Discourse by Apostle Erastus Snow, delivered at the General Conference, Salt Lake City, Friday Afternoon, April 7, 1882.

I regard the mission of the Latter-day Saints as the most important that has fallen to the lot of man because we, as the people of God, live in the most important period of the world’s age—the dispensation of the fulness of times, in which the God of heaven has set his hand a second time to recover his people, the house of Israel; to lay the foun– dation of the fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers through Moses and the Prophets, and to bring to pass the covenants made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and those made with Joseph the son of Jacob, concerning his seed. The Book of Mormon gives a brief history of a portion of the house of Joseph who came to this land from Palestine, their native land; and, it not only gives an account of this people but it foretells their future. A great future lies before this people in connection with the Latter-day work.

Our mission is not a mission of blood; it is not a mission of war, of strife or contention, but a mission of peace on earth and good will to men; a mission to bring life and salvation unto the children of men who will receive it; a mission to make known the things that God has revealed for the happiness, glory and exaltation of his children, both in this world and the world to come. And what God has revealed to us, which we call our religion, is not only theoretical but eminently practiced. It could not be otherwise and be the Gospel of life and salvation. A religion that is exclusively theoretical, that is merely a matter of faith producing no legitimate works or fruits of that faith is dead. There are many dead forms of religion in the world; and as a matter of course they are without force and effect. But the Gospel of the Son of God revealed anew from heaven in our age and time, and which his people have espoused, is a living faith, producing in its votaries its legitimate fruits—love, joy, peace and good works. I am sorry to say, however, that we are not all examples of that living faith to the extent that God requires at our hands. In this respect it is with us as it was with others who preceded us; some of the seed lies fallen by the way side, producing little effect in them that received it; some has fallen in stony places, and as anciently, such rejoice for the time being, but alas! when tribulation or persecution arises, they having not much depth of soil, are easily uprooted. Some again has fallen among thorns, and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But blessed are those who break up the fallow ground of their hearts, thereby preparing themselves by suitable reflection, meditation, humility and prayer, overcoming the evil that is in them by the good, that the seed when sown, may take deep root and spring forth and bear precious fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred fold, according to the depth of the soil and the strength and cultivation of the mind.

I said our religion was eminently practical, as true religion cannot be separated from true practice. It teaches us to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world; it teaches charity and love one toward another, and to assist to bear each other’s burdens, and be one in Christ Jesus. Just before the Savior was offered up upon the cross he prayed to his Father in behalf of his disciples and those who should believe on him through their ministrations, that they might be one with him as he was one with the Father.

Now it is quite a fine thing in the estimation of the Christian world to preach about Jesus and his doctrines; but when it comes to practice it is quite another thing. One of the main objects of the Latter-day Saints is to become united, both spiritually and temporally. The clergymen of America who have been foremost in working up the late furor against the “Mormon” people, who have met in solemn conclave and dictated resolutions and gotten up memorials to Congress, and who have traveled and visited the noted cities as lecturers, among whom may be mentioned the celebrated Parson Newman and the celebrated—what shall I say?—well, Mr. Schuylar Colfax, and others, have aroused the nation and moved the members of Congress to hostile legislation against the Latter-day Saints. Their general declaration has been that polygamy—though polygamy was the war-cry—was not to be dreaded like “Mormon” unity. They term it priestly influence, or the influence of the “Mormon” hierarchy. In reflecting upon this declaration which was freely expressed on numerous occasions during last winter and spring, in the tirades made against the Latter-day Saints, it has caused some curious reflections. What would have been the result if the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Baptists and all the prominent denominations of America, had been true disciples of Christ, and had come under that rule laid down in the Savior’s prayer—if they had all become one in Christ as he was one with the Father? What would have been the result? Methinks things would be very different in the history of American government from what we now see. We will refer, for example, to the condition of things prior to the late civil war, and about the time the republican party incorporated in their platform at the Philadelphia convention in 1856, the celebrated plank known as the twin relics—in which they pledged themselves to exterminate the twin relics, slavery and polygamy. What was the condition of the religious sects of America at that time? Those who are familiar with the history of those times will remember that preparatory to that great struggle which resulted in the great civil war, there had been a complete separation and two distinct organizations of all the prominent sects of America. The Methodist church was divided into the Methodist church north and the Methodist church south; the Presbyterians were divided into the Presbyterian Church north and the Presbyterian church south; the Baptists, the Campbellites and the other various sects were divided in like manner, the Mason and Dickson line, as it was called, was the line of division between the churches north and the churches south; and substantially the same line marked the boundary between the southern confederacy and northern. States during the war, for the division commenced in the churches, and it was the various religious sects of America that worked up the war. They divided one against another, and brought on the war. And when the Northern and Southern armies were marching against and slaying each other by hundreds of thousands, every regiment and division of the army on both sides were encouraged by the prayers and preaching of their respective chaplains of the various sects on both sides, each praying for the success of their arms, that each side might succeed in using up the opposite side.

Now imagine them, for a moment, to be the true disciples of Christ, Ministers of the true and everlasting Gospel holding power and authority from him. What would have been the result if the Lord had heard the prayers of the religious elements of these two contending parties? The only thing we can think of as expressing the idea, is the old fable of the Kilkenny cats, which, it is said, fought each other and devoured each other all but the tails, and they began to jump at each other. From the results one would suppose that the Lord heard the prayers on both sides to a con– siderable extent. But it is too serious a matter to be treated in a jocose style. And, yet, one can hardly resist the temptation, it is so ludicrous to see people professing the same holy religion, to be followers of the meek and lowly Jesus and his righteousness, and preachers of his Gospel arrayed on each side, stirring up the people to war, urging them on, and praying to the same God for the success of each others’ arms. Now, I ask, is this an ensample of Christian unity such as the Savior prayed for, when he asked the Father that all that should believe on him through the words of his disciples might become one even as he and the Father were one?

The Latter-day Saints, as I have before remarked, are far from being as yet what the Lord requires them to be. But that spirit which accompanies the fulness of the Gospel, and which the Latter-day Saints have received through the preaching of the Gospel and through obedience to its requirements, has so far made their hearts as one, causing them to see eye to eye, and to gather together upon this land of Joseph, that they might learn more fully the ways of the Lord and walk in his paths, and cultivate the Christian unity which the Savior prayed for. And this appears to be the head and front of our offending. Polygamy is ostensibly the cry; but what reflecting man that is posted in the history of the times, believes that this has a particle of influence upon our statesmen? They admit, according to their own showing, that there is more immorality, depravity, whoredom, and the terrible consequences of the social evil in one of the great cities of the Union in a single year than has been in Utah ever since it has been founded. They know this full well. They know that we are a people of energy, of industry and honest labor, a people who do not labor with a view and desire to build ourselves up at the expense and ruin of our neighbors; but a people who labor to gather from the elements around us, producing the comforts of life for ourselves and families. They recognize in us a people who have planted a flourishing commonwealth in the heart of the great American desert, and made it possible to populate the surrounding Territories.

In 1847, the standard of the American nation was planted on this Temple block. I assisted in planting it; and many around me today participated in those early scenes. At the same time the country lying west of the Sierra Nevada and between it and the Pacific Coast, was held under the American flag by the Mormon Battalion, who under General Kearney captured the State of California from the Mexican government and held it for the United States government until this country was ceded to the United States by treaty on the 22nd of February, 1848. The stars and stripes were planted between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevadas west by “Mormon” colonies, and west to the Pacific coast by the “Mormon Battalion,” and, the country held for the American government. We proceeded to the establishment and organization of civil government. This great basin country between the mountains was incorporated into the State of Deseret, a provisional government was organized for the State of Deseret, a republican constitution was framed and adopted by the people; the country was divided into counties and precincts, local government was organized, laws adopted and delegates sent to Congress to ask for admission into the Union. At the same time the gold hunters were flocking to California after the “Mormon Battalion” revealed the first gold which they brought to light while dragging Captain Sutter’s mill race. Some of the men are still in our midst who brought about these results, who first revealed to the astonished world the gold of California, and who raised the first furor, which resulted in thousands flocking to the Pacific coast. And mark you, the first colony of settlers upon that Pacific coast after the capture of that country through the valor of the “Mormon Battalion,” was a “Mormon” colony shipped from the New England States, who took with them a printing press, and planted their feet upon the shores of San Francisco, and there issued the California Star, in 1847, which was the first publication in the English language west of the Rocky Mountains—the first free press hailing the American flag and proclaiming American liberty, the principles of free government; and at the same time we planted a free press in this city, whence was issued the DESERET NEWS, proclaiming those principles to all the world.

Both California and Deseret presented themselves at the same time, through their delegates, knocking at the door of Congress, praying for admission into the Union. The prayer of California was accepted; that of Deseret was rejected.

Jesus had occasion to ask this question of the Jews: If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will ye give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? It might ill become me perhaps, to apply these words to our national government; but the facts are that when we presented ourselves as the State of Deseret, precisely on equal footing with that of California, with equally a democratic government and republican constitution, both of which States had been organized out of the old Mexican States of Upper California, and which had been recently captured from the Mexican government, and presented themselves to Congress on equal footing; one was accepted, the other rejected. Instead of granting to Deseret a State government, Congress gave us a territorial form of government under the Organic act of 1850. It is true it extended to us certain rights of self-government, but to a limited extent. We had the right of representation in the Legislative Assembly, but those rights were clipped by the absolute veto of a Federal Governor; nor, indeed, is the absolute veto of a Federal Governor the only veto held over the Territorial Legislature, Congress itself reserving to itself a right to annul the acts of the Legislative Assembly, though receiving the signature of the Governor. But if the Governor chooses to withhold his signature no matter how wholesome or necessary the measure, it cannot become law, nor would he be, under the Organic Act, required to assign any reason for it. The mere whim of a man, a stranger to our country who has but little, if any, practical knowledge of our needs, and who himself is not a taxpayer, probably may deprive a whole community of people of their legal rights. Such is the territorial form of government, not of all Territories, for with the exception of Utah and New Mexico, this absolute veto power does not exist on American soil. Other Territories as well as the States, and the United States, may, through a two-thirds vote of their legislature, pass any measure over the veto of its executive.

But what does this signify? It says to us, “we are not willing to trust you with the rights and privileges of self-government in common with other American citizens; and it is deemed advisable that we should hold this check upon your legislature.” But notwithstanding we have been shut out from Statehood, we have prospered and grown into a flourishing community of people.

On several occasions we have renewed our efforts by appealing to Congress for the rights of self-government; but on every occasion we have been put off. But we have continued to prosper, and yet we have received no aid from the general government in establishing and maintaining schools, as other portions of the country have. We have built our schoolhouses and maintained our schools, and educated our children as best we could. And here let me say that Utah will compare favorably in educational matters with any portion of the United States, even the older and richer States; and while the number of children is three times that of other populations, yet, they are all enjoying the benefits of a common school education at least; and as the higher schools are being established the facilities for more extensive education are accessible.

We have opened up farms and established towns and cities over this vast country, of 500 miles in extent. We have established mills and have produced the various cereals and vegetables and fruits, and raised the beef and mutton, and the wool to supply our factories, and cotton, to manufacture to a considerable extent, the clothing that we wear; and we have manufactured to a considerable extent our farming implements, and yet we are under the necessity of largely importing manufactured goods. And, today, Utah enjoys prosperity equal, if not superior to any other Territory, and, indeed, some of the Western States.

Now these are facts patent to the world. And with such facts can they in their inmost souls look upon this people as a vicious people, or as a wicked, licentious people, as a people who are influenced by worldly considerations and fleshly lusts? Are these the works of the licentious and dissolute? We invite the people of the United States to attend our Sabbath School Unions and attend the public gatherings of the people where they congregate; we invite their statesmen and honorable men and women of all classes to come and visit us and learn facts as they exist, instead of swallowing greedily the malicious calumnies and misrepresentations set afoot concerning us by those who know little or nothing about us; or if they have known anything about us, they have sold themselves to the Devil long since, and they are of their father the Devil, who was a liar from the beginning, and his works they will do; and when honest people come among us we ask them not to sit themselves down and allow themselves to be corralled by the lying hypocrites that are fanning the flame of persecution, and never come in contact with the people they desire to know and understand. Why is it that honorable men should act as though they were ashamed to learn the truth? Why is it they do not come and hear and see for themselves both sides?

We are accused of disloyalty. We are accused of being governed by priestcraft, and that we are subjects of the one-man power. Here we would pause and respectfully say, in the language of Scripture, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Where, I would ask, could we look for a more decidedly marked expression of the one-man power than in the case we have recently had in Utah, in which the Governor gave the certificate of election to the man for whom the insignificant number of 1,300 votes was cast, withholding it from the rightful representative of the people for whom 18,000 votes were recorded? The persistency with which he and his friends, the enemies of this people, have sought to fasten this fraud upon the people in this Territory, not to say anything about the one-man power provided for in the organic act! A federal governor, a stranger sent among us with an absolute veto, possessing the power to wipe out the doings of a whole session of the people’s representatives!

I will further direct attention to all reflecting men to the scenes in the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States when the Edmunds’ bill was put through under what is called the gag law of the previous question, cutting off amendments and limiting debate. I will appeal to every honest man—if there be an honest politician in the land—by asking, Who among them possesses the freedom of speaking and acting only in obedience to the party lash, and what Senator or Representative dare try to air his sentiments or vote contrary to the dictum of his party leaders? Shame upon them when they talk about the exercise of one-man power in Utah! If there is a people upon the earth that exercise greater freedom of speech or action than the Latter-day Saints, I hope and pray that we may grow until we become their equals at least.

Every principle in our holy religion tends to freedom, or in the language of the New Testament, the Gospel is the perfect law of liberty. The reason that it is so is, because it lifts the spirits of man above the law, or, in other words, it teaches him to work righteousness and thereby escape the penalties of the law, and enables him to enjoy that perfect freedom which God has ordained for all flesh—the freedom to do right, but there is no liberty to do wrong without incurring the penalty of that wrongdoing, therefore, every one who does wrong must accept of the consequences of that wrong, and may expect to suffer the penalty either in time or in eternity. The Gospel then extends to us the freedom to do right, and the laws of our common country used to extend this right and privilege to its citizens. This was declared by the fathers in the famous Declaration of Independence, and which was consolidated by the fathers of the Constitution of our country, which was one of the fruits of their great struggle.

This famous declaration enunciated the doctrine that “all just powers of government are derived from the consent of the governed;” and upon this principle are the institutions of our country founded; and it is only through the guarantees of this fundamental doctrine underlying our institutions that there can be any freedom. This declaration of the fathers embodied in that celebrated instrument, signed on the 4th of July, 1876, is the embodiment of the principles of civil and religious liberty, such freedom as God has ever taught and sought to establish among his children from the beginning of the world. And whenever there has been a people who have listened to the voice of God, they have been made free, and oppression has been a stranger to them. The careful student of the Bible will at once perceive that everything which God sought to establish among his people, tended to freedom and the enjoyment of the common rights of humanity. Never did ancient Israel enjoy as free and happy a government as under the reign of the judges, from the time Moses led them out of Egyptian bondage until they clamored for a king. For 430 years they triumphed over their foes, and they dwelt in peace and unity, and love and freedom existed, and every tribe was a commonwealth managing its own local affairs, while they all sustained a central power which counseled and directed them; and their rulers were judges inspired of God, were prophets, seers and revelators, who judged in righteousness, and exercised no control over the liberties and consciences of men. The same principle is observed in reading the history of the American continent. The Book of Mormon is replete with testimony in this direction. And during the palmy days of the Nephites there was no king among them; and that long and happy period that preceded the coming of the Savior, and for hundreds of years that followed during the reign of the judges among the Nephites, liberty and freedom and happiness prevailed. And although they had at one time in accordance with their pronounced and persistent desire, a king—King Benjamin and King Mosiah—yet, these were kings more in name than in fact; they were only patriarchs or fathers among their people, and the term they apply to them might quietly have a tendency to cause them to augment power to themselves and to exercise oppressive jurisdiction over the people, and foreseeing this King Mosiah beseeched the people to abolish the office, and establish and maintain free government, and elect their chief judge or governor by the voice of the people. He reasoned and explained to them the dangers which would result to them by having a ruler who was not elected by the people. When Israel began to fall into darkness and transgression, in the days of Samuel, and they clamored for a king to lead them to war and thus be like the Gentile nations around them, it grieved Samuel the Seer to his heart; and he besought the people to desist from their determination, and he warned them of the dangers that would follow, telling them that it would lead to oppression and tyranny, and that taxes would be levied and heavy burdens would be laid upon the people grievous to be borne, and that it would finally lead to war, bloodshed and bondage. But they would not listen. And when the prophet inquired of the Lord what he should do, he answered and said to Samuel: “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”

Furthermore, the Book of Mormon tells that God will cause a free government to be established upon this land in the latter days, and inasmuch as the people will serve the Lord they shall forever be a free people. And in the Doctrine and Covenants is contained a revelation which was given to the Latter-day Saints in the early history of the Church, commanding us to uphold and maintain the principles of freedom and liberty, as claimed by our fathers and consolidated in the Constitution of the United States, and in which is written this remarkable declaration: “Let no man break the laws of the land, for he that keepeth the laws of God has no need to break the laws of the land;” and we are further told that we should uphold and maintain that law which is the Constitutional law of the land; for, the Lord said, the Constitution was established by wise men whom he raised up for that purpose, after the land had been redeemed by bloodshed. This doctrine was taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith, in the early days of this people, and cannot be separated from the religion we have embraced; and by the help of the Lord we mean to maintain those principles to the end, notwithstanding that some of our American statesmen wax wanton in their feelings and tyrannical in their acts and expressions, while religious bigots and political demagogues are undermining the foundations of our American institutions. They commence today upon Utah; but it is not the first time. From the time the declaration was made in Philadelphia by the republican party there have been divers departures from those principles embraced in our American Constitution. Had the people of America listened to the voice of the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith, they would have long since freed their slaves in an amicable, an honorable and economical manner without the shedding of blood. But they disdained the counsels of the Lord. The Prophet Joseph published his views in pamphlet form on the powers and duties of the national government on the then much-mooted question of slavery, in which he treated upon the compact of the United States as between the North and South on this question of slavery; and proposed an easy and honorable plan of settling the question without violating that compact or encroaching upon the rights of each other; and that was, to negotiate with the Southern States for the gradual emancipation of their slaves, the consideration to be met by the national treasury, and fixing a time after which all children should be born free, thus providing for a gradual emancipation, and that they might not feel that they were robbed, and by their being gradually emancipated they would have been prepared gradually for free government and free labor, and thus the ill and unpleasant consequences would have been measurably averted, at least, of turning loose a horde of uncultivated people who were totally unprepared for American citizenship. Had they listened to this proposition, less than a tenth part of the cost of the war would have freed all the slaves, and that too without bloodshed, and the utter devastation of the Southern States would have been spared.

But we have seen it. And following the war has been inaugurated an era of degeneracy in public morals, degeneracy in politics and religion, a degeneracy in the minds of our statesmen which has shown itself in a desire on their part to tamper with the sacred rights of man, to tamper with every part of the government, not even excepting the Supreme Court, which, up to the time of the civil war, was looked upon by the American people as almost beyond temptation, and beyond the probability of being corrupted or bribed. But alas! the Supreme Court itself has been tam– pered with. And for many years, almost from the commencement of that effort to break down the barriers of the Constitution and to settle this vexed question of slavery by violence—from that time politicians have sought to sustain themselves in violent, revolutionary and unconstitutional measures by foisting into the Supreme Court partisans who are already imbued with extreme political notions and ideas, whose carrying them with them on the bench has resulted in many decisions which after ages will greatly deplore and point out as the stepping stones to the destruction of our free institutions. But it remains for the Congress of the United States in 1882 to strike the blow at human freedom which places a vast people who have enjoyed their freedom in part only for 35 years in these mountains, at the disposal of a returning board to be sent here by the President. This is the object of the Edmunds’ bill. Its framers, its advocates and supporters scarcely expect anything from it toward the extinguishing of polygamy; but they do expect from it the transfer of our flourishing Territory into the hands of the enemies of the “Mormon” people. And they expect to disfranchise whom they will, and decide who may vote and who may hold office, who may become members of the Legislature, etc., and vice versa; and then dictate what laws they shall make, and then dictate how the people shall be taxed to pay their salaries and expenses, unless forsooth, Congress shall, according to the recommendation of President Arthur, reconsider that part of the law and make provision for their salaries.

It is not my purpose to attempt to foretell the consequences of this class of legislation. We shall all see for ourselves; but if our neighbors, our Gentile friends can stand it, we can; and if our nation can stand it, we can; and if our statesmen and the people who elect them and countenance their acts can stand it, we can; and if merchants, miners, bankers, agents, speculators, etc., among us can stand it, we can. If the taxes should be doubled up, and burdens put upon the people, and they can stand their share of it, we can stand ours, because we are used to it, and they are not. If they can confine themselves to one woman, I know we can. (Laughter.) The proof of the pudding you know, is in the eating. We do not intend to be worried; we have already passed through many very trying places, and we still expect to find an outlet. I am reminded often of our experience when traveling through some of the narrow gorges in our mountains; it often appears that our road has come to an end against a mountain, but when we get close up to it, we find a turn, and we keep traveling; and this is sometimes often repeated in a day’s travel, until, at last, our road opens out and a broad, beautiful valley is in sight, which never fails to bring feelings of relief to the weary traveler, especially if he is not familiar with the road. Such has been our experience in the pilgrimage of life up to the present time, and we confidently expect that He who has led us, through His Holy Priesthood, will continue to open up our way, and He will do so if we keep our covenants with Him. Amen.

Discourse by Apostle Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, March 26, 1882.

I feel disposed to read a few verses from section 43 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a book containing the revelations of God to the Latter-day Saints, communicated through the prophet Joseph Smith.

(The speaker then read the whole of the section, commencing at the 17th verse.)

There is one thing I wish to say to the congregation, and I would say the same to the whole world if I had the power—it is this: I have heard the Prophet Joseph Smith say on several occasions when speaking on the agency of man, and the liberty and rights of men, that if he were emperor of the earth, having control of the whole human family, he would give every man, woman and child the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, leaving them to be responsible alone to their Creator for their individual acts. These are my sentiments, and they are the sentiments of this people today, and have been from the beginning of the organization of this Church, and I trust will be to the end of time. And this we believe to be a principle emanating from heaven; and while we accord this right to our fellow men, and while we declare it to be a heaven-born right guaranteed unto all American citizens through the Constitution of our country, we claim the exercise of the same right ourselves; and we claim this right and privilege under the Constitution under which we live, and we claim it by the laws of God to man. And whenever any people rise up and attempt to make war upon the rights of men because of their religion, they go beyond their right, they transcend their own powers, whether their power be derived either from God or man.

You may wish to know why I make these remarks. I will tell you. Because God himself grants this right to every human being upon the earth irrespective of race or color; it is part of the divine economy not to force any man to heaven, not to coerce the mind but to leave it free to act for itself. He lays before His creature man the everlasting Gospel, the principles of life and salvation, and then leaves him to choose for himself or to reject for himself, with the definite understanding that he becomes responsible to Him for the results of his acts.

It is upon this principle that we as Latter-day Saints assert our rights and endeavor to enjoy our privileges. And we are accorded this right in accepting the Gospel dispensation in which we live, and in believing in the Old and New Testaments, the records of God’s people who lived in what is called the old world, as well as in the Book of Mormon, the history of the ancient inhabitants of our land, which records are in harmony with each other, bearing witness of the one great Head and of the Gospel which He taught in Jerusalem and Judea, and which His Apostles preached after He left them. It is, in fact, the same Gospel that has been taught to man in every age and dispensation, as there is but the one Gospel, and that Gospel is adapted to the wants and conditions of all men. It is the Gospel of Truth, and truth alone can make us free, free from sin and from the power of the adversary. And this is the Gospel which we have received, and which we take the liberty of preaching to our fellow men.

I do not suppose that there has been any dispensation upon the earth in which a greater variety of evidence, or important evidence of the divinity of the latter-day work has been given than that which is occurring, and that will continue to occur until the second coming of the Son of Man. There is no man upon the earth who believes in the literal fulfillment of prophecy as contained in the Old and New Testament, but who must in his heart believe that the God of heaven will in the latter days set His hand to perform a great work and a wonder in the earth; that He will call forth His Church out of the wilderness of darkness and establish it upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief corner stone. There is no man who believes in the Revelation of St. John who does not believe in his heart that in the last dispensation the angel as seen and described by John in his vision, will fly through the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to commit to man again upon the earth, and that this Gospel is to be preached in plainness and power to every nation, kindred, tongue and people upon the whole earth. There is no man that believes in the literal fulfillment of the revelations of God through the Prophets who does not believe that the Lord will in the latter days gather a people together out of every nation under heavens and that He will also gather the dispersed of Judah—the Jews—that have been trodden under the feet of the Gentiles for the last 1,800 years for shedding the blood of the Messiah.

I wish to bear my testimony to all men within the sound of my voice and those to whom my words shall come, that we are living in that dispensation of God to man that every Prophet and Apostle that has ever breathed the breath of life has pointed to. I bear my testimony that God, in fulfillment of the Revelation of St. John, has sent the heavenly messenger to communicate to man the everlasting Gospel. And why did the Lord reveal to John that this would be done? Because the “falling away” spoken of by Paul had already commenced; because John in his exiled condition sensed keenly that the Church would be overcome and driven from the earth, and by way of encouragement to him and information to all who would believe his word, the Lord showed him what should take place in the future. The Jews had rejected the Messiah, they had crucified the Lord of life and glory and they had also persecuted and taken the life of the Apostles and others who were left to represent his cause; and John only was left, and they tried to take his life; but, in consequence of the promise he had received from the Savior prior to his death, they could not do it: and hence they exiled him on this island—called Patmos. When they rejected the Gospel, they rejected it in all its power and glory, its blessings, its gifts and graces, and also the ordinances of the Holy Priesthood—Aaronic and Melchizedek. With regard to Priesthood we differ from the Christian world. We believe there is no man in heaven or upon earth that administers in the ordinances of the Gospel without the Priesthood, and we defy the whole world to point to a single passage of scripture from the time of father Adam down to Jesus Christ, showing that any man had power to administer in any of the ordinances of the Gospel without the Priesthood. And we say as Paul said, in referring to this delegated power of heaven, that “no man taketh this honor to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron,” and he was called of God through Moses with whom he communicated. Therefore men cannot legally and authoritatively go forth to preach the Gospel until they are sent; and men cannot hear the word and be converted by the same unless they hear it through the mouth of a preacher who is sent, and who has power to administer in the ordinances of the Gospel.

The Lord has established his Church and his kingdom; and we have been laboring now fifty years and upwards in carrying out the instructions which he has revealed unto us in connection with this work. And as men were formerly, so we have been commanded to go forth and call upon men to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins; and as they were authorized, so have we been authorized to say to all men who comply with these requirements, that they shall receive the Holy Ghost. But say the Christian sects, these things are no longer necessary, these outward ordinances are not now essential to salvation. We believe they are. In this, of course, we differ from them, and we have a perfect right to. Jesus himself went to John when he was baptizing in Jordan, and requested baptism of him. John demurred, thinking himself unworthy, but Jesus satis– fied him by saying, “Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.”

Baptism by immersion is one of the ordinances of the Gospel, and the law had to be complied with, and hence Jesus set the example. But the Jews, as a nation, rejected him and his teachings; and the Apostles were commanded to turn to the Gentiles. I say Gentiles—we are all Gentiles in a national capacity; and the same Gospel that was taught to the Jews was preached to the Gentiles. It never varied one iota; it was sent to them with all its gifts and graces, its priesthoods, powers and ordinances without any change whatever. And Paul in warning the Gentiles, told them to take heed and fear lest they fall, through the same example of unbelief; for if God spared not the natural branches, which were the Jews, why should he spare them who were the wild branches grafted into the olive tree. We all understand that the blindness in part which happened to Israel and which, Paul said, should continue until the fulness of the Gentiles come in, did befall the churches which had been built up by the Apostles, and that the Gospel, with its gifts and graces, its Prophets and Apostles, has long since ceased to exist among men. The Gentiles fell through the same example of unbelief, until today a man is looked upon as a deceiver who will rise up and declare himself a believer in the same Gospel that Jesus and his Apostles preached. Paul told the people in his day that God hath set in the Church first Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues; and they were for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, for the perfecting of the Saints, until all come to a perfect man in the stature of Christ. But the Christian world do not believe in these things; they say they are done away, as not being needed. We believe differently, and we have a right to; we say the Lord has restored the Gospel as it was preached to the Jews and the Gentiles by Jesus and the Apostles, and we know whereof we speak. Joseph Smith received the ministration of angels, in fulfillment of the Revelation of St. John, and we know it. He received the keys of the Holy Priesthood under the hands of John the Baptist, and under the hands of Peter, James and John, and from that day, through the preaching and administrations of the Elders of this Church, God has given a testimony to hundreds of thousands, of the truth of this work. We believe this, and we have received the testimony for ourselves of its divinity.

In looking upon this congregation assembled in this beautiful building, I am reminded of the mercy and goodness of God to us as a people. On the 24th of July, 1847, I came here in company with the pioneers. At that time Utah was a barren desert, there was no mark of the white man, everything was wild and barren. Today you may travel thousands of miles through this country, and you find towns and cities, farms, gardens and orchards, temples, and tabernacles, and schoolhouses, and large congregations of the people, and hosts of children. And where did all these people come from, and what prompted them to come here? You came from your native lands, from the different civilized nations, impelled by the spirit of the gathering which God has restored in connection with the Gospel; and you came in fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and David, and others of the Prophets who have spoken of you. The question that arises in the minds of persons who pass through our country and see the labors of this people is, are we the dupes of impostors? Was Joseph Smith a deceiver? There is a way to test this, and we have tested it to our satisfaction. The great promise made to us when we first heard the preaching of the Elders of this Church was, that if we obeyed certain requirements of the Gospel, we should receive the Holy Ghost; and this same promise is extended to the world of mankind by our Elders who are still proclaiming these glad tidings of great joy. If that promise had fallen we, my brethren and sisters, would not have been here today; and Utah would doubtless be as barren as it was when we found it in ’47. There is no question in our mind, as to the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. The Christian world questions it. This, of course, we cannot help.

I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, you are living in an important and interesting time in your history, a time when the principles of the everlasting Gospel are being brought prominently before the world, and it is but natural that they should find their opposite in misrepresentation and persecution. Jesus himself, together with every servant of God of every age, while endeavoring to bless and save mankind through teaching correct principles, made themselves unpopular and become the subjects of hatred and persecution. And there is no doctrine so unpopular today as the principles of life and salvation as God has revealed them; and there are none so unpopular as those who believe in and practice the same. Truth revealed from heaven for the salvation of mankind always was unpopular, and always will be so long as the world exists in its present state. Men do not want truth, and therefore they reject it, and they reject it today for the same reason that men rejected it formerly, because they love darkness rather than light. If the Latter-day Saints expect to become popular in this day and generation, they will find themselves greatly mistaken. There is a warfare going on between truth and error, and this warfare will continue until He shall reign whose right it is to reign.

I also want to say to the Latter-day Saints, you should exercise faith in God; you should make yourselves acquainted with the revelations of God, and with the promises He has made to His people, fully believing that all will come to pass as He has spoken it. And each man claiming a standing among this people should do his duty to the trust committed to our charge. Our responsibility is great before God and man. Any people into whose hands is committed a dispensation of the Gospel has a great responsibility. And Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the Twelve Apostles, would have been under condemnation and would have rendered themselves liable to the curse of God if they had not gone forth into the world and borne record of this work. Paul was placed in the same position and he sensed it, as is inferred from these words: “Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel.” And this is our position today in relation to the world.

I have been with this Church almost from its organization, and have passed through the various scenes of its early history. I have seen its rise and progress, and have witnessed the power of God manifested in behalf of this people; and I want to bear my testimony that the God of heaven has, in fulfillment of the prophecies, set His hand to establish His Church and kingdom in the earth, which means no more and no less than His rule and His government, and that He will accomplish it, and there is no power upon the earth or under the earth that can stay the progress of Almighty God. But notwithstanding this, we expect to meet with opposition, with the hatred of the world; this, in fact, is the legacy of the Latter-day Saints. Said the Savior to his Apostles, I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you; if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. It hated me before it hated you. And what are we going to do? We are going to trust in God. I have no fears myself; I have never had since I heard the first Gospel sermon by the Elders of this Church; for I know that God lives, and that he has set his hand to establish his kingdom, and it will continue to grow and increase until it shall fill the whole earth. He has called upon us to proclaim to the whole world the Gospel of Christ, and we are doing it as fast as circumstances and wisdom permits; and we promise all men what the first Elders promised us, that is, if they yield to the requirements they shall know for themselves whether this work is of God or man. Is there, I ask, any man or set of men dare make such promises to their fellow men? I answer, nay; neither could we do it, did we not know that God would back up the word by imparting the Holy Ghost. He has done so from the beginning, and these people can bear me witness.

The question may be asked, What about the course our government is taking with us? Whatever our nation does or may do, it will be held responsible before God; and every emperor, king and ruler will be held responsible for the use they make of the power committed into their hands. The Lord inspired the men that framed the Constitution of our country, and has guarded the nation from its foundation, in order to prepare free people in which to establish his kingdom. Columbus was inspired of God to persevere as he did to discover this continent, and thus prepare the way for a class of people upon whom the Spirit of the Lord moved to follow; and when they were oppressed hard enough they declared themselves independent, and by the help of God they established and have maintained the government which God gave our forefathers, which is one of the best constitutional governments ever known among men. One of its chief and prominent characteristics is its guarantee of religious liberty, permitting every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. This is a sacred right granted by God himself to all men; and when the rulers or legislators of any land undertake by enactments of law to step between man and his God, they by that act become responsible, and must sooner or later be made to answer for interfering with a divine law. This is the light in which we regard the position of our own nation in the steps they have recently taken against us, as a people. However, if I were to express my feelings to Congress and the leading men of our nation, and to our enemies and the whole Christian world, I would say, do not weep for us—and we are sensible of the fact that they will not—but rather weep for yourselves and your children, for as sure as the Lord lives the evils that men seek to bring upon us, will return in due time upon their own heads, heaped up, pressed down and running over. For it is an eternal law, and a law by which we are governed, that what measure we mete, shall be measured back to us again. Our nation knows not what awaits it; the Christian world knows not what awaits it, and the blind guides that lead the people cannot tell them, and the result will be that both the people and their guides will fall into the ditch together.

I will say another thing. The Lord never did bring judgment upon any people of any generation until he raised up prophets to warn them of the impending danger. You may read the history of the great and ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh and Babylon and other cities that were built to defy all time and every power but that of God; but when they were ripened in iniquity they were cut off, the Lord raised up men to warn them and to call upon them to repent; but when they rejected them the Lord brought judgment upon them and they were cut off in their sins. And so it will be with our nation and all others, when they shall be fully warned and they reject the message that is sent to them. The heavens are full of judgment, and as the prophets have said, they will commence at the House of the Lord and then go to the nations of the earth. These things are beginning to make themselves manifest and the righteous and pure in heart can see it.

I want to see the Latter-day Saints live their religion, keep their faith and do their duty, and trust in God. And if men persecute you for the sake of your religion, what can you do? You can go to God, and make your wants known to him; and that is our duty as Latter-day Saints. And as to our nation, they, as well as we, are in the hands of God; and I have nothing to say about them. God will deal with them; and what they sow they will reap, and he will deal with us upon the same principle. The history of the ancient inhabitants of this land, as it has come down to us through the mercy and goodness of God, fully testifies to this principle; as long as they did what was right the blessings of God followed them, but after they became disobedient and wicked the hand of God rested upon them. At times when I reflect upon the great change that has taken place in our own land in the morals of the people during my time, I feel in my spirit to mourn and to fear as to the consequences. I was between 20 and 21 years of age before I heard of a murder having been committed in the whole of the New England States. The first murder that was committed in our land from the time I could remember until I gained my majority, was committed in New Haven; and I well remember how the news of it shocked all New England. What effect has such news upon the people of the same region today? Throughout the whole of Christendom today, murder, whoredom, blasphemy, and their kindred evils and vices are indulged in, and unbelief reigns in the hearts of men. Men profess to believe in the Bible; but confront them with the doctrines and prophecies it contains, and they will at once either raise a doubt as to their real meaning or they will openly deny them; and the few that accept the literal meaning of God’s word, and confess him and acknowledge him in all things, do it at the risk of their reputation, and some of them, even of their rights as American citizens. What the result of all this will be is already written; and it will come to pass as sure as the Lord hath spoken it.

I rejoice in the Gospel of the Son of God as he has revealed it in this our day; I rejoice in the organization of the church and kingdom of God, and in the revelations of hea– ven. I read them with a great deal of interest, for I know they are true; and, therefore, I look forward with assurance to their fulfillment in the earth. We have but a little time to spend on earth even though we live to be a hundred years of age, and we have no time to waste. We should live in such a manner that the Spirit and blessing of God may attend us; and then when we cease our labors here we shall pass hence to continue them in the same cause of salvation and redemption, and all will be well with us. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered at the Assembly Hall, on Sunday Afternoon, March 5th, 1882.

We are living in peculiar times; we are operating in an eventful era; we are associated with a peculiar dispensation, and we have a labor to perform which in many respects differs from that of all other ages or times. The dispensation that we are connected with is called in Scripture the dispensation of the fulness of times in which, it is recorded, God will gather together all things in one, whether they be things on the earth or things in the heavens. There are ideas associated with this dispensation that are in many respects distinct, and dissimilar from those that have been enunciated and proclaimed in former ages and dispensations; and inasmuch as the present dispensation is to embrace everything that has been connected with all past dispensations—all the prominent features as well as the minor ones that characterized the Church and kingdom of God in former days, that were essentially necessary to its growth and developments must re-appear in connection with the work of God in this our day. If the manifestations and developments of other dispensations have been made known to us, we have had revealed to us doctrines, theories, organizations and systems that have existed among the whole of them; because it is emphatically the dispensation of the fulness of times. If they had anything that was peculiarly characteristic in the days of the ancient Patriarchs, we have the same revealed to us. If they had anything prominent and important in the dispensation of Noah, we have it, and if Noah was called upon to preach the Gospel to the world in his day, before its destruction, so are we.

If in the Abrahamic or Mosaic dispensations God revealed important principles, we have a clear knowledge of those things made known to us, and the reasons, the whys and wherefores, pertaining to them. If they had anything among the ancient Prophets and men of God, we have the same principles developed. If in the days of Jesus they had manifestations, revelations, doctrines or organizations, those things are made known to us. Or if the people upon this continent, to whom God revealed his will—either the people that came from the Tower of Babel, or those who came from Jerusalem during the reign of Zedekiah—if anything was revealed to them, we have had it revealed unto us. And this is why certain things exist pertaining to organizations, etc., referred to by Brother Hatch.

We have here on the ceiling of this building pictured to us, Moroni making known to Joseph Smith the plates, from which the Book of Mormon was translated, which plates had been hidden up in the earth; and in connection with them was the Urim and Thummim, by which sacred instrument Joseph was enabled to translate the ancient characters, now given unto us in the form of the Book of Mormon; in which is set forth the theories, doctrines, principles, organizations, etc., of these peoples who lived upon this continent. People talk about their disbelief regarding these things. That is a matter of no moment to us. I do not intend to bring any argument upon this question, caring nothing about what people believe. We know certain things, and knowing them we regard them as matters of fact. If we were to take the world and its ideas and theories, we should find that there is hardly one person in every thousand who believes the Bible. The Christian world professes belief in the Bible; that is, they believe it when shut, but not when open. Consequently, I do not propose this afternoon, at least, to address myself to infidels, whether they go under the name of Christian or any other name. I am speaking of certain principles to a people who believe them to be true; and I wish to refer more particularly to some events associated with the dealings of God with his earthly children.

When John was on the isle of Patmos, certain things were revealed to him that were to transpire in the last days, and he prophesied of them. While wrapped in prophetic vision, gazing on the purposes of God as they were to be unfolded in later times, among other things he saw an angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people; saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come. This was a declaration made by this ancient Apostle and Prophet of God while banished for his religion, as certain men today would, if they could, banish us. We now declare to the world that this part of the visions of John has been fulfilled; that the angel has come and appeared to man upon the earth, conferring upon him this heavenly charge, namely, the responsibility of opening up a new Gospel dispensation; and we declare that God himself took part in it, and that Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, accompanied him, both of whom appeared to Joseph Smith, upon which occasion the Father, pointing to the Son said, “This is my beloved Son, hear him.” Following this the Gospel was to be preached to every nation. What Gospel? The same Gospel that was preached to Adam, and to the Patriarchs and men of God of every age; the Gospel of salvation and deliverance from sin through the atonement of Jesus Christ, the resurrection from the dead, life immortal and all the blessings associated therewith. And when this Gospel was first proclaimed in this age, who knew anything about it? Nobody; it was not and had not been among men for centuries. The world of mankind had been left without direct communication from the heavens, and as a natural consequence while groveling in the dark, they followed the devices and desires of their own hearts; they were governed by man-made systems, and bowed to the dictum, to the notions, the theories and follies of men. There was no Apostle, no Prophet, no inspired man of God holding His Holy Priesthood to say, Thus saith the Lord, this is the way, walk ye in it.

In connection with this I may allude to an incident in my personal experience, to show the state of the world religiously some forty or fifty years ago. Not being then acquainted with this Church, a number of us met together for the purpose of searching the Scriptures; and we found that certain doctrines were taught by Jesus and the Apostles, which neither the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, nor any of the religious sects taught; and we concluded that if the Bible was true, the doctrines of modern Christendom were not true; or if they were true, the Bible was false. Our investigations were impartially made, and our search for truth was extended. We examined every religious principle that came under our notice, and probed the various systems as taught by the sects, to ascertain if there were any that were in accordance with the word of God. But we failed to find any. In addition to our researches and investigations, we prayed and fasted before God; and the substance of our prayers was, that if he had a people upon the earth anywhere, and ministers who were authorized to preach the Gospel, that he would send us one. This was the condition we were in. We knew all that the Methodists knew then, and all that they know now. We knew all that the Presbyterians knew then, and all that they know now. We knew all that the Episcopalians knew then, and all that they know now. We knew all that the Roman Catholics knew then, and all that they know today; for we made ourselves conversant with the doctrines and examined them thoroughly, as well as the theories of all men who pretended to have knowledge of Gospel light. We prayed earnestly; and in answer to our prayers, the Lord sent us Elder Parley P. Pratt, who gives an account of this in his autobiography which has been published since his death. Brother Pratt, in relating the circumstances, says that Brother Heber C. Kimball came to his house one night after he had retired; that Brother Kimball requested him to get up, which he did, and then began to prophesy to him. He told him there was a people in Canada who were seeking for a knowledge of the Gospel, and they were praying to God to send them a minister who should reveal to them the truth. Brother Kimball then commissioned him to repair to Canada, telling him that the Lord would bless him and open up his way. Just previous to that time the Saints had been engaged in building the Temple in Kirtland, Ohio, and were all very much embarrassed as to means, Brother Pratt with the balance having devoted everything he had to spare for that purpose. Among other things that Brother Kimball told him was, that where he was going he would find means to relieve himself and that many of the people would embrace the Gospel, and that it would be the means of introducing the Gospel to England. And furthermore, said he, your wife who is now childless shall have a son. In the course of time she did have a son, and they named him Parley. I do not know but that he may be present; but I was going to say, I knew him before he was born. [Laughter.]

I speak of this to show that there was at that time nobody, of whom we had any knowledge, from whom we could obtain any information with regard to the Gospel of the Son of God, or that could teach us the doctrines Jesus and His Apostles taught, as contained in the Scriptures. Brother Pratt came and found us, and he came in answer to our prayer; at least, that is my faith in regard to the matter. And were all these things accomplished? Yes: I was baptized myself and others, and I baptized many others in that country; and it was the means also of sending the Gospel to England. John Goodson, who apostatized long ago, John Snyder, a good, faithful man who was one of the committee of the Nauvoo House, and who died in the 17th Ward of this City, Isaac Russell, and Joseph Fielding, uncle to Brother Joseph F. Smith, were of our number, embraced the Gospel, and were afterwards called to accompany Brother Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde to England for the purpose of opening up the work in that land; and I was the first person that wrote a letter to England on the subject of the Gospel; I did it at the request of Brother Fielding, who got me to write for him to a brother and brother-in-law of his who were ministers in England. These were the men that helped to introduce the Gospel into England in that early day. I speak of this for the information of many of you.

When Brother Pratt came to me I was, perhaps, as well read in the letter of the Bible as I am today, and as soon as he commenced to talk about Prophets, I said, Yes, we believe in them. And he talked about Apostles and I remarked, Yes, we have been looking for such men, but we cannot find them. He talked about the organization of the Church as it was anciently; and about the gift of tongues and the gift of healing, etc., and we were delighted with his message, it was something we were seeking for, and it was all new to us. We had heard rumors about the Mormons, just as people hear rumors nowadays of us; and the rumors we heard were not of the most complimentary character, any more than are those that are circulated about us today, or those that were circulated about Jesus and the former-day Saints. You know, the pious, hypocritical clergy of that day put the Savior down as the vilest creature that ever lived, and influenced the populace against him; for said they, if he heals the sick, give God the glory, for we know that this man is a sinner; and when he cast out devils, this same class attributed it to the power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils; and they spoke of him as being a bastard, and cast all manner of reflections upon him. The Savior in speaking to his disciples gave them to understand that inasmuch as they had persecuted him, they would also persecute them; and said he, further, when they persecute you in one city, flee to another; and he also told them to be exceeding glad when they were persecuted for righteousness’ sake. What, to be lied about by adventurers and political demagogues who seek to rob and plunder you? Yes; that is a good and favorable sign. If we were guilty of the infamies that they seek to lay at our door, that would be another matter. But whilst we are not as good as we might be, we do know that what they say and publish to the world about us, which has had a tendency to arouse the feelings of the general public against us, are infernal falsehoods. “Blessed are you 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,” etc., in this we but share the lot of the honorable of other ages, the men of God who stood the abuse of their fellow man, and who, in many instances, were persecuted much worse than we are. Our present assailants have not learned how yet; but they are trying upon a small scale to introduce the inquisition, and may, by and by, in some degree, succeed in carrying out their nefarious objects. This is their work, if they can stand it we think we can. There are thousands of honorable men who will look down with contempt upon all such unprincipled and mendacious efforts.

After the Lord had spoken to Joseph Smith, and Jesus had manifested himself to him, and after Moroni had revealed to him the hidden plates containing the history of the ancient inhabitants of this continent, which, in the wisdom of God, have been translated into our own language in the form of the Book of Mormon, and which, in connection with the Bible, is to be the means of confounding false doctrines, the one being corroborative of the other in principle and doctrine and in relation to the designs and purposes of God—after this it was necessary that the Priesthood held by men in former days should be restored in these latter days, that people now, as men in those days, might be authorized to act in the name of the Lord. Hence John the Baptist, who held the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, came and laid his hands upon the heads of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, using these words: “Upon you, my fellowservants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.” After having been ordained to this Priesthood which is after the order of Aaron, it was necessary that they should have another Priesthood which is after the order of Melchizedek, and after the order of the Son of God. And consequently Peter, James and John came and conferred that Priesthood. Why did they come? Because they were the last who held the keys of that Priesthood. After this order of Priesthood was introduced, the organization which we possess today was gradually effected, which is as full and complete, perhaps, as ever existed upon the earth. How perfect it was in the days of Enoch we are not told, but everything that they had revealed to them pertaining to the organization of the Church of God, also pertaining to doctrine and ordinances, we have had revealed to us, excepting one thing, and that is the principle and power of translation; that, however, will in due time be restored also. And if they in their day built a Zion, we have one to build in our day, and when this shall be done and everything is in readiness, the Zion which the people of Enoch built and which was translated, will descend from above, and the Zion of the latter days which this people will build, will ascend by virtue of this principle and power, and the former and the latter-day Zion will meet each other, and the dwellers in both will embrace and kiss each other, so we are told in the revelations of God.

We are indebted to no one excepting God, our heavenly Father, for the organization which we possess; and as a little circumstance with regard to its practical working occurs to me, I will mention it. Among other places, we sent to Bear Lake a copy of the form of petition which we are now presenting to Congress. I think it was on Wednesday that it was sent out from here, and on Saturday night it was returned with thousands of signatures. That is the way we do things here. In a few days we had some fifty thousand signatures, and I presume before this there are some ten or twenty thousand more from the more distant settlements. What does it manifest? Union and sympathy one with another, all testifying to one thing, which I was very glad to see. People have said that we know that polygamy is not a principle of our religion; but here are petitions signed by some seventy or eighty thousand, all of whom testify to their faith in regard to this principle. I think the testimony of seventy or eighty thousand persons living right among it, and most of whom are born in it, ought to be as strong as that of a few quidnuncs who know little or nothing about it.

The Gospel was then revealed, what for—for you and me, or for this man and that man? No; it was for the benefit of the world; it was in the interests of humanity; and it was to be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, people and tongue, by men commissioned of God to do so. That duty belongs to the Twelve especially, to either do so in person or see that it is done. I have traveled myself tens of thousands of miles, and so have my brethren, visiting the nations of the earth in their most prominent cities declaring to them the principles of the Gospel as God has revealed them. And could we find men upon the earth that could successfully oppose us? I declare before God I never found one, taking the Bible as a standard; neither can anyone be found today that can do it, and that is the trouble.

In that day, we are told, the meek shall rejoice in the Lord; and the poor among men shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel. God has had his people scattered among the nations, and his testimony was to go forth to all lands; and it becomes the duty of the Twelve, the Seventies, the High Priests and Elders to carry this message and present it to them in the spirit of the Gospel, not, to cram the truth down the throats of men, as certain individuals would cram their peculiar views down our throats. But when we were sent forth we were sent to teach, and not to be taught. We could not learn anything from them about the Gospel, for they did not know it. They could not teach us, hence the Lord in sending out the first Elders told them they were sent to teach and not to be taught. We went in the midst of opposition and persecution, mobbings and drivings, and were subjected to every insult, indignity and infamy that wicked and corrupt man could invent, and we have put up with such things all the time, and many have had to lay down their lives in the conflict, and they will, as others formerly did, when the time comes, gain a better resurrection. And we are still struggling on, in the face of a general opposition, trusting in our God to sustain us, while we shall continue to sow the precious seed of the everlasting Gospel, and maintain in our own midst the principles of life eternal, and freedom, liberty and equality to the human race. And our sons who have grown up are now doing what we have done; and they too are full of the Spirit, full of life, light and intelligence, having, as we had and still have, the interests of humanity at heart, as they move among the people as messengers of life and salvation. Our course is onward; and are we going to stop? No. Zion must be built up, God has decreed it and no power can stay its progress. Do you hear that? I prophesy that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Zion must and will be built up despite all opposition, the kingdom of God established upon the earth in accordance with the designs and purposes of God. That is true, and you will find it to be true if you live long enough, and if you die you will find it to be true; it will make no difference. “But shall we not be persecuted?” Yes, and does not Jesus say, Blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you, etc.—would you be deprived of that blessing? “But we have had enough of it.” O, have you? No matter, you will have to put up with it. “But,” say you, “have we not certain constitutional rights?” Yes, on paper, but when you get through with them, the paper does not amount to much; it is like pie crust, easily broken. We do not pay much attention to these things. Honorable men will be governed by constitutions, and laws, and principles, but dishonorable persons will not. Therefore, we have to do the best we can, taking a righteous course that we may be entitled to the blessings of God. “What will be the result of this?” I care nothing about what the result may be, it is a matter of very little importance to me. “Do you expect such things?” Yes, and have done for years; I have never expected anything else associated with the Gospel. When I first embraced it I considered it a lifelong affair; and when I came to look at it squarely in the face, if I could have satisfied my conscience by getting along without it, I would have done so; but I could not, and I apprehend that many of you have been in the same situation. I believed it was true, and so did you; and after I was baptized and had hands laid upon my head for the reception of the Holy Ghost, I knew it was true by the operations of the Holy Spirit upon my heart. And this is the common experience of all Saints. Some people seem to think that we are going to throw away our religion at the “drop of the hat.” I do not know of any such feeling among this people. There have been men who learned to endure things quite as bad as those which afflict us. My mind runs back to Daniel who was a man that feared God. There was a set of political plotters in his day—and probably a fair share of religious ones associated with them—who conspired against him, for Daniel was a man of God in great favor with the king; and the only way they could accomplish their plans was by laying a trap to catch him through an edict of the king. They did it by getting the king to issue a proclamation that no man should ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of the king, that if he did he should be cast into the den of lions. This was done expressly to catch Daniel, but the king was not made acquainted with the secret. Their request was granted and the decree established by the king’s signature, which then could not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altered not. When Daniel heard of this, we are told that he went into his house, and the windows of his chamber being open towards Jerusalem, he bowed down before his God, and prayed and gave thanks to him, as aforetime, three times a day. He did not falter, although he knew the nature of the decree and the laws which governed it; but he knew too that the God whom he served was able to deliver him. They watched him, of course, and finally complained against him; and he was adjudged guilty of violating the law. The law had to take its course, although the king, when the thing was made known to him felt very sorrowful, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. He did not feel like some feel towards us; although there have been praiseworthy efforts made by a few to maintain constitutional principles, and we recognize them as the sentiments and feelings of honorable men, who wish to see correct principles maintained in our land. There was no appeal in Daniel’s case; or as a certain class of Christians today would say, “Daniel had to go.” They cast him into the den of lions. The king went to the den early the following morning, feeling much concerned about him, and he cried out, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” Daniel spoke up and said, “O King, live forever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me.” Now, he dared to do that which showed there was some manhood in him. We have another example in the three Hebrew children, who refused to bow down to a golden image that had been set up. Shall we call it monogamy? [Laughter.] The conditions were that if they did not bow down to this golden image, they should be cast into a burning fiery furnace. They did refuse to obey this royal decree, saying, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not (said they), be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship thy golden image which thou hast set up.” This, of course, was considered a great indignity on their part to refuse to bow down to this God. These three men were cast into the furnace and their persecutors in their animus and religious zeal, heated it to such a degree—evincing in this respect the same feeling we see manifested toward us in a different form—that the men who cast Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the furnace were themselves destroyed by the flames. And it seems the King himself was curious to look into the furnace to know of their fate, and in doing so, to his astonishment, he beheld four persons in the midst of the flames, one of whom appeared to be like unto the Son of God. Nebuchadnezzar then called to these three men to come out, which they did; and even the smell of fire was not found upon their clothing, nor was a hair of their heads singed. Such was the faith of those young men, and such their conduct that all honorable men could approve and appreciate the nobility of their course; and even the Gods could admire them; and their integrity to God was the means of their being promoted to the favor of the King, and to distinction in the land. Let us hope that the descendants of those people in these days, in the trials that they have to pass through, which are now being enacted in Russia, in Europe, and in other places, and apparently commencing in this land, may be found as true to their integrity as were these noble examples of manhood and faith in God.

But to return to the Christian’s idol. The pious, zealous, religious and hypocritical in our day, uniting with political demagogues, have set up a God for us to worship, which they boastfully represent as the embodiment of everything that is pure and virtuous, embodying the enlightenment and civilization of the nineteenth century. Their god is overlaid with gilt and tinsel, but inside it is pregnant with the social evil with its twin adjuncts feticide and infanticide. Like a great Moloch it is crushing out female virtue, trampling upon innocence, and prostituting and destroying millions of the fair daughters of Eve. Yet this loathsome, filthy, debauched, degraded monster is held up for our veneration and worship by its corrupt Christian devotees as the essence of everything that is great and grand, noble and praiseworthy; and we are called upon to fall down and worship this loathsome monster under the threat of unconstitutional pains and penalties, and the violation of every principle of liberty and protection guaranteed under the Constitution.

Shall we worship this unnatural, lascivious Moloch? Shall we bow down before the shrine of this fetid, corrupt and debauched monster? No! We will worship the Lord our God, yield obedience to his behests, and, if we are faithful, live our religion and keep his commandments, the God whom we worship will deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, and we shall triumph over all our foes.

There have been men living nearer our own times who could meet the inquisition with its fagot, rack and thumbscrew, and in the midst of their sufferings could commit themselves in all serenity and calmness into the hands of God; and we can surely do the same. If the rulers of this nation can afford to tamper with the sacred rights of the people guaranteed by the Constitution of this great nation, and ruthlessly tear down the temple of freedom erected at the cost of so much blood and treasure, instead of anticipated glory, they will bring destruction upon the nation and ruin and infamy upon themselves. The sacred bulwarks of freedom once tampered with, the floodgates of anarchy and confusion will be thrown open and dissolution and ruin will follow in their train in rapid succession. It is for us to sustain and maintain the principles guaranteed in that sacred palladium of human rights—the Constitution of the United States, and to contend inch by inch in every legal and constitutional manner for our own rights and human freedom, leaving misrule, anarchy, violations of law and the trampling under foot of the rights of man and constitutional guarantees to religious fanatics and clamoring demagogues; and if they can afford to tamper with those sacred guarantees, we certainly can afford to have them do it. It is for us to seek more exalted ideas, to abide by constitutional law, to maintain inviolate the principles of human freedom, and to contend with unwavering firmness for those inalienable rights of all men—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and to seek continually to our God for wisdom to accomplish so great, noble and patriotic a purpose.

One of the first things I ever heard preached by the Elders of this Church was that the world would grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Should we be surprised at its coming to pass? Another thing that I have heard from the beginning is, that people would persecute us, commencing with neighborhoods and villages, and then it would extend to cities and counties, and then to States, and then to the United States, and afterwards to the world. We have got about fifty millions of people on our backs now—and it is a pretty heavy load to carry, too; but the Lord will see us through. We are acting in the interests of humanity: we are proclaiming salvation to a fallen world, and in this we are carrying out the word and will of God made known and manifested directly to us. We are warning the people of their position, and we will continue to send forth our missionaries for this purpose until God says, it is enough. And if they persecute us in one city, we will do as Jesus told his disciples, we will flee to another, searching out the honest in heart. Persecution has been our lot from the beginning, and it has followed us to this day. I am reminded of a circumstance that occurred in Missouri, which I will mention to show the kind of feeling that Joseph Smith was possessed of. Some 25 years ago, in Far West, a mob—one of those semi-occasional occurrences—had come against us with evil intent, placing themselves in position to give us battle; and there were not more than about 200 of us in the place. We had one fellow who was taken with a fit of trembling in the knees, and he ordered our people to retreat. As soon as Joseph heard this sound, he exclaimed, “Retreat! Where in the name of God shall we retreat to?” He then led us out to the prairie facing the mob and placed us in position; and the first thing we knew a flag of truce was seen coming towards us. The person bearing it said that some of their friends were among our people for whose safety they felt anxious. I rather think it was a case in which the wife was in the Church but not the husband, and the mob wished these parties to come out as they, he said, were going to destroy every man, woman and child in the place. But these folks had a little “sand” in them, as the boys say; they sent word back, that if that was the case they would die with their friends, Joseph Smith, our leader, then sent word back by this messenger, said he, “Tell your General to withdraw his troops or I will send them to hell.” I thought that was a pretty bold stand to take, as we only numbered about 200 to their 3,500; but they thought we were more numerous than we really were, it may be that our numbers were magnified in their eyes; but they took the hint and left; and we were not sorry. (Laughter.) The Lord, through simple means, is able to take care of and deliver His people, but they must put implicit faith and confidence in Him; and when they are crowded into a tight place they must not be afraid to make sacrifice for the sake of maintaining the truth, and all will be well with us whether living or dying, in time or in eternity.

Well, what shall we do? We will serve the Lord; we will live our religion; we will be true to our covenants, keep his commandments and be one, and we will sustain one another, and not sustain men among us who have it in their hearts to cut our throats; let them alone to pursue their own course, and let them draw their sustenance from their own kith and kin; and let us pursue the even tenor of our way, operating together as a band of brethren; and if any have sinned, let them sin no more; and inasmuch as this people are found faithful to God and true to themselves and their fellow men, I will risk the results of what our enemies may do to injure us. We are in the hands of God, and this nation is in His hands, and he will do with us and them according to the pleasure of His will.

Brethren and sisters, God bless you, and God bless the honorable of the earth, and may the wrath of the wicked be made to praise Him, and the remainder may He restrain. Amen.

Discourse by Apostle Erastus Snow, delivered in the Salt Lake Assembly Hall, Sunday Afternoon, February 26th, 1882.

Since coming to the stand I have been requested to address the congregation.

I will read the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th verses of the 25th chapter of Genesis.

“And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.

But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years.

Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.”

How far I shall confine myself to the matter contained in this passage I cannot say. The present eventful period of our lives, the prejudices which now move the people of our nation concerning us, and the pressure that is being brought upon us chiefly through the religious element of the country to influence Congress to extraordinary legislation against us, are perhaps, the reasons why my mind reverts to the historical facts contained in the Scripture I have just read, which was given unto us by men of old who, until quite a recent date, have been generally revered by all Christians; and even now a large majority of the Christian sects of America respect and reverence the ancient fathers, their teachings and writings while the sacred Book is closed, but ignore in their daily lives what those worthies believed and practiced.

The word translated concubine in this Scripture must not be confounded with the modern practice which obtains so largely in the great cities of Christendom, and with the more wealthy portions of old communities. I refer to the practice sometimes called concubinage, the practice of marrying under the law one wife, and at the same time keeping privately one or more mistresses who are not obtruded upon society, having no claim to the honored name of wife—a practice which permits those who indulge in it to gratify the carnal passions at the expense of public virtue; and at the risk of entailing disease upon unborn posterity, as well as at the expense of the present and eternal welfare of their partners, I will say in sin; for no right-minded, correct-thinking person can pronounce it otherwise than it has been pronounced by the sacred writers both of the Old and New Testament—a species of lewdness and, if not classed with open harlotry, a violation of sacred marital vows. Those who have solaced their consciences or justified themselves in this departure from law and public sentiment, no doubt feel partial justification from the practices of the ancients who were looked up to and revered; but such was not the concubinage of Abraham, nor any of the ancient patriarchs, such was not the system that obtained under the law of Moses in ancient Israel.

The word translated concubinage in King James version of the Bible, is translated by Luther and is found in Scandinavia and Germany, where the Lutheran translation still prevails, as meaning an associated wife. In the Danish Bible it is huustro for wife and medhustro for concubine; the sacred name of wife is given to both classes, the preposition med connecting them together and conveying the idea of the second class being an associated wife, or a wife in a secondary or subordinate position, in contradistinction to the first. Close students of the Bible have not failed to recognize this as being the character of the plural wives of Moses and the prophets. And it was practiced as an institution of the Jewish nation down to the coming of our Savior, and, so far as any scriptures appear in the New Testament, this institution was neither abrogated nor in anywise condemned, while harlotry and promiscuous intercourse of the sexes—adultery and fornication are condemned in the severest language.

We have a great variety of views in Christendom, as to the will and mind of God pertaining to the union of the sexes as relating to each other, to the state and to our present and future happiness. The Latter-day Saints regard the intercourse of the sexes, both in time and in eternity, as regulated by sacred law given by our Father in heaven who has organized us male and female for a wise purpose in Himself, and that purpose is made manifest in the first great command given to our first parents, namely, to multiply and replenish the earth. And the saying to the woman after her transgression as written in the book of Genesis, that her desires should be towards her husband and he should rule over her—the desires planted in the breast of the woman tending to draw to the opposite sex culminating in a union, is a wise dispensa– tion of Providence for the accomplishing of the great end in view to encourage and stimulate them to multiply and replenish the earth, and take upon themselves the cares, labors, anxieties and responsibilities attending the rearing of families. And among the many different views entertained in Christendom concerning the commerce of the sexes we might say, there exists every variety of belief and practice growing out of these beliefs. We have in Christian America a religious sect—not very numerous to be sure—who held the union of the sexes to be sinful in any form whatever. This sect I hardly need say is the Shaking Quakers; and to become a member of their society—a person already married would be required to dissolve his marriage relationship; a husband and wife joining that society would be required to do the same, and to abstain from each other forever afterwards, all connection with the sexes being strictly forbidden as an evil that may be tolerated in the carnal world, but not among those who desire to appear pure and holy before the Lord. This first commandment referred to, as having been given to father Adam and mother Eve, was in the days of their purity, before their transgressions, when they were worthy to converse with God face to face; this being the case, if there was no other reason, what philosophy can condemn that command or a proper and just effort to keep it? There is no reason, to my mind, to condemn it, when regulated by law, as an act of impurity; to do so would be a direct reflection upon the wisdom and purity of God Himself.

Of course, this is the general view taken of it by Christian nations, as shown in their acts and in their laws regulating it. Although the Roman Catholic Church prohibits intercourse with the sexes to sacred orders, they being, according to the rites of the church forbidden to marry. And however much some may doubt the iniquity of their holy vows, it is a matter too well known to call in question. The more general sentiment of Christians recognizes the purity and uprightness of marriage of a man to one woman; and they quote the following words of the Apostle Paul to testify to it, “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” But the majority of modern Christians consider that for a man to marry more than one wife while she lives and is his wife is sin. Now I will undertake to say respecting the two conditions of marriage, single and plural, that where the duties and obligations are the same, and the husband is equally honorable, just and virtuous, faithful and true to his wives and children, that there is not necessarily any greater impurity existing between such a man and his plural family, than between a man and his single family; that there is not necessarily a defilement of the marriage bed, that there is not necessarily defilement of the body or spirit. When the institution of marriage is founded in religious sentiment and is confirmed by the enduring love of husband, wives and children and the responsibilities attending that relationship, as we find it in many of the ancient worthies, there is not necessarily any defilement in plural marriage. There was not necessarily defilement in father Abraham and other ancient patriarchs and prophets who took to themselves a second or a third or a fourth wife, any more than there was in those who confined themselves to one wife. Nor have I ever heard from any creature and I have read and heard much and reflected much, because our institution of marriage has invited discussion and reflection upon this subject. I have never yet heard an argument that, to my mind, appeared sound against the marriage of an honorable man to two women any more than to one. And the only argument that has ever been presented that has had a semblance of soundness is the generally admitted fact of the near equality of the sexes which would seem to foreshadow the general purpose and design of providence that one man should have only one wife. I have never heard an argument relating to the physical effects of the institution, nor as relating to the state of society that could not be applied just as appropriately to monogamy. The opposers of plural marriage make many declarations against us which are untrue, which they do not understand because they accept the reports of certain persons who give way to a lying spirit, and misrepresent and belie people far better than themselves. The selfishness and weakness of human nature, the evils which manifest themselves from time to time between families and between husband and wife, and between wives and children are quoted as evils greatly to be deplored as growing out of this system. I will only say in regard to this, that those best acquainted with the intact workings of the system among the Latter-day Saints throughout all of their settlements, if they testify honestly and truthfully as to the result of their careful observations extending over a period of over thirty years—the time that this system of plural marriage has been practiced by us in these mountains, they would, in effect, say, that there is less discontent, less strife and fewer family broils and less divorce, and less casting off wives and casting upon the community of children without care, than would be found in the same number of monogamic families. And I may here say, that statistics will bear me out in making this assertion. To those who are not posted in the matter this may appear incredible; and the majority of the Christian world would think it impossible judging from their standpoint; and what they see and hear among themselves, and judging by the spirit by which they are animated, they would, I admit, pronounce this a thing impossible. But it is simply because they are not imbued with the faith of the Latter-day Saints, and this being the case they cannot understand the motives that prompt us to enter into this relationship. They cannot comprehend the spirit that governs us, the devout Godfearing spirit of self-sacrifice which leads us onward to all that is noble, forbearing and long-suffering, that teaches us to love one another and to be charitable to all men, and which teaches us that the relationships which we make through the marriage covenant are but the foundation of eternal glory and exaltation in the worlds to come; and it also teaches us that the glories of the future that open up before us are greatly dependent upon the faithfulness of our relationships and associations in this life; and that a man must be found capable to properly govern and guide his family and preserve in time the wives and children that are given to him, leading them in the way of life and salvation, and rearing his children in all that is pure and praiseworthy, so that he can receive them in the morning of the first resurrection, there to have the Father confirm upon him his wives and children, the foundation of his individual kingdom which will exist forever and ever. The outside world cannot comprehend this, and simply because they cannot believe it. It is this same religious sentiment that prompts women and the best of women, the most devout women, women of the purest motive and character to enter into this sacred relationship, and to cause them to determine in their own minds that they would sooner be associated with a man who has proven himself a man of integrity, a man of strict virtue and honor, who can be relied upon by God and man—they would rather trust themselves with such a man than to be the only wife of a man devoid of these qualifications, a man who, perhaps, for the want of such high motives would be the victim of many vices, of whoredom of concubinage or illicit intercourse with the sexes, and defile himself and destroy the confidence of his family in him, or he would perhaps indulge in drunkenness and other kindred vices which would be the means of producing the same result. And such has been the experience of many women in monogamy. And I do not say that the weaknesses of mankind do not manifest themselves in plural families; I do not say that there are not some who may be urged on by fleshy lust, but if there are it results in their making shipwreck of their faith and becoming, in time, a lasting disgrace to themselves. But where there is one example of this kind, under our polygamic system, there are at least two under the monogamic order that might be cited, who make shipwreck of their faith, who sacrifice their honor, and whose family send forth a wail of grief for the loss of confidence in husband and father. Adultery, fornication, whoredom, God will judge; every form of licentiousness He has condemned in His word from the beginning of the world to the present. And if follies are manifested by some who profess to be Latter-day Saints in this direction, so we may cite similar weakness manifested by ancient men of God; not, however, to justify such cases but merely as examples of human weaknesses.

Referring again to Abraham, and his wife Sarai. They are held up in sacred Scripture as models of noble character, purity of purpose, piety, devotion and superior integrity to God, who hesitated not to obey Him at all hazards even to the sacrifice of that which was nearest and dearest unto them. This Sarai, one of the noblest of women, received the promise of her son Isaac while in old age, a promise made to her by the angel of God, and this because of her barrenness and because too of the integrity of her heart towards her husband and her willingness to sacrifice her womanly feeling in giving to her husband other wives. And after she had given to Abraham Hagar, that she might bear him children, mark the Scripture: It was for the purpose that he might not be childless because she was childless. It was after she had thus sacrificed her womanly feeling, thereby manifesting her love and integrity to her husband, that the Lord had compassion upon her and granted the desire of her heart, promising her that she should in course of time bring forth a son, and telling her that his name should be Isaac, in whom and in whose seed all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. And it was after this lad was partly grown, that God commanded Abraham to take this promised child on to the Mount Moriah, and there build an altar and offer him up as a sacrifice. Abraham in this was tried as few men ever were tried; for his love was great for his son whom he would naturally regard as a special gift of the Lord to him, through whom no less a personage than the Messiah himself should come. Yet Abraham doubted not, he paused not to consider what the possible result might be of keeping this command; but he trusted in God as Paul said of him, “that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” He trusted in God and doubted not; and proceeded to Mount Moriah and there built an altar, and when everything was in readiness he bound the lad, and while in the act of raising the deadly knife, he heard a voice saying, “Abraham, Abraham, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” And then the Lord went on to say, that because of this willingness on the part of Abraham to obey Him even to the sacrificing of his only son, “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore,” etc. Now, I will give back unto you your son, and in blessing I will bless him and multiply him, and in him and his seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. It was because of this precious promise, no doubt, that he desired to give his sons opportunities to develop and to make manifest among the surrounding tribes the character that was in him, that he divided out his goods and gave gifts to the sons of the other wives and sent them away, but gave his chief inheritance to his son Isaac.

While contemplating this I can hardly refrain from dropping a word of exhortation to my brethren who may be drawing near the close of life, not to neglect to make such disposition of their worldly effects as will suitably provide for their wives and children while they (the brethren) yet live, following the example of Abraham, not that by any means would I encourage this example in all particulars; for it is not always as it was in the case of Abraham that God has made choice of one particular son in whom their seed shall be called; but common justice and equity requires of every father to deal fairly with each wife and child according as God has dealt with him in this world’s goods, that he may retain their esteem after he shall have departed from them. Nor should he trust too much to the uncertainty of courts at the present time; for we have in too many instances seen to our sorrow that federal courts, whenever they have had it in their power, or wherever they could, either by strained construction of the law, or by omissions of the law, wrong a plural family by giving to the first wife and her heirs that which should have been equitably divided among all the family, they have never missed the opportunity of doing it, thinking that by bringing oppression and injustice to bear they will succeed in discouraging the practice of this system of marriage. There is nothing in the faith of the Latter-day Saints or in the laws of God touching this matter that would prompt aught but justice and equality to all the wives and children. The duty of the husband is plain in this respect. And the duty of all wives and chil– dren is to love each other and the husband and father; all cherishing that love of the Gospel which binds our hearts together, and which alone can carry us through the trials and tribulations of life, and lift us up at the last day.

One would suppose from the hue and cry abroad in the land, which emanates chiefly from the clergy, that they are afraid the institutions of the Latter-day Saints will contaminate the whole land. What hypocrisy! I can hardly exercise patience sufficient to treat it with any degree of sobriety.

I am a native-born American; I was reared in the State of Vermont. In my early days the doctrine taught to our first parents, to multiply and replenish the earth, was popular; but during the period of my life that has elapsed, it has been almost totally ignored by the social circles of New England. When I last visited the old homestead, an old aunt nearly ready to go into her grave, told me that it was irregular for people nowadays to have large families. And it seems that this is the prevailing sentiment of that region; for in traveling through New England it was rarely I saw a woman with more than two or three children. Any of the older families, those honored matrons of New England, who lived contemporary with my mother, thought it honorable to raise large families; but my old aunt who was one of the last of that stock, has, by giving way to allowing the influence of death, has imbibed false notions; and when she thus expressed herself to me I knew she was not speaking the honest sentiments of her heart. Today infanticide and feticide are popular. Modern doctors and doctresses have arisen, men and women who are skilled in what are called the diseases of women, whose special practice is preventing fecundity, thereby securing to husband and wife the pleasures of self-gratification without bearing the responsibilities of maternity, and the trouble and expense of rearing children. These doctors and doctresses and the American students who have learned to practice their hellish arts, are today engaged in undermining the constitutions of wives and mothers; yes, child murder, this damnable doctrine of devils has become popular throughout New England, and is fast spreading over the American continent. And now it is the Irish woman, who believes in raising children, the foreign element that comes to the country that are considered the vulgar people; and were it not for this flood of foreign immigration the staid New England element would soon become extinct, and I say, in the name of Israel’s God, the sooner the better unless they repent of their murders, their whoredoms and their abominations that ascend to the heavens and are a stench in the nostrils of the Almighty. And, yet, it is this New England element whose garments are stained with the blood of innocence, that has found its way through our western States, thus has worked heart and soul with the hireling priesthood in firing up the national heart, and that is urging on hostile legislation against the best and purest people that exist upon the American continent. Is it public morality they seek? Is it the cause of public and private morality they champion? If so, we may repeat what we have so often said, which is so extremely unwelcome for them to hear: Weed your garden first at home, and then let your virtues be directed to the crying evils and sins of your large cities; and let child murder cease, and hang those infernal doctors who by means of their hellish arts are destroying the life of your offspring, and thus preventing the fulfillment of the first great command that God gave to our first parents; first petition Congress to pass laws to deal with the murderers and murderesses of the nation, the adulterers and adulteresses and all those who deal in shame, through whose wickedness the seeds of decay and death are transmitted to posterity. But methinks I hear one say, if this were done, and the laws were enforced, the large majority of the nation would be convicted. And it reminds me of a remark made recently by a gentleman in Congress. It was proposed that the bill, now being urged in Congress against polygamy, be so amended as to include adultery; the gentleman to whom the proposition was made was at first inclined to endorse the amendment, but on reflection, he turned to his friend and said, if that be done it would leave us without a quorum in the House. No, my friends, it is not adultery they wish to punish; it is not whoredom they wish to punish; it is not the cause of public or private virtue they champion; it is merely the hue and cry of the bigotry of our time against a people who are aiming at a higher morality than now exists, who are aiming to do away with and effectually destroy out of their midst the evil that is sapping the strength and vitality of our nation—a community that does not seek to shun the responsibility and the cares and labors and expense and trouble of rearing families and of educating them and making their children honorable men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, citizens of the state and defenders of human liberty.

We are accused of being governed by priestcraft, and priestly influence. I do not believe there is any portion of this community in any part of the land who are moved by priestly influence to half the extent that Judge Edmunds and the advocates of the bill that he champions against us are; and their consciences must teach them that they are hypocrites, and that they are but pandering to bigotry, and that their acts are not the acts of statesmen, but the acts of cringing politicians and demagogues. The priesthood of the Latter-day Saints belongs not to the lords but the commons; to men who have helped make the roads, to build the bridges and to kill the snakes; to men who have battled with the difficulties of a new country, and who by their hardihood and toil have subdued the wastes and redeemed the desert; men who have turned the mountain streams out of their course on to the new and virgin soil, making the land fruitful with fields and farms, gardens, orchards and vineyards; men who build houses, mills and factories, schoolhouses and churches, and who raise families and who take care of and educate their children. These are the men who hold the Priesthood, and who wield an influence in the midst of this people; and this class of men is properly represented in the legislature now in session, and they are asked to step down and out and let the government of the country pass into the hands of adventurers. Not that I would insinuate that there are not a goodly number of honorable men among us who are engaged in legitimate business pursuits, men who could be trusted to administer the government affairs of the Ter– ritory if they would follow their own hearts and consciences, and not allow themselves to be bulldozed as certain members of Congress are by the hireling Priesthood of the age. We could trust the judgment of such men; we could trust their natural good sense, and their business habits; but there are few who can be trusted to stand like a towering rock in the midst of the raging ocean, proof against the waves and surges of popular prejudice that pass over the land. And because of this the Latter-day Saints have been chary with regard to whom they exalt to power; and the few that have their confidence in this respect, are men who have never robbed or betrayed them. And honorable business men, bankers, merchants, miners, railroad men, etc., who have no political or religious standing to jeopardize are satisfied that the affairs of our Territory have been administered honorably and honestly.

Tricksters and adventurers clamor for free schools, but how many of them and those whose sentiments they voice really want to support them? A hobby is a nice thing to ride, and such people have many, but they must be hobbies that do not cost much. It is rumored throughout the land that the children of the Latter-day Saints are growing up in ignorance; those who utter those statements either know nothing of what they say, or they willfully and deliberately lie. Some may think these are hard words; it is language admissible under the circumstances, and it is easy to understand, plain and right to the subject, and I mean every word of it. The statistics of the country bear me out in it; and whoever will examine the census for the last decade may satisfy themselves on this point, namely, that percentage of illiteracy in Utah is less than one-half of that of the whole United States. They say the offspring of plural marriage tends to idiocy as well as illiteracy, which, however, is fallacious and clearly without foundation in fact. Let men of discernment and honor pass through our land, examine our schools and see the turnout of our forty thousand children at our Sabbath schools, and hear the questions put to them and their answers to the same; let them attend our children’s jubilees in our Tabernacle and look upon fifteen thousand faces radiant with youth and beauty, and hear their songs and other exercises, and they may at once satisfy themselves whether the children of the Latter-day Saints are either ignorant or idiotic. The late census shows that Utah’s percentage of idiocy, as well as illiteracy, is more than fifty percent less than that of the United States; it may also show that nowhere upon the American continent is there a place of the same age as Utah that has so many common schools in which are taught the common branches of an English education, and that too without a dollar’s aid from the general government. And our numerous children are all well cared for; and if we cannot indulge in all the excesses of fashion that are common in aristocratic circles, we are content to know that we are doing well; we are content where our wives are well housed, well fed and well clothed with fair advantages of education, self reliant and loving one another. And we are satisfied that ere long they will be a tower of strength in the land, not to menace the institutions of our country as enemies, as foolish men and women insinuate; not to menace public morality or private virtue; but to the contrary, when the nation, ripe in sin and iniquity, led on by reckless demagogues and politicians, shall applaud the acts of the legislators and judges and leading men in laying the axe deep in the tree of liberty, until they shall sap the juices that give life to our institutions, and thus undermine the foundation of good government, it will be sons and daughters of polygamous Utah, that will be found the true friends of human liberty, the true friends of that heaven-born freedom that has come to us through the fathers of our nation. The love of liberty is born in them, and human liberty is a part of the everlasting gospel; and God Almighty has decreed—and let Judge Edmunds and Congress and all the world hear it—that the gospel of the kingdom is established, never more to be thrown down or given to another people, that its destiny is to grow and increase and spread abroad until it shall fill the whole earth, and no power in earth or hell can stop it. “O, but,” say they, “we are going to imprison you polygamists and disfranchise you.” Supposing you do stop our voting, will that stop our tongues? “O, but we’ll imprison you.” Imprison and be damned, [Amen, by voices in the congregation] for you will be damned anyhow. [Laughter.] “We will imprison your wives, too, and we will not only stop from voting the men who have more than one wife, and we will not only stop the second or third, but also the first wife from voting.” And why? Because she, like Sarah of old, gave to her husband other wives. Some of the lawmakers of our nation would not only imprison Abraham were he living now, and also his plural wives, but they would disfranchise and imprison Sarah, his first wife, because she consented to his marrying other wives.

Well, this war is not a war of flesh and blood. We are not going to fight it with swords and cannons and weapons, but by the power of truth, by the word of God, and the eternal principles that our fathers fought for and established upon this American continent, and which God has decreed shall prevail upon this land. And blessed are they whose lives are bent on maintaining the principles of civil and religious liberty, for they will reap their reward, if not in this life, in the hereafter.

In all ages when the people of God listened to the voice and counsel of apostles and prophets, they enjoyed the blessings growing out of human freedom, and the tyranny and oppression of kings and rulers was impossible. There never was a kingly power placed over ancient Israel except against the remonstrance of the prophets; and it will be remembered, especially in the case of Israel when they openly clamored for a king to rule over them and to lead them to battle, how that Samuel warned them and plead with them, foreseeing, as he did, what the results would be. And the students of the Book of Mormon know how the Nephites progressed in establishing the principles of civil and religious liberty, and how that freedom extended throughout their borders, and how that prosperity and greatness attended their administrations under the counsels and teachings of the wise and just men who lived in their day.

Those who suppose that prisons and penalties are going to stop the spirit of truth in its onward march to triumph and greatness, or the influence and power of the truths of heaven which God has established in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints, comprehend not the designs of God, nor the spirit by which this people is actuated, that spirit which is leading them on and which enabled them to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods in Missouri and Ohio, and which still will enable them to sacrifice their all for the sake of the liberties of the everlasting Gospel, if God shall permit it to be so. What are houses and lands, what are goods and chattels, what is this city or thousands of cities like this compared with the liberties of the Gospel, the principles of worshipping and serving God according to His revealed will? God still lives who has led us all our life long to these valleys, and He will guide and direct our steps. But oh how strange that men pretending to be statesmen should read history so poorly as to suppose that by might and power, by bonds and penalties they can chain men’s thoughts or prevent them from acting according to their convictions. The power of might may destroy me—destroy you; it may break up homes and demolish cities, but it will be like the Canada thistle when it first made its appearance in New England. This weed was a great pest to the farmers, and it became a question among that class how to prevent its spreading. Some attempted to dig the thistles out, but they would spring up again all around the old stalk, and it was conceded by others that they could not be controlled. There was one man who owned a plantation who was determined to work vigorously for their extinction upon their first appearance on his land; and so determined was he that when he first discovered their whereabouts upon his plantation he built a log heap over them and set fire to it, leaving a pile of ashes to mark the spot where the thistles appeared. On the following season, to his great surprise, he found that where the log heap stood there was a perfect bed of Canada thistles, that the ashes left from the fire was just the food for the thistle to thrive on. So you will find it will be with us. After political demagogues and hireling priests and adventurers shall have expended their strength in trying to dig up and fire out of the land what they term “Mormonism.”

May the Lord help us to prove true to the trust that He has reposed in us, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Erastus Snow, delivered at Logan, Sunday Afternoon, February 5th, 1882.

I am asked to occupy the few minutes yet remaining: If the Spirit gives me liberty I will pursue the train of thought that has passed through my mind while Brother Richards has been speaking upon the spirit that has gone abroad upon the remnants of the house of Israel who occupy this land, the American Indians whom we understand to be the descendants of the Nephites, the Lamanites, the Lemuelites and the Ishmaelites who formerly possessed this land, whose fathers we have an account of in the Book of Mormon. Those who are most familiar with their history, and with the history of our settlements in these mountains for the last thirty years—the manner in which we have sent out our colonies to locate upon the land of the Lamanites: the manner in which we have treated with them to obtain their consent and approval to occupy and improve the land which they claim; the manner in which we have moved among them to maintain ourselves and to build the towns and cities which are now inhabited by our people throughout this mountain region: the manner in which we have sent out missionaries in advance of our colonies to open up the way, carrying with them the spirit of the holy Gospel, the spirit of peace, the spirit of love and brotherhood, to endeavor to impress them with the belief that we were not men of blood, but that we were a people who cherished and cultivated the spirit of peace; the course we have taken when difficulties would arise between them and our settlements, which occasionally would occur through the indiscretion of thoughtless and selfish men, to settle the same in a friendly, peaceful way, thereby avoiding bloodshed and war; and the spirit in which we have chastised them when it became necessary to do so, not in malice nor revenge, but as a father would chastise his wayward child, and then as soon as possible pour into their wounds the oil and the wine to heal them up again—those, I say, who are best acquainted with our labors in this direction will best appreciate the results.

I have had much experience during the last twenty years in this direction; and have, by means of the spirit of the Gospel, averted much war and bloodshed.

Wherever our colonies have been sent in advance, their influence has been felt for good—not alone to them, not only has it tended to establish confidence and a bond of friendship between the natives and our colonies, but it has also tended to restrain the uprising in their hearts to war against the white race, and has thus promoted peace to our General Government, the misrepresentations and the lying of our enemies to the contrary notwithstanding.

We know there are today, as there always have been, men who are suspicious and full of green-eyed jealousy, ever ready to misrepresent the purest motives of the best people on the earth; and acts of loyalty and honesty and commendation are construed to be those of conspiracy and wickedness. And we know too that among this class of vilifiers and defamers are many of the clergy, some of whom have come among us as followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, to bring to us glad tidings: but being wolves in sheep’s clothing they do the work of their master, and, therefore, they scatter broadcast lies and defamation. And many newspaper scribblers, who are ever ready to pander to popular sentiment, whether it be right or wrong, who know not the facts in the case, take up and republish to the world those truths and misrepresentations of the wicked men who are seeking notoriety at the expense of truth and justice.

The history of Utah Territory gives the lie to all these misrepresentations. There is no part of the American continent that has been peopled and redeemed from its desolated condition with so little blood– shed as Utah. There is no other State or Territory where the general government has expended so little force, or where so few lives have been lost in settling a country and maintaining peace with the Indians as Utah. Today the American nation is indebted for the spirit of “Mormonism” that has been diffused through this mountainous country in the maintenance of peace, and the saving to the nation of millions of treasure as well as thousands of lives.

And the wisdom of the Lord, through His servant Brigham Young, in sending colonies into Arizona, and on the several branches of the Colorado, also into the San Juan country, as well as on our eastward borders, may be witnessed today in the influence that is exerted by our people to check the spirit of war and bloodshed among the Navajos and the Utes and the Apaches. The wars that have troubled the country during the last four or five years in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, have been, to my certain knowledge, greatly mitigated by the presence of our colonies on their borders, and by the labors of our missionaries among the Indians. During those two years I have spent considerable time in visiting those colonies, and have, therefore, been brought in contact with many of the nations of the different tribes when they have been visiting colonies and missionary stations. And so has Elder Woodruff and some others of the Quorum of the Twelve. And I am a witness to this fact, that in every instance where the influence of our missionaries and our colonies has been exerted upon these fallen people, their chiefs have been imbued with the spirit of peace, and they in turn have exerted their influence on the side of peace to allay the uprising of their more bloodthirsty brothers. And when they have been almost on the point of joining distant warlike bands engaged in hostilities against the Government, and have come to us to know our views and to seek our counsel, our advice has always been in the interest of peace, in the spirit of kindness; we have always taught them to restrain their hostile feelings, and have portrayed to them the benefits of peace, forbearance and long-suffering, and advised them to endure what they considered wrong rather than to attempt to redress their wrongs in their feeble, helpless condition, by taking up arms against the strong and powerful government of the United States; and besides, that it was displeasing to God our heavenly Father, that they should shed the blood of man. Such is the character of the teachings and counsels of our leading men of the various settlements to the Indians, and of our missionaries who are sent among them.

And I have had the testimony, during the last two years, of many of our presiding Elders and Indian missionaries—and they are men, I know, whose word may be relied upon, and who are themselves, I know, the true friends of the Indians, and are laboring for their welfare—they assured me that had it not been for this influence, the young men of the Navajos would have been fighting with the Utes in Colorado during the last war, and that many more of the Apaches would have been on the war-path with the late Victorio in New Mexico.

And here let me say, the last outbreak of the Apaches last fall, was forced upon them by the foolish and ruthless procedure of some of the officers at Camp Apache, greatly to the disgust of every thinking man acquainted with the affairs of that country. It was no more nor less than an attempt to make a great national affair out of a little, harmless, religious enthusiasm that sprang up among that tribe. Once in a while the Indians become very much excited over some local prophet; and it was merely an event of this nature that led to the late Apache war; the interference of the troops to quell their religious enthusiasm. And I want to say that a general war all through these eastern mountains and Arizona was imminent last September and October, and have no doubt would have broken out, had it not been for the presence and influence of our colonies extended along their immediate borders, which are presided over by careful, wise men, and their intercourse and labors among the Indians; and for the conservative influence of those chiefs and leading Apaches that Brother Woodruff visited and preached the Gospel to two years ago, and whom I and some half-dozen of our brethren visited and labored with three years ago last summer, which had the tendency to restrain the uprising of their more hotheaded brethren and of quelling it. They did more than all the troops from California, New Mexico and Eastern Arizona in bringing about peace.

The influence of those friendly Indians, who had listened to the counsels of our missionaries and our leading men in that country, and to Brother Woodruff, who went through the mountains to hunt up the bands that had hidden, and who were procuring ammunition and otherwise preparing for war—I say, their influence was felt for good, as was fully attested by their success in bringing the hostiles in by hundreds in the vicinity of Cooley’s ranch and elsewhere, and in allaying the warlike spirit among the Indians generally around Camp Apache; and thus in a quiet way bringing about peace and preventing a general war.

I know these things are true. I was posted every day, being at the time on the Little Colorado, and in company with President Jesse N. Smith, who was in communication with our brethren on the borders of those hostile Indians, who had messengers going and coming every day to and from them bearing counsels of peace; and I know that the prayers of our people ascended to the Father in the interest of peace, that the counsels of peace might prevail among them; and I know too that our prayers, together with the good influences that had been exerted, did prevail on behalf of the Saints of that region of country. And I know and can testify that the influence of our interpreters and discreet Indian men and missionaries, whom we have located on the San Juan River, between the Navajos and the Ute reservations, who have been there during the last three years, as also those on the south of the Navajo reservation, and between the Navajos, and the Apaches on the various branches of the Little Colorado, I know that their influence and the effect of their teachings and counsels upon the Lamanites is in the interest of peace between the white race and the Indians of that country.

I feel it a pleasure to be able to speak knowingly of these things, and hope that this spirit of peace may extend throughout the land. Amen.

Discourse by Elder John Morgan, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, December 18, 1881.

It is a very pleasant thought that we, as Elders, have when traveling abroad preaching the Gospel, to look forward to the time when we shall have the privilege of again meeting with our friends and loved ones in the valleys of the mountains, to again share their love and to partake of the spirit of those who compose the body of this Church.

During the past summer and until a few days I have been engaged in missionary labor, chiefly in the Southern States. Our labors there have been, as have been the labors of the Elders in other missions, crowned with a certain degree of success. We have realized the blessings of God upon us in all our labors in the midst of the people, for which we feel to rejoice and give thanks and praise to him. The brethren who have gone from the different parts of the Territory to labor in the mission have as a general thing, enjoyed good health; and they are feeling well, as a rule, temporally and spiritually; and especially the younger brethren who have gone forth bearing the glad tidings of salvation. There has been evinced a feeling that certainly is most praiseworthy, a desire to emulate the example set by their fathers in preaching the principles of eternal truth, often under unpleasant circumstances. Because, however much the work of God may progress and be received abroad there is, as there has been, and doubtless will be, a spirit of opposition which has to be met by every Elder in the performance of his duty. It is true our young brethren have the benefit of the experience of their fathers and of men prominent in the Church, to encourage them, and which is highly appreciated by them, but after all they have to get the experience for themselves, in order that they may know what their fathers know, and that they may be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. I have scarcely found an exception among the scores of young men who have been called from the different avocations of life to go forth and proclaim the Gospel, but what they were worthy bearers of glad tidings.

There is an idea entertained by the pious world, whose sympathy for fallen humanity is so great as to be exercised towards us, that the old and grayheaded of the “Mormon” people, “you can do nothing with, they having become fossilized in their religious ideas and petrified in their faith; but the young may be induced to depart from the faith of their fathers.” This, however, has not been the experience we have had in the Southern States mission with our young Elders. On the contrary, we have found their faces set like flint toward the building up of the kingdom of God, and the proclaiming of the principles of truth. It often occurs in our missionary labors that Elders are called upon to pass through trying circumstances, but I do not remember of a single instance in which a young Elder flinched from the performance of his duty. They have always been ready and willing to add to the extent of their ability and strength in carrying out any measures thought necessary for the good of the cause, even to the risking of their lives. And I am led to believe from what I have witnessed in the young men who have come under my observation, that the great majority of our young people, growing up in these mountains have planted in their hearts the principles of truth, by which they will be governed in their lives. And in this connection there is this peculiarity. In our travels in the South we often meet with families who were once members of the Church, who during the trying times of Missouri and Illinois, or at some other time in the history of the Church, had stopped by the wayside—and where they stopped temporally they stopped spiritually; the cessation of their temporal work was the milestone that marked their spiritual resting place—but notwithstanding this falling away on the part of the parents, we found, as a general thing, that in the hearts of their children there was a love for the principles of eternal truth; and that if an elder was known to be in their vicinity they would send for him and make themselves known to him, and open their doors to him, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred they would ask to be baptized. This being true of the children of such families, who are isolated from the body of the Church, we might reasonably expect that the youth of Zion will be found true and faithful to the precepts of truth taught to them, through the force and benefit of example they receive from their parents who are members of the Church.

In our labors we at times meet with considerable opposition, but we notice that it, in the long run, in– stead of working to our injury, results in good. And what is true in the South in this respect is doubtless the case elsewhere. That which our enemies inflict upon us in the hope of breaking us up or weakening our position is, through an overruling providence, turned to result in good by bringing the honest in heart, the Israel of God, to a knowledge of the truth. The widespread feeling of opposition that exists toward us throughout the United States, arguing from past experiences, may be set down as a good omen for the future. But notwithstanding this general hubbub which the people seemingly have to indulge in semi-occasionally, we find in traveling and moving among the people very many upright noble men and women, and we find them belonging to various churches and religious bodies; and then we meet with others who are not connected with any sect or denomination, and who are seeking for truth let it come from where it may. And this class, in my opinion, is not small throughout the United States; in fact, I might with safety say, that there are thousands of such people who have not heard the sound of the everlasting Gospel, there being vast districts of country occupied by hundreds of thousands of peoples who do not know whether the Latter-day Saints believe in God or not, whether they accept the Bible or reject it, people who are totally ignorant in regard to our views; and among these there are many thousands of the honest in heart. We find that the spirit of opposition that we have to meet, as a rule, culminates in violence; and that the more success we have in baptizing people, the more bitter the feeling manifested toward us by our opponents.

We are, doubtless, traveling in the Southern States Mission, by way of making converts as fast as it would be prudent. If our labors should be crowned with any greater success, that is, to any considerable extent, the opposition would be correspondingly more ripe, and the consequence would be, we would have a bigger row on our hands than we would care to face.

We find a great many prominent, leading men in our travels who are willing to act fairly and honorably by us; men who use their influence with their friends in our behalf by endeavoring to place in their minds correct ideas in relation to us and our situation. To illustrate this idea, I will relate an incident that occurred during the summer. The Legislative Assembly of one of the States, Missouri—whose members had been urged on by sectarian bigotry, had a bill introduced that it was supposed would act against the “Mormons” in that State. Some of the distinguished citizens, honorable, fair-minded people, said to certain of the legislators: “You pass that bill and one-half of the State will become Mormons; that will evidently be the result. Why? Because the moment you adopt such measures you are in the wrong, let them be what they may.” There are many men of that way of thinking who have moral courage sufficient to speak their minds; and the influence of such men is felt for good. And here let me say to the credit of the press that, bitter as the opposition is, we scarcely ever find a daily newspaper of any prominence but what will open its columns for us to vindicate our course. And in addition to what I have said in alluding to the class of people who are liberal and cosmopolitan in their views, we find such people ever ready and even anxious to learn in regard to our religious belief. And notwithstanding the fact that among this class are found men of learning and deep research, men who are looked up to by their fellow men, strange as it may seem to a people who keep pace with the age, we find the great majority of them much astonished when they learn that we believe in the Bible, and that we take the teachings of that Book to substantiate our doctrines. Among this class who are so uninformed as to our theological status are Congressman, governors, legislators and others of distinction and character.

We find also in the ordinary walks of life honest-hearted people. We find them in the churches and out of the pale of the church. We meet with men belonging to the sects of the day who say, “If we have not got the truth, we wish to obtain it.” And we meet with others who do not belong to any religious denomination who say, We have examined the doctrines taught by the different churches; they will not do. Now we are willing to investigate what you teach. But, then, we cannot help but notice this kind of expression in their faces: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Can any good come out of Utah? This of course, is owing to the widespread misunderstanding in regard to our religious views.

The newspapers today are teeming with articles in regard to the Latter-day Saints. We are written about by editors and special correspondents; local editors gather up items respecting us and our labors among the people of their vicinity; reporters appear to be greedy for an interview with a “Mormon;” ministers preach about us from their stands, and lawyers have to allude to us from the forum; and to such an extent is this spirit and feeling indulged by the people of all grades and classes, that today “Mormonism” is a living question in the United States. Recently some politicians endeavored to work up an issue, and make a live question out of the tariff, and it was rather amusing to witness after their exertions how slow the public were to take the bait. And especially amusing did such efforts appear to those who watch with a lively interest the progress of this latter-day work called “Mormonism,” in view of the fact that if a couple of “Mormon” Elders go into a town, almost without any effort on their part to make themselves known, the whole town is stirred up. In my opinion the “Mormon” iron is red hot, and it is a proper time for the Elders to beat it into shape.

We observe changes taking place in the minds of the people continually. Indeed, I can notice marked changes in the people of the United States during the past six years. For instance, quite recently I listened to a sermon preached by one of the distinguished ministers of the United States, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and was very much surprised to hear him enunciate an idea like this: “What shall be done with all the thousands and millions of the human family who knew not, even of the existence of the Bible. Shall they perish?” “No,” said he, “not if my God reigns in the next world.” But, continued he, “what shall be done? They will have the Gospel preached to them in the spirit world.” Another minister, the Rev. Dr. Thomas, of Chicago, of the Methodist Church, made similar assertions; but he was not as strong as Mr. Beecher, and they therefore excommunicated him from the church. But Beecher could make it, and no one dare say nay. So we find religious ideas undergoing a change, until there is scarcely a religious denomination today but what has done what the Pharisees of old did—put new wine into their old sectarian bottles, and the probable result will be, as Jesus said, their bottles will burst. They are endeavoring to patch their old sectarian clothes with pieces of new cloth, and the result will be that they will be obliged to keep patching in order to keep the garment together. And thus their religious ideas are drifting to and fro.

And what is true with regard to their religious views is also true with regard to their political ideas. I had an excellent opportunity recently to witness a remarkable change in public sentiment. Public sentiment, you know, is a very strong argument in the minds of some people. “Why, public sentiment is against you,” they say. I remember listening to Gov. Bross, of Illinois, who spoke in front of the Townsend House, one night, some years ago. The foundation of his argument was that thirty-five millions of people in the United States were opposed to us; that in short, public sentiment was opposed to us. I had my mind directed to the fickle nature of public sentiment quite recently in Nashville, Tennessee. Some 25 years ago a certain race of people were held in slavery there. Slavery was an adjudicated question at that time. But it was claimed by the opponents of slavery that if a negro and his wife could be taken out of Missouri through Illinois, that they were entitled to their freedom because they were then upon free soil. It was, however, decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, by Chief Justice Roger B. Tanney, that black men had no rights that a white man was bound to respect, that, in fact, they were chattel property. And the people of the United States almost en masse applauded the decision, a few only dissenting, they being what were called abolitionists. Wendell Phillips, a distinguished orator, undertook to lecture in Boston against slavery, and learned as Boston was, educated as Boston was, the noted lecturer was egged off the platform, having to make his escape from the mob.

Twenty-five years have gone by since Phillips was mobbed, and now for the contrast. Some four or five weeks ago I boarded a through passenger car at Nashville, Tenn., to Cincinnati, there were seated in the car some 25 ladies and gentlemen. After I got comfortably seated alongside a person who proved to be a Christian minister of the Campbellite persuasion, and an editor, we perceived a little difficulty as the car door. On investigation we learned that a negro woman held a first-class ticket, and demanded admittance to a seat in this, a first-class car. She was entitled to a seat there, having procured a ticket, according to the provisions of the civil rights bill; but the rules of the railroad company would not permit it. The manager was sent for, and after some conversation with the colored woman, addressing himself to the passengers already seated in the car, he said: Ladies and gentlemen, will you please take seats in the car to the rear. We did so. It proved to be a smoking second-class car. He then admitted the old negro woman, who occupied our car. After we had taken in the situation and were reseated, addressing myself to the gentleman whose acquaintance I formed on entering the car, I said, “Mr. Editor, twenty-five years ago, had a man dared to do what this negro woman has done, you would have hung him to a lamppost. Now, I will dare say, there is not a paper in the city of Nashville that will venture to write one line, in condemnation of this piece of impudence.” He acknowledged there was not. And why this change? Public sentiment had revolutionized in a quarter of a century. The negro slave of Phillip’s day is the sovereign citizen of today.

These are revolutions that are occurring among the children of men that are of a serious nature. And what is true in a political sense, is true in a religious sense. It is a very common observation among the people everywhere that we are not taught religiously what we were twenty-five years ago, or ten years ago. They are drifting to and fro religiously as well as politically.

Another feature associated with this: About forty years ago a number of our Elders traveled through the Southern States—it may have been in 1844. And as they journeyed along, they scattered all over the country tracts and books, setting forth our faith and doctrines. And today it is not infrequent, on our going into a neighborhood and talking to the people, that they will say, “Our minister has been preaching that.” Ah, indeed. Well, can we see him? “O, yes; we will ask him to come and see you.” On our conversing with him, we have found that he has a Voice of Warning hidden away in his saddle pockets, which he had been reading, and believing some of its pages, he had been preaching some of the principles of the Gospel to his own congregation, which they would believe, and receive without even “a grain of salt.” This willingness on the part of the people to receive principle, good or bad, from the lips of their own minister, reminds one of the same state of things that existed in the days of the Savior, as indicated by these words: “Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.”

It is a self-evident fact; it is a truth patent to the most casual observer that the teachings of Joseph Smith have revolutionized the religious world. And the spirit that is working this change is growing and extending, until today there is inquiry upon the right hand and the left.

As a general thing those who receive the Gospel in the Southern States are to be from what are termed the middle classes, people who are the owners of small possessions which, when sold, realize them sufficient to provide themselves a suitable outfit and take them to their emigrating point. There have been some instances, however, when their possessions have been sold, even where they possessed good homes, that the proceeds of the sale have been insufficient to emigrate them. This has been due, in part, to the peculiar circumstances by which they have been surrounded. In the first place a terrible war devastated their country; and since that time they have been under carpetbag rule. And the consequence is, in many places property has depreciated, life has been insecure, laws have been trampled under foot, and little progress has been made.

The people living in Utah can scarcely sense the true situation of the Southern States people. There has been a dreadful drouth this summer. I suppose the majority—I may say the entire South has not raised sufficient grain to bread themselves to the first of April. The corn yield will not, it is said, exceed four bushels to the acre, and the cotton crop may be a little rising of one-third the usual harvest. The result will be more or less suffering among the poorer people this winter. Wages are very low. A man can be employed, a strong, able-bodied man, either white or colored, for from $6 to $8 per month including board; and from $10 to $12 when they board themselves. Flour is 5 dollars per 100 pounds, and other provisions in proportion. I noticed that dry goods were as high in Nashville as they were in our settlements in Colorado. Wages are at such a low figure that it seems almost impossible for the people to live, when they depend upon day’s wages for a living. In addition to this there seems to be a wasting away of the earth, a weakening in its strength, affecting its ability to produce abundantly. Fields that a few years ago yielded good crops, are bordering on sterility today. There are hundreds and thousands of acres of land that formerly were very prolific have today become “commons,” covered with edge grass and sassafras bushes. And it is talked about by the landowners, and commented upon by the people generally; and they believe that something is wrong, but what it is or where it is, they do not know.

Monopolies and corporations have also a tight grip upon the people. Where there are iron works, where there are railroads, where there are factories, they are owned by a few men, and these few men hold such power, that the people cannot make any move and succeed in it, that would be opposed to the in– terest of the monopolists. And today, it is one of the strongest points of opposition that we have to meet in that mission in preaching the Gospel. Laboring men say, If I take you to my house and receive you as my guest, these men who own this property will turn me out; these men who employ me in their factory will drive me away, my family will suffer, as I have nothing laid up. Under the circumstances, they have not the faith sufficient to meet the issue; and consequently our labors are not crowned with that success, as they evidently would be if the people enjoyed their liberty. But even under these circumstances, many do receive us and proclaim openly their faith.

In addition to this, all experience that opposition which is as old, doubtless, as the preaching of the truth; and this comes from the clergy. And here let me say, that the opposition we meet with from that quarter, to a great extent, has its foundation in Salt Lake City. There walk the streets of our city men who produce and feed the flame of prejudice that exists today in the United States; men who profess to be the friends of their fellow men; men who come here with a smile on their faces pretending to do us good, pretended followers of the meek and lowly Savior. These are the characters that send these infamous lies abroad in regard to the Latter-day Saints. They are prejudicing the mind of the people of the United States against our missionaries and against the truth. When I have visited the cities where these men came from who have come to Utah as reformers, I have been deeply impressed, and deeply moved at the condition of their society contrasted with that of this people.

Some time last summer I had business in Louisville, Kentucky, connected with our emigration, and was detained there two or three days, having nothing particular to do but to walk around the city and see what was to be seen of interest. And in walking the streets of that city I thought that in all my travels I had never before seen such evidences of wickedness, corruption and degradation. There are portions of that city that seem to have become corrupted to such an extent, that Sodom and Gomorrah would have blushed at the mention thereof. Men and women could be seen in the most beastly state of drunkenness, and little children, bearing the marks of the lowest degradation—waifs of society, growing up as hoodlums, with no sense of the difference between right and wrong excepting that which nature itself has planted there, to furnish future material for the gallows. I thought in contemplating the scene that presented itself in the streets of the city of Louisville, ay, even at noonday, to say nothing of that which the recording angels are obliged to look upon in the darkness of the night—I thought of the reformers who come to Utah fresh from such haunts of vice and corruption, and then I thought of you, my brethren and sisters; and you can better imagine my feelings than I can describe them.

I went to one of their hospitals and sought an introduction to one of the physicians; on learning who I was he expressed himself pleased to meet me, and proffered his own services to accompany me over the building, which I gladly accepted. On passing through the different wards I saw sights that I trust my eyes shall never be called to look upon again. He opened his book in which was recorded the names of the patients who had been admitted during the past twelve months, and I had the curiosity to ask him to tell me the nature and character of the disease of these people. He informed me that three-fourths of all cases were, what is termed venereal disease. This is not hearsay; these are facts that exist of which the records testify. And from the windows of this hospital, this living monument of the morals of Louisville, Kentucky, was pointed out to me the residence of one of these “reformers” of the Latter-day Saints. And in conversation with one of these “reformers” who had been here, whose acquaintance I had formed when he was here—he recognizing me while traveling in a railway car, and came and shook hands with me, and sat down alongside of me—he asked me “how our friends were getting along in Utah.” “Whom do you mean,” said I, “by our friends?” I mean the ministers who have gone there,” he replied. They are, I think, getting along in their way pretty well. What have they done? They have established whiskey shops! They have imported houses of prostitution, and they have brought hoodlums into our midst, and they thrive under their spiritual care. They have caused sorrow on the hearts of fathers and mothers, by ruining the prospects of sons and daughters whom they have led astray from the paths of honor and credit. Now is not that glorious work to be engaged in! Do you not congratulate yourselves in having been connected with men whose object and labor has been to turn men and women from the truth, from bearing the fruits of morality and righteousness, and failing in that to join hand in hand, heart and soul, with those whose mission is to introduce into our midst the seeds of ruin and decay, to deprive and demoralize your fellow men. Certainly it is a noble calling to be engaged in. Think of it! Latter-day Saints. Here are men engaged in the work of trying to lead our sons and daughters astray, and they are bold enough to publish boastfully to the world that they would rather see our young people frequent dens of iniquity, saloons, gambling houses, and houses of prostitution, than that they should adhere to the “Mormon” faith. Strange as it may seem, with all the enlightenment of this the Nineteenth Century, with our glorious constitution, and our declaration of the rights of man, and the boasted civilization of today, officials of the government of the United States will back men up in this damnable work. It may be that an Elder abroad devoting his time and ability to the conversion of souls would feel this more keenly than those who are in the midst of it every day.

These are some of my meditations as and Elder in the missionary field.

Our brethren and sisters who have emigrated to the State of Colorado, are succeeding fairly well; they have their fields fenced in and they harvested a pretty fair crop this year. The Railroad Companies have been kindly disposed to them, offering them assistance in various ways, by way chiefly of affording them employment at remunerative wages, and seeking after them, in fact to do their work in preference to others. They have their organizations—the Seventies, Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons’ quorums; they have their young people’s Mutual Improvement Societies organized; and I had the pleasure of attending one of their meetings in the meetinghouse which the people built two and a half years ago. I remember attending one of the first meetings that was held in that house, and there were present not more than 27 all told, and said to them that in the course of four or five years this same house will not hold the people; and today it is entirely too small, in fact it would not comfortably seat the young people of Manassa. The first location was made there in the spring of 1878. Since then some two or three settlements have been organized besides; our brethren in that quarter are spreading out and wresting from the barren wastes comparatively comfortable homes. Their associations with the Mexicans are cordial. While they have been kindly disposed towards our people, our brethren have acted honorably towards them, and hence mutual good feelings exist between them. I also spent a few days with our brethren who are locating Sunset, Brigham City and St. Joseph. They have had rather a bad year, as to crops, on account of high waters, the Little Colorado flooding the valleys, and destroying to a great extent their crops. But the building of the railroad in their borders has, through Brother John W. Young, the contractor, furnished them with labor, and it will continue, I understand, for some 12 or 18 months yet, so they will not suffer so much as they otherwise would, in consequence of the loss of their crops.

As Elders traveling without purse or scrip, proclaiming the principles of eternal truth, we need the faith and prayers of the Saints in our behalf, for the devil, it would seem, is even more determined now than ever to put it into the hearts of wicked and bigoted men to oppose and, if possible, hinder us in the performance of our duty. And one item that comes to my mind I will mention. I have noticed when abroad that if anything in the world would cheer and encourage an Elder when far from home, it is to receive word from his family that they were cared for, and did not want for the necessaries of life. And there is nothing that will weaken an Elder so effectually and so discourage him in his labor as to receive word from those whom he holds near and dear, to the effect that they are in need of the necessaries of life, that they are unpleasantly situated, that the house they live in does not afford them sufficient protection from the inclemencies of the weather. In one or two instances Elders have come to me to relieve their minds of such a burden, and, as I say, there is nothing that I have witnessed that so effectually unfits a man for missionary labor as the receipt of such intelligence. Therefore, in behalf of those who have left their all to proclaim to their fellow men the principles of eternal truth, let me solicit the good offices of their friends at home, in behalf of such families who may not be so well prepared to live during the absence of husband and father. Any little attention shown them under such circumstances not only does good to the family, but is appreciated by him whom duty has called elsewhere; and often, under trying circumstances, the knowledge of such kindnesses, cheers and encourages him, and makes comparatively easy labors that would otherwise be hard to bear. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, December 11, 1881.

I am pleased to have the opportunity of meeting with and addressing the Saints in this place. Since our last Conference I have traveled a great deal among the Saints in different parts of the Territory, in part accompanied by some of my counsel and the Twelve. Personally within a short time I have visited all the leading settlements of the Saints both north and south, east and west, and it may not be unin– teresting to you to hear a brief statement of the position which the Saints occupy in their various locations and settlements; because we all of us feel more or less interested in the welfare of all. It was in view of this that I felt a desire to visit the Saints at their own homes, to associate with them at their own firesides, or at least to meet them in their public assemblies. It has been very interesting to myself and accompanying brethren to find out the true position which the Saints occupy, to know what their standing is in relation to their religious views and sentiments, and also to ascertain their moral status and how they conduct themselves not only religiously but socially. And then another thing that we felt desirous to understand was the true educational condition of the Saints; and what they were doing to enlighten the minds of the youth and to train them in the right paths, and how far literature, science and those principles of intelligence which are calculated to exalt and ennoble men when under proper influences, prevailed among our people, and in what manner they deported themselves in regard to all these things. We have felt the more desirous to do this because many of the Saints live far from the seat of the Presidency of the Church. I suppose so far as we have been in this Territory, in the adjoining Territory of Idaho, in some portions of Wyoming, and in other portions south, that we have not traveled less than from 500 to 600 miles in a direct course north and south, besides visiting nearly all the prominent settlements east and west, and our feeling and impressions after visiting the whole of the Saints in all of their locations are to us very interesting and encouraging. So far as the temporal position of the people is concerned, they seem to be in possession of a reasonable share of the good things of life; their habits of industry and perseverance, their self-abnegation, the desire to comprehend and sustain correct principles, together with the blessing of the Almighty, have tended to promote their welfare in a temporal point of view.

We do not find so many very wealthy people as there are in some communities, but our people, so far as our observation goes (and we have had a pretty fair opportunity of investigating all these matters), are second to none in regard to the comforts, conveniences and necessaries of life; and perhaps there is no place nor people (at least, none that I have any knowledge of, and I have traveled quite extensively myself in the world), that are better situated as a whole than are the Latter-day Saints in this and the adjoining territories, nor where more of the people dwell in their own homes. We find thousands upon thousands of happy homes, and the people that inhabit them are sober, industrious, frugal and Godfearing, feeling a strong desire to observe the laws and keep the commandments of the Lord; and notwithstanding the many aspersions cast upon them by wicked and designing men, they nevertheless evince a strong desire to observe the laws and institutions of the land. We find them in possession generally of good houses, farms, orchards, gardens, and in many instances, of cattle, sheep, horses, and all the appliances of life which tend to promote comfort in a social and family capacity. We find, too, that this season has been a very prosperous one, with very few exceptions, throughout the length and breadth of the Territory. The Lord has blessed our labors, exceedingly, and I presume that the crops, as a general thing, have been increased at least 20 to 25 percent, I think we should be quite safe in saying 20 percent; and this, of course, tends to make existence more pleasant and agreeable, and to enable the people to more easily struggle in the battle of life in its various forms and phases. In addition to this we find that they are generally seeking to live their religion and to keep the commandments of God. And the various organizations which you have among you here, in this city, prevail throughout all the settlements of the Saints with very few exceptions, very few indeed. We find that the Relief Societies which are so active and energetic among you here and which are operating so creditably in looking after the interest and welfare of the female portion of our society, also exist all over the Territory, and that there is a creditable zeal and intelligence without that obtrusiveness which we see among many—a desire to promote the well-being of those with whom they are associated, and to make themselves useful in all the affairs of life: and we feel whenever we find a disposition of this kind, to appreciate it. We find, also, that our Young Men’s and Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Associations prevail almost everywhere, and that there is a desire to elevate the youth and lift them up from the sloughs of ignorance and darkness, and to implant within their minds true and correct principles, putting them in possession of a knowledge of science, literature, and the arts, and cultivating those principles that are calculated to elevate and ennoble mankind, as well as to correct their morals and govern them in their religious pursuits. We find, also, that their Primary Associations are attended to with the same vigilance that they are around us here, and that the most wise, prudent and intelligent ladies are selected for the purpose of supervising their movements and in “teaching the young idea how to shoot.” We find, also, that throughout the Territory our Sunday Schools receive that attention which we consider all such institutions ought to merit and do merit, and that the best of men and women are selected for their teachers, who, as we see, take an interest in the welfare of our rising posterity.

It is not for me to enter into all particulars; I merely wish to give a brief outline of these matters. All of these institutions that I have referred to are in a very creditable position; are managed with great care, and many of your old neighbors who used to live here in the city, both men and women, and who were known as high-minded, honorable persons—we find mixed in the various societies throughout the settlements and organizations, exerting an influence which is truly interesting to all who feel desirous to promote the welfare of Zion and the building of the kingdom of God upon the earth. Then, again, in regard to our scholastic affairs, we find that there is very great progress being made in our common schools, or rather what are termed our district schools. We find that a more intelligent class of teachers is being employed, and that with the operations of the normal department of the University, with the Brigham Young Academy in Provo, and other institutions of learning, they are telling very favorably upon our youth, and as better teachers are obtained, there seems to be a greater desire manifested among the people to acquire intelligence of every kind. From the best information that I am able to obtain, I suppose there are at least thirty normal students turned out every year. They are prepared in our University and in the other scholastic institutions referred to, and as these teachers, coming from their own counties and peoples, return to their several homes, properly qualified as instructors, they do a great deal of good among the community.

In relation to other matters, such as the building of Temples, they are also progressing very favorably. I need not say anything about the one we are building here; you are all acquainted with that. The one which is being built in Logan is now covered in. A large force of carpenters are engaged in finishing the interior department thereof, and another year will count very favorably in the work on that structure. It is a beautiful building, and stands in a very imposing position on an elevated plateau in Cache County, near Logan. About 200 miles from that, in the south, in Sanpete County, there is another Temple being built. That also occupies a very eligible position. A very large amount of labor has been performed in preparing the site. The point of a mountain has been removed, and a great amount of labor has been expended on the walls which surround the Temple, forming nearly a semi-circle. There are three terraces elevated one above another, the same as the gallery may be elevated above the lower part of this house; they surround the Temple, being wider, of course, at the lower part and narrower as they approach towards the Temple. A very large amount of means and labor have been expended in preparing these terraces and also in preparing the Temple. The Temple itself is a beautiful structure. They expect to have the walls up to the square in another season. I think they have built up the wall this year some 28 feet. It is built of beautiful white rock—or at least very light, clear rock and is hewn on the outside where the joints come together, and presents a very beautiful and creditable appearance. It is interesting, too, to find how strongly the feelings of the people are drawn out in relation to these edifices. They seem to think that no sacrifice is too great to accomplish the object which they have in view; indeed in both of these Temple districts they seem to take very great pride in prosecuting this labor. I was informed that the superintendent was a little short of means a short time ago at the Manti Temple, and he asked if he must slacken the labor. They told him no, he was to proceed with it, and I think in a very short time a number of people from different parts subscribed 7,000 bushels of wheat to assist in the construction of the Temple, and there seems to be, generally, a strong desire for the accomplishment of this work.

The religion that we have espoused, connects time with eternity, heaven with earth, this world with the next, and while the Lord has revealed unto us what is termed a new Gospel, and hence it is called the new and everlasting Gospel—new indeed to the people of the world, but everlasting so far as God is concerned and the interests of mankind both living and dead; for God is interested in the welfare of all humanity that has ever lived, that now lives, or that ever will live. He is, we are told, the God of the spirits of all flesh, and he has introduced principles which have been made known to us for the benefit of all. The principles that we are associated with reach back into eternity and forward into eternity. They are not the ideas, the theories or notions of men, they emanate from the Almighty. And in regard to the ideas which have been developed pertaining to the past, the present and the future, none of us can claim ourselves to be the founders or the originators of any one idea associated with the Church and kingdom of God, neither was Joseph Smith, neither was Brigham Young, neither are any of the Twelve, nor is anybody that now exists or has existed; all of these things come from the Lord. And having proceeded from him he has dictated the whole matter from first to last. We did not receive our ideas from any theologian, from any scientist, from any man of renown, or of position in the world, or from any body or conclave of religionists, but from the Almighty, and to him we are indebted for all life, all truth, and all intelligence pertaining to the past, pertaining to the present, or pertaining to the future. Therefore we feel our dependence upon him. Neither are we indebted to any man for any doctrine that we have received, nor for the organization of our Church, nor for the Holy Priesthood, whether it be the Melchizedek or the Aaronic; all of these proceed from the Almighty, and if he had not given them we should have been as ignorant of them as others are, for they do not generally comprehend the law, the word, the will, or the design of the Almighty; for no man knows the things of God but by the Spirit of God; and if the Father did not reveal them we should be very ignorant indeed, as are the rest of mankind pertaining to these matters. But the time having come to introduce what is termed, the “dispensation of the fulness of times,” when God would gather together all things in one, whether they be things in heaven or things on the earth, it became necessary, because of the ignorance of men, because they did not comprehend God, nor his laws, nor the principles of eternal truth, that men should be taught of the Almighty, that God should be their instructor, and hence he introduced through the medium of the Holy Priesthood that had existed heretofore upon the earth, those principles which are calculated to bless and exalt the human family, prepare them to carry out the word and will of God, and to accomplish these purposes which he had designed from before the foundation of the world. Hence he organized the First Presidency and the Twelve, he organized the Seventies, he organized Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons, he organized Bishops and High Councils and all the various adjuncts associated with the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And why, it may be asked, should these institutions be introduced in our midst? For certain obvious reasons when we reflect upon this all-important matter. Having revealed his will to man, to Joseph Smith, as he had done to other men in former ages, it was necessary that that will should be made known to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, that men might be informed of the things that he revealed for the salvation and exaltation of humanity. Hence the Twelve were set apart. For what purpose? That they might introduce the Gospel to the nations of the earth, and preach the principles of life as they emanate from God. Then the Seventies also were ordained until we now have upwards of seventy times seventy. What is their business? Under the direction of the Twelve, to preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth. Are they doing it? Yes. Have they been doing it? Yes. And the Twelve? Yes, for these many, very many years, and are still doing it. We still feel the same responsibility devolving upon us to spread forth that light, that truth, and that intelligence which has emanated from God our heavenly Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ. And these men are going forth bearing precious seeds, even the seeds of eternal life, and when the people believe the Gospel what do they do? Their testimony to the people is that God has spoken, that the Gospel has been restored; they explain what the Gospel is; they call upon the people to repent and to be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, promising that the obedient shall receive the Holy Ghost. Do they baptize them? Yes. Do they lay on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost? Yes. Do the people receive the Holy Ghost? Yes, and you here today are my witnesses in relation to these things, and you know what I say is true. And what will the Holy Ghost do? It takes of the things of God, and shows them unto us; it brings things past to our remembrance; it leads us into all truth and shows us things to come. Does it do that? Yes, and it is because of this principle that the Latter-day Saints feel as they do; having partaken of the Holy Ghost and tasted the powers of the world to come, and having received a hope that enters within the veil, whither Christ the forerunner is gone, and knowing today that they are the sons of God, and that they have rights and privileges pertaining not only to time but to eternity, they feel to act and operate under the directions of that spirit. And being partakers of that spirit, there is a communication opened between them and their heavenly Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, and being inspired by that spirit, their prayers ascend unto the God of the whole earth; they learn to place their confidence in him and to obey his laws; and then having been baptized into one baptism; they all partake of the same spirit—that is, those who are living their religion, observing the laws of God and keeping his commandments, and who have not grieved the Spirit of God, whereby they are sealed to the day of redemption. Then, that same spirit that brought them into the Church and led them to obey the laws of God, led them to gather together as we are here today. It is a false idea entertained by many very ignorant men that we gather men together on some kind of emigration principle. The people get the principle of gathering in their own hearts by the Spirit of God, and that draws them here. There needs no argument, no influence, no power of suasion, or anything of the kind to bring them here. Their desire, when they receive the Gospel, is to come to Zion. And why? That they may learn more fully of the laws of life. As the scriptures say—“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 to Zion?” “I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Hence we have come together as we are here in this city and in this Territory. Our object is to fear God, to observe his laws, to magnify our calling, to fulfil our destiny upon the earth, and to operate with those who are behind the veil in the interests of humanity, to lay aside our selfishness, our covetousness, our evils of every kind whatever they may be, and to purge ourselves from unrighteousness, that we may be fit receptacles for the Holy Ghost and be prepared to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. I know a great many men object to us doing this. No matter; with God’s help we will try to do it; no matter what the opinions and ideas, the feelings and theories of men are. God has laid on us a mission, and in the name of Israel’s God we will fulfil it, and let all Israel say Amen. [The congregation responded aloud, Amen]. We will try and carry out what God has given us to do, no matter what men’s theories, opinions or ideas may be. We are here, then, for that purpose. And we feel that God is our heavenly Father; we feel that we are his children; we feel that we are doing his work by his assistance, we feel, too, that he is engaged just as much as we are, and a thousand times more, in carrying on this work, and therefore we feel easy and satisfied in our minds and know that all is well. God our heavenly Father, Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, the ancient patriarchs and prophets and men of God who have lived upon the earth years and years ago, Adam the Father of mankind, and Noah, another great father, and Abraham the father of the faithful, and all the Prophets, Apostles and men of God who have lived upon the earth are interested as we are in the welfare of humanity and in seeking to introduce and carry out the word and will of God which he designed before the world rolled into existence or the morning stars sang together for joy. God will accomplish his work and we will try and help him do it. It needs the cooperation of all these men who have held this Priesthood, who administer in time and in eternity—it needs the cooperation of all those and of the Gods in the eternal worlds to assist us in the labors in which we are engaged. Therefore, God has introduced the system of things that we have been speaking of for the purpose of gathering together a people who would listen to his voice and they are the only people on the earth today who will listen thereto, and then it is as much as the bargain for many of us to do it. God expects to have a people who will be men of clean hands and pure hearts, who withhold their hands from the receiving of bribes, who will swear to their own hurt and change not, who will be men of truth and integrity, of honor and virtue, and who will pursue a course that will be approved by the Gods in the eternal worlds, and by all honorable and upright men that ever did live, or that now live, and having taken upon us the profession of sainthood, he expects us to be Saints, not in name, not in theory, but in reality. And then he expects us to do just what we are doing, that is, to build Temples, and to preach the Gospel to an unthankful world. Have we done it? Yes, we have. I have done it. I have, traveled thousands of miles to preach this Gospel without purse or scrip, trusting in God. Did I ever lack anything? No. Here is Brother Woodruff, and many other men who have done just the same thing. High Priests, Seventies, Elders, and others have gone forth to the world, bearing the precious principles of eternal life, and have returned again, as the Scripture say, bringing their sheaves with them. What are we doing besides? Building our Temples. What for? That we may have places to enter into that are dedicated to the God of the whole earth.

The world have forgotten that God is the fountain of all truth, the source of all intelligence, of everything that is calculated to elevate and exalt mankind; but we will give to God all the glory. We are seeking to build up the Zion of our God. And shall we accomplish it? With the help of the Lord we will. Will we all do right? No, many will fall by the wayside as they have done; but the work of God will go on and prosper and increase, and the Lord will be with Israel if they will only cleave to the truth, obey his laws and keep his commandments. Are all good? No, you know that many of us do many things that are far from right. Let me say unto you that our only safety is in obedience to the laws of God. You need not fear the clamor that is now being raised against us, nor any of this nonsense, this spite of the world; you need not fear the illiberality of religionists who are clamoring to deprive you of your liberties, you need care nothing about that.

You all know that they are proclaiming falsehoods against us, and that we are misrepresented by them. No matter, they are in the hands of God, and we are in the hands of God; and while we seek to maintain righteous principles, virtue, purity, and the laws of the land, we can afford to leave them in the hands of God, and let him be their judge. Let us be for God, for righteousness, for virtue, for purity, for truth and integrity, and if our enemies prefer to wallow in their iniquities, and lend themselves to vice and falsehood, we can stand these things if they can, it is better to suffer than do wrong. The Lord will judge both them and us, and all will be well with those who cleave to the truth. We need not be troubled about their intrigues and mendacity. God will protect the right and will save and bless and deliver us despite their mendacious assertions, if we fear him, observe his laws, and keep his commandments. They, nor any other men, nor any power, can go further than God permits them, and when he says stop, they must stop. He will control all things according to the counsels of his own will. It is for us to be willing to obey his laws, to preserve our bodies and spirits pure, to cleave to righteousness, to honor the Lord our God, that we may always have his spirit to be with us. And if we are faithful by and by, it will be said of us, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things and I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

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

Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, November 20th, 1881.

There is a passage in the Book of Mormon which has suggested itself to my mind, which I will read. It contains the words of Alma unto his son Helaman, and were among the last words which he spoke unto him. They will be found recorded on page 368 of the new edition, namely:

“And now it came to pass that after Alma had said these things to Helaman, he blessed him, and also his other sons; and he also blessed the earth for the righteous’ sake;

And he said: Thus saith the Lord God—Cursed shall be the land, yea, this land, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, unto destruction, which do wickedly, when they are fully ripe; and as I have said so shall it be; for this is the cursing and the blessing of God upon the land, for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.

And now, when Alma had said those words he blessed the church, yea, all those who should stand fast in the faith from that time henceforth.”

President Cannon then continued: In rising to speak unto you this afternoon, my brethren and sisters, I do so with a desire in my heart that that which I may say may be prompted by the Spirit of God, and may be for your edification and comfort as well as my own. I am glad to have this opportunity of meeting with you—not so much for the privilege of speaking as of being here.

Some of us, as you know, have been traveling considerably of late, visiting the various settlements, and I believe President Taylor and party, when they return to this city, will have completed the entire round of the Territory and of all the Stakes outside of Arizona—that is so far as Utah and Idaho are concerned. We have found the people in a very prosperous condition and feeling exceedingly well. In almost every settlement the crops have been larger than they have been known to be before. And the people are prospering in their temporal circumstances and of course are feeling well, and I believe I do not overstate the matter when I say that they are as attentive to their duties generally as I have ever seen them. Good health has generally prevailed. I think probably we have had more sickness in this city and neighborhood than in any other part of the Territory. The people are increasing and spreading abroad, taking root in the land. In the southern part of the Territory they are not prospering to so great an extent as they are in the middle and northern part, owing to various causes. Still there is an excellent feeling throughout all these settlements, and they are looking hopefully to the future.

I have often thought in looking at the calmness and serenity of the people, and the peace which prevails in their hearts, and in their habitations and settlements, that it is not among the least wonderful features of this organization that a people, who are so much maligned, attacked and threatened as are the Latter-day Saints, should be found living so undisturbed by these things and apparently enjoying themselves as they do. There is scarcely a week passes, or has passed for years in which there have not been some threats uttered and circulated against us. “Terrible things going to be done with the Mormons; we are going to have them all disposed of now; we shall have this Mormon question all settled, and the problem so thoroughly solved that it will never require to be meddled with again.”

Threats of this character have been in circulation now for years, and every time they have been alluded to it seemed to those who made them as though their plans would be likely to be successful. In the case of any other people it would repress all energy and devel– opment, it would frighten everybody, and, in fact, no one would want to live in a community that was in such constant jeopardy. But so far as my observation has extended the people, as I have remarked, are full of peace and quiet, undisturbed by the prospects for the future. In fact they feel quite happy and rejoice that they are counted worthy to have their names cast out as evil. It is one of the most remarkable features connected with this work that a people so few in number, naturally so quiet and inoffensive, molesting no one, interfering with no one’s peace or enjoyment, threatening no one, minding their own business, peacefully pursuing their varied pursuits, should create such a stir in the world as we are doing. It might be thought that the 150,000 people who live in the Territory of Utah, would be such an insignificant people and so utterly beneath the notice—so far as numerical strength is concerned—of the world at large, that they might be permitted to pursue the course which is marked out for them without interference and without so much agitation respecting them. But I was told yesterday by a federal official who had just returned from the east—and I suppose it is true—that there was no subject today that seemed to have the importance in men’s minds that Utah had, and that wherever he went, when it was known that he was from Utah, everybody wanted to talk with him about its affairs and its people. Newspaper reporters were after him to find out what he could tell them about us, and I am informed that members of Congress and other leading men are making the “Mormon question” a special study. I hope they will thoroughly investigate it while they are at it; I think the investigation will prove profitable to them, if it is only done in the right spirit; but the object, I suppose, in making it a special study is to do something, to deal with its imaginary evils, to devise some plan that will reach this system that appears to be so hateful. Well, now, I call this a remarkable feature of this work. I think it is exceedingly wonderful that so small a people—a people whom every one must admit who visits this country, are peaceful—should create such a disturbance in the earth and be the cause of so much thought, so much writing and speech making. And it has not been the case in Utah alone, that is, since the Latter-day Saints came to Utah, but it has been a peculiarity of this work—the work of God—from the day of its inception in these last days until the present. And what is still more remarkable, it was predicted that this would be the case about it when it first started and before it, in fact, had an organization.

Doubtless the most of you remember that when Joseph Smith was visited by an angel of God when he was quite a youth, it was said to him by the angel that his name should be known for good and evil throughout the earth, and most wonderfully has that statement been fulfilled in his case and in the case of all those who have embraced the everlasting Gospel. This was said before the Church was organized; it was published directly after the organization.

Doubtless you are all familiar—or most of you are—with the letters of Oliver Cowdery to W. W. Phelps, in which this was published among the earliest writings that were sent forth by this Church, and when to all human appearances there was not the least probability of it being fulfilled, except a man should have the spirit of revelation to discern the future. But when the Church was organized it created a sensation in the neighborhood—it attracted attention—men’s minds were drawn towards it. As it increased the excitement spread, and among the earliest predictions that I remember hearing, connected with this work, was, that it had called forth the attention of townships and of counties and of States, and it was said of it, that it should spread until it would attract the attention of the United States and of the world. This was one of the earliest predictions that was uttered connected with the work, and it was also predicted concerning it, that its missionaries should go to every land and to every people, and carry the glad tidings of salvation, and should be the means of gathering out of every nation, kindred, tongue and people, the honest in heart, who should gather together in one place, and should be known by the name of Zion. I often think of this. The wonderful manner in which this people called Latter-day Saints dwelling in Utah have been gathered together is a subject of never-ceasing interest to me.

Before the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith received revelations which he said were revelations from God. They are now embodied in this book, which we call the Book of Doctrine and Covenants and among the earliest of these revelations is found a statement given by the Lord Jesus Christ, through Joseph Smith, to the effect that he intended to bring forth and establish Zion, and that He would gather together the people who would obey His Gospel. This prediction is particularly note– worthy, because at the time when the first of these revelations was given, there was no such organization as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints upon the earth; it did not have an existence; and in the September following its organization—that is five months afterwards—another revelation was given, in which it was stated still more plainly who were to be gathered, and the purposes for which they were to be gathered, and this, too, before there was a place designated as a place of gathering. I have often said that if the Prophet Joseph Smith had no other evidence to show to the world of the divinity of his mission, and of his prophetic office, than that revelation alone, it was sufficient in and of itself to establish it; for this reason; that at the time it was uttered, as I have said there was no organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; there was no gathering place; no person had ever witnessed such a proceeding as a people belonging to one church gathering together and dwelling together in one organization. There was nothing of the kind known; there was no organization among the children of men that could have given a hint of the possibility or probability of such a great event taking place. If other churches had done the same, then it might have been thought that the Prophet Joseph Smith could easily have predicted that the people that he would be the means of gathering together, might do so also. But there was no accessible record extant of the gathering together of any people in this manner at the time that Joseph proclaimed this principle. Yet he, inspired of God, dared to make this statement to the world, and to publish it, and today, we who are here are living witnesses of its fulfillment —not of its complete fulfillment, but sufficiently to make it one of the strangest events that has ever been witnessed among men. There have been many circumstances surrounding the people which have been of such a character as to operate against their gathering. It is not long since a Secretary of State issued a circular to the nations of Europe to check this very business of gathering. I do not suppose that he knew that Joseph Smith had made such a prediction, or that God had inspired him to give such a revelation, or that he ever imagined for a moment that the word of God was recorded upon this subject; but he thought it would be a good thing to stop the immigration of “Mormons.” Mobs have also done their part to accomplish the same end, by endeavoring to break up the community and scatter its members and frighten those who had not gathered, so that they might be deterred from coming. But notwithstanding all these influences which have been operating from the beginning—commencing as I said in a township, then spreading to a county, afterwards to a State, and to States, and then the Secretary of State of our nation taking the matter in hand—notwithstanding all these influences which have been operating to check the gathering of the people together, they have gathered as we see them today, and are still gathering, because God has said they should, and there is no earthly power that can prevent their gathering together, though it need not surprise you if more thorough measures than ever have been should be taken to prevent the Saints from obeying this command.

When the Elders of this Church first went out, they went out without the ordinary advantages that men who call themselves ministers possess. They were men selected from the various avocations of life. Joseph Smith himself was a farmer. He was not a man that was schooled for the ministry. He had had no education to fit and qualify him as men are ordinarily supposed to be qualified in these days who teach their fellow men what is called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not go to a theological seminary. But inspired of God, having been ordained of God to the everlasting Priesthood (that authority that had been withdrawn from the earth in consequence of the wickedness of men; and been restored to the earth and bestowed upon him by angelic agency) he stood up in the midst of his fellow men and proclaimed the truth, and by the power of God he was the means of bringing many to its knowledge; and, as I have said, inspired of God, he selected others and laid his hands upon them, that being the ordination necessary to qualify them to preach the word of God. They were taken from the plow, they were taken from the blacksmith’s shop, from the mechanic’s bench, from the counting room, and from all the vocations of life in which they were found; they were taken and were thus ordained and sent out to preach the Gospel, without purse and scrip, without salary, without that which the world had considered necessary—an education, an education suited to the calling. In this way they went forth and preached the Gospel—not in men’s wisdom, not in their own strength, but calling upon God in the name of Jesus to bestow His Holy Spirit upon the people and to carry their words by that spirit to their hearts, and to help them find the honest, the meek, and the humble. This is the way in which they went. They could not glory in man. They could not take glory to themselves, for there was nothing about them in which they could glory. And the result was that wherever they went they met honest-hearted people—people who were waiting to receive their message; and these people as soon as they were baptized were seized with a desire to gather together with the people of God, without knowing what God had said upon the subject.

Now, when God does a work he does it in his own way, and he is determined—he always was apparently from all we read—to have the glory of that work. If a man were to go forth qualified by education and preached by the power of education and of learning, who is it that gets the glory? Why, you will find it everywhere that man is glorified. If there is a fluent preacher, if there is a successful orator in what is called the Christian Church, he gets the glory of it, and he gets a salary in proportion to it. Commencing, as some of them have done, to preach in humble places, the fame of their oratory has spread, and they have had calls to the ministry from other places, such calls being accompanied by an increase of salary, and a man goes from one place to another according to the addition he receives in his salary until he becomes noted as many are today. The fame of their oratory goes throughout the United States. Who is it that gets the glory for this? Why, it is the men themselves, and they get the salary, too. They not only get the glory of men, but they get their pay. Man’s education is praised, the college where he received it receives credit for it according to the ability that he may display, and God is very little thought about in the matter, and certainly the Holy Ghost gets no credit, for it is supposed that the Holy Ghost has nothing to do with it. Well, now, God has taken a different method in our day, and he is showing forth his power. He is taking the meek and the lowly and the humble men who are desirous to keep his commandments, and he is making them mighty through his power. But they cannot give any glory to anyone but the Almighty for this. Let a man attempt to travel without purse and scrip, as the Elders of this Church have done, and as the ancient Apostles did, and if he is successful he is successful through faith, through his reliance upon God through keeping his commandments, through being humble, meek and lowly of heart, and if he reaches the hearts of the honest, the only way he can hope to do it is by having the Spirit of God, and having that power accompanying his words. He cannot do it in any other way. And who is there in this Church that gives Joseph Smith the glory of this work? Yet it is the most wonderful organization ever beheld among men. There is nothing like it. There is no limit to the power connected with it; there is no limit to the union connected with it; there is no limit to the capacity for expansion connected with it. You may expand it and make it as wide and broad as you please, and the organization is equal to it. If it only consisted of six members it answered the purpose; if it consisted of six thousand it answered the purpose. If it were to consist of six millions it would answer the purpose; if it should embrace the whole world it would be found equal to the necessity. No man can look upon the organization of this Church and ex– amine it in its details without being wonderfully impressed—if he be a man who does not give glory to God—with the ability of the man who framed it; but if he be disposed to give glory to God, he cannot examine it without praising God in his heart for giving so wonderful and so simple an organization on the earth for a church. But though this is the case, who is there that gives any glory to Joseph Smith? Who is there that gives any glory to Brigham Young? I have been told repeatedly that we do not honor our men enough, we do not give them praise enough; but it is a fact, the people look behind the instrument. Joseph Smith was a man; yet we have been falsely accused of worshiping Joseph Smith in the place of the Savior, and the same has also been said of Brigham Young. But the true feeling is to look behind Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to the power who raised them up, to that Being who gave them all their gifts and endowments, who inspired them and who made them perform the work that they did. And when Elders in this Church are successful there is very little disposition to give them the glory or the praise therefore. The praise is given to God, who is the author of these blessings and of the gathering of this people together. The world say it was the shrewdness of Joseph Smith that first suggested this, and that it was the executive ability that Brigham Young had that carried it out. They do not recognize God in it; it was Brigham Young. But, my brethren and sisters, you know who it was. You know that it was no power of man that could have touched your hearts and made you desire to leave your homes and come to Zion. This makes every man and woman in

In this way God has built up this Church. It did not, as we have often heard, depend upon one man. Men thought if they killed Joseph Smith they would destroy the keystone; that his existence was the means of upholding the work and giving it solidity. But he was killed, and still the work prospered, and it will prosper if every man that is now in position in the Church should be killed or should die. The testimony of Jesus is in the hearts of the people. You travel throughout the Territory, and call the people together and ask them: “What influence brought you here?” Every one who is an adult, and has retained the faith, will tell you that it was the Spirit and power of God. No other influence nor power could have done this but that. Well, now, men will fight it, men are fighting it. It is strange today to see people who call themselves religious, advocating all manner of means to be brought against this people to destroy them. To shed their blood is thought to be justifiable; the killing of people in order to destroy an organization that they think is so full of menace; and yet we are told in the Bible—and we have been taught it from childhood, that the righteous never persecute the wicked, but it has always been the case that the wicked persecute the righteous; and we are told by the Savior himself that his followers should be hated of all men, and that men in seeking to kill them would think they were doing God’s service. It was not the Apostles of Jesus who persecuted the wicked, it was not the righteous who hated them and who sought their destruction. There were no petitions went out from the humble followers of Christ against the Pharisees and against the religious sects of that day to have them destroyed, to have governmental aid to assist them in extirpating their heresies; nothing of this kind has ever been witnessed, but here we find today the professedly righteous, the ministers, advocating the most dreadful measures. Why I heard here a few days ago from one of our returned missionaries that the sermon of a notorious preacher in the East, delivered some time since, in which he advocated the wiping out of the Latter-day Saints by the use of arms and cannon and weapons of war—I was told that the sermon when it reached England was re-printed and distributed gratuitously at the doors of the churches. People rejoiced over it, thought it an excellent scheme, and yet you tell those people they are not Christians and they would be shocked, feel insulted and think themselves terribly abused by such a statement, and at the same time were rejoicing over the prospect of the Latter-day Saints being killed and the system being broken up by violence.

How shall we feel respecting these matters? I have said that the people, so far as my observation has extended throughout this Territory, were rejoicing and feeling contented. How shall we feel? Shall we be disturbed? The man or woman who entered into this Church who was old enough to understand these matters, and expected anything different to this, was not properly informed. When I became old enough to understand the character of this work I made up my mind that it might cost me everything before I got through. I did not know what might be involved in it, what consequences; but I knew that others who had started out for salvation had been slain, and that Saints of God in every age have had to lay down their lives for the truth and that my Lord and Master Jesus Christ, had been crucified, and if I expected to live and reign with Him, that I must also be prepared to endure all things. The salvation that God has promised unto us is worthy of all this, or it is worth nothing. If we cannot sacrifice everything there is upon the face of the earth, that men hold dear to them, then we are unworthy of that great salvation that God has promised unto the faithful. The man that cannot bring every appetite into subjection to the mind and will of God, that cannot forego everything of this kind, and that is not willing to sacrifice houses and lands, and father and mother, wives and children and everything that men hold dear to them, is unworthy that great salvation that God has in store for His faithful children. When I hear people say that they are Latter-day Saints, and will drink with the drunken; when I hear men talk about being Latter-day Saints who will not conquer their appetites, and will not bring them in subjection to the mind and will of God, I think very little of their professions. If we value this salvation as we should, there is nothing that will stand between us and it. We may love our wives as we love our own lives; we may love our children as we do ourselves; we may be willing to step between death and our wives and children and say, “If any be killed, let us be killed; if there is to be any hardship, let us endure it;” we may have this feeling, but at the same time we must love the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the cause that He established, better than we do our wives and our children, better than we do our own lives. There is nothing upon the face of the earth that we should love as we do the Gospel. God requires this of us. Therefore, if we are Latter-day Saints, what difference does it make what is brought against us? Suppose armies should be launched against us; suppose the measures urged by some so-called divines, should be carried out; will it make any difference in regard to us and our future? Shall we be disturbed because of these threats being fulminated against us? Not in the least; for the reason that God is our Father—He stands at the head, and not one hair of our heads shall fall to the ground without His notice. Nothing can occur that He does not take cognizance of. He watches over us as well as the rest of the human family, and He will overrule everything for our good. We should, therefore, be the happiest people—as I fully believe we are—on the face of the earth. We may be persecuted, maligned and threatened, it ought not to make the least difference to us in regard to our enjoyment. Our trust should be in something higher than man. There is one Being whom we call our Father, and that is God, whom we should fear; we should hold Him in reverence and be so afraid that we would never do anything to offend Him or to grieve His Holy Spirit. But as for man! What is man? What is there about man that we should fear him? We have seen men in the plenitude of their power array themselves against the work of God, and they have passed away one after another; but the work of God lives and will live. Opposers may fight it, rave against it; organizations may be formed for the purpose of crushing it, but they will pass away just as sure as God has spoken and as we live. This work that God has established will roll forth. The power connected with it cannot be crushed. Men may apostatize, as many have done, but it will not affect the work. The three witnesses of this Book of Mormon, from which I have read—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris—two of them are now dead —testified all their days that an holy angel came and showed them the plates from which this book was translated—even they fell away. They disagreed with the Prophet Joseph, and fell away from the Church, one of them at least, because of unchastity, the cause most fruitful above all others of apostasy. When a man indulges in unchaste desires or practices he cannot stand in this Church, he will apostatize sooner or later unless he repents. One of the witnesses—Oliver Cowdery—upon whose head, with that of Joseph Smith, the hands of John the Baptist were laid, upon whose head, in company with Joseph Smith, the hands of Peter, James and John were laid, even he fell away from this Church, and yet he never denied his testimony of the truth of this work, nor did Martin Harris. David Whitmer, the only surviving witness, is in the same condition. He, too, fell away from the Church during Joseph’s lifetime, and became Joseph’s enemy; but he never denied the truth of his testimony connected with the Book of Mormon, and still bears testimony to it today. These men, it might have been supposed, would have shaken the Church. Oliver Cowdery had the idea, notwithstanding the revelations he had received, that when he fell away the Church would receive a great shock. There were twelve men chosen as Apostles from the midst of the people, and of these twelve six fell away from the Church and ranged themselves against the Prophet of God. They were determined to destroy the work if they could. This reminds one of the parable of the ten virgins. There were five wise and five foolish; one-half of them were unprepared to go out and meet the bridegroom. So with the Apostles, half of them fell away. But did the Church stop? No; and if all the Apostles had apostatized it would not have arrested the onward progress of this work, for God has spoken concerning it, and His word will be fulfilled. And shall we fear man? Shall we fear earthly organizations? Shall we fear threats? Shall our knees tremble and our hands and our hearts falter because men array themselves against the work of God? If we do, then we mistake entirely its character. No such feeling enters into the heart of any faithful man or woman connected with this Church.

Now, my brethren and sisters, the Lord has made great promises unto us. I have read you one from this Book of Mormon. This land is a blessed land unto all the inhabitants of the earth who will act righteously, but is and will be cursed to those who will not. There is a curse and a blessing upon the land. No nation can prosper in this land that works unrighteousness, and it is a painful thing to say that our own nation, unless it repents, will meet with disasters sooner or later. It pains us to say this, but it is true. God has said it. It will be true about us. This land can only be blessed to us if we work righteously. Let us turn round and oppress the weak and do wrong, and God will curse the land to us. There will be trouble in the land among the inhabitants of the earth as long as they work wickedness, just as sure as God has spoken. There has been no nation prospered as our nation has. No government was ever framed by man that is so strong and so good and well adapted to the happiness of human beings as our government is. There never was a better instrument framed for the happiness of man than the Constitution of the United States. The men who framed it were inspired of God. The men who fought the battles of the Revolution were the same. Washington was inspired of God; he was sustained by the almighty arm of God; and the defeats that the mother country received were in accordance with the plan of God. This land was kept for this purpose. For centuries it was hidden from all the nations of the earth. It was not until the 15th century that God inspired Columbus to go forth and seek a passage across the Atlantic, and land upon some of the islands adjacent to this continent. His track was followed by others. All this was in the mind of God. We have it all plainly stated to us in this book (the Book of Mormon), and the reasons for it, the best possible reasons that could be given. It is said that the Norwegians had visited this country and that the stone tower at Newport is evidence of it. The Scandinavian antiquarians claim that it was thus discovered; but if so, it was not peopled. It remained hidden until the 15th century, and there was good reason for it. This land would have been overrun by other nations had it been discovered earlier, and there would have been no place for that which we now behold. But God preserved it; and He has said in the Book of Mormon, that so long as the inhabitants of this land serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ—they shall prosper and no nation shall have power over them. The Lord has also said that there shall be no kings upon this land. The attempt of Maximillian is an evidence of the truth of it. Backed as he was by the power of France and Austria, particularly by France, he was killed for his attempt; for the Lord has said there shall be no kings upon this land, and that it shall be a land of liberty unto the inhabitants thereof as long as they serve the Lord. And the prosperity that has attended the land thus far is due to this blessing. Those who contended for liberty in early days were men who desired to serve the Lord. They may have been mistaken in many things, but they were zealous in this and devoted to it, and many of them were willing that every human being should have the rights that they contended for themselves. But this is all changed today. There is a great change. You and I cannot worship God as we desire, without being in danger. We are told that it is because we are polygamists. Why, the earliest privations which we had to contend with, the scenes which are seared in the memories of these aged people, and these of middle age, were all passed through by us when polygamy was not known. When we chose to worship God, and said He was a God of revelation today, the same as He was 1,800 years ago. There were men then, and there are men today, who would destroy us because we exercise that belief. Hence, I say, prosperity cannot attend a people who will trample upon liberty in that manner, and the party that arrays itself against the work of God cannot prosper.

When men have power and do right they will be sustained; but when they do wrong they go against the eternal principles of justice and against God. There are many thousands of men who know that Utah has not been fairly treated, but they have not the courage to say so, because with many who hold office it might cost them position. Visitors come here and are impressed with what they see, but many of them yield to the force of public opinion and say what they do not believe in their hearts. Thus it is that the tide of calumny has swelled and there is no one to throw obstacles in its way; we have endured its full force as it has rolled upon us, and must still stand up and endure it. Although it is so painful, it is not without profit; it teaches us many valuable lessons. I hope it will have a good effect upon us. I suppose it is to chasten us and to keep us humble, and if it will teach us to be liberal and not to oppress others, I shall be glad: liberty for every man in the land and every woman—liberty to the fullest possible extent for all, as long as they do not trespass upon the rights of their fellows. If a man wishes to worship an idol or an animal, a bull, a calf, a dog, or a serpent or anything else—liberty to do so as long as his worship does not interfere with the rights of his fellows. If he wishes to worship the God of Heaven, all right, he should not be interfered with. God has blessed the land in the words that I have read in your hearing, and if we were driven out of it, in five years it would return to its original desolation. This land of desolation God has changed into a fruitful field, because of the blessing on the land, and as long as the Latter-day Saints live righteously the land shall be blessed to them. The climate will be ameliorated; the soil will be fertilized; fruits will grow as they have done in this valley.

When we first came here I remember the thoughts of many. They did not believe that we could raise any fruit here, and the man who first set out peach stones was laughed at because of the idea he entertained that they would grow. Very few believed they would grow. And today where can you find a better land for fruit than this? I suppose when we came many thought if we could raise bread enough, it would be as much as we could do, there being frost every month of the year. But now it is so charming a place that many covet it. When they got up that raid against us a few years ago, I was credibly informed that there were certain men here who actually went round and selected the places they would occupy! They indicted Brigham Young, Daniel H. Wells, and others for alleged crimes, and the hope was that we would scare away from here and then places could be had for the choosing.

But we came here to stay, here we expect to stay, and here we shall stay as long as we do right. And we shall not only stay here, but we shall spread abroad, and the day will come—and this is another prediction of Joseph Smith’s—I want to remind you of it, my brethren and sisters, when good government, constitutional government—liberty—will be found among the Latter-day Saints, and it will be sought for in vain elsewhere; when the Constitution of this land and republican government and institutions will be upheld by this people who are now so oppressed and whose destruction is now sought so diligently. The day will come when the Constitution, and free government under it, will be sustained and preserved by this people. This is saying a great deal, but it is not saying any more than is said concerning the growth of this work, and that which is already accomplished. I have just turned to the revelation upon this subject, which says:

“And it shall come to pass, among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee unto Zion for safety. And there shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under heaven; and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another.”

This revelation was given on the 7th of March 1831. We have already beheld and are now beholding its fulfillment: the righteous are being gathered and they are coming with songs of everlasting joy: and this was given before there was a gathering place, and only eleven months after the Church was organized. And it is a remarkable fact that today—I do not say it out of any improper feeling—our hands as a people, by a singular providence, are free from the blood of our fellow men. We were driven out of this land. Our enemies were not content to let us remain in the States, on the land that we had purchased, they would not permit us to occupy the homes we had built, but compelled us to leave, and we came to the Rocky Mountains. And when the civil war broke out President Lincoln sent a communication to Governor Young, asking him if he could send troops to guard the continental highway and preserve it from the attacks of Indians. He responded by sending out companies of cavalry. They spent the time in guarding the mail route against the Indians, and thus, as I have said, our hands today as a people, are free from the blood of our fellow citizens by this singular providence, through the acts of our enemies. Had we remained in the State of Illinois, or in Missouri, we should have been compelled—unless we had chosen to occupy a very anomalous position—to have taken sides in this fratricidal war, a war which Joseph Smith in the year 1832, predicted would take place. The revelation was printed in 1850—though known to the church long before—stating that the war should commence between the north and south, at South Carolina. I suppose there is not a boy who has been brought up in this community who did not know of the revelation years before it was published, and, still longer, before it was fulfilled. I know I was taught concerning this revelation, when a boy, and I knew the time would come when there would be a bloody war between the north and south and that it would commence in South Carolina. Did it commence there? Yes. Joseph Smith predicted it 28 years before it occurred. And in the manner to which I have alluded, we were driven out and occupied a position where, though we did not go to the war, our loyalty to the Union could not be questioned, for we responded to every call that was made upon us. Though we deplored the war, and did all we could by our preaching, counsels and warnings to avert it, we were true to our obligations; and yet at the same time—though we have men among us who took part in the war—as a people our hands are clean from the blood of our fellow men. Our Church has not been divided into a church north and a church south. It is a church that belongs to the whole people of the north and of the south, and there are no sectional heartburnings in our midst. God in his providence had made this a place of refuge from the north and from the south. They can come here without heartburnings and without prejudice; no civil broils, no disunion; they have nothing to remember or forget connected with us. It is a church that is adapted to all. The black man is welcome, and he is entitled to the rites of the Gospel, though the Lord has shown that to his race the Priesthood is forbidden. The red man, and the yellow man and every man of every race and of every kindred and of every tongue, has a right in this Church and will be received into it and have place in it, just as sure as God has spoken. And we shall be preserved from future broils and disunion when they break out; we shall stand in places where we can maintain our loyalty and our truthfulness and our honor, and at the same time not interfere with the rights of any human being.

I have talked longer than I intended to. It is probably the last opportunity I will have of addressing you for some little time. I expect to leave for Washington before another Sunday comes. I desire earnestly in my heart that I may have your faith and prayers. I have felt greatly strengthened by the knowledge that I have had your faith, your confidence, and your prayers, and I go out now hoping I shall still have these, for they are more valuable to me than anything else. I should go weak indeed if I did not have the faith and prayers and confidence of my brethren and sisters. I do not believe there is another representative in the world, it may be said—and certainly not in our nation—who has more cause for thanksgiving in this respect than I have. I know I am backed and sustained by my entire constituency; I know I have their love and affection; I know their hearts go with me, and their feelings and affections are always towards me; I know in almost every household prayers are offered in my behalf; it gives me strength; and when I am assailed and when our people are assailed and our Territory, it gives me strength to know we are united, and that when I am in Washington, though I may be alone—which I am in one sense of the word—I have an influence and a power attending me, in consequence of this, that others do not have. God has preserved us, and he will preserve us and overrule evil for good. I feel hopeful and cheerful: this is a blessing God has given unto me. In the midst of the darkest hours I have always felt exceedingly cheerful: fear has been taken away from me.

I pray that you may be blessed exceedingly of the Lord; that His Holy Spirit may be poured out upon you; that peace may be given unto you and union fill your hearts: I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the St. George Tabernacle, Wednesday Evening, Nov. 9th, 1881.

I feel pleased to have the opportunity of again meeting with you. There are many things that if I had time, I should like to talk about. However, there were one or two statements, that I made yesterday, which I will further explain. In speaking of the position of the people and of their settlements in this southern country, I then stated that President Young did not make any mistake in laying out a city here, nor in building a Temple here; that it was quite as important a move as any that could have been made in the interests of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth. If I were to enter into the details of that move I should speak of it perhaps in a two-fold capacity; but I will speak for a short time, at least, upon some of the leading features associated with the position that we occupy here in these valleys of the mountains.

We are quite a long distance from the outside world. It is true there are railroads and more are being made; and it is right there should be. That is their part of the business. In this way, and in many instances, they are assisting us to build up the kingdom of God, but they don’t know it. If they did they would not like to do it.

The position that we occupy in these valleys of the mountains, is a very peculiar one. When we came up here the first place that was designated was Salt Lake City. President Young said that he had a manifestation that that was the place. There was a valley, a very good valley, a comparatively rich valley, a valley that was well watered, a valley that could be irrigated without much labor, where the streams were quite easy of access and where a small community could easily raise their sustenance; and this we did. Now, had we landed in a place like this at first, it would have been more difficult, people would have become more discouraged, and some of them felt very much discouraged as it was—some going to California because everything looked so forbidding. Yet others thought it would be a pleasant place to reside in, a place where a living could be as easily obtained as in most other places, except we go to some of the rich lands of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, etc. But there were other circumstances associated with these things that would have made it difficult for us to sustain ourselves even in those places. For instance, we lived in a rich land back in Missouri. Everything there seemed to grow at a very rapid rate, everything increased very fast. I have heard some people tell such big stories about the productiveness of that country that I have sometimes been afraid to tell what I myself knew of it, for fear that people would not believe me. For instance, I have seen fields of corn that a regiment of soldiers could ride into and they would be out of sight; and I have seen beans grow where corn has been planted where the corn stalks have served as bean poles; and I have seen pumpkins and squash grow among them, three crops growing the same year and at the same time. That country, nevertheless, has many drawbacks. In that country we were very unhealthy. We were subject to what is called fever and ague every year; in fact, in the spring we used to think we did well if we didn’t happen to die off in the fall. Why could we not stop there? Because the land was too good, and we were easy of access to men desirous to possess our property, and they told us to move on, and we had to go. We had to leave Missouri, and I suppose God intended to try the Saints, to let them pass through certain kinds of experience and place them in a position that they would have to lean on Him. Some of the people rebelled against these things in their feelings. Among the rest, I remember being much shocked at the remarks of Sidney Rigdon after he had been imprisoned with the Prophet Joseph in Richmond jail, as well as many others. I visited them in jail, and Sidney Rigdon made a remark soon after he got out, to the effect that if God did not care anything more about us than He seemed to do, that if He allowed us to be hauled around as we had been, he did not care about serving such a God. That is, he found the trials were heavier for him than he was capable of bear– ing, notwithstanding that he had seen the Lord and had had visions pertaining to the celestial, terrestrial and telestial kingdoms, in which he had seen the position of men in the future, and the purposes of God regarding the nations of the earth, and had borne testimony of it in connection with Joseph Smith, as we find recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. Yet when trials came his knees faltered, and the knees of many others have faltered in the same way. Now, we talk about lands, good rich land. Why did we not stay in Missouri? Because people would not let us. It was just so in Illinois. Why did we leave there? Because, as I have heard Brother George A. Smith say, we left because we could not help ourselves; at least, that was the purport of his saying. I think the Lord was very merciful to us in Salt Lake Valley. I believe we landed just in the right place. The people commenced to establish themselves; they began to find that they could raise crops there, and that the land was very productive. We stayed there for a while and began to make little settlements and little excursions out into the surrounding country. The people had all kinds of difficulties. I remember once, in Bountiful, there were three or four families went up to settle there, and they felt that there was not enough water, and that they could hardly get along. They got to quarreling about water rights, as we do sometimes. I do not know of much quarreling down here; I do not think you have as much water to quarrel over as they had. Afterwards President Young was moved upon to begin to make settlements in other places. We had now obtained a foothold. We had a place where we could raise all the grain necessary for our sustenance, where we could raise sheep, cattle, etc. We pushed out to Ogden on the one hand and to Provo on the other, and then occupied some of the best places in Salt Lake Valley, in Utah Valley, and on the Weber. We began to increase; more immigrants came in, and others began to come from above. Things went on. A Temple was started there, but it seemed to progress very slowly; as well it might when we consider the substantial nature of the building. When we started, we had nothing but wagons to haul the rock on, and they were very big rock, if you remember. Those rocks had to be hauled about 17 miles in those wagons, and owing to the liability of the wagons to break down, this work gave us a great deal of trouble. Today, and right along for a number of years past, since the railroad has been built, it is not uncommon to bring in some three or four car loads at a time, delivering the rock in the Temple yard. Then it was thought best to commence down here. Why? Let me tell you some other things and show you about the settlements north and south, and especially south. If you remember, Brother Geo. A. Smith, as much as 25 years ago—I don’t remember exactly how long—came down and made a settlement at Parowan, and another at Cedar—and here is Brother Henry Lunt present, who was one of that number. He came to Cedar at that time, and they tried to start iron works at that place. And then Brother Joseph Horne and some others were sent down to see if cotton could not be raised in this district of country in the hope that something could be done whereby we might produce the raw material for the manufacture of our clothes, and they stayed a little while somewhere not far from here, some five miles south on the Santa Clara, I am told. There was a rich little settlement up there. Some time after, a great deal of it was washed away. I remember the struggles Brother George A. used to have. He labored under difficulties, being so very heavy, and not as active as most men; but he was a man of great energy. He would come down here and bring a few men, and would settle them down and go back again. By and by he would bring some more down, all that he could pick up that would volunteer. By the time he came down again, he would find half of the others had gone. They did not want to stop. They thought the land was set up on edge and had never been finished, and they had all kinds of notions. Then he would return to the city, and drum up a few more recruits, and take them down; and by the time he got here he would find that a good many of those he left had also gone. Finally, they became weeded out and left, until he got a lot of folks who, if they had considered it a duty to go on to a barren rock and stay there until they should be instructed to leave, would have done it. It needed just such an element to come to this country. What Brother Snow said here, referring to the sad fact of there being such a number of widows in this place whose husbands had gone to their graves through having worked themselves to death, was perfectly true; but, then, we don’t want to cry about it. We may as well laugh as cry about the past. You have done a great deal of hard work. In coming down from Pine Valley we found immense dugways in the most forbidding places, and it has required all the perseverance, energy, intelligence and faith of even those men who were capable of living on a dry rock—it required the combined energy of the whole to accomplish these things, and a good deal of faith too.

Still President Young urged forward the people; Brother Geo. A. Smith and Brother Erastus Snow urged them forward, and others urged them forward, and there was a general feeling to build up this southern country. Finally it was found that our Temple in Salt Lake City would take such a long time to build, it was thought best to erect one down here. Why? Because there was a people living here who were more worthy than any others. Who were more worthy of the blessings of a Temple than those who had displayed the self-abnegation exhibited by the pioneers of the south? God inspired President Young to build a Temple here because of the fidelity and self-abnegation of the people; and, furthermore that there might be an asylum here for those living further south to be administered to in the holy ordinances of God. I speak this for your credit—not that all of you are of that class, but let those that are worthy take the credit, and those that are not, need not take it. This Temple was built and we went into it, and a great many thousands of people have been administered to, and for, within its walls. People have administered for themselves and for their progenitors. Over 150,000 people, Brother McAllister says, have been administered for in this Temple. Don’t you think it is worth while building a Temple where such a work can be done? If life is worth anything, if salvation is worth anything, if the life of our friends and brethren with whom we shall be associated in the kingdom of God, is worth anything, then I think a good work was done in the building of this Temple. In other words, it was a wise move. Why? Because it helped to sustain this part of the country. Means were brought from other places down here to supply the people with means and labor, thus it has been a blessing both to the living and the dead. You men who comprehend things aright, you would not take in exchange anything that could be conferred upon you for the blessings you have received in that Temple.

There were then blessings of a temporal nature, as well as of a spiritual nature, connected with the labor performed in the building of that house. There was another thing. In establishing the kingdom of God it was necessary that there should be a strong place somewhere here between the land south and the land north. It was necessary that there should be a foothold here all through these valleys of the mountains between Salt Lake City and north of Salt Lake City clear away, as you have heard President Young say, on the backbone of the American continent. And why? We make remarks sometimes, but I always like to get at the bottom of them. Why is it better for us to be here than to be somewhere else? If we had been in Missouri we should have been mobbed and robbed long ago. If we had been anywhere in Central America or South America where we could have been reached, our Christian friends would have come there and stolen what we had from us. But, furthermore, President Young, who was governed by the inspiration of the Spirit of God in leading the people forth in the way he did, expected that these railroads that are now coming would come along. Years ago I expected the same thing, because I saw them at work here, and clear away into Mexico. I had it manifested to me, and Brother George Q. Cannon, here has heard me speak about the matter. Didn’t you Brother Cannon? (Brother Cannon: Yes, sir.) At that time I was very sick. I told President Young of some things that I then believed would take place, among the rest was this railroad building. And if there had not been some pretty strong places, such as a settlement on Salt Creek, a settlement at Beaver, a settlement at Parowan, a settlement down here, etc., we never would have been able to carry out the will of God, and we should have been in a different position with regard to other settlements further south than we are today. Now your young men are beginning to say, they want room. There is plenty of room south. Here is Brother Snow, who has been working like a beaver, and there are others, who are doing the same, establishing settlements in the various valleys south, in Arizona, in Colorado, and all through this southern country, until we now occupy, as I have stated in other places, some 800 miles of country in a direct line, running north and south.

What did we have when we left Nauvoo? Not much. Any property to spare? I think not. I think many of us would have gone without shoes, without clothing, unless God had interposed in a miraculous manner in sending down—I was going to say, a shower of clothing. You remember that Brother Kimball prophesied at a certain time that clothing would be as cheap here as in the East. Regarding this some people felt a good deal like the man did when Elijah prophesied about a measure of meal being sold for so much. Says one man; if the heavens were to open this could not happen; but it did happen; and the other happened that Brother Kimball talked about. When the gold fever burst out, people brought clothing by the wholesale and sold it for a mere song, and let you sing the song; until the wants of the people were all supplied. Who supplied them? These men. Did they want to do it? No, it was the Lord who controlled these matters. He started up this feeling which brought the people here, and they acted more like crazy men than any I ever saw. They were ready to give us their goods almost for nothing. The Saints at that time in Salt Lake City were supplied with all the necessaries of life brought by traders whom they knew nothing about, and they traded off their cattle and their horses and anything these people could pack away. Here was a manifestation of the work of the Lord, of the will of God, and the protecting care of our heavenly Father over His Saints.

As I told you yesterday we have traveled among the Saints and found thousands of happy homes, good farms, good gardens and orchards, cattle, sheep, horses, etc., and that the people generally are now in a very prosperous condition. What has it originated from? We certainly did not bring it about. God has blessed our labors on the land and increased the water for our sake.

Now, having said so much upon this subject I will turn to our political position. We have already made in Salt Lake City numbers of very nice places. You have also got some very beautiful buildings here. I am sorry to see so much saleratus yet in the land; I wish you had a little easier times; but while I am inclined to sympathize with you, yet I do not want my sympathy to overcome my judg– ment about matters of this kind.

Now we have really the foundation for a prosperous State. We started with nothing a little while ago. I think we have made pretty well at it. You have had hard times; still you are living and thriving: there are none of you naked or without shoes, hats or bonnets. You seem to be provided with a great many of the good things of this life. You seem to be doing tolerably well. I know very well that you have a hard struggle to make two ends meet; I understand it. But there is one advantage you have—no one will want to steal away your place from you; will they? (Laughter.) I do not think they would want to carry it off. I do not think they would want to drive you away because of your extraneous wealth; consequently, you are free from this trouble. That is not the fix of the nations of the earth. Go to some of the nations today and look at their condition. Take England for instance; they are prospering very well, but look at the trouble they have had in Ireland. They have tried to benefit that people in one way or another, but they seem to spurn those benefits, and are inclined to stir up commotion which is not unlikely to end in bloodshed. We are not troubled in that way. In Russia, look at the horrible condition they are in. They have secret societies, as spoken of in the Book of Mormon. They are engaged in all kinds of plots, plans and calculations. They have tried to kill their present Czar, after having assassinated his father. There seems to be a feeling of uneasiness and trouble among the nations. Then again, in Turkey, they have had a great deal of trouble there. It has leaked out lately that the Sultan, who was said to have died a natural death, was strangled, and they have lately been prosecuting his assassins. There are terrible forebodings among the nations of the earth because of troubles that seem to be threatening them. Here we have had our own President killed, and a little while ago President Lincoln was assassinated, and there seems to be a spirit of that kind rampant, and it will grow worse and worse. Not long ago in Pittsburgh there was a shocking state of things, where they burnt up and destroyed property to the amount of three millions of dollars or more. We have apparently prosperous times. There is now a lull in the storm, but it is only a lull to burst out more violently by and by. You will see it. There are elements at work to uproot the government and destroy the foundation of society, and to take away the rights of men and pull down the bulwarks of this government, and scatter to the four winds the principles by which it has been governed, and to let loose the wildest passions of men. These are some of the things that are taking place. These are the elements that are at work today. They are running around, and through, and among the people almost everywhere. And it will not be long before there is trouble again in the United States. These inflated times will by and by bring about a great reaction, and then there will be trouble and difficulty; and so these things will continue to increase.

Now, we are here in the tops of the mountains, far away from these things. We are here learning the laws of life and the principles of truth, and we are here as saviors upon Mount Zion, operating in the interests of humanity, sending forth missionaries to the nations of the earth, gathering people together; and when they are gathered together, we build temples and administer in them. We are here, forming closer connections with the heavens, with God our Heavenly Father, with Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and with the ancient Apostles, Prophets and men of God. We are here participating in some of the greatest blessings that ever were conferred upon mankind since the world was formed. We are here as those that God has selected from the nations of the earth, that He may plant among us the principles of eternal truth, and that we may operate with Him and with the Priesthood behind the veil in the interests of all humanity that have ever lived upon the face of the earth. We are a blessed people if we could only comprehend our position. And we need not be too anxious about the affairs of the world. Men of wealth, men of standing, men of position, men who stand in high places, are beginning to tremble and quake everywhere. They are looking forward with terrible forebodings to something that they fear is coming upon the earth. They do not know what it is, but it will burst upon them and their forebodings will be realized.

But we will look at this matter again. Could we be in a better place? I think not. Let me show you the reason for that. We are a very small people, and we are in the midst of a very large people. We occupy these valleys among these rugged mountains, and we dwell in deserts, and in many of the most forbidding places. We see people living in little places, on little streams of water trickling along, and perhaps all of it would go through an inch pipe without much pressure, and they are professing to farm and raise fruits, vegetables and vines in such places, wrenching their living from the barren desert soil. And they do live, but it is hard sledding, and there is a great deal of it here. Now then, go over the ground we have traveled to get here, say starting from Utah County to Juab, from Juab to Fillmore, from Fillmore to Beaver, from Beaver to Parowan, and so on down through here, and among these rocks where little settlements are placed, and up and down your rivers, how very, very few comparatively they are. Yet what an extent of land, is there not? We occupy the country it is true; but I tell the people sometimes that our mountains have very large feet, and that our deserts occupy very large tracks of land. But wherever there is a habitable place, Latter-day Saints are living on it, and consequently living in these little places they control the mountains and the country. Is not that a fact? And suppose we did not have these little forbidding, barren places, the little springs and little rivulets that come along reminding one of oases in the deserts—if we did not have them we could not have the country, but we have them and God has given us possession of them. If we had not possessed these narrow valleys and defiles they would have been in the possession of bands of Gadianton robbers, who would have preyed upon the people and their property, as “cowboys” and guerrillas are now doing in Arizona. But our possessing them gave strength and protection to our more important settlements.

We have paid for what we have got. I expect your land is all entered here?

Answer—Yes, sir.

You have paid for the land then, and you have paid for it up here in Pine Valley. There is a big moun– tain between, and you own that in the bargain, and all those sand ridges and rough places, including Jacob’s Twist are thrown in for nothing. You own the country here and there and all the way through. How far is it from these mountains to Kanab?

Answer—About 80 miles, sir.

The most of it is mountainous. But there are little places here and there which enable you to control all of it; the mountains are thrown in as chips and whetstones. It is the same all the way from here to Nephi; there are little places here and there; we own them and have got our titles for them, and we are the owners of the soil and the mountains are thrown in. So that owing to the small quantity of land we have been compelled by circumstances to go into Idaho, Arizona and Colorado. We cannot hide from ourselves that these things give us some political rights in these places; but who are we injuring, whose political or religious liberties are infringed upon by us? Nobody’s! If we live on and conquer those forbidden districts we ought not to be begrudged the limited influence that those positions naturally award us; and while we do not interfere with others and their political arrangements, we think we ought to possess that meager share that these forbidding circumstances place in our possession.

There is another remarkable thing. Who is it that we are to thank for this? The Lord. Did he inspire President Brigham Young in these things—to occupy these places! Yes. Is it right for us to occupy them? Yes. Is it right for us to build temples? Yes. Is it right for us to administer in them? Yes. Is it right for us to seek to establish the kingdom of God on the earth? Yes. Is it right for us to seek wisdom from God to do it? Yes. That is what we have been doing for a great many years and we are doing it today. Here is Brother Cannon. He is going to Washington as our representative in the general government. Only think about it. Here is a Territory several hundred miles long and I do not know how wide. Let me see (the speaker turning and addressing himself to President Cannon) George, how many representatives have they in Congress?

Answer: 293 representatives and 9 delegates.

And then there is the Senate?

Answer: 76 members.

And we, a little people in the valleys of these mountains, right in the tops of these mountains, in the midst of 50 millions of people, all the representation we have is just one delegate, and he has not a right to vote! And yet what have they done to us? Not much. Have they been plotting against us? Yes, they have. Are they seeking to injure us today? Yes. Who? All classes of men, and especially the religious kind. Our feeling is to save people, not to curse them. It must be a miserable feeling for men to have when they are seeking to destroy their fellow men, yet they are doing it. It is because they have not the intelligence to cope with the principles that God has revealed to us, that they want to drag the strength of the government to put down by arms that which they have not the power to do by argument or on any just or regular principle. I would be ashamed if I were one of them; I would be ashamed if I could not do something else besides praying to destroy a few, weak people in the tops of the mountains of Utah, far away from everybody, and pre– tending that we are so awfully corrupt that they are afraid we shall demoralize them. God save the mark! They themselves are killing off their own children by tens of thousands and by hundreds of thousands before they are born. That is the feeling that is growing up among them. It is adultery, fornication, lasciviousness that is undermining the constitutions of the people. They are rotting by thousands and tens of thousands, and they will come here and preach morality to us. We do not want them. We tell them to go among their own lepers and cleanse their own social evils, sweep out their own Augean stables, and purify themselves from their own corruptions, and then come and talk purity to us. That is what I would say to those people. We understand them as well as they understand themselves, and for that reason we do not want any of that kind of hypocrisy here.

Now, then, we come to ourselves. We are here. Could we have been placed in any better position than we are today? No. What has been the object of God for sometime? In the first place He operated upon Columbus to come and find this land. He then operated upon the Puritans and other men in England and other places to come to this land, and many of them were good, honorable, high-minded, virtuous people. The grandfathers and grandmothers of this nation were not murderers; they did not murder infants; they were honorable people who cherished human life, and considered it a blessing to have a large posterity and to take care of them. The spirit of the early fathers was, if their land was poor they could raise men. What are they doing now? Raising murderers and murderesses. From among those people and from Europe and other parts the Saints have been gathered. The Lord is gathering them together, and His kingdom is spreading and growing, and it is our privilege to grow and expand with it, and we should be true to ourselves, be true to our religion, be true to God, and operate in the interests of humanity. We could not find a better place for Latter-day Saints than in these valleys of the mountains, nor in those rugged parts further south. We expect to go on and to increase and seek to the Lord for his guidance, protection and sustenance, while we must learn to do right and observe his laws and keep his commandments. The kingdom of God is onward. It is accelerating in its speed. God has called the First Presidency, the Twelve, High Priests, Seventies, Elders, Bishops, High Councilors, Priests, Teachers and Deacons—he has called upon them to devote themselves to him. He expects us to be willing in the day of his power. He expects us to be true to our integrity, and having taught us eternal principles, he expects that we shall have the law of God written in our hearts and be valiant for the truth and for God. God and all the intelligences that he is surrounded with are on our side and are enlisted in our protection and for the sustenance of this people; and for the rolling forth of his work, and the accomplishment of the objects that he designed in the introduction of the Gospel in the last days, even in the dispensation of the fulness of times, when he would gather all things into one. Being called to live in a land like this, in the midst of rugged mountains and barren deserts we will sing, “For the strength of the hills we bless thee, our God, our fathers’ God;” for the wisdom Thou hast displayed we praise Thee, O God, our fathers’ God. And we will be true to God, to our religion and will keep our covenants; we will maintain strict integrity to our vows which we have vowed in sacred places; we will follow the guidance of the Holy Priesthood, and God will lead us from strength to strength, from victory to victory, from power to power, until the kingdom of God shall be established, and no man can stay its progress today, God being our helper. Let us go to him and put our trust in him, and all will be well with us in time and through all eternity.

Brethren: God bless you, and prosper you in all your journeyings, and enable you to accomplish your object, and frustrate all the designs of your enemies, and let all the congregation say, Amen [the congregation responded, Amen.] May God bless this people. Hold on a little longer, for this motto which I see in your house will be fulfilled, “After the cloud there will be sunshine.” Amen.

Discourse by Elder H. W. Naisbitt, Continued from Page 376, Journal of Discourses, Vol. XXII, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 15th, 1881.

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 376, JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, VOL. XXII.) there have been larger opportunities for the acquisition of the knowledge which pertains to the designs of the Creator. I think that all thoughtful men and thoughtful women have felt within themselves that there were a great many problems in regard to human existence upon which they would like to have light and intelligence, they would like to understand and to have a surety as to whether a man was anything more than a mere animal in creation, whether it was his destiny only “to eat and to drink, for tomorrow we die,” or whether his existence was of a continuous character; whether after having laid down this tabernacle of flesh he would be privileged to enjoy again the associations which have been agreeable to him on earth, whether the family circle would be burst asunder, or whether continuing to exist he would be divested in a great measure of the temptations which seem to influence him on the right hand and on the left, and which appear to lead so many thousands of the human family down to degradation and death. It appears to me that there are questions in connection with all these things that thousands would like to solve, and questions which really never can be solved by the ordinary wisdom and knowledge which pertain to the educational facilities of mankind. Now, in reading these prophecies concerning the future angelic visitations that are to take place in the history of mankind, I have no doubt that those who have pondered over these prophecies have thought that in these visitations they would find the key which should unlock the past, the present and the future, and be of great value in the salvation of the human family—salvation from ignorance, from sin, and from death. These are the things which men everywhere need. They need to be saved from themselves; they need to be saved from each other; they need to be saved in regard to the future, according to the Scriptures, and the generally received notions of the Christian world.

Now, this angel that was to come in the latter times was declared to be one who was to bring the everlasting Gospel in order that it might be preached among all nations. Now, the everlasting Gospel, whatever that may mean, is something that is divine in its character. It is not conjured up by cunning and designing men. God was its author; in fact the Scriptures say that His Son Jesus was the “author and finisher” of the Christian faith on earth. Whenever, therefore, the revelation of that Gospel comes it must give man an account of his origin, of the necessity of the circumstances of the present, and something of his future. There is one thing which strikes the reader as being very peculiar in regard to this angel coming to the human family. It is implied upon the surface, and in its depths also, that there would be no necessity of sending the Gospel if the children of man had the Gospel already, this would be superfluous. Then when this angel comes is he to come to Christendom, or is he to come to heathendom? Is he to come to men that have not heard of Jesus, know nothing of God, know nothing of the way of salvation, or is he to come to the Christian world. If he is to come to heathendom it of course would be to bring salvation, the redemption of the soul and body of man; but if he is to come to Christendom it would almost seem to imply that amid them even the Gospel of redemption was unpreached or misunderstood, for in all the creations of our God there does not appear to be anything of an unnecessary character, there are no steps fallen in His government that are inapplicable to the existing condition of things; but the fact that an angel was to come in “the dispensation of the fulness of times” naturally implies that the Gospel would not be at that time preached on the face of the earth. Now this is rather an awkward conclusion to arrive at when all Christendom is said to be doing so much in regard to the building of churches, the teaching of religion, the payment of ministers, the sending of the so-called Gospel to the heathen, and the furnishing of Bibles to all the nations of the earth. And on reflecting upon the visits of this angel a man would naturally enquire, if this angel is going to bring the Gospel, in what does the Gospel consist, and as a necessary consequence he would also begin to enquire as to what the records say which have come down to us from ancient times. He would look into the New Testament; he would read the sayings of those whose names have become historic; he would read the sayings of the Great Teacher, who was sent from heaven, even Jesus Christ the righteous; and he would read the acts and doings in that book of His successors the Apostles, and of the primitive church, and from this record he would endeavor to find out what the Gospel was as preached in ancient times, and after he had done this he would begin to contrast the Christian organizations with which he was surrounded, the theories which Christians hold, the doctrines which they teach and put them side by side in parallel columns with the teachings of the ancient Church. He would institute comparisons and so would show a desire to understand the necessity for this angel coming expressly from heaven to “preach” the everlasting Gospel “unto them that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.” And in taking the New Testament for his guide, in pondering the acts and teachings of Jesus and his Apostles, he would begin to understand that there was method and order in connection with that Gospel; that it consisted of a series of principles, of ideas, and thoughts and practices, which were intended to work out some desired end. Hence it was said that the Gospel in ancient times “was the power of God unto salvation.” It was an important thing, it was something of value; it was something calculated to affect a man’s interests in time and in eternity, it was “the power of God unto salvation;” and I do not think that in any other recognized record are we so likely to find a portrayal of that Gospel in its purity and original simplicity as in the record called the New Testament. When we come to search that, we realize that Jesus professed to be the Son of God. He encouraged his followers to exercise faith in his Father, and in regard to his works he told them that he “did nothing of himself, but that which he had seen the Father do that did he,” and that which he did before his Apostles, and which he commanded them to do, was according to the commandments which he had received of the Father. I think the Christian world will be willing to acknowledge that this faith in God was a principle which was calculated to enhance the welfare of the human family. It was calculated to infuse high and lofty thoughts into the man or woman who accepted it; faith in the existence of God, faith that they were his children; faith that he was alive to their interests; faith that he was able to teach them the purpose of their existence, and the design that he had in their creation, faith that he was able to hear and answer their prayers. And the man who enjoyed this faith in God after he had been taught it was a man who was likely not only to feel higher conceptions in regard to humanity, so far as he himself was concerned, but there would be bound to spring up in his heart feelings, growing out of this, in regard to his brother man, and to his sister, woman; he would be bound to look upon them with more regard for their interests, well-being and salvation upon the earth, than he would have done without this conception. He would be interested in the moral, mental and spiritual condition of his neighbor; he would be interested in imparting to his neighbor the truth, and thus the spirit of faith in God would begin to spread and exercise a salutary influence wherever it was felt among those who received it.

And Jesus was not satisfied only with teaching this faith in God, but he realized that there would grow out of it these or similarly certain principles of action with regard to the conduct of those who received it. A man would begin to realize that inasmuch as he was a child of God, that he had in many respects been unworthy of that position, that he had been guilty of many acts both of commission and omission that were derogatory to such origin, and he would naturally begin to repent, to be sorry for having committed himself in this way and not to be sorry only, but to lay everything of this character aside in order that he might stand approved of God, His Heavenly Father. Hence there would grow out of faith the spirit of repentance for past sins, and then it was found that there was an ordinance in the Gospel by which through divine appointment, a man was enabled to receive the “remission of his sins,” consequent on the sacrifice that was to be offered on Calvary. That ordinance of the Church, as established by Jesus, was the ordinance of water baptism for the remission of sins. This was one of the principles of the Gospel, one of the principles of salvation, one of the steps in the educational process of those who submitted themselves to the authority of the Great Teacher, Jesus Christ. Now there is a vast diversity of opinion in the Christian world in regard to baptism, but this diversity we need not stop to consider. We can take the New Testament, and see what is laid down there upon the subject. Some think baptism unimportant. Christ, however, evidently thought it important. In speaking to Nicodemus, he said, “Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” And when he commissioned his Apostles to preach the Gospel, they went forth among the people, “baptizing them in water, confessing their sins.” Indeed, there are illustrations in abundance of this fact, that will be familiar to all the students of the New Testament. The great Apostle Peter, who appeared to have been the master spirit of the Church on the day of Pentecost, when men began to inquire what they should do to be saved, answered the inquirers in this way, “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” This was the ancient order; this was the order established by Jesus, and the presumption is beyond dispute that if it was necessary for any one single member of that primitive church, or for any of the Apostles, or for Jesus himself to be baptized in water, it was necessary for the whole. Hence the irresistible conclusion is, that every member of the primitive church was baptized, “buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” This was one of the doctrines of the ancient church, and the next doctrine that followed it in the program and system of the Gospel was the giving of the Holy Ghost. Now the scriptures tell us that “the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” In every land and clime, in all conditions of the human family, of every color, among the most highly civilized as among the most degraded, there is given to every man this measure of the spirit of God to profit withal, and it is in accordance with his obedience to the measure received of that spirit that he will be rewarded in the future. But in the Christian church there appears to have been an order that went in advance of this universal gift of the spirit. It was called “the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.” Hence those who are familiar with the New Testament will realize that when men were baptized they were afterwards confirmed by “the laying on of hands,” and upon that confirmation they received the Holy Ghost. This Holy Ghost in them was the power of God. It opened up their minds, it informed their reason, enlarged their capacity, and enabled them to comprehend, as the scriptures say, the past, present and future. It was a grand gift, and one essential to salvation. To one man it gave the spirit of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge; to another faith; to another the gift of healing; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues, etc. It was to them the fountain of divine intelligence and power. And these manifestations followed the believer everywhere. It harmonized all the conflicting thoughts and ideas that they might have had in regard to God, in regard to the institutions with which they were surrounded, in regard to the duties devolving upon them, in regard to their destiny in the future. It made them one in Christ Jesus. They were baptized by one baptism, and they enjoyed one spirit. They were rich in the unity of the faith. And when men were thus baptized and received this spirit it was not expected that they should stand strictly upon their own individuality. They were not left to wander abroad to the right and to the left, but there appeared to have been in the primitive times a good deal of what we see in our own day. An organization grew up. They formed what was called a church. It is called in the New Testament, in some places “the Church of God,” in other places it is called “the Church of Christ.” It was a church composed of those who had thus been baptized, and thus received of the Holy Ghost. They were united together for self-defense. They were united in order that they might be taught by the authorities of that church. They were not taught by strangers or by men who had never passed through the same gateway and received the same spirit as themselves, but according to the New Testament they were taught by Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists, men who were engaged in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. These officers were “set in the church,” according to the New Testament, for the edifying of the body, for the training of the members, until they all came to the unity of the faith and to the full stature of men and women in Christ. Now, that was a glorious age. I have heard good men and women, ever since I heard anything, wish that they had lived in those primitive times. They have said how glad they would have been to have the privilege of even touching the hem of the Savior’s garment, witnessing his miracles, hearing his teachings, and to have been obedient to the principles which he taught. Men and women have said that they would have been glad to have lived in the Apostolic age; that they would have belonged to the primitive church; that they would have been in their glory to share in its trials and persecutions, to have enjoyed its spirit, to have received of its blessings, and to have acquired the knowledge and intelligence which accompanied the Priesthood that had control of that special church. I believe there are thousands everywhere today—men who are Elders, Deacons, Superintendents of Sunday Schools, teachers in Sunday Schools—who, on reading the history of the past feel that they would have been glad to have lived in the primitive times and seen the leaders and apostles of that church. Well, now, these feelings are natural. We realize the glory and blessing which belong to that ancient order. But it appears that this order in a great measure has become obsolete; it has passed away, it is not to be found anywhere in the form in which it existed anciently. There may be a church that has faith in God; there may be many churches that include repentance, that practice baptism; some may have faith in baptism for the remission of sins; there may be here and there men who believe in the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands; but in its beautiful primitive order it is nowhere to be found among the children of men.

Now, in regard to the angel that should “fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth,” it is only reasonable to suppose that when the Gospel is restored, it will be restored with all its ancient power, blessings, ordinances, Priesthood, and everything that gave it grandeur and glory in the primitive times. But now the query is, Has this angel come? If he has not, are the children of men looking for him? Is there any anticipation in the midst of the Christian world of his appearance? I think not. But here among a small section of men and women in the Rocky Mountains, gathered from all the nations of the earth, there is an understanding that this angel has come, and should not the world be pleased at the assumption; for if they are delighted in reading the account of this angel’s probable visitation, why not take comfort and delight in the thought that angelic visitations may again become general or partial, as the case of necessity may require. Here, then, we have a little nucleus of men and women who say this angel has come in the 19th century, in the “dispensation of the fulness of times;” that he has brought with him and given to those who are preaching it, the “everlasting Gospel” as it existed in the ancient times; that in their practice they are in the habit of exercising faith in God, that they have repented of their sins; that they have been bap– tized in water for the promised remission; that they have laid aside their follies; that they want to free themselves from error and from all unrighteousness; that they have again identified themselves, as did the ancient Christians, with the Church, possessing within itself the ancient organization, the ancient Priesthood, the ancient authority to teach, to lead, and to govern and control, until all the obedient come again to the unity of the faith. Now if the Christian world take joy and satisfaction in reading ancient history or prospective history; if there are thousands of longing hearts in every denomination who say they would have rejoiced to have lived in the ancient times, to have listened to the teachings of the authorities of the primitive church, and to have shared in its blessings, etc.; what should be the thought when they hear again from men passing to and fro in the nations of the earth declaring that the ancient order has been restored; what should be the thought of men of intelligence, men of reflecting minds, men that know the merits and demerits of the Christian world, should not these hearts leap for joy when they hear that the Gospel has been thus restored in all its ancient glory?

The Latter-day Saints testify—it is a standing testimony to the nations—that this angel spoken of by John, the Revelator, has come to the human family, that he has brought with him the ancient Gospel, and that all those who are willing to accept their testimony, to exercise faith in God, to lay aside their dead works, their foolish notions and their false traditions, to divest themselves of the errors of the ages, and to be baptized and receive the power of the Holy Ghost, that they shall be as full of assurance as were the Saints in ancient times. For this, the Gospel of the kingdom neither was nor is a cunningly devised fable, nor was it something got up by the craftiness of men, but the obedient realized and know that it is “the power of God unto salvation;” it has come to them not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance; and there are thousands throughout the length and breadth of the Territory, thousands throughout the United States, the islands of the sea, and throughout the nations of the earth, that rejoice in this Gospel. They are ready to testify that they know that God lives, that Jesus was the Savior of mankind, that the Gospel in all its pristine purity and beauty has been restored, and that in our own day all the blessings and privileges necessary for a complete salvation are offered to mankind. This may seem a reflection upon the intelligence of ages that are past and gone. But it is not so. I presume that there are thousands and millions who have passed away, that did the best they could, they lived up to the light they had, they sought to please God in their daily walk and conversation; but the Elders of Israel take the liberty of pointing out “a more acceptable way,” and they are free to testify and speak of their own knowledge that God has restored the Gospel and prepared the way for the salvation of all who are willing to give obedience to that which has been revealed.

May God enable us to appreciate the day of our salvation and live according to his design, that we may be saved in his kingdom, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus, Amen.