Discourse by Apostle F. D. Richards, delivered in the Tabernacle, Logan, Cache County, Saturday Afternoon (Quarterly Conference), May 17, 1884.

I scarcely know how to find words to express the feelings which occupy my bosom at this time. This is one of those extraordinary occasions on which the Priesthood of the Church of the last dispensation are gathered together; a great thanksgiving day for God’s people. It is an assemblage of the authorities of the Church from the Stakes of Zion. They have come together to rejoice, to give God thanks, to praise and to magnify His name because another great and peculiar blessing is bestowed upon His people—that of erecting, completing and furnishing another house unto the Lord, and of dedicating it unto Him.

The Temples, the houses of our God, when acceptably dedicated, become to us the gates of heaven. They are esteemed most holy unto the Lord of all places upon the earth; therein the faithful approach nearest unto God, and obtain the greatest fellowship and inspiration of His Holy Spirit. There the righteous perform ordinances that reach into the heavens and take effect upon their dead whom they love, whom they have loved, and who have gone before—to whom they owe a debt of gratitude, for their parentage—the authors of their being and education in the flesh; who have gone unto that other state of spiritual existence. It is fitting on such occasions that the Presidents and Bishops, with their Counselors, should come from the four quarters of the earth, if the knowledge of the Gospel and the organization of the Stakes of Zion had extended so far.

The dedication of the Temple this morning awakens anew in our souls a heavenly, family feeling. It arouses in us an interest that reaches not only over the extent of the work here upon the earth, but into the regions of eternal life in the spirit world. It inspires a feeling that we are part of them and that they are part of us, knowing that we cannot be made perfect without them, nor they without us. And it becomes like the opening up of the gate of heaven unto us, that we may view by the eye of faith, and by the light of the Holy Spirit, that portion of the family of God with whom we have before associated, and with whom we expect to be hereafter associated in greater and more glorious labors in His eternal kingdom here upon the earth; when sickness, sorrow, sin and death shall be cleansed from the face of it, and when life, salvation, peace and faith shall, as the fruits of the Spirit, be poured out upon all flesh.

While in the Temple with the chief authorities of the Church and Kingdom of God—which has now extended its operations and its labors to every continent, almost every mainland, and many islands of the sea—the reflection came forcibly to my mind that there are represented in our midst this day people from either Indies, from the Antipodes, and from the various nations of the earth; not less than twenty-five or thirty nationalities, languages, tongues and peoples are represented among us. The impression was irresistible that the fellowship of the heavens was near us, that our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ was near, and that His Spirit was largely in the midst of the congregation; that the spirit of our ancient fathers, Adam, Noah and Abraham, the father of the faithful, who the Revelations inform us has entered into his exaltation and sits upon his throne, were all earnestly interested in our offering and dedication of this Temple to the Most High God. The impression was constantly with me that we were in the presence of the Prophet Joseph, his brother Hyrum, and others who had gone before, such as Brother David W. Patten, as well as Brigham, Heber, Willard, and others of the Apostles and worthies—that their spirits must have been present with us hallowing our reflections, imparting their peaceful influence and truthful inspiration to our souls. Our spirits were awakened to a profound sense of thankfulness that we had been enabled to take another so important a step of advancement in the triumphant progress of the great Latter-day work.

We are sensible that the heavenly powers are moved on these occasions, and we know that the Saints on earth are. Indeed there is no theme that engages the human mind, and that reaches into the innermost recesses thereof as does Temple building, and the ideas associated with that work and the purposes for which they are used. It is this that animates the bosoms of the righteous and brings forth sentiments and emotions from the fountains of their souls, inspiring them with fresh resolutions to faith and good works. I thank the living God and praise His holy name that I have lived to see His work progress thus far upon the earth. I am thankful for the privilege of meeting with so many of my brethren in the Priesthood.

It is a pleasing thought, a glorious truth, that while we are here together in our persons, we are also united in spirit, we are firmly united, so far as we know, in our belief in the principles of the Gospel, and in all the labors assigned to us severally to perform. I do not recollect to have ever read in the Bible history of God’s people on the earth, when His servants and His people wrought together, with greater unanimity of faith or with a more generous use of their means than now in all the labors and duties that devolve upon them. The favorable conditions attending us as a people, the peace and plenty there is in the land—the sweet fellowship of the Spirit, the glorious promises and prospects for the future, all draw from the fountain of our souls our best emotions, our strongest faith, our brightest hopes, our most glorious anticipations.

I have reflected upon the days of ancient Israel, and wondered at their decadence, when they had arrived at the height of glory and eminence. Solomon, their king, stood vastly above all the kings of the surrounding nations; he sat safely on his throne, for God sustained him there, until he departed from His counsels and commandments. Oh, what a terrible thing to happen to God’s people, or to any of His servants! What was it that turned the scale and started the decay of that nation? It was simply because their ruler put forth his hand and took to himself wives of other nations, that God had commanded him not to. This was the beginning of the great mischief that came upon Israel, and one mischief led to another; they persuaded him to attend the sacrifices and worship of their idolatrous gods, as the Lord told him they would do, until the family of Israel had come to follow the example of their king—marrying strange women and worshipping strange gods, which brought them down to that terrible degradation that their temple, which was built in wisdom, strength and beauty most glorious, and which was acknowledged at its dedication by the presence and glory of God, had become polluted and degraded to a den of thieves. The Lord told them that their doom was sealed, and that in regard to the Temple, there should not be left one stone upon another to tell where it stood. O, what terrible consequences have followed through the ages until today! Even until now, that nation is afflicted and distressed. While it is well with us here, and we are enjoying all these blessings, it is but right, I think, that we should ask our Father in heaven that the day of their affliction and sorrow may soon come to an end, and that they may come, as we have come, with obedient hearts to help build up Zion and Jerusalem.

Our work is at present but small. It is but the beginning, the germination of the wonderfully strange work that is to affect the whole habitable globe, and not only those that are on the earth now, but all that have dwelt here or that shall come to dwell upon it, until the earth shall be made anew, and all things thereon pronounced new again from God. Although Israel had attained to great eminence and glory in the earth, yet they were brought into subjection to other nations because of their transgressions, and though Christ came to be their deliverer, they received Him not—and their Temple was not restored to those glorious and exalted purposes and uses for which it was intended; then what have been the consequences? The Savior told them what would come to pass. “Behold,” said he, “I send unto you prophets, and wise men and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, etc.” What a terrible consequence! If they could have but hearkened to His word, walked in the way of the Lord, continued in its holy course, and believed in the Savior when He came, then they might have been engaged in this work of redeeming their dead back to the beginning of the world, and there would have been a mighty work done by that generation for their dead, as well as for themselves; but it remains for those recent men and women now upon the earth and that shall come upon the earth to perform this labor.

My brethren and sisters, there is before us that which draws upon our faith and upon our prospective ambition and knowledge of Gospel labor clear back to the days of the ancients. The Lord has given us intimations in regard to all these things, and He will continue to reveal all things necessary to be made known by which His great purposes shall be brought about. Great and glorious is His work! The work of the resurrection is not far off. I am fully persuaded of this, and have reflected sometimes concerning it, with an earnest desire. Never in all my ministry have I talked much about the resurrection; but the Lord has manifested some things concerning it, and I would like to allude to them.

It is a popular sentiment among professing Christians generally, and it is believed also by many of the Saints—because of a certain saying the Savior made use of to the Sadducees on a particular occasion—that, in neither of the resurrections is there to be any marrying or giving in marriage. This is a mistaken idea. We are nowhere informed that the Savior ever said any such thing or entertained any such doctrine. He taught the doctrine of the resurrection, saying that He was the resurrection and the life, and that the day will come when all they that are in their graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth. It was because He taught this doctrine that the Sadducees sought to entangle and confuse Him concerning this principle by bringing up the case of the woman who married a man and he died without any children, then because he died childless she married his brother, which was according to the law of Moses, he also died without children, and so on, each of the brothers marrying her, until the seven brothers had her to wife, and last of all the woman died also.

These Sadducees did not believe in any resurrection, and they thought to be very crafty with the Savior, so they put the question squarely to Him: “Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.” They evidently thought they had caught the Savior then; but He replied to them saying: “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” Now, who was He talking to? He was speaking to those Sadducees who denied there being any resurrection; who lived contemporaneously with the seven men and this woman who had lived and died among them. He was talking to a race of people to whom John the Baptist had come, and many had received his testimony; but these had not. He was talking to a people who claimed to be of the House of Israel, to whom He (Jesus) had come in fulfillment of the testimony of John the Baptist.

There had been sent among this people, whom he was now talking to, prophets who had foretold His coming and the coming of John the Baptist. He had sent His Twelve Apostles among all their cities, all of whom had testified to the coming of the Just One unto all that people, but they had rejected those testimonies, had killed the Prophets, stoned those who had been sent unto them, and were now ready to slay Him.

It was to this class of people, who were living under these circumstances, that He makes the answer say– ing, “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” Luke the Evangelist, stating this case in his 20th chapter, says: “The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” If we refer to the glorious vision which was shown to Joseph and Sidney on the 16th of February, 1832, as recorded in the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, last edition, we shall find the promised condition of these people, that the glory of the telestial is one, even as the glory of the stars is one, for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so differs one from another in the telestial world; for these are they who are of Paul, Apollos and Cephas, some of Christ—Moses, Elias and others—but received not the Gospel, the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets nor the everlasting covenant, but are liars, sorcerers, adulterers and whoremongers, who shall not be redeemed from the devil until the last resurrection, when Christ the Lamb shall have finished His work, having subdued all unto Him. These receive not of His fullness, but of the Holy Spirit through the ministration of angels appointed to administer for them. Had they hearkened to the Prophets, the Apostles, the words of the Savior, and received the everlasting covenant, they would have been made heirs of God and joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ, and would have been made heirs of the celestial world, with power to increase eter– nally, being Gods, even the sons of God, but now that they would not receive the Gospel, the Prophets, nor the everlasting covenant which they might have received, they can only become as the angels in heaven, who in that world neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are equal to the angels in heaven.

These are not they who inherit the celestial world, nor those who attain to the terrestrial, but they who suffer the judgment of God in the flesh. These are they who come forth in the last resurrection; they who attain to the resurrection in that world, and are neither married nor are given in marriage, just as the revelations of God prescribe and show forth.

There is nothing in all this which says or intimates that those who come forth in either of the other resurrections shall not have the blessing in their resurrection and in their world, whether Celestial or Terrestrial, of being married and given in marriage. Let me ask what is to become of that portion of the human family that have gone down into their graves in past ages without having arrived at the age of puberty, or without having lived to years of accountability? What is to become of them? Are they not to be given the blessings of the New and Everlasting Covenant, to increase, multiply and attain to endless lives, and eternal increase in the covenant of Abraham? Undoubtedly, in the resurrection when they shall have regained their tabernacles, if they render the required obedience to the holy law of God. And who are the others that come forth in the second resurrection? Stop. Let me distinguish. The first resurrection was in the days of Jesus. Those who were resurrected with Him appeared many of them, we are told, in the streets of the holy city. That was the first resurrection. The second resurrection is the resurrection of the just, when Jesus shall come again in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, when they who sleep in Jesus will come with Him. Then will He bring the City of Enoch that has gone away in Terrestrial glory ever since it went to the heavens. Then will those children who have died in Christ—for they are redeemed in Christ from before the foundation of the world—come forth. Then, in the next resurrection, we are told, will come forth the honorable men of the earth who have lived according to the light they had. In this next resurrection will come forth the multitudes of the nations that have never had the Gospel—the heathen nations. They are candidates for the next resurrection, and when they come forth upon the earth, those of them who prove themselves worthy will they not have the opportunity to attain to all the blessings of the new and everlasting covenant? If they are not to be married and given in marriage the Lord has not been pleased to tell us so. I anticipate that in that glorious day the work of performing all the ordinances and endowments for those who have not attained unto these privileges and blessings in the flesh, either by themselves or by proxy, will have that privilege, and the work will be carried on. That blessed epoch seems to dawn upon our view—that glorious period when the righteous will come forth, and while the wicked will sleep on another thousand years.

Let me remind you of another interesting feature in this allegory, and that is this: The Savior tells us that the terrestrial glory, or kingdom, is likened unto the glory of the moon, which is not of the brightness of the sun, neither of the smallness nor dimness of the stars. But those others who have no part in marrying or giving of marriage in the last resurrection, they become as stars, and even differ from each other in glory; but those in the terrestrial kingdom are those who will come forth at the time when Enoch comes back, when the Savior comes again to dwell upon the earth; when Father Abraham will be there with the Urim and Thummim to look after every son and daughter of his race; to make known all things that are needed to be known, and with them enter into their promised inheritance. Thus the people of God will go forward. They will go forward, like unto the new moon, increasing in knowledge and brightness and glory, until they come to a fullness of celestial glory. During the Millennium multitudes of people who have not heard the Gospel will hear and receive it and go forward into this glory, while those who will not go forward to a fullness will go back to that lesser glory which is likened unto the stars of heaven, for as the Prophet Isaiah says; “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

I did not think when I arose that I should be led to speak in this strain; but the fact is, upon these occasions the glories of the other worlds open up before us, and we cannot help thinking of them, and dwelling upon them unless we quench the Spirit.

But says one, I thought that all marriages were to be performed in mortality? In reply to that suggestion I would ask, How was it that Father Adam and Mother Eve were married while they were immortal? And if they could be married as immortal beings, why cannot their children just as well be? It will doubtless occupy the whole of that sabbath of rest the whole thousand years, and perhaps a period after, to do the work necessary for all the vast myriads of Adam’s children, so that they may be placed in a position to be judged according to men in the flesh, or according to the deeds done in the body.

Brethren and sisters, I rejoice exceedingly with you in this glorious Gospel. If there is anything on the earth that can satisfy the human soul in its desires for excellence, virtue, exaltation and greatness, it certainly is this Gospel of the kingdom. If there is anything in the world that can satisfy the hungry soul for knowledge, it is the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ, which open up continually line upon line, and precept upon precept; here a little and there a little; indeed there is nothing else can satisfy the longing of the human soul. This will lead to the same blessing and glory which the Prophet Joseph told us Enoch had attained unto. He taught us that he and his city had attained in his day to a terrestrial glory, that they were enjoying that glory still. They attained unto the power of translation, that they might take their bodies and their city with them. The resurrection was not until Christ came and became the firstfruits of them that slept.

This view of the subject brings me to think and to speak a word in reference to the three Nephites. They wanted to tarry until Jesus came, and that they might He took them into the heavens and endowed them with the power of translation, probably in one of Enoch’s temples, and brought them back to the earth. Thus they received power to live until the coming of the Son of Man. I believe He took them to Enoch’s city and gave them their endowments there. I expect that in the city of Enoch there are temples; and when Enoch and his people come back, they will come back with their city, their temples, blessings and powers. The north country will yield up its multitude, with the Apostle John, who is looking after them. They also will come to Zion and receive their crowns at the hands of their brethren of Ephraim. There will also be nations here on the earth that have not received the Gospel, but who will receive it, and thus the work of God will go on in all its phases, for the living and for the dead.

It is a good thing to take a glimpse once in a while into, and contemplate the glories of the future. A few years ago, when the wolf stood at our doors, when we had hardly enough of the necessaries of life to keep body and spirit together, we used to sing the song—“There’s a good time coming.” Behold! that time has come. This is one of those good times that we are celebrating today. Let us rejoice in the Lord our God. I think that every honest soul that is pure before the Lord can lift up his heart, and praise His holy name, that he has lived to see this day. The Lord help us that we may give to Him our best efforts in forwarding His work here on earth. I rejoice with all my soul and ask the blessing of the Lord to rest upon the Presidency of the Church, upon the Apostles, upon the Seventies, High Priests and all the quorums; also, that the Bishops may be filled with the spirit of justice, equity and truth. I also feel to bless you, my brethren and sisters, that the favor of God may be multiplied upon your persons, your families, your homes, your flocks and your herds, your possessions and your hopes. That we may prove faithful and attain to heaven’s proffered blessings is my desire, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Evening (Quarterly Conference, Salt Lake Stake), May 4th, 1884.

In arising to address you, my brethren and sisters, this evening, I desire an interest in your faith and prayers, that I may be led to speak upon those points of doctrine or of principles, that are adapted to our wants and to the circumstances which surround us.

It is a great responsibility to arise as a teacher to a great people like those who have assembled within this house this evening, especially to speak in the name of the Lord, and I do not believe that any man should do this unless he can have the assistance of that spirit which God has promised to bestow upon His servants.

We who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe in God; not a God who lived a few thousand years ago, but a God who lives today; a God who has a voice with which to speak today, and who has arms and a head, and bodily as well as spiritual powers, who can communicate His mind and His will unto His children, with the same facility in the days in which we live as He did in the days of the Savior and His disciples, or in the days of the prophets. If there is any feature characteristic of the present age that is more notable than another, it is the decay of faith in God. It is a characteristic of our age and time, and it is one that is increasingly manifesting itself among what are termed the Christian nations. I have myself frequently—especially of late years—been struck with the contrast between the present unbelief and the faith concerning God, which existed in the days when I first went out to preach the Gospel, or in the days of my youth. Skepticism is increasing on every hand, and if it were not for this Church, and the faith that is cherished by the Latter-day Saints, and which they are endeavoring to instill into the minds of their children, and of all unto whom they have access, there would be no Church of which I have any knowledge that, as a church, believes in God our Eternal Father, as he is described in the Scriptures—a God who can hear and answer—literally answer—the prayers of those who address Him in faith. The idea has become very prevalent of late years, in the so-called Chris– tian world, that God does not interfere by any special providence in behalf of any people or of any individual; that He governs the universe and the earth upon which we stand, and the inhabitants of which we form a part, by grand and universal laws, and that those laws are never overruled. In other words, that there is no special interposition of providence in behalf of individuals or of peoples, but that the Lord rules by those grand laws which are applicable to all, and which all have to submit to, and that He does not concern Himself to listen unto the appeals of individuals in behalf of themselves, or of those in whom they are interested, or to have any special providence extended unto nations; and it is this feature of belief that causes mankind who are familiar with us, to entertain such ideas respecting our future as they frequently indulge in. You will often hear it said—I have heard it stated I may say hundreds of times when I have spoken to friends who are not of our faith, concerning the interposition of providence in our behalf; and the faith that we had respecting the deliverances that would be wrought out for us—I have been told that God is on the side of the strongest battalions, that God is on the side of the heaviest artillery; that God is on the side of the greatest numbers; and I have often provoked smiles of incredulity by the simple statement of our faith in God, and our hopes and anticipations concerning the care that He had had over us, the deliverances which He has wrought out for us, and the promises that He had made unto us concerning the future.

Upon this point and in this respect we differ, as I have remarked, from every people with whom I am acquainted—in this feature of our religion, this implicit trust in a God who can hear and who can answer prayer, in a God who is not on the side of the greatest numbers, unless the greatest numbers are in the right; in a God whose power is not exerted in behalf of the strongest battalions, nor of the heaviest artillery, unless the strongest battalions and the heaviest artillery are in the right. We believe, as it has sometimes been stated, that God and one man are a great majority, and that when He purposes to accomplish a certain work, all the powers of earth and the powers of hell combined cannot prevent the accomplishment of that work; that there is no power that can by any possibility defeat His purposes; and that He will interpose by the exercise of His Almighty power in behalf of the individual, in behalf of the community, or in behalf of the nation concerning whom He has spoken, and who are seeking to do his will. We have proved this, at least to our own satisfaction. The history of the people is full of illustrations of the most remarkable character establishing this truth, so far as we are concerned, beyond all controversy; and I am happy to say that this faith is increasing instead of decreasing among the Latter-day Saints. I am happy in this knowledge. In my associations with our people in various places, I find that there is a steady growth of faith in that God whom we worship, and in His power to save and to deliver us, and in his power to bless us and to grant unto us the righteous desires of our hearts. This does not necessarily require a suspension of law. It was no suspension of law on the part of our Savior, that caused Him to gather from the elements the bread and the fishes necessary to feed the multitude. It was no suspension of law that caused Him to open the eyes of the blind, or to cause the sick to be healed. It was no suspension of law that caused Him to ascend in the sight of His disciples after His resurrection when He visited them. I know that miracles are said to be a suspension of law; but instead of their being a suspension of law, they are due to a knowledge of a higher law, to a comprehension of greater laws, by the knowledge of which, what are called miracles are wrought. To a person who never saw the effect of electricity, if he were in this Tabernacle and were to see these lights kindled instantaneously by the touch of electricity—a person who did not understand the laws of electricity, would say, “Why this is miraculous.” Or to an ignorant person, a person who knew nothing of the law of electricity, it would seem marvelous that one standing at the end of a wire, stretched under the ocean could, by touching that wire, communicate a distance of nearly 3,000 miles, and could talk to a person at the other end of the wire. Had this been mentioned in the days of our forefathers, they would have declared it was an impossibility. Such power would have been miraculous in their eyes, and they would have said that such a thing was contrary to all known laws concerning the transmission of sound and thought; but to us who understand this law—or if we do not understand it, who see the operations of electricity; who know that we can go to the telegraph office and send a message to Europe from this city, and get a reply within a few hours; in fact, receive it here at a time of the day earlier than it was transmitted from there, which is frequently done. We, who witness this, no longer look upon it as a miracle, or as a suspension of law, or a violation of the laws which govern the transmission of sound or thought. We accept it because we have become familiar with it. And so, if we understood the law by which Jesus operated when He fed the multitude, it would be as simple to us as the law of electricity is today. If we understood the law by which the sick were healed, and sight restored to the blind, or by which He counteracted the laws of gravitation, and ascended in the sight of His disciples into heaven—if we understood these laws, they would be simple to us, as all laws are when they are understood.

There is no suspension of law on the part of our Father when He interposes in behalf of His children. He has ministering spirits who minister unto those, as the Apostle tells us, who shall be heirs of salvation. Jesus conveys the idea very beautifully, when He says, that not one hair of our heads falls to the ground unnoticed. This was the kind of faith which He taught His disciples, and it is the kind of faith that was believed in by the ancients, by those who wrote the Bible, by those who wrote the Book of Mormon, and it is the faith that is transmitted to us, which God is endeavoring to establish in the hearts of the children of men, to bring them nearer to Him, and enable them to partake of that power which He is willing to bestow upon men, if they will follow after Him.

As I have said, the history of this Church is full of instances of this character. When we started out from the State of Illinois, and crossed the Mississippi when it was frozen over, the leading men of this Church, sending their wagons on with the few goods they had, they launched forth into a wilderness, not knowing where they were going. Moses and the children of Israel, when they left Egypt, had a more definite idea of their destination than the Latter-day Saints had, when they left Illinois; because the children of Israel knew that the promises which had been made to their father Abraham, concerning Canaan, (and which was the residence of the heads of their tribes) must be fulfilled. The traditions of the people led them to look back to Canaan, as the land which they would eventually inherit. But there were no such traditions for us to lean upon. Before the people stretched an uninhabited wilderness, two thousand miles in extent, concerning which but little was known, but the people had no hesitation. God had spoken by the mouth of His servant Joseph Smith, the Prophet, concerning the Latter-day Saints, that they should be in the Rocky Mountains, and should become a numerous people, a great people. The Twelve Apostles who then presided over the Church, were led by the Spirit of God to organize the people into companies, and to encourage them to look forward to a journey in the wilderness to a land to which God would lead us, and that when we should find it, we should know it was the land that He designed for us. There were inviting places in Iowa, for Iowa was then comparatively uninhabited. We followed Indian trails with our wagons, for there was no regular wagon road. We built bridges across the streams of Iowa—that is, streams that were not fordable—over which to take our wagons and cattle. The whole country was a waste. The Latter-day Saints might, had they chosen, have settled there, but the voice of the Spirit was not to settle there. We crossed the Missouri River, remained during the winter upon its banks, and then in the spring the pioneers launched out through what is now the State of Nebraska, which was then Indian Territory. The fertility of those plains did not tempt them to make that their abiding place, but they pressed on, not a man in the company knowing where they were going, not a man in the company who had ever trod the ground before, or who knew anything, by practical experience, of the character of the region upon which they were entering.

Now, this was faith in God. It is easy to say, after it has been demonstrated that settlements could be made in these mountains—that crops could be raised—it is easy to say that this was not much of an undertaking. I am reminded of a story told of Columbus. After he had made the discovery of America, and returned to Spain, upon one occasion, while at a banquet with a number of Spanish grandees, someone made light of the discovery he had made, of the voyage that he had undertaken, and the result of it. He picked up an egg that was lying near, and asked which of them could make that egg stand on end. They all tried it, but failed; they could not make the egg stand on end. He thereupon took the egg, knocked it on the table, and flattened it, and made the egg stand. “Gentlemen,” said he, “it is easy to make an egg stand on end when you know how to do it.” It is easy to discover a land after it has been discovered. It is easy to talk about the settlement of these valleys, and that which has been done here; after the work has been accomplished and the problem has been solved; after it has been demonstrated beyond all possible doubt that this country is habitable, that these valleys will produce crops to sustain human life, and that these streams that flow from the mountains can be used for the irrigating of these lands, and used successfully. But there was a time when there was a doubt concerning this. When the pioneers reached this valley, there was no doubt in the mind of the man who led the people, whatever there might be in the minds of others. His mind was clear, and the whole people felt that he had the right from God, as His servant, to designate the spot. They had faith to believe that God would sustain them in doing what they were told, and they planted themselves on this spot, having faith in God, believing that He would hear them, believing that He had heard them, believing that he would still continue to protect them, and fulfill all His promises which He had made, and they proved then, if they had not proved before, that God the Eternal Father is a God nigh at hand and not afar off. And when the crickets came down, as they did in 1848, in myriads from the mountains, blackening the whole face of the valley, sweeping off during one night fields of grain that were as promising as fields could be, and leaving them as bare as the palm of a man’s hand, even then their faith did not fail: they still had confidence that that God who had led them thus far would still continue to preserve them, and would supply their wants; and when it seemed as though their faith had been tried to the very uttermost, when the last point had been reached, God interposed by a very natural means. He did not come down Himself, that is in our sight, for us to see Him visibly; His angels did not come for us to see them visibly; but He sent the gulls who came by thousands, and devoured those crickets, leaving them in heaps along the edges of the water ditches. Having eaten their fill, they then vomited, and having eaten again, vomited again, and thus continued the work of devouring, until every field was clear of those destructive insects. Now, an unbeliever might not have seen the hand of God in this, but the hearts of the Latter-day Saints did see His hand, and profound gratitude was aroused. Prayers of thanksgiving ascended unto the God of heaven for His interposition in our behalf. The people felt that their God was still near to them, that He still heard and answered their prayers, and granted unto them the desires of their hearts.

And thus it has been from that day until the present time. Notwithstanding the many measures that have been taken against us as a people, the many plots that have seemed so promising to those who framed them concerning the destruction of the Latter-day Saints; when it has seemed that destruction was inevitable, that no power could save us, God has interposed by His wonderful power and we have escaped, and today, notwithstanding these many efforts, we are a free people in the mountains, having the privilege, that God said we should have, of worshipping Him, and enjoying peace and prosperity, if we would but continue to put our trust in him and keep His commandments; so that today, throughout all these valleys, from one end to the other, there is a people found who, notwithstanding all the threats that are fulminated, all the projects that are started, all the efforts that are made to destroy us as a religious organization, to break down our liberties, to rob us of those rights which are dear to every man who has been born free—notwithstanding these threats, a reign of peace and undisturbed quiet prevails throughout all these valleys, in the breasts, in the houses, in the family circles, of all the Latter-day Saints from one end of this land to the other. A grander exhibition of faith, a more sublime exhibition of confidence in God cannot be witnessed anywhere upon the face of the earth, than is afforded by the example of the Latter-day Saints. They do bear witness unto the heavens, unto God the Eternal Father, unto holy angels, and unto all men, that whatever unbelief may prevail elsewhere, whatever the feelings of skepticism may be in other lands, and among other peoples, they at least have, unwaveringly and undoubtingly, relied upon His glorious promises, and are willing to trust him to the very uttermost, believing that He is indeed a God who is, as I have said, near at hand and not afar off. In fact, outside of this people you can scarcely find a man or a woman who has any clear conception concerning God Himself. You ask members of churches, “What is your God like? Who is the Being whom you worship?”—and the reply, doubtless, of many, would be, “great is the mystery of godliness. That is something we do not comprehend.” It is a forbidden topic, almost. You ask ministers of religion concerning the character and form of God, and how few there are who will attempt to make any sort of a reasonable answer. They have no idea, scarcely. Do they believe Him to be a personal being? I have scarcely ever found a professing Christian who did believe this. They say God is a spirit. True enough. But has God no powers? Is God a diffused substance, filling all creation? That is the idea that many have. And you get the professed Christian and the professed infidel, and let each of them talk about God, and they are as near together as it is possible to be. The infidel who has no faith in God, believes in nature. The Christian, who professes to believe in God, if he attempts to define his God, will describe him something as an infidel would the creative power.

But what is the truth concerning God? Let us hear what Moses says—

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

What could be plainer than this! “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Again Moses says:

“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

“Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”

Yet with this Bible in their hands, you will scarcely find a professed Christian who believes this statement of Moses, that God created man in his own image, notwithstanding the fact that Paul in two or three places in his epistles, actually says that Jesus is the express image of his Father’s person. He wrote so to the Galatians. He wrote so to the Hebrews. He told them that Jesus Christ was the express image of God his Father. And we have the fact recorded, that Abraham talked with God, and that Abraham plead with God. You remember the occasion when three personages came down and visited Abraham. Abraham it is said, talked with the Lord, and plead with Him concerning the destruction which was about to come upon Sodom. He plead that if there should be fifty righteous men found in Sodom, would He spare the city? He plead that if there should be but forty-five, or forty, or thirty, or twenty, and finally he came down to ten—that if ten righteous men were found, would He spare the city? and He promised He would. He talked with Him as one man talketh with another. Again, we have the record of Moses in Exodus, where he tells us that the seventy Elders of Israel ate and drank in the presence of the God of Israel. We have the statement also that the two tables of stones which contained the law and the testimony, were written by the finger of God, by his own finger. And when Moses plead with Him that He might see His person, He told him that he should see His back parts; but His face should not be seen. He gave that promise to Moses, and Moses saw His person.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom we worship as God, was a man like unto us, so much so that his divinity was not recognized through any external signs by the Jews. There was nothing about his person that they could discover that would make Him a God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, any more than the Sandwich Islanders could discover in the person of Captain Cook, who discovered their Islands. They believed him to be a god when he first came in their midst; but he showed signs of mortal fear, by which they knew he was not a god, and they slew him. The Jews tested, as they thought most thoroughly, the divinity of Jesus. When they hung Him upon the cross, they said mockingly, “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” They assumed that they would believe and accept Him as the Son of God, if He would come down from the cross. He was in all respects a man, so far as the outward appearance was concerned; His exterior was that of a man; but, nevertheless, He was a God. He was the first begotten Son of the Eternal Father, who sits enthroned in glory and majesty, surrounded by burning fire. He was the Son of that Being, and was the express image of His person, like Him, having a head, having the senses that men have, having all the bodily features that we have, and His Father was precisely like Him, or He, in other words, was precisely like His Father. There is nothing more plainly conveyed and taught than this in the Scriptures of divine truth, the Bible, and yet men professing to teach godliness and to teach God, endeavor to destroy that feeling and that faith in the minds of the people.

When such misconceptions as these exist in the minds of the children of men, of course there cannot be correct faith exercised; men who do not know to whom to go, on whom to call, or to whom to pray. “This is eternal life,” says Jesus, “that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.” That was eternal life—to know Him, to comprehend Him, to understand the Being that gave us life, that created us. Therefore, when a man understands this he goes to God with perfect confidence. He asks God as he would his earthly father for that which he desires.

My brethren and sisters, it is a glorious truth that has been taught to us, that we are literally the chil– dren of God, that we are his literal descendants, as Jesus was literally descended from Him, and that He is our Father as much as our earthly parent is our father, and we can go to Him with a feeling of nearness, knowing this, understanding it by the revelations which God has given to us.

I would like to read to you a little to refresh your minds and to show you how this faith which had been so long lost to the earth was restored; for the memory of it—the memory of what God was like, had died out of the human mind. Hundreds of years had elapsed since any man had seen God. All that was known, therefore, respecting Him, His personality and His attributes, was that which was written in the Bible; but through the spiritualizing that had taken place, through the attachment of double meanings to the plain word of God, it caused the truth to fade away from men’s minds. There was no man upon the earth of whom we have any knowledge, who could tell any thing about God, or about an angel. As I remarked here a few Sundays ago, the general idea that prevailed in regard to angels was, that they were half fowl, that they were men or women with feathered wings growing out of their backs. I know that there are creatures referred to in the Scriptures, who have wings, but they are not men, they are not angels, such as come and minister unto the human family. Yet you will see in all the pictorial representations of angels in our family Bibles beings dressed somewhat like a woman, with features resembling those of a woman, and with feathered wings growing out on their backs. These ideas became common, and still prevail throughout Christian nations.

Now, as I have said, the true con– ception of God, like the true conception of angels, had vanished from the minds of the children of men. But Joseph Smith, prompted by the Spirit of God, chosen, as I fully believe, as the old prophets were, from before the beginning of the world, to lay the foundation of this great latter-day work, was moved upon to inquire of God. I will read a little of what is said concerning this:

“While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth unto men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passage so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible. At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if He gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture. So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of 1820. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

“After I had retired into the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such a marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

“My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”

“He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven.”

Here is the testimony of one who actually saw the Father and the Son. They were as described by all who have seen them—literal personages, personages with tabernacles, the Son being the express image of the Father. John the Revelator, also saw one that was like unto the Son of Man. He describes his person. You remember that he fell down and worshipped an angel upon one occasion, thinking it was the Lord, and the angel forbade him doing so, telling him that he must not worship him, that he was one of his fellowservants, the prophets. John, however, had a correct conception of the great truth that the Son was in the exact image of His Father.

Now, not only have we this testimony, but we have the testimony of others concerning this matter. Doubtless you will remember, my brethren and sisters, what is said respecting this in the vision that has come to us. It was a vision that was seen by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. To them was revealed the eventual fate of the various inhabitants of the earth, the various glories and kingdoms which our Father and God has in reserve for His children. Now, say they:

“And while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about.

“And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness;

“And saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshiping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever.

“And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That He lives!

“For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—

“That by him, and through him, and of him the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.”

These two men of our day (fifty-two years ago last February) beheld the Son of God—Jesus, the Only Begotten—and they saw Him at the right hand of the Father, occupying the position that has always been assigned to Him, and in the express image of His Father’s person, as He is described by all who have seen Him. After this, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery both saw the Savior, and both testified as to His person. This was on April 3rd, 1836, after the completion of the Kirtland Temple.

“The veil was taken from our minds,” say they, “and the eyes of our understanding were opened.

“We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber.

“His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:

“I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father.”

Oliver Cowdery, as well as Joseph Smith, saw this vision; they beheld this glorious personage, even the Son of God, when He accepted the Kirtland Temple after its dedication. These witnesses are also supplemented by hundreds of others who have beheld in vision and otherwise, glorious personages in these last days. There are men alive who have beheld the Son of God, who have heard His voice, and who have been ministered unto by Him in this our day and generation. In the face of these testimonies, which cannot be impeached successfully, is it any wonder that faith grows in the hearts of the people of God, the Latter-day Saints? That notwithstanding the growth of skepticism outside of this Church, faith continues to manifest itself and find lodgment in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints? But just as faith grows among the Latter-day Saints, as a natural consequence faith will decrease in the hearts of those who reject this testimony con– cerning the truth. This was the crime, the great sin, at least, of the Jewish nation. Light came into the world, but men chose darkness rather than light; therefore the light that was in them became darkness. The Jewish nation became abandoned to hardness of heart and unbelief. They were left to be a prey to that spirit of unbelief which they encouraged, until they rejected God, until they rejected the Son of God, with all His divinity, with His great miracles, with His mighty power, with His pure and spotless life—they rejected Him, they slew Him, and the light that was in them became darkness. He bestowed remarkable power upon those who received His word and they increased in faith; but those unto whom they preached, those who heard their testimony and rejected it, became a prey to that other influence, the power of darkness, the power of Satan, and they shed the blood of innocence, and I am sorry to say that this is the case at the present time with our own nation. The blood of righteous men has been cruelly, inhumanly shed upon this free soil. This man who beheld these visions; this man, the first for hundreds of years who described, who could describe the personage of God, who could say that he beheld Him, who arose as a mighty witness in the midst of this generation to say of a truth that God lived, that Jesus lived; this man was cruelly, treacherously and inhumanly murdered; and murdered, too, under the pledged honor of one of the sovereign States of this our nation; the Governor of the State himself, pledging his own honor and the honor of the State that he (Joseph Smith) should be protected, but he was cruelly slain like the prophets who had gone before, who had borne a similar testimony. He sealed his testimony with his blood, declaring to the very last that that which he had testified of was the truth, willing to die if it were necessary, to seal his testimony and render it so unimpeachable that it never could be questioned from that time forward. This man was thus slain, and who is there that has been punished for it? No more than the murderers of the Prophets were punished in ancient days, no more than the murderers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ were punished, no more has it been the case in this instance. No, his blood still stains the soil, still cries, with the blood of all the martyrs, unto God in heaven for vengeance on his guilty murderers. And the testimony that he bore has been borne by others, and in like manner others have shared that fate. Our reverend President, who sits tonight in this place, his blood stains the same soil. He himself narrowly escaped the same fate. In the providence of God he was spared for a wise purpose, and has lived among us until this day—a living martyr, a living witness of the cruelty of man towards those who testify that God lives.

My brethren and sisters, the faith that we have received has cost the best blood of this century. The faith that we have received cost the blood of the Son of God when He taught it to men upon the earth. The faith that we have received cost the blood of Isaiah, of Jeremiah, and of others of the prophets who were slain for the truths that they declared. It has always been a costly sacrifice, this teaching of the truth unto the human family. The adversary has been determined that a knowledge of God shall not spread among the people if he can prevent it. He killed Jesus, he killed every one of His apostles that he could, until throughout the wide earth there was no man who could stand up and say to the people, “Thus saith the Lord,” or who could stand up in the authority of the Priesthood of the Son of God and say, “I am God’s servant, and this is God’s will, God having revealed it to me.” They stopped the mouths of all such. They closed them in death. No one was left that they could reach. Then, when the heavens became as brass over the heads of the children of men, a church arose having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, until today, throughout Christendom, men who profess to be ministers of Jesus Christ, do not know anything about Him, have no communication with Him. A king with ambassadors here, and these ambassadors receive no communication from the court which authorizes them. What nonsense! Whoever heard of such a thing? Is there anything in this book (the Bible) which hints at such a thing? Who ever heard of a servant of God having no knowledge of him, no revelation from him? There is no such thing in this book. It is reserved for men in the nineteenth century, and preceding centuries, to arise and make such claims as these, and who can believe them?

Now, God has restored the everlasting Gospel to the earth. He has told the children of men that if they will come unto Him and obey His commandments, they shall receive a testimony of the truth of this work, as in times of old, through the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. They do not need to depend on Joseph Smith if he were here, or Oliver Cowdery, or Sidney Rigdon. Others have been administered to. Others have received the Holy Ghost. This is the privilege of every human being who will keep the commandments of the Almighty. It is not the privilege of all to see the Father at present, or to see the Son. Our faith is not strong enough, but it is growing. But it is the privilege of every human being to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, if he or she will obey the commandments of God. This is a privilege that is universal. It is like the air that we breathe. It is like the light that illumines our eyes. So with the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is given to every soul that will bow in submission to the will of God, keep his commandments, and have the ordinances administered by one whom God recognizes as his servant. It is this, my brethren and sisters, that is the glorious feature of the work in which we are engaged. It is this that should stimulate us, and fill us with faith. Let men do as they please concerning this work of our God, God has made promises concerning it. His word cannot fail. He hears and answers the prayers of His children. He is near at hand and not far off, and He will interpose by His wonderful providence, invisible to those who do not see His hand and do not have His Spirit, but visible to those who are enlightened by his Spirit, so that they can see and acknowledge the manifestations of God in their behalf. And thus are we led, and thus we shall be led until, emerging from this darkness, emerging from this unbelief, we shall be ushered into the fullness of the glory of our God, and dwell with him eternally, if we are faithful to the covenants which we have made, which I ask may be the case in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, (to the General Conference assembly) Sunday Morning, April 6, 1884.

I will read a portion of the 29th chapter of the second book of Nephi, from the last edition of the Book of Mormon.

1. “But behold, there shall be many—at that day when I shall proceed to do a marvelous work among them, that I may remember my covenants which I have made unto the children of men, that I may set my hand again the second time to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel;

2. “And also, that I may remember the promises which I have made unto thee, Nephi, and also unto thy father, that I would remember your seed; and that the words of your seed should proceed forth out of my mouth unto your seed; and my words shall hiss forth unto the ends of the earth, for a standard unto my people, which are of the house of Israel;

3. “And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.

4. “But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles?

5. “O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads; for I the Lord hath not forgotten my people.

6. “Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?

7. “Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heav– ens above, and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

8. “Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

9. “And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.

10. “Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written.

11. “For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written.”

There is much more of the next chapter and of the preceding chapter that pertains to our time, to the day and age in which we live, and these chapters, with many more, are full of predictions by the Prophet Nephi, concerning the days when the Book of Mormon should come forth.

I want this morning, if I can have the Spirit of God to lead and to assist me, to speak somewhat upon the predictions contained in the Book of Mormon—the predictions which had to be fulfilled after the publication of the book. It is alleged, as you know, that the Book of Mormon is not an inspired record, but that Joseph Smith, if he was the author of it, copied a great deal of it from the Old and New Testament. Now, there is scarcely any need to say to those who have studied the Book of Mormon, who have read it prayerfully and carefully—there is scarcely any need to say to them that it contains the internal evidence of its own divinity, that God wrote it through inspired men, and that no one but an inspired man or men could have written the book. There is no book in the English language that compares with it, unless it be books which contain the pure word of God. It has the advantage of the Bible in this: that it was translated by the power of God, not by the learning of man, and not selected from hundreds and thousands of versions as the Bible has been; for there is no end to the versions which exist, of the books contained in the Bible. Of course we have our version translated by learned men; but there is scarcely a passage of any importance in the Bible concerning which there is not some dispute among learned commentators. But with the Book of Mormon it is different. God preserved those records for a purpose in Himself. They were hidden up. This book, called the Book of Mormon, is an abridgment prepared by one of the last prophets of the Nephites, under the command of God, that it might come forth in the last days. God revealed in part to him, and to his son Moroni, the purpose which He had in view, in making this abridg– ment, and in concealing it in the earth, and they performed the labor connected with this under the direct command and inspiration of the Almighty, to come forth in the latter times, and to accomplish a great work. I wish to allude to some of the predictions—not those that are contained in other books, but those that are original with the Book of Mormon itself, and that could not have been made, unless the man who wrote them was inspired of God.

The words which I have read were written by Nephi, one of the first prophets of the Nephite nation, and he describes, at great length, and with wonderful plainness and minuteness, the condition of the inhabitants of the earth at the time that this work should go forth. Much of this, the caviller may say, could have been written by a man of these days. But there are some things which Nephi wrote, that could not have been written by a modern man who did not have the spirit of prophecy, and that which I have read in your hearing is a part that could not have been written by any human being, unless he had been inspired of God, and was a prophet of God. If Joseph Smith—if the divinity of his mission—his claims to be a Prophet rested upon this chapter alone, or this portion of the chapter that I have read in your hearing, according to my view his claims would be fully and indisputably established, for the reason that at the time that he translated this chapter he had no conception, neither could any human being have any conception, unless inspired of God, as to the effect the publication of the Book of Mormon would have upon the Gentile world. But Joseph, inspired of God, translated the prediction of Nephi, which pre– diction states that when the Book of Mormon should be published, it should be received by the Gentiles with this expression: “A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.” How many times has this expression been made by clergymen, by professors of religion, and by Christendom generally, since the publication of the Book of Mormon? Ye Elders who have traversed sea and land, who have gone from continent to continent, who have visited the isles of the ocean, who have lifted up your voices in the cities of the Gentiles, and in their congregations; ye Elders, who have thus labored, know full well, that in every land, and among every people where you have labored, when you have spoken about God having restored another record, the Book of Mormon—you know that you have been met with these expressions, the literal words that Nephi said, would be used in the last days by the Gentiles, in regard to this work. You Latter-day Saints, who have endeavored to teach your friends the doctrines that God had revealed, and endeavored to show them that God had restored this ancient record—you know how your testimonies have been received concerning the Book of Mormon. These remarkable expressions have come from thousands of lips in many, many lands, and in many, many languages, confirmatory of the Book itself, and of its divine origin, and of its inspired translation. You read all the words of Nephi in this 29th chapter, and you will find that he describes with wonderful, and, I might say, photographic accuracy and minuteness, the condition of the so-called Christian world—the spirit that they possess, the crimes of which they are guilty, the condition in which they are placed, and all the circumstances connected with them.

In his next chapter, he makes further remarks concerning this work, and the effect it should have. He says:

3. “And now, I would prophesy somewhat more concerning the Jews and the Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed.

4. “And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews.

5. “And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers.

6. “And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people.”

Now, that is one prediction. These are the words of Nephi. I will now read the words of Jesus, recorded in the 16th chapter of the third Book of Nephi, where He, in speaking about the last days, and the coming forth of this work, says:

“And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you: At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.

“And then I will remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.

“And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel.”

These predictions are parallel; they point to the same period; they describe the same events, the same condition of affairs—one uttered 600 years or thereabouts, before the other, and yet they are precisely similar in their tenor, describing that which should be done with the Gospel among the Gentiles. I wish you all to remember—you Latter-day Saints, you young men and you young women, you little children who are capable of understanding my words—I wish you all to remember that at the time this was written, or rather at the time this was translated into the English language—say somewhere about the year 1828—Joseph Smith himself, had not received, or at least obeyed, the Gospel. He had derived some knowledge of it through the ministration of angels, and from that portion of the record that he had translated; but there was not a Latter-day Saint upon the face of the whole earth that we know anything about, or that he knew anything about. No man or woman had received the Gospel; no church had been organized; no Priesthood from the eternal worlds had been bestowed; not a man among all the children of men had been clothed with the power of the eternal Priesthood of the Son of God to administer the ordinances of life and salvation unto the children of men. Yet the Prophet Joseph Smith in this translation, showed forth with great clearness, that the Gospel would be revealed, and that it should be received by some of the Gentiles; that when it should be received by the Gentiles, it should be carried by them to the descendants of Nephi and his brethren, who by that time should have become a filthy and a loathsome people. The Indians of our continent should receive the message of life and salvation. The Gospel should be carried to them. They would receive it with gladness. They would come to a knowledge of their Redeemer, as well as to a knowledge of the principles and doctrines and covenants which their fathers understood, and which their fathers had received. Wonderful prediction! And most wonderfully has it been fulfilled. At the time that the Prophet Joseph Smith translated this Book of Mormon, I suppose the impression was general, as it is today, that the Indians were a perishing race, that they would soon disappear from the face of the land. But before Joseph had translated this, he had found in previous predictions that the Gentiles—that is, our nation—that we as a race and the nation to which we belong, should not have power to destroy the Indians. This was a most remarkable statement to make when we consider where Joseph was brought up, and the circumstances surrounding him. If he had not been inspired of God, he would not have dared, in my opinion, and no man would have dared to have made such a prediction. But what does Nephi say concerning this matter as translated by the Prophet? He says:

“Nevertheless, thou beholdest that the Gentiles who have gone forth out of captivity, and have been lifted up by the power of God above all other nations, upon the face of the land which is choice above all other lands, which is the land the Lord God hath covenanted with thy father that his seed should have for the land of their inheritance; wherefore, thou seest that the Lord God will not suffer that the Gentiles will utterly destroy the mixture of thy seed, which are among thy brethren.

“Neither will he suffer that the Gentiles shall destroy the seed of thy brethren.

“Neither will he suffer that the Gentiles shall destroy the seed of thy brethren”—that is, the Lamanites proper. They were not to be permitted to destroy Nephi’s seed that should be mingled among the Lamanites, nor should they be permitted to destroy the Lamanites—that is, the descendants of Laman and Lemuel. Nephi predicted this. Today it is said that the Indians will perish, and that it is impossible to save them. Here is the word of God recorded in this sacred book. We have the words of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ arrayed against all, or nearly all, the conclusions of the Gentiles. I look around and I see here on this stand today, representatives of strange tribes of Indians who have come here to visit, thus being in part a fulfillment of the prediction of the Son of God, and also the fulfillment of that prediction of Nephi, that I have read in your hearing. The Gentiles did receive the Gospel of the Son of God, when it was revealed. Burning with zeal to carry this Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people; inspired by the Holy Ghost, they went out among the Indian races as well as others, and fulfilled the predictions of the Book of Mormon in this respect. And strange to say—if anything can be said to be strange connected with the work of God—the descendants of those ancient covenant people of the Lord, have gladly received the testimony of the servants of God. Wherever we have gone and mingled with those people, with those Red Men, and been able to communicate to them the truths of which we are in possession, which God has revealed to us, they have received the same gladly; not only upon this continent, but upon the islands of the sea, throughout Polynesia, the Sandwich, the Marquesas, the Society and the Navigator Islands—yes, and everywhere where those men with red skins dwell, they have gladly received the testimony of God’s servants concerning the Gospel, and they rejoice in its fullness and in the knowledge that their fathers once possessed, and of the redemption that Jesus Christ has wrought out for them. Most wonderful has this prediction been fulfilled in this respect! And God has done and is doing a great and a mighty work among the people, fulfilling the words of the ancient prophets and of Jesus. When the Gentiles do reject the Gospel—as I fear they will from their conduct in the past—that is, as a nation—although I trust there will yet be many hundreds and thousands—yea, I would that I could say millions—of Gentiles gathered in by this Gospel; I trust that this will be the case, though the prospects are not very hopeful at present. It seems at present that as a nation, the Gentiles will reject the Gospel. When they do reject it, as they have in part, then God will commence, as the Savior said, to do a great work among the house of Israel. He will carry his Gospel there, and the work will commence then among all the scattered remnants of the house of Israel, over the whole earth.

“I wish to read another prophecy connected with the coming forth of this Book, and the results that should attend it, namely:

“Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write;” [the Prophet here is speaking of the fruit of the loins of the Patriarch Joseph, who was sold into Egypt by his brethren]; “and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins” [that is, of Joseph’s loins], “and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord.”

Now, here is a very remarkable prediction connected with the coming forth of this Book. It should have the effect, when united with the Bible—for it was the Bible that the Prophet was referring to as being the writings of the fruit of the loins of Judah; when these two Books should be united, it should have a remarkable effect—that is, their union should. They should confound false doctrine; they should lay down contentions, put an end to them and establish peace; and they should be the means of bringing the people to the knowledge of the covenants of God with those ancient Prophets, with His ancient servants and people. Now, all those who know anything about the effect of the Book of Mormon—of the preaching of the Elders with the aid of the Book of Mormon—know that these words have been fulfilled to the very letter. False doctrines have been put down. Contentions have ceased. Peace has been established, and the people have been brought to the knowledge of the covenants which God made with His ancient servants. Those who have read this Book know how precious are the words of God, contained in it—how plain the doctrine of Jesus Christ is set forth in it. There are no mistranslations; there is no mysticism infused into it by men who have had their own peculiar views of the doctrine of Christ; for in consequence of the taking out from the ancient records (the Bible) of many plain and precious parts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the whole religious world is in confusion as to the meaning of certain texts. So far as baptism itself is concerned there is no end to contention. The Baptists say that immersion is necessary and is right. Others say that it is wrong, and that sprinkling is right. Others contend for infant baptism, while others say it is not of God. Many claim that infant baptism is necessary, and that if a child is not baptized, it is in danger of being consigned to the regions of the damned. While others, again, contend for the pouring of water; and still others who permit the candidate to elect which mode of baptism he will have, whether sprinkling, immersion or pouring; while men are thus divided upon this subject, Paul says there is but one baptism.

Now, the Book of Mormon comes forth, and it speaks in exceeding great plainness upon this point. It not only gives the mode of baptism which Jesus gave to His ancient disciples on this continent; but the very words to be used. It says that they shall immerse candidates in the water; and it gives particular directions about the laying on of hands, and about all the doctrines of the church of Christ, or of the Gospel. No man who reads the Book of Mormon, need be at a loss to know the doctrine of Christ. It is as plain as it is possible for the English language to make it, and everybody can see it. Therefore, most wonderfully, when united with the Bible, has it fulfilled this prediction—the writings of the descendants of Joseph, of which this Book is the record.

Another most remarkable prediction is given in this same chapter; showing how plainly the Lord revealed to His ancient servants who wrote this Book, that which should take place in the last times. Lehi in speaking about Moses, said, that the Lord had revealed to Joseph the Patriarch, that He would raise up a mighty prophet named Moses, and that He should raise up for him a spokesman; that Moses would not be mighty in word, but in deed. Here is what the Lord said unto Joseph the Patriarch, as quoted by Lehi:

“And the Lord said unto me also:” [that is, Joseph the Patriarch], “I will raise up unto the fruit of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him that he shall write the writing of the fruit of thy loins, unto the fruit of thy loins; and the spokesman of thy loins shall declare it.”

After the church had been organized some months, Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, and Ziba Petersen were appointed by the prophet of God to visit the western boundaries of Missouri. On their journey westward, they passed through the western part of Ohio, where Parley had formerly lived and labored in connection with the Reformed Baptists. They called upon one of the founders of that sect, Sidney Rigdon. They found him in the town of Kirtland, gave him a Book of Mormon, and bore their testimony to him of the restoration of the Gospel. Sidney Rigdon said to them: “You tell me a strange tale. I will examine this book;” and he commenced to do so. They were all young men, Sidney Rigdon was many years their senior. Rigdon examined the book, and became convinced that it was the word of God. He was baptized in the town of Kirtland, and the foundation of a great work was laid there. God afterwards revealed that this man was to be a spokesman, and he became the spokesman to this people and to the world for the prophet Joseph. Those who knew Sidney Rigdon, know how wonderfully God inspired him, and with what wonderful eloquence he declared the word of God to the people. He was a mighty man in the hands of God, as a spokesman, as long as the prophet lived, or up to a short time before his death. Thus you see that even this which many might look upon as a small matter, was predicted about 1,700 years before the birth of the Savior, and was quoted by Lehi 600 years before the same event, and about 2,400 years before its fulfillment, and was translated by the power of God, through his servant Joseph, as was predicted should be the case, and at a time, as I have said, when there was not a man upon the earth who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church had not yet been organized, and Joseph did not know, unless he knew by the spirit of revelation, whether any man would receive the Gospel. I doubt whether he knew as to how the church would be organized. He had some idea, doubtless; but there were many things which he himself did not know, till he wrote this translation.

Time will not permit me to proceed much further with this subject; I wish I had a day to speak upon it; but I am now trespassing on Brother Joseph F. Smith’s time.

There is one prediction, however, I wish, before I sit down, to allude to, because I think it is most signally fulfilled, namely:

“And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only;” [this was the angel speaking to Nephi in the vision,] “the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil;”

This is a new thing. It is supposed there are a great many churches. The Lord here says there is but one church outside of his own church.

“Wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.

“And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people.

“And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.

“And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God.”

At the time this was written, a man would have been a bold man who would have said—that is, unless he was inspired of God—that anything of this kind could happen in these United States. One of the chief foundation stones of the great fabric of Government in this land, upon this continent, is religious liberty—liberty for every creed. Persecution of people for religion was unknown at the time this was written, and no man, unless he had been inspired of God, could have contemplated such a possibility as that any church would be persecuted for religion’s sake. Yet here was a prediction made by Nephi, 2,400 years before it took place, in which he foretold the condition of things in this land, and upon all lands where the church of Christ should exist. There should be combinations and peoples gathered together, by religious influences, against the church of God. Now, what are the facts? Among the first persecutors of this church, when its members were few, were those who were themselves religious teachers. The earliest persecutors of Joseph Smith were religious teachers, and the mobs in Missouri, and the mobs in Illinois, were led by religious teachers. Even the mob that murdered our beloved Prophet and Patriarch, and wounded our revered President—that mob was led by a local Baptist preacher, and our people were driven from Nauvoo, as Brother Wells well knows, by a mob headed by a preacher. And today, those who are inciting mobs against this people; those who go to Congress, and incite persecutions against us; those who fulminate threats and frame petitions; those who meet together in conventions; those who gather together in conferences, are those who belong to this “mother of abominations,” this “whore of all the earth,” and it is through the influence of that accursed whore, that they gather together and marshal their forces in every land against the Latter-day Saints, the Church of the living God. The blood that has stained Georgia, and that cries from the ground for vengeance upon those who shed it—that blood was shed by mobs who were banded together, headed and aided and egged on by religious men; and if it were not for this “mother of abominations,” and those who are connected with her, we could dwell in peace and in safety in the valleys of these mountains. Here in this city, who has done as much or more than anyone else? The religious teachers, men who came here to preach what they call the Gospel. They are stirring up strife continually, instead of making peace; going back to other religious associations in the east, and telling the most abominable falsehoods about us, exciting the public mind, in order that they may get money with which to come here and accomplish their wicked designs. They tell lies without number about us. Our newspapers have exposed such people time and time again, and yet they shamelessly go forth and repeat those lies about the wickedness of this people, about the intoler– ance of this people, about the dangers they run when here in this country, when they know, as we all know who are here today, that they have never been molested, and that we have never injured them, nor interfered with them in any form, but that we have always treated them with that respect and kindness with which we desire to be treated ourselves.

In this way, this word of God, through his servant Nephi, uttered 2,400 years ago, has been and is being fulfilled to the very letter. Thus God is bringing to pass in the most wonderful manner the words of this Book. It is going forth, as He said it should, to all the nations of the earth. It is accomplishing that which He designed it should, and it will go forth and accomplish its mission. There is no power upon the earth that can stop it, because it is the word of God, and the doctrines of Jesus Christ, and it will be the means, as has been said, of gathering out the honest from every nation, causing them to dwell in peace, uniting them in doctrine, and putting an end to all controversy and contention concerning points of doctrine, because it reveals the Gospel with great plainness unto all those who will receive it.

Now, I want to read one more prediction and then stop. It is contained in the last words of Moroni, concerning this work, namely:

“When ye shall receive these things” says Moroni (standing alone on the continent, the last one of his race who had been true to God, not knowing what his own fate would be; he leaves on record for us Gentiles, the word of God, as he was inspired to give it, and thus he writes), “I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

“And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”

These are the words of a prophet of God, standing in the face of eternity, not knowing what his own fate would be. He leaves this, his dying declaration, on record, at the close of this glorious book, which he was the instrument in the hands of God, of hiding up to be brought forth in the latter times. He testifies that if we will ask God concerning these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, we shall know concerning the truth of them by the power of the Holy Ghost. Let me ask this vast congregation: Has not this word of God, through his inspired prophet, been fulfilled?

You men and women and children, who have sought unto God, in the name of Jesus, as he commanded you, have you not received, by the power of the Holy Ghost, a testimony for yourselves, that these things are true, that this is the word of God, divinely inspired, written by the finger of inspiration, and translated by the power of God? [Yes]. I know that if I were to call for a response it would be universal in this congregation, and not only in this congregation, but in every congregation of the Latter-day Saints throughout all these mountains, and scattered abroad among all the nations of the earth. I ask you, at the request of my brethren, if this is not true? All who know it is, and have received this testimony by the power of the Holy Ghost, say yes—[the vast congregation responded “YES” as by one voice.]

God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Remarks by President Joseph F. Smith, delivered at the General Conference, on Sunday Morning, April 6th, 1884.

As the time remaining is so short, I think I could not do better than devote it to continuing the subject dwelt upon by Brother Cannon.

The Doctrine and Covenants, as well as the Book of Mormon, contains indisputable evidence of the divine calling and mission of Joseph Smith. For instance, I will refer the congregation to the revelation given Dec. 25th, 1832, in relation to the great war of the Rebellion, with which all are more or less familiar. A portion of that revelation has been literally fulfilled, even to the very place indicated in the prediction where the war should commence: which, as was therein stated, was to terminate in the death and misery of many souls. Again, in the revelation given in March, 1831, to Parley P. Pratt and Lemon Copley, the following remarkable prediction is found:

“But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose. Zion shall flourish upon the hills and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be assembled together unto the place which I have appointed.”

Who, let me ask, unless he was inspired of the Lord, speaking by the gift and power of God, at that remote period of the Church’s history, when our numbers were few, when we had no influence, name or standing in the world—who, I would ask, under the circumstances in which we were placed when this prediction was made, could have uttered such words unless God inspired him? Zion is, indeed, flourishing on the hills, and is rejoicing on the mountains, and we who compose it are gathering and assembling together unto the place appointed. I now ask this congregation if they cannot see that this prediction (which was made many years before the idea prevailed at all among this people that we should ever migrate and gather out to these mountain valleys), has been and is being literally fulfilled? If there were no other prophecy uttered by Joseph Smith, fulfillment of which could be pointed to, this alone would be sufficient to entitle him to the claim of being a true Prophet.

Again, in the revelation given Feb. 24th, 1834, this remarkable promise and prophecy is found:

“But verily I say unto you, I have decreed a decree which my people shall realize, inasmuch as they hearken from this very hour unto the counsel which I, the Lord their God, shall give unto them. Behold they shall, for I have decreed it, begin to prevail against mine enemies from this very hour. And by hearkening to observe all the words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall never cease to prevail until the kingdoms of the world are subdued under my feet, and the earth is given unto the saints, to possess it forever and ever.”

Is there a person within the sound of my voice, or anywhere else upon the face of the wide earth, who can say that this promise has failed, that this prediction is not founded in truth, that so far it has not been fulfilled? I stand before this vast congregation, and am at the defiance of any human being to say, that this was not pronounced by the spirit of truth, by the inspiration of the Almighty, for it has been fulfilled, and is being fulfilled, and that, too, in the face of opposition of the most deadly character: and what remains will be fulfilled literally and completely. And it is the fear in the heart of Satan that this will be the case, that causes him to stir up his emissaries to oppose the Kingdom of God and seek, if possible, to destroy this great and glorious work. For it is a living fact, a fact that fills the hearts of the righteous and Godfearing with unspeakable joy and the hearts of the wicked and ungodly with consternation and jealous fear, that this work of God, this work of re– demption and salvation in which we are engaged, is moving forward and is destined to continue in its onward march until the kingdoms of the world shall be subdued and brought under the law of Almighty God. And that this will come to pass, I can assure you, the enemy of all righteousness comprehends as well as we do. Yes, he knows that this will eventually be the case, better than many who profess to have received the Holy Spirit in their hearts; and, therefore, he is diligently seeking to stir up the hearts of the wicked to fight against the Saints of God, until they are discomfited, and Zion is free.

These predictions concerning the triumph of the cause of God over wickedness, and the triumph of the Saints of God over the wicked who contend against them, were uttered by Joseph Smith in his youth, in the early rise of the Church when, to all human appearance, their fulfillment was absolutely impossible. At that time there were but few who could believe, that dared to believe the truth of these predictions. The few, comparatively, that did believe when they heard, were those whose minds had been enlightened by the Holy Spirit of promise and who, therefore, were prepared to receive them. As these predictions have been fulfilled, so those not yet fulfilled will come to pass in the due time of the Lord; and as this latter-day work has so far grown and assumed force and power in the earth, so it will continue to do, and there is no power beneath the Celestial Kingdom that can prevent its growth, or the consummation of all that has been predicted concerning it.

I do not wonder that the enemies of righteousness are stirred up about this matter. I am not surprised that the wicked rage and the heathen imagine a vain thing. I am not astonished when certain men get mad, or that their souls are vexed within them, that their minds are perplexed, and that they feel wrought up with anger against a people who have never injured them or theirs. One thing I am surprised about in relation to this matter is, that the Latter-day Saints themselves should not be as strongly aroused in the interest of the Kingdom of God, as the enemies of truth are against it. When I contemplate the situation as it is presented to my mind, I am astonished that so many of the Latter-day Saints should be so indifferent and neglectful of duty that they cannot, apparently, appreciate the importance of living their religion. I am surprised that there should be any necessity for reformation among the Latter-day Saints, that is, if I should be surprised at all; though surprised is not the appropriate word to use, the word grieved, perhaps, might be used with greater propriety in this sense. If I would allow myself to indulge in a feeling of sorrow, I might indeed feel grieved that any of us should find ourselves in a condition to require reform in our lives. It certainly cannot be in consequence of the lack of evidences of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged, as there are so many such evidences transpiring every day in our experience; in fact the whole spectacle of this latter-day work is overwhelming in undeniable proof to the people of God, at least, that it is His work; while the whole world, on the contrary, are arrayed against it, because they cannot see the light. You who have obeyed the requirements of the everlasting Gospel, and have been chosen out of the world, having received the gift of the Holy Ghost, through the laying on of hands, it is your privilege to receive the witness of the Spirit for yourselves; it is your privilege to discern the mind and will of the Father respecting your own welfare, and respecting the final triumph of the work of God. Why, then, should we be told that “Mormonism” is true? Why should we need any further proof that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet, or that his predictions are being fulfilled? Why should it be necessary to prove that the word of God has come to the world through him, and that that word is indisputable, that the world cannot gainsay it? The doctrines and revelations believed in by the Latter-day Saints have now been before the world for 54 years, and during that time what the world has been pleased to call “Mormonism” has been to them an unsolved problem. The sound of the Book of Mormon has rung in the ears of the civilized world since the year 1830, when it was published, and the report of it had gone forth and was being agitated some time before that; and during the 54 years that that book has been made public to the world, there has been no stone unturned by the most learned men of the age to disprove it, and make it appear a delusion and imposition. In this, however, they have signally failed, not being able to produce a single argument that cannot be successfully met by even the boys of this community. This may seem a broad assertion, but it is nevertheless true. Our Elders have been sent out as missionaries to the different nations now for the last 50 years, during which time they have testified to the truth of the Book of Mormon, and have invited investigation of its pages. And although many in their day and time have arisen either to ridicule or disprove the truths it contains, their efforts have been futile, resulting only in their own dismay. It cannot be disproved, for it is true. There is not a word or doctrine, of admonition, of instruction within its lids, but what agrees in sentiment and veracity with those of Christ and His Apostles, as contained in the Bible. Neither is there a word of counsel, of admonition or reproof within its lids, but what is calculated to make a bad man a good man, and a good man a better man, if he will hearken to it. It bears the mark of inspiration from beginning to end, and carries conviction to every honest-hearted soul. And because the Book of Mormon is a true and authentic record of a people who once lived and flourished on this American continent—and because God Himself has undertaken, through us, His weak and erring children, to establish His rule and government on the earth in answer to the prayers of His Saints, ancient and modern, and according to the counsels of His own will—because it is verily so, devils rage and the willfully wicked are angered and seek the life and liberties of the Saints, and the destruction of the work of the Lord; but in the name of Israel’s God, they never will be able to accomplish their purposes against us. As I have often said, so I repeat, the best time the world ever saw, or ever will see, to destroy “Mormonism,” was on the 6th day of April, 1830. But they did not do it then, and so they let the opportunity slip: and have ever since been blindly struggling in the hope of doing something towards it. But the more they struggle, the wider of the mark their efforts will be. This is my testimony. If I had the power, and was called upon to do it, I would go to the ends of the earth and would lift up my voice in testimony of this fact to every nation, tongue and people, for I know that it is true.

Before I close I want to say a word to our young men who are called as missionaries. When a man is called to go on a mission, and a field of labor is assigned him, he should, I think, say in his heart, not my will be done, but thine, O Lord. We find it a little difficult sometimes to get the right men to go to certain distant lands to preach the Gospel. It is sometimes thought, especially among our young Elders, that Great Britain is the finest field of labor in the world; and, consequently, they want to go there. They do not like to go to the Southern States; they do not much fancy the Northern States; they do not care to go to New Zealand, or to the Sandwich Islands. When we call men to go to Great Britain, it is gratifying for them to respond cheerfully to the call; and when we call others to go to the Northern States, to New Zealand, or to the Sandwich Islands, we do not want any to come and say, they want their field of labor changed to England. We expect every man to be on hand to go wherever he may be called, and then he may expect the blessing of the Lord to attend him in his labors. I have been thankful only once since I went to the Sandwich Islands on my first mission, and that has been ever since.

Soon after I was sent, there was a very bright, intelligent man called to go to the Islands, and it was one of the causes of his apostasy. “What,” said he, “send me, a linguist, a man well read, an educated man, and an Englishman at that, to preach to heathens?” He felt that he was not looked upon with that consideration and respect that his scholarly attainments commanded; he felt that he was slighted; and apostatized, and returned to his native land, where he wrote a book against us, and has since died. When Brother George Q. Cannon was called to go to the Islands, he had no such feelings. He learned the language, and translated the Book of Mormon into the Hawaiian language. He performed a glorious mission, and is now one of the First Presidency of the Church. And singular as it may appear, out of the number of Elders that have been on missions to the Sandwich Islands, I can count more Apostles, more Presidents of Stakes, Bishops, and leading men, than can be found in the same number that have gone to any other country. Why is this? Perhaps it is because they manifested their willingness to descend below all things, that they might rise above all things. If a man in this Church would be exalted, let him humble himself; and he that would exalt himself, God will abase.

God bless Israel, and pour out His Spirit upon the household of faith, and strengthen us to do the labors required of us, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by Apostle Brigham Young, delivered at the General Conference, on Saturday Morning, April 5th, 1884.

It has been said, that words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in pictures of silver. This is especially true when they are accompanied by the Spirit of the Lord, carrying with them life and salvation to the people. There are many subjects that might be dwelt upon which are familiar to the Latter-day Saints, and which would doubtless yet be appropriate to speak upon in our general assemblies. I look back upon the past few years and recall principles that have been taught to the people, but which the Spirit no longer seems to inspire the Elders to dwell upon. And the question arises in the mind: Have such principles become obsolete? Are they done away? I look forward to the time when we shall be able to speak upon the principles of uniting this people together in their temporal as well as their spiritual interests far more effectually than we have ever done heretofore. United we stand; our interests are identified; the welfare of the one affects the other; and our influence socially, financially and politically is powerful for good, and is a lever for our own prosperity as well as our own protection. Disunited we acknowledge our own weakness; infirmity is stamped in our every act, and in time we pass away like the dream of the night vision. I do not desire at this time to treat upon the subject of the United Order, but I would like to ask if the Latter-day Saints think for a moment that that principle is done away, or that it may be considered a failure never again to be brought to our notice? If such has been the conclusion of any part of this assembly, I have no hesitancy in stating for their information that such is not the case; it cannot be so if we are ever to answer the design of the Almighty respecting the future of His Kingdom upon the earth. I would say further, the time is approaching, if I am a judge of the Spirit as witnessed among the people throughout our settlements from the extreme north to the extreme south, when the principle will again be sounded in our ears; and the Spirit of God as I read it in its workings among the people, and as I feel its operations in my own breast, testifies to me that when it comes again the people will be prepared to receive it, and act upon it, as they have never done before. It is, perhaps, necessary, in our present state, that we should have a certain amount of experience; the experience we have had will doubtless be of value to us, in the future, when the people will again be called upon to practice this principle; and when this time comes, in my opinion, we will commence at the root of the matter, accepting in the spirit and meaning thereof, that principle which has been disregarded and shunned by us for many years, the principle that lies at the foundation of the greatness and power to which we are destined to attain. I am happy to say that the people are being led to examine their own hearts, and to ask themselves what they are doing individually towards building up the Zion of God, and towards influencing others to do likewise. The spirit that is working among the people is having the effect of reform, as I have never before witnessed it. The reformation of 1856 ran through the people like wild fire; they received it under the impulse of the moment when the spirit of enthusiasm ran high; but now there appears to be but little effort to move the people in this direction, at the same time a determined feeling exists among the Saints to right themselves, and that too by commencing at the bottom round of the ladder, and then gradually ascending. The hearts of the people are being turned to the Lord. The men who have of late been addicted to drinking, using tobacco, swearing, and other loose habits, are, of their own free will, discarding their bad habits, and thus righting themselves, and setting a better example to their children and associates. This silent but potent influence that is fruitful of such good results is significant to the man or woman that is alive in this work, and that is watching with interest its onward progress; and it comes home to our hearts with con– vincing proof that the Lord is working among the people by His Spirit, and it bids us all in its silent and suggestive way, to prepare ourselves for events that must come, and that are even nigh at our doors.

In witnessing the operations of the Spirit in the midst of the people in such a remarkable manner I was strongly impressed with the idea that we, as a people, ought to be turning our attention in directions looking to our becoming self-sustaining. We are paying out very much more than we produce. Where does the money come from? How is it that the families of our working men are able to purchase for their use imported articles? How long can this people prosper by pursuing such a course? The danger of this course has long been pointed out by our leading men; and sooner or later, unless all turn a short corner, the condition that we shall place ourselves in, will be of such a convincing character, that all will readily concede the correctness of the position taken by our leaders in urging the people to become producers and patrons of home productions. This doctrine was taught by President Young, during much of his lifetime, but especially during his later years; and it does appear to me that we are hastening on to the point that President Young said we should reach, unless we became self-sustaining, namely, financial embarrassment. In fact his doctrine on this subject was, that we could not stand financially, unless we became self-sustaining. It is doctrine that comes home to the heart of every Latter-day Saint; it is doctrine that all must accept and reduce to practice, if we would attain to power and influence in the land. We must become financially strong. Wealth in and of itself, is a lever of power; and wealth in the hands of a righteous people must necessarily command an influence for good. We must first learn to make a wise use of the means that we possess, however little that may be; and by continuing to do this, we prepare ourselves to make a right and proper use of the power that wealth brings. But in order to attain the position that we are bound to occupy in the land, we must learn to combine our interests in such a manner that it will be to the advantage of the whole community to consume and wear that which is produced and manufactured at home. It will be by cooperative action that we shall be tied together in temporal matters as we are now bound together in spiritual things. As a thoroughly united people we can the better hasten the work of God in the earth; such as building temples, establishing settlements, civilizing the Lamanites, carrying the Gospel to the Jews, and building up the Zion of God in these mountains. We shall be the better able to extend a helping hand to the needy poor, to the oppressed and downtrodden among the nations, as well as to protect ourselves from the inroads of wicked and designing men. The few minutes allotted to me have expired.

That God may inspire our hearts to do His will, and that all may be willing in the day of His power, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Apostle Moses Thatcher, delivered at the General Conference, Friday Afternoon, April 4th, 1884.

I rejoice in the remarks that were made this morning by the brethren, and feel that they were prompted by the Holy Ghost. It was truly remarked by our aged and venerated President, that unless sustained by the Lord, we cannot, as a people, accomplish His work; and it certainly must be apparent to every thoughtful mind, that man in and of himself is very weak, that he is unable, alone and unaided, to accomplish that which will result in his own salvation. It is not difficult to understand or to comprehend the power of God, as it is manifested in the affairs of nations; but we cannot always see how He manages and controls individuals. And yet no human being without His permission breathes the breath of life, for He is the giver of life; and when we, as a community or as individuals, sense this, manifesting by our works a goodly degree of faith and humility before God, then we are in the light. But people, on the other hand, who undertake to exhibit their own wisdom, or to depend upon the knowledge of man will, if they continue in that spirit, be led into darkness, and their life will result in failure.

During the past few months, I have thought much upon a particu– lar subject, which has weighed heavily upon my mind by reason of the enmity, the malice and hatred which I have seen manifested towards the Latter-day Saints. And I have been led to believe that they are hated more for their virtues than for their supposed vices. In connection with this subject, I have been led to believe that many among this people are apt to have compassion for the guilty. And I must confess myself that I have never heard judgment passed on any man by the authorities of the Church without more or less pity in my heart for that man. We are generally apt to be too lenient to the falsifier, who becomes the accuser of his brethren. We are too apt to look with pity upon one who may have fallen from the path of chastity, and forsaken the ways of the Lord. There is something in the human heart that is drawn out in sympathy and compassion for the erring. I will not attempt this afternoon to show whether this is a correct or an incorrect sentiment; whether it is a failing or a virtue; but I have noticed on the other hand, when hatred prompts action, there is but little if any mercy shown. The shafts intended for the innocent are often dipped in doubly distilled poison, before they are sped from the bow of envy by the hand of malice. It was so in the days of the Savior. Thrice tried and thrice condemned, followed to the cross with but little human sympathy, he endured the agonies of a cruel, lingering death. How much sympathy do you suppose Cain had when he slew his brother Abel? Did Cain hate Abel because he was innocent, or because he was guilty? His hand would have paused; he would have reflected had Abel been as guilty before God as he was. But because he was pure, and because God recognized his purity by accepting his offering, there arose in Cain’s heart envy, malice and hatred, that could only be appeased with blood. It has been so in every age of the world. You may trace human persecution; you may trace the history of those who invented the rack, the thumbscrew and the wheel, and you will find they have always been moved by one spirit, that same spirit which raised the rebellion in heaven, and that sought the glory and power of God the Father, and that found its culmination in sending to perdition Lucifer and those that were cast out with him. And Milton, interpreting the spirit that prompted Lucifer in the course he pursues, makes him say, “It is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” And wherever we find that spirit, we find a spirit of envy, a spirit of malice, a spirit that desires to destroy that which is more excellent and worthy than itself. In this way, after a just comparison between our persecutors and ourselves, we can account for the persecution to which we have been made subject.

Let the youth of Zion contemplate the character of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and see how evidences of prejudice, hatred and malice were heaped upon him until those that were prompted by it, succeeded at last in slaying him. They perpetrated this deed without mercy, without pity, innocent and guiltless as he was.

How is it today? Converse with certain people in Salt Lake City, those who have made it their business to hate, to lie about, and to do all in their power to persecute and despoil the Latter-day Saints, and you will find lurking in their breasts exactly the same spirit manifested by the wicked towards the Saints of God in all ages of the world; divest them of their malice and hatred and there would be little left.

We hear a great deal about the immorality of this people; but allow me to say, if we permitted ourselves to be led into wickedness; if we would adopt the ways of the Christian age; if we would cast our children into reservoirs and ash pits, on vacant lots and dung heaps, or throw them on to the railroad track; if we would transmit to our sons and daughters disease, and encourage them in ways that lead to death, hell and the grave; we should then have assimilated, as some of our would-be Christianizers have expressed it, with “American institutions;” in other words, then we should be hail fellows well met with the office seekers, with adventurers, with libertines and other destroyers of other people’s peace and happiness. It is because we cannot do this; because we refuse to “assimilate;” because we prefer to row against the current of corruption; because the fruits of our labors, political, financial and social are good, and bespeak a higher and better civilization, that we are hated and ostracized, and not because of any immorality that may exist in our midst. We are sensible of the fact that we are not of the world; that if we were, the world would love us as its own. We are sensible of the fact that we have come out from the world, and that, too, for a wise purpose in the wisdom of God. In these mountains we expect to establish the foundation of a civilization that will yet be the admiration of the world. We expect to bequeath to our children the blessings of physical and mental strength such as will enable them to stand the test that will be required of them; and the very principle and tenet of our religion, against which the Christian feeling of the age appears to be so much shocked, will be the chief cornerstone in the hands of the builder of rearing the structure that will be different from anything else in the world. Because we practice celestial or plural marriage, we are branded as lawbreakers; we are told that we seek to violate constitutional law, and the enactments of the Congress of the United States. Upon this point I desire to make a few remarks.

I was born in this country. I can trace my lineage to the revolutionary fathers. I love the institutions of my country; I love and venerate the Constitution. But I am not so ignorant, I am not so blind that I cannot see that anything which you or I may do may be made contrary to law, and may be called unconstitutional; but I hold that the Constitution was made broad enough, high enough and deep enough to enable us to practice our religion and be free before God and man. I hold that if Congress has a right to enact a law in relation to marriage, it might just as consistently make a law affecting baptism, or prescribing the manner, if at all, the sacrament of the Lord’s supper should be administered. “What will you do about it?” says one. I do not pretend to know what others will do, neither do I pretend to give advice in the premises; but I do say this: that no nation or government has ever been able to crush the religious sentiment of any people unless it crushed the whole people. The nearest approach to success in this direction that I can find in history, was that of Charles IX, advised by his wicked mother, when he slew the Huguenots in the streets of Paris. But even this kind of treatment did not succeed, and never can succeed. For a persecuted religion will be an investigated religion; and in my opinion it is truth that receives the thrust of the enemy far more frequently than evil.

I wish to bear my testimony in relation to the Latter-day Saints and their position. We will abide in these mountains, and we will plead with our government; we will continue to petition Congress and submit our memorials to the President of the United States; and we will continue to love our country, defend its interests, and be free men in these mountains. If we were aught else, if we could be bound hand and foot as abject slaves, we should be unworthy to be citizens of so great a Republic as is ours. It cannot be done, and for this reason: We have come from the nations of the civilized world of our own free will and choice, expecting to enjoy and to bequeath to our children the freedom guaranteed by the laws and institutions of our country; we came as intelligent, independent men and women, and a people who are intelligent and independent cannot be made slaves. The result will doubtless be this: We shall be crowded upon from time to time—but no more, I apprehend, than God in His wisdom will permit—and the very acts of persecu– tion and unfairness that will be directed against us, will bring out and develop the elements of excellency that will make our young men statesmen, and that will make them lovers and defenders of right and liberty, until, in the due time of the Lord, there will grow up in these mountains a race of people that will not only defend the Constitution, but defend the flag of the nation, and at the same time be willing to extend the principles of freedom to all who desire to receive them. It is a great mistake to imagine that the “Mormons” are opposed to the government. They are not opposed to the government; there is not a feeling of secession about them, and they do not propose to be forced on the other side of the fence by any alliance formed either in Utah or outside of Utah. We expect to stand upon the platform laid broad and deep by the fathers. We expect to defend our rights as American citizens, and to do less than this would be unworthy a free people.

Before closing I wish to bear my testimony in regard to the people in the world. I am perfectly satisfied there are thousands of good and honest men and women in our nation who, if they knew our true status, and understood the facts as they are, would defend our rights to the uttermost of their power. But they have been hedged about; and reports misrepresenting and belying our true character have been so widely circulated, that they have been led to believe them; but as we are becoming better known we may expect to find men and women with a high degree of moral courage, here and there, defending us, and speaking favorably of us. There is no such feeling exhibited in our nation towards us today as two years ago; and even that, hostile as it was, did good. The evil that the ministers and priests and politicians together, sought to bring upon us was, through the wisdom of God, overruled for our good. And so it will continue to be, whatever the enemies of truth do for the purpose of crushing it, will eventually be found to be the very means used to establish it. We have confidence in the wisdom and power of God, and are abundantly able to wait and labor, to work on in the path marked out for us to walk in, fully believing that in His own due time He will accomplish His “marvelous work and a wonder,” and bring about those happy results foreshadowed in the promises made to His people, both ancient and modern. Amen.

Discourse by Apostle Erastus Snow, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, March 9th, 1884.

In rising before you, brethren and sisters, this afternoon, I desire to commit myself unto the Lord, invoking His blessing upon the congregation, and that the Holy Spirit may dictate that which may be spoken to our edification and encouragement in welldoing.

In the providence of God His people are located in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, midway between the oceans, occupying the position of a city set upon a hill which cannot be hid. It was the providences of God around about His people which brought them to this land, which led them out of—what shall I say? out of bondage?—perhaps that is not quite the phrase to use—but which led them out of the older States of America, where persecution had followed the Saints from their earliest history, across the great plains, guided by the prayer of faith and the inspiration of the Almighty, manifested through President Brigham Young and his brethren, who counseled and guided the people hitherward, and planted their feet in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. It was not our seeking. As President George A. Smith once quaintly remarked: “We came to this country willingly, because we were obliged to.”

When persecuted in the State of New York, the early churches fled to Ohio—established themselves on the “western reserve”—the northern part of Ohio—located a Stake of Zion—built a temple unto the Lord in Kirtland, from which Elders were sent out into all parts of America, and into Europe. Persecuted in those regions, most of them emigrated westward and located in Missouri, where several Stakes of Zion were organized, and again foundations were laid for a temple, and the Twelve, with others of the Priesthood, were commanded of the Lord to take their departure to the nations of Europe and other parts of the globe, to preach the Gospel. Persecutions arose in that land, and became more general than any persecutions that had preceded them, until the State became embroiled, and an executive order was issued by the then Governor Lilburn W. Boggs, who directed his principal generals and aides-de-camp to gather together the militia of the State, and expel the Saints from the State. And in this executive order this remarkable phrase was used; speaking of the Mormon people it said: “They must be exterminated or driven from the State.” Strange that in a republic like ours, a country of law and government, such an executive order should appear. But it is beyond dispute; it has passed into history; the annals of the State attest it; and the result of such an order is well known in the history of this people. They were not exterminated, but they were driven from the State. Time would fail me to tell of the tears, the sorrow of women and children, when husbands and fathers and brothers were dragged to prison, or compelled to flee and to make their escape in various ways, through the wilderness of the Great West, through the then unsettled regions of northern Missouri and Iowa, until they found a stopping place on either side of the Mississippi, in Hancock County, Illinois, and in Lee County, Iowa; these places becoming rallying places, temporarily, for the Latter-day Saints, where the banner of truth was again unfurled, and the Saints began to establish themselves in those, at that time, almost entirely unsettled regions. In the short space of seven years they had increased to tens of thousands, and established several Stakes of Zion on both sides of the Mississippi, with the beautiful city of Nauvoo as the center of their operations and the site of the new temple. It was here that the ire of the people both of Illinois and Missouri was aroused against the Saints—especially the ire of the surrounding counties, both in Illinois and Iowa—until it became evident that the Saints must again take up the line of march to some other unsettled region. Of the history of the persecutions that followed in 1845-6; the martyrdom of the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum, as also the slaughter of many other individuals; the burning of houses, of granaries, of haystacks, of grain stacks, the property of the Saints from outside settlements near Nauvoo, and of the consequent combination of nine counties to make a descent upon Nauvoo, and the expulsion of the Saints from the city—all these things, I say, are matters of history. And while the people of the State in their organized capacity sought to screen themselves from the direct responsibility of those events under various pretenses, yet the covering was “too thin” from the fact that the then Governor Ford, of Illinois, was really aiding and abetting all those movements; he did nothing to restrain them, but everything to encourage them, and in this way the stain of these things—the death of the Prophets and the expulsion of the Saints—was fastened upon the government of the State. However much some honorable persons in the State may have opposed these things, yet there was not influence and power enough in the State to intervene for the protection of the Saints in the enjoyment of their civil and religious rights. Thus they were compelled to retire, and their march was westward into these mountains.

All this had been predicted by the Prophet Joseph. The Saints had been looking forward to the accomplishment of those events. They were not altogether unlooked for, however much the necessity was deplored and however great were the sufferings of individuals and families, and the community as a whole, in their travels for a distance of nearly 1,500 miles across the then barren trackless desert.

The history of the pioneers and the many people that followed, and the privations of the early years in the settlement of the Saints in these Rocky Mountains, are also matters of history. I would that they were compiled in a succinct and lucid history, that our children might peruse the same and not forget the scenes through which their fathers have passed; for they are wonderful. There are many now living who passed through these events; they were personal sharers in them; but the great mass of the present generation know nothing of them, only as they are occasionally referred to by their fathers.

It is therefore quite true what President George A. Smith said, “that we came to this country willingly because we were obliged to.” It seemed to have been the course marked out before us, and circumstances so surrounded and pressed upon us, that we were not able to avoid it, although we fain would have avoided it, if we could.

Prior to the full determination upon moving westward, President Brigham Young and the Twelve joined in communications to all the Governors of the several States east of the Rocky Mountains, imploring them and their Legislatures for some word of comfort, of consolation, of tacit permission for the Saints to find shelter and protection at the hands of their respective governments. These official communications, made to every State and State legislature in the land, received but very slight consideration. From a portion of them no answers were received at all, and those who did deign to answer those communications answered them evasively, without any hearty expressions of welcome, or any intimation that they would use their influence to maintain the rights, privileges and immunities of citizens. In short, the cold shoulder was turned towards the Saints from every quarter, and immediately in front was the combined mob of nine counties, waging war against them, backed up secretly by the powers of the State—or at least there was no effort on the part of the State to restrain the actions of the mob. President Young and other Elders and the people were harassed continually by vexatious law suits. They were pressed on every hand. Their enemies desired to involve them in trouble. They sought to imprison our leading men. And though, at a council held in October, 1845, between the Twelve and the leaders of the opposition, including representatives of the State—the principal general of that district, the circuit judge of that district—Stephen A. Douglas, subsequently a Senator of the United States, and presidential aspirant—I say, notwithstanding that it was stipulated at that council, that if we would in good faith go to and make the necessary preparations for our departure westward, as soon as the grass grew in the spring, to enable our teams to live, we should be protected and the mobocratic spirit restrained until we could take our departure—our agreement and pledge to accept these conditions only seemed to embolden the more rabid of our enemies in the counties round about, and instead of respecting these conditions, agreed to by the dignitaries of the State for our protection during winter, they commenced to oppress and harass and war against us to such an extent, that we were compelled to take up our march in the dead of winter. Early in February, multitudes of the people commenced to cross the Mississippi, and form their encampments in the forests of Iowa, preparatory to starting out upon their long and dreary march across the desert. In regard to the terrible sufferings that followed—the terrible snow storms and rains that continued from February until May, causing such floods and mire, distress and suffering and consequent sickness, as perhaps has never before been known to the lot of man under similar circumstances—they were at least such as none can properly depict or comprehend, but those who passed through them. Of the many that were laid by the wayside before reaching these valleys of the mountains, those families who were decimated must be left to tell the tale. The history of those early days of persecution and suffering will never be fully known. But in the midst of it all a goodly number of the people of God were sustained by their faith and the overruling providence of Jehovah, and were brought safely through; while the weaker and more doubtful, the fearful and unbelieving, scattered into the surrounding country, left the body of the Saints, drifted up and down the Mississippi into the various towns of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, and back into the Eastern States, while others of the poor and less able, though earnest in the faith and abiding in the truth, were left by the wayside, at the way stations that were planted between the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, where farms were opened, grain and vegetables planted for the poor, until they reached a general place of rendezvous on the Missouri River, at Council Bluffs, where the Mormon Battalion enlisted for the Mexican War, and in the midst of which the emigrating camps were obliged to halt until the following spring, when they started for the western wilds of this great interior country. I said these things had been directed by the overruling providence of God. The combined force of the unbelieving and the wicked was brought to bear to expel the Saints, and compel their journey westward to the Rocky Mountains. It was permitted by Him who overrules all things for the good of His people; and the trials of the people and the afflictions of individuals and individual families were eventually lost, as it were, and buried in the universal good which Providence had provided for His people as a whole. The school of experience through which the early leaders and families of Israel had passed for a period of sixteen years had fitted them for those trying scenes and for the work which they were destined to perform in these mountains, in grappling with the difficulties of a new country, of a barren waste, of an untried region, a region supposed to be utterly uninhabitable. The great arid belt bordering on the Rocky Mountains, extending for some hundreds of miles eastward of the Rocky Mountains, and across the great basin of the American desert, was supposed to be absolutely unproductive—incapable of producing cereals, vegetables and fruits necessary to civilization. The school boys of my age will remember to have looked on their maps and seen all this country marked as the Great American Desert. It was supposed that a strip bordering on the Pacific, was composed of fine fertile land, and adapted to European settlements. But that country on the Pacific, was, at that time, in the possession of the Mexicans, with a few Catholic missions established along the coast, where they had raised a few beans and cabbages and red peppers, and where they had sustained themselves mostly by raising stock. This was all there was to show for their presence in that region. And the few trappers who had mingled with the Indians of this great interior country for twenty years were of the opinion that it was utterly impossible to raise grain in any part of this region. Captain James Bridger, the noted hunter and trapper, who had intermarried and established a trading post among the Shoshones, met the pioneers on the Big Sandy, and gave it as the opinion of himself, and of the early trappers who had gone through this country, that it would be impossible to raise grain here. He told us of the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and pointed out especially the valley, which he termed the valley of the Utah outlet—the valley that spread between the fresh water lake of Utah and the Great Salt Lake—as the most probable place in all of this great interior country to raise grain, at the same time supplementing his account of the land with the opinion that it was impossible to raise grain, and as a clincher to his opinion offered $1,000 as a premium for the first ear of corn that should be raised in this valley. But the faith which sustained the Saints, and which led them, responded through President Brigham Young to Captain Bridger like this: “Wait a little season and we will show you.”

We have shown to the world what could be done, or, I will say, rather, the Lord our God—the God of the Latter-day Saints—has shown to us and to all the world what could be done in this hitherto barren region when His blessing rested upon it.

The first important movement of the pioneer company on setting foot upon this ground near City Creek, was to call the camp together, and bow down under the sun at high noon, and dedicate themselves unto God, and this land for the habitation of His Saints, imploring His blessing upon it, that its barrenness might be turned into fruitfulness, and that the rewards of His people might be sure. And whithersoever their footsteps were turned, to the north or the south, to the east or the west, the prayer and faith of an afflicted and devoted people ascended up to heaven for the God of the land to sanctify it, and hallow the elements and make the country fruitful.

The art of irrigation was unknown on the North American continent at that time—at least among European settlers in the United States. There was no part of the United States which at that time relied upon artificial irrigation in all the arid regions of America. The system of irrigation adopted in Utah has measurably been copied by California, Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, although some of the best features of our system of irrigation have been neglected in these surrounding States and Territories; canal and irrigation companies have there been allowed to organize and monopolize the streams and make the farmers tributary to them, taxpayers for use of the fluid which God sends down from heaven—that is, they have not united the interest of the farmer, the land owner, with the canal owners as we have done in Utah, but they have made the water rather personal property than an attach of the realty, compelling the farmer to rent or buy water for their lands. Herein Utah sets an example in this arid region to the rest of the world, and the future history of this great interior country will award all due honor to the wise legislation of Utah, and the wise counsels of her leaders, and deprecate the folly of the surrounding States and Territories in not following their example in this respect. But the Lord has blessed the labors of the people of Utah in diverting the mountain streams over the arid plains, and opening farms, orchards and vineyards, and building villages, towns and cities, organizing governments, and establishing a commonwealth. That the early history of the Latter-day Saints fitted its leaders for governing, for organizing and controlling society, and molding it for the best interest of the whole, will be admitted by the impartial historian of future ages, when the religious bigotry of the hour shall have spent its fury, and the stupid, blind ignorance of demagogues shall have been lost and drowned in the common sense of the people. Yet, our eastern neighbors in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and the Atlantic States, sanctioned in their inmost hearts the murder of the Prophets, and the persecution and expulsion of the Saints, though some of them lifted up their voices against it, but the voices so lifted were “like angels’ visits, few and far between,” and powerless to turn the popular current or stem the tide that flowed, like the waters which the serpent cast out of his mouth after the apocalyptic woman that fled from the face of the serpent into the wilderness. The Lord had a place prepared for His Church in the wilderness, in the Great American Desert, where she would be preserved from the face of the serpent for a season.

I well remember those early years, as do many who are here before me today, though their numbers are fast becoming very visibly less. We remember the time when the first State government was organized in these mountains. It was simultaneous with the organization of a State government on the Pacific coast under the title of the State of Califor– nia. Delegates were appointed by the provisional government of the State of Deseret, to visit Washington and present their application for admission into the Union at the same Congress at which California’s representatives appeared and knocked for admission. Both acted in their sovereign capacity in organizing their State government and adopting their State constitution. It did not need any special act of Congress extending liberty to them so to do; for in both instances the people of California and Utah acted in virtue of their inalienable rights as free men entitled to the enjoyment of free government, and under the general institutions of our country, that recognize the right of the people to local self-government. Each State organized a State government, adopted a State constitution; they were equally republican in form and liberal in spirit, and made a simultaneous application to Congress for admission. The answer of the general government to California was favorable; to that of Deseret unfavorable; in other words they recognized in the one the rights of local self-government, admitted their senators and representatives to Congress, and the State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States; while to Deseret they handed back a Territorial form of government, adopted the Organic Act, and appointed their territorial officers. Thanks to the advice of our never deviating friend, General Thomas L. Kane, President Fillmore, who succeeded General Taylor in the Presidency, nominated President Brigham Young as the first Governor of Utah. Thankful were we even for this partial recognition of the rights of the people to local self-government, but strange to say, that in the organization of our Territorial government, it seemed good to the Congress of the United States to make the Governor of Utah an integral part of its local legislature, empowered to approve its laws or to exercise an unqualified and absolute veto in all matters of legislation, a feature, so unrepublican and unusual, that it could scarcely be endured by any other people for a period of 35 years, except the Latter-day Saints, and in this instance we are an exception. Two-thirds of the Senate and two-thirds of the House of Representatives can pass any measure over the veto of the President of the United States. The same may be said of all the legislatures in every State in the Union; a two-thirds vote of the Legislature suffices to pass any measure over the veto of the governor, and this is the rule obtaining in the territories, as well as the States, with the exception of Utah and New Mexico.

I only refer to this as an instance of the marked jealousy that has prevailed toward this people—the unwillingness to concede to them the common right of local self-government.

Under the administration of Governor Young, his efforts were ever directed with the Legislative Assembly to enlarge and extend the area of freedom and the liberty of the voter, and the rights of the common people, never attempting to exercise the veto power, much less to enlarge and extend, the executive prerogatives; and under his administration, laws were enacted to provide for various offices necessary to administer the affairs of the Territorial government, as well as those of counties and municipalities, making them all elective by the people, or by their chosen representatives in Legislative Assembly united. It seems to have been reserved to one or two of our late Governors—notably our present one—to labor assiduously, tenaciously, blindly, and, as we think, foolishly, to abridge the popular suffrage, the rights of the mass of the people in the management of their own local affairs, and the election of their own officers, or for the handling of their own finances; I say it seems to be left to our late governors to earnestly struggle to enlarge the executive prerogative. Not content with the veto power reserved in the Organic Act by Congress to annul any act of the Legislative Assembly of Utah, nor yet with the second veto vested absolutely in the Governor by simply withholding his approval of any measure; the present Governor has sought in various ways to extend and enlarge this executive prerogative.

I refer to these things only as items of history which we are making for ourselves, and which our Federal government and its representatives in Utah are making for themselves, and which the historian will point to as the evidence of a continual desire for aggression upon the liberties of the people.

I am well aware that the excuse for all this is the unity of our people—the fact that they are not so greatly distracted by the efforts of aspiring demagogues and political satraps—and that their own common sense teaches them the necessity, under existing circumstances, to consider well and ponder the paths of their feet, and unite in the wisest and best measures, and in the choice of reliable honorable men to fill the various offices within the gift of the people, rather than divide and admit into power aspiring demagogues. We, as a people, have adopted the motto, that the office should seek the man, instead of the man seeking the office, and have invariably administered to the office seekers this quiet rebuke, a ticket-of-leave to stay at home. The good sense of the people has led them to seek out honorable and non-aspiring men and call them to duty, to fill the offices in the interests of the people, not for plunder and pelf, but for the reward of a good conscience and the approbation of an honest, discerning and approving people. And this unity of the people has not been solely a matter of our own seeking, however desirable it is, but measurably the result of outward pressure. If left to ourselves, unbelied, unscoffed at; if treated with any degree of fairness and liberality, and freedom to enjoy the rights and immunities of citizenship, unmolested, unpersecuted, I fear that we should soon begin to learn the ways of the wicked around us, or of the foolish of other countries, and the heedless, the thoughtless, and the ignorant among us would soon be following political demagogues. But it seems to be one of the providences of God, that there should be sufficient opposition from without—that is, from those who are not of us—to bind us together and enable us to see our only true interest in seeking to become one. And that oneness has not been the oneness of blindness, a blind following of the blind, but has been the result of Seers and Prophets and wise men and sages and fathers of the people foreseeing the evil and pointing it out in that way and manner that all have been able to view and see it for themselves. They have followed with their eyes open the Seers and Prophets who are not walking in darkness, and the result has been that we have not fallen into the ditch together, but we have continued to prosper and go on in the path which heaven has marked out for us, and the enemies of this people, who have resorted to every measure which their cunning and ingenuity could devise to hamper them and lessen their liberties—it is these which have fallen into the ditch, that have been trapped in their own measures, that have been ensnared with their own snares, and their folly has been made manifest, and the prediction of the Prophet Isaiah has happened unto them: The wisdom of their wise men has perished, and the understanding of their prudent men has been hid. No more in any former examples than in their last effort—the Edmunds law, so called—which is the result of the combined efforts and labors of a nation, begotten by the hireling priests, a conclave that met in Ogden, the representatives of all the sectarians in Utah. Then a nation groaned, and “the mountain labored,” and brought forth a mouse, the Edmunds law! Its main object was to be effected through a Commission, chosen expressly, not to administer that law according to the letter of it, but chosen with a secret understanding and tacit obligations to enforce it with the spirit of despotism in which it had been conceived; and by establishing rules—irresponsible rules—rules of their own—absolute and appealable to nobody—and enforcing them in their own way they have succeeded in disfranchising not only actual polygamists, but all those who have been in any way associated or connected with polygamist families—not only plural wives, but first wives, and men and women who long years ago have been freed—to use a common phrase—from polygamy; all who have from any cause ceased to be polygamists. All these have been disfranchised—excluded from political privileges—forbidden to be officeholders, even to be a fence viewer, or a school director, or a public surveyor, or a supervisor of streets. Have the men who made this country, who organized government therein, who established order, preserved peace, and tamed the savage—who were the mountain police for all this great interior country for 30 years—have these tamely submitted to these arbitrary rulings and decisions without protest, and because there was no power to withstand? I will only say they have done it from the same inspiration and feeling that has governed them from the beginning in all their wanderings. They have stooped to conquer! Will they conquer? Yes, God will conquer, and with Him they will rise and prevail. Let no one attempt to seize upon this expression as one of treason, of disloyalty to government, of defiance of the power of this great country. It is not spoken in that spirit, nor with any such intent; but it is the outspoken declaration of that faith which underlies the movements of this people, and which has led them on to victory from the beginning. You may write it down as a prophecy, but not as a threat, not as a defiance, not as a treasonable utterance. We recognize our allegiance to the general government: we recognize that it is our duty to sustain constitutional law and the institutions of our common country, and if men in power overstep their legitimate bounds, and exercise power that is not vested in them under the constitution, and violate its sacred provisions in their zeal to trample upon the liberties of the Saints, or hedge up their ways, it is our duty to bear and forbear, until the Lord says—“’Tis enough,” and until He shall open the way, in His own wonderful manner, to bring about a change and our release.

I well recollect the speeches that were uttered in some of the great cities of the west and of the eastern States, when the whole people were aroused and urged to bring their influence to bear upon Congress to pass the Edmunds law. I well remember that numbers of their most noted orators uttered the declaration that polygamy was the least part of the evil they warred against in Utah. I have always been aware of this. Only a few, comparatively speaking, of their leading orators had the temerity—or perhaps the lack of policy—to give utterance, in a public manner, to this view of the case. But those who gave such utterance said that the unity exhibited by the people of Utah—the united, solid vote of the Latter-day Saints—was far more to be dreaded than their polygamy. This was recognized and made clearly manifest by the action of the present Executive of Utah, when he first introduced as a prerequisite to commissioning Notaries Public, an oath of his own providing, unlawful in every way, under pain of refusing their commissions, viz., that they were not polygamists or bigamists, and had not cohabited with more than one woman in the marriage relation! And when the Utah Commissioners arrived in Utah and entered upon their labors, in one of the schemes devised for carrying into effect the Edmunds law, they adopted the same measure that had been introduced by His Excellency, Governor Murray, and incorporated the same provision in their test oath—thrust in the mouths or in the face of every individual voter, male and female, this test oath, leaving every libertine in the land, and every lewd woman, every secret whoremonger and adulterer at liberty to register, vote, and hold office, provided their liaisons have not been in the marriage relation! But the honorable men and the honorable women who had entered into sacred vows with each other, and had sacredly observed these vows, and were rearing their families to honor and respect their parents and to be good citizens in society, teaching them to fear God, and honor the Patriarchs of old, and flee fornication, and look upon whoredom and adultery as the greatest of all crimes, next to the shedding of innocent blood—all these fathers and mothers must be disfranchised! And an attempt made to dishonor them in the eyes of their sons and daughters! They appealed to their sons and daughters to rise up in their majesty and throw their fathers and their mothers overboard, and elect them to power. And when the people nominated Hon. John T. Caine as their Delegate to Congress, to supply the vacancy made by the illiberal and unrepublican action of the so-called Republican party in the expulsion of their Delegate, Hon. George Q. Cannon, from Congress; the opposing candidate, Judge P. T. Van Zile, went through this Territory, delivering his political speech, calling to his aid his retainers, in every place where he could get an audience, telling the masses of the people: My election means the continuation of your liberties; the election of my opponent means your disfranchisement as a whole people, the abolishment of your Legislative Assembly, the reducing of you to a colony governed, absolutely, as a conquered race. Suiting the action to the word, those who sustained him have labored to bring about his prophecies, and they are still laboring to bring them about. We know full well, that the devil, as well as the Lord, can utter some truths, and sometimes is allowed to fulfill his predictions. Wicked men do this as well as righteous men. But there is one decree that has gone out from days of old, that whatever may be the result of a few skirmishes here and there, and now and then, through the generations of men, the great and last battle shall result in the utter overthrow of his Satanic Majesty; he will be bound in everlasting chains and thrust into the bottomless pit, his followers being cast down with him. It is this assurance underlying the faith of the Saints, that enables them to go forward, onward and upward, relying upon the arm of Jehovah, and the ultimate triumph of truth and righteousness in the earth. That those men who have laid these schemes to abridge our liberties and immunities as citizens; and forged fetters for our hands and feet, have not done so in the interests of morality, is made painfully apparent in the test oath framed by Governor Murray, adopted by the Commissioners, and sustained—so far as any outward manifestation is concerned—by Congress and the people of the nation, in that they continue to uphold this Federal Governor and these Commissioners, and to sustain them in their rulings and in the results thereof. Had they been honestly working in the interest of morality, would they merely have made the effort to exclude those that were in plural marriage, and embrace in their arms the libertine, the adulterer, the whoremonger, the fornicator, and every lewd person of every class in the land outside of the marriage relation? This shows it was the patriarchal order of marriage that they warred against, and not against illicit intercourse and the defilement of the sexes and degeneracy of the race. All these things are held up before high heaven, for angels to look upon, for future historians to descant upon, and for the children that may, peradventure, be spared of these ignoble sires to gaze upon with unutterable disgust. The one-man power exercised by a stranger appointed to Federal office, and sent among the people as a Governor; the one-man power that puts forth his ipse dixit to nullify the acts of a great people through their representatives in the Legislative Assembly, and to dictate to the people, or their representatives, what they may do with their taxes, or what they must not do with them—all these things, I say, will be referred to by the future historian as very, very black marks upon their history; and also their blind zeal and efforts—to what? To prevent the growth, enlargement and extension of the Latter-day Saints in the land. This is the real object underlying all their efforts. The Latter-day Saints do not imitate the examples of the Eastern cities and the old commonwealths of the Atlantic seaboard in destroying their offspring. They do not patronize the vendor of noxious, poisonous, destructive medicines to procure abortion, infanticide, child murder, and other wicked devices, whereby to check the multiplication of their species, in order to facilitate the gratification of fleshly lust. We are not disposed to imitate these examples, nor to drink in the pernicious doctrine once uttered in Plymouth Church by the noted Henry Ward Beecher—that it was a positive evil to increase families in the land beyond a limited extent, and the ability of the parents to properly educate and maintain them, sustaining the idea of small families; in effect, justifying the mothers—the unnatural mothers—of New England, and their partners who sanction their efforts in destroying their own offspring, and in prevent– ing the fecundity of the race. Fancy such a doctrine justified by the noted orator of the nineteenth century, and reechoed by the smaller fry throughout the country! The Latter-day Saints are taught to reverence the words of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, concerning the multiplication of their species, and are called as His children to multiply and replenish the earth. If the traveler who visits Utah, will deign to visit our congregations, our schools and our Improvement Associations, he can view hosts of children growing up on every hand, all of whom are taught to read and write, and in the common branches of an English education beyond that which is found to exist in any other part of the land under similar circumstances. But notwithstanding all this, they say secretly among themselves, and in the national and state councils: “This will never do. A people multiplying and increasing like this will overrun the land.” They say, as did Pharaoh of old, “We must do something to stop this increase.” Pharaoh devised means of secretly checking it, by charging his midwives, and making a decree, that every male child born in Israel should be put to death. We read that when Moses was born and his mother found him a goodly child she disregarded the decree of the king, and God overruled in her favor, in pursuance of her faith, and protected her movements, and Moses was spared and brought into the king’s house, and unwittingly educated under his tuition to become the future deliverer of Israel, and the lawgiver of nations. History but repeats itself. The efforts of the wicked to stop the growth and enlargement of the Latter-day Saints will as signally fail, and the failure will be on as natural principles as it was anciently in the days of Moses. For the Lord has decreed it. He has decreed that Zion shall prosper, and that in the latter days righteousness and truth shall prevail. Blessed are all they that will listen to truth and walk righteously, and woe! be unto those who fight against Zion. For the time cometh saith the Lord of Hosts, when all they that fight against Zion shall be as a dream of a night vision. “It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against Zion.” This work is not of man but of God, who has set His hand the second time to bring again Zion. And He has said: “Gather my saints unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” His arm is stretched out to accomplish the purposes which He has predicted by His Prophets from the beginning of the world until the present time, and it will not be turned back until it has accomplished all things.

May the grace of God be and abide with us individually and collectively: may it assist us to remember these things; may we not forget the high calling whereunto we are called; may we abide in the truth; may we stand steadfast to our work; may we go forward in our labors, yielding not unto the tempter; for if we are faithful our triumph is sure and our reward cometh not from beneath, but from above, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by Apostle Francis M. Lyman, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Feb. 24, 1884.

While I attempt to speak to you, my brethren and sisters, this afternoon, I desire an interest in your faith and prayers, that I may speak that which the Lord would have me say, that we may be edified, strengthened and encouraged to go forward in the discharge of our duties as Saints of the living God. And as I speak during the passing of the sacrament, I would not take your minds from this sacred ordinance, as I realize the blessings to be received by us in partaking thereof. We should remember that it is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord to partake of this ordinance or sacrament in a thoughtless manner, but that we should come here for the purpose of renewing our covenants and of pledging ourselves once more to remember the Savior, to take upon us His name, and to keep His commandments—that is, to keep all of them that have been revealed to us, to live lives of purity, and to be devoted and obedient to the principles He has revealed for the salvation of man.

It is said, and truly, that without faith it is impossible to please God. It may be as truthfully said that without obedience it is impossible to please God; that without virtue, without truthfulness, it is impossible to please God. It is not possible for us to perform the labors that are required of us as Latter-day Saints—to preach the Gospel among the nations, to gather together the people, to build temples, and to perform in those temples the labors that are necessary for the salvation of the living and the dead—except we are aided by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. It is not possible for men who stand at the head of this Church to direct, or to give counsel in regard to the building up of the Kingdom of God, in regard to the location of new settlements, in regard to organizing branches, wards, and stakes, and the opening of missions, except they enjoy the Holy Ghost. It is not possible for us as Apostles, as Presidents of stakes, as Bishops of wards, as Presidents of quorums, as Presidents of associations, to preside with dignity and in a manner pleasing to God, unless we enjoy the Holy Ghost. It is not possible for us as parents, to preside in our families, to set good examples before them, to set and keep our houses in order—as it is necessary they should be kept, that we may have salvation—unless we enjoy the Holy Ghost. It is not possible for us as individuals to be Saints, unless we enjoy the Holy Ghost. It was conferred upon every one of us when we were baptized, when we first embraced the Gospel, and the Lord has given us ample instructions as to how we should live, as to the labors we should perform, and as to the lives we should lead in order that we may enjoy the Holy Ghost. Among other things the sacrament was established by the Savior, when He was here in person. He established it again when He visited this continent and set up His Church among the Nephites. He has again established it in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it seems to be very important that this sacred ordinance of the Gospel should be attended to frequently, that by partaking of it we may witness to the Lord that we are willing to take upon us His name, that we have not forgotten Him, that we do keep His commandments, and are still willing to keep them, and to walk according to His counsel. Hence it is important that all Saints, not only presiding officers, but all Saints who have named the name of Jesus Christ and entered into covenant with God, should meet together often and partake of the sacrament and renew their covenants, in order that they may have the Spirit of the Lord. It is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord, for us to partake of the sacrament if there be hard feelings in our hearts, if there be jealousness, if there be enmity or strife, if we are not in fellowship with one another, if we are not in fellowship with the Church, if we are not keeping the commandments of the Lord, if we are not living in peace, if we are not obedient to the counsels of heaven; I say that it is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord to partake of the sacrament under such circumstances. This is an ordinance that should be partaken of properly, understandingly, thoughtfully, and with faith that we will receive an increased portion of the Holy Spirit. If we were not in a world of sin; if we were not in a world of trial and temptation; if evil was not in the world as well as good; if there were not evil influences; if the spirit and power of darkness was chained and there was nothing in this life but good; if there was no evil inspiration, no evil insinuations—if none of these things existed, then we might possibly manage to go through this world without committing sin. But we find that as good is in the world so there is evil. As there is light in the world, so there is darkness. We are subject to the influences of evil—to the powers of darkness. We are liable to temptation. God has given us our agency; and it is found necessary that we should have very particular instructions, very complete organization and perfect care thrown around us, as the Saints of God, under those circumstances, in order that we may obtain salvation. It is not enough that we be baptized for the remission of sins. We need organization. We need the Priesthood. We need authority. We need power. We need the blessing and help of God from the beginning. When the Elders go out into the world, and baptize for the remission of sins, they do not there leave the people. They are taught the necessity of other ordinances, the necessity of gathering together, the principle of tithing, the words of wisdom, the necessity of prayer; all these doctrines are laid before them. Then organization is given them, not in perfection, but in a primitive form. They have branches, and presiding authorities, Elders, Priests, Teachers, Deacons, etc., to teach and care for them while they are in the world, and when they gather to Zion they have a more complete organization of stakes, wards, quorums, associations and the like; so that every man and every woman has a place and a position. They act as helpers, exhorters, encouragers, and all these are necessary for the salvation of the people; for we find, as we become attached to the Gospel of Christ, the evils of the world come in upon us, and they come with greater strength and power to overcome and destroy us.

There is a warfare in the earth between God and the power of evil. The Lord has established this Church. The Father Himself in person, accompanied by His Son Jesus Christ, came and laid the foundation of this work. They commenced it. They established it. They have sustained and supported it. It has not been sustained and supported by the power of man. Those who have stood faithful to this day—whether they be many or few—among the Latter-day Saints, have stood by the blessing and power of God. No one that was living in the days of Nauvoo, or in the days of Kirtland, or that joined the Church during the lifetime of President Young, and has faithfully endured to the present time, can arrogate to himself that he has so endured in his own strength. God has sustained him. The Lord has given him a testimony, and established in his heart a knowledge of the truth. And the reason that this Church is so much more stable and solid—cannot be overthrown, cannot be broken in upon by those from the outside—is that in each individual heart is established a knowledge that comes by the gift of God—the Holy Ghost. The religious world, so far as they have endeavored to convert the Latter-day Saints—to reform them and turn them from their faith—have failed. They know not the reason of their failure. They cannot understand why it is that the Latter-day Saints are not easily converted. You cannot convert a Latter-day Saint. You cannot change a Latter-day Saint into a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic, or cause him to join any other denomination upon the face of the earth. There is not wisdom nor power enough in the world to turn one Latter-day Saint from the truth; for every man, woman and child that is a Latter-day Saint has established in his or her heart a knowledge of the truth. They have a testimony of the truth from God. The father does not have this testimony for the son, or the mother for the daughter, or the priest for the people; but every individual member of the Church has a knowledge of the truth for himself. An honest man cannot turn from that which he knows to be true. An honest, virtuous, good man is willing to lay down his life for the truth. Indeed, men devoted to error are found willing to lay down their lives (and have so done in many instances), for it. How much more, then, will men be willing to lay down their lives for that which they know to be truth—for the Gospel of Christ. Have we a knowledge of the principles of truth? Yes. Do the Apostles depend upon President Taylor, who was so closely associated with the Prophet Joseph in his lifetime and at the time of his death, for a testimony of the truth? No. Is there any man dependent upon President Taylor for a knowledge of the truth. No. There is not a member of the Church dependent upon any man for a knowledge of the truth of this work. The early members of the Church never depended upon Joseph Smith for their testimony in regard to these things. It was not in the power of the Prophet to give that knowledge. Jesus Himself—if I read the Scriptures correctly—had not the power to establish in the hearts of His own Apostles a knowledge of the truth, or even a knowledge of his own character. For when He enquired of Peter and the disciples as to who the world said He was, they answered Him that some said that He was Elias, some that He was John the Baptist arisen from the dead, etc. “But,” said He, “whom say ye that I am?” Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Whereupon the Savior informed him that flesh and blood had not revealed that unto him, but His Father which is in heaven. Now, if there was a man at that time who could possibly obtain, in any other way, a knowledge as to who Jesus was and as to the truth of the work He established, that man was Peter. Such men as President Taylor, and the first Apostles of the Church, would have, if it were possible, obtained that knowledge from the Prophet Joseph. But none of these men obtained their knowledge in regard to these things in that way. And you may ask the Saints by the tens of thousands in the land of Zion today, as to how they learned Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God—although a great many of them never saw him, and yet there are many of them who knew him personally—and they will tell you that their knowledge of his character, mission and power, was given to them of the Lord. We have had this knowledge established in our hearts and we cannot fly it. We cannot close our eyes upon it. When we know what the truth is, we cannot fail to tell it; and there are people in the world today, that look upon us, perhaps, with no degree of allowance and consider us a very wicked people, that, if they had the same testimony that we have, would be as valiant in defense of the truth as we are. There are many such people in the world today—good, honest people. Are they Methodists? I presume so. Are they Presbyterians and Catholics and people belonging to many other denominations? Yes; and there are honest men, perhaps, who do not profess Christ at all—who claim to be infidels and close their eyes to the mission of Christ—that if they had the knowledge we have, they would be just as valiant as we are today. They could not help it; for that testimony would make them valiant, and they would be as difficult to turn from the truth as the Latter-day Saints. The world have discovered that the Latter-day Saints cannot be turned from their purpose, cannot be converted, and having failed to attain their object in that way, many advocate strong measures being enacted against us. Some go so far as to think we should be exterminated; others that we should be placed under political disabilities, or hampered in some way, in order that our religious faith may be crippled. Will they accomplish their object by these means? No. Such treatment did not accomplish anything with the Son of God, nor with His Apostles, and it did not accomplish anything with Daniel, or with his brethren, who were cast into the fiery furnace. It did not change their sentiments and their faith, and it will not change ours. We cannot deny the truth. We may have troubles in this life; many of us may see sorrow in this life; but none of us will ever see what the Savior saw in that regard. None of us will suffer as He suffered, although His mission was but a short one. Our mission may be long, and our suffering may possibly, in some instances, be con– tinuous; but we will not be called to suffer as much as He suffered. Yet, we may look for persecution. But the Lord will overrule all things for our good. He will sustain this Kingdom, and He will build it up in spite of all other kingdoms in the earth; for it is His right to do so. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, and the peoples, the nations, and the kingdoms that are upon the earth, all belong to the Lord. We are His children, and He has the right to control and dictate in all the affairs of men. He has the right to overrule the conduct of men to serve his purposes; to overrule the wars between the nations of the earth. He has the right to break down nations, to change the form of government, to cause revolutions, and in all things to do that which seemeth Him good. He has the right to do all this—just as He broke off the colonies from the mother country, and established religious liberty, thus making it possible for His Kingdom to be established upon this land.

Now, as we discover the world opposed to us—feeling, no doubt, in a great many instances that they are doing God’s service in bringing everything to bear against what they consider a very wicked people—what is the proper thing for the Saints to do for their protection? This is an important matter. When surrounded by enemies, a wise man would take the precaution to protect himself from destruction. What, then, shall we do that we may not be trodden down, broken to pieces and scattered or destroyed; that we may remain in this land; that we may not be removed as we were from Missouri, from Illinois, and from Ohio? What shall we do that we may not be brought into bondage, but may remain a free people?— that is, free to do the will of God, and to build up His Kingdom upon the earth, the mission we are called upon to perform. The most important matter that I know of is, not to prepare our arms, not to prepare for war, but to prepare for peace; to keep the commandments of the Lord; to discharge with fidelity to God every obligation we are under to Him; to keep sacredly His laws, and to be found in the discharge of our duty; preaching the Gospel; gathering the poor; building temples; establishing home industries; becoming a self-sustaining people; providing for our necessities; providing employment that none may need; providing for the poor; nursing the sick; caring for those who need comfort; seeking to do the will of God in all things; abstaining from intemperance, from profanity, from corruptions of every name and nature; seeking to be, not as the world, but to be indeed the Saints of God; striving to be united; listening to counsel; seeking to live so that the Spirit of the Lord may inspire our hearts and prepare us for the responsibilities that are upon us, let our positions be what they may—home missionaries, foreign missionaries, men presiding in the Church, in the Stakes, in the Quorums, in the Associations, in the institutions of learning, each and all standing in their proper place, doing the will of God. For we have no battles to fight if we be the Saints of our God. He will fight our battles if battles are to be fought. The wicked will slay the wicked and the righteous will be left free. The Lord has been very good to us in giving us this land, and in enabling us to maintain peace therein, up to the present time. It is a land that is admirably adapted to the necessities of this growing kingdom. The water supplies are not very great, and as we have multiplied the water sources have been almost all utilized. Yet the fountains of water have increased in many parts of the country, and where but a few families, a few years ago, could be accommodated on a stream—say a half a dozen families or the like—today we have fifty to a hundred families on that same stream, with a constant and abundant supply of water. And the Lord has changed the seasons. Fruits are hardier, and some that are not so hardy are doing and thriving well in our land. The blessing of the Lord has been over the land, and peace has reigned in it, and it will continue to reign if we but do the will of the Lord. He will overrule and control all those agencies that may be brought against us from the outside, if we will but listen to the voice of counsel here at home. That voice of counsel is within the reach of every family in every neighborhood. He has given to this people the Priesthood. He has placed it upon almost every man in Zion. Almost every man bears a portion of the Holy Priesthood, Aaronic or Melchizedek. We are almost a nation of Priests—of High Priests, Seventies, Elders—men bearing the Priesthood and authority of God. We have each of us the right to approach the throne of grace, to hear from the Father, to receive counsel, to receive inspiration in regard to the duties which devolve upon us, that we may not go astray. Every man who is called to preside as a Bishop in a ward is entitled to the Holy Spirit to guide him in his labors; so is every man who presides over a family, or in a quorum, or who is placed in a position to lead and instruct the people. That is the reason that the Lord has given us such a host of ministers; for every man who holds the Priesthood is a minister of righteousness and is expected to administer in his calling in the midst of the people in the world, wherever he is located, at home or abroad. We have thousands of such men. Our settlements are full of them. They are the men who build the houses and decorate them, and they do the business that is done in Zion among our people. They are ministers of righteousness; and if the people will keep the commandments of God, His hand will be stretched out in their behalf, to save and protect them from harm.

Now, when I assert that the Latter-day Saints cannot be converted or turned from the truth, I do not mean to say that there are none who turn away from the Gospel. There are many who lose their faith, many who go into sin, many who apostatize. But are they Saints of God? No. Do those that apostatize live the lives of Saints? No. If they were Saints, enjoying the Spirit of the Lord, it would be impossible for them to apostatize. A man cannot deny the truth which the Spirit of God is burning in His bosom; but by transgressing the laws of God, by neglect and sin, men lose their testimony and are taken up by the “Josephites,” or by some other class of people, and perhaps “improved.” I trust they are. But when it comes to converting a Latter-day Saint, a man who keeps the commandments of God, and lives according to the principles of the Gospel, as laid down by the Prophet Joseph Smith, it cannot be done. They may labor here as missionaries from now to doomsday, they never can get one Latter-day Saint to join any of their religious denominations. Strenuous efforts are being made to capture our children as though there were not chil– dren enough in the world requiring their attention. They might leave us to manage our own children. But they think they stand a better show to convert children than grown people. If the truth were not grounded in our hearts, we would be liable to conversion. But inasmuch as we keep the commandments of the Lord, and enjoy the Holy Ghost, we cannot be turned.

We have no fears in regard to the work of the Lord; because it is just as plain to us as the sun at noonday, that the Kingdom of God will endure and will not be given to another people. If the Saints will be faithful, the Church and Kingdom of God will be safe; God will be honored, and His purposes accomplished in the earth; and a pure people will grow up here such as the Lord will delight to come and dwell among.

The organization of the Church of God is perfect. We find at the head of every Quorum of Deacons three are appointed to preside; the same with the Teachers, Priests and Elders; the Seventies have seven men to preside over each Quorum; and all these various Quorums are expected to hold meetings and classes, so that they may be instructed in their various duties, that men may be prepared to preach the Gospel in the nations of the earth. Then, we have organizations of the young people—the Mutual Improvement Associations—which are intended to embrace all the young people of Zion. But we find in our visits through the country, that complaints are made that the young people are not all enrolled. Many have not been brought to see the importance of joining these associations. Well, now, if it were left to the children entirely, how many of them would go to school at the age of eight, ten or twelve years? Not many. But there is a proper influence brought to bear upon children by their parents. Schoolhouses and teachers are provided, and then the children are sent to school. After a while, as the children grow older, they begin to see the importance of knowledge, and then it does not take very much exertion on the part of parents to get the children to attend school. In the same way, those who have identified themselves with these associations begin to see the importance of their connection therewith. But those who are on the outside need to be instructed in regard to the importance of these things, and an influence should be brought to bear upon them in that direction. They should be taken early in life. Many of them have been left alone until it is too late, or later than it ought to have been. At the age of twelve or fourteen years they should be introduced into the lesser Priesthood, and thus learn something of the authority of the Lord. They should be educated in the principles of the Gospel, and have faith established in their hearts. This should be done by experienced people. But they have been more or less neglected until we have hundreds today that are twenty years of age, that bear no Priesthood at all. When they get to that age they become more or less set in their ways; they desire to be free; they don’t care to be hampered with religion or anything of that kind. Now, my brethren and sisters, parents in Zion, Bishops, leading men in the Wards and Stakes, see to it that the young people receive proper instruction; see to it that they are not neglected as those of whom I have been speaking have been neglected in the past. Let fathers and mothers be anxious in regard to their sons and daughters. Let those who are yet young be brought into the Mutual Improvement Associations and classes, that they may have the advantage of a religious training in the Church. There is nothing on earth of greater value to your children than a knowledge of the truth. I know of no gift that could be given to my children from among men that would compensate for their being deprived of the knowledge that God has established His Church and Kingdom upon the earth; that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God; that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and that God lives. To deprive them of this knowledge, nothing could compensate for its loss. Then, if we so consider these things; if we are so firmly established in the truth and value it so much, let us see to it that our children are not neglected. At eight years of age they should be baptized for remission of their sins, and become members of the Church. And as they get older, see that they are brought into the schools, associations and classes. See, too, that they are taught at home in regard to prayer, family worship, etc. Let them not be neglected; for if they are neglected and go astray, your hearts will be barren and sorrowful. You may be very firm and solid yourselves; but in the loss of a son or daughter, through neglect, your hearts will be made sorrowful. The Catholics are very careful in regard to their children, and I respect them for it. They are very careful to educate their children in regard to the Catholic faith. Not that I would have my children become Catholics; but I would have the same care that they display in this matter displayed in the care of the children of the Latter-day Saints. Early life is the time when they should be trained. Then indelible impressions can be made in their minds How difficult it is when men have grown up in the world with ideas that are prevalent in the world in regard to God, the Savior, religion, etc.—how difficult it is to bring them into the Church, and get those ideas eradicated from their minds. I have heard elderly brethren who were brought up as Methodists say, that it was almost impossible for them to rid themselves of Methodism. One of the earliest revelations given to the Church charges all parents having children in Zion to teach them faith in God, faith in Jesus Christ, and that when they arrive at the age of eight years they should be baptized for remission of their sins. This is a law that has been before us since 1831, many years before I was born. Now, I wonder if this law has not been neglected by the Latter-day Saints—generally forgotten or overlooked. Have we not been careless in this regard? Let every father and every mother question their own hearts on this matter, and if they have been negligent, let them reform and see that they be more careful in the future than they have been in the past. Indeed, let me exhort you, my brethren and sisters, you who stand at the heads of families, Wards, and quorums, to be of a truth educators of the people, teaching them not only in theory, but in practice, in your lives; walking so that you may be the light of a sun instead of a moon; and that great improvement may be found all around.

And that God may sustain us, inspire our hearts and help us to discharge with fidelity every duty; that the testimony God has given us may grow and increase in our hearts, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by Apostle Erastus Snow, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Feb. 24, 1884.

It is allotted to me to occupy a few minutes, and it is a privilege which I ought to esteem, and which I do esteem, to stand before my brethren and sisters as a witness of the truth which we have embraced; the truth as it is revealed in Christ, the truth that is confirmed in the hearts of the Saints of the Holy Ghost, the truth as testified by ancient Prophets, Patriarchs and Apostles, and by our Savior Himself when upon the earth among the Jews, and among the Nephites on the continent of America.

The work in which the Latter-day Saints are engaged, the work whereunto God has called His people in this day, is the work which has engaged the attention of the Prophets and Saints from the beginning of the world till the present time. That portion of the world of mankind who have been inspired from above to look forward through the vista of opening years and contemplate the future history of mankind, have had their eyes directed to the great and last dispensation of the fullness of times, in which the Lord would perfect His work on the earth, and bring in everlasting righteousness; when He would establish a reign of peace, when wickedness would be subdued, when Satan would be curtailed in his power and influence among the children of men—the time represented in the vision of St. John, when he declared:

“I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

Now, this thousand years is spoken of among modern Christians as the millennium, signifying a thousand years. That period of all other periods will, as we speak of the Sabbath, be a day of rest. On the Sabbath, the seventh day, the Lord rested from his labors, and He has commanded His people to rest from their labors on that day; to meet together and worship Him; to offer up their sacraments and their oblations; to confess their sins unto one and another and before the Lord. And as they ask to be forgiven, and feel to forgive one another, so God forgives them. Our Savior gave us clearly to understand this when He taught His disciples to pray and to say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors;” for, said he, “If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” This day of rest is a day to forgive and to be forgiven, and to make peace with one another and with our God, and is a type of the millennium, or the seventh thousandth year, in the which universal peace will be established upon the earth, and the Kingdom of our God prevail in all lands—a day when the servants of God may bear the glad tidings to all people, nations, kindreds and tongues upon all the face of the earth, and there shall be none to molest them, or make them afraid. The truth will abound and light and understanding come to the people. It will be a day of great light in every corner of the land—the day spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah, wherein he says the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea—the day when they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord; for they shall all know Him from the least of them to the greatest of them—a day when “every man shall see eye to eye.” Prophets and Saints have looked for such a period, have longed for it, have prayed for it, have sung about it, have prophesied of it, and they have spoken of the work that should bring it about. Are all these prophecies fallacious? Are all these hopes vain? Will all these expectations come to naught? Or are they to be fulfilled? With the Latter-day Saints there is but one answer to this question. The Lord has opened their understanding, has touched their eyes, has pricked them in the ear, has comforted them, and has given to them the Holy Ghost. They have been enabled to see and to discern the signs of the times, and to understand in a measure the age in which we live. It is a source of unbounded joy unto those who possess this testimony, and are living for the blessings promised to the faithful. These events are dawning upon us. A preparatory work has been begun in the earth. As foretold in the Scriptures, an angel has flown in the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to deliver to them that dwell on the earth, and which shall be preached unto every nation, kindred, tongue and people before the end cometh. But will every nation and kindred and tongue and people receive it? Not at all. It has not been so written. But it is written that the time cometh when all who will not hear that Prophet whom Moses said God would raise up unto the people should be cut off from among his people. This Prophet was Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, raised up in the meridian of time and in the midst of the house of Israel, from the seed of Abraham, that seed which God said would be a blessing unto all nations. When Jesus showed himself unto the Nephites on the American continent, He quoted this Scripture—this prophecy of Moses—and said to them, “I am that Prophet of whom Moses spake.” Now, we have this assurance, that the time will come when all those who will not hear that Prophet shall be cut off from among the people. It is grievous to reflect upon the darkness that enshrouds the minds of the people; upon the unbelief which prevails among mankind at the present time; upon the infidelity which stalks abroad, that is manifested in church and state, with high and low. It is grievous to contemplate how statesmen and the would-be wise men of our age despise God, or ignore His counsels, ignore His word, His right to rule, His ability to counsel, to teach, and to regulate the affairs of men; how little they acknowledge His hand, how unwilling they are to allow Him to have any voice in the affairs of state. And it is equally sorrowful to contemplate how little are Christian sects willing to acknowledge Him, or allow Him to interfere in their affairs, or acknowledge Him in any way, further than in a sort of—what shall I say?—a sort of mystical way. True, there are many who affect to believe that they must be born again, and teach the doctrine of the new birth, the spiritual birth. But how little they seem to comprehend what is meant by that birth, and the effects that follow it; yet there are some, yea, there are many in the Christian world who profess to believe what Jesus said to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John’s Gospel, that a man must be born of the water and of the Spirit in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Yet when we come to read the New Testament and learn of the fruits, the influence and effects of that Spirit upon those who possess it, how wonderful, how strange it appears to those Christians! The Latter-day Saints strive to bring home to the minds of those modern Christians, that the Holy Spirit, when overshadowing the people born of the water and of the Spirit produces certain fruits, certain effects, that are the same today as anciently, and will be the same among all people in all ages and times when people receive that Spirit. But most of the Christian sects of our time ignore those fruits of the Spirit, the spiritual gifts and blessings which followed the outpouring of that Spirit upon the Saints of God in all former ages.

Brother Lyman has well said that it is this Spirit shed abroad upon the Latter-day Saints, bearing witness unto them of the truth—which is the witness of the Holy Ghost of the Father and of the Son—that makes them steadfast and immovable. They cannot be turned away so long as they enjoy this Spirit; they cannot be turned away from the light of the Gospel and the liberties they enjoy in Christ Jesus; they cannot be converted to Catholicism, nor Methodism, nor any other ism; but if they fall into sin, if they violate their holy covenants, if they grieve the Holy Spirit from them, then they are left in great darkness. As the Savior said to His disciples: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole holy shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore that which is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” It may seem to some a wonder how it is, that any man or set of men, after having once tasted of the good word of God, of the heavenly gifts, and the powers of the world to come, and having been made to know and understand the things of God, and been able to bear witness of them, should afterwards fall away, lose their testimony and the light of the truth, fall into darkness and apostatize. It is a marvel and a wonder unto many how this can be, and to some portion of the Christian world it has seemed impossible, and they have affected to espouse the dogma and to make it a part of their religious creed, that once in grace always in grace, and that if they are the elect of God, they cannot fall away. This is a doctrine of men: it is not a doctrine of Christ, and it is not true. The Savior constantly exhorted His disciples to watch and pray, lest they should fall into temptation, and cautioned them that they who once put their hands to the plow and looked back, or turned away, were not fit for the kingdom of heaven, but that they who endured unto the end, the same should have eternal life. He warned them against falling into darkness, and, as I have already quoted. He assured them that the light that was in them might become darkness, and if it did, how great should be that darkness.

Brother Lyman has well said, also, that when men apostatize from the truths of heaven, and become infidel to the things of God, it is because of sin and transgression; it is because they have given way to evil; it is because they have corrupted their ways, defiled their tabernacles, defiled their spirits, violated their own consciences, or given themselves up to work sin and wickedness. All this they may have done in the dark, or in secret, and not upon the housetops: but the time cometh when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, and every secret thing shall be made known upon the housetops. Then it shall be known and read of men the causes that operated to take away the light and the truth from the hearts of men and left them to go into outer and utter darkness. None are proof against the attacks of the enemy, against the powers of evil, against the evil devices of the wicked one; none are proof against or safe from the influence and power thereof, without watchfulness and prayer, without so living that the Spirit will have pleasure to abide with them, to be their monitor and protector. That Spirit will not dwell in unholy temples, it will not continue to dwell with those who violate their own consciences, corrupt their ways, defile their spirits and tabernacles, and defile themselves with their fellow creatures; for God will have a pure people. His Kingdom is holy; His dominions are pure; and no impure thing can inherit the Kingdom of God. “And without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”

Brother Lyman asked the question (and answered it beautifully) pertaining to the preservation of the Latter-day Saints, from the combined efforts of their enemies. He answered well. The safety and protection of the Latter-day Saints lie in their preparing for peace. In other words, it is to make peace with their God, and with one another, and to proclaim peace unto all mankind, and so live and deport themselves, that they will encourage, extend and maintain peace to the utmost of their ability. But, and if the wicked continue to oppress, to war against and annoy the people of God, and to deprive them of social, religious and political privileges, and other rights that belong to them as the children of God, as human beings, as citizens of the commonwealth, those unalienable rights of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; if, I say, the wicked combine to abridge these immunities, privileges and rights, and trample them under foot, and to wage war against the Saints for the purpose of destroying them, what may we do to avert it? It has been well answered: Do the will of the Lord; keep His commandments; do good to one another; forgive one another, and ask to be forgiven of each other and of our God; walk humbly before Him day and night; trust in Him, believe in Him, and go forward in the discharge of every duty, fearing only God. “Fear not them,” says the Savior, “which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Let our fear center upon Him; let our trust and our faith center upon Him; let us maintain our confidence in Him, that He rules in the heavens and among the armies of men, and that He turns the hearts of the children of men as the rivers of water are turned; and if at one time their hearts are softened, as was Pharaoh’s of old, and then, again, their hearts are hardened, as was Pharaoh’s, we may bear in mind that all these things are necessary in the accomplishment of the divine purposes of our Father and Creator. For the wicked have their agency as well as the righteous, and God will not deprive them of it. He wills not that any be deprived of their agency. If people will work wickedness; if they will violate their covenants; if they will foreswear themselves; if they will trample under foot the constitution and institutions of our common country, (which they are sworn to defend and maintain) in their overzeal to destroy the Saints, they must have their agency so to do. They must have the privilege of working out their own salvation or their own damnation. They must fill up the cup of their iniquity; otherwise, how will the Lord be justified in wasting them away and destroying them out of the earth, except they first fill up the cup of their iniquity. But, says one, what and if He shall permit them to overrun and lay waste and scatter and destroy the Latter-day Saints? Such questions have been asked a great many times in years that have gone by, by those that were fearful, or doubtful, or unbelieving; but questions of this kind need not arise in the breasts of those who are living as Saints ought to live, and have the testimony of Jesus dwelling in them. We ought to know, yea, it is our duty to feel that abiding trust and confidence in God, to know that He will make the wrath of the wicked to praise Him, and the residue of wrath He will restrain; and that neither Congress, nor Presidents, nor Senators, nor Judges, nor Governors, nor armies, nor Generals, nor any other human being have or can exercise any power in the earth, except that which is given them of our Father in the heavens, and that He can restrain when it seemeth Him good, and within such limits as seemeth Him good. And this He does without interfering with their personal agency; for man may propose, but God only disposes the affairs of men.

May God help us to be in deed and in truth what we have been called to be—Saints of the last days, and then, whether in life or death, we shall be His, we shall enter into His glory and be numbered with His jewels; for the Lord cometh to make up His jewels, and it will be those who have met together often and have spoken often one to another, that will be numbered therein; while all the proud and they that do wickedly, will become as stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

May the grace of God be sufficient for us under all circumstances, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Discourse by President Joseph F. Smith, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, February 17th, 1884.

I trust that the Spirit of the Lord may direct what I may say. It is sometime since I stood before a congregation in this building; my labors have been directed in a great measure in other settlements where I have enjoyed seasons of pleasure and profit, witnessing a good spirit and a lively feeling among the Latter-day Saints wherever it has been my privilege to meet with them. I believe that the same good spirit prevails among the Latter-day Saints in this City and throughout this Stake of Zion, and that there is generally a feeling of confidence and faith in the hearts of the Saints in the work of the Lord, and in His servants. This is gratifying, when we realize the importance of our being united, and of our faith being centered in the Lord, and in the great work God has begun in the earth in these last days. Without unity and confidence no faithful Latter-day Saint can be truly happy.

Brother Abraham Hatch has dwelt upon the idea he had when a boy, in relation to the characteristics of a Prophet. I presume that his idea was similar to that entertained by most of the civilized world today, and yet I do not think that there is any ground or reason for such opinions respecting the character of men who have been inspired of God. While he was speaking upon this subject, my mind reverted to some of the ancient Prophets whose words have been handed down to us as words of inspiration, and so far as my mind can recall, all those eminent men of ancient days were, I believe, young men when they were called to their respective positions. From the first man Adam, down to the latest inspired man of God of which we have any account in the Scriptures, they were all chosen, so far as my knowledge goes, when they were in their youth. Abraham became an inspired man when very young. He was called to be a Prophet and Patriarch in his youth. His sons Isaac and Jacob, were not at all old men when the prophetic inspiration fell upon them. And when we come down to later times we find that the Prophet Samuel was chosen and dedicated unto the Lord in his childhood. He was a Prophet from his youth up. David was a youth, Daniel was a youth, Isaiah was a youth, and so far as I recall to mind, the Prophets were all young men when they were called to the work that they had to perform. Jesus himself, the greatest of all Prophets, only attained His thirty-third year when He was offered as a sacrifice upon the cross. Most of the Apostles who were chosen by our Savior were young men, and those who have been chosen in this dispensation were all of them, in the beginning, young men, some of them almost beardless, much less having flowing beards, grey and bald, wrinkled and old, as we see the prophets and patriarchs pictured by modern artists, representing the modern conception of them. President Taylor himself, when he was called to the apostleship—which is a prophetic calling—was only a young man about thirty years of age, and there were many younger than he, and all the way down to the present time nearly every man called to the prophetic calling has been called in his youth, grown up under the inspiration of the Almighty, and has developed under the influence and power of the Spirit of the living God. There is, I think, good reason for this. The young mind is much more plastic, much more susceptible of impressions and of influence than the older mind. A youth can be conformed, so to speak, in his ideas, thoughts and feelings, to the will and requirements of heaven, much easier than in old age. Nevertheless, I believe that God is able to inspire any man who is good, faithful, pure and righteous in his desires; God delights in the willing mind and in those who keep His laws and commandments. Men have been raised up in almost all ages of the world to perform certain works, or accomplish certain missions; they having been inspired for that work and mission from their infancy, and it may be even before they were born into the world. No doubt all the prominent men who have figured in any dispensation of the Gospel since the days of our father, Adam, until the present, were inspired of the Almighty from their childhood, and were chosen and selected even from or before their birth. God has His eye upon the world; He overrules and controls all things, notwithstanding He is shut out from the councils of men by their unbelief. His authority is not admitted by the world. The children of men ignore His right to govern and control, to dictate or to counsel in the earth. Nevertheless, He governs and controls the nations of the earth and individuals, and all things are subject to His power. I do not mean that all mankind are obedient to His will; I do not mean that they are willing to acknowledge Him, or that they know Him. I am rather inclined to the opinion that they are ignorant entirely of Him and of His power, and that they do not conceive it possible that He governs and controls the affairs of the nations of the earth. Nevertheless, He does so, and while “man proposes, God disposes;” while the leaders of the nations of the earth plan and scheme, and seek to govern according to their ideas, yet God Almighty overrules their acts and brings forth results which, in accordance with His wisdom, are designed to hasten and ultimately consummate His grand and glorious purposes in the earth. And I believe that one of the greatest sins of which the inhabitants of the earth are guilty today, is the sin of ingratitude, the want of acknowledgment, on their part, of God, and His right to govern and control. We see a man raised up with extraordinary gifts, or with great intelligence, and he is instrumental in developing some great principle. He and the world ascribe his great genius and wisdom to himself. He attributes his success to his own energies, labor and mental capacity. He does not acknowledge the hand of God in anything connected with his success, but ignores Him altogether, and takes the honor to himself; this will apply to almost all the world. In all the great modern discoveries in science, in the arts, in mechanism, and in all the material advancement of the age, the world say: “We have done it.” The individual says, “I have done it,” and he gives no honor or credit to God. Now, I read in the revelations through Joseph Smith, the Prophet, that because of this, God is not pleased with the inhabitants of the earth, but is angry with them because they will not acknowledge His hand in all things. I am inclined to acknowledge the hand of God in all things. If I see a man inspired with intelligence, with extraordinary ability and wisdom, I say to myself he is indebted to God for that wisdom and ability, and that without the providence or interposition of the Almighty, he would not have been what he is. He is indebted to the Lord Almighty for his intelligence, and for all that he has; for the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. God originated and designed all things, and all are His children. We are born into the world as His offspring; endowed with the same attributes. The children of men have sprung from the Almighty, whether the world are willing to acknowledge it or not. He is the Father of our spirits. He is the originator of our earthly taber– nacles. We live and move and have our being in God our Heavenly Father. And having sprung from Him with our talents, our ability, our wisdom, we should at least be willing to acknowledge His hand in all the prosperity that may attend us in life, and give to Him the honor and glory of all we accomplish in the flesh. We are particularly dependent upon the Almighty for everything we possess of a worldly character. There is not a man on the earth possessed of the wisdom or power of himself to cause even a spear of grass to grow, or to produce a kernel of wheat or of corn, or any fruit, vegetable, or any material whatever which is essential for the sustenance, the happiness and the well-being of a human creature in the world. It is true we can go to the earth, we find it prepared to a certain extent, and we cultivate, plow and plant, and we reap the harvest; but God has ordained that the fruits of our labor shall be in subjection and in obedience to certain laws which He Himself controls, and which He has kept out of the power of man. Man may boast of having a great deal of wisdom; of having accomplished a great deal in this 19th century; but, if he did but know it, he derives the ability by which he accomplishes these things from God his Father, who is in heaven. He does not possess the power in and of himself.

I read a Scripture something like this: that “there is a spirit in man.” Now, if that should stop here, there would not be perhaps anything very remarkable about man; for the spirit of man knoweth only the things of man, and the things of God are discerned by the Spirit of God. But while there is a spirit in man, it is further stated that “the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it understanding.” There is not a man born into the world but has a portion of the Spirit of God, and it is that Spirit of God which gives to his spirit understanding. Without this, he would be but an animal like the rest of the brute creation, without understanding, without judgment, without skill, without ability, except to eat and to drink like the brute beast. But inasmuch as the Spirit of God giveth all men understanding, he is enlightened above the brute beast. He is made in the image of God Himself, so that he can reason, reflect, pray, exercise faith; he can use his energies for the accomplishment of the desires of his heart, and inasmuch as he puts forth his efforts in the proper direction, then he is entitled to an increased portion of the Spirit of the Almighty to inspire him to increased intelligence, to increased prosperity and happiness in the world; but in proportion as he prostitutes his energies for evil, the inspiration of the Almighty is withdrawn from him, until he becomes so dark and so benighted, that so far as his knowledge of God is concerned, so far as the future or hopes of eternal life are concerned, he is quite as ignorant as a dumb brute.

I was remarkably struck upon this point only a short time ago by the expressed opinion of an individual who is considered to be very intelligent—a philanthropist, going about the country, and said to be doing a great deal of good, who remarked in my hearing that the future was a blank; that we knew nothing about it; that we knew nothing as to the condition of the spirit after death; nor as to the pre-existence of spirits; and that all these things must be left without consideration as matters wholly beyond our reach. This, in substance, was the opinion expressed by this very intelligent person who is going about the country doing so much good. I do not doubt that individuals may go about doing good, relieving present necessities, throwing out practical ideas and suggestions, as to temporal concerns and administering reproof that will be greatly beneficial to very many in their present worldly condition. But in view of the possibilities of the great and eternal hereafter, and the important contingencies of the past, involving our origin and our destiny, some of us are so constituted that we cannot content ourselves to rest such vital matters here, in the midst of so much ignorance, uncertainty and doubt. We desire to know something about the future and the past, as well as of the present. What is the object of our being? Whence have we come? Whither are we going? What consequences are dependent upon this life? What is to be gained or lost? To whom are we responsible, seeing we do not owe our existence to our earthly parents alone, nor to chance or hazard? Is there any reward or punishment hereafter for good or evil committed in the flesh? We desire to know something about these things, if it is possible to know anything about them. What is the standard of right and truth, and who is the great example? Those who say in their hearts that it is impossible to learn anything about these things; that it is sufficient to content ourselves with that which we can see and hear and handle, and with that which only materially affects our present existence; that that is all we have to concern ourselves about, can be but little removed beyond the brutes, or the animal creation. Such may be classed with those whom the Savior referred to in the parable of the rich man who said, “Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” In other words, “Let us have pleasure in that which we possess or enjoy today.”

This reminds me of a remark that I was told a certain man—said to be learned in the law—had made in reference to the religion of the Latter-day Saints. He remarked something like this: “You believe in having joy; you claim that your religion is for the purpose of securing to you the greatest amount of joy. Now, on the back of this you deny yourselves of this, that and the other. Your people are called upon to deny their appetites, to control their passions, and to crucify the flesh, etc. My enjoyment consists in whatever I can get that is good to eat, to drink or wear; whatever ministers to my bodily ease, or comfort, to the gratification of my tastes and appetites. I deny myself nothing that I like or desire. Hence, I drink, I smoke, I chew, and I do as I please.” He might have added, perhaps, “I curse and swear, I gamble, I commit whoredoms and take advantage of every circumstance I can to augment my pleasure and gratify my lust and my ambition, all these contribute pleasure to me and constitute my greatest joy and happiness.” Such was the confessed moral status of this legal individual to whom I refer. But I consider (and I believe that every right-minded person will heartily agree with me), that such a conception of the object of human existence is groveling, vile and contemptible. No pure-minded person can perceive anything noble, exalted, pure or praiseworthy in a life so selfish, narrow and gross. There is nothing liberal or manly in such avowals, much less in the practical results of such a life, and coming from a man of years, of legal expe– rience and knowledge to a youth with a view to misleading him, is infamous. Following this theory, we observe a man wallowing in the gutter, bloodshot, bloated, ragged, hideous and filthy, his family neglected at home and destitute, his children barefoot, naked or bundled in rags—and starving for food—objects of pity and disgust—without the shadow of a chance for mental improvement—with only the blighting, withering example of a besotted husband and father for their guiding star. And why all this? Because this misguided, fallen human creature is seeking joy in the gratification of his appetite! This theory may be followed in all its leadings, to similar and equally appalling results. No man is safe unless he is master of himself; and there is no tyrant so merciless or more to be dreaded than an uncontrollable appetite or passion. We will find that if we give way to the groveling appetites of the flesh and follow them up, that the end will be invariably bitter, injurious and sorrowful, both to the individual and society. It is hurtful in example as well as in its individual effects; dangerous and hurtful to the unwary; while the denial of these appetites—the crucifixion of the flesh, so to speak—and an aspiration for something noble; whenever possible, doing good to our fellow creatures, hoping for the future, laying up treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot corrupt, and where thieves cannot break through and steal—all these things will bring everlasting happiness; happiness for this world and the world to come. If there is no pleasure in the world except that which we experience in the gratification of our physical desires—eating, drinking, gay associations, and the pleasures of the world—then the enjoyments of the world are bubbles; there is nothing in them, there is no lasting benefit or happiness to be derived from them.

It seems to me that the example which was set to us by our Savior is the example we should seek to follow. Did He prostitute His intelligence for the gratification of the lusts of the flesh? Or did He go about doing good—healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, giving speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, cleansing the lepers, forgiving sin, relieving the distressed? Was not that the example He set before the world? Was not that the course He commanded His disciples to pursue? I think it was. There is something in such a course that is praiseworthy and noble. It will bring true and lasting pleasure; while the pleasures of the world are only temporary and fleeting. The Spirit of God brings unspeakable pleasure to all who enjoy it—it leads men to do good, to deny themselves some things that they may the better be enabled to do good. It certainly affords more pleasure to give than to receive. It is so said in the Scriptures. It is more blessed to administer comfort and joy to our fellow creatures than to have them administer to ourselves. But under the spirit and influence that the world is under at present, this is not the view that is generally taken. Men of the world are rushing headlong after that which will as they suppose contribute to their own pleasure. They don’t care how they get pleasure so that they get it. As a general thing gold or money is the thing which administers most to their pleasure and joy. In a few years, however, they will be called away from this world, when their wealth and everything else they have cherished will have to be left behind. They cannot take their gold with them, because it belongs to the world. When they get behind the veil, that which served to make them happy will be gone beyond their reach. The source of their pleasure will have fled. There will be nothing left for them to enjoy in that other sphere. They had their enjoyment in this. They did not frame their minds for other enjoyments. They served their bodies, their fleshly desires, and the result is they have served the devil, they are, therefore, his children, and they have no pleasure in God, nor He in them. What is there in this world that can give so much joy or so much pleasure as to know that our sins are forgiven; that we stand acceptable to God our Heavenly Father; that we have not injured any of our fellow creatures; that we are free from any indebtedness or encumbrance; that we are not in bondage to the world, nor to our fellow creatures? This gives one far greater pleasure than anything the world can give. Money cannot give it. The wealth of the world cannot bestow this enjoyment upon man. The honors of men do not affect this question at all. If we can only realize before God our Father, that our sins are forgiven, that we are free from transgression, and that our spirit is right and pure in the sight of God—this should be a greater source of happiness than anything the world can give. To know that we possess the gift of the Holy Spirit—that is, the right to claim the aid and assistance of the Spirit of God to direct us in our labors and course in life, is far greater than the wealth and the honors of this world. To know that we enjoy a portion of those rights and privileges which belong to the Priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God, is a source of greater joy and pleasure to righteous men than all that the world can give. To know that we are in fellowship with the Saints; to know we are held in confidence by them; to know that we have their faith and prayers, is worth more to the honest-in-heart than all that the pleasures of the world can bestow. To know that we have enjoyed privileges by which we have secured to ourselves peculiar blessings for time and eternity is beyond all comparison with earthly things. We would not exchange the least of the gifts that have been bestowed upon us by and through the authority of the Holy Priesthood for all the world can produce; because that which cometh from God is eternal and will not perish. If I were to be deprived of the privileges I have referred to, all else of an earthly character would be worthless, senseless and evanescent to me. We want something that reaches out into eternity. We want to know where we came from, and where we are going. Where did we come from? From God. Our spirits existed before they came to this world. They were in the councils of the heavens before the foundations of the earth were laid. We were there. We sang together with the heavenly hosts for joy, when the foundations of the earth were laid, and when the plan of our existence upon this earth and redemption were mapped out. We were there; we were interested, and we took a part in this great preparation. We were unquestionably present in those councils, when that wonderful circumstance occurred to which President Taylor has so often referred of late, when Satan offered himself as a savior of the world, if he could but receive the honor and the glory of the Father for doing it. But Jesus said, “Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.” Wherefore, because Satan rebelled against God, and sought to destroy the agency of man, the Father rejected him and he was cast out, but Jesus was accepted. We were, no doubt, there, and took a part in all those scenes; we were vitally concerned in the carrying out of these great plans and purposes; we understood them, and it was for our sakes they were decreed and are to be consummated. These spirits have been coming to this earth to take upon them tabernacles, that they might become like unto Jesus Christ—being “formed in His likeness and image,” from the morn of creation until now, and will continue until the winding-up scene, until the spirits who were destined to come to this world shall have come and accomplished their mission in the flesh.

This we have learned. How have we found it out? I answer, through the prophet Joseph Smith, by revelation and the inspiration of the Almighty upon our own minds, by which we are able to ascertain the truth respecting the predictions of the Prophet Joseph Smith, respecting the truth of the sayings of the ancient Prophets, respecting the truth of the Scriptures, respecting the validity of the promises that God has made to the children of men; for every man has the privilege of obtaining the inspiration of the Almighty—or the gift of the Holy Ghost—to know for himself and need not depend upon Joseph Smith, nor upon Brigham Young, nor upon John Taylor, nor upon any of the prophets who wrote and spoke as the Spirit of God gave them utterance, upon these principles. We have learned these things. We have learned whence we came, why we came, and whither we are going. We are not here to seek the joys of the flesh, and yet the Lord does not design that we should go about sorrowful, or that we should deny ourselves of any legitimate pleasure. The Lord never intended that we should go around fasting, mourning, grieving, weeping and wailing, while we sojourn in mortality. Jesus said, “When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance. * * But appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret.” In other words, appear to the world to be happy. This is the privilege of every Latter-day Saint, and indeed the privilege of every soul that lives. There is abundance of joy to be obtained aside from the joy which ends in suffering and sorrow. Seek those joys that bring no alloy with them, those joys which are unremitting, eternal in their nature. Do good.

Again, where are we going? We come here and sojourn in the flesh a little season, and then we pass away. Every soul that is born into the world will die. There is not a soul that has escaped death, except those upon whom God has passed, by the power of His Spirit, that they should live in the flesh until the second coming of the Son of Man: but they will eventually have to pass through the ordeal called death; it may be in the twinkling of an eye, and without pain or suffering; but they will pass through the change, because it is an irrevocable edict of the Almighty. “In the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die.” This was the edict of the Almighty, and it pertains to Adam—that is, all the human race; for Adam is many, and it means you and me and every soul that lives and that bears the image of the Father. We shall all die. But is that the end of our being? If we had an existence before we came here, we certainly shall continue that existence when we leave here. The spirit will continue to exist as it did before, with the additional advantages derived from having passed through this probation. It is absolutely necessary that we should come to the earth and take upon us tabernacles; because if we did not have tabernacles we could not be like God, or like Jesus Christ. God has a tabernacle of flesh and bone. He is an organized being just as we are, who are now in the flesh. Jesus Christ was born of His mother Mary. He had a fleshly tabernacle; He was crucified on the cross; and his body was raised from the dead. He burst the bonds of the grave and came forth to newness of life, a living soul, a living being, a man with a body, with parts and with spirit—the spirit and the body becoming a living and immortal soul. You and I have to do the same thing. We must go through the same ordeal in order to attain to the glory and exaltation which God designed we should enjoy with him in the eternal worlds. In other words, we must become like Him; peradventure to sit upon thrones, to have dominion, power, and eternal increase. God designed this in the beginning. We are the children of God. He is an eternal being, without beginning of days or end of years. He always was, He is, He always will be. We are precisely in the same condition and under the same circumstances that God our Heavenly Father was when He was passing through this or a similar ordeal. We are destined to come forth out of the grave as Jesus did, and to obtain immortal bodies as He did—that is, that our tabernacles are to become immortal as His became immortal, that the spirit and the body may be joined together and become one living being, indivisible, inseparable, eternal. This is the object of our existence in the world; and we can only attain to these things through obedience to certain principles, through walking in certain channels, through obtaining certain information, certain intelligence from God, without which no man can accomplish this work or fulfill the mission he has come upon the earth to fulfill. These principles are the principles of the Gospel of eternal truth, the principles of faith, repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, the principle of obedience to God the Eternal Father; for obedience is one of the first principles or laws of heaven. Without obedience, there can be no order, no government, no union, no plan or purpose carried out. And that obedience must be voluntary; it must not be forced; there must be no coercion. Men must not be constrained against their will to obey the will of God; they must obey it because they know it to be right, because they desire to do it, and because it is their pleasure to do it. God delights in the willing heart.

I am looking forward to the time when I shall have passed away from this stage of existence, that I shall be permitted to enjoy more fully every gift and blessing that has contributed to my happiness in this world; everything. I do not believe that there is one thing that was designed or intended to give me joy or make me happy, that I shall be denied hereafter, provided I continue faithful; otherwise my joy cannot be full. I am not now speaking of that happiness or pleasure that is derived from sin; I refer to the happiness experienced in seeking to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. We expect to have our wives and husbands in eternity. We expect our children will acknowledge us as their fathers and mothers in eternity. I expect this; I look for nothing else. Without it I could not be happy. The thought or belief that I should be denied this privilege hereafter would make me miserable from this moment. I never could be happy again without the hope that I shall enjoy the society of my wives and children in eternity. If I had not this hope, I should be of all men most unhappy; “for if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” All who have tasted of the influence of the Spirit of God, and have had awakened within them a hope of eternal life, cannot be happy unless they continue to drink of that fountain until they are satisfied, and it is the only fountain at which they can drink and be satisfied.

Now, we desire to know something about this, and in the name of Israel’s God, I say we do know something about it. How do you know I know it, because God has revealed it, through His ancient and modern Prophets. I know it, because it has been testified of, by all the ancient worthies of God, from the foundation of the world to the present. I know it, because it is the theory of God’s plan of salvation. I know it, because it has been expounded and made plain, not only by the Prophets, but by the Savior Himself. I know it, because the Spirit of the living God testifies of it in my heart, and tells me it is true. I know it is true by all the senses by which I can determine the most simple fact. I see it with my eyes, I hear it with my ears, I understand it with my heart, I comprehend it in part according to the intelligence with which God has endowed me. I am convinced of it and hence I am happy; for I know that I am in the discharge of my duty. This is the happiness I am after. Is it not the happiness we all desire? I think it is.

May God bless this congregation, and all the household of faith, and help us to live for the future, for eternal pleasures, exaltations, thrones, principalities, dominion and power; may God help us to live for these things; may He give us a knowledge of them, that we may comprehend them as He comprehends, that we may take the course that He has marked out for us to pursue, in order that we may secure unto ourselves the riches of eternal life, is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.