowed upon his people, because it does not come to them in the way to suit their preconceived notions and ideas—or who are not suited with the way the Church has been and is led, because there is not that wonderful degree of power exhibited which they imagine should be?

Apostates have asserted that there was not the power in the leaders of the Church which there should be. They said so during the life of the Prophet Joseph, asserting that he was a fallen prophet. After his death they made the same statements respecting President Young, his counselors, and the Twelve Apostles. And, if I am not mistaken, there are some members of the Church who have appeared to think that there has been some power lacking, and have manifested a feeling of restlessness, anticipating the rising of someone who should have greater authority than at present exists. While I would not wish to detract from the reasonable expectations of my brethren and sisters upon this or any other point, my view is that the apostleship, now held in this Church, embodies all the authority bestowed by the Lord upon man in the flesh. Yet I believe that the power of God will be increased among us, that we will have manifestations of his power such as we never have before witnessed. For the day of God’s power in the redemption of Zion will come. But I do not expect that to come upon us all of a sudden. I expect that it will be the natural result of the natural growth of the people in the things of God. I expect that we will go on step by step from one degree of knowledge, and of power, and of faith to another, until we shall be prepared to receive all the Lord has in store for us and be prepared to enter into that glory promised to the faithful Saints. The Lord has given unto his people and to his church every gift and every qualification and every key which is necessary to lead this people into the celestial kingdom of our father and our God. There is nothing wanting. When the Lord restored the Apostleship to the earth he restored all the power that was possible for a human being to hold in the flesh. When he restored the keys of the holy priesthood unto his servant Joseph, when he gave unto him the sealing powers, when he gave unto him the endowments and the keys of the holy priesthood associated therewith, when the Prophet Joseph received the keys from Elijah, and from all the prophets that had existed upon the earth from the beginning down—each one, as he says himself in one of his epistles—each one in his dispensation coming forward and bestowing upon him the authority pertaining thereto, there was embodied in him all the priesthood they held, and he bestowed upon his fellow Apostles all the priesthood he exercised and all the power and authority bestowed upon mortal man to exercise here upon the earth, so far as the present is concerned; that is, all the keys of the priesthood and everything that is necessary in this preparatory state, and to make man a fit subject for the celestial kingdom of God. By the command of the Lord he conferred that authority upon his fellow servants to bind upon earth and it should be bound in heaven, to seal the children to the father and the mother, and to seal the wife to the husband, and to weld all the links necessary in order to complete the salvation of all the children of men from the days of Adam down to our day, and also to prepare men and women for the future that lies before us, the millennium to which we are all hastening. Who can conceive of any power that was lacking? Who had power to promise unto man that they should be kings and priests unto God? And in addition to that, who had the power to seal upon them the actual kingly and priestly dignity and confirm upon them the fulness of it, and also to give them promises respecting the Godhead that should be fulfilled upon them, and if faithful, to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection? Now, there was nothing lacking, and there was no power, there was no gift, there was no authority, there were no keys lacking, and these keys have been handed down through him. Others may have claimed to have had them. We have had Strang, John E. Page, William Smith, Gladden Bishop, and a host of others; each has claimed to have received that authority, either through Joseph Smith or from some other source. Some have claimed that Joseph was a fallen prophet; and some have set up one claim and some another. But the fact remains that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is organized in these mountains, has had the apostleship; that the men who have stood at our head, President Young and the Twelve Apostles, whose President at the death of the Prophet Joseph he was, actually received under the hands of the Prophet Joseph, every key, and power, and authority that he himself possessed, and that they actually did take hold and complete the temple he started, and endowed their fellow servants therein with the same authority and the same priestly and kingly dignity that they had received from under his hands. And from that time to the present this work has gone forth with might and power, and the power of God has attended the labors of his servants who have been sent forth by these apostles, chosen by revelation to take charge of this work; everything they have done, God has blessed. They have gathered the people together, they have led the people, they have been delivered by the mighty power of God when it seemed that they would be overwhelmed by opposing influences. They have gathered the people together from the nations of the earth in fulfillment of the predictions of the holy prophets. Not only that, but they have laid the foundations of temples here; one temple, at least, has been completed, while three others are in process of erection, which we hope will soon be completed, into which buildings the Saints of God can enter and receive their endowments, receive their washings and anointings and sealings and ordinances, and have the keys of the holy priesthood bestowed upon them, which they can exercise in the right way for the building up of the work of God. And this is the work of God, although men may say there has been no supernatural manifestation of power, such as some suppose ought to attend his work. This work has gone forth with a rapidity and impetus that has been irresistible, and there is no power able to stand against it. It has gone forward to the fulfillment of all that has been spoken thus far concerning it, that is as far as we have gone. And the people have received the Holy Ghost, they have been filled with it, they have been filled with the spirit of revelation. The same spirit of revelation that Moses had, concerning which God speaks through the Prophet Joseph Smith, has rested upon men that have held the keys of this kingdom, whether it was during President Young’s life or at the present time—that same spirit of revelation rests upon him who holds the presidency as senior apostle in the midst of the people of God. The apostles of this Church have all the authority, they have all the keys, and it is within the purview of their office and calling to have all the spirit of revelation necessary to lead this people into the presence of the Lamb in the celestial kingdom of our God.

I have desired to say this much, because I have felt at times there was a feeling among some people that there was not that manifestation of power, neither was there that authority wielded by the men who preside over this Church and king– dom that should be.

But it is the truth, that the same spirit of revelation that rested upon Moses, and which enabled him to lead the children of Israel through the Red Sea, rests upon the servants of God in the midst of this people, and you will find it so to your entire satisfaction if you will listen to their counsels and be guided by them. Does God reveal himself to his servants now? I know he does. The same spirit that rested upon Joseph—the same spirit that rested upon Moses, I know it is in the midst of the Latter-day Saints—precisely the same spirit. But then we are a nation of Gentiles. We who have come here, what are we? We are called from the Gentile nations. The promises are not made to us that are made to people who are the unmixed descendants of Israel. In many respects, when they come into the covenant and are baptized, and the power of God rests upon them, you will see a different work than you see at the present time. It is just as much as we, with our Gentile traditions—an inheritance we have received from our fathers, which have come down through generations—it is as much as many of us can do, with all the power we can exercise, to remain in the Church.

I was speaking with Brother Simpson Molen this evening, who, as you know has lately returned from a mission to the Sandwich Islands. It is now 29 years since the Gospel was introduced to the people of that country. I labored there for four or five years, and was the first to preach the Gospel to them in their language in this generation. During my experience among that people, a red skinned race, I never knew a man, because of transgression or anything else, after he received the truth—I never knew one of them to turn around and fight this cause in the manner that we witness men doing among our race. How is it with the Gentiles, the race of which we are a part? When a man gets a testimony from God and falls into transgression he is almost immediately seized with the spirit of murder. He wants to shed the blood of innocence. He wants to kill the servants of God, is full of bitterness and hatred, and seeks to find vent for his wicked passions. We have seen this spirit manifested in our history among our own race. But here is a people who receive strong testimonies concerning the Gospel, and from all that I can learn there has not been an instance of a man’s turning around and bitterly fighting this work. There seems to be a natural receptiveness about them to receive the truth. The Indians will be the same in my opinion. You will find the same peculiarity, you will find them ready to receive the truth, and they will cleave to the truth. It is difficult for the Gentiles to receive the truth. It will be easier for them, because unto them are the promises. I look for a very different condition of things when these races come into the church and are brought into the covenant, I expect then to see the work accomplished by a power that we do not witness just now. But it is not because something is lacking in the organization or in the authority of the priesthood. We have, as I have said, all that is necessary, and we have this spirit of which I have spoken and which is alluded to in this revelation—the same spirit of revelation which reveals to us that which we should do and the course we should take in order to please the Lord and in order to build up his kingdom, and this Church will al– ways be led by that authority from this time henceforth until Christ himself shall come to preside over us and be our king.

My brethren and sisters, if you want more revelation, here is the principle upon which to obtain it. Are you entitled to it? Yes, every one of you—the same spirit of revelation that Moses had, the same spirit that all the prophets and apostles had, it is your privilege, it is my privilege, it is the privilege of every man and woman who possesses the Gospel to receive the spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, to have that same spirit resting upon him and upon her, and the more we seek after it and cherish it the more we will have.

My time is exhausted. I pray God to bless us and fill us continually with the light of that spirit, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Logan City, Saturday Afternoon, November 1st, 1879.

I will read a few passages from the Book of Jacob, one of the sacred compilations of the Book of Mormon.

“And it came to pass that the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them; and they did obey the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard in all things. And there began to be the natural fruit again in the vineyard; and the natural branches began to grow and thrive exceedingly; and the wild branches began to be plucked off, and to be cast away; and they did keep the root and the top thereof equal, according to the strength thereof. And thus they labored, with all diligence, according to the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard, even until the bad had been cast away out of the vineyard, and the Lord preserved unto himself that the trees had become again the natural fruit; and they became like unto one body; and the fruits were equal; and the Lord of the vineyard had preserved unto himself the natural fruit, which was most precious unto him from the beginning.”

These words occurred to me this forenoon, while Brother Snow was speaking upon the subject of the Order laid down in the Doctrine and Covenants. We have here a clear and plain prediction, in the form of a parable, that was recorded upon plates of gold, almost 600 years before Christ, in relation to the great work in which we, as the servants of the Lord, and the Latter-day Saints, are engaged. Perhaps there may be some persons, numbered among this community, who may have a feeling something like this; “that we are not living according to the law that is given in the Doctrine and Covenants, in all respects.” And they have drawn the conclusion, that perhaps the Lord would forsake us in consequence of our not carrying out the laws so clearly defined and explained in that record. These things were clearly set forth before the people, this forenoon, in regard to wherein we have not entered into all the fulness and perfection of that order of things. But the question is, can we do much better, under the present circumstances? This is a great question to be considered. And in the consideration of it, we have to enquire into a number of other things, such as can we lay aside the present order of things that is not consistent with the Doctrine and Covenants; and can we begin anew here in these valleys, and carry out the law of the Lord in all its perfection? I do not know but what there may be a bare possibility of our doing it; but whether the Lord requires this at our hands under the present circumstances is another thing. We are very imperfect, and yet we try to do right. We want to keep the commandments of the Lord; we desire to be members of his Church; we desire to have his Holy Spirit resting upon us, and we desire to be guided by it. We wish to know what the counsel of the servants of God is concerning us; and yet, hardly know which way to turn. We see a united order established in one place, according to one principle; we go to another part of the land, and we find an order established on a little different principle; and we hear of another, all differing somewhat. And so on until we visit nearly all the settlements of these mountains. And as was stated this forenoon, they differ as do the elders themselves in their views.

Now what has the Lord said in this parable of the vineyard? “And they did keep the root and the top thereof equal.” In what respect were they made equal? The next part of that same sentence declares that they were made equal “according to the strength thereof.” Now there is a great deal expressed in those few words. They were not made equal all at once, as the inhabitants of a celestial world are, without any improvements being introduced; but they were to keep the root and the top of the great tree equal, according to the strength thereof; that is according to the condition and circumstances in which the people are placed. Now I consider, that notwithstanding all our deviations from the perfect law that God has given, notwithstanding the condition of things pointed out so clearly in the Doctrine and Covenants in regard to holding stewardships and inheritances, and giving an account of those stewardships and inheritances, according to the perfect order—I consider we are doing pretty well, in a great many respects. We have progressed; we have made improvements; we are in a more united condition than we were 45 years ago. Hence there has been an improvement among the Latter-day Saints; and this improvement has been for the better; it has been pointing all the time towards equa– lity, though we have not succeeded, according to the perfect law. But we have succeeded according to the strength of the people—according to the circumstances with which they are surrounded. We have succeeded in a great measure to instill into their minds the great principle of unity and oneness, not only in spiritual things, but in temporal things also. The day will come when this will be fulfilled to the very letter, in accordance with words which say, “they became like unto one body; and the fruit were equal.” That is the destination of the Latter-day Saints in the future. The fruit is to be equal; the roots and the branches are all to be kept in their perfect order, and the whole tree kept in a thriving condition. Then we shall have learned the great principle of the celestial order, that must be carried out among the children of men. During that long period called the Millennium, this people will see the importance of attending to that perfect order when our strength shall warrant. At present we have no perfect example before us. Where has there been either in this Territory or in Arizona an instance where the perfect law of God has been carried out, as laid down in the Doctrine and Covenants? I know of no such instance. I know of a great many improvements upon the old condition of things which has existed among our fathers—the Gentile notion and idea of each one holding separate and individual interests, without being accountable to anyone. That is the old system. We have made many improvements, but we have not carried out in any one solitary instance in any settlement I am acquainted with, the order of things laid down in the revelations, contained in the Book of Covenants.

There has been a great deal said at different times upon the subject of families being united as one—eating at the same table, for instance, and having one large field, where their farming operations might be carried on, all who are farmers going forth into the same field to labor; and the same principle carried out in regard to other branches, all taking hold unitedly, having the common interest at heart. Is there anything in the revelations given in these latter days requiring this order of things, or is it something we ourselves have considered as being a little ahead of what our fathers have been practicing? I do not know anything laid down in the revelations, requiring us to take this particular method. Yet, is it right? Yes. Why it is right according to the circumstances with which they are surrounded; it points forward to unity and tends to instruct us in the preliminary ideas of being united together. And hence, those that can enter into this order, who are willing to unite in this way, are doing well and will be blessed for it. But let no person set any stakes, in regard to this matter, that because he may have entered into a special order, introduced in one settlement, that all others are wrong, because they do not do likewise; they should not find fault with their brethren, neither be discouraged in welldoing.

There are a great many different ideas among the Latter-day Saints, in relation to these matters. But then, we have a standard given in the Book of Covenants, by which we should be governed. By and by, I expect we will be in different circumstances, in which stewardships or inheritances can be issued, for all families of the Saints, some in one kind or branch of business, and some in another; and the full law of consecration will take place.

I am, and I presume a great many others who are acquainted with the revelations of God, as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, are looking for the period of time to come, in the history of the Latter-day Saints, when we as a people shall possess a very different country from the one we are now inhabiting. We do not expect to go to the Sandwich Islands, neither to the Society Islands, neither to any of the islands of the oceans, nor into South America, nor Central America, to carry out the order of things which we expect to enter into in all its fulness. But we expect, just as much as we expect the sun will shine, when it arises on a clear morning, that the Lord will, by and by, take us back to the land referred to by Brother Snow, this forenoon. We do not expect that when that time shall come, that all Latter-day Saints, who now occupy the mountain Valleys, will go in one consolidated body, leaving this land totally without inhabitants. We do not expect any such thing. But we do expect, that there will be a period in the future history of the Church when many hundreds of this people—our youth, for instance, who will grow up in those days, when they will be consolidated as a body, and will go to the eastern portions of the state of Kansas, and also to the western portions of the state of Missouri to settle. And when that time shall come, if it be needful to carry out the commandments which Brother Snow read this morning, referring to the purchase of lands, we will have property and means sufficient to accomplish this work. It was necessary some 47 years ago to purchase lands, and also for several years afterwards. But we did not do it then. It may be necessary for us in times to come, and probably will be necessary for us to purchase that whole region of country. Why so? Because if there be prior occupants to it, should we not be willing to give them an equivalent, such as will satisfy them, for its possession, including the improvements attached thereto? Certainly. Consequently it may be necessary for us to carry out the fulness of all these revelations, notwithstanding all the abuses and persecutions that have been heaped upon the Latter-day Saints. But whether this be the case or not there is one thing certain—something that you and I may depend upon, with as much certainty as we expect to get our daily food, and that is, that the Lord our God will take this people back, and will select from among this people, a sufficient number, to make the army of Israel very great. And when that day comes, he will guide the forces of those who emigrate to their possessions in those two states, that I have mentioned. And the land thus purchased will be no doubt, as far as possible, located in one district of country, which will be settled very differently from the way we now settle up these mountain regions. You may ask, in what respect we shall differ in settling up those countries when we go there to fulfil the commandments of the Lord? I will tell you. No man in those localities will be permitted to receive a stewardship on those lands, unless he is willing to consecrate all his properties to the Lord. That will be among the first teachings given. When this shall be done, the people will be, as the parable says, like unto one body—all equally poor, or all equally rich; in other words, they will be persons that can claim no property as their own, everything being consecrated. And the land being purchased, will be held on a different principle, from what it is now. Today fifty thousand dollars worth of real estate property is the most that can be held by a religious organization; but in that day the whole of our properties, amounting a very much larger sum, will be held in trust. For whom? For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and for all this great company that will be gathered together. And there will be such a change in governmental affairs, that the trustee, whoever he may be, will only act as such as long as he is faithful; and if he becomes unfaithful it will be transferred to another. Neither in case of death will the heirs of such trustee have any claim whatever on the property; the power regulating such matters will then be vested in the proper authority who will mete out even justice to all parties.

These persons, therefore, will be in the same condition that all the rest of the people are in. The properties they hold will not be their own, although it may be called so, as far as that is concerned. And when it shall be ascertained that an individual has consecrated everything he has, inquiries will be made as to the size of his family, and land will be apportioned to him accordingly—not to deed him the property, according to the Gentile practice; but rather that the extent of his stewardship may be determined. When this is done, he takes his stewardship, each man having his own table, without being necessitated at all to eat at his neighbor’s. People will build their own houses, etc., when needful, provided they are able to do so, if not, what assistance they require will be rendered them. And then they and all the others will be required to keep an account of their proceedings and present the same to the bishops at the end of the year, or as often as may be required. These bishops, if they do their duty, will say these things: “Brother, you have been unwise in such and such things, but in other particulars you have done well.” In this way each man will give an account of his stewardship, as the revelation says, both in time and eternity. And he that proves himself a faithful and wise steward in time, will be counted worthy to receive not only a stewardship but an inheritance in eternity. What is the object of the stewardship? Is it not to prepare us for that still higher order of things that shall exist when we shall receive an inheritance? And when that time comes, and we shall still be found faithful to our trust, the Lord will be pleased to say, “I can trust that man, he has proved himself in the days of his probation: he is a wise man; he has done right in all things with which he has been entrusted. Now let him have not merely a stewardship, but let it be given to him as an everlasting possession, for him and his seed after him forever and ever, both for time and eternity.”

You may perhaps ask when this time will come for the Saints to receive bona fide inheritances? The time will come for the Saints to receive their stewardships, when they shall return to the lands from whence they have been driven; but the inheritances will not be given, until the Lord shall first appoint to the righteous dead their inheritances, and afterwards the righteous living will receive theirs. This you will find recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants; and in the same Book it is predicted that there is to be one “mighty and strong,” as well as to be an immortal personage—one that is clothed upon with light as with a garment—one whose bowels are a fountain of truth. His mission will be to divide, by lot, to the Saints their inheritances, according to their faithfulness in their stewardships. This too agrees with another revelation, given on the 27th Dec. 1832, which says, in great plainness, that when the Saints are resurrected and caught up into heaven, and the living Saints are also caught up, and that when the seventh angel shall have sounded his trump, then the Saints shall receive their inheritances. The time then is there specified, concerning the period that the Lord has in his own mind, when inheritances shall be given. Finally after the Saints have been resurrected and caught up, in connection with all the then living Saints, into heaven; and after the seventh angel sounds his trump, the earth will be given to the Saints of the Most High for an inheritance to be divided out to them. This land, about which I have been speaking, is called in some places in the revelations of God to the Prophet Joseph, the land of our inheritance; and in other places it is referred to in the form of stewardships. In one sense it may be considered our inheritance, because the Lord designs, in his own wisdom, that the Latter-day Saints shall possess that land as such, and their dead with them. And having decreed this, even before we ever saw it, he will fulfil it. I will refer you to a part of the revelation given on the 2nd Jan., 1831, at the house of Father Whitmer: “And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh; And I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance”—not only stewardship, but inheritance; “And this shall be my covenant with you,” says the Lord further, “ye shall have it for the land of your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children forever, while the earth shall stand, and ye shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away.” In this sense it is called the land of our inheritance. But when we come to speak definitely, we will have to be proven as stewards first. If we shall be unwise in the disposition of this trust, then it will be very doubtful, whether we get an inheritance in this world or in the world to come.

What is it then we look for? We expect—I was about to quote from the prediction of Isaiah regardless of consequences; I trust, however, there is no one present who will look upon that great and good man of God as a traitor against the government of the United States—that, “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.” I expect that this people, if they do not become a “strong nation” in one sense of the word, they will be a great and strong and powerful people upon the face of this land. This is one of the things your humble servant is looking for. And I expect that when we go from these mountains, by hundreds of thousands, down to that land to purchase it and to occupy it, that we will take with us a great deal of gold and silver—for the Lord will in those days make his people very rich, in fulfillment of another promise made in the same revelation, in which he says, that we shall become the richest of all people. If this is to be the case, the Lord will probably fulfil that prediction by Isaiah, contained in the 60th chapter of his book—“for brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron;” and he will bestow upon his people riches that they will not know what to do with them, unless directed by the counsels of the servants of the living God. With this we will purchase the land, and go down and inherit it, as a strong and powerful people, receiving our stewardships. And we will not spread forth in that land three or four miles apart, and think we are crowded when people come and settle within a mile of us; but we will settle in such a manner as to make a very dense population. It is a country that is susceptible, almost every foot of it, to agricultural purposes; and we can settle with a very large population upon every square mile of country. And we will extend our borders around about the great central city, not stake, of Zion. You have heard of the Center Stake of Zion, but did you ever read in the revelations of God that the place where the New Jerusalem is to be built is called a stake? There are other places, called Stakes of Zion, but they will be round about the city. And we will be multiplied by hundreds and thousands; and we will build, throughout the region of country, our meetinghouses, our schoolhouses, our academies and universities; and we will see to it, that all of our children have equal advantages, as far as possible, of becoming acquainted with all necessary and useful learning. Not as it is now: some obtain great learning; while others are obliged from their childhood, from the time they are six or eight years of age, to work to that extent that they cannot devote any time to acquire an education. This order of things will be remedied; and the youth of God’s people will have equal opportunities, to develop themselves; not that they will all gain the same ideas exactly; not that they will all advance in the same direction in education, and to the same extent. One perhaps may follow a certain branch, calculated to prepare him to act in a certain position in his future life; while another may adopt an entirely different course of study, by which he could be of benefit to Zion. But there will be equal privileges and blessings bestowed upon the Latter-day Saints.

Now about these stewards. They have to be accountable; and if they gain anything in their stewardships over and above that which may be necessary to conduct the business of stewardships, and also to support themselves, if there be a surplus of means, what will be said? Will it be said by bishops, “Here, brother you must give up all this surplus to the storehouse of the Lord?” It might be said to one to unite him to the stewardship, without having any greater means to extend his operations, for the time being; and again, it might be deemed wisdom to assist another to the amount of five, ten, twenty thousand dollars or so, by way of extending his branch of business, because in doing so it would be the means of not only benefiting himself and family but the people of Zion generally.

The revelation says: “They shall give into the storehouse all that is not needed for the support of the needy families.” In this way the Lord’s storehouse will be full and in great abundance; and these means will be used for public purposes, and also by way of providing farming implements, books, etc., for the remnants of Joseph who will come into the covenant in those days, that they may also have their stewardships in the midst of the people of God. There will be a portion of the avails of these stewardships, that will be consecrated to the Lord’s storehouse, and which will be used for the building of Temples, and for beautifying public places in the city of the New Jerusalem, and making that a city of perfection as near as we possibly can.

Now, there will be this difference between that city and the cities and Temples which are being built. The cities and temples which we are now engaged in building, we expect to decay; we expect the rock and the various building materials will in time waste away, according to natural laws. But when we build that great central city, the New Jerusalem, there will be no such thing as the word decay associated with it; it will not decay any more than the pot of manna which was gathered by the children of Israel and put into a sacred place in the ark of the covenant. It was preserved from year to year by the power of God; so will he preserve the city of the New Jerusalem, the dwelling houses, the tabernacles, the Temples, etc., from the effects of storms and time. It is intended that it will be taken up to heaven, when the earth passes away. It is intended to be one of those choice and holy places, where the Lord will dwell, when he shall visit from time to time, in the midst of the great latter-day Zion, after it shall be connected with the city of Enoch. That then is the difference.

The Lord our God will command his servants to build that Temple, in the most perfect order, differing very much from the Temples that are now being built. You are engaged in building Temples after a certain order, approximating only to a celestial order; you are doing this in Salt Lake City. One already has been erected in St. George, after a pattern in part, of a celestial order. But by and by, when we build a Temple that is never to be destroyed, it will be constructed, after the most perfect order of the celestial worlds. And when God shall take it up into heaven it will be found to be just as perfect as the cities of more ancient, celestial worlds which have been made pure and holy and immortal. So it will be with other Temples. And we, in order to build a Temple, after a celestial order in the fulness of perfection, will need revelators and prophets in our midst, who will receive the word of the Lord; who will have the whole pattern thereof given by revelation, just as much as everything was given by revelation pertaining to the tabernacle erected in the wilderness by Moses. Indeed, before we can go back to inherit this land in all its fulness of perfection, God has promised that he would raise up a man like unto Moses. Who this man will be I do not know; it may be a person with whom we are entirely unacquainted; it may be one of our infant children; it may be some person not yet born; it may be someone of middle age. But suffice it to say, that God will raise up such a man, and he will show forth his power through him, and through the people that he will lead forth to inherit that country, as he did through our fathers in the wilderness. Did he then display his power by dividing the waters? Yes. Did the mountains and land shake under his power? Yes. Did he speak to the people by his own voice? Yes. Did he converse with Moses face to face? Yes. Did he show him his glory? Yes. Did he unfold to him in one moment more than all our schools and academies, and universities could give us in ten thousand years? Yes. God will assuredly raise up a man like unto Moses, and redeem his people, with an outstretched arm, as their fathers were redeemed, at the first, going before them with his own presence, and will also surround them by his angels. I expect, when that time comes, that man will understand all the particulars in regard to the Temple to be built in Jackson County. Indeed, we have already a part of the plan revealed, and also the plat explaining how the city of Zion is to be laid off, which may be found commencing on page 438, Volume 14 of the MILLENNIAL STAR. From what has been revealed of this Temple to be erected we can readily perceive that it will differ from anything that we have had. It will differ in regard to the number of rooms; it will differ very much in its outward and also its inward form; and it will differ in regard to the duties to be performed in each of its rooms to be occupied by the respective departments of priesthood. This house will be reared, then, according to a certain plan, which God is to make known to his servant whom he will, in his own due time, raise up. And he will have to give more revelation on other things equally as important, for we shall need instructions how to build up Zion; how to establish the center city; how to lay off the streets; the kind of ornamental trees to adorn the sidewalks, as well as everything else by way of beautifying it, and making it a city of perfection, as David prophetically calls it.

And then God will come and visit it; it will be a place where he will have his throne, where he will sit occasionally as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and reign over his people who will occupy this great western continent; the same as he will have his throne at Jerusalem. “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”

And again he says:

“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.”

Does the Psalmist mean that God will shine literally out of Zion? Yes, shine with light that will be seen by the righteous and the wicked also.

For fear of taking up too much of the time, I will bring my remarks to a close. I will say, however, I desire greatly that the Lord will bless the Latter-day Saints, and bless his servants that some, at least, may have the pleasure of entering into all the perfection of this glory, here in this temporal life; while the more aged, the grayhaired and graybearded like myself, will perhaps pass away, if the Lord requires it. And that our sons may rise up after us, being filled with the power and Spirit of God, to carry out his great and righteous purposes, even to completion.

I pray God to bless the inhabitants of Logan and those of the towns round about in this valley, and throughout all our mountain regions; and that his peculiar blessings and favor may continue to attend us while we sojourn in these mountains, and go with us when Zion shall be redeemed in all its fulness. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered at the General Conference, Salt Lake City, Tuesday Afternoon, Oct. 7th, 1879.

[Owing to press of important business the publication of this discourse has been delayed. Its contents will be found as valuable today as when it was delivered.—Ed D.E.N.]

I will state to the Conference that we have no financial account to present, because we do not get our returns from the various Stakes until the close of each year; in consequence of this we find it impracticable to present a satisfactory account to the General Conference oftener than once a year.

The Lord has given us a certain work to accomplish; and the feelings or ideas of men in the world in relation to this work have but little to do with us. We are gathered here for the express purpose of building up the Church and Kingdom of God upon the earth. We are endeavoring to do this—that is, a great many of the people are, to the very best of their ability; and we consider ourselves responsible to God for the action we take and for the course we pursue in relation to the fulfillment of His purposes. We think that in building Temples, sending the Gospel to the nations of the earth and prosecuting our other labors that we are carrying out the word and will, and the commands of God. Yet it not infrequently happens, that when we are doing our very best to promote correct principles among ourselves, as well as to spread them abroad, even to all nations, that we meet with determined and unrelenting opposition. This we cannot help. We do not seek it, but we do not fear it.

There has existed a principle of antagonism ever since the dawn of creation, namely, the powers of God have been opposed by the powers of the Evil One. Satan and wicked men have operated to subvert the plans and designs of Jehovah. And if we have a little of such opposition to contend with in our day, there is nothing new in it. The martyr Stephen when arraigned before “the Council” to answer to a charge of blasphemy, said, “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.” We have always expected that there would be a spirit of antagonism to the Church and Kingdom of God, and our Elders have been telling us, more or less, during the last fifty years, that this feeling still existed and, indeed, every now and then, we have occasion to believe them; or, to use an old saying, “The devil is not dead yet;” and he uses his influence now, as in former days, to oppose the principles that God has revealed.

We are gathered here from many nations in order that God may plant among us the principles and laws of eternal lives; that we may operate in the Priesthood with the holy men who held it in former ages, and with God the Father, and with Jesus the Mediator, and with the holy angels in the interests of mankind, not only in things pertaining to ourselves individually, but in those that concern the whole world; not only to the people that now live, but also to those who have lived; for the plans of God reach back into eternity and forward into eternity, and we are being taught and instructed through the holy Melchizedek Priesthood, which holds now, as in past ages, the keys of the mysteries of the revelations of God. It is our privilege to operate through this order, with men who have held the same keys and possessed the same powers and have had the same communication with God, and who have looked forward to the time, with joyful anticipation, that we now live in, namely, to the dispensation of the fulness of times. For this purpose we are gathered together, for this purpose we are building Temples according to the order and revelations of God—for until He revealed these things to us we knew nothing about them. And the world of mankind today know nothing about Temples and their uses. If we were to build Temples for them according to the order of God, they would not know how to administer in them; neither could we know had the Lord not revealed to us how to do it, which he did through the Prophet Joseph. We are acting upon this revealed knowledge today, seeking to carry out the will, the designs and the purposes of God, in the interest of common humanity, not for a few people only, not for the people of the United States only, nor for those of two or three nations, but for the people of the whole world. And the hearts of the people are being drawn after these principles; or, in other words, the hearts of the children are being turned towards the fathers, as well as the hearts of the fathers towards the children.

The spirit that is being manifested in the various Stakes of Zion is very creditable in this respect to the Latter-day Saints. And we purpose, God being our helper, and the devil not hindering us, to go on with our work, to build our Temples and to administer in them and to act as the friends of God upon the earth. And if we are not His friends, He has none, for there is no people anywhere, except the Latter-day Saints, who will listen to His laws—and as they say sometimes, “it’s a tight squeeze” for us to do it. The question is, “Shall we falter in our calculations?” I think not; but I think we will say, as the ancient servant of God said to a man who was seeking to hinder the progress of the building of a Temple to the Lord of Hosts: “I am doing a great work; hinder me not.” We are doing a great work, and we would say to our outside friends and to people generally who are not conversant with our affairs, will you be so kind as to let us alone and hinder us not; so that we may go on with our labor of love in the common interests of humanity and in our efforts to promote the welfare of the world at large.

This is one thing we have to do, and we will try to do it, the Lord being our helper.

Then another thing we are called upon to do is to preach the Gospel to every creature throughout the world. “Why, the people will oppose you?” That they always did. But Jesus said, and I will say by way of repeating His words—for they are as true today as they were in His day—“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Therefore we need not be troubled about it. When we first started out in this work we never looked for anything else, and we have not looked in vain either; we have found an abundance of it, and we have commenced to regard it as a natural thing. But we must not forget that we owe a duty to the world. The Lord has given to us the light of eternity; and we are commanded not to conceal our light under a bushel, but on the contrary we should let it shine forth as a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid. We need not try to get into an out-of-the-way corner from the gaze of the public eye, for we cannot. We thought we had wandered a long way from civilization when we came here; but, according to the remarks of the speakers this morning, a certain degree of it has followed us, and we are not quite out of it yet. But there are some things we can do. We will let them pursue their course, and we will ask them, if they will be so good and so kind as to let us worship God according to the dictates of our consciences. This is not a very great boon to ask of anybody. Still we do ask that we may be permitted, in this land of liberty, in this land which we call the home of the brave and the land of the free; the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, we ask that we may have the simple privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of our own consciences. Then, while they are trying to injure us, we will try to do them good. We will teach them good principles at home, and we will send the Gospel abroad. And the kind of men we want as bearers of this Gospel message are men who have faith in God; men who have faith in their religion; men who honor their Priesthood; men in whom the people who know them have faith and in whom God has confidence, and not some poor unfortunate beings who are wanted to leave a place because they cannot live in it; but we want men full of the Holy Ghost and the power of God that they may go forth weeping bearing precious seed and sowing the seeds of eternal life, and then returning with gladness, bringing their sheaves with them. These are the kind of men we want. We do not want the names of men of the former class presented to us to go on missions; if they are, and we find it out, we shall not send them; for such men cannot go with our fellowship and good feeling. Men who bear the words of life among the nations, ought to be men of honor, integrity, virtue and purity; and this being the command of God to us, we shall try and carry it out.

Some imagine that we have almost got through with our work; when the truth of the matter is, we have hardly commenced yet. Here is Brother Joseph Young, who represents the Seventies—Brother Joseph, how many Seventies are there enrolled? [Brother Young replied that there were 5,320]. I am told that there are 5,320 Seventies; we expect to call upon a great many of these men to go abroad and proclaim the fulness of the Gospel. We received a small order lately—you know, we talk business sometimes—for forty missionaries to go and labor in one place; they did not send the money to pay their fares; but then, we have the missionaries, and we will trust in God for our pay and we shall get it if we are found doing His will and carrying out His purposes.

Again, another duty we have to do is to preserve the order of God among ourselves. And here is a great responsibility resting upon the Presidents of Stakes and their Counselors, and upon the Bishops and their Counselors, and upon all men holding authority in the Church and Kingdom of God, and upon the Twelve specially, to see that the order of God is carried out, and that iniquity does not exist among the Saints of the Most High God.

We talk sometimes about the outside world, and we sometimes indulge in casting reflections upon them—and there is plenty of room for it, no doubt; but then, what of ourselves? What do we do? Do not our own members keep some of the very saloons we talk about? and do not we engage in this business because we are afraid somebody else will? Why, that is the argument of the thief. He says, “If I do not steal, somebody else will.” But, besides, say these brethren, “We want to get a living.” But before I would live in that way, I would die and make an end of it; I would not be mixed up with such concerns nor have any hand in them, but pursue another and more honorable course to get a living than in seeking to put the cup to the mouth of the drunkard and in leading our youth and others who may be inclined that way, in the path that leads to death. What else do we do? Why some of us Elders, and some of us High Priests and Seventies, frequent these places and get drunk and disgrace ourselves and our families, and the people with whom we are associated. And what else do we do? We are commanded to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; and yet we find that our trains leave this city every Sabbath, until the weather gets too cold to bathe, carrying many of our people, who indulge in all kinds of amusements and thus violate the Sabbath, which we are commanded to keep holy, which many respectable Gentiles would never think of doing. And yet you are Latter-day Saints, are you? You are a good people, and you will talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God being in you, while you are violating some of the plainest everyday principles of the Gospel of Christ.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, October 5th, 1879.

In standing up to address this congregation there is one feeling that rests upon me, and that is, my inability to instruct so numerous a people unless God shall pour out his Holy Spirit upon me and upon you.

We have come together today according to our custom to be instructed in those duties that devolve upon us and also in the principles of our holy religion. These meetings are to me exceedingly precious; they are seasons of great rejoicing. And having the opportunity as we have today of assembling in peace and quietness without any to molest or make afraid, we should feel thankful, to that God who has brought us here; who has preserved and protected us since we came.

The instructions which we have had today since we have assembled together, if fully obeyed by us and carried out in our lives, will make us a people who shall be worthy the name we bear, the name of Latter-day Saints. And as was remarked this morning the great object in teaching the people and impressing upon them the counsels that are given from time to time, is to have us carry out practically in our lives the principles of that religion which we have espoused. This is the great labor devolving upon us. It is not to be theoretical alone; it is not to dwell with great interest and with great eloquence upon those heavenly doctrines that God has revealed and to become enraptured over them while listening to them, but it is to make a practical application of them to our thoughts, to our words and to all the actions of our lives. And in this way alone can we acceptably serve the Lord our God, whose name we bear and whose people we profess to be. There is no reason why this people called Latter-day Saints should not have all the powers and all the gifts and all the graces that ever characterized the Church of God upon the earth at any time; there is no reason, I say, why they should not have all these if they themselves are true to the principles which have been revealed, and seek to carry them out. Who is there of this congregation, who is there that belongs to this Church in any part of this Territory, who does not have a desire in his or her heart for those blessings and those gifts and qualifications that were promised to the ancient Saints and which have been renewed in our day to those who embrace the Gospel with all their hearts? The Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. This is the cornerstone, it may be said, of our faith. It is upon this foundation we have built; that he is an unchangeable God; that he does not manifest his mind and his will in plainness and simplicity to one people, and hide the same from a succeeding people who are equally faithful. But the great truth has been impressed upon us; the great truth that runs through all the writings of every man of God concerning whom we have any account from the beginning down to the last revelation that has been given, that God is no respecter of persons, that he is today as he was yesterday and as he ever was, and that he will continue to be the same being as long as time endures or eternity continues. And we have been impressed with this as I have said, by every man who has spoken concerning God and spoken by authority from him. I say, therefore, there is no reason why the Latter-day Saints today should not obtain and enjoy the gifts and graces and blessings of the Gospel the same as they were enjoyed in ancient days by the ancient servants and people of God.

Has God grown old? Have God’s ears become heavy? Has his sight become dim? Has his arm become shortened? Has age affected him or the lapse of time detracted from his powers? Has it had the same effect upon him as upon mortal beings who are subject to decay and death? Is this the kind of being we worship? Is this the kind of being concerning whom the prophets and apostles have spoken and written? Certainly not. We worship him, we adore him, we lift up our eyes to him, we rely upon him as the Supreme Being, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the founder of the universe, the builder of the planet which we inhabit and which we tread, the being over whom centuries have passed without making any change to his injury; eternity has rolled and continues to roll and will continue to roll without in the least affecting his power or his capacity for good, his eye does not grow dim by the lapse of ages; his ear does not become heavy by the passage of time, neither does his arm become short or feeble. He is the God whom we worship. When we call upon him, though he may be remote from us, dwelling in his holy habitation in the midst of the eternities, the very thoughts of our hearts, the very conceptions of our minds, the feeble whisperings of our voices, they ascend to him, are carried to him, his ear comprehends them; his bowels of compassion are moved towards us his children, his all-piercing eye penetrates eternity, and the glance of his vision reaches us.

There is not a single thought of our hearts which he does not comprehend; there is nothing connected with us he does not know. We may hide ourselves in the bowels of the earth, but we cannot conceal ourselves from his all-piercing sight. We may climb the highest mountains or descend into the deepest valleys or we may go to the uttermost parts of the earth, but wherever we may go he is there, his power is there, his vision is there to hear and to comprehend the desires and the wishes of our hearts.

This being the case, why should we not approach him in faith? What reason is there that men and women living in this the 19th century should not approach him with the confidence of those who lived in the 15th century of the world, or the 20th or the 4,000th year of the world? If he could hear their cries, if he could answer their prayers and if he could grant to them the desires of their hearts; if he could open the heavens to them and reveal his mind and will unto them when they called upon him in faith, believing that he would do so, is there any reason why we should not have that same faith and exercise it and obtain those same blessings and receive them at his hands? Who is there that can stand up and say, there are reasons why this should be the case? If we admit, as we must do, that he is this being which I have attempted so feebly to describe; if we admit that he is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the creator of all, the father of all, the sustainer of all; if we believe this, why cannot we believe that if he bestowed his blessings upon other generations and other people, he will do so to us, also that he will hear our prayers, that he will grant unto us the desires of our hearts?

Now, my brethren and sisters, I look upon these conferences and these assemblages as having for their object the enforcement of these great truths upon us and upon our attention; the object of them as I understand them, is to make us Latter-day Saints not in name alone but in word and in deed; to be men and women of God; to place us in communion with God; to receive communication from him; to have our false tradition, our improper ideas, our unbelief, our hardness of heart, and those feelings that surround us, that grow up with us, to have them removed from us. Is there any reason why this should not be the case? No reason except that which may be found in ourselves. There is no reason outside of this. God is willing, he has made promises, and he has fulfilled his promises so far as we have placed ourselves in circumstances to receive them. When we have complied with the conditions he has never from the beginning up to the present time failed in his part, he is incapable of failing. If there be failure it is due to us, the fault is our own, we are the guilty ones. Let me ask of you, when did you ever, anyone of you, humble yourselves before God, when did you in secret call upon him in the name of Jesus and ask him for his Holy Spirit and the blessings thereof, and fail to receive an answer to your prayers? If there are any Latter-day Saints in this condition then there is something wrong with them. God has made promises unto us that if we will do certain things, if we will obey certain commandments and ordinances, he will bestow his blessing and he will answer the prayers of those who take this course. But how many are there of us who go on from day to day and from week to week and from month to month careless upon these points, failing to live so as to receive the blessings that he has promised, until it would seem when they bow down to call upon him that their prayers scarcely ascend higher than the tops of their heads.

As I have said, God in ancient days was a God of revelation; God in our day is a God of revelation, and he communicates his mind and his will unto those who seek after it, not to the President of the Church alone; not to the apostles of the Church alone; not to the high priests or seventies or any of the officers or all of them alone, but he communicates his mind and his will to all who seek after him in humility and meekness and lowliness of heart, obeying his commandments. To the Latter-day Saints alone? No, not even to them alone for there is no human being that is born of woman, there is no son or daughter of Adam that has ever lived upon the face of the earth who has not the right and who has not obtained at some time or other in his or her life, revelations from God, but who may not have understood what those revelations were. The Latter-day Saints are not so cramped in their feelings as to imagine that they are the only and peculiar people above all others who have, in this sense received revelation. They believe themselves to be the people of God and the only people who have obeyed the commandments of God; but they do not think that, of all the children of God, they are the only recipients of his blessings.

God has revealed himself at various times and in various ways to many people. The heathen have had communication from him. All the light that exists; all the truths that are taught and all the correct principles and knowledge that have been communicated and existed among the children of men, have come from God; he is the author of all. Socrates, Plato, Confucius, the heathen philosophers who knew nothing about Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation, received important truths from him, and so did many other people to a greater or less extent, according to their abilities in improving upon the knowledge communicated to them. But the difficulty has been concerning these matters that mankind have not recognized God in all this. A man has a dream. It is most wonderfully fulfilled. He has a presentiment; his presentiment is fulfilled, and he relates it to his friends as a most remarkable thing. A man has a truth communicated to him after study and research. He communicates it to his friends as a wonderful discovery. Does he acknowledge God in it? Sometimes; but in many instances he does not acknowledge God; but, on the contrary, he thinks it is the product of his own thought, of his own mind. If it be a dream or some remarkable manifestation that partakes of the supernatural, instead of giving God the glory and praising God for having made the communication, some other principle is glorified or some other thing is talked about, the remarkable character of it is dwelt upon without the person thinking that God has anything to do with it.

Well, there is, as I have said, no human being but that has, at some time or other, had communication from the Almighty Father. Some have recognized God and have given the glory to him for it; others have not done so. The remarkable discoveries that are being made in the world of science; in fact, all the remarkable discoveries that have been made from time to time are produced by the operations of an unseen influence upon the mind of the children of men. For instance, it has frequently happened in astronomy and other branches of science that when an important discovery has been made, two or three men about the same time, widely separated from each other, have received the communication; and disputes have arisen as to which of them was entitled to the credit. This was the case as to the application of steam and the principles of telegraphy and also many discoveries in astronomy and other sciences. Disputes have arisen in various nations upon these points; whereas the truth is that God is the Author; it is God that moved upon the minds of those individuals. It was God that inspired them to do as they did; it was he who led on from step to step until they achieved the results which have made them famous, and sometimes quite unexpectedly to themselves.

What is this which has led these famous men in the path of discovery? The Latter-day Saints call it the spirit of revelation; the spirit of revelation resting down upon the children of men. Some men possess it to a greater extent than others. Some have the gift in one direction and they are capable of receiving communication from God in a direction that others are not, their minds are better prepared to receive revelation upon a given subject, than are the minds of others. Some will receive great moral truths, and these men differ in their organisms; but the light they receive all comes from our heavenly Father; it is he who gives the inspiration. And so man has progressed from one degree of knowledge to another, from the rude canoe of the Indian, with which he navigates the stream, to those mighty steam ships whose keels plough every sea and circumnavigate the globe.

Now, in what respect do the Latter-day Saints differ from the rest of mankind in relation to these matters? In this: We acknowledge God as supreme, the fountain of all knowledge, the fountain of all power, the fountain of all intelligence, the fountain of everything that is good. Who are men? The creatures of his workmanship, if you please, his descendants, his own children begotten by him, descended by lineal descent from the God we worship. The same being whom we worship is our God, is our Creator, is our Father. When I worship him I worship him as my Father. That which I possess, if there be anything godlike in it, I attribute it to him, as having come from him by lineal descent. Every aspiration, every noble thought, every pure desire, everything that is good and holy and pure, elevating, ennobling and godlike comes from our Father, the God of the universe, the Father of all the children of men. In him we move, in him we have our being. He can extinguish life; he can create life; he can perpetuate life. There is no power that human beings can conceive of which he does not possess. The light that now shines comes from him. The revelation we may get, imperfect at times because of our fallen condition and because of our failure to comprehend the nature of it, comes from God. The Latter-day Saints glorify him for it. If there is anything good or great or noble, if there is anything to be admired it comes from God, not man. Man is but the medium, but the instrument, is but the conduit through which it flows. God is to be worshipped; God is to be adored; God is to be glorified, and he will be. And when we are saved, when we are delivered from death, hell and the grave, we will glorify God, not man. Man will receive no glory; it will be the eternal Father, through Jesus Christ, who will receive it all.

This is the position occupied by the Latter-day Saints. We believe in revelation. It may come dim; it may come indistinct, it may come sometimes with a degree of vagueness which we do not like. Why? Because of our imperfection; because we are not prepared to receive it as it comes in its purity; in its fullness from God. He is not to blame for this. It is our duty though to contend for more faith, for greater power, for clearer revelations, for better understanding concerning his great truths as he communicates them to us. That is our duty; that is the object of our lives as Latter– day Saints—to live so near unto him that nothing can happen to us but that we will be prepared for it beforehand. And I know many, many Latter-day Saints who are in this condition, who do live so that there is nothing of any importance that can occur for which they are not prepared, and the mind and will of God is made known to them, and they walk according to it, and seek earnestly and humbly to have it revealed to them; and in taking any important step they seek to know the will of God concerning it. Are they perfect? Far from it. They are mortal, full of weaknesses, and nobody is better aware of the character of earthly weaknesses than the man or woman who thus lives.

It is the duty of all to live in this manner, and if the inhabitants of the earth could comprehend it as they should do they would seek to know the mind and will of God concerning themselves. But what is the spirit of the world today? Let a preacher in the world deliver a fine discourse and who thinks about giving God the glory for it? Who thinks of the Holy Ghost under such circumstances? God is removed far from them, he does not exist in their thoughts, the preachers who attempt to preach Christ and him crucified, they are glorified. Who gives glory to God for Henry Ward Beecher’s discourses? Who gives glory for Dr. Fotheringham’s or Mr. Talmage’s or any of the popular preachers of today? Do men glorify God for Spurgeon’s? No, he himself is glorified. Beecher himself is glorified, and Fotheringham is glorified. Is God glorified? No, he is not thought about. Morse discovered the principle of telegraphy. Who gave the glory to God? I was in the hall of the House of Representatives when a grand meeting was held. What for? To glorify Morse, the discoverer of that great principle and who practically applied it and made it useful. Now, I do not mean to say that there are none who have God in their thoughts. I am speaking now of the general feeling that prevails, of the general course that is taken. Inventions, no matter how grand they may be, are not attributed to the Father of them all, the Creator and Fountain of all knowledge. But man, whom he has chosen to be his instrument, he has blessed with knowledge concerning all these things, as the result of his earnest, study and his untiring efforts to obtain knowledge. The Being who does this is very seldom thought about by man.

Latter-day Saints, is this the course for us to take? Shall we glorify the creature at the expense of the Creator? As a people, I believe we are tolerably free from this. But we have to make a degree of progress much greater than we have in these things. We have got to seek after God with an earnestness, a fervor and devotion that we at the present time cannot comprehend. It is our duty as Latter-day Saints to seek for knowledge. Will God bestow it upon us if we do not seek for it? He may in his condescension at times do this. Brother Rich said this morning that he believed some people were too lazy to think. It is a truth plainly expressed. There are too many too lazy or too indifferent—it may be indifference and not laziness in every instance, to think, to feel after, to seek for and receive the blessing of God, although they make the profession of being Latter-day Saints.

Now, I do not think a man’s religion amounts to anything if he only makes a profession of it and does not practice it. I would rather have an intelligent heathen, if he is honest and determined to do the best he can, living up to the light he has, than a Latter-day Saint who is careless and indifferent, who does not seek to enjoy the spirit of his religion.

I am in hopes that after awhile we will begin to realize as we never have yet, that there are practical duties resting on us Latter-day Saints; that there is something more than being members of the Church required of us. How is it with a great many? Why, every evil thought, every wrong speech that comes in their hearts, either to think or to utter, they entertain and express, and then take credit to themselves for not being hypocrites. Is not this great folly? Men and women think evil thoughts, they give place to angry feelings; and they think it a meritorious act, and pride themselves upon their conduct because they give them utterance instead of quenching them! Is not this extraordinary? Lacerate the feelings of their brethren and sisters and friends, because they think they would be hypocrites if they did not utter their evil thoughts, however unfounded or repulsive they might be! What right have I to do this? If my heart is wicked does that justify me in giving utterances to its foul conceptions? Certainly not. If my heart were such that I could not think good thoughts nor entertain good feelings; if I were possessed of anger and could not contain myself, then it were better for me to sew up my mouth and stop my utterance. It is no merit in a man or woman because he or she thinks an evil thought or indulges in an angry spirit to give utterance to it; and they are not hypocrites because they do not do it either. It is not hypocrisy to quench the evil thoughts that arise in our minds. Our hearts are evil in consequence of the fall. As the prophet Jeremiah says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” There are a great many things that are conceived in our hearts that it would be well for us to stifle before they received shape. What is frequently the result of these evil conceptions? Innocent people suffer wrongfully; injury is done; slanders are circulated; while those who start them justify themselves, because forsooth they concerned them. Just as well might the counterfeiter, the bogus-maker, say that because he makes a bogus bill he has the right to circulate it. There is not any of the Spirit of God connected with such conduct.

It is my duty and your duty to think pure thoughts, to have holy desires, to be charitable, to be kind, to be long-suffering, to be full of love, and not any of those evil influences. Why, the devil would have no power on the earth if it were not for some people who allow him to use their tabernacles. I have often thought of this valley when we first came here. There were a few Indians; but who witnessed the devil or his power here? If there were no wicked men nor women here how could the devil manifest his power here? Who heard tattling? Who heard backbiting? Who heard of litigation? Who heard of fighting? Such things were never heard of. But no sooner did men come and the adversary obtain power over them, than all the evils we now witness throughout this land and in this city, which grieves us so, began to manifest themselves. And the more there are who will yield to the influences of the evil one, the more there are who will be guided by him, and the worse the conditions become. There are those who would have here gambling houses and liquor saloons and houses of ill fame and other deplorable evils which abound in the earth. Why? Because they are willing to yield themselves to the devil, I speak it plainly, it is the truth. If such people who practice these and kindred evils would not lend themselves to the devil he would have no power here. What is our duty? It is not to lend ourselves in any particular to the devil, but it is to obey God; to let the fruits of righteousness be manifested in our lives. If we are Latter-day Saints, let us live up to the profession and be that in truth and in deed, and not think that we have no labor to perform in the controlling of our thoughts and our evil desires; neither to allow ourselves to imagine that because we have become members of the Church God will do it all without any efforts on our part.

There is a work devolving upon every son and daughter of Adam; there is a fight that we have to fight against—the evils of our own natures, for the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. The natural man is at enmity with Christ and with God; and unless he seeks to conquer his nature by bringing it into subjection to the mind of God, he is not a son, or she is not a daughter of God. This is the labor that devolves upon us. This is why we meet together at conference; it is to impress upon the people the character and the magnitude of this work that rests upon each individual man and woman. As I have said once before in this Tabernacle, we may be heralded through the earth as famous; but unless we conquer ourselves it is in vain that our names are known and that our deeds resound through the earth. I care not how famous a man in this Church may be—he may be an apostle, he may be a high priest, a bishop, or hold any other important office or position; but unless that man conquers himself and carries on the work within himself of self-improvement, and brings himself and all there is within him in subjection to the mind and will of God, I tell you his fame is as empty as the sound of a trumpet when it passes away. We hear it; it strikes the ear, but it presently dies away, and that is the end of it. So it is with fame of this character. Therefore I say to you that that which is applicable to the individual is applicable to us as a people. Our fame may go forth for great works and mighty things that we have done; but unless we ourselves bring forth the fruits of righteousness in our lives; unless we conquer our evil passions, our evil habits, our evil inclinations, our evil desires, and bring them under complete subjection to the Spirit of God our labor is comparatively profitless, for that is the object of preaching the Gospel to us.

I would like to have the power to impress upon your minds the importance of this great truth. There is nothing so important to me as an individual, as my own salvation. This is the most important thing to me that can be—that I myself shall be saved; that I myself shall so live as to be counted worthy by the Almighty to receive an exaltation in his kingdom. This is of the utmost importance to me individually. As Brother Rich said, if all the rest did certain things, and he did not, he could not receive the blessing, the reward of such works; or if he did, and all the others did not, they could not have the blessing. That is a great truth; and it should be impressed upon us.

You may think it a grand thing for men to go on missions. I remember the time, and probably the feeling still exists—I hope it does—when it was deemed a great honor for a man to go upon a mission, especially a foreign mission. It is right that we should value these labors. It is a great thing to preside as a bishop or president of a stake, or to act in the calling of an apostle. All these things are great in and of themselves, and they reflect honor upon those who bear these offices, and especially when they seek to magnify them. But after all, the great labor, the most honorable labor that any person can perform, is to do that which I have attempted to describe to you—to improve ourselves; to be Latter-day Saints in deed and in truth, to live our holy religion. When we arise in the morning, to examine ourselves, to see if there is anything that is in opposition to the mind and will of God within ourselves; and through the day to pursue the same course of self-examination. And at night before we retire to rest, to bow ourselves before our Father and God in secret, and pour out our souls in prayer before him, supplicating him to show unto us wherein we have done wrong during the day, wherein we have come short in thought, word and deed; and then repent of the same before we lie down to rest, and to obtain from him a forgiveness of our sins. And then, going on day after day, week after week, and year after year until the end shall come. If we do this, the promises of God are sure, and they cannot fail.

That it may be our happy lot to attain to an exaltation with our Father, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 21st, 1879.

If the congregation will give their attention, I will read a portion of the word of God, given in these last days, dated March, 1829—a portion of revelation—through the Prophet, and Seer, and Revelator, Joseph Smith, in Harmony, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, a little over one year before the rise of this Church, commencing with the 10th verse:

“But this generation shall have my word through you; And in addition to your testimony, the testimony of three of my servants, whom I shall call and ordain, unto whom I will show these things, and they shall go forth with my words that are given through you. Yea, they shall know of a surety that these things are true, for from heaven will I declare it unto them. I will give them power that they may behold and view these things as they are; And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation, in this the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my Church out of the wilderness—clear as the moon, and fair as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. And the testimony of three witnesses will I send forth of my word. And behold, whosoever believeth on my words, them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit; and they shall be born of me, even of water and of the Spirit—And you must wait yet a little while, for ye are not yet ordained—And their testimony shall also go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts against them; For a desolating scourge shall go forth among the inhabitants of the earth, and shall continue to be poured out from time to time, if they repent not, until the earth is empty, and the inhabitants thereof are consumed away and utterly destroyed by the brightness of my coming. Behold, I tell you these things, even as I also told the people of the destruction of Jerusalem; and my word shall be verified at this time as it hath hitherto been verified.”

Fifty two years shall have passed tomorrow since the Lord permitted his holy angel to descend from heaven and commit into the care and charge of Joseph Smith, a young man, plates which had the appearance of gold, filled with engravings. He obtained these plates on the 22nd day of September in the year 1827, being then not quite twenty-two years of age. This young man was not learned, like those educated in colleges and theological institutions; indeed, he was a farmer’s boy, unacquainted with the arguments, and the tenets, and the creeds, and the institutions of religion that existed around him, except what he had heard from time to time, in the neighborhood where his father resided; a young man not versed in the Scriptures any more than most of the common lads of that age. And we all know that there are but a very few among farmers that have the opportunity of informing their minds at so early a period—at the age of twenty-one—in regard to the doctrines and prophecies contained in the Scripture.

You may, some of you, wonder, perhaps, why the Lord should select an instrument of this kind; why he did not take a person more qualified by education, more experienced in the doctrines taught among the human family, more conversant with the Bible. You perhaps, may think in your own mind that if you had had the selection of the individual to begin the work of the establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth in the last days, and you had followed the best wisdom you had on the subject, that you certainly would have selected a person well trained and skilled in the different doctrines of the day. But the Lord does not see as man sees, his thoughts are not like our thoughts, neither are his ways like our ways. Hence he chose a man unconnected with any of the religious societies of the day—untaught in the Scriptures and doctrines of the different religious denominations—he selected a man of his own choice, as he had frequently done in former ages of the world.

We all recollect the selection that the Lord made in relation to David, when he was called to be king of the House of Israel, and anointed for that purpose. There were, I think, seven brethren older than David—men of fair appearance, men of experience—men that probably their neighbors, their acquaintances, would have selected either one of them in preference to the youth that was tending the sheep. But Samuel, being a prophet of the Lord, when these certain brethren came up before him, said: “The Lord hath not chosen him,” and continued to say so until all the seven had passed by, and then the inquiry was made, “Is there not another?” “Why, yes, there is a boy; but he is keeping his father’s sheep.” “Send and fetch him,” said the Prophet Samuel. He was brought in—he was goodly to look upon, but he was simply a youth, untrammeled with the traditions around him, but yet an honest-hearted boy. The Lord chose him, the anointing oil was poured upon his head, and he was appointed to be the future king of Israel.

Now, the Lord did not have any prophets in the year 1827 on all the face of the earth. There was no Samuel existing, no person who had the spirit of prophecy; consequently the Lord, instead of sending a Samuel, sent an angel to make the selection. This angel committed, as I have always said, the plates of the Book of Mormon, together with the Urim and Thummim, into the hands of this youth, and also gave him many instructions informing him that he must be very strict in keeping the commandments of God, and that he must do with these plates as he was counseled from time to time, not to shew them to everybody that might wish to see them, but was strictly forbidden, by the angel, to shew them unto any person until the Lord should give him commandment so to do. He translated these plates unlearned as he was. And now let me ask, would you naturally expect that if he—this unlearned youth—did this by his own wisdom, that it would agree with the Jewish record in all the doctrines taught, or said to be taught in the translation of this record? Would it be reasonable to expect that this unlearned, inexperienced youth could be able to sit down and in a very short period of time translate a book two-thirds as long as the Old Testament, without contradicting himself in some way? Would it be reasonable to suppose or to conclude that he would get all the doctrines, contained in that Book of nearly 600 pages to agree in every respect with the ancient Gospel as it was taught in the New Testament, especially when there were several thousand different notions in regard to that doctrine? We could not expect any such thing. The more inexperienced a man is the less qualified he is to write, by his own human wisdom, and get into proper shape, a history said to extend over a thousand years or a little more—a history commencing with the colony that came from Jerusalem to this continent, down until the records were sealed and hid in the earth—a thousand years’ history of a nation, of two nations that were opposed to each other, of their wars and their travels to and fro upon a large continent, like ours—we would naturally expect that a young man, so inexperienced, would, by his own human wisdom, get that country awfully muddled up as regards places, as regards the location of cities, and location of countries. We would naturally expect, I say, such contradiction to occur in the writings of an unlearned youth.

But what is still more marvelous, is the prophetic portions of this record, called the Book of Mormon. It is full of prophecies from the open– ing of the record unto the closing thereof. Predictions, not only concerning events that took place after this colony left Jerusalem, during 600 years before Christ, predictions that were to take place down to the coming of Christ in the flesh, but predictions that were to be fulfilled after the first coming of Christ down until the end of time. The book is full of these predictions. Would you not naturally expect therefore, could you look for any other thing than that an inexperienced, unlettered young man, unread in prophetic history, should contradict himself in different parts of the record; speak of an event on one occasion and forget and speak of something quite different on another? Then again, where did you find a young man, unacquainted with the Jewish record, that could make all these predictions and prophecies coincide with the ancient prophecies of the Jews? Would it be likely that he could do so by his own wisdom? I think not. All these things, therefore, so far as the history is concerned in the Book of Mormon, so far as the prophetic writings are concerned in this late record, so far as the doctrinal parts of that Book are concerned, it is a marvel in the age in which we live; it is a marvel in my eyes; but perhaps my eyes are not constituted as the eyes of others. To me, however, it is one of the greatest marvels of the age. I am familiar with this; and I have read it, perhaps, more carefully than any other man that has ever lived in this generation, and probably ten or fifteen times more than any other man has done. Why, when I was a boy, 21 years of age, I had, for the two years during my first acquaintance with the book, read it so much that I could repeat over chapter after chapter, page after page, of many portions of the Book of Mormon, and could do it just as well, with the Book closed or laid to one side, as I could with the Book open; and I have continued to read it from that day down to the present, without finding one contradiction in the book. I have read the comments, I have read the writings of our greatest opposers who have undertaken to examine the book from the beginning to the end. I have tried to follow their arguments, in relation to the contents of this book, but I have never unto the present day—and it is forty-nine years since I became acquainted therewith—been able to find one contradiction in the whole work.

Can we say as much concerning the Jewish Bible in the present state of its existence? What is the great fault found by the opposers to the Jewish Bible? The infidel says, “We do not believe it, because it apparently contradicts itself in doctrine, in history, and in many other portions.” And the Christian undertakes to read it, he undertakes to show that these are not contradictions; but with the arguments of the Christian on the one side, and the infidels on the other, in relation to the Bible, it is confessed by the generality of mankind that there are many contradictions, not original contradictions, but contradictions that have been introduced into the record since it was originally given—introduced by the wisdom of man, or rather by the wickedness of man. But does the Book of Mormon contradict the teachings of the present day? Yes. There is a great difference between the Book of Mormon and modern Christian religion; but there is no difference between that book and ancient Christianity. We may hunt the wide world over, amongst some 400 millions of Chris– tians, so called, and search deeply for a complete, and good, and thorough understanding of their doctrines, and when we have made ourselves thoroughly acquainted with them, take up the Book of Mormon, compare their doctrines with this Bible of ancient America, and there is a great difference, a fundamental difference, not a trifling difference, but a difference that lies at the foundation. It is the same when we come to compare these modern doctrines of Christendom with the doctrine taught in the New Testament. Where can we find a man who can reconcile the two? Or the thousand if you please? Who is able to show that the New Testament proves and sets forth clearly the ancient doctrine of the Gospel? There may be now and then an item which each denomination has in accordance with the New Testament; but where is the authority which lies at the foundation of Christianity? Where is the man among all these 400 millions of Christians that is a revelator, that is a prophet, or is inspired of God? He cannot be found and yet the ancient Christianity, recorded in the Bible advocates that great gift as one that lies at the foundation of Christianity. Christianity is built upon it, built upon Jesus, who was the great revelator of the Church, and built upon apostles who were also revelators, as well as Jesus, and who received their revelations by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, by inspiration as men of God. Can you find such an order of things in Christendom? Do any profess to have these gifts? They say that they are unnecessary; they say that these gifts were intended for the first age of Christianity, but when Christianity was once established these high gifts were no longer necessary. This is their argument almost as one. They seemed to be agreed, however much they may be opposed in other points of doctrine—they all, almost without an exception, seem to be agreed that there is no need of these high gifts of inspiration, and prophecy, and new revelation that accompanied the preaching of the Gospel in ancient times. “The Gospel is established,” say they; “we have no need of it.” As much as to say that these gifts are no part of the Gospel; that the Gospel is one thing and the gifts are another; that the Gospel was established by the evidence of the gifts, but the gifts are no part of the Gospel. They are as much a part of it as faith; just as much a part of the Gospel as repentance, as baptism for the remission of sins, or as the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; and to undertake to separate the blessings of the Gospel, and then call something else the Gospel, does seem very absurd, very inconsistent, and is something that cannot be proved from the divine record. Now, here is something that is of minor importance, something that is not particularly necessary, that might be called nonessential, but something that lies at the very foundation of Christianity. These gifts are a portion of Christianity. Revelation, inspiration and the gift of prophecy, are part and portion of the Gospel as taught by the ancient apostles and men of God, and by our Savior; and to do away with these gifts destroys the fundamental principles of Christianity.

What does the Book of Mormon advocate? It comes directly in contact with all modern Christendom, and goes back to the old Gospel as it was taught nearly 1,800 years ago, and maintains that there must be in the kingdom and Church of God, in every age of the world, these gifts as well as outward forms and ceremonies—maintains that these gifts are a part of the ancient Gospel and must exist wherever the Gospel exists—and when they cease the Gospel ceases to be preached, and true believers, in a Scriptural sense, cease to exist with them.

Now, it does not seem likely to me, that a young man whose beard had scarcely grown—a youth untutored, untaught in the sectarian notions of the day, brought up to labor hard on his farmer’s farm, should be able to make these great distinctions, to come out in opposition to all modern systems of religion, and establish the very fundamental principles that are necessary to the very existence of Christianity in the last days. But God was with that young man. He was not his own teacher, he was not left to his own judgment in regard to what Christianity should be and what it should not be. The angel that came from heaven and revealed himself to the youth understood his mission. He understood what the Gospel was and should be; he understood the revelations of St. John; he understood that these revelations never could be fulfilled unless an angel were sent from heaven in the last days, with the message of the Gospel to be proclaimed unto the inhabitants of the earth, not to a sectional portion of it, not to some corner of it, or to some obscure people, but to commit the everlasting Gospel unto the inhabitants of the earth, to be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. He understood the difference between modern Christianity and ancient Christianity. And when the Urim and Thummim was lighted up by the power of God, and magnified before the eyes of this youth, those ancient characters upon the plates of the Book of Mormon, the distinction was clearly made, between the purity of the Gospel as it was taught in ancient days, and the doctrines and innovations of man as have been taught during many long centuries of apostasy.

How I have rejoiced, since I was a youth of nineteen, in this record! Why I esteem it—I was going to bring up some earthly comparison, but I will not compare great and glorious and heavenly things—so great, so pure and so important, as that of the plan of salvation, with anything of an earthly nature, as there cannot really be any comparison. When I look at all the earthly riches and grandeur of this world, and then look at the Book of Mormon and the Bible, with power to select, which should I choose? Why, the grandeur of this world, the riches of this world, the glories of this world, would be nothing; they would be like the dream of a night vision when a person is disturbed, not by the Spirit of God, but by his own cogitations in the night. I would look upon them as nothing, as vanity and foolishness, as unworthy of the love or approbation of any man of God, were they to be set before me and contrasted with the glory of this book. It is a record given to this generation as one of the choicest gifts of heaven! No other books exist upon the face of our globe so choice as the books which God has given in different ages of the world: the Bible for one, the Book of Mormon for another, and the book called the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, containing the revelations which God gave through his servant the prophet, during some seventeen of the last years of his existence here upon the earth. These revelations, these books are more precious than the riches, and kingdoms, and glories, and honors of this present life, so far as I am concerned. Do I esteem them more than I do my own life? I would be unworthy of my Father and my God in the eternal worlds if I would refuse to lay down my life, if it were required of me of the Lord. If I should save it for a moment, and deny the Book of Mormon; if I were to deny the gifts of the Gospel, or any of the revelations that God has given that are published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—if I were to do such a thing, could I look upon my Father’s face without blushing? Could I think upon God without blushing? Could I think upon anything that was pure and holy, without being, in my own mind, in perfect torment? If I were to be so ungrateful as to deny anything that God has given me, I should be unworthy of the kingdom of God. I do most sincerely and humbly hope and trust that the Lord will not call me and try me in this respect, for I know the weakness of man; I know that man has been weak in all ages, and I do not wish to be thus tried, I do not covet this trial, I do not pray for it; but if ever I should be brought to this condition, with my present feelings, with the feelings I have had for a great many years, I would say: “Come martyrdom, come burnings at the stake, come any calamity and affliction of the body, that may be devised by wicked and ungodly men—let me choose that, and have eternal life beyond the grave; but let me not deny the work of God.” Why do I thus feel? If I had not a knowledge that the Book of Mormon was true, I should not have these feelings. Then I should probably say, if I only had faith that the Book of Mormon is true, “My life is precious, let me save my life, let me deny something which I do not know is true.” But when a person has a knowledge, as I have, of the divinity of this work—having this revealed to me when I was but a beardless boy—I hope never to be brought in that condition, where the trial will be upon me, but should it come I hope to be able to lift up my hands to high heaven, and say, “Oh Lord enable me to endure the trials and afflictions that may come, that I may be faithful unto death.”

Am I the only one that feels in this way, among the Later-day Saints? Are there no other persons that have this knowledge, excepting your humble servant? Yes, there are scores of thousands, if they testify the truth, and I have no reason to think that they would falsify their word; scores of thousands who know as well as they know they have an existence, that the Book of Mormon is a divine record; that the Bible is a divine record; that the revelations given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, are divine; they know it. Would they be willing to suffer martyrdom? I think they would. There might be individual cases, as in ancient times, where they might reject the truth, lose their hopes of salvation, to save their temporal lives; but take the great mass of this people, they would be willing to lay down their lives, or be burned at the stake before they would reject their religion.

How kind, how good was our Heavenly Father, before the rise of this Church, after he had inspired this boy to translate these records; how good it was to send an angel from heaven to three other persons, namely: David Whitmer, Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith being with them on the occasion. The angel descended from heaven, clothed with light and glory, and, taking these records in his hands, turned them over leaf after leaf, showing to these three other men, besides the translator, the engravings on the plates. How kind this was. A Church was to be raised up. The Lord was willing that they should have all the evidence that they could reasonably ask for, before even the first branch of the Church was organized. Did he condescend, in many of the past ages of the world, to do so much for the different generations that have lived, as he has done for the present generation? Look at the days of Noah. He had a message to deliver—a message that affected the human family. He had to tell the people that were living around him that God had spoken. “And what has God said?” He has told me that because of your wickedness he will send the floods upon you. He will break up the foundations of the great deep, he will open the windows from on high and he will pour out the floods upon these nations and they will be swept away root and branch, except a few that will believe in my message, and come into the ark that I am building. How many witnesses did God raise up then? I expect he must have revealed himself to the sons of Noah, as well as to Noah. That would be but four witnesses; but we have no account that the Lord revealed himself to these three sons. They, however, believed the testimony of their father; whether they knew it or not we do not know. At any rate their faith was sufficiently strong to cause them to labor with the old man, and they labored along year after year, weary no doubt, in forming the timbers of this huge ark or vessel. Finally they got it fixed together, and the beasts of the field—that appeared to have more inspiration than the men and the women of that age, began to come from the forests towards the ark, and finally the door was closed. They must have been prophetic beasts, beasts that had revelations, beasts that were able to judge far better than the world of mankind in that age. The rains descended, and the earth was covered with the flood, and we read that Noah by his testimony condemned the whole world. What! One witness? One witness alone condemned the whole world, and they perished from off the face of the earth, because one witness was sent unto them! The Lord has done a little better with this generation. He sent four witnesses before he organized the Church, and that was not all. There were other men that had great testimony and evidence given to them; but they did not see the angel; they did not see the plates in the hands of the angel; but what did they see? They saw this boy have these plates. They took the plates and handled them themselves. They saw the engravings upon these plates—eight other men, besides the four I have mentioned—and they testify to what they saw. They bear witness in words of soberness, that they did handle the plates with their own hands, that they did feel the weight of the plates, that they did observe the engravings thereon, that they had the appearance of ancient work and of curious workmanship, and they bear testimony to what their eyes saw and to what they handled with their hands. Their names, as also the names of the four that saw the angel, were attached to this record, when the first edition of that book was issued from the press. Twelve witnesses then did God condescend to raise up immediately before he organized this Church. Are not twelve witnesses sufficient to condemn the world in this age, if one witness condemned the world in the days of Noah? I think that God has been very lenient, very kind and very merciful in beginning the work with so many witnesses.

But there seem to be other witnesses and evidences concerning the correctness and divinity of this book that are far greater than those I have named. There is a promise to all the human family, that is far better than the ministrations of angels to others. What knowledge does it give to me, to you, to any other person, among all the nations and kindreds of the earth, concerning the divinity of the Book of Mormon, because four witnesses, that lived in some portion of our globe, state that an angel had come from heaven? Does that give me a knowledge? No. Did that impart a knowledge to any other creature on the face of the globe? No. Did we not need a knowledge as well as they? Yes. I have a soul as well as these four men that must be saved or must be lost. If that be the case, ought I not also to have a knowledge concerning my safety as well as they? I think so. Has the Lord made it impossible for me to obtain this knowledge? No. The very message itself in the book, and in the New Testament, and in the modern revelations that are given through the prophet, told me, told you, told all the people upon the face of this earth, how they also might obtain a knowledge of the truth of the Book of Mormon and of this work. How? By getting a vision or manifestation from that same God? No. That we should all have the ministration of angels? No. To some is given one gift, and to some are given other gifts. To some it is given to know in one way, and to some it is given to know in some other way. The Lord has promised that if I will repent, if you will repent, if the people of the United States will repent, if the people of all the nations of the earth will repent, turn unto him and obey his commandments that they should receive the Holy Ghost. Will that give us a knowledge as clear, as definite, as pointed as could be revealed by the ministration of angels? Yes.

Supposing now that I were a natural man, never had received the Holy Ghost. Supposing that a person should come and testify to me that he had received the Holy Ghost, that he had received Heavenly visions that the Lord had sent angels to him, what would I know about it? What would I know about the Holy Spirit, if I never had received it? No man can discern the things of God, but by the Spirit of God; so says the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. It is impossible for the natural man to know the things of God, and if I were a natural man, and had never partaken of the Holy Ghost I might hear a cloud of witnesses testifying to what they had received. I might say, “Well you seem a sincere people, you seem to be honest in your declarations, you say you have had the visitation of angels, you say you had heavenly visions, you say the Holy Ghost has been poured out upon you, but I have never received these things as a natural man.” Now what reason would there be to condemn me on the great judgment day, if I rejected their testimony? They would tell me that I might be put in communication with the heavens the same as they. They might tell me that on certain conditions, I might obtain the Holy Ghost, as well as they, if I would only exercise sufficient faith, to repent of my sins and to be baptized for a remission of them, and to have the servants of God lay their hands upon my head for the reception of the Holy Ghost; that if I would enter into a covenant with the Most High God, to obey his commandments and to call upon his name in faith, and to exercise faith before him—I expect if I did not do all these things, that all this cloud of witnesses that I have named, would stand up on the day of judgment and would condemn me. But if I would exercise faith though I had no knowledge, and would obey the commandments, would be obedient to the principles, and then I received for myself the testimony, I should then be dependent neither upon David Whitmer, Martin Harris nor Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith, nor any of the twelve witnesses that saw the plates, nor any other man living on the whole earth. I could then say, “Oh Lord, my God, thou hast fulfilled thy promise which thou hast made. Thou hast said if I would repent and be baptized I would receive such and such blessings. They have been given unto me, and now I know that thy word is true.” And from that forth I could be a witness myself, but before that I could not be a witness.

Are the ministers of the different denominations of this day, who have never had the spirit of revelation upon them—are they competent witnesses of God to stand before this generation and declare the things of God? No. Can they stand up in the great judgment day and condemn any of this generation to whom they have preached? No. Why not? From the very fact that they are not witnesses. They can tell what the ancients say, how the ancients became witnesses, but they themselves have not an experience in these things, and therefore, God has not made them witnesses. They cannot condemn any man living on the face of the earth, by their preaching and their testimony.

We are living, then, in the great and last dispensation, in which God has provided a way that he might raise up scores of thousands of witnesses, a way that all might know as Peter did. Peter did not get his knowledge from seeing miracles wrought. He did not obtain his knowledge because some other man had received a knowledge. The Savior blessed him and said, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” The Lord had revealed this knowledge unto Peter, consequently Peter was constituted a witness. And so the Lord, by having given revelation from the heavens to scores of thousands of the Latter-day Saints, has made them witnesses of the divinity of this work.

O, how the Latter-day Saints ought to rejoice! How faithful we all ought to be! How frivolous are the things of this present life, compared with the knowledge of God, which you have received! Do you appreciate this, Latter-day Saints? Do you realize it as you ought to, or are your minds swayed to and fro by the frivolities and vanities of this present life? Do they absorb the greater portion of your attention? Do you forget your God, the greatness of your calling, and the knowledge which you have received? I have not.

I believe that the Latter-day Saints are the very best people on the face of our globe. Why? Because they have been willing to endure hardships, persecutions all the day long. They have been willing to leave their houses, their lands, their possessions, have been willing to see all fall into the hands of their enemies and flee to a desert country for the sake of their religion. Has God forgotten all these things? O, ye children of Zion! Do you suppose that the Lord has forgotten, because many years have passed away, your tribulation, your sacrifices if they can be called such—your mobbings and persecutions in times that are past? No. They are written as it were on the palms of his hands, they are printed indelibly upon the thoughts of his heart. He has all these things in remembrance, and a day of controversy is coming, and it is not far in the future—a controversy for Zion; a controversy with all the nations of the earth that fight against Mount Zion—the Lord has all these things in his mind, and he will fulfil them in his own due time and season. But now is the day of our tribulation and has been for some forty years and upwards that are past. Are there better days to come? Yes. How far in the future I am not prophet enough to know. All that I do know is that they are nigh, near at the very door, when the Lord will rise up and come forth out of his hiding place and fulfil that which he has spoken concerning Zion and the inhabitants of this land. Zion is not destined to be crushed down forever into the dust. Zion is not destined to be overcome by the kingdoms of this world forever. The turning point will come, and that is nigh at hand. The days are coming—I know they are close at hand—when the young and rising generation that are now sitting in this congregation, and who are spread forth upon the face of the land, throughout these mountains and valleys, will see the turning point for Zion. What will they see? They will see a man raised up like unto Moses in days of old—a man to whom the Lord will reveal himself, as he did to his servant Moses, by angels, by visions, by revelation from the heavens, and will give unto him commandments, and make him an instrument in his hands, to redeem the people and to establish them in their everlasting inheritance upon the face of this American continent. Will he show forth his power in that day as he did unto his servant Moses and to Israel? Yes, only more abundantly, more extensively than in the days of Moses, for there is a larger continent than the land of Egypt, in which the Lord will make manifest his power—a greater people than the Egyptians, among whom he will work. Consequently he will show forth his power unto all the inhabitants of this land. He will fulfil the plain predictions of the Prophet Isaiah that the Lord shall make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations, until all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. What will be said then concerning this people and Zion? It will then be said by those that are spared in the midst of the terrible judgments that will fall upon these nations, “Surely the people called Latter-day Saints, the people of Zion, are the people of our God. God is there, his power is there, it is his power that delivers that people; it is his power that is over them as a cloud by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. It is his power that protects their congregations, protects their settlements, protects their holy temple. Let us no longer fight against Zion or the people of God, let us enter into the everlasting covenant which has been revealed anew. We will join ourselves with the people of God.” In that day will be fulfilled that which has been spoken by Isaiah in the second chapter, by the prophet Micah, in the fourth chapter, that in the last days many nations shall say: “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

May God bless—not the wicked, not the ungodly, not those that blaspheme the name of the Lord, not those that fight against Zion—but all the true, pure hearted Latter-day Saints, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, September 7th, 1879.

It is with feelings of thanksgiving to my Father who is in heaven, that I stand before you this afternoon, after having been absent from this place for some nine months that are past.

I suppose that the Latter-day Saints who are congregated here, understand the object of the mission which was given to me, to go to Great Britain, and there get the pages of the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, electrotyped, with double sets of plates, for the purpose of spreading forth copies of these works, among the inhabitants of the earth by hundreds of thousands. I therefore, feel very much pleased to have the privilege of bearing testimony to you, that I have, through the blessing of the Lord, been enabled to finish or complete the work that was given me to do, in relation to these two standard works of our Church.

Had it not been for the Book of Mormon this territory would not be occupied by a people called the Latter-day Saints. That lies at the foundation of the work of the last days, in which we are engaged. All of you are acquainted, if you have endeavored to exercise your judgment and your capacities as intelligent beings, with the nature of that book. If you are not acquainted with it you certainly ought to be. We all ought to inform ourselves concerning every principle that is contained in that record. We ought to make ourselves very familiar also, with the Book that is called the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, given by divine revelation in the generation in which we are permitted to live. These two books, we as a people, esteem to be as sacred as any other revelations which were ever given to the human family. We look upon the Book of Mormon as a very precious record—a precious blessing to the people who live in this dispensation, a divine work—a divine revelation. It has now been before the world almost 50 years, being published over 49 years; and the whole world, if they had seen proper to inform themselves, concerning the nature of the work, could have been blessed with the privilege. It is a work which the Lord our God has commenced by his own power. The book was not written by the wisdom of man, by the inspiration of man, but it was written by the commandment of the Most High God. It was written as revealed to a young man, the founder of this Church, under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. This young man being inspired of God, and having revelations granted to him from heaven, had the privilege of bringing forth this sacred record to this generation. The record was translated, as the Latter-day Saints understand, and as the world generally have been informed, by revelation, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, through the aid of an instrument that was used anciently and called the Urim and Thummim. The Lord did not, in revealing this work to us, require us to receive it blindly and enthusiastically, but to receive it on good, substantial, sound evidence, such as we cannot controvert, such as we cannot contradict—evidence that no reasonable person, having the common reasoning faculties of man, can consistently reject. The Lord did not raise up this Church—did not commence its foundation, until he revealed this Book; and in the revelation of this Book, he fulfilled many predictions, made in ancient days, by the mouth of the Jewish prophets, and also the apostles that succeeded the Jewish prophets. They spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and they predicted that such a work would come forth in the latter times; and if this is not the work, as the world say it is not, then we are to look forward to the day when a similar work will be brought forth by the power of Almighty God; for the events predicted by the mouth of the prophets, recorded in the Jewish Bible, never can be fulfilled, never can be brought to pass, unless a work of a similar description, to the one that has been presented to the people of the nineteenth century shall come forth.

The Book of Mormon, we say, is just as sacred as the Bible—the Old and New Testaments. We cannot see any reason why we should exclude all other books from the compiled books of the Jewish Bible. We have nothing in the compiled works of the Bible (King James’ translation), we have no declarations in this Book, that the canon of Scripture should be full at the close of the fourth century of the Christian era. We have no declarations in this Book, that about 400 years after Christ there should be a church or people on the earth that should collect together manuscript books and call them the Bible, and that that should be a complete revelation of God’s will; or that there were no other sacred books in existence, only what the Catholic church, at the close of the fourth century, happened to collect together.

We believe that God is the God of all nations, as well as the God of the Jews. We believe that he did not confine his divine power and the inspiration of his Spirit to one little spot of our globe; although he did work wonderfully, and in a marvelous manner, in the land of Palestine among the Jews, and did shew forth his power by raising up prophets, and revelators, and apostles. Yet we cannot, in our views, limit the Almighty, as the Christian nations do, and say that he has never spoken to any other people. We cannot, with the intelligence and light that God has given to us, say that the Bible is the only revelation of God to man. We believe that he made all nations, and all the inhabitants of the earth. We believe that he had as much regard for the ten tribes, after they revolted from the house of Judah and separated themselves into a distinct nation—when they wrought righteousness, as he had for the Jews who dwelt in Jerusalem, and in the vicinity of that great capital city. Indeed the Lord has shown to us that he was no respecter of persons. So far as the ten tribes were concerned, he had revealed himself to them. Some of the greatest prophets that were raised up in days of old, before the coming of the Messiah, were prophets that lived among the ten tribes, who were not Jews: not included in the house of Judah, or the two years and a half. For instance, Elijah, who had such great power given him from God, that he could call upon His name and the heavens would be shut up so that there would be no rain fall upon the earth, according to his prayer, for three and a half years. A man with such faith, that after three and a half years of great famine, he prayed for the Lord to send rain, and rain was given immediately. A man with such power that when a captain of fifty with his fifty came to take him—who mockingly called him a man of God—he said to the captain, “If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty,” and it was done, according to his word. He was not a Jewish prophet; he was a prophet of the ten tribes. A man also that had such great faith in God, that he was taken away from the earth, in a chariot of fire, and wafted to the abodes of immortality, among the immortal beings. Here then was a prophet raised up among another branch of the house of Israel. Here was also Elisha, another prophet, not of the Jews but of the ten tribes. Were not their revelations just as sacred as the revelations of the prophets of Judah? They certainly were; and were incorporated in the Jewish Bible. Were there any other branches of Israel besides those ten tribes, who dwelt in the northern parts of the Land of Palestine, and the Jews? Yes, we read in various parts of this Bible, that many of the house of Israel were taken away from the main body who dwelt in Palestine, and scattered to the four quarters of the earth. Did God forget them and their generations after them, after they were thus scattered? I think not. He did not forget them; and in the days of their righteousness, he revealed himself to them and to his prophets. And this great and choice American continent was once peopled by the seed of Israel, not the ten tribes or Jewish nation especially, but a small remnant of one tribe, namely the descendants of Joseph who was carried into Egypt. These American Indians scattered over this great continent of ours, are the literal descendants of the chosen seed. Now, do you suppose that the Almighty, who desires the salvation of the children of men, would take a company, however great or small it might be, and locate them upon such a great and vast continent as ours, and leave them without any guidance by revelation from him? Leave them from generation to generation without prophets and without revelators? Such an event is inconsistent to my mind. God, who is no respecter of persons, who loves all people of all nations, of all kindreds and tongues, surely would not thus lead away the chosen seed, and plant them upon such a vast continent as ours and obscure or withdraw himself, leaving them in total ignorance, without any revelation from heaven. What is the Book of Mormon? It is their record, their Bible, their revelations, their predictions, their doctrines, their manifestations and visions, and their history, the same as the Bible is the record and history of the Jews. Why then should it be thought inconsistent with the character of God that he should bring forth records, so sacred, so great, so important to join with the testimony of the Jewish record that the nations of the last days might have the testimony of two hemispheres that God is the same God, that his doctrines are everlasting, the same unchangeable Gospel and plan of salvation, and that his people Israel were as precious to him on the western hemisphere as they were on the eastern, and that the great atonement which we are now celebrating in this house, should not be shut out from the minds of the people in the western hemisphere? Is it consistent that this should be the case? There is not a man living, who will free himself from the traditions of false doctrines that have prevailed for many generations, but what will say it is godlike, it is consistent with the character of the Almighty to reveal himself to the western hemisphere as well as to the great eastern hemisphere, and if he did this would there be anything inconsistent that these records should be brought to light in the last days? Is God limited in his power? I appeal to the whole of Christendom, do we as Christians believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father, as being limited in their power, and that people should be left without divine knowledge, without information from heaven, when it is so easy for them to reveal? Is not the knowledge of God to cover the earth, according to the prediction of Isaiah the prophet, as the waters cover the great deep, before the end shall come? Are not many, in the last days, to run to and fro, and knowledge be increased, and when I speak of knowledge I mean that knowledge which is of God, the knowledge revealed from heaven, concerning the great plan of salvation. It is reasonable, it is consistent, it is in accordance with the Jewish Bible, that God should reveal himself and the plan of salvation to the people of the latter days, that the knowledge of God may truly cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep. In revealing this additional knowledge, will it do any harm? Is there any church on the face of the whole earth that is in the least degree harmed by the additional revelations sent from heaven? I think not. What harm is there in the Lord’s making manifest to the people in this western hemisphere, that the same Gospel was preached to the inhabitants of this land as was preached to the Jews and the people of the eastern continent in ancient days? Who is harmed among all the religious denominations of Christendom, the four hundred millions of Christians, so called, by the addition of further revelation? Did it harm any of the branches of the church that were anciently Christian, after they had the Book of Matthew revealed to them, to be permitted to have a testimony from another inspired man, called the Book of Mark? I think there was no harm in Mark’s writing his Gospel, after Matthew had written his. It did no harm to the ancient Christians that Luke should write his testimony of the Gospel; that John should write his, that John should be permitted to receive great prophecy and revelation on the isle of Patmos. Did that close revelation from God? No, because we find that the Lord inspired John to write his testimony of the Gospel, showing that the canon of Scripture was not closed up when John left Patmos. What harm is there for another nation to know about the Prophet Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the atonement that he made by his own suffering and death? Would it not be a privilege and blessing for the ancient inhabitants of America to be informed concerning the only way by which they could be saved in the kingdom of God? The Book of Mormon records the fact that Jesus did appear on this American continent, after his resurrection from the dead; that he did administer in person, in his immortal body, after his resurrection, for several days, in the midst of this remnant of Israel, the forefathers of these American Indians. What Gospel did he teach? Did he teach one Gospel in Asia and another in ancient America? No. If the same Gospel then is taught, who is harmed among the four hundred millions of Christians, by having the information concerning it? It seems to me as if I could imagine the feeling of the strangers that may be present this afternoon. I can imagine someone saying, “Oh, it would be a very beautiful theory, if we could only believe it; if we only had testimony sufficient to believe what you Latter-day Saints declare, that the Book of Mormon is actually a divine revelation of the Gospel as it was preached in ancient America; if we knew this fact we could not denounce it as something that was calculated in its nature to destroy the peace and happiness of Christendom, but we should consider it a great blessing to the human family if we only had the evidence and testimony that the facts are as you state them.” Now I expect these thoughts are running through the minds of some individuals here. Well, now, what must be the evidence? What would you naturally suppose would be the kind of evidence that the Lord Almighty would give to substantiate the divinity of a book that is almost two-thirds as voluminous as the Jewish Bible? Can you imagine any testimony that ought to be given to convince the children of men? “Well,” says one, “if we could only have it confirmed by the ministration of angels, that would be an evidence, a great evidence or testimony.” The inhabitants of this generation, for nearly fifty years, have had the testimony of three men, besides the boy that translated the Book of Mormon—the testimony of three witnesses. The Lord would not suffer his Church to be organized, would not suffer his servants to build up this kingdom on the earth—this ecclesiastical kingdom, until he gave sufficient evidence unto three chosen witnesses, as well as the boy that translated the work. Their testimony is given, in connection with the book, and there is no man living that can contradict their testimony or can prove it to be untrue. The witnesses themselves have never denied their testimony; and not only three other witnesses who saw the angel, heard the words of his mouth, saw the glory of his countenance, and saw the plates—the original plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, but also eight other witnesses who saw the plates, but did not see the angel; they saw the plates at another time; saw the engravings upon the plates, handled them with their hands, and have recorded their testimony. Hence we have the testimony of the young man that was called by the angel to translate and bring forth the book, and then the testimony of eleven other witnesses besides. In the mouth of two or three witnesses, we are told in the Jewish record, every word shall be established. But God saw fit to give twelve witnesses before the Church of the Latter-day Saints ever had an existence on this earth. That certainly ought to be sufficient to begin the work with, to begin to enlighten the minds of the children of men, concerning what God was about to do upon the face of the earth. But are we confined to these twelve men and their testimony? Are there no other means by which we may for ourselves come to a knowledge that this work is divine? I will tell you how the Lord has provided in a godlike manner, just as we would naturally expect he would do—that the children of men, however weak, frail, and imperfect in their judgment, if they have the common sense and common attainments that the children of men generally have, may not only have a faith concerning the truth of this work, founded on the evidence of others, but also a knowledge for themselves. And how is this? How can people get a real knowledge that this Book is divine? Says one: “I should like to embrace it, but then you are so unpopular. Still if I knew it to be true,” perhaps some stranger may say in his heart, “if I knew that God was the author of it, I would not mind anything about the contumely, or anything about the unpopularity of the people called Latter-day Saints.” There is a way to know whether this work be true, if you will follow the conditions. And what are the conditions that God has pointed out, by which we may receive a knowledge now as well as they received a knowledge in ancient times, concerning similar doctrines and principles? It is by obedience to the Gospel of the Son of God. The Lord, before he suffered this Church to be organized gave authority to his servants to preach the Gospel and to organize his kingdom on the earth in fulfillment of the ancient prophecies. In connection with this authority, he gave them authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel to those that would repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave them not only power and authority to baptize—that is divine authority to baptize—for the remission of sins, but also to lay their hands upon the heads of baptized believers and pronounce upon them the blessings of the Holy Ghost as they did in ancient days. This was placing the people of this generation in a condition to prove whether this work was divine or not. The elders were sent forth in the early rise of this Church, saying unto the people, “If you will repent of your sins—if you will turn from everything that is evil, if you will with all your hearts enter into a covenant with the Almighty to obey the Lord of righteousness, to keep his commandments, to do right all your future days, and will be baptized by the authority that God has given from heaven, and also be confirmed by the laying on of hands, God will give you the Holy Ghost, and by this gift of the Holy Ghost you shall know that the Book of Mormon is a divine revelation, and that this is the Church and the kingdom of the living God.” Very many honest hearted people in the American Union, in the nation of Great Britain, in the various nations of Europe, and upon the islands of the Sea, have tested the truth of this commandment of God given unto his servant in the first rise and beginning of this Church. Did they receive the Holy Ghost? They testify that they did. They say, that “by obeying that message which you brought to us, which you testified that God had sent you to preach, the promises you made to us are fulfilled. You stated that we should receive the Holy Ghost. We have received it because we have humbled ourselves before God. We have been baptized by you. You stated you held authority. We believed it from testimony that you gave us, that such was the case, but we did not know it. We went forth and acted upon our faith, and now we can testify we know you are the servants of God; for God has fulfilled the promise which he has given to us through your word.” Thus scores of thousands have proved the divinity of this work. You marvel that this people are so well united. You marvel that we come out from the nations of the earth and assemble ourselves in one. You marvel what it is that prompts this people called Latter-day Saints to come from the lands of their forefathers, from the islands of the Sea, from distant nations, and assemble themselves here in this great basin of North America. It is not man that has accomplished this work. It is because you have received the Holy Ghost that you are here in these valleys. It is because God witnessed unto you in your own lands, before you started upon your journey that he had again spoken to the inhabitants of the earth as in ancient days. You there learned that this was his true Church, his true kingdom established upon the earth as he predicted by the mouth of his servants, and you felt anxious to be gathered with the rest of the Saints that had the same testimony with you. Hence you gather not only from choice, but by actual commandment. We do not gather here merely for the sake of being together, but it is because the same God who revealed the Book of Mormon by his servant Joseph, the youth of whom I have spoken—that same boy received another revelation which is published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, which I now hold in my hand, commanding the Latter-day Saints to gather out of all nations of the earth, to this American continent. Hence you came here because you had received the Holy Ghost. You have come here because you knew this work was true. You have come here that you might fulfil the commandment which God gave near the time of the rise of this Church in relation to the gathering of his Saints from among all the nations and kingdoms of the earth. Has God fulfilled that which he spoke when we were but a little handful of people, not numbering one hundred souls? He told us that his people should be gathered from all quarters of the earth into one place upon the face of this great continent. Has he fulfilled it? The testimony is before the eyes not only of the Latter-day Saints, but the eyes of all people, nations and tongues, and among the most distant nations of the earth concerning the gathering of the people called Latter-day Saints. God has fulfilled his word—this word, which was given nearly fifty years ago, as to the gathering of his people from the four quarters of the earth. Now this great work of the last days never could be accomplished without this gathering together of the Saints. There are no other people fulfilling it. For instance, take the Roman Catholics; they were not gathering from all parts of the earth. Take the Greek Church; they do not come out from the nations from which they receive their doctrine. Take all the Protestant denominations, and who among them all are assembling themselves together in one? If they should issue a proclamation by human wisdom and by human commandment, requiring their members to gather together, they could not accomplish it. Why? Because there is not enough unity amongst them; the Holy Ghost has not been given to them in its fulness, as given to the ancient Saints; hence they could not gather the people together. But the Lord has done it through this people. And what will he yet do? Permit me to prophesy, not in my own name nor by my own wisdom, but on the strength of that which God has revealed to this Church since the year 1830, and that also which is given in the Book of Mormon—I prophesy that this is only just the beginning, as it were of the great work of the gathering of the Latter-day Saints.

[I would say that some of our friends that have called in this afternoon are obliged, in consequence of the cars leaving, to retire. May the Lord bless them, pour out his Spirit upon them, may he manifest the truth unto them that they may be blessed in common with all those who keep the commandments of God.]

The Lord our God has therefore fulfilled that which he spoke; and as I said this work, instead of being nearly accomplished, nearly fulfilled, and all things brought about according to the purposes of the Almighty, only the foundation, as it were, is now laid, and instead of being gathered in a little company of 150,000, by and by we shall be gathered in hundreds of thousands and even millions. Now, do you believe it? I not only believe it but know it will come to pass just as much as a great many other things which have already been fulfilled since the promises were uttered and published in this book. I knew they would come to pass, for God has revealed these things to me, and given me a knowledge of them, and I also know concerning the future of this people, as also do a great many of our brethren that have received testimonies concerning these matters. Is God limited to this little narrow spot, called the great basin of North America? Why, no. It is only for the present, for the time being that we dwell here. Where will we dwell in the future? What is our future destiny? It is not on the Sandwich islands, it is not in New Zealand, it is not in Australia, it is not in any of the islands of the sea, but I will tell you the future destiny of this people in a very few words. Not many years hence—I do not say the number of years—you will look forth to the western counties of the State of Missouri, and to the eastern counties of the State of Kansas, and in all that region round about you will see a thickly populated country, inhabited by a peaceful people, having their orchards, their fruit trees, their fields of grain, their beautiful houses and shade trees, their cities and towns and villages. And you may ask—Who are all these people? And the answer will be—Latter-day Saints! Where have they come from? They have come from the nations of the earth! They have come from the mountains of Utah, from Arizona, from Idaho, and from the mountainous territories of the North American Continent, they have come down here, and are quietly cultivating the lands of these States! Now, this will all come to pass, just as sure to come to pass as there is a God that reigns in yonder heavens, and not many years hence either. Thus you see that for some time to come, our future destiny is not to build up this kingdom upon any of the islands of the sea, but to be located where God has decreed, by his own power that his people shall dwell. “Oh, but,” says one, “you have to get the land first.” But I would ask is there any breaking of the Constitution—is there anything calculated to take away the rights of American citizenship by emigrants going from one part of this nation to another, peacefully and quietly, purchasing the land and locating upon it? I think not. “But,” says one, “perhaps they will not allow you to purchase the land.” The Lord will take care of that; that is in the hands of the Lord. That same being who will assist in the building of a great city on the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, has all power; and when we purchase the land, and go and take possession of it, I do not think we will be driven from our own lands, if we mind our own business and do not meddle with our neighbors’ business, and do not undertake to injure them in their rights and privileges, guaranteed to them by the Constitution of our country. If we conduct ourselves in a peaceable manner, I do not see why we may not dwell there as well as other citizens. We have the strongest assurance that such will be the case. These were promises made to us, before there were a hundred persons in this Church. It was promised that we should have a land as an inheritance; but we were commanded of God, to purchase the land. Now, when the time comes for purchasing this land, we will have means. How this means will be brought about it is not for me to say. Perhaps the Lord will open up mines containing gold and silver, or in some other way as seemeth to him best, wealth will be poured into the laps of the Latter-day Saints till they will scarcely know what to do with it. I will here again prophesy on the strength of former revelation that there are no people on the face of the whole globe, not even excepting London, Paris, New York, or any of the great mercantile cities of the globe—there are no people now upon the face of the earth, so rich as the Latter-day Saints will be in a few years to come. Having their millions; therefore they will purchase the land, build up cities, towns and villages, build a great capital city at headquarters, in Jackson County, Missouri. Will we have a temple there? Yes; will we have a beautiful city? Yes, one of the most beautiful cities that will ever be erected on the continent of America will be built up by the Latter-day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri. Consequently, when congressmen and statesmen, and the great men of our nation, want to know what the future destiny of the Latter-day Saints will be, let them remember the words of your humble servant, who has addressed you this afternoon; for they will come to pass—they will be fulfilled. We have seen too many revelations fulfilled, already, to be mistaken in regard to these matters. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered at Logan, on Sunday Afternoon, August 31st, 1879.

If the congregation will try to be quiet I will endeavor to talk to them a little in my way.

It is some time since I met with the Saints in this place, not because I was not desirous to come but because circumstances have controlled and prevented me. We come here, now, more particularly to attend to a little affair associated with your Temple. There seems to have been a little misunderstanding about its construction, and as we have a Temple Committee and architects for the Church, we thought it best to have the brethren composing this committee and the architects, present, that we might confer with them, so that everything pertaining to this building might be done properly according to order and correct principles.

Elder Truman O. Angell was sustained at the General Conference as Architect of the Church, and William H. Folsom and Truman O. Angell, Jr., as his assistants, and were therefore the proper persons to consult, in the adjustment of any matters that might be in question.

I speak of this as one of those things in connection with the holy priesthood, and with the building of this sacred edifice that we are erecting to the name of the Lord. We found that a slight change had been made from the original plan, which however is not material, and there will no difficulty arise therefrom. I thought I would mention this because people generally like to understand things as they exist. It is much better to tell things right out as they are than to hear of whisperings about this and the other thing, which in many instances are incorrect.

We are pleased to find the pro– gress you are making in the erection of this temple, the energy and zeal that are being displayed and the liberality that has been manifested by the people of this temple district.

We are engaged, as has been mentioned by Brother Snow, in a great work; in the work that prophets and seers have gazed upon and prophesied of, namely the gathering together of the Lord’s elect, the building of temples for the redemption of the living and the dead; in the establishment of the kingdom of our God. These things have been more or less understood according to the power of the spirit and the light of revelation that has rested upon his prophets ever since the world began. It is difficult, as has been remarked, for us sometimes to realize the position we occupy—the relation we sustain to our heavenly Father—the responsibility that rests upon us, and the various duties we have to perform in the fulfillment of the purposes of God; in the interest of a world lying in wickedness; in the building up of the Zion of our God, in the establishment of righteousness and in bringing to pass those great and glorious principles which have been contemplated by the Almighty “before the world rolled into existence or the morning stars sang together for joy.” It is our lot to be placed upon the earth in this time. It is our lot to have our minds enlightened by the Spirit, intelligence and revelation that flows from God. It is our lot to operate and cooperate with God our heavenly Father—and with his Son Jesus Christ—and with the ancient patriarchs, apostles and men of God who have lived before; and while they are operating behind the veil in the interests of humanity in the fulfillment of the purposes of God and in the establishment of righteousness upon the earth, we are here to operate with them, that we and they may act conjointly under the influence and guidance of the Almighty and the power and Spirit of the living God, in carrying out the designs of the great Jehovah. This is what we are here for. And it is necessary that we should comprehend our position; for in the performance of our duties associated with this work it is not as some people seem to suppose. We have got something else to do besides folding our arms and crying “Lullaby baby on the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock.” We have something to do besides “sitting and singing ourselves away to everlasting bliss.” It is our duty—and God expects it of us, that we should seek unto him for wisdom, for guidance, for revelation and for a knowledge of his law, that we may be filled with the Holy Ghost and the power of God and that we may be enabled to magnify our calling and priesthood and accomplish that work which God has designed from before the foundation of the world. It is in reality a labor. We have gone forth, as many have gone forth to preach the Gospel of life and salvation to a fallen world. We have gathered in “one of a city and two of a family;” we have combated the errors of ages and inveighed against the wickedness, corruptions and strategems of wicked and ungodly men, who have opposed us on every hand; and we have, with the help of the Lord, succeeded in gathering out many of the honest in heart from among the different nations of the earth. And we have come here to carry out the will, purposes and designs of God. I never supposed that we were to come here to get rich, to increase in worldly possessions; but we came as I understand it in accordance with an express command of the Most High, that we may be taught in the knowledge of God, that we might come to an understanding of his laws. We are not here to follow the devices and desires of our own hearts; we are not here to carry out any particular theory of our own; we are not here to build up any system of man’s creation; but we are here simply to do the will of God in the establishment of his kingdom on the earth. In many things, however, we have not lived up to that high and glorious privilege which has been presented to us; we have been careless and indifferent, and it seems as though Satan has been permitted to try and tempt us in every possible way. For a few years past a spirit of greed and covetousness has run through the land and cursed as with a withering blight everything it has touched. It is as bad in its effects upon the mind of man as any pestilence or plague upon the human body. We have begun to run after the things of the world; our hearts, feelings and affections, in many instances, have been estranged from God. It is time that something should transpire to wake us up to a sense of the position we occupy; it is time we realized how God and angels look upon men who are absorbed in the things of this world instead of living up to their professions and the covenants they have made with him.

We have many of us, however, been doing a good work notwithstanding these grievous evils. It is true it is not always smooth sailing. Sometimes we seem when a little difficulty comes along to be struck with amazement, as though something very extraordinary had happened. There is nothing very strange about these things. “What are you doing? What is the position of affairs? What are you going to do? etc.” Those words express the kind of feelings that actuate the minds of the Latter-day Saints. There has been a war ever since the commencement of the world to the present time between the powers of light and the powers of darkness. Adam, we are told, had two sons. One was a covetous man, a wicked man who did not fear God; the other was a righteous man who feared God. The wicked son, who was instigated of the devil, said, I will kill my brother and then I will have his possessions. He did so and it seems that this kind of feeling existed until in a short time that influence had so prevailed that wickedness and corruption made such rapid strides that the world had to be swept as with a besom of destruction, and only a very few men were left. And then it seemed necessary that the same spirit and the same power should continue; and hence a part of this Canaanish seed came through the flood. Why? That there might still be the two powers—the power of light and the power of darkness; the power of God and the power of the devil—that the struggle and warfare among men might still go on, so that man might be made perfect through suffering. Hence the servants of God in the different ages of the world have had to combat with the powers of darkness. John the Revelator speaks of a great company of people whom he saw arrayed in white, singing a new song. And on his inquiring as to who they were, he was told that they were they that had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They were they that had come up through much tribulation, therefore they were next the throne. It is in consonance with the foreordained plan of the Almighty that a man should pass through certain trials and difficulties, and be tested in every possible way, in order to be prepared for an exaltation in the kingdom of God. It was so with Job. He was peculiarly situated. It seems that the devil appeared among the sons of God in heaven, as he does on earth very frequently. When the sons of God were assembled together, the devil was among them, and he went, as it appears, to instigate a feeling against Job. The Lord said to him, “Hast thou considered my servant Job?” “Yes,” said he, “I have considered him.” The Lord said that Job was a perfect and an upright man, etc. “Oh, yes,” said he, “I know all about him. You think that Job is a very good man; but just let me have a rap at him, and I will show what Job will do.” “Well,” says the Lord, “you may try him.” He went to work and concentrated the lightning in one focus and hurled a thunderbolt against his oldest son’s house, where all his children were feasting, and destroyed them. No sooner had the messenger reported the result of this catastrophe to Job than the news came that a certain people—I was going to say “Christians”—had fallen upon his oxen and asses and killed his servants. They called them in those days Sabeans and Chaldeans and Hittites, I think; we call them nowadays Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. They called things by different names in different ages, but they are the same class of people. They went after his camels, his asses, his goats and all his property that they could lay their hands on, leaving him helpless and destitute—and he was, it is said, the richest man of the East. Job, in looking at his changed situation, summed the whole thing up in these few words: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return thither: the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Well, the devil did not succeed that time; but like the lawyers who are after the executors, however, I suppose he thought he would take another shoot—serve some fresh papers. He presented himself before the Lord the second time. And addressing him the Lord said, “Well, what do you think about Job now?” He said his efforts had not succeeded very well as yet; but “skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life; let me lay my hand upon his body and he will curse thee to thy face.” “Well, I put him into your hands, but do not interfere with his life.” The devil then let loose something like smallpox upon him—only it was called by a different name in those days—covering him with boils from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, and he scraped himself with a potsherd wallowing in ashes. And while he was in this condition some of his friends came along for the purpose of sympathizing with him; and after offering a great deal of advice, they came to the conclusion that Job must have been a very wicked man, or such a calamity never could have come upon him. And then, to cap the climax, his wife came along, and in her way says, Job, you are a fool for putting up with all this; you have suffered enough, and were I you I would not stand it any longer. I would curse God and die like a man. Job replied, “You talk like one of the foolish women of old. Have we not received good at the hands of the Lord, and shall we not also receive evil? The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the name of the Lord.” And then he looked around and saw his desolation, stripped of his children and possessions, sick and weary, deserted by friends, laughed at by enemies and upbraided by his wife, afflicted with a loathsome disease, lonely, deserted and desolate, he cried out, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. The lightning may destroy my offspring, the Sabeans and Chaldeans may rob me of my possessions, and Satan may be permitted to lay his hand upon me and smite with this loathsome disease, and although I may be clothed in sackcloth and have to wallow in ashes, and go down into the grave, and worms prey upon this body and crawl and revel in my brain, yet in my flesh shall I see God; I shall see him for myself, and not for another.” Inspired by the spirit of revelation and the power and light of the Holy Ghost, he could say, I know in whom I have believed; and although I do not know—and it matters not—where I may go or where my resting place may be, yet I shall stand in the latter day upon the earth, and shall behold my Redeemer, whom I shall see for myself and not for another. This is the kind of religion he had. But we think it very strange sometimes that we should have a little bother; we think we ought to go along peaceably, having nothing to disturb our equanimity, that everything should move smoothly and pleasantly along until we reach the celestial abode of the Father, to associate with the gods. Some of us would make curious gods, if such were to be our lot; but we may rest satisfied that such will not be our lot. The Lord does not do things in that kind of a way.

When we were traveling abroad preaching to the world, among other things we predicted was that the world would grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Thousands of our Elders have preached among the nations to the effect that God was having a controversy with them; that he would arise and shake terribly the earth and vex the nations sorely. Many of you Elders before me today have proclaimed these things; and you have told the people that empires would be cast down and the kingdoms overthrown and the nations wasted away, but that the work and purposes of God would grow and increase until the kingdoms of this world should become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ. Are you astonished, then, that these things should begin to be fulfilled? Quite a favorite theme has been with many of our elders, that the “little stone” spoken of in the Scriptures has been cut out of the mountain without hands, and it is destined to strike the image whose head was of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet part of iron and part of clay, upon its feet, breaking it to pieces; and that the materials, which represent the various nations of the earth, composing the image should become like the chaff of a summer’s threshingfloor, carried away by the wind until there was no place found for it. This is exactly as it has been foretold many thousands of years ago, and you brethren are perfectly familiar with it from having preached it both to the world and to the Latter-day Saints. When this little stone, then, as it rolls forth, strikes the toes of the great image, are you surprised that there should be a little kicking? You don’t like to have your toes trodden upon any more than anybody else. The fact is, the same great conflict is going on between the two great powers; the only dif– ference is that we are in much better circumstances than many who lived in earlier days who had to wander about in sheep- and goatskins, seeking the dens and caves of rocks as places of retreat and safety. You, my brethren and sisters, do not look today as though you were pushed to such extremes, do you? I think it another kind of spectacle. We are an integral part of this great government of the United States, not a very large part, but a very small part; and we have assumed a species of political importance; and every now and then they get after us without knowing hardly the why or the wherefore. They talk sometimes quite loudly about our corruptions. Why, as I told them some time ago in Salt Lake City, in talking about this matter, there is more wickedness carried on in Washington, where they talk so much about purity, in one day, than there is in these valleys of the mountains in six months, the Gentiles and all thrown in. And yet it is quite important that they should call upon a number of European nations to help them to correct the morals of two hundred thousand people in these far distant mountains. What magnanimity! Well, what about it? Not much. But there is this much about it—that this nation, nor the powers of Europe, nor any other power, can overturn the Church and Kingdom of God that he has established on the earth. It will go on in spite of all the powers of earth and hell. You have heard that prophesied over and over again, and I will prophesy it again today. And every power that lift its hand against the kingdom of God will be wasted away: for God will have a controversy with the nations who oppose his work, and he will manage them in his own way; he will put a hook in their jaws and will lead them whithersoever he will. The wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder he has said he will restrain. Hence I feel a good deal like taking the advice of Jesus: “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

The only fear I have for the Latter-day Saints is that they will not live their religion. And I call upon you here today to lay aside your covetousness, your greed and your avarice, and act honorably and just one with another as your brethren, humble yourselves before God and seek unto him for his guidance, and he will help you, he will bless and sustain you, and he will deliver you. And I say unto the priesthood, be one; for if you are not one you are not of God. No contention, no strife, no backbiting, no hard words; but let us have the love of God dwelling and welling up in our hearts, and extending to all men. But war against evil, corruption and iniquity of every kind, wherever found; stand firm in upholding and maintaining the principles of truth as they have been revealed to us, before high heaven, before all men. We want to be united, and, as Paul says, “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Paul had to maintain the truth as he had received it in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; and we have to do the same, and God will sustain us in our endeavors. But if we are trembly and shaky, our religion is not worth much to us. We have a few among us who say, “Oh, don’t! You’d better take it easy! Keep quiet! You may offend the devil, for what I know. We have a few dollars somewhere, and we are afraid something will disturb them, and the property we have made will go!” Well, let it go; who cares about it? “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” We ought to be governed by correct principles and act wisely and consistently, and treat all men alike. There are a great many who have the idea that there are certain classes that have rights which do not belong to others. I do not know of any such people. We are all the freeborn sons of Zion; we all partake of the holy priesthood, and we all have our rights and privileges with God. We want to act according to correct principle, and be governed by the law of God, not one law for one man and another for another man. But operating together and maintaining one another’s rights upon the pure principles of truth and equity, as they exist in the bosom of God. When the things spoken of referring to the last days shall transpire, righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins, and it will be as was remarked by Brother Richards, and as the Prophet Jeremiah foretold: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” As we adhere to the principles of law, equality, justice and right, and are governed by those principles. The man who is governed by the Spirit of God and lives in the light of revelation, has the law of God written on his heart and it is engraven in his inward parts. He feels as Jesus did about these things. It was said to him on a certain occasion, “Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.” When he said, referring to his disciples, “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister and mother.” That is the kind of feeling. We want to be united in our hearts and feelings: united to each other; united to the holy priesthood, bound together by those indissoluble ties that will unite us in time and through eternity, according to the principles of the everlasting covenant which we have entered into which reaches beyond the veil.

We have a struggle. Some of the “Amalekites” and Hittites are abroad. But who cares? Satan works for a little while, and he will work and no doubt do his utmost as long as he is permitted; and when the time comes for him to be removed, God will remove him. We may struggle as we please and do as we please in regard to these things, but we are all in the hands of God. As has been remarked, it is quite easy for the Lord to handle us in these mountains. He can send grasshoppers if he wants to; he can withhold the snows from coming on our mountains if he wants to, and thus cause drouth in the summer season and he can send the moths to destroy our fruit; all of which we have more or less already experienced. In fact he can do with us just as he pleases and we cannot help ourselves. Our only resource is in him. We want to be right ourselves in our families, every man with himself. Forsake your sins, and cleave unto God. Pay your tithings and your offerings and comply with the laws of God in every particular so that you may feel that you are acceptable before the Almighty, and then teach your families the same thing. Humble yourselves as families before God. You seventies, high priests and elders. Do the same thing as quorums and seek for the guidance and blessing of the Lord. Have you cheated or defrauded anybody? If you have, then make things right, and try forever afterwards to be governed by correct principles. And then let there be perfect union in all the various quorums and among all the people; and let us all say in our hearts and lives, whatever the Lord commands us to do that we will observe and do; and let all Israel do the same, and the devils then may howl and all hell may boil over, but God will preserve his people, he will stand as our shield and buckler and our strong defense.

We have got this kingdom to build up; and it is not a phantom, but a reality. We have to do it, God expects it at our hands. We have got to have—now do not tell anybody for it is a great secret; we have got to have political power. What, will not that be treason? Perhaps so, but no matter; we have got to go on and progress in these things. We have got to establish a government upon the principle of righteousness, justice, truth and equality and not according to the many false notions that exist among men. And then the day is not far distant when this nation will be shaken from center to circumference. And now, you may write it down, any of you, and I will prophesy it in the name of God. And then will be fulfilled that prediction to be found in one of the revelations given through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Those who will not take up their sword to fight against their neighbor must needs flee to Zion for safety. And they will come, saying, we do not know anything of the principles of your religion, but we perceive that you are an honest community; you administer justice and righteousness, and we want to live with you and receive the protection of your laws, but as for your religion we will talk about that some other time. Will we protect such people? Yes, all honorable men. When the people shall have torn to shreds the Constitution of the United States, the Elders of Israel will be found holding it up to the nations of the earth and proclaiming liberty and equal rights to all men, and extending the hand of fellowship to the oppressed of all nations. This is part of the program, and as long as we do what is right and fear God, he will help us and stand by us under all circumstances.

Therefore, Latter-day Saints, fear God; work the works of righteousness; live your religion; keep the commandments and humble yourselves before him; be one, and be united with the holy priesthood and with each other, and I will tell you in the name of God that Zion will rise and shine and the power of God will rest upon her; and her glory will be made manifest, and we will rejoice in the fulness of the blessings of the Gospel of peace; and the work of God will go on and increase until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and every creature in the heaven and on the earth and under the earth will be heard to say, Blessing, and glory, and honor and praise and power, might and majesty and dominion be ascribed to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered at Ephraim, Sanpete County, on Sunday Morning, April 13th, 1879.

I am pleased to have the opportunity of meeting with the brethren and sisters of this place, and of looking at your faces; and I would like to hear more of the brethren speak to you, but I know you want me to talk awhile; and as I have to leave this afternoon I will occupy the time now, and we will leave some of the brethren to preach to you then. I desire your faith and prayers, for we are all dependent upon the Lord; none of us can do or say anything that is good or useful or beneficial to society unless we are under the aid, guidance and control of the Lord. A man cannot speak aright unless he speaks under the inspiration of the Almighty; and then the people cannot hear aright, nor understand aright unless they have a portion of the same Spirit. And hence there was something peculiar in the expression made by Jesus upon this subject. He understood this principle very well, and in speaking on it, says, “My sheep hear my voice, and know me, and follow me; but a stranger they will not follow for they know not the voice of a stranger.” And hence when the elders were sent out to preach the Gospel at first, they were told to go forth and God would go with them, and his Spirit would accompany them and his angels should go before them. The Lord had his sheep scattered all over the face of the earth; and those sheep, when they heard the sound of the Gospel, understood it; there was something that bore testimony to their hearts, which they could not well describe, and that something directed you, my brethren and sisters, to those who brought the everlasting Gospel; and when you heard it you said, “That is true.” And people might say what they pleased, still you believed and felt that it was true. You experienced this feeling, but you could hardly account for it. This was the Spirit that Jesus alluded to when he said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.” He has his own way of accomplishing that object, and it takes time, a great deal of time to do that. But he was not going to drive them nor force them, nor in any way to coerce them; but he would present to their minds such beautiful principles, such lovely sentiments and develop such glorious things among them, that they could not but see and appreciate them, nor could they find them anywhere else. And then when those principles were confirmed by the influence of the holy priesthood through the revelations of God to the people, it produced the effect upon them that we have seen. And hence you have gathered here, left your homes in the old world—the major part of you from Scandinavia. I was one of those brethren that started out in an early day with this message of glad tidings; and Brother Erastus Snow found his way to you folks, while I went to others in a different part of the world, and still others of the brethren hunted up other sheep in other places. What was the result of our preaching? We see it here today; the result is that you have been brought to a knowledge of the truth, and through obedience to the ordinances of the Lord, you have received the Holy Spirit of God, which has led you into the truth, so that you, as did the ancient Saints before you, sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You no longer experience the kind of uncertainty you used to be afflicted with, but you have a certainty, an abiding reality. You do not care to die; that is a matter of very little importance. Jesus said to a woman on a certain occasion, whom he had asked to give him water to drink, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” We have drunk of that stream which makes glad the city of our God. And we want to realize and appreciate the position we occupy before God, and the great blessings and privileges that are within our reach. We have just commenced, as it were, in the great work. We have received a great many precious principles, and have seen and experienced a great many things. But how was it? Simply through a glass, darkly; and we yet, in many instances, see them through a glass, darkly—at least very many of them; and sometimes we can scarcely perceive the difference between ourselves and the rest of mankind, or between the religion we have embraced and that which other people have. If we could only reflect upon it, there is as much difference as there is between light and darkness. But we do not always comprehend these things, and hence we labor under difficulties pertaining to this matter; because we do not see, we do not comprehend the position and relationship that subsists between us and our God. God is our Father; we are his children. He has brought us into his covenant, and it is our privilege to go on from wisdom to wisdom, from intelligence to intelligence, from understanding of one principle to that of another, to go forward and progress in the development of truth until we can comprehend God. For we are his children, we are his sons and daughters, and he is our Father. He has organized this Church in order that we may be educated in the principles of life, that we may comprehend those principles that exist in the bosom of God, that we may be able to teach our children correct principles, in order that we may be placed in a position whereby we can be assimilated into the likeness of our heavenly Father, and have a communication opened between angels and us, that we may feel that we are of the family of God and of the household of faith, and that we can operate with them; and that while part of his family who have lived upon the earth and who live again in another state of existence behind the veil, are operating with him and with the angels of God and with the whole of the Holy Priesthood in developing his purposes in the heavens, that we may be prepared to operate with him on the earth in carrying out his purposes here; that his people may be preserved from the powers of darkness, that the light, intelligence and revelations of God may be upon us, that we may comprehend our true position to him, to each other, to his Church and kingdom, and to the living and the dead; that we may realize the position we occupy in relation to all the various duties and the responsibilities of life. And then after realizing them, magnify our callings, unite ourselves together as the heart of one man under the influences of the Spirit of eternal truth as the family of God upon the earth, and purge out everything from us that is evil, corrupt, low and degrading, and elevate our minds and feelings to a higher standard of intelligence, morality and obedience to his laws, and thus prepare ourselves to carry out the things of God in relation to the earth whereon we dwell, and each of us take a part in bringing to pass his purposes here upon the earth, not by any intelligence we may have; but by the wisdom and intelligence that God shall impart from time to time, until we shall progress in every principle that is calculated to elevate and ennoble mankind, until finally we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known.

We are now gathered together to Zion. For what? To build up Zion, and to accomplish the purposes of the Lord pertaining to the human family upon the earth. And being gathered together we are organized with apostles and prophets, with presidents and their counselors, with bishops and their counselors, with elders, priests, teachers and deacons. We are organized according to the order of God, and these very principles that look small to us emanate from God. We have seventies and high priests, and all these men hold certain positions which it is expected of them that they will fulfill and magnify, here in the flesh, in the interests of truth and righteousness; in the interests of the kingdom of God and in the establishment of correct principles among the Saints of the Most High. We are here to cooperate with God in the salvation of the living, in the redemption of the dead, in the blessings of our ancestors, in the pouring out blessings upon our children; we are here for the purpose of redeeming and regenerating the earth on which we live, and God has placed his authority and his counsels here upon the earth for that purpose, that men may learn to do the will of God on the earth as it is done in heaven. This is the object of our existence; and it is for us to comprehend the position.

For instance, Joseph Smith in the first place was set apart by the Almighty according to the counsels of the gods in the eternal worlds, to introduce the principles of life among the people, of which the Gospel is the grand power and influence, and through which salvation can extend to all peoples, all nations, all kindreds, all tongues and all worlds. It is the principle that brings life and immortality to light, and places us in communication with God. God selected him for that purpose, and he fulfilled his mission and lived honorably and died honorably. I know of what I speak for I was very well acquainted with him and was with him a great deal during his life, and was with him when he died. The principles which he had, placed him in communication with the Lord, and not only with the Lord, but with the ancient apostles and prophets; such men, for instance, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Adam, Seth, Enoch, and Jesus and the Father, and the apostles that lived on this continent as well as those who lived on the Asiastic continent. He seemed to be as familiar with these people as we are with one another. Why? Because he had to introduce a dispensation which was called the dispensation of the fulness of times, and it was known as such by the ancient servants of God. What is meant by the dispensation of the fulness of times? It is a dispensation in which all other dispensations are merged or concentrated. It embraces and embodies all the other dispensations that have existed upon the earth wherein God communicated himself to the human family. Did they have the Aaronic priesthood in former times? Yes. So have we. Did they have the Melchizedek priesthood in former times? Yes. So have we. Did they have a gathering dispensation in former times, when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt? Yes. So have we, just as it was predicted by the prophet Jeremiah: “I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” And what will you do with them when you get them there? “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” We have that dispensation. Moses, when he appeared to Joseph Smith, committed to him “the keys of the dispensation of the gathering of Israel from the four quarters of the earth and the restitution of the ten tribes.” Read it in the Doctrine and Covenants: it is there plainly written. Why are you here today, from Scandinavia and other parts of the world? Because God has, among other dispensations, restored the dispensation of the gathering.

In relation to other matters. Was there a time to transpire that Elijah should come to “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers?” That Elias has come, and has introduced that dispensation; and in that are associated the very things you are engaged in and which we have come to attend to, namely the laying of the foundation stone of the Temple. Now, I will ask, whoever thought of building Temples until God revealed it? Did you? If you did, I wish you would tell us of it. And did you know how to build them? No. And did you know how to administer in them after they were built. No, you did not. We are indebted to the Lord for these things. And when Elijah the prophet appeared to Joseph Smith he committed to him the keys of this dispensation; and hence we are at work building Temples; but some of us hardly know why. We go at it the same as we follow plowing, sowing, planting, reaping and such kinds of pursuits. There are other things behind that. There are ordinances associated behind these things that go back into eternity; and forward unto eternity; that are the offspring of God, that are intended for the welfare, the happiness and exaltation of mankind; for those who are living and those that are dead and for those that will live hereafter, pertaining both to our progenitors and our posterity. And that is one of those keys that have been turned. Do you think that the elders who brought the Gospel to you in far off lands could have gathered you here if they were not the bearers of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if this had not been a gathering dispensation? I think not. As I have said, the elders went to different parts of the earth, for we have preached a great deal. I, myself, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles preaching the Gospel; and without purse or scrip, trusting in the Lord. Did he ever forsake me? Never, no never. I always was provided for, for which I feel to praise God my heavenly Father. I was engaged in his work and he told me that he would sustain me in it; he has been true to his trust, and if I have not been true to mine I hope he will forgive me and help me to do better. But the Lord has been true and faithful, and I have never needed anything to eat or drink or wear, and was never prevented for want of means of traveling where I pleased.

Well, to return. After you received the Gospel and the spirit of the same, the great desire of your hearts was to go to Zion. And in order to accomplish this you put away your little savings and you began to contrive how to dispose of your little properties, and many of you were almost ready to sell yourselves to get to Zion. You could not tell why you had such feelings, but you did have them, and you could not get rid of them until you were brought here. You would not have come here had it not been for that, would you? I have no idea that you would. When you were told to build Temples, what made you build them? Because you had received the Gospel in your hearts, associated with which was the mission of Elijah which was to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children. I wish I could tell it to you as I understand some of these things, and I wish you could understand those principles. Suffice it to say that Satan has tried from the beginning of the world to overturn the works of God, and in some instances he has apparently succeeded admirably. He was the cause at one time of all the people of the earth being destroyed except a little seed which was saved to propagate the human species. Probably the devil would laugh pretty heartily over that, thinking that he had accomplished his purposes. However that was not the end. It is true that the judgments of God overtook them; it is true they were destroyed by a flood in the flesh, and were shut up in prison in the spirit; but it is also true that the same Savior who is our Savior, when he was put to death in the flesh, was quickened by the spirit, and that he visited those spirits in prison, opening up the door of salvation to them that they might be redeemed and come forth and accomplish certain purposes which God had designed; and hence we find the Savior operating among all that body of people that the devil thought were destroyed, but through this visitation were placed within the reach of deliverance. But has Satan prevailed to a great extent? He has. Has darkness spread itself over the earth? Yes. Have people wandered away from God and forsaken him and his laws? They have. But then the Lord will be merciful towards them, they not having received the light that we have, hence he feels towards them as a father feels towards his children, being desirous to promote their happiness as far as it lays in his power; and if he could not save them while in the flesh, he understands certain eternal laws and principles whereby they may hereafter be redeemed. The Judge of all the earth will do right. And while the priesthood behind the veil are operating and preaching to the spirits that are in prison that have been there from the different ages, he called upon us to build temples that we may administer for the bodies of these people that have died without the Gospel, that they may be judged according to men in the flesh and live after God in the spirit. At the commencement of the dispensations he sends out his elders generally to all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature. In this dispensation he not only does this; but as we live in a gathering dispensation, he also gathers in the people, and when they learn a little of his law, there are many ordained to the priesthood and sent out as messengers, and we keep sending them out to preach the Gospel and to gather in the elect; and we send them to their own people to tell them what God has done and is doing. And they keep coming and going. And whom do we send? If we send to England we send Englishmen, or men who can speak the English language; if to Scandinavia, we send Scandinavians: we send generally their own people, accompanied with men of experience, after the Gospel has been introduced to them. Why? That they may go and teach their own people the way of life and salvation. What then? They come back again and build Temples. And what then? They and their people from the various nations of the earth go into these Temples and administer for their fathers, and grandfathers, their uncles and aunts, their friends and relatives, and thus reach back, back into distant times to redeem and save others. And who are these men? Just such as the ancient prophets talked about. They are saviors upon Mount Zion, are they not, saving and redeeming their people—and those men who are quarrying and hauling the rock, and those who are engaged in laying up these terrace and temple walls, and those who are otherwise engaged in making the necessary preparation for the building of the temple are all laboring in the same direction. The Lord requires this work at our hands in order to test us, to see whether we will carry out his laws or not. And when we build our temples and he accepts of them, we will then enter into them and administer in the name of God; and administering in them we become saviors upon Mount Zion, as it is written, “And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” Don’t your Bible read so? The one I have does. Who shall they save? These men become saviors of their own nations; they administer and operate in their interests and in the interests of their fathers and their friends and associates. Hence this is one thing we are engaged in, and is part of the dispensation of the fulness of times.

Then what does one of the prophets say? “Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” And what shall he do? “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” And what shall be done? Saviors shall come up on Mount Zion; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. It is written, they shall all be taught of God, but the kingdom shall be the Lord’s, not man’s. We do not want to lean upon man nor put our trust in man. While we are obedient to every ordinance of man that is proper and right, and which does not conflict with the law of God, while we are obedient to these things we do not want to sell ourselves to the wicked and ungodly. We do not care much about their ways or their theories or ideas. “The Lord,” says one, “shall be our judge, the Lord shall be our king, the Lord shall be our lawgiver and he shall rule over us.” And we, under the inspiration of the Almighty, will introduce the laws of God that exist in the heavens and upon the earth, and form a nucleus of truth, of virtue and intelligence, of law and order, of principles pertaining to morals, to philosophy, to politics, to religion and to everything that is pure, exalting and ennobling, and the kingdom will be the Lord’s. And we will operate together, we will try to frustrate the works of darkness and the powers of the adversary, to save the living and redeem the dead, have our hearts turned towards our fathers who have lived before us who have been ignorant of the principles of life and salvation which God has been pleased to confer upon us, while the brethren behind the veil are feeling after us who are their children. The Lord will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers through Elias who was to come, which if not accomplished, it is written, “the earth would be smitten with a curse.”

Hence we are operating with the ancient patriarchs, apostles, prophets and men of God who lived on the continent of Asia and America, and we will gather together all things in one according to the word of God, gather his Israel in one from the four quarters of the earth and also the ten tribes before we get through; and Judah will listen to the words of life, and the principles of eternal truth will go forth and spread and grow, “until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ; and to him every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Christ is God to the glory of God the Father.” And we are here for that purpose. Do you think we are going to fail? Do you think the Lord is going to back down? I think not. Men may combine against us ignorantly, for many of them are very ignorant. I do not cherish the least feeling of wrath in my heart when I see the courts, legislators or Congress take steps inimical to us. They do not know what they do, hence we should feel charitably disposed to those who seek our injury. David prayed that God would send his enemies to hell quickly. Jesus, when he was being crucified, suffering the pain of a cruel death, said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” I like that prayer much better than the other one. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They are thy children, though in the dark. Thou hast enlightened our minds, for which we feel thankful; but, O Lord, forgive them and lead them, if thou canst, in the way of life. This is the feeling we ought to have. We ought to have it one towards another, and treat one another with kindness and not get up hard feelings. Talking about people giving away to passion and giving expression to hard words; such things do not belong to the Gospel, to no part of it; they come from beneath. This has been pointed out and made very plain to us. Every spirit, says one, that tends to good is of God; and every spirit that tends to evil is of the wicked one and comes from beneath. I hear a man say sometimes, “I hate such a man.” Why, I do not know of a person that I hate in the world. The command is to love one another. When Jesus was about to leave his disciples, the burden of his prayer was, “Father, I pray for these whom thou hast given me; thine they were, and thou gavest them me. I pray for them, Father, that they may be one, even as I and thou art one, that they may be one in us.” What, a sister or a brother, a citizen of the kingdom of God, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one who has received peradventure of the ordinances of the house of God, and who expects to associate with the Saints of God, quarrels with his brother about peanuts and baby toys and then talk about your honor being infringed upon! I tell you if you take care of yourselves, your honor will take care of itself and you need not be concerned about it. Treat one another aright. Have you sinned one against another? Then go and make restitution. Have you defrauded one another? Go and make it right. Have you spoken unkindly to your brother or sister? Then go and acknowledge your wrong and ask to be forgiven, promising to do better in the future. And then he or she might say, on the other hand, “Yes, and I said so and so the other day, won’t you please forgive me?” How much better and how much more in keeping with the calling of a Saint of God such a course would be than to harbor hard feelings in the heart. And you parents, get your families in the morning and evening and call upon the Lord, and ask his blessing upon your families, your flocks and herds, and upon everything that you have, and do not be quarreling one with another because you are scarce of water. I tell you in the name of the Lord God that if you will do your duties, God will do his, and furnish you with what water is necessary. Try me, “and prove me 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.” Husbands, treat your wives right; treat them with kindness and with sympathy; try to make them comfortable, and make their houses and surroundings comfortable and do all you can to make them happy. And you wives, treat your husbands right; try to make their homes a little heaven, and seek earnestly that the blessings of the Lord may abide in your dwellings. And parents, treat your children aright; train them up in the fear of the Lord, they are of more importance to you than many things that you give your attention to. And you, children, obey your parents; respect your fathers and mothers. Your mothers have watched over you, and your fathers are desirous for your welfare, and their hearts and feelings and affections are drawn out towards you. Do not give them pain by departing from correct principles; but walk in the paths of life. And parents, and children, husbands and wives and all people, fear God and put your trust in him and carry out the principles of your holy religion which God has revealed to us.

I would speak a few words of praise of many of our brethren; I think it would apply to many of you here. I have no disposition to find fault, but I have a disposition to speak kindly of many of my brethren and sisters in many of their opera– tions. In the tithing operations, for instance, I think that during the last year there has been paid some 50,000 dollars more than the year before. This speaks well for the Latter-day Saints; not but what the Lord could get along very well without these things, but he wants to test his people. This, however, proves that there is an increase in the right direction, and a proper feeling that ought to exist among the Saints. Hence, says the Lord, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” The Lord wants to prove his people and he will have a tried and proven people, and this is one of the ways he has chosen to do it. In addition to this tithing, there has been expended on this Temple and the Temple in Logan in the neighborhood of 250,000 dollars; this is very creditable, besides a very fair tithing on the back of that. I think I can speak good in the name of the Lord to a people that will do that, that is, if we will lay aside all evil things. Let us keep doing good. You have done about as much here as they have done in Logan, and they expect to get their Temple up to the square this summer. But then they did not have to make the foundation you have had to make here. They made some mistake in fixing up the mountains here; they do not seem to be in a right shape; but then we can put them in a right shape, you know. The scriptures talk about the mountains being thrown down. Well, you have done considerable towards leveling this down. God is pleased with you, and everything is going on right, and I speak this for your encouragement. I am pleased to see the sisters take the part they do in their Relief Societies. They are doing a good work and their labors are a credit to them. And then there are our Young Men’s and our Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Associations; they are going on very well. And then your educational interests are doing pretty well. Do I not so understand you, Brother Petersen? [President Canute Petersen—Yes, Sir; pretty well.] We do not want outside folks to teach our children, do we? I think not. We do not want them to teach us how to get to heaven, do we? If we did, it would be of no use, for they do not know the way. Well, then, we do not want them to tamper with the minds of our little ones. You will see the day that Zion will be as far ahead of the outside world in everything pertaining to learning of every kind as we are today in regard to religious matters. You mark my words, and write them down, and see if they do not come to pass. We are not dependent upon them, but we are upon the Lord. We did not get our priesthood nor our information in regard to his law from them; it came from God. The world profess to know a little about what they call science, literature and the arts. Where did they get their knowledge of these things from? And what is it they really do know? They know something about the laws of Nature. Who made those laws? God made them; and he knows how to govern them; and it is by his almighty power that they are governed.

I remember talking with some celebrated scientists from Europe some time ago, and I explained to them some of the principles relative to the heavenly bodies that were revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith. They were astonished to know that ideas so grand could be developed through one that was comparatively unlearned. One of them remarked that they were the most magnificent principles he had ever heard of; another one said that he had read and studied a great deal, but he had a good deal more yet to learn. We are, as the French would say, en rapport, with God; that is in communication with God. Let us live so that we can keep that up, so that angels can minister to us and the Holy Spirit dwell with us. We have received his guidance and instruction. It is for us now to go on from truth to truth, from intelligence to intelligence and from wisdom to wisdom. And while nations shall crumble and thrones be cast down, and the God of heaven arise and shake terribly the earth, while the elements melt with fervent heat in fulfillment of ancient as well as modern prophecy; while these things are going on he will whisper, peace to Zion. But the judgments will begin at the house of God. We have to pass through some of these things, but it will only be a very little compared with the terrible destruction, the misery and suffering that will overtake the world who are doomed to suffer the wrath of God. It behooves us, as the Saints of God, to stand firm and faithful in the observance of his laws, that we may be worthy of his preserving care and blessing.

Now a word about other things. We want elders to go and preach the Gospel. But some people will say, “Here is such a young man who is a little wild; if he were to go abroad perhaps he would reform.” Brother Peterson, we do not want such folks to go as representatives of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I say to you, Presidents of Stakes, we do not want such an order of things; we want men that have got within them the gift of the Holy Ghost, men who have the gift and power of God in them. We do not want men to go abroad to be reformed. They are not fit to live in Zion if they cannot reform themselves at home. We must have men filled with faith and the Holy Ghost. And you seventies and high priests, wake up to a sense of the responsibility of your callings, and purge away your follies and nonsense and feel that you are indeed the servants of the living God; for God will hold you responsible for the priesthood you bear. Then honor the Lord and magnify the priesthood, and when you go forth to the nations bearing precious seed, angels will go with you and the gift of the Holy Ghost will accompany you in your administrations and though you may go weeping, bearing the precious seed of the Gospel, you will return rejoicing bringing your sheaves with you.

I do not know but what I have talked enough. Brethren and sisters God bless you. And God bless the relief societies and the young men’s and the young ladies’ societies, and God bless your president and his counselors, and your bishops and their counselors, and all that fear God, and work righteousness. And the Lord God put a hook in the jaws of our enemies that seek our injury and overthrow, that they may not have power against the Israel of God. And God bless all Israel, that Zion may arise and shine and the glory of God rest upon her. I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference, Held in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 9, 1879.

It has been very properly remarked that we are becoming a great people; and there are a great many interests of a temporal, as well as spiritual nature, that must necessarily be attended to—in fact it had been so contemplated from the beginning. We talk sometimes of earthly things: at other times we speak of heavenly things. Sometimes we speak of things pertaining to time, and at other times of things pertaining to eternity. We have to do with both or we could not have been here. And being here it is proper we should come to a right understanding in regard to the position we occupy; and especially that we should comprehend our duties relating to our temporal affairs and by acting truthfully, honorably and conscientiously avoid so much annoyance, trouble, litigation and difficulty that so frequently exists. In relation to the Gospel of the Son of God, it gives us information pertaining to our existence and to our general relationship to God and to each other, pointing out our various duties and responsibilities. Associated with it is a priesthood which among other things is to promulgate the will of God to the ends of the earth; it has taught us principles pertaining to our future, both in relation to the living and the dead, relative to the present, past and future. We talk a great deal about our Gospel, about our spiritual affairs; we have our church organized according to certain principles associated therewith. We have a priesthood organization, embracing our Stake organization; we have organizations pertaining to spiritual things, if you may so call them, and also for temporal things, for we have to do both with time and with eternity, both with earthly and with heavenly things, and consequently it is necessary we should be interested in all. When we reflect upon our position, there is something peculiar associated with it. At first the Elders of this Church were told to go forth and preach the Gospel to every creature; then they were instructed to gather together those who believed. According to the Scriptures, “I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” We are gathered together; but being gathered together there is something more than spirituality associated with our existence. We brought our bodies with us when we came, and we necessarily have to eat and drink and to have houses to live in, etc.; in fact, we require the common necessaries of life just as much as any other people. And then, if we have children, as Bishop Hunter says, “there are none of them born with shoes and stockings;” but these things have to be provided. Furthermore, being gathered together, we necessarily form a body politic, if you please, and we cannot help ourselves if we would; but we do not want to. We frame laws according to the usage of the nation we are associated with; for being here and finding ourselves in the territory of the United States, we necessarily have had to organize a government which has assumed a territorial form; and that means a legislature with its enactments and all the various adjuncts of a government. Laws have to be made, officers must be created to execute those laws; and we necessarily become an integral part of these United States, and have to perform all the political functions associated therewith.

These things naturally flow unto us, and they will continue to grow and increase, if it be true what the Scriptures say, and if it be true what many of our brethren have preached to you since the assembling of this Conference. Then it becomes a matter for us to reflect upon that we understand our true position, how we can best sustain ourselves religiously, socially, politically and financially, and among other lessons learn to produce at home those articles we stand in need of.

We have been brought up in the world, and have imbibed many ideas in common with mankind generally pertaining to commerce, trade and manufactures. But we need the inspiration of the Almighty in all of the affairs of life; for we profess emphatically to be the people of God, and as it is with us in our religion so it ought to be with our politics, our trade and manufactures. They ought, in all things, to be subservient to one grand principle, and that is the acknowledgment of God and his laws. Permit me here to state that before the revelations of God to man in these last days, there were no people that had a correct knowledge of God, that we have any knowledge of, anywhere upon the earth. All were without prophecy, without revelation, without a knowledge of the doctrine or ordinances of the Gospel. And to whom are we indebted for a knowledge of these things? Certainly not to ourselves, and as assuredly not to any earthly body or system in existence. We are indebted alone to God for a knowledge of these things; through His revelations made first by himself and by his well beloved Son, and then by the ministering of holy angels, by communication from the heavens to the earth. We are indebted to him for all the light and intelligence we possess in relation to these things. What did we know about the first principles of the Gospel? Nothing. What did we know about the gathering, or about Zion, or about the ordinances of the Gospel or about the holy priesthood? Nothing at all. Nor did we know anything about the building of Temples, or about the mode of administering in them until directed by the Almighty; it was He who revealed the necessity of the construction of those sacred edifices and the mode of administering therein. What does the outside world know about these things? Nothing. And if they had our Temples they could not administer therein. We are indebted to God alone for the light and intelligence we have received.

Again in regard to political matters, where is there a nation today, under the face of the whole heavens that is under the guidance and direction of the Lord in the management of their public affairs? You cannot find one. It is true that the founders of this nation, as a preliminary step for the introduction of more correct principles and that liberty and the rights of man might be recognized, and that all men might become equal before the law of the land, had that great palladium of liberty, the Constitution of the United States, framed. This was the entering wedge for the introduction of a new era, and in it were introduced principles for the birth and organization of a new world. The Prophet Joseph Smith said that “The Constitution of the United States was given by the inspiration of God.” But good, virtuous and holy principles may be perverted by corrupt and wicked men. The Lord was opposed by Satan, Jesus had his Judas, and this nation abounds with traitors who ignore that sacred palladium of liberty and seek to trample it under foot. Joseph Smith said they would do so, and that when deserted by all, the elders of Israel would rally around its shattered fragments and save and preserve it inviolate. But even this, good as it was, was not a perfect instrument; it was one of those stepping stones to a future development in the progress of a man to the intelligence and light, the power and union that God alone can impart to the human family. And while we acknowledge, as citizens of the United States, the laws and institutions thereof (which by the way are very easily complied with), we have a higher law, more noble principles, ideas that are more elevated and expansive; principles that reach to the whole human family, and which he will continue to reveal to us. Does that prevent us from obeying the laws of the land? Certainly not. But then, is that a perfect system? I do not think that many of you will say it is, nor do I think that the people of the United States of any political party will tell you it is. I do not wish to cast any reflections or refer to any events that have taken place; I am merely speaking on religious principles, and principles too in which we as Latter-day Saints are interested. We are united, then, as a body politic, as an integral part of this Government, and it becomes our duty to submit to the laws and institutions of that Government—to all that are constitutional, framed and based upon correct principles, and not in violation of what the fathers of the country instituted.

But have we any higher aim than this? We have. Do any object? If so why should they? Do we in anywise interfere with any man’s rights, Government, or make war upon any parties? No, but we are interested in the preservation of justice, equality and the rights of man in the development of peace, the further establishment of correct, more elevated, refined and exalted principles, in placing ourselves in a position more in accordance with things as they exist in the heavens, for the welfare and happiness of the human family. God has given unto us certain principles which we feel bound to observe. Is there anything wrong in this? I think not. We have all kinds of institutions here in the United States and in other nations, such as Odd Fellows, Free Masons, and others; and they have a right to their ideas and manner of doing things as long as they observe the laws, and so have we, and have a right to be protected also in those rights. But to say we must stand still is a thing not connected with our creed. If others do not desire to accompany or keep pace with us, we must still go on under the guidance of the Lord. As was said of ancient Israel, “The Lord is our God, the Lord is our king, the Lord is our judge; and he shall rule over us,” so we say. We need information and revelation in regard to our religious matters, we also need information, intelligence and revelation in regard to our political, social and all temporal matters. If we humble ourselves and purify ourselves, and magnify our callings as the Elders of Israel, according to the Scriptures, we will yet teach the princes of this world wisdom and their kings know– ledge and understanding; for these things that are spoken of will assuredly come to pass when “out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” The purposes of God shall yet be fulfilled in relation to these matters; God’s work will most assuredly progress, until “the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and he will rule for ever and ever,” not in war, not in confusion and strife and discussions, not in evil and corruption; but in the interests of humanity, according to the laws of life and in accordance with the intelligence that dwells in the bosoms of the Gods, and in the interests of a fallen world.

Now we come to other matters pertaining to our mercantile associations. I might talk further about our social relations, etc., however, these are subjects we hear a good deal about; we are pretty well informed in relation to them. The information we have pertaining to our associations with our wives, and wives with their husbands has been revealed to us by God, and we are striving to carry out those eternal principles—principles that will exalt us, our progenitors and our posterity in the celestial kingdom, where we can enjoy the presence of God and that of the celestial hosts who have gone before.

We come again to our temporal interests. Has the world been our exemplar with regard to any of these things that I have mentioned? No, the Lord has been our teacher, He has been our guide and director; without him we could have accomplished nothing, for we knew no more naturally than anybody else did.

In relation to temporal things. Are we capable, as Latter-day Saints, of fulfilling our destiny on the earth, and procuring a full temporal salvation and sustaining ourselves, on temporal principles without the interposition of the Almighty? I tell you no, we are not, no more than we are in regard to any other things. We read in the Scriptures of a time that is coming when there will be a howling among the merchants in Babylon, for men will not be found to buy their merchandise. This is in accordance with the prediction of John the Revelator. And the gold and the silver and the fine linen, etc., in Babylon will be of no avail. But before that time comes, we as a people must prepare for those events, that we may be able to live and sustain ourselves when in the midst of convulsions that by and by will overtake the nations of the earth, and among others, this nation. The time that is spoken of is not very far distant. “He that will not take up his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee to Zion for safety.” And Zion herself must flee to the God of Israel and hide herself in the shadow of his wing, seeking for his guidance and direction to lead her in the right path, both as regards spiritual and temporal affairs; things social and things political, and everything pertaining to human existence. We are not prepared as a people today for the accomplishment of this object; we need the interposition and guidance of the Almighty. It is just as necessary that we be under his guidance in relation to these matters, as it is in regard to any other matters. Who made the earth? The same being that made the heavens. Who made our bodies? The same being that made our souls; and it takes the “body and the spirit to make the soul of man.” We need not arrogate to ourselves any particular intelligence, whether of mercantile, manufacturing, chemical or scientific nature, for if there is anything good or intelligent, it is the Lord who has imparted it, whether man acknowledge it or not. We want to acknowledge the Lord in all things, temporal as well as spiritual.

I wish now more directly to touch upon some other principles associated therewith. Some of us seem to be very much confused in our minds as to how we shall operate in regard to temporal affairs. We have brought with us the feelings, views and ideas of the people from whence we came, which are conflicting, and which tend to disintegration and division, and lead to covetousness and fraud, which ought not to have an existence among the Saints of God. We have advertisements published in our newspapers by the Latter-day Saints too, things that are infamous, that are untrue, that are a shame and a disgrace among honorable people, and stand as a living lie. The community at large should not countenance such things as we see daily in our papers to attract the attention of the unwary and bring what they call grists to their mill, in the interest of the individual. We as a people are not called together to act in individual interests; we are called together as Saints of God to operate in the interests of the Zion of God, for the welfare of Israel, and not let ourselves float along with the balance, and all swim together, or all sink together. We ought to be governed by principles of union, fellowship and right feeling, carrying out honorable and upright principles that should be acknowledged before God, the holy angels and all honorable men.

Now after speaking so much upon general principles, let me touch upon some things referred to here about these reports, etc. We have long talked about the united order and about cooperation; and we have started in a good deal like some of our little boys when they begin to run—we have made a great many stumbles in this matter. Little Willie and Annie often think they can manage things better than Daddy and Mammy; and we, like them, have assumed to ourselves strength, and the first thing we know are pulling this way, that way and the other. Then, have the institutions been exactly right? No, all kinds of foolishness and all kinds of blunderings have occurred in their administration. But shall we quit? I think not; that is just what the devil would like, just what many of our merchants want, and it would be the very thing that would suit the world, and the devil would laugh at us. What we want to do is to purge out the things that are wrong, and correct them and place them upon a correct basis, and then adhere to them as we would any other part of our religion. In the Church, if a man lies or swears, or commits adultery, or does anything wrong, we deal with him according to the laws of the Church. But because men do wrong, we do not abandon our principles, nor leave the Church, but we turn such individuals out that will not be righted, and we aim to adjust all things and place them on a proper basis. Why not do the same in temporal things? We have, for instance, Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution; it is called the Parent Institution, and it ought to be the parent of all these institutions and act as a father and protector and benefactor, doing all it can to promote the welfare and prosperity of the people. And then the people, on the other hand, ought to protect it and sustain it by doing their busi– ness through that institution and act prudently, wisely, orderly and unitedly in regard to these matters, that we may be one; for our revelations tell us, If we are not one, we are not the Lord’s. And if we are not the Lord’s, whose are we?

We talk sometimes about the United Order. I do not propose to read to you on this occasion from any of the revelations bearing on this subject, but will quote to you in substance from one of them. The Lord has told us that those who would not comply with the requirements connected with this order should have their names erased from the book of the law of God, and their genealogies must not be found on any church records or history, their names shall not be found nor the names of the fathers, nor the names of the children written in the book of the Law of God. These words are to us, Latter-day Saints; they are true and are binding upon us.

Another thing; what did we do when President Young was among us, urging these things upon us? Did we not enter into covenant by rebaptism to be subject to the Priesthood in temporal as well as spiritual things, when we took upon ourselves the obligations of the United Order? Let me ask you, what do we mean by doing this? Is it a mere form, a farce, or do we intend to carry out the covenants we made? I tell you in the name of Israel’s God they will be carried out, and no man can plow around these things, for God has decreed that they shall be accomplished; and any man who sets himself in opposition to these principles which God has established, he will root him out; but the principle itself will not be rooted out, for God will see that it is accomplished. And in the name of Israel’s God we will help him to do it; and all who feel to do it, say amen. (The large congregation responded with a loud, “Amen.”)

We have started cooperative institutions, and I will touch on a principle now, showing how they ought to be governed. God has ordained two priesthoods upon the earth—the Melchizedek and the Aaronic. The Melchizedek presides more especially over the spiritual affairs of the Church, and has done in all ages when it has existed upon the earth. You will find this provided for in the Doctrine and Covenants; you can hunt it up at your leisure, I do not wish to stop to make the quotation now. The Aaronic priesthood is presided over by the presiding bishop. If we had a literal descendant of Aaron he would have a right to preside over the bishopric, and to operate and manage and direct these things without the aid of counselors. In the absence of such men the Lord has directed us to take men from the high priesthood and set them apart to be bishops to administer in temporal things. This Aaronic priesthood is an appendage to the Melchizedek priesthood, and its province is to administer in temporal affairs. One reason why we want men of this class to administer in temporal things is because there is a special provision made for it. Nevertheless, a High Priest that is after the order of Melchizedek may be set apart to administer in temporal things, having a knowledge of them by the Spirit of truth. And before a man attempts to administer in Zion in temporal things, he ought to obtain a knowledge of that spirit of truth to administer according to the intelligence which that spirit of truth imparts. Thus we have the Aaronic priest– hood in its place; the Melchizedek priesthood in its place. And in all the various functions it is necessary to enter into all the various organizations. It is on one or two particular points that I wish to speak now.

In the first place the Lord requires certain things to be done to meet his approbation; and everything has to be done under the direction of the presidency of the Twelve, both temporal things and spiritual things. The bishops and the presidents of Stakes and all the officers in the Church of God are subject to this authority and they cannot get around it. And when any officer of this Church who by virtue of his calling does things without counseling with the proper authorities of the Church, he takes upon himself things that he has no right to do, and such a course cannot be acceptable before God and the Priesthood.

Now then, we come to the bishopric. Ought the bishops to be consulted in regard to temporal things? Yes, they ought. And as an example, let me tell you that for the last year Bishop Hunter has associated with the Council of the Twelve whenever they have met to consider temporal matters. And I may say we have been pleased to have his company, because it was his place to understand the position of temporal things, that we may know his feelings, and counsel with him and he with us, that everything may be done according to the order and laws of God, that there may be perfect unanimity. With this view he was placed as one of the counselors to the Trustee-in-Trust—because the Trustee-in-Trust thought it belonged to him to hold that position, and thinks so today. But then, does he preside over the Melchizedek Priesthood? No, he does not. Who and what is he? A high priest ordained and set apart to the bishopric. By whom? The Presidency. Does he control the Presidency? No, he is set apart by them; as bishop he is an appendage to the higher priesthood, and does not control it. No man controls it. I remember a remark made on one occasion by Joseph Smith, in speaking with Bishop Partridge, who was then Bishop. He was a splendid good man, as Bishop Hunter is. But he got some crooked ideas into his head; he thought he ought to manage some things irrespective of Joseph, which caused Joseph to speak rather sharply to him. Joseph said, I wish you to understand that I am President of this Church, and I am your president, and I preside over you and all your affairs. Is that correct doctrine? Yes. It was true then and it is true today.

Well, it is necessary that we should have an understanding of these things, that we may make no mistakes in our administration. I want, then, in all our operations to confer with our bishops. And if this institution of ours is “Zion’s Cooperative,” then it should be under the direction of Zion, under the direction of the Priesthood; and if it is not “Zion’s Cooperative,” then it is a living lie. But do we wish to interfere with them? No, we do not. Do we wish to interrupt them in any of their operations? No, we want to help them; we want to unite them and all the people into one, with God at our head, governed by the holy priesthood. Have they rights? Yes. Do we respect them? Yes. Have the people rights? Yes. Shall the people be respected in their rights? Yes, they shall, all the people in all the Stakes; and while we sustain them they must sustain us; and if they expect to have our support, they must give us theirs.

Having said so much, I will tell you that I believe sincerely that the men managing our Cooperative Institution are doing just as well as they know how. And I will state further, that I don’t know of any persons in this community who know how better than they do. And I have been now for some time associated with them, and am acquainted with their proceedings.

There are other principles besides this; we want to learn to manufacture our own goods. And while on the one hand we use the best talent and financial ability we can get to attend to our mercantile institutions; on the other hand, we need to cherish a spirit to encourage home manufactures of every kind, and we want to get this institution to help us do it. If we manufacture cloths and boots and shoes or anything else, we want the institution to dispose of our goods. If we need encouragement in regard to the introduction of any manufactures of any kind, we want them to help us, and we have a right to expect this of them so far as is wise, prudent and legitimate. I will state that the directors of Z. C. M. I. feel interested in the very things that I am talking about, and I say it to their credit and for your satisfaction. I do not think there is an institution in the United States in a better condition than that is today; and it is improving all the time, not after any fictitious manner, but on a solid, firm, reliable basis. Now then, I have proposed to these brethren, which they quite coincide with, that when they shall be able to pay a certain amount as dividends on the means invested, after reserving a sufficient amount to preserve the institution intact against any sudden emergency that may arise, which is proper among all wise and intelligent men, that then the profits of the institution outside of this, should be appropriated for the development of the home manufactures, the making of machinery, the introduction of self-sustaining principles and the building up of the Territory generally, and they acquiesced in this feeling; and I say it to their honor and credit. And I will tell you again that the Church has got a large interest in that institution, consequently we wish to see everything go aright, not on any wild erratic principle, but on a solid, firm, reliable basis, that can be carried out and that will elicit the admiration and confidence of all good and honorable men.

Sometimes little difficulties have arisen outside through interested individuals who have resorted to a good deal of trickery; other times perhaps from just causes. And I will say too that complaints have been made that we have not sufficiently sustained our home manufactures. I will say however that the Institution has stood in a very delicate position. We have been struggling with the financial crisis that has cast a gloom over all this nation for the last number of years—since 1873. But we are now getting into a solid, firm position, and when we declared 3 percent for the six months dividend, it was because the Institution was able to do so. And when we are able to extend this a little farther we will be quite willing to do so.

Some of the complaints that have been made against the institution we have heard; and we have thought best to have a board and refer to that board any complaints that might be made from any part of the Territory. This board that has been temporarily organized has given us these various reports which have been read in your hearing, which indicate their views and feelings in regard to these things. We wish a board of that kind to be organized upon a correct basis according to the order of this Church and Kingdom of God; and then as the people throughout the Territory send to purchase their goods from them, let the people that make these purchases be represented; and if there is anything not straight in their operations let them be made straight. And this is what this committee is for, that the people may be protected as well as the Institution.

Then Stake organizations are recommended, with a representative from each Stake at the general or central board, and it will make it much more pleasant for the management of that Institution to have a criticism of that kind. And it will also tend to allay many of these foolish things which are frequently put in circulation in different parts of the Territory. The object then, of this Board is that the people may be represented, and that Zion’s Cooperative may also be properly represented, that it may serve as a balance wheel to adjust and correct any matters of difficulty that may arise.

I am happy to say that in many parts of the Territory they are introducing the manufacture of leather and boots and shoes and a variety of other articles. And suffice it to say that, according to these reports, the Parent Institution has sustained the manufacturers of these homemade articles quite liberally; and we want it to be in that position that everything we use can be bought there. This is, too, the feeling in relation to this matter. And when we get things into a proper fix we will pull with a long pull and a strong pull and a pull altogether. We will strive to be one; and if we cannot go so far as to sustain cooperation in regard to these things, how in the name of common sense are we ever going into the United Order? But we will begin with this, and then cooperate in all the different Stakes, not only in your merchandising, but in your manufacturing affairs and in your producing affairs; and in everything it will be the duty of this general Board of Trade to regulate the interests of the whole community, honestly and faithfully, at least we will do it according to the best ability we have; and if there should any mistakes arise, we will try to correct them; if they are on the part of the people, we will talk to them about it, if on the part of the institution, we will talk to its management about it. And we will keep working and operating until we succeed in introducing and establishing these things that God has desired, and until Zion shall be a united people and the glory of all the earth.

God bless you and lead you in the path of life, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Erastus Snow, delivered at Brigham City, on Sunday Morning, October, 1879.

I feel somewhat weary in body from the effects of labor and infirmities; and were I to consult my own feelings I would be inclined to waive this privilege, and sit and listen to my brethren. Indeed, I may say I rather counted upon a rest in coming to Brigham City; yet I never allow myself to shrink from bearing that portion that properly attaches me in life to the calling and duties devolving upon me. I feel that we are all here in a school, that we have a work to perform; and if when we shall have done that work we shall be satisfied with it, we will not regret having worn ourselves out in accomplishing it. But on the contrary we shall rejoice at our success in having got safely through and entered into the “rest” which is prepared for the people of God in the future state. This is a scriptural phrase, implying that there is a rest beyond for the people of God. But I have sometimes thought that strictly speaking rest was only a change, and that a change was rest; because to be absolutely at rest, to be entirely free from labor and care would be inconsistent with our existence; in such a condition our being would be a blank, a nonentity. The course of God, we are told by the prophet Nephi, is one eternal round; that like eternity, it has neither beginning nor end, and is illustrated in the Book of Abraham by the hieroglyphic of the circle. You may start upon this ring at any given point, and in traversing it you will come to the same point—it is without beginning, without end.

We sometimes speak of eternity in contradistinction to time; and often say, “through time and into eternity;” and again “from eternity to eternity,” which is simply another form of expressing the same idea, and “pass through time into eternity.” In other words, time is a short period allotted to man in his probationary state—and we use the word time in contradistinction to the word eternity, merely for the accommodation of man in his finite sphere, that we may comprehend and learn to measure periods. And for this purpose the Lord gave unto Adam his reckoning after the move– ments of the planets, which would appear to him stationary, or at least comparatively so, making a suitable standard by which man in his mortal state may measure periods and count out the days and the months and the years and the cycles.

The Scriptures speak of a time “when time shall be no more.” And the Apostle John in his visions, while banished to the Isle of Patmos, heard the angel say, “time shall be no more.” We may not fully comprehend the meaning and the purport of this expression. All phrases or expressions whether used by men, angels or God have a relative meaning, as one thing is compared with another; and to understand the full force of them, we must understand that to which it has reference by comparison. I simply understand by this, that so far as we are concerned, time will be no more when we shall be merged into eternity, and we cease to reckon our periods by the diurnal revolutions of the earth, and the changes of the moon, etc.; when we shall enter into a sphere where we can mingle with the gods and become acquainted with their reckoning, and the eternal periods or cycles of revolutions of numberless creations in space, which today the most profound astronomers of the earth are unable to fathom or mark their place of beginning. And this is called eternity by man, and, as far as man is concerned, is in contradistinction to other periods and modes of reckoning known and in use among the Gods. For they have their periods and reckoning as well as we, only on a vast and, to us, incomprehensible scale. We are in a state of progression, very small beginnings, but onward and upward for a more exalted sphere, in which they move. But I conceive of no stopping place; I conceive of no absolute resting place, but only, as before remarked, a change, a change in our circumstances and conditions, and consequently a change in our labors.

I speak now of man as an immortal being, having no reference to this earthly house of our tabernacles; for this mortal house which we occupy for the period of a few short years upon the earth, will not be associated with the immortal man—the god in embryo. The clothing we wear covers the nakedness of the body; it answers a good purpose for a little season—until it becomes worn out, when it is cast aside as of no further use for that purpose. So with the outer house of our tabernacles. This mortality serves the purposes intended for a few short years until it is worn out with use, like the farmer’s agricultural implements, like the machinist’s or mechanic’s tools, or any other piece of machinery—for the human body is one of the finest and most perfect pieces of machinery known upon the earth; there is none superior. Indeed, most of the mechanism employed by men in various branches of industry is founded on the anatomical structure of the human body; the angles, the joints, the tendrils, the cords by which they are bound together; the wonderful construction not only of the outer portions of the body, but the very fine mechanism of the nervous system, and also that of the eye, the ear, and of the means of sensation, and that by which knowledge is communicated from one part of the body to the other. If the finger be abused or injured, a telegraphic communication is made to the seat of knowledge—the government of the body; conveying the information that a finger is in danger; and wherever pain is felt, in whatever part of the body, it is but the ringing of the bell of alarm, living notice of a hostile attack, and to make preparations for defense, lest the enemy making the assault take possession of the citadel and destroy it. The wonderful mechanism of the nervous system, through which the spirit makes its impressions upon the body, is, as it were, an intermediate organism between the fine spiritual body and the coarser elements of our tabernacles. And those who have given the most time and study to this wonderful machine are led to fully appreciate and endorse the saying of the Psalmist, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Its adaptability to the uses and purposes intended, with its remarkable endurance when suitably guarded and protected against disease and what we term accident, is in itself sufficient to call forth the admiration of all intelligent beings. We look upon an aged person, say, 70, 80, 90 or 100 years old, and realize that there is a machine, a mechanical structure—shall we call it a model representing perpetual motion? Not exactly, but a machine that has been in motion say, 100 years; a double action pump that has been constantly going, distributing the fluids of the system by way of keeping up a constant circulation of the blood; sometimes working very hard to remove obstructions arising from colds and other causes to keep the channels from becoming stopped up, and at other times working slowly. And the functions of the body are ofttimes kept in such constant use for such a period of time without the touch of the mechanic to repair a break unless it may, perchance, be the surgeon’s saw to remove a disabled limb that threatens to encumber the whole body, or the tying up of a broken artery to prevent the escape of the vital fluid. But otherwise the most skillful physician is unable to make a single repair or improve any part or portion of it; and the most he can do is to give something to be taken into the stomach to effect a chemical change on the fluids of the system, to neutralize perhaps an excess of the acids, thus working a change in the quality of the blood, and consequently a change in the deposits that are being made in all parts of the system by the circulation of this fluid. But this wonderful machine is kept in motion by what power? We say it is the power of God; we say it is in Him we live and move and have our being. And, yet, He always works through means, all His wonderful works being performed by agents; but He is not confined to one agent nor any special method in performing His works. But there is a spirit in this earthly tabernacle of ours that is relative to our Father and God, and who is the owner of this tabernacle, and for whom the tabernacle is organized as his dwelling house. It is this spirit that keeps the functions of this tabernacle in motion; when this spirit leaves the body, it is either because the Father calls it away, wishing to use it in another sphere, considering the time it has spent in this tabernacle sufficient for the purposes required, and therefore takes it to a higher school, through special design to do a special work; or it may be, it has used its tabernacle until it is so worn out that it has become like a bow which has been long and constantly bent—it has lost its elasticity; its bones impaired in strength, its muscles stiffened, and the whole frame ready, like our old clothes, to be thrown aside; and the spirit comes to the conclusion that it has had its run with this old tabernacle and that it is time this old garment were laid aside for a new one. Our Father comes to this conclusion and gives the spirit a ticket of leave, and removes it into another sphere. But this is all necessary as a school for us. The various pains and sorrows to be endured in life are all necessary in their time and place; the trials as we term them, are all necessary in their place, they are all a part of the scheme of education or training to prepare us for the future. One of the sacred writers, in speaking of Jesus, said: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” And again: “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.” It is measured out to you and me in the providence of the Lord; but for him there was a storehouse to draw upon, as it were, without measure. He could continue to heal the sick and raise the dead and perform great and marvelous things, and yet the supply of vitality was not in the least abated. Mortals less gifted and less favored who should be the means of healing many sick by the power of God, would feel that in taking their infirmities upon them, they were sinking under the weight, and would want to hie themselves away to rest and recuperate their exhausted frames. Jesus was an exception in this respect; he took upon himself our infirmities and bore our sickness, as had been predicted by Isaiah the prophet. He truly did heal the sick wherever he went; and some found that if they could even touch the hem of his garment the disease from which they suffered could be rebuked; and one instance is given where this was done, in which case we are told, virtue went out of him. But notwithstanding the great burden that he bore, together with the vast amount of vitality that was at various times communicated from him to others, he did not faint under the load; his mortality did not give way. But no man, unsupported as he was, could have done it without sinking under this weight; none other could have grappled with devils and cast them out of individuals and held them at bay, as he did, without suffering from bodily exhaustion, and therefore had to seek retirement and rest. He, however, waged war constantly, and was well prepared for this work, having an inexhaustible source of strength to draw from, the Spirit having been given to him without measure. But at length the time came when the Father said, You must succumb, you must be made the offering. And at this dark hour the power of the Father withdrew itself measurably from him, and he was left to be taken by his enemies, and, like a lamb, was led to the slaughter, but he opened not his mouth, because his hour had come. And when he was led to exclaim in his last agony upon the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Father did not deign to answer; the time had not yet come to explain it and tell him. But after a little, when he passed the ordeal, made the sacrifice, and by the power of God was raised from the dead, then all was clear, all was explained and comprehended fully. It was necessary that the Father should thus measurably forsake his Son, leaving him to his enemies, otherwise they never could have fulfilled what had been prophesied concerning him. So we may say with others, it is only a sample for us to reflect upon, that may be equally applicable to us all in our times and seasons.

It is not necessary, in the providence of God, that we should all be martyrs; it is not necessary that all should suffer death upon the cross, because it was the will of the Father that Jesus should so suffer, neither is it necessary that all the Saints of this last dispensation should perish because our prophet perished, but yet it may be necessary that some should, that a sufficient number of faithful witnesses of God and of his Christ should suffer, and even perish by the hands of their enemies, to prove and show unto the world—the unbelieving and unthinking—that their testimony is true, and that they are ready not only to bear testimony in word, but in deed, to sustain and honor their testimony through their lives; and also in their death; and greater love than this no man can have for his friend or for his bosom companion, not even David and Jonathan, whose love for each other is said to have surpassed the love of woman. No one can give a stronger assurance of his devotion to the principles he has received and which he teaches to his fellow man, than to patiently endure suffering, for their sake, and, if need be, to continue that suffering and endurance even unto death.

In the economy of heaven, it has been deemed necessary, at various periods of the world’s history, that such witnesses of Christ should suffer death for their testimony’s sake, and that others may yet have to suffer in our own time is probable. Nay, the Scriptures give us clearly to understand that such will be the case, that more or less will suffer, but to what extent the servants of the Lord may be called upon to thus suffer is not given us to know, nor is it necessary we should. For what difference does it make when we have performed a good work or so far completed it that the Lord accepts of it and is willing for us to pass behind the veil, and perhaps gives his consent whether we go by a bullet or through violence at the hands of our enemies, or whether it be by a lingering sickness? In most cases the former would be preferable, so far as we are personally concerned, for in such the pain and suffering would be slight, although it would be calculated to shock the sensibilities of living friends who would mourn over us.

In philosophizing upon these things, I scarcely have a tremor or thought or care in relation to the death I may suffer, or when it shall come, or how it shall come. It matters not when or where or under what circumstances it may be, my feeling is as it always has been—it will be all right. I take no more thought or care of this matter that the infant child does about the preparation of its food. The Lord cares for us and such matters, and will order them in their time and season.

But there is a principle involved. When a man is faced by his enemies, when the wicked conspire against the righteous, threatening death and destruction if he does not turn truant and deny our God and obey their behests; all this is calculated to try the faith of the people and put them to the test, as to whether they have more confidence in God and his promises, than in his Satanic majesty and the host of his servants upon the earth, who in many instances offer them what they have not power to give. They remind me of the devil when he took the Savior into a high mountain and showed him all the riches of the earth, promising to give him all he could see if he would only fall down and worship him. The Savior re– plied: “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” He did not revile him by telling the poor devil that he did not own anything, that he had not the power to give what he proposed to; but merely quoted the Scripture referred to, which was applicable and suitable for the occasion. And I for one propose to obey the command; and this is all we need say to our enemies when they place us in similar circumstances. They may say, “you are a very great people in your way; you are a very economical and frugal people in your way, and are predisposed to be peaceful. You have redeemed the desert from sterility, and built up fine homes, and made roads, railroads, and telegraph lines, and you possess all the elements and natural advantages calculated to make a people prosperous and happy, and a nation great; and there are many good things to commend in you. But then, you have one evil existing and encouraged among you which we deplore and which we are desirous and determined to eradicate. Now, if you will renounce that and cast it from you, we will give you the right hand of fellowship and be friends, and all the fullness of the earth is yours; and we will welcome your delegate, your representatives and your senators to Congress, and we will give them a seat by our side, and we will even call off our dogs of war, and withdraw our governor, and judges and marshals and attorneys whom we send to harass you, and also the little cur dogs that follow along barking at your heels; we will call them off, and let you possess the earth in peace if you will only deny your principles and lay aside those which we pronounce to be evil, and fall down and worship God as we do.” Whether we will be true in all these things; whether we have the same confidence in God, the God we serve, who has led us all our lives and been true to us in all conditions and circumstances, and to the promises made to us up to the present time; whether we will still trust in him, and face the cannon’s mouth, if need be, or face death in any form it may come, or imprisonment, if that form of treatment is preferred, or anything that they have power to inflict upon us, rather than deny our God. “How far will they go,” says one? I answer, just as far as our Father permits them, and no farther. He has set bounds to the waves of the ocean and he has also set bounds to the wrath of the wicked. He controls the elements that war in the heavens—the fearful thunderstorm—that darkens the firmament and that shakes the earth with its roar, the vivid lightnings that add terror to the scene, the tumultuous waves that leap and dash in the fury of the gale, and the earthquake that bellows forth its lurid flames, which make men tremble at the gaze. But He speaks, and all is still; the thunders are hushed, the clouds dispersed, the lightnings cease and the belching of the earthquake is heard no more; all is peace and quiet. So with the wrath of man and of nations that may be heard raging in the midst of the wicked, under the control of the prince and power of the air, who works and controls in the midst of discordant kings and rulers who array themselves against each other. Nations are at loggerheads, and war is proclaimed; the energies of war are set in array, and misery and death stalk in their wake. And again by some slight means, the Lord changes the fate of nations and turns the fortunes of war, and changes the tide of events, and all human calculations fail. He causes some angel of his to put some obstruction in the way of the march of some general and his army so that he arrives, perhaps, at the scene of battle five minutes too late; he causes a chariot wheel to fall off or some slight accident to happen to an engine of destruction, and the best calculations of the shrewdest officer and the proudest king fail and their works come to nought. He sets up and pulls down men and nations at his pleasure. He did this in the case of the first great and proud monarch of the world—the King of Babylon who swayed universal scepter upon the earth. He was a strong-minded, and strong-willed and haughty monarch; but God taught him by an extraordinary and humiliating experience to know that the Lord, the Most High God rules in the heavens and also controls the affairs of men as it pleases him. And his bitter experience God caused to be written as a warning to kings and rulers and the great ones of the earth; and they are lessons of warning equally appropriate to every human soul.

I have occupied more time than I intended or thought I could. I pray God to bless us in all our labors, that union, peace and love may abide in your midst and in your habitations, and that prosperity may attend you in your business, that the difficulties which annoy you and impede your progress may be removed and the dark clouds that today seem to hang over your heads, be dispersed and the genial warmth of the sun’s rays again be felt among you, that the hearts of the Saints may be cheered, and those who feel the weight and responsibility of carrying on the work you have so nobly undertaken, be encouraged and relieved from any apprehensions they might have felt in consequence of the misfortunes and losses you have recently sustained, which may God grant, in the name of Jesus. Amen.