A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 22, 1856.

I am happy for the privilege of rising again before you to converse upon those things that pertain to our peace, that most deeply interest us in our reflections and in our lives, it is a matter of constant joy and comfort to me.

It gives me great pleasure to look upon the congregations of the Saints, while I reflect that some of us have been faithful in this Church for many years, have preached to the Saints and to sinners, have called upon people to repent while the finger of scorn has been pointed at us and all manner of evil has been spoken against us falsely. And many times the Elders, while laboring faithfully in preaching to the people, would not find where to lay their heads, no doors open to receive them, and no one to feed them, yet they have traveled and searched until they have found a great many that ought to be honest in heart—a great many who have embraced the Gospel.

It has been a hard labor upon many of the Elders of this Church to accomplish what has been done, to preach this Gospel to so many people in so many different nations and kingdoms.

If the miles our missionaries have traveled were counted they would amount to a great sum, and if you could know how many days they have been without eating, while calling upon the people to repent, you would find them to be a great number.

If the troubles of this people from the commencement of this work, from the early history of the Prophet, and the persecutions of the Saints, could be presented before this congregation you would be astonished, you would marvel at them. You would not believe that a people could endure so much as this people have endured, you would think it an impossibility for men and women to endure and pass through what a great many in this Church have. Truly it is a miracle that we are here.

Taking these things into consideration, and viewing our present circumstances and the privileges we enjoy, there is not a heart that fully realizes what we have passed through and the blessings we now enjoy, without praising God continually and feeling to exclaim, “O praise the name of our God.”

True, many think and feel that we have hard times here, that it is a hard country to live in. We have long cold winters, and we have a great many difficulties to encounter—the Indian wars, the cricket wars, the grasshopper wars, and the drouths.

What we have suffered during the two years past comes before us, and now the prospect is gloomy pertaining to sustenance for man.

How many are there who feel and say like this? “Were it not for ‘Mormonism’ I should know at once what to do; I know the course I would pursue.” What would you do, brother? “I would pick up my duds and leave; I would sell what I have here, if I could, and if I could not I would leave it.” These are the feelings of some.

I will tell you what my feelings are, they are, praise God for hard times, for I feel that it is one of the greatest privileges to be in a country that is not desirable, where the wicked will pass by.

Now, do we all realize this? No, we do not; though I have no doubt but that some do. I will tell you what will make you realize it; to suffer the loss of all things here by the enemy’s coming along and driving you out of your houses, from your farms and fields, and taking your horses, cattle, farming implements, and what little substance you have, and banishing you from this place and sending you off five or six hundred miles, bereft of all you possessed, without suitable clothing and provisions for the journey.

Then you go to work, and toil and labor with all your might, for a few years, to get another home, and then let another set come and drive you out of that place, taking your cattle, your farms, and all you have, telling you that they want your possessions, and by the time they had thus driven you four or five times, as they have many of us, and made you leave everything you have, and threatened you with death, and watched for you by day and by night, to get a chance to kill you, and they suffered to go at large with impunity, and would kill you in open daylight if they dare, after having passed through fifteen or sixteen years of this kind of persecution, you would thank God for hard times, for a country where mobs do not wish to live.

Many of the people in these valleys have no experience in these things, and I would be very glad to have such persons escape those trials, if they could receive the same glory and exaltation that they would if they had passed through them.

I look upon the people, and as I frequently say, I have compassion upon them, for all have not experience. It was told you this morning that you could not be made perfect Saints in one day, that is impossible. You might as well undertake to learn a child every branch of English literature during its first week’s attendance at school, this cannot be done.

We are not capacitated to receive in one day, nor in one year, the knowledge and experience calculated to make us perfect Saints, but we learn from time to time, from day to day, consequently we are to have compassion one upon another, to look upon each other as we would wish others to look upon us, and to remember that we are frail mortal beings, and that we can be changed for the better only by the Gospel of salvation.

As it was observed this morning, we ought to be ourselves and not anybody else. We do not wish to be anybody else, neither do we wish to be anybody but Saints. We wish the Gospel to take effect upon each one of us; and we can change in our feelings, in our dispositions and natures, to the extent that was observed by brother Kimball in the comparison which he made.

A man, or a woman, desiring to know the will of God, and having an opportunity to know it, will apply their hearts to this wisdom until it becomes easy and familiar to them, and they will love to do good instead of evil. They will love to promote every good principle, and will soon abhor everything that tends to evil; they will gain light and knowledge to discern between evil and good.

The person that applies his heart to wisdom, and seeks diligently for understanding, will grow to be mighty in Israel.

Call to mind when you first embraced the Gospel, how much did you then know compared with what you now know? Could you detect error then as now? Could you then understand the operations of the different spirits as you can now understand them? I know what your reply would be to these interrogations.

In the first rise of the Church, when the gifts of the Gospel were bestowed on an individual, or upon individuals, the people could not understand but that the giver of the gift gave also the exercise of it; how much labor the Elders that understood this matter have had to make it plain to the understandings of the people.

Take, for instance, the gift of tongues; years ago in this Church you could find men of age, and seemingly of experience, who would preach and raise up Branches, and when quite young boys or girls would get up and speak in tongues, and others interpret, and perhaps that interpretation instructing the Elders who brought them into the Church, they would turn round and say, “I know my duty, this is the word of the Lord to me and I must do as these boys or girls have spoken in tongues.”

You ask one of the Elders if they understand things so now, and they will say, “No, the gifts are from the Lord, and we are agents to use them as we please.”

If a man is called to be a Prophet, and the gift of prophecy is poured upon him, though he afterwards actually defies the power of God and turns away from the holy commandments, that man will continue in his gift and will prophesy lies.

He will make false prophecies, yet he will do it by the spirit of prophecy; he will feel that he is a prophet and can prophesy, but he does it by another spirit and power than that which was given him of the Lord. He uses the gift as much as you and I use ours.

The gift of seeing with the natural eyes is just as much a gift as the gift of tongues. The Lord gave that gift and we can do as we please with regard to seeing; we can use the sight of the eye to the glory of God, or to our own destruction.

The gift of taste is the gift of God, we can use that to feed and pamper the lusts of the flesh, or we can use it to the glory of God.

The gift of communicating one with another is the gift of God, just as much so as the gift of prophecy, of discerning spirits, of tongues, of healing, or any other gift, though sight, taste, and speech, are so generally bestowed that they are not considered in the same miraculous light as are those gifts mentioned in the Gospel.

We can use these gifts, and every other gift God has given us, to the praise and glory of God, to serve Him, or we can use them to dishonor Him and His cause; we can use the gift of speech to blaspheme His name. That is true, and I have as good a right as brother Kimball, to say that what I am talking about is true.

He said that all his talk in the forenoon was true, and I have as good a right to say that my talk is true, as he has to say that his is true.

These principles are correct in regard to the gifts which we receive for the express purpose of using them, in order that we may endure and be exalted, and that the organization we have received shall not come to an end, but endure to all eternity.

By a close application of the gifts bestowed upon us, we can secure to ourselves the resurrection of these bodies that we now possess, that our spirits inhabit, and when they are resurrected they will be made pure and holy; then they will endure to all eternity.

But we cannot receive all at once, we cannot understand all at once; we have to receive a little here and a little there. If we receive a little, let us improve upon that little; and if we receive much, let us improve upon it.

If we get a line today, improve upon it; if we get another tomorrow, improve upon it; and every line, and precept, and gift that we receive, we are to labor upon, so as to become perfect before the Lord.

This is the way that we are to change ourselves, and change one another, pertaining to the principles of righteousness.

As brother Joseph observed this morning, “Joseph must be Joseph; Brigham must be Brigham; Heber must be Heber; Amasa must be Amasa; Orson must be Orson; and Parley must be Parley;” we must be ourselves.

What should we be, and what are we? I will take the liberty of saying a few words upon this. We were created upright, pure, and holy, in the image of our father and our mother, in the image of our God.

Wherein do we differ? In the talents that are given us, and in our callings. We are made of the same materials; our spirits were begotten by the same parents; in the begetting of the flesh we are of the same first parents, and all the kindreds of the earth are made of one flesh; but we are different in regard to our callings.

In the first place, we may vary with regard to our organizations pertaining to the flesh; brother Kimball explained this morning why and how we vary.

Let a man be devoted to his God and to his religion, and his wives with him, and he is very apt to have children that will grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If the whole of the father and mother in all their acts is devoted to the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth, if they have no desire but to do right, if righteousness reigns predominant, then the spirit that is within them controls, to a certain extent, the flesh in their posterity.

Yet every son and daughter have got to go through the ordeal that you and I have to pass through; they must be tried, tempted and buffeted, in order to act upon their agency before God and prove themselves worthy of an exaltation.

Though our children are begotten in righteousness, brought forth in holiness, they must be tried and tempted, for they are agents before our Father and God, the same as you and I.

They must bring this agency into action; the passions and appetites must be governed and controlled; the eye, the speech, the tastes, the desires, all must be controlled.

If the people would thus control themselves in their lives, it would make a great alteration in the generations yet to come.

But we cannot clear ourselves from the power of Satan; we must know what it is to be tried and tempted, for no man or woman can be exalted upon any other principle, as was beautifully exhibited in the life of the Savior.

According to the philosophy of our religion we understand that if he had not descended below all things, he could not have ascended above all things.

As he was appointed to ascend above all things, his father and his God so brought it about by the handiwork of His providence, that he was actually accounted, in his birth and in his life, below all things.

Did he descend below all things? His parents had not a house nor even a tent for him to be born in, but were obliged to go to a stable, doubtless because they were denied the privilege of a house.

The Son of Man could not be born in a house, and the poor mother in her distress crawled into a manger, among the litter that had been left by the cattle.

Others may have been born in as low a state as this, but it is hard to find anybody, among the civilized portions of mankind, that gets any lower.

But in the opinion of the people they were not considered worthy of anything better, and by some means it happened so, though they did not know why, neither did the people.

The history of Joseph and Mary is given to us by their best friends, and precisely as we will give the history of the Prophet Joseph. We know him to have been a good man, we know that he performed his mission, we know that he was an honorable man and dealt justly, we know his true character.

But let his enemies give his character, and they will make him out one of the basest men that ever lived. Let the enemies of Joseph and Mary give their characters to us, and you would be strongly tempted to believe as the Jews believe.

Let the enemies of Jesus give his character to us, and, in the absence of the testimony of his friends, I do not know but that the present Christian world would all be Jews, so far as their belief that Jesus Christ was an impostor and one of the most degraded men that ever lived.

Jesus descended very low in his parentage and birth; but the question may be asked, did he condescend to be reduced in his understanding?

By the same reasoning I would believe that he did. I would believe that he was one of the weakest children that was ever born, one of the most helpless at his birth; so helpless that it might have been supposed that he would never grow up to manhood.

What is his history? Read for yourselves the account given by his friends. It is said that Josephus has given a pretty just account of Joseph and Mary, of the Apostles, &c., but he has only given just about as good an account of Jesus and his parents as some person in London lately has about the “Mormons” and Joseph Smith their Prophet, though he gives a pretty fair account.

Take a man in Paris or in London and let him write a history of Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints thirty years after Joseph figured on the earth, for the history of Christ by Josephus was written several years after he was crucified, and he would come as nigh to the truth, perhaps, as Josephus did in the history he has given of Jesus and his Apostles. Josephus was a pretty fair man, but he knew but little about them.

What account would Jesus have given of himself, could he have transmitted his own statements? Such as every good man would, for he would have told the truth; but now we have to take his history from his friends and from his foes.

What history do we get from the Jews? I will venture to say that no man living on the face of the earth, capable of using language to portray the character of any individual that lives on the earth, could paint a worse character than they have given to Jesus Christ.

Compare that with all that has been said against Joseph Smith, and you will find that the wisdom of this generation will have to succumb to that of the Jews, for they portrayed the meanest character in the history they have given of Jesus; but let that pass.

You can discern that we have to control ourselves, that by the Gospel we can actually do so and reform. Each man and woman, by the spirit of truth, can conform to that principle to improve until we will know and understand the things of God, so as to save ourselves by the commandments and will of God.

The Gospel is simple, it is plain. The mystery of godliness, or of the Gospel, is actually couched in our own ignorance; that is the cause of the mystery that we suppose to be in the revelations given to us; it is in our own misunderstanding—in our ignorance.

There is no mystery throughout the whole plan of salvation, only to those who do not understand.

Brother Joseph, in the forenoon, touched upon one principle that I wish to talk about, that is, our future state—futurity.

From time to time our fathers and our mothers leave us, their bodies are consigned to the silent tomb; our Prophets are taken from us; our companions are taken away; our brothers and sisters leave this world.

The organization that pertains to this life decays, it becomes lifeless, we lay it down. Disease fastens upon our children, and they are gone.

I said a few words upon the principle of affection last Sabbath, now I wish to say a few words with regard to our lives hereafter; I will extend these remarks further than our existence here in the flesh.

We understand, for it has long been told us, that we had an existence before we came into the world. Our spirits came here pure to take these tabernacles; they came to occupy them as habitations, with the understanding that all that had passed previously to our coming here should be taken away from us, that we should not know anything about it.

We come here to live a few days, and then we are gone again. How long the starry heavens have been in existence we cannot say; how long they will continue to be we cannot say. How long there will be air, water, earth; how long the elements will endure, in their present combinations, it is not for us to say. Our religion teaches us that there never was a time when they were not, and there never will be a time when they will cease to be; they are here, and will be here forever.

I will give you a figure that brother Hyde had in a dream. He had been thinking a great deal about time and eternity; he wished to know the difference, but how to understand it he did not know. He asked the Lord to show him, and after he had prayed about it the Lord gave him a dream, at least I presume He did, or permitted it so to be, at any rate he had a dream; his mind was opened so that he could understand time and eternity. He said that he thought he saw a stream issuing forth from a misty cloud which spread upon his right and upon his left, and that the stream ran past him and entered the cloud again. He was told that the stream was time, that it had no place where it commenced to run, neither was there any end to its running; and that the time which he was thinking about and talking about, what he could see between the two clouds, was a portion of or one with that which he could not perceive.

So it is with you and I; here is time, where is eternity? It is here, just as much as anywhere in all the expanse of space; a measured space of time is only a part of eternity.

We have a short period of duration allotted to us, and we call it time. We exist here, we have life within us, let that life be taken away and the lungs will cease to heave, and the body will become lifeless. Is that life extinct? No, it continues to exist as much as it did when the lungs would heave, when the mortal body was invigorated with air, food and the elements in which it lived, it has only left the body. The life, the animating principles are still in existence, as much so as they were yesterday when the body was in good health. Here the inquiry will naturally arise, when our spirits leave our bodies where do they go to?

I will tell you. Will I locate them? Yes, if you wish me to. They do not pass out of the organization of this earth on which we live. You read in the Bible that when the spirit leaves the body it goes to God who gave it. Now tell me where God is not, if you please; you cannot. How far would you have to go in order to go to God, if your spirits were unclothed? Would you have to go out of this bowery to find God, if you were in the spirit? If God is not here, we had better reserve this place to gather the wicked into, for they will desire to be where God is not. The Lord Almighty is here by His Spirit, by His influence, by His presence. I am not in the north end of this bowery, my body is in the south end of it, but my influence and my voice extend to all parts if it; in like manner is the Lord here.

It reads that the spirit goes to God who gave it. Let me render this Scripture a little plainer; when the spirits leave their bodies they are in the presence of our Father and God, they are prepared then to see, hear and understand spiritual things. But where is the spirit world? It is incorporated within this celestial system. Can you see it with your natural eyes? No. Can you see spirits in this room? No. Suppose the Lord should touch your eyes that you might see, could you then see the spirits? Yes, as plainly as you now see bodies, as did the servant of Elijah. If the Lord would permit it, and it was His will that it should be done, you could see the spirits that have departed from this world, as plainly as you now see bodies with your natural eyes; as plainly as brothers Kimball and Hyde saw those wicked disembodied spirits in Preston, England. They saw devils there, as we see one another; they could hear them speak, and knew what they said. Could they hear them with the natural ear? No. Did they see those wicked spirits with their natural eyes? No. They could not see them the next morning, when they were not in the spirit; neither could they see them the day before, nor at any other time; their spiritual eyes were touched by the power of the Almighty.

They said they looked through their natural eyes, and I suppose they did. Brother Kimball saw them, but I know not whether his natural eyes were open at the time or not; brother Kimball said that he lay upon the floor part of the time, and I presume his eyes were shut, but he saw them as also did brother Hyde, and they heard them speak.

We may enquire where the spirits dwell, that the devil has power over? They dwell anywhere, in Preston, as well as in other places in England. Do they dwell anywhere else? Yes, on this continent; it is full of them. If you could see, and would walk over many parts of North America, you would see millions on millions of the spirits of those who have been slain upon this continent. Would you see the spirits of those who were as good in the flesh as they knew how to be? Yes. Would you see the spirits of the wicked? Yes. Could you see the spirits of devils? Yes, and that is all there is of them. They have been deprived of bodies, and that constitutes their curse, that is to say, speaking after the manner of men, you shall be wanderers on the earth, you have got to live out of doors all the time you live.

That is the situation of the spirits that were sent to the earth, when the revolt took place in heaven, when Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, was cast out. Where did he go? He came here, and one-third part of the spirits in heaven came with him. Do you suppose that one-third part of all the beings that existed in eternity came with him? No, but one-third part of the spirits that were begotten and organized and brought forth to became tenants of fleshly bodies to dwell upon this earth. They forsook Jesus Christ, the rightful heir, and joined with Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, and came to this earth; they got here first. As soon as Mother Eve made her appearance in the garden of Eden, the devil was on hand.

You cannot give any person their exaltation, unless they know what evil is, what sin, sorrow, and misery are, for no person could comprehend, appreciate, and enjoy an exaltation upon any other principle. The devil with one-third part of the spirits of our Father’s Kingdom got here before us, and we tarried there with our friends, until the time came for us to come to the earth and take tabernacles; but those spirits that revolted were forbidden ever to have tabernacles of their own. You can now comprehend how it is that they are always trying to get possession of the bodies of human beings; we read of a man’s being possessed of a legion, and Mary Magdalene had seven.

You may now see people with legions of evil spirits in and around them; there are men who walk our streets that have more than a hundred devils in them and round about them, prompting them to all manner of evil, and some too that profess to be Latter-day Saints, and if you were to take the devils out of them and from about them, you would leave them dead corpses; for I believe there would be nothing left of them.

I want you to understand these things; and if you should say or think that I know nothing about them, be pleased to find out and inform me. You can see the acts of these evil spirits in every place, the whole country is full of them, the whole earth is alive with them, and they are continually trying to get into the taber– nacles of the human family, and are always on hand to prompt us to depart from the strict line of our duty.

You know that we sometimes need a prompter; if anyone of you was called by the government of the United States to go to Germany, Italy, or any foreign nation, as an Ambassador, if you did not understand the language somebody would have to interpret for you. Well, these evil spirits are ready to prompt you. Do they prompt us? Yes, and I could put my hands on a dozen of them while I have been on this stand; they are here on the stand. Could we do without the devils? No, we could not get along without them. They are here, and they suggest this, that, and the other.

When you lay down this tabernacle, where are you going? Into the spiritual world. Are you going into Abraham’s bosom. No, not anywhere nigh there, but into the spirit world. Where is the spirit world? It is right here. Do the good and evil spirits go together? Yes, they do. Do they both inhabit one kingdom? Yes, they do. Do they go to the sun? No. Do they go beyond the boundaries of this organized earth? No, they do not. They are brought forth upon this earth, for the express purpose of inhabiting it to all eternity. Where else are you going? Nowhere else, only as you may be permitted.

When the spirits of mankind leave their bodies, no matter whether the individual was a Prophet or the meanest person that you could find, where do they go? To the spirit world. Where is it? I am telling you. The spirit of Joseph, I do not know that it is just now in this bowery, but I will assure you that it is close to the Latter-day Saints, is active in preaching to the spirits in prison and preparing the way to redeem the nations of the earth, those who lived in darkness previous to the introduction of the Gospel by himself in these days.

He has just as much labor on hand as I have; he has just as much to do. Father Smith and Carlos and brother Partridge, yes, and every other good Saint, are just as busy in the spirit world as you and I are here. They can see us, but we cannot see them unless our eyes were opened. What are they doing there? They are preaching, preaching all the time, and preparing the way for us to hasten our work in building temples here and elsewhere, and to go back to Jackson County and build the great temple of the Lord. They are hurrying to get ready by the time that we are ready, and we are all hurrying to get ready by the time our Elder Brother is ready.

The wicked spirits that leave here and go into the spirit world, are they wicked there? Yes.

The spirits of people that have lived upon the earth according to the the best light they had, who were as honest and sincere as men and women could be, if they lived on the earth without the privilege of the Gospel and the Priesthood and the keys thereof are still under the power and control of evil spirits, to a certain extent. No matter where they lived on the face of the earth, all men and women that have died without the keys and power of the Priesthood, though they might have been honest and sincere and have done everything they could, are under the influence of the devil, more or less. Are they as much so as others? No, no. Take those that were wicked designedly, who knowingly lived without the Gospel when it was within their reach, they are given up to the devil, they become tools to the devil and spirits of devils.

Go to the time when the Gospel came to the earth in the days of Joseph, take the wicked that have opposed this people and persecuted them to the death, and they are sent to hell. Where are they? They are in the spirit world, and are just as busy as they possibly can be to do everything they can against the Prophet and the Apostles, against Jesus and his kingdom. They are just as wicked and malicious in their actions against the cause of truth, as they were while on the earth in their fleshly tabernacles.

Joseph, also, goes there, but has the devil power over him? No, because he held the keys and power of the eternal Priesthood here, and got the victory while here in the flesh.

Before I proceed further I will give you an illustration. Send a man that is used to magnetizing people, and see if he can magnetize an Elder in Israel, one that is full of the faith, or a faithful sister in the Church of God. Could Le Roy Sunderland, one of their greatest characters, magnetize one of the Latter-day Saints? No. He might as well try to magnetize the sun in the firmament. Why? Because the Priesthood is upon you, and he would try to magnetize you by another and lesser power.

The principle of animal magnetism is true, but wicked men use it to an evil purpose. I have never told you much about my belief in this magnetic principle. Speaking is a true gift, but I can speak to the glory of God, or to the injury of His cause and to my condemnation, as I please; and still the gift is of God. The gift of animal magnetism is a gift of God, but wicked men use it to promote the cause of the devil, and that is precisely the difference. You may travel through the world and make inquiries where the Elders have traveled, and you cannot find an instance where the devil has gained power over a good and faithful Elder through this power. He cannot do it, because the faithful Elder of this Church holds keys and power above that which is used by those who go round lecturing on magnetism, and operating upon all who will become passive to their will. They have not the same power that the faithful Elders of Israel have, for those Elders have the eternal Priesthood upon them, which is above and presides over every other power.

When the faithful Elders, holding this Priesthood, go into the spirit world they carry with them the same power and Priesthood that they had while in the mortal tabernacle. They have got the victory over the power of the enemy here, consequently when they leave this world they have perfect control over those evil spirits, and they cannot be buffeted by Satan. But as long as they live in the flesh no being on this earth, of the posterity of Adam, can be free from the power of the devil.

When this portion of the school is out, the one in which we descend below all things and commence upon this earth to learn the first lessons for an eternal exaltation, if you have been a faithful scholar, and have overcome, if you have brought the flesh into subjection by the power of the Priesthood, if you have honored the body, when it crumbles to the earth and your spirit is freed from this home of clay, has the devil any power over it? Not one particle.

This is an advantage which the faithful will gain; but while they live on earth they are subject to the buffetings of Satan. Joseph and those who have died in the faith of the Gospel are free from this; if a mob should come upon Joseph now, he has power to disperse them with the motion of his hand, and to drive them where he pleases. But is Joseph glorified? No, he is preaching to the spirits in prison. He will get his resurrection the first of anyone in this kingdom, for he was the first that God made choice of to bring forth the work of the last days.

His office is not taken from him, he has only gone to labor in another department of the operations of the Al– mighty. He is still an Apostle, still a Prophet, and is doing the work of an Apostle and Prophet; he has gone one step beyond us and gained a victory that you and I have not gained, still he has not yet gone into the celestial kingdom, or if he has it has been by a direct command of the Almighty, and that too to return again so soon as the purpose has been accomplished.

No man can enter the celestial kingdom and be crowned with a celestial glory, until he gets his resurrected body; but Joseph and the faithful who have died have gained a victory over the power of the devil, which you and I have not yet gained. So long as we live in these tabernacles, so long we will be subject to the temptations and power of the devil; but when we lay them down, if we have been faithful, we have gained the victory so far; but even then we are not so far advanced at once as to be beyond the neighborhood of evil spirits.

The third part of the hosts of heaven, that were cast out, have not been taken away, at least not that I have found out, and the other two-thirds have got to come and take bodies, all of them who have not, and have the opportunity of preparing for a glorious resurrection and exaltation, before we get through with this world; and those who are faithful in the flesh to the requirements of the Gospel will gain this victory over the spirits that are not allowed to take bodies, which class comprises one-third of the hosts of Heaven.

Those who have died without the Gospel are continually afflicted by those evil spirits, who say to them—“Do not go to hear that man Joseph Smith preach, or David Patten, or any of their associates, for they are deceivers.”

Spirits are just as familiar with spirits as bodies are with bodies, though spirits are composed of matter so re– fined as not to be tangible to this coarser organization. They walk, converse, and have their meetings; and the spirits of good men like Joseph and the Elders, who have left this Church on earth for a season to operate in another sphere, are rallying all their powers and going from place to place preaching the Gospel, and Joseph is directing them, saying, go ahead, my brethren, and if they hedge up your way, walk up and command them to disperse. You have the Priesthood and can disperse them, but if any of them wish to hear the Gospel, preach to them.

Can they baptize them? No. What can they do? They can preach the Gospel, and when we have the privilege of building up Zion, the time will come for saviors to come up on Mount Zion. My brother Joseph spoke of this principle this forenoon. Some of those who are not in mortality will come along and say, “Here are a thousand names I wish you to attend to in this temple, and when you have got through with them I will give you another thousand;” and the Elders of Israel and their wives will go forth to officiate for their forefathers, the men for the men, and the women for the women.

A man is ordained and receives his washings, anointings, and endowments for the male portion of his and his wife’s progenitors, and his wife for the female portion.

Then in the spirit world they will say, “Do you not see somebody at work for you? The Lord remembers you and has revealed to His servants on the earth, what to do for you.”

Is the spirit world here? It is not beyond the sun, but is on this earth that was organized for the people that have lived and that do and will live upon it. No other people can have it, and we can have no other kingdom until we are prepared to inhabit this eternally. In the spirit world those who have got the victory go on to prepare the way for those who live in the flesh, fulfilling the work of saviors on Mount Zion.

To accomplish this work there will have to be not only one temple but thousands of them, and thousands and tens of thousands of men and women will go into those temples and officiate for people who have lived as far back as the Lord shall reveal. If we are faithful enough to go back and build that great temple which Joseph has written about, and should the Lord acknowledge the labor of His servants, then watch, for you will see somebody whom you have seen before, and many of you will see him whom you have not seen before, but you will know him as soon as you see him.

This privilege we cannot enjoy now, because the power of Satan is such that we cannot perform the labor that is necessary to enable us to obtain it.

When we commence again on the walls of the temple to be built on this Block, the news will fly from Maine to California. Who will tell them? Those little devils that are around here, that are around this earth in the spirit world; there will be millions of them ready to communicate the news to devils in Missouri, Illinois, California, Mexico, and in all the world. And the question will be, “What is the news? There is some devilish thing going on among the ‘Mormons’ and I know it. Those ‘Mormons’ ought to be killed.” They do not know what stirs them up to this feeling, it is those spirits that are continually near to them.

We all have got spirits to attend us; when the eyes of the servant of Elijah were opened he saw that those for them were more than those that were against them. There are two-thirds for us, and one-third against us; and there is not a son or daughter of Adam but what will be saved in some kingdom and receive glory and an exaltation to a degree, except those who have had the privilege of the Gospel and rejected it and sinned against the Holy Ghost, they will become servants to devils.

How long will they exist? I do not know, neither do I care. Every one of this people, with the Saints that have lived before us, from the days of Adam until now, and those that may come after us, all say, “Build up the kingdom of God.” What for? To save the inhabitants of the earth, to get them all back into some kind of a kingdom where they can be administered to, and not have this organized matter return again to its native element, for we wish this work to be preserved.

You know that when you make a farm you dislike to see it overrun with weeds, and it would hurt your feelings to see your houses, barns, and other property destroyed. True, you can make more, but how do you suppose the Lord feels, who is much more compassionate than we are, when He sees the devil gaining an advantage over His creatures to lead them away to destroy them? Do you not suppose that the bowels of His compassion yearn over this people, and that He is angry with the wicked? Do you not suppose that He often feels like saying, “O, my children, why do you not hearken to what I tell you, and take hold of the principles of life, and cease pursuing a course that is calculated to destroy you? I have labored to bring forth this organization, and I do not wish to lose my labor, but I desire to have you hearken to the counsel I give to you and prepare yourselves to endure forever and come into my presence, and if you cannot do that and abide a celestial law, at least abide the law of a kingdom where I can send angels to you, and I will send and comfort you and administer unto you and will raise you up and make you glad and happy, and will fill you with joy and with peace.”

It is our business to live our religion, and it is all that we have to do. “But,” says one, “I thought we had got to raise grain.” I have told you, many a time, that I would not give you anything for your faith, without you add works. How are you going to work to build up the kingdom?

I now wish to leave the subject we have been considering, for I think I have talked enough about it for the present, and tell you how to prepare yourselves to build up the kingdom of God and save the honest in heart.

Here we are in the valleys of these mountains, and I say that there is not a people on the earth that would live here but the Latter-day Saints, and it seems almost more than they can do to stay here. Now if they would be as swift to hearken to counsel as they are to get rich, and as they are in pleasing their own dispositions, we should not see the hard times that we now see.

When we first came here we had not been two weeks on this square, before the Big Cottonwood canal which we are now building, was just as visible to me as it ever will be when it is completed, and you will yet see boats on it. It has to be there. What for? To sustain this people. Do you think we want the water that is now wasted in those natural channels? Say, sisters, do you think we want any more water for irrigation? Yes, you do, for your peas are drying up, and you are not likely to have many cucumbers for pickling.

Have this people been as swift to hearken to counsel as to get rich? No, and many of you would rather pray the Lord to send rain, than to appropriate, by your labor, the waters that are continually flowing from these canyons. I tell you now, as I have before said, I do not have much faith to pray for rain; and if I had faith and power to bring rain upon the crops in these valleys, I would not do it. Why? Because it would throw many of you into lazy slothful, idle habits, and every Gentile that came through here would covet your farms, and would say, “This is the finest country we ever saw, how rich you are, how your cattle thrive upon the hills, your grain grows almost without labor in cultivating the earth.”

They would soon begin to desire your inheritances, those houses and this city, and it would be but a few years before we would have to leave, or contend with them. As it is now, there is no people that would live here, except the Latter-day Saints, and they are decidedly the best people upon the earth, even though I sometimes chastise them, and what I say is true, for a few deserve chastising.

I do not believe that the city of Enoch made greater advancement, in the same period of time, than this people have done in the twenty-six years of their career, which is saying a great deal for them. Who else would live here? Nobody. Put Gentiles here and tell them that they had to be confined here, and they would consider themselves in a worse prison than a penitentiary.

Do some of the brethren murmur a little, and say if it were not for “Mormonism,” they would do thus and so? What of that? Is there any other people who would do as well as you do? No, not another.

When I find fault with the people for not hearkening to counsel, it is because I want them to live so as speedily to obtain the reward of righteousness, and not have to wait so long for it.

This is a good people, though there are some in our midst who do not do right. Plant the Gentiles here, and you would soon see cutting throats and hear the sharp crack of the rifle at the water sects. There would be far more fighting for water than there is among the “Mormons” though some of them steal it now.

Many of the brethren feel as I do; if I had my crops growing and somebody should came along and steal my water, I should say, you will raise grain, will you not? Well, go ahead, for we shall get it, if you raise it.

Here sits a man I can now look upon who says I am a greater despot than the Emperor of Russia. Maybe I am, for should I see the poor suffering, I could knock open flour barrels better than Alexander II, and give the contents to the poor with a better heart than he could.

Who in the wide world could live here more peaceably than we do? Nobody; and I thank God for hard times. Do you suppose that the Gentiles want this country? No; they say, “It is a Godforsaken country,” and I say, hallelujah, for it is the very country I prefer, a country where nobody else will live but those who are willing to keep the commandments of God.

I wish to be tyrannical enough, if that is the proper term, to make you good men and good women. Go to with your might this year, and see if we cannot prepare for another. This is a great Saint raising country; we have seen wheat grow here almost spontaneously, and there could not be a better Saint raising country.

If a person is honest before God and has more than he needs for his own use, and does not covet it, he will make a distribution to those who have not, and there need not any person go without necessary food. I know that there are many here who have given out much flour, and they have by no means suffered on account of their liberality. There is a man sitting on the stand who says that his wife scraped the bottom of the flour barrel, and on the next morning has gone to scrape again, to give out more to the poor, and found it half full. She asked him “If he had put it there.” He answered, “No.” “Well,” said she, “I scraped it out last night.”

The Lord wishes to try you; shall we say that we will hoard up the blessings of God, that we may be able to say that we have a large amount to ourselves? No, but divide them out, and do so with an honest heart, in all humility; and let those who receive blessings receive them with an honest heart, in all humility and thankfulness. Some who have, will withhold, and some of the poor are covetous and will grab a little here and there and lay it up, or waste it. If you continue in covetousness, your substance will shrink and waste away.

Let the poor, those who have to depend upon their brethren for bread, after they have done all they can to obtain it themselves be thankful, and take no more than they require to use in a frugal manner. By taking such a course, no person would suffer.

With some there is a fearfulness, a want of faith and confidence in God, and a stingy closefistedness; this is the cause of many being so pinched. As I have often done, I again invite those who are distrustful, and fearful that God is going to forsake this people, to leave, if they do not wish to be Saints and repose confidence in the God of the Saints. I wish such characters would leave; I shall be glad if they will leave. I would not have them stay; I would rather give them flour and help them to leave because they are a curse to the Saints. And if the devil puts it into their hearts to leave, I know there will be a certain portion of those evil spirits go with them, and still we shall always have plenty more coming.

All I ask of you is to apply your hearts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be Saints. I will not ask anything else on this earth of you only to live so as to know the mind and will of God when you receive it, and then abide in it. If you will do that, you will be prepared to do a great many things, and you will find that there is much good to be done.

We have no time to spend foolishly, for we have just as much on our hands as we can probably do, to keep pace with that portion of our brethren who have gone into the other room.

And when we have passed into the sphere where Joseph is, there is still another department, and then another, and another, and so on to an eternal progression in exaltation and eternal lives. That is the exaltation I am looking for. May God bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 15, 1856.

As I have frequently remarked, it seems that the people need a great deal of preaching; they require to be preached to continually to put them in mind of their duties, and to stir them up to perform the works which they know that they ought to do. This at first appears strange, and then again it is not so strange. Our organization is such we are subject to so many spirits and influences that are in the world, that it is not strange that our minds require stirring up to remembrance, and our physical powers to diligence.

As Saints in the last days we have much to learn; there is an eternity of knowledge before us; at most we receive but very little in this stage of our progression.

The most learned men that have ever lived on the earth have only been able to obtain a small amount of knowledge, in comparison to the vast store of information that exists for the faithful Saints.

It cannot be understandingly exhibited by any individual, not even by an angel, to the people any further than they are able to receive and comprehend it; consequently the Lord has to descend to our capacities and give us a little here and a little there, line upon line, and precept upon precept, as the Prophet has said.

But we are so organized, and it is so ordained, that we can receive that little, and still continue to receive a little and a little more, and treasure up and retain in our memories that which we have received, so that it will be ready when it is necessary to bring it forth. What we learn today does not prevent our learning more tomorrow, and so on.

This principle is inherent in the organization of all intelligent beings, so that we are capable of receiving, and receiving, and receiving from the inexhaustible fountain of knowledge and truth.

It has been frequently stated to us, and is a doctrine we understand, that this people have got to become of one heart and one mind. They have to know the will of God and do it, for to know the will of God is one thing, and to bring our wills, our dispositions, into subjection to that which we do understand to be the will of God is another.

We might say that this is the first lesson we have to learn and one of the easiest, one that is calculated and adapted to the capacity of the child, to learn to be submissive to our Father in heaven. Parents require this duty of their children, when they have become intelligent enough to understand that the parent is superior in point of government, and strict obedience is required by that authority. That the parent is his superior is one of the first lessons that the child learns—that he is his dictator to measure and guide his steps, as soon as he comes to an understanding of what is required.

If we are obedient to the will of our Father in heaven it accomplishes one grand object, namely, our being the disciples of Christ, for he observed to his disciples, “Except ye are one ye are not mine.” “I am in my Father and ye in me, and I in you,” one eternal principle governing and controlling the intelligence that dwells in the persons of the Father and the Son. I have these principles within me, Jesus has them within him, and you have them within you. I am governed and controlled by them, my elder brother, Jesus, is governed and controlled by them, and his Father is governed and controlled by them. He learned them, Jesus learned them, and we must learn them in order to receive crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives.

The principle of eternal life that sustains all intelligent beings, that governs and controls all things in eternity, the principle by which matter does exist, the principle by which it is organized, by which it is redeemed and brought into celestial glory, is the principle that is in you and me, that is in our heavenly Father.

It is life, it is the life of Christ and of every Saint; in this capacity they are in us and we in them. We must be possessed of the spirit that governs and controls the angels, we must have the same spirit within us that our Father in heaven is in possession of.

That spirit must rule you and me, it must control our actions and dictate us in life, we must cling to it and imbibe it until it becomes a second nature to us. We are accustomed to saying second nature, but in reality it is the first nature that we had, though sin has perverted it. God planted it there as the predominant principle, but our giving way to temptation has frustrated the plan and driven it from us.

How easy it is for people to understand and do the will of God, if they will throw off their unrighteous traditions and let truth stand for truth, light for light, and let that which is of God be received as such.

When truth comes, receive it as from the Lord, and let everything be simplified to us as unto children, for the Lord has ordained that we may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the truth, and be able to receive more knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, and it is not possible for us to receive it any other way, only as we apply our hearts strictly to overcome every evil and cleave to that which is pleasing to the Lord—to that which tends to life and salvation. This is the only channel in which we can become of one heart and of one mind.

This has been the burden of our exhortations, prayers, and pleadings. It was the burden of the exhortations, prayers, and pleadings of the servants of God who lived in ancient days, as much as it is of those who live now. No good person has ever lived on the earth—one who understood the principles of life—but what he has desired to see the time when the people would be governed by other principles than those of sin and selfishness.

All the righteous have desired to see the people governed by principles that will endure, and that will give durability to all who obey them. Their bowels of compassion yearned continually after the sons of men, and they labored to bring them under the control and government of the principles of eternal life, and to cut them loose from the little, selfish, frivolous, trifling, deathly principles that pertain to this flesh.

What would be the result of this effort and desire, if accomplished among us? We should be of one heart and of one mind; we should cease to play the hypocrite; we should cease to be slothful servants; we should cease to do evil and do good continually.

The reflections of many are that they cannot govern and control themselves. And should we ask some whether their memory is good, whether they can recollect certain transactions which have transpired thus and so, they would reply, “No, our memory is very treacherous.” That is true, but in different degrees, with all people.

We may ask one person, can you remember anything you wish to, and the reply may be, “It is with difficulty that we remember anything.” This lack of mental force is found in a large class of mankind, but to search into the causes of this would take us far back, for they pertain to parents as well as to children, to the ancient as well as to the modern inhabitants of this globe.

Another peculiarity of memory is, the stronger recollection of an injury than a favor; for instance, take a person of the most treacherous memory and apply a little cayenne pepper to his eyes, and he will remember that act as long as he lives.

It is an old saying, “That we can forgive (it is man’s privilege) but we cannot forget.” Can you forget an injury? No, you will always remember it. But on the other hand, suppose that a friend should come, in the hour of your distress, to relieve you from pain and suffering, and by laying his hands upon you your pain is gone; or furnish you food when you have none, and administer to your wants in everything calculated to make you happy and comfortable in body and mind, you will forget those kind acts many times quicker than the act of throwing a little cayenne pepper in your eyes.

Think of that and ask yourselves the cause; reason as to why it is that you can remember an injury better than a kindness; why you can retain hatred longer than love. Is it through your fallen nature? Is it because you were begotten and born in sin? Or is it not rather because the power of the tempter has control over you, and because the world is full of evil principles, and you have adhered to them? Yes, this is the cause, and you must acknowledge it. The whole world is contaminated with a spirit to remember evil and forget the good.

Mankind are organized of element designed to endure to all eternity; it never had a beginning and never can have an end. There never was a time when this matter, of which you and I are composed, was not in existence, and there never can be a time when it will pass out of existence; it cannot be annihilated.

It is brought together, organized, and capacitated to receive knowledge and intelligence, to be enthroned in glory, to be made angels, Gods—beings who will hold control over the elements, and have power by their word to command the creation and redemption of worlds, or to extinguish suns by their breath, and disorganize worlds, hurling them back into their chaotic state. This is what you and I are created for.

But in view of all this, what can we discover in ourselves? As an instance, A has a favorite dog, which B discovers doing mischief on his grounds, and kills, whereupon A, who was fond of his dog for serving him so well, and guarding his house and children so long and faithfully, becomes highly enraged, and says, “I tell you I cannot stand it, I am so angry, that I feel as though I should fly all to pieces, and I have almost a mind to take my rifle and shoot you.” What, for a dog?

Let a man or woman come forward that can say they have not had such feelings, to a certain degree. Yes, you have similar feelings in consequence of someone’s abusing your dog, but when you enter into the holy city (should you be so happy as to get there), you will learn that the dogs will all be on the outside of the walls with the murderers, adulterers, fornicators, liars, and those who take the name of God in vain. “For your conduct towards my dog, I am almost ready to kill you, neighbor.”

Do you hear such language used? Yes, right in our midst. Kill almost any person’s favorite animal, and he is ready to draw the rifle to his eye, in a moment, to shed the blood of his neighbor. This is the passion of the animal organization that the devil has power over. When such feelings assail you, stop and reflect, and let the spirit within you reason, and it would say, “Shame on you, Brigham, John, Mary, or Jane.” Grant that an individual has done wrong, should we be so provoked about it?

We are organized for the express purpose of controlling the elements of organizing and disorganizing, of ruling over kingdoms, principalities, and powers, and yet our affections are often too highly placed upon paltry, perishable objects. We love houses, gold, silver, and various kinds of property, and all who unduly prize any object there is beneath the celestial world are idolaters.

Some say, “We are placed here, the devils were here, the world is full of wickedness, and we are subjected to all this without any agency on our part,” but this assertion does not prove such to be the case. Will you subject your children to wickedness when it is in your power to deliver them from it? We are measurably subjected to it because of the sin that was in our parents, but have we now the knowledge to deliver our children from this power? We have. Then let us begin and do it, and cast off your unrighteous traditions, as I have often taught and counseled you. Let every man and woman bring up their children according to the law of heaven. Teach your children from their youth, never to set their hearts immoderately upon an object of this world.

Should you train yourselves? Yes, you should. Can you remember to do good instead of evil? Do you watch the operations of the spirits upon the people, upon their affections, upon their hearts? Can you not hear some of this congregation, as they leave the meeting, and afterwards, begin to find fault and complain on this wise? “Well, I do not like this, and I do not like that, and I think I shall go back to the States. I wish I was back in England. I will not pay my money for flour, but I will beg it, and send my children to beg it, and spend my money to get away from here.”

Have I done you any harm since you have been here? Did my brothers who proclaimed the Gospel to you, do you anything but good? “No, O, no.” If they have done the least thing to injure you, why will you not tell of it before you leave? But no, you will not, and as soon as you go away your testimony will be, “Brothers Brigham, and Heber, and Jedediah, and the Twelve, and all the brethren at Great Salt Lake are the worst people we ever saw.” Can you tell of one thing wherein they have wronged you? They may have fed you, you may have lived here on their bounty and kindness, but as soon as you go away, you partake of the spirit of the world, which I am trying to contrast with the spirit of the Gospel.

As soon as you are overcome by the spirit of the world, you forget every good deed and kindness that has been extended to you, and you only remember the transpiring and infliction of what you deemed to be evil. You imagine a thousand things to be evil that would have resulted in good, had you done right. Can you believe that? “O, yes.” Those who have apostatized and left, cannot recollect a kindness that I have done them, but I can say to the praise of a few Gentiles, who have passed through here, they have recollected the kindnesses done to them by this people. Almost universally, after having received the greatest kindnesses they ever received, apostates and some Gentiles after they leave these valleys, vividly remember and proclaim, from Dan to Beersheba, every fancied injury.

Brother Tobin lately arrived from the army in Oregon; he there became acquainted with a part of Colonel Steptoe’s command. Yesterday, as we were walking about, I told him that the Indians who were tried for the murder of Captain Gunnison were confined within the walls of the Penitentiary. He said that he thought they had made their escape; that he had been informed that the lock was broken, the gate opened, and the Indians sent off.

I informed him that it was true that the Indian prisoners escaped, but that I soon recovered them, placed them in charge of the Warden, and wrote to Colonel Steptoe, who was at Bear River en route for California, acquaint– ing him with the circumstances. The Colonel replied, and thanked me in his note. I asked brother Tobin whether the Colonel did not tell him that those Indians were recovered. He replied, “No, but it has appeared in nearly all, if not all, the western papers, that the “Mormons” let the Indians out of prison.” They could publish that the Indians escaped, but they would not proclaim that the “Mormons” speedily recovered them, and that they are still safely lodged in prison.

Those who love righteousness and possess the Spirit of God, those who delight to do good can remember good. They can remember every good principle and every good act; and when they read the Bible, the sayings of the Prophets and Apostles will be as near their hearts as lies are to the hearts of the wicked. By this you may know whether you are Saints or not. Can you remember good? If you forget good and remember evil, you may lay it down as a positive fact that you are on the highway to destruction. If you love the truth you can remember it.

One may here inquire, “Can I strengthen my memory and bring it into lively exercise?” Yes, by applying your mind to the point you wish to improve upon, and you can learn and remember righteous deeds if you are full of integrity.

The Gospel of salvation has been revealed unto us expressly to teach our hearts understanding, and when I learn the principles of charity or righteousness I will adhere to them, and say to selfishness, you must not have that which you want, and when it urges that I have no more flour than I shall need until harvest, and that I must not give any away, not even a pound, I say, get out of my door. And when it argues that a brother will not be profited by our endeavors to benefit him, that you had better keep your money to yourselves and not let him have this ox, that farm or cow, &c., and strives to persuade you not to feed such a poor person, not to do anything for the P. E. F. Company, that you have not any more than you need, just do as the man did in Vermont, for by the report we would judge him to be a pretty good man. He had a farm, raised a large quantity of grain, and usually had some to spare. It so happened one season that a poor neighbor thrashed out his rye, and was to receive his pay in grain. The poor man came; the farmer told him to leave his bags and he would measure up the amount and have it ready when again called for. He was alone when measuring the grain, and as he put into the measure, something whispered to him, “Pour it in lightly,” but instead of doing this, he gave the measure a kick. When he put on the strike something said to him, “When you take that off, take a little out, the poor man will know nothing about it.” At last the farmer said, “Mr. Devil, walk out of my barn, or I will heap every half bushel I measure for the poor man.”

When you are tempted to do wrong, do not stop one moment to argue, but tell Mr. Devil to walk out of your barn, or you will heap up every half bushel; you can do that I know. A drunkard can walk by a tavern, though I have heard it said that some men cannot go by, or if they do manage to get by, that they say, “Now I know I am the master, and I will go back and treat resolution.”

I am aware that some will argue that they cannot do good without evil being present with them; that has nothing to do with the case. Though it may be present with them, as it was with Paul, there is no necessity for any man’s giving way to that evil. If we should do good, do it, and tell the evil to stand out of the way. You are privileged to be masters of yourselves; you can strengthen your memories, and by a close application you can train yourselves to remember the good instead of the evil. If anybody has injured you, forget it. Can you do so? I know you can.

Forget the imperfections of your brethren; for often the injuries which you imagine to have been done, arise through the weakness of the flesh, and without the individual’s being aware that he has done you an injury, and when no evil was designed. Judge not according to the outward appearance, but according to the intentions of the heart. If they designed to injure you, they sinned; if they have injured you without design, you are bound to forgive. Remember good principles, and when you hear the truth, if you have a love for it, you will remember it.

It is frequently said by mothers, and is a universal characteristic of the rising generation, “How easy it is for children to learn mischief; I do not like to have my children associated with such and such children, or go to this or that school.” Do they learn any good? Perhaps they do a little, and a great deal of evil. It is natural for children to learn that which they should not, and to do that which they should not, but no more so than it is for you and me. There are many now before me who desire something put in their possession which would be injurious to them, therefore do not blame the children so much for desiring to handle that which is not meet for them to handle, and to possess that which they cannot take care of.

What shall we do? We will cut off every avenue of evil, as fast and as far as may lay in our power. You can stop those evil communications that corrupt good manners in yourselves first, and then keep your children as strictly from evil as possible, and not many generations will pass away ere the heavens will acknowledge that there is a reformation among the Latter-day Saints. How many generations we do not know, but I sometimes think that the Lamanites will become a white and delightsome people about as quick. It belongs to us to commence the work of reformation, and in the first place to set the example of good works before our children, and when they grow up they will say, these are the traditions of my fathers. They will thus improve a little, and the next generation will improve a little more, until the traditions of the children are in accordance with the principles of the eternal Priesthood, which will produce life and salvation.

I will speak a little more upon placing your affections on beings who are not worthy of them. Take a Prophet, an Apostle, a man of God, one who is just as good in his calling and capacity as Jesus Christ was in his, a man who has adorned the doctrine of his profession, until he is sealed up unto eternal lives by the power of the Priesthood, one who is sure of a glorious resurrection, and let him desire to have a wife. Now suppose that he gains the affection of a lovely woman and marries her, how much shall that righteous man love that woman? Shall he say, “I love this woman to such a degree that I will go to hell rather than not have her, I will do even this rather than lose my wife?” No, for you ought to love a woman only so far as she adorns the doctrine you profess; so far as she adorns that doctrine, just so far let your love extend to her. When will she be worthy of the full extent of your affection? When she has lived long enough to secure to herself a glorious resurrection and an eternal exaltation as your companion, and never until then.

Elders, never love your wives one hair’s breadth further than they adorn the Gospel, never love them so but that you can leave them at a moment’s warning without shedding a tear. Should you love a child any more than this? No. Here are Apostles and Prophets who are destined to be exalted with the Gods, to become rulers in the kingdoms of our Father, to become equal with the Father and the Son, and will you let your affections be unduly placed on anything this side that kingdom and glory? If you do, you disgrace your calling and Priesthood. The very moment that persons in this Church suffer their affections to be immoderately placed upon an object this side the celestial kingdom, they disgrace their profession and calling. When you love your wives and children, are fond of your horses, your carriages, your fine houses, your goods and chattels, or anything of an earthly nature, before your affections become too strong, wait until you and your family are sealed up unto eternal lives, and you know they are yours from that time henceforth and forever.

I will now ask the sisters, do you believe that you are worthy of any greater love than you bestow upon your children? Do you believe that you should be beloved by your husbands and parents any further than you acknowledge and practice the principle of eternal lives? Every person who understands this principle would answer in a moment, “Let no being’s affections be placed upon me any further than mine are on eternal principles—principles that are calculated to endure and exalt me, and bring me up to be an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.” This is what every person who has a correct understanding would say.

Owing to the weaknesses of human nature you often see a mother mourn upon the death of her child, the tears of bitterness are found upon her cheeks, her pillow is wet with the dews of sorrow, anguish, and mourning for her child, and she exclaims, “O that my infant were restored to me,” and weeps day and night. To me such conduct is unwise, for until that child returned to its Father, was it worthy of your fullest love? No, for it was imperfect, but now it is secure in the bosom of the Father, to dwell there to all eternity; now it is in a condition where it is worthy of your perfect love, and your anxiety and effort should be that you may enter at the same gate to immortality.

When the wife secures to herself a glorious resurrection, she is worthy of the full measure of the love of the faithful husband, but never before. And when a man has passed through the veil, and secured to himself an eternal exaltation, he is then worthy of the love of his wife and children, and not until then, unless he has received the promise of and is sealed up unto eternal lives. Then he may be an object fully worthy of their affections and love on the earth, and not before.

I will now briefly call your minds to the principle of being one. Do you not comprehend that you ought to have your affections concentrated in the kingdom of God on the earth? As I observed here last Sabbath, I do not reflect much whether I have friends or foes, or care one groat about it. I do not care whether you take my counsel or not, provided you take the counsel of the Almighty. I do not care what the people do, if they will only serve God and build up this kingdom. I do not care what be– come of the things of this world, of the gold, of the silver, of the houses and of the lands, so we have power to gather the house of Israel, redeem Zion, and establish the kingdom of God on the earth. I would not give a cent for all the rest. True, these things which the Lord bestows upon us are for our comfort, for our happiness and convenience, but everything must be devoted to the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth. I may say that this Gospel is to spread to the nations of the earth, Israel is to be gathered, Zion redeemed, and the land of Joseph, which is the land of Zion, is to be in the possession of the Saints, if the Lord Almighty lets me live; and if I go behind the veil somebody else must see to it. My brethren must bear it off shoulder to shoulder. We must be of one heart and one mind and roll forth this kingdom; and when we get the first Presidency, the Twelve, and so on, shoulder to shoulder to forward the kingdom, wives and children, what are you going to do? Will you pull another way? No, but let your affections, faith, and all your works be with your husbands, and be obedient to them as unto the Lord. And husbands, serve the Lord with all your hearts, and then we shall be a blessed people, and be of one heart and mind, and the Lord will withhold no good thing from us, but we shall put down the power of Satan, walk triumphantly through the world, preach the Gospel and gather the Saints. I say then, let us be faithful, and may God bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 15, 1856.

I will read a revelation printed in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and given in Zion in August, 1831. It was given in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, I think during the first time that Joseph was in that land. (The President read the revelation, section 18.)

I do not anticipate, in the few remarks that I shall make, throwing any particular light upon this revelation, especially to those who are ac– quainted with the circumstances under which it was given.

When revelations are given through an individual appointed to receive them, they are given to the understandings of the people. These revelations, after a lapse of years, become mystified to those who were not personally acquainted with the circumstances at the time they were given.

The revelation that I have been reading may be as mysterious to our children, in a thousand or fifteen hundred years from now, in case the world continues in the same degree of enlightenment that it has for a few ages past, as the revelations contained in the Old and New Testaments are to this generation, and it would be commented upon with the same scrutiny and accuracy; and men would study, year after year, and fret themselves almost to death to find out the mysterious meaning of the revelation given to us their forefathers.

This revelation is as plain and clear to the understandings of those who know the circumstances that called it forth, as it would be for you to understand me should I talk about making a canal to bring the waters of Big Cottonwood to this city for irrigating our gardens and the farming lands. It is plain and easy to be understood, it is familiar to us who were in that country at the time, we know all about it.

But a portion of this congregation have not been personally acquainted with the early experience and travels of this Church, and with the sayings and doings of the Prophet Joseph, and it may be that they do not fully understand what this revelation really does mean.

They do not actually know that there is such a place as Independence, in Jackson County, Missouri; they have heard of it, and may have an idea that it is situated in the regions where angels dwell.

The revelation which I have read was perfectly plain, and could readily be understood by all the brethren then in Jackson County, Missouri, and in Kirtland, Ohio, as easily as you can understand me when I talk about digging canals, building dwellings, tabernacles, temples, and storehouses, or when I talk about drawing sand and clay, burning lime, &c.

Is it strange, or is it not strange, to people endowed with wisdom, that the inhabitants of the earth, beclouded as they are, should have such revelations given to them? Is it strange, or is it not strange, that they should reject them?

Would this be a hard question for the congregation to answer? Looking at these things, after the manner of the wisdom of the world, we say that it would be very strange indeed, as a certain professor would say, “It would be passing strange.”

It would be strange indeed should people receive such ideas, upon such subjects, as revelations from God, from the Supreme of the Universe, the great Eloheim, the Creator and upholder of all things, who is enthroned in eternity in glory and in power, yet who condescends to talk about such matters as building storehouses, sending men to do this or that, to go to this or that land, to gather up money for this or that purpose. And very many would exclaim, “O, it is money, money, money!”

That has been the cry continually from the enemies of the kingdom of God. You know that was the cry in the days of Joseph; “O, he is after money, you can see this is in all his revelations; money, money, money; he wants to get your money! He pretends it is going into the hands of the Bishop to purchase lands, but when he gets hold of it you do not get it again. It is money, money, money, all the time.”

The commands to go and buy this or that farm, to build houses, sell out a farm here and rent one there, take a mission to preach the Gospel to the world, gather money to purchase lands, and divide with the poor brethren, are all familiar talk with us, easy to be understood, and without mystery.

When Joseph received this revelation, it was as plain to the understanding of the Saints, as are my instructions when telling you what to do.

The Lord said to the people through Joseph, “You must keep the law here, and be careful to repent of your sins.” Occasionally a man’s name would be mentioned, and he might be pointed out as a pattern for the rest.

Do you repent of your sins? If you do not, you will be overcome by the enemy. He said to the people, “Repent of your sins and keep the law, or you will have no inheritance in this region.”

Many who are here now, owned farms there, and some owned large tracts of land. Have you possession of them now? You have not. You may be rightful owners of those lands, but you are not the possessors. There are many in this congregation who own the right of the soil there, that is to say, if the government of the United States could or would give any right to it.

The Lord said, “Repent of your sins, or you cannot stay here and receive your inheritance; and this land will not be given to the Saints until they are scourged and driven from city to city.” This is plain, and every person can understand it.

As there are persons named in the revelation which I have read, to whom I wish to refer more particularly, I will again read a portion of it.

“Now, as I spake concerning my servant Edward Partridge, this land is the land of his residence, and those whom he has appointed for his counselors; and also the land of the residence of him whom I have appointed to keep my storehouse; Wherefore, let them bring their families to this land, as they shall counsel between themselves and me. For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.”

Here are two characters pointed out, brother Partridge and another whose name is not mentioned here, but whose name was Gilbert, and who was appointed keeper of the storehouse.

You can understand what this plain revelation meant, and it will come home to your comprehension. “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant.” Those men whose names are mentioned were considered to be as holy, I may say, as any men in the world.

I am a witness, so far as this is concerned, that the persons whose names are mentioned, and many others of the first Elders of the Church, were looked upon almost as angels. They were looked upon by the young members as being so filled with the Spirit and power of God, that we were hardly worthy to converse with them. You hear the names of Bishop Partridge, of brother W. W. Phelps, who is now sitting in this stand, of Parley P. Pratt, of David Whitmer, of Oliver Cowdery, and the names of many others of the first Elders who had been up to Zion, and I declare to you that brethren in other parts of the land, those who had not seen the persons named, felt that should they come into their presence they would have to pull off their shoes, as the ground would be so holy upon which they trod.

Do you know what distance and age accomplish? They produce in people the most reverential awe that can be imagined.

When we reflect and rightly understand, we learn how easy of comprehension the Gospel is, how plain it is in its plan, in every part and principle fitted perfectly to the capacity of mankind, insomuch that when it is introduced among the lovers of truth it appears very easy and very plain, and how very ready the honest are to receive it.

But send it abroad and give it anti– quity, and it is at once clothed with mystery. This is the case with all the ancient revelations. Those which were received and understood by the ancients are shrouded in mystery and uncertainty to this generation, and men are employed to reveal the meaning of the ancient Scriptures.

The people on every hand are inquiring, “What does this scripture mean, and how shall we understand this or that passage?” Now I wish, my brethren and sisters, for us to understand things precisely as they are, and not as the flitting, changing imagination of the human mind may frame them.

The Bible is just as plain and easy of comprehension as the revelation which I have just read to you, if you understand the Spirit of God—the Spirit of revelation, and know how the Gospel of salvation is adapted to the capacity of weak man.

If you could see things as they are, you would know that the whole plan of salvation, and all the revelations ever given to man on the earth are as plain as would be the remarks of an Elder, were he to stand here and talk about our everyday business.

I want you to understand this, that you may know how to understandingly read the Bible and the revelations delivered to you in your own generation, and how to honor your religion and your God.

When you read the revelations, or when you hear the will of the Lord concerning you, for your own sakes never receive that with a doubtful heart. This is a matter that I have frequently impressed upon the people here; I have exhorted them from year to year upon this very point, and have asked, why do you receive the counsel of God with doubtful hearts when you are taught the way of life and salvation, when things are made so plain and easy to you that you cannot misunderstand them? Why do you admit of such unbelief in your hearts and feelings as to say—“This or that is beneath the notice of the Almighty, and say that He does not deal in such simple, small, and everyday affairs?”

Why say, “We want to hear from the stand concerning the mysteries—the eternal mysteries of the kingdom of God, that which we have never heard.” I might say to such, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken. Is it a mystery to you, sisters, how to knit a stocking? You all answer, “No, not at all.”

But bring an individual from a world where they never had stockings, and it is as much of a mystery to that person, as anything you have ever thought of could be to you, because he would be perfectly ignorant of all ideas pertaining to that art.

You may now be inclined to say, “O, this is too simple and childlike, we wish to hear the mysteries of the kingdoms of the Gods who have existed from eternity, and of all the kingdoms in which they will dwell; we desire to have these things portrayed to our understandings.”

Allow me to inform you that you are in the midst of it all now, that you are in just as good a kingdom as you will ever attain to, from now to all eternity, unless you make it yourselves by the grace of God, by the will of God, by the eternal Priesthood of God, which is a code of laws perfectly calculated to govern and control eternal matter. If you and I do not by this means make that better kingdom which we anticipate, we shall never enjoy it.

We can only enjoy the kingdom we have labored to make. If you say that you want mysteries, commandments, and revelations, I reply that scarcely a Sabbath passes over your heads, those of you who come here, without your having the revelations of Jesus Christ poured upon you like water on the ground.

“Why do you not write them, brother Brigham?” I will tell you one reason why—I expect that they will be one of these days, but I expect that you will have them written when God and His faithful servants, have suffered enough from the ignorance, foolishness, wickedness, and slothfulness of the people, from their slowness of heart to believe, and from their unrighteous dealing one with another.

Then I expect that there will be just revelation enough given and written to cut all the ungodly off from the Church, and send them to hell. The reason it is not given now, is because of the mercy the Lord still sees fit to extend towards them.

You recollect that last sabbath, and two weeks ago today, I told the people that it would be for their good to go and perform a certain piece of work, which was just as much revelation to you as would be teachings upon the subject of getting your endowment. It was life, and was upon the principles of eternal lives. I recollect telling you, when you lift your hands to heaven like that (raising his hand) and say that you will perform thus and so and do not, that such a course would damn you, as sure as you are now living. Men and women ought to fulfil all their covenants.

I exhorted the brethren not to say that they would do the work, unless they intended to go and do it, for if they did not, I said they would be cursed.

I am almost constrained by the power that is within me to draw the dividing line in the midst of this people, and to cut many from the Church, but I plead for mercy. I have mercy for the people, and I ask God to bear with the wickedness there is in their midst, which can hardly be borne with by the spirit and power of the Holy Ghost.

I said, two weeks ago today, that some of you would be cursed, but have you ever heard me curse the people? You have not, though I have to hang, as it were, on a slender thread of faith to plead with the Almighty to yet spare the wicked in our midst. What hinders them from observing the law of God? Do I or does any other person hinder them? Who hinders you from doing a good work? I am wearied with seeing the conduct of some of this people, their thieving, lying, tattling, deceiving, running after the Gentile spirit, after the spirits of this world, receiving delusive spirits, and adhering to all manner of principles that are not of God.

What hinders us in living as close to our religion as do the angels? Angels do not hinder us, God certainly does not, and we ought to say to devils, “You shall not.” But in the midst of this people there is a set of thieves, idolaters, drunkards, whoremongers, and vile persons. It may be asked, “Shall we not draw the dividing line soon?” Yes, some will in due time get line enough to send them to hell. Many are pleading for revelations; do you suppose that Saints lack revelations? They have plenty of them, and they are stored in the archives of those who have understanding of the principles of the Priesthood, ready to be brought forth as the people need. I will again read a portion of the revelation, “For he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shalt in no wise lose their reward.”

There is one principle that I do wish the people would observe, that is, do not ask God to give you knowledge, when you are confident that you will not keep and rightly improve upon that knowledge. It is a mercy in God that many are as ignorant as they are; for were it not so they would not be borne with as they are. Do not ask for revelations to dictate you in this, that, or the other, unless you are sure that you can obey them. Do not suffer yourselves to falter in your faith, and to say that the door of revelation is closed, for I tell you that there are now too many for your good, unless you hearken more diligently than you have hitherto, unless you apply more closely in your lives what is revealed, and live your religion more faithfully.

You are frequently told that the chastisements which come upon this people are for their good. We may ask, “Is pinching want for our good? Is the destruction of our crops for our good? Is the losing of our property for our good?” Who will lay it to heart? Who will realize it? There are a few who will. I can say with safety that I firmly believe that there are five wise virgins and five foolish ones; that there are five who are wise servants and handmaidens to five who are foolish. But in looking at the people in mass this may not appear, for you are frequently told that one evil person can corrupt many. It is an old saying, and a true one, that “a wicked king can corrupt a nation,” and a wicked father will corrupt a family, and a wicked ruler will corrupt those he rules over. We wish to be one, but “evil communications corrupt good manners.” Unrighteous dealings and doings appear to exert a wider influence than righteous ones, consequently in this community when you find one evil person in a family, or in a neighborhood, that person will actually make it appear to a stranger that the whole family, or neighborhood is evil. The good and evil are mixed together, the wheat and the tares are growing together, the wise and foolish virgins are traveling on together. Some of the people are actually foolish, and they think that the Lord looks upon sin with a great deal of compassion, and are thinking, “O, if I should do this or that I will be forgiven. Yes, I will go and tell it all to the heads of the Church and get their forgiveness, and pass on in my wickedness.” Do you wish your friends to stay here, and all to be Saints indeed? Now some children are wicked and their parents righteous, and again children may be Saints and their parents wicked. There are good people who have wicked brothers and sisters, and they say, “Let us be forgiving, let us hold onto them, if we have compassion, perhaps they will do better and repent of their sins, and yet be Saints.” Is this not the feeling of every heart? It is, more or less. Who is there entirely void of these compassionate feelings? Father, save your son if possible; save your daughter, parents, if it is possible; brothers, save your brethren, if it is possible; save your sisters, if it is possible; save this man, or that woman, and let us have mercy on them, we will be compassionate on them.

A great many come to me and say, “I wish to do exactly as the Lord shall direct through you, brother Brigham.” If I had the word of the Lord I would not dare give it to them, unless I knew it was an absolute duty. They never would obey it, because they are taught the word of the Lord here all the time, but do they hearken to it? Those who have wisdom within themselves, who have in possession the spirit of the Gospel, know what they hear from this stand. They know truth from error, they are satisfied, and never ask the Lord to give them more revelation, but to give them grace to observe and keep what they have received.

You can perceive what kind of characters they are who need to be commanded, they are slothful and not wise servants. Many of you may inquire why I am urging this point today; because it is necessary, it ought to be done. I wish those who are Saints to walk uprightly before their God, and to do everything they can for their brethren who are not Saints. I desire every man and woman to exercise themselves to the utmost, for they will, in all probability, be lost unless we save them. You come to me and want to know the will of God, what for? It would send you to hell, as likely as not, for you will not do it, and that would lay the foundation for your condemnation, as it is written, “Those that receive the commandments of God and do not do them are damned.” I feel to urge these things upon the people that they may save themselves, that they may be industrious, and go to with a ready heart and willing mind, with all their might, to do the things that are necessary to be done.

Suppose that the Lord should give you a written revelation through me, I am satisfied that it would not infringe upon your planting corn, sowing wheat, and watering in the season thereof. The very first thing would be to instruct the people to take care of their temporal lives, for if a people do not provide to live on the earth they cannot accomplish the work given them to do. The first thing to be written would be for people to prepare to live on the earth, until they could overcome the wickedness that is in the world.

This would be dictating you in your temporal affairs; I can dictate you in those matters, and if the Lord does not move me to the point of drawing the dividing line, though if He does I expect to be on hand, let us go to with all our might and do every good work we can, and be satisfied, and not be continually grumbling and complain– ing against the Lord, and teasing Him for more than you know what to do with.

I could not, nor could any other man, give a revelation that would be more plain to the comprehension of the people than the one I have read to you this morning. There is no mystery about it, nothing mysterious or in the dark, but every man may easily know precisely what it means; all the people may understand it to perfection. This revelation was given to the people in their ignorance; it was given, we may say, at the birth of the man-child, in the first days of the being of the Priesthood again upon the earth, and yet it was so calculated and so worded, that every person could understand it. Brother Partridge knew what to do; Gilbert, Rigdon, and Peterson knew what to do; and in returning to Kirtland the Elders were to lift up their voices by the way, and to build up Churches.

One man is told to do this, and another to do that. Edward, you go and get your family and move them up here, &c. Can you understand this? It is one of the revelations of God, given to this people in the first rise of the Church. I do not expect to give you any particular light upon it by the way of illustration, for it would be like my telling you that the sun shines, and that we are within the walls of this Temple Block, seated under a partial shade, constructed for screening us from the rays of the sun. You know all this, you understand it as well as I do; so did those to whom it was given understand this revelation. Would you understand what might be said to you, if I should command you to do this or that. Ask some man to command you, and never ask God to do it, until you are prepared to keep His commandments.

You are ready to say in your hearts, “We are always scolded.” Who hurts you? You will never be hurt, unless you hurt yourselves. If we live our religion we shall prosper, and if we live in the neglect of our duty, and continue to do so, as many do, there will be tribulation and anguish here, and the chastening hand of the Almighty will be on this people, more so than it has ever been. If I could stand here and talk to you without advancing these ideas, I would endeavor to do so, and would be very much pleased if there was no occasion for rebuke. It would delight me to be able to preach all the time upon the glories of Zion, that Zion prospers, that we are all in the straight and narrow way, that all feel fully engaged in building up the kingdom of God, and that every man, woman, and child is doing right, but such is not the case. If I could prevail upon the people to so lay instruction to heart, that they would repent of their sins and refrain from them, that they would forsake their hardheartedness and follies, I should be thankful indeed.

I need not go into particulars in explaining the feelings of this people, for they are too well known. We see them exhibited in our temporal management, and in our transactions one with another. Some you see walking uprightly, and again you may see the honest suffering, and but few ready to extend the hand of charity to relieve them, while the dishonest who have followed this people, we will say, for the loaves and fishes, are begging, and their children also, from morning until night and hoarding up more than they can possibly consume. We see these different dispositions, yet we all are known under the appellation of Saints, we are all brethren and sisters in the Church of Christ.

There is a disposition in many of the brethren like this, “I want to consecrate all I have to the Church, and I will not reserve anything to myself.” Very well, there are blank deeds in the Office, fill one out, if you wish, but do as you please about it. “I really feel as though it would be a great privilege to give everything I possess to the Church.” What have you got? “O, I have a five-acre lot.” What is it worth? “Well, I don’t know; it is full of saleratus and greasewood.” Such characters are so loving and kind, and will say, “Now, brother Brigham, I feel better than I ever felt in my life, I feel happy that I am in the kingdom of God with all that I have; I have dedicated everything I have. Brother Brigham, do you think I can have a house and lot?” They do not talk so loud as I am now talking, they whisper in my ear: “Could you let me have a yoke of oxen, or a span of horses and a wagon, or twenty bushels of wheat,” &c., &c.? If I were to hearken to one-third of such calls, these characters would drain our means to that degree, that the Church would never have the first sixpence, from this time forth to the day of judgment, with which to carry on this work. There is not one-third enough paid in tithing by this great people, to answer the calls of hypocrites and ungodly persons.

Are all hypocrites? No, but if you see honest persons, you see those who are ready to take hold and labor with their might, even though they have but one potato in a day; they will suffer rather than impoverish the Church.

I will relate a circumstance that transpired lately. I think it was last Tuesday or Wednesday night, as I was sitting in one of my houses, about nine o’clock in the evening, that a little boy, some nine or ten years of age, came along. As soon as he came to the door he began a story, but in such a manner that I could not understand him. I called him near to me, and desired him to relate his story again. He commenced by telling about his father’s dying with the cholera on the Plains, that his mother was sick and had several children to take care of, and wound up by saying, that his mother had not eaten anything since the morning of the day previous. I told my wife to give him some bread, remarking that if I could walk as I once could I would know the true situation of that family. Brother Wells was by and said, “I can walk,” I then asked the boy where he lived; he replied, “Over yonder.” In what Ward? He did not know. What is your name? “David Jones.” What was your father’s name? “Jones.” Who are your neighbors? He did not know. Brother Wells started off in an easterly direction with him. The boy began to limp and complained of sore feet, and ere long sat down and began to cry loudly and raise the neighborhood. Bishop Woolley hearing the crying came up, and, after trying to make him hush and start for his home, gave him a good spanking, and started him homeward. He at length mentioned the name of Bishop Perkins, and, from that Bishop, brother Wells learned that the name of the family was Meiklejohn, and that they lived in the Seventh Ward. After much inquiry the boy’s home was found, though he was determined not to go home, and it was soon discovered that he had a father (whose Christian name is David) and mother living, both of whom had gone to bed, and a little sister, who waited on the opposite side of a street while the boy who begged, was still out.

The parents of course said the boy did very wrong, and that they had no idea of his conducting himself so, when the fact is the boy has been trained to lie from his childhood by his father and mother, and so has the girl. Scores of times would not amount to the number that these very children have been to my house, and we have given them flour, meal, and bread which they have carried home.

On the same evening, persons were overheard talking beneath some trees. One said, “Sister, where did you get your flour today?” “I got it at brother Brigham’s.” “I have some money, and shall have to buy some.”

“Don’t buy one pound, but go to brother Brigham and tell him a good story, and you will get some flour. I have money, but I will not pay one cent for my flour.”

I mention these facts to illustrate the spirit that is in a portion of this community. If you go into England, or into any of the old countries, you will see the same class of poor, guilty, miserable wretches begging for a living, and they carry on that business to such a degree, and in such a manner, that the rich and those who are in comfortable circumstances, aware of the rascality of many, often refrain from given to any through fear of being imposed upon, and thereby the honest, innocent poor suffer. They would also suffer here if we were equally fearful of being imposed upon; but many who are unworthy are now aided, by those who are ever ready to assist the destitute, lest some honest poor should suffer; for this reason we withhold not from any.

If this loose course of begging is suffered to go on in this community, without a check being put to it, but a few years would elapse before the honest might be permitted to starve to death in the streets; for those who have would say, “We do not know but that you have your thousands at home, and we will not take the trouble to find out.”

We have our arrangements for learning the condition of the people, and I will here make a few remarks concerning the Bishops. If they magnify their office and calling, they will know the circumstances of every family in their Wards. But with all our experience in regard to Bishops, es– pecially those who have been in the Church so long, and who know so much about the kingdom of God, they ought to know a little more about the families residing in their Wards, and not quite so much about the kingdom, if they cannot understand both at the same time. I very well know that they have their own families to take care of, and that they are allowed nothing for their services. That is partly why we have been appointing some new Bishops. I want men to act as Bishops who are smart enough to take care of themselves, and at the same time magnify their calling; and if we do not find them to be honest we mean to appoint other persons, and to continue so doing until that Quorum is filled with honest men. I am sorry to say that we have proven a few Bishops dishonest. Perhaps some of the Bishops here, or of those who live in other parts of the Territory, will say, “It comes very hard, brother Brigham, for you to make such a statement as that, and not point out the dishonest person; the people may think that you mean me.” You are the very ones I mean, if your consciences accuse you, for if you are not guilty you care not for such a statement, as your consciences are clear and you are not accused, therefore I mean those who say, “This is hard.”

Do you wish me to explain myself? I have proof ready to show that Bishops have taken in thousands of pounds in weight of tithing which they have never reported to the General Tithing Office. We have documents to show that Bishops have taken in hundreds of bushels of wheat, and only a small portion of it has come into the General Tithing Office; they stole it to let their friends speculate upon. If anyone is doubtful about this, will you not call on me to produce my proof before a proper tribunal? I should take pleasure in doing so, but we pass over such things in mercy to the people.

Will you repent of your sins, and go to and do that which you know you ought to do, without being commanded of the Lord, and thus be compelled to do it, or be damned? Will you live so as to know the voice of the Good Shepherd when you hear it, or are you determined to live so as not to know the difference between that voice and the voice of a stranger? In this I fear for the people. I have explained and commented upon these seemingly small items, though in reality they are of much importance.

Chemists who are familiar with analyzing matter, inform you that the globe we inhabit is composed of small particles, so small that they cannot be seen with the unaided natural eye, and that one of these small particles may be divided into millions of parts, each part so minute as to be undiscernible by the aid of the finest microscopes. So the walk of man is made up of acts performed from day to day. It is the aggregate of the acts which I perform through life that makes up the conduct that will be exhibited in the day of judgment, and when the books are opened, there will be the life which I have lived for me to look upon, and there also will be the acts of your lives for you to look upon. Do you not know that the building up of the kingdom of God, the gathering of Israel, is to be done by little acts? You breathe one breath at a time; each moment is set apart to its act, and each act to its moment. It is the moments and the little acts that make the sum of the life of man. Let every second, minute, hour, and day we live be spent in doing that which we know to be right.

If you do not know what to do, in order to do right, come to me at any time and I will give you the word of the Lord on that point. But if you wish the word of the Lord on your nonsensical, foolish notions and traits, be pleased to keep away from me, for I know too much about such characters for them to pass before me unobserved. Mankind are weak and feeble, poor and needy; how destitute they are of true knowledge, how little they have when they have any at all. We have need to increase in knowledge and understanding, and to apply our hearts more to wisdom.

How necessary it is for us to live our religion so as to know ourselves better, and to know how to live better in accordance with the religion we have embraced. To know how to gather up the sons and daughters of Abraham, and to establish the kingdom of God on the earth, how necessary it is for you and I to live our religion, and not be slothful and negligent in fulfilling our duty.

The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Old and New Testaments all corroborate the fact that when you receive the Spirit that gives you light, intelligence, peace, joy, and comfort, that it is from God. But when you, sisters, particularly in your family affairs, are tried and tempted, when parents and children have a spirit come upon them that irritates them, that causes them to have bad feelings, disagreeable, unhappy, and miserable sensations, causing them to say, “We wish it was someway else; we wish our circumstances were different; we are not happy; something or the other is always wrong; we wish to do just right, but we are very unhappy;” I desire to tell you that your own conduct is the cause of all this. “But,” says one, “I have done nothing wrong, nothing evil.” No matter whether you have or not, you have given way to a spirit of temptation. There is not that man or woman in this congregation, or on the face of the earth, that has the privilege of the holy Gospel, and lives strictly to it, whom all hell can make unhappy. You cannot make the man, woman, or child unhappy, who possesses the Spirit of the living God; unhappiness is caused by some other spirit.

The spirit of contention divides families as we see some divided. We can hardly associate with some persons, for we have to walk in their midst like walking upon eggs. What is the matter? You do not know the spirit they are led by. Treat them kindly, and, perhaps, by and by they will come to understanding. What would they do were they of one heart and mind? They would be like little children, would respect their superiors and honor their God and their religion. This they would do, if they understood things as they are. Be careful of them, and treat them kindly. Who is there that walks up to the line, and knows the will of God without being commanded? A great many do; but it is not all of this people who are doing as I have been counseling you. Still I will venture to say that there are as many wise ones as foolish. But many will have to separate from their own family connections, if they do not do better. Parents and children will have to separate, and husbands and wives, ere long. How long shall they live together? Until the Lord says, gather up the tares and prepare them for the burning. I am not going to undertake to separate the tares from the wheat, the sheep from the goat, but we will try to make you goats produce fleeces of wool instead of hair, and we will keep hammering at you with the word of God, which is quick and powerful, until you become sheep, if possible, that we may not have five foolish virgins in the company. Though in all this I do not expect to even desire to thwart the plans and sayings of Jesus Christ in the least.

Let us do all the good we can, extend the hand of benevolence to all, keep the commandments of God and live our religion, and after all there will be five foolish virgins, and if we are not careful, we shall all be on the list of the foolish ones.

I dedicate myself, this congregation, and the whole interest of the kingdom of God on the earth, to our Father, to His Son Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Ghost, that we may be saved; and I pray that this may be our happy lot. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 8, 1856.

I wish to say a few words before this meeting is dismissed, upon the subject of the Big Cottonwood Canal. I have been along the line of the canal, more or less, during nearly every day of the last week, and I will say, for the gratification of the Bishops and brethren present, that I think they have done extremely well. A great many men have labored on that canal during the past week, and had it not been for faith, or the Spirit of the Lord upon them, many might have sunk with fatigue, for they looked as though they would faint; but they have labored faithfully. What was absolutely necessary to be done a week ago today could have been done in one week, if all the labor could have been judiciously applied, and the portion we desired to finish this season would have now been completed. But such drawbacks will occur, when time cannot be previously taken to make the proper estimate and distribution of men and teams for different points of the work. With the circumstances under which we commenced last Monday morning, it could not be expected but what there would be more or less confusion and misapplication of labor; but even with these disadvantages the work has prospered extremely well.

If we can get the water of Big Cottonwood as far as Big Canyon, as ditches have already been opened from the last named point, we can water the five acre lots and about one-third of the city; but we expect to continue operations until we bring the water to the termination of the canal above the city, on the north side. The large reservoirs formed by the embankments across the deep ravines will hold an immense quantity of water, and we wish to have them speedily finished for containing water to be used when we need it.

In regard to irrigation, I will venture to say that one-half of the water is wasted; instead of being applied where and when it is needed, it runs here and there, and perhaps one-half reaches the drooping plants. If people would take a little more pains in preparing ditches, gates, and embankments for economically conducting water where it is most needed, it would be a very great advantage to them.

When water is brought to the termination of the canal, which we can accomplish in a few days, I presume that the reservoirs on the line of the work and those portions which are excavated in full will contain water enough to allow the people to irrigate when necessary, and thus do away with the practice of watering only two hours a week on a city lot, and much of that to be done in the night. And that is not all, for by the time the water is fairly on a lot it is taken by the next person whose right it is to use it. And lots which have had thousands of dollars expended on them, and which would yield more than a thousand dollars’ worth of fruit and vegetables, could they be properly irrigated, are only allowed a small stream of water for two hours once a week, and at the same time an adjoining lot planted with corn, the hills six feet apart and one stalk in a hill, comparatively speaking, the balance of the ground being covered with weeds, is allotted the same time and amount of water as the one on which the fruit trees and other choice vegetation are worth thousands of dollars.

There ought to be a reformation in the distribution of the water. The man who will not raise five dollars’ worth of produce on his lot, has the same water privilege as the man who could raise a thousand dollars’ worth. For instance, brother Staines gets the water for two hours in a week, and what are his fruit trees worth? He could make his thousand dollars a year from them, if he were disposed to sell the fruit instead of giving it away, could he have a fair portion of water. I have a lot just below him well-cultivated in fruit trees, a nursery, and choice vegetables, I also can only have the water on my lot for two hours in a week; when lots nearby, with but little on them except weeds, get the same water privilege, and that too in the daytime, while we have to use it in the night. Water masters ought to look to this matter, until they have arranged a more just distribution.

So soon as we can complete the canal and its reservoirs, the people will be enabled to water their gardens thoroughly, which will be scores of thousands of dollars advantage to this city yearly, besides the immense benefit to the farming lands. There is much grain growing in the city lots, and many persons have spaded their ground, not having teams to plow with, consequently their lots are bet– ter cultivated this year than heretofore, and we wish to water them that we may not lose our labor. If we can have your help for a few days more, we shall bring much more water to the city than we now have.

I have personally interested myself very diligently in the labors upon the canal, and have endeavored to follow the instructions of brother Kimball during last Sabbath. Who has been impoverished by our labor? Who has been injured by it? Not a single individual, old or young. Who is benefited by it? The whole community: every man, woman, and child. This canal will be a lasting benefit; without it we may be discouraged with regard to the farming interests of this portion of the valley. We expect to see this canal completed. I know that some have thought it would be almost impossible to complete such a work here, to secure the banks of the deep ravines, but we shall not leave it until it is completed.

Shall we stop making canals, when the one now in progress is finished? No, for as soon as that is completed from Big Cottonwood to this city, we expect to make a canal on the west side of Jordan, and take its water along the east base of the west mountains, as there is more farming land on the west side of that river than on the east. When that work is accomplished we shall continue our exertions, until the Provo River runs to this city. We intend to bring it around the point of the mountain to Little Cottonwood, from that to Big Cottonwood, and lead its waters upon all the land from Provo Canyon to this city, for there is more water runs in that stream alone than would be needed for that purpose.

If we had time we should build several reservoirs to save the waters of City Creek, each one to contain enough for once irrigating one-third of the city. If we had such reser– voirs the whole of this city might be irrigated with water that now runs to waste. Even then we do not intend to cease our improvements, for we expect that part of the Weber will be brought to the Hot Springs, there to meet the waters from the south and empty into Jordan. Then we contemplate that Bear River will be taken out at the gates to irrigate a rich and extensive region on its left bank, and also upon the other side to meet the waters of the Malad. We know not the end of our public labors and enterprises in this Territory, and we design performing them as fast as we can.

Our preaching to you from Sabbath to Sabbath, sending the Gospel to the nations, gathering the people, opening farms, making needed improvements, and building cities, all pertain to salvation. The Gospel is designed to gather a people that will be of one heart and of one mind. Let every individual in this city feel the same interest for the public good as he does for his own, and you will at once see this community still more prosperous, and still more rapidly increasing in wealth, influence, and power. But where each one seeks to benefit himself or herself alone, and does not cherish a feeling for the prosperity and benefit of the whole, that people will be disorderly, unhappy, and poverty-stricken, and distress, animosity, and strife will reign.

Efforts to accumulate property in the correct channel are far from being an injury to any community, on the contrary they are highly beneficial, provided individuals, with all that they have, always hold themselves in readiness to advance the interests of the kingdom of God on the earth. Let every man and woman be industrious, prudent, and economical in their acts and feelings, and while gathering to themselves, let each one strive to identify his or her interests with the interests of this community, with those of their neighbor and neighborhood, let them seek their happiness and welfare in that of all, and we will be blessed and prospered.

I do not wish to boast in the least, neither do I think much of myself, nor ever did, nor do I ever pause much to think, in all my labors, doings, travelings, toils, and preachings, whether I have friends or foes, but the care that I have for this community I do manifest in my works. Not that I think that I am extraordinarily praiseworthy, or that I am a very good man, for you know that I have never professed to be a very religious man; but what I wish you to do to your neighbor I do by you; but I will not ask my Father in heaven to deal any more kindly with me than I deal with my brethren.

My interest is the interest of this community; this has been characteristic of my course from the beginning. I have witnesses here to prove that, from the time I entered this kingdom until this day, this community and its welfare have been my interest.

I have proven this all the time, and I prove it still. I have proven it this year, in the scarce time we are passing through. Ask the poor brethren and sisters who have come to me for bread if they have been turned away empty. I have had a large amount of flour and means, for among other property I have two of the best mills in the Territory, and a large farm upon which I generally raise much wheat and other produce. I have always raised more grain than my family consumed, and in these scarce times find the man or woman that I have taken fifty cents from for flour.

I have had money offered to me, but I have told such persons to go and buy where flour is for sale; I have none to sell.

In all my transactions in this community I have acted in a similar man– ner. What do I get for taking such a course? When I came into this valley I owed for my outfit; I had but little; I do not think that one-third of my family had shoes to their feet, and I had no leather from which to make shoes.

We came with what we had, and I borrowed oxen from one man, and horses from another, which I have since paid for, besides paying thousands of dollars for my poor brethren who could not pay.

What the Lord has done for me, you all know. Have I wronged any man, or pinched any man in a time of trouble, or in any way taken an advantage of his necessities? Bring forward a man whom I have wronged, and I will restore to him not only four but tenfold. My hands are open; I have naturally an open hand, it does not contract on the needy like that. (Holding his hand with the fingers shut.)

Neither am I like the miller who striked the toll dish with a crowning hand, thus leaving the grain convex, but who, when he quit milling and opened a tavern, reversed his hand and left the grain concave.

I do not wish you to deal any better by me than I do by you, neither do I wish God my Father to deal any more kindly towards me than I do towards you. How came I by what I have? We may dig water ditches, make canals, sow wheat, build mills, and labor with our mights, but if God does not give the increase we remain poor. Though we bestow much labor upon our fields, if God does not give the increase we shall have no grain.

How few there are who fully understand this matter, who realize thoroughly that unless God blesses our exertions we shall have nothing. It is the Lord that gives the increase. He could send showers to water our fields, but I do not know that I have prayed for rain since I have been in these valleys until this year, during which I believe that I have prayed two or three times for rain, and then with a faint heart, for there is plenty of water flowing down these canyons in crystal streams as pure as the breezes of Zion, and it is our business to use them.

I do not feel disposed to ask the Lord to do for me what I can do for myself. I know when I sow the wheat and water it that I cannot give the increase, for that is in the hands of the Almighty; and when it is time to worship the Lord, I will leave all and worship Him. As I said yesterday to a Bishop who was mending a breach in the canal, and expressed a wish to continue his labor on the following Sabbath, as his wheat was burning up, let it burn, when the time comes that is set apart for worship, go up and worship the Lord.

When Bishops and the brethren can perceive and understand that it is the Lord that gives the increase, after all their exertions to sustain themselves, they will be satisfied that the glory belongs to Him, and not altogether to the exertions of man. You know Paul says that he considered himself an unprofitable servant, and so is every other man; that is, when we have done all we can to save ourselves, spiritually and temporally, it is the Lord who gave us the means.

He opened up the way of life and salvation, organized the elements to sustain our mortal bodies, and thus afforded all the means for increase. It is all through the wisdom of Him who has created all things, who rules over and sustains all things.

Have the Latter-day Saints got to learn this? Yes. And they have got to learn that the interest of their brethren is their own interest, or they never can be saved in the celestial kingdom of God.

While saying a few words here last Sabbath about the canal, I told you when you lifted your hands to heaven, in token of your willingness to do a certain things that you ought to do it. A great many of you have had your endowments, and you know what a vote with uplifted hands means.

It is a sign which you make in token of your covenant with God and with one another, and it is for you to perform your vows. When you raise your hands to heaven and let them fall and then pass on with your covenants unfulfilled, you will be cursed.

I feel sometimes like lecturing men and women severely, who enter into covenants without realizing the nature of the covenants they make, and who use little or no effort to fulfil them.

Some Elders go to the nations and preach the Gospel of life and salvation, and return without thoroughly understanding the nature of a covenant. It is written in the Bible that every man should perform his own vows, even if to his own hurt; in this way you will show to all creation and to God that you are full of integrity.

This people have got to entirely wake out of their sleep, they have got to be a strictly righteous people, or they will have to meet worse things than a scanty morsel of bread.

Do they believe this? Some think—“Well, perhaps it will be so, and perhaps not. I have little flour now, and I really want the money, and if I can get twelve or thirteen dollars a hundred for it I can spare it.”

This is the principle some persons operate upon, and it is sectarianism. It seems of the longfaced deacon style, who, when a poor man wants flour for his wife and children, in measured tone and with a long religious face, says, “No;” but who, after long importunity on the part of the hungry man, will at last, in a very soft, measured, pious, longfaced, sighing style, reply, “Well, brother, I have not any to spare, but I don’t know but that if you will come and work for me a couple of days in harvest, I will spare you a bushel to accommodate you. I shall have to hire labor at harvest, can you come and help me?”

The answer is, “Yes,” when at the same time he knows that he can have two bushels a day for work in harvest, but the longfaced deacon will make him agree to work two days for one bushel.

I have heard of a man in this City who was stopped from building a house. Why? Because he got first-rate mechanics to work for five pounds of flour a day, which is at the rate of thirty cents a day. His Bishop told him that he could not build a house in his Ward upon any such principle.

Do you suppose that such a man is fit to belong to any church? Yes, to Joe Bowers’ church, and his was a hell-fired church.

You who have surplus flour hoarded up, give it to the poor, and say that you will trust in God.

The first year that I came into this valley I had not flour enough to last my family until harvest, and that I had brought with me, and persons were coming to my house every day for bread. I had the blues about one day; I went down to the old fort, and by the time I got back to my house I was completely cured. I said to my wife, “Do not let a person come here for food and go away empty handed, for if you do we shall suffer before harvest; but if you give to every individual that comes we shall have enough to last us through.”

I have proven this many a time, and we have again proven it this year. I have plenty on hand, and shall have plenty, if I keep giving away. More than two hundred persons eat from my provisions every day, besides my own family and those who work for I intend to keep doing so, that my bread may hold out, for if I do not I shall come short.

Do you believe that principle? I know it is true, because I have proven it so many times.

I have formerly told this community of a circumstance that occurred to brother Heber and myself, when we were on our way to England. We paid our passage to Kirtland, and to my certain knowledge we had only $13.50, but we paid out $87.00; this is but one instance among many which I could name.

You who have flour and meat, deal it out, and do not be afraid that you will be too much straightened, for if you will give, you will have plenty, for it is God who sustains us and we have got to learn this lesson. All I ask of you is to apply your heart to wisdom and to watch the providences of God, until you prove for yourselves that I am telling the truth, even that which I do know and have experienced.

I have experienced much in my life, and I will not ask you to do any better by one another nor by me than I do by you, and I will bless you all the time. I feel to bless you continually; my life is here, my interest, my glory, my pride, my comfort, my all are here, and all I expect to have, to all eternity is wrapped up in the midst of this Church.

If I do not get it in this channel, I shall not have it at all. How do you suppose I feel? I feel as a father should feel towards his children. I have felt so for many years, even when I durst not say so; I have felt as a mother feels towards her tender offspring, and durst not express my feelings; but I have tried to carry out their expression in my life. May God bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 20, 1856.

Sometimes I think it quite strange that the children of men are so constituted as to need to be taught one lesson all the time, and again it is not so marvelous to me, when I reflect upon and understand their organization, and the designed effect thereupon of this state of probation. Men are organized to be independent in their sphere, are organized for an independent being, yet they have, as soldiers term it, to run the gauntlet all the time. They are organized to be just as independent as any being in eternity, but that independence, in order for them to occupy a position in the sphere of an independent being having control over all things, must be proved and tried while in this state of existence, must be operated upon by the good and the evil.

It is not so strange to me that the people should continually need talking to, that they should continually need instructing, when I take this view of the matter. Mothers when bringing up their children, if they will observe and reflect, can see and understand the feelings of the whole human family. The mother says to the child, “Don’t do that; you must not handle those things;” but the little child thinks itself just as capable of handling a teacup, or a tumbler, as are father and mother. The little girl takes up a broom to sweep the hearth, but if mother is not watching her she may let the broom take fire and set it by the bed, and thereby the bed and then the building be set in a blaze. In the actions of their children parents can detect the course of all, from the king upon his throne to the humblest peasant, they are all performing their part on the theater of the earth.

People may be advanced far in life, and yet be surrounded by weaknesses comparatively like those of children. The man or woman of eighty, sixty, forty, twenty, or the child of two or five years of age, have something ahead of them to attain to, and which they are striving to accomplish. There is a principle in the feelings of people which is implanted in their organization expressly for them to become independent, to become Gods, and it is continually urging them to reach forward and to wish to do and perform that which they do not understand. These weaknesses are in the organization, irrespective of age. True, persons can do many things at twenty-five years of age which they could not do when but five years old, and men may know much more at fifty than at twenty, yet the same common weakness is apparent which you can see exhibited in the little child. There is one rule to adopt, one course to pursue, one lesson to be learned, and it is applicable alike to all ages, from the child of one or two years old to the greyhaired veteran, and which, if they would learn, would prove highly beneficial, and that is, to do those things which they know they can do, and when required by a superior to do a thing they never have done, to take the advice of those who have successfully performed the same act, and then with the best skill they can command, do as they are told, and thus further their education in life and be satisfied.

If the child could understand and be satisfied that the mother knows better than it does, when it is told to let the dishes alone, the broom, or the pincushion, or not to swing on the table lest it be turned over and break the dishes, or not to do this or that, and that such and such things it might do, it would be a great aid to it to take the course laid down by a judicious parent, and would save it much trouble while passing through its mortal career. I ask myself why it is that people do not learn to be satisfied and contented with what they do know, until they are instructed and learn more, and practice this principle in their lives. We are taught here all the time to be passive and contented, to do the things we know how to do. Still I have no question, but what, if I could unobserved and unknown to them listen to the remarks of many of the Elders, or of brethren and sisters, I should hear doctrines taught and suggestions made which God never designed to have His servants teach. At the same time remarks such as these might be dropped, “I am impressed and the Spirit leads me thus and so; true I believe all that is written and taught, but I tell you that brother Brigham does not tell us all of it; he says he does not, but that he tells us as fast as we can understand and practice what he does teach.” Now that is true; but all do not stop and reflect, neither do they fully understand the principles of the Gospel, the principles of the holy Priesthood; and from this cause many imbibe the idea that they are capable of leading out in teaching principles that never have been taught. They are not aware that the moment they give way to this hallucination the devil has power over them to lead them on to unholy ground; though this is a lesson which they ought to have learned long ago, yet it is one that was learned by but few in the days of Joseph.

I was speaking about this matter last night, about the feelings of the people towards the Prophet Joseph. The mass of the people never realized, to the day of his death, but what Joseph was made by them. They actually believed that he was amenable to the people, that he did not know it all, and that other men knew things which he did not know concerning the kingdom of God on the earth.

Here let me give you one lesson that may be profitable to many. If the Lord Almighty should reveal to a High Priest, or to any other than the head, things that are, or that have been and will be, and show to him the destiny of this people twenty-five years from now, or a new doctrine that will in five, ten, or twenty years hence become the doctrine of this Church and kingdom, but which has not yet been revealed to this people, and reveal it to him by the same Spirit, the same messenger, the same voice, and the same power that gave revelations to Joseph when he was living, it would be a blessing to that High Priest, or individual; but he must rarely divulge it to a second person on the face of the earth, until God reveals it through the proper source to become the property of the people at large. Therefore when you hear Elders, High Priests, Seventies, or the Twelve (though you cannot catch any of the Twelve there, but you may the High Priests, Seventies, and Elders), say that God does not reveal through the President of the Church that which they know, and tell wonderful things, you may generally set it down as God’s truth that the revelation they have had, is from the devil, and not from God. If they had received from the proper source, the same power that revealed to them would have shown them that they must keep the things revealed in their own bosoms, and they seldom would have a desire to disclose them to the second person. That is a general rule, but will it apply in every case, and to the people called the kingdom of God at all times? No, not in the strictest sense, but the Spirit which reveals will impart the proper discretion. All the people have not learned this lesson, they should have learned it long ago.

As I have already observed, comparatively few learned, in the days of Joseph, that he was placed between the people and God, that they had no more right to dictate him than they had to dictate the angel Gabriel, that they had no more business to interfere with him, or call him to an account, than we have to call to an account the angel Gabriel.

This we all ought to understand, and also how and when to teach and practice what we do know, and when we have done that much then stop until we learn more.

I know, and so do many others, by experience, by what we have seen and passed through, by what has passed before us and by what we have seen in others, that when the devil cannot overcome an individual through temptation to commit wickedness, when he sees that a person is determined to walk to the line and travel straight forward into the Celestial Kingdom, he will adopt a course of flattery, will strive to exercise a pleasing influence and move along smoothly with him, and when he sees an opportunity he will try to turn him out of the way, if it is only to the extent of a hair’s breadth. And if he cannot keep a person this side the Gospel line, he will walk with that individual on the line and strive to push him over.

That is so invariably the case that people need eyes to see, and understanding to know how to discriminate between the things of God and the things that are not of Him. Will this people learn? I am happy and joyful, I am thankful, and can say of a truth, brethren and sisters, that the manifestations of goodness from this people are not to be compared, in my opinion, with those from any other people upon the face of the whole earth since the days of Enoch.

Old Israel, in all their travels, wanderings, exercises, powers, and keys of the Priesthood, never came nigh enough to the path this people have walked in to see them in their obedience that was and is required by the Gospel. Yet there are thousands of weaknesses and overt acts in some of this people, which render us more or less obnoxious to each other.

Still, you may search all the history extant of the children of Israel, or that of any people that ever lived on the face of the earth since the days of Enoch, and I very much doubt, taking that people with their traditions, and comparing them with this mixed multitude from the different nations now in the world with our traditions, whether you would find a people from the days of Enoch until now that could favorably compare with this people in their willingness to obey the Gospel, and to go all lengths to build up the kingdom of God.

I have said a great many times, and repeat it now, and whether I am mistaken or not I will leave for the future to determine, and though, as I do, Joseph when living reproved the people, that I believe with all my heart that the people who gathered around Enoch, and lived with him and built up his City, when they had traveled the same length of time in their experience as this people have, were not as far advanced in the things of the kingdom of God.

Make your own comparisons between the two people, think of the traditions of the two. How many nations were there in the days of Enoch? The very men who were associated with him had been with Adam; they knew him and his children, and had the privilege of talking with God. Just think of it.

Though we have it in history that our father Adam was made of the dust of this earth, and that he knew nothing about his God previous to being made here, yet it is not so; and when we learn the truth we shall see and understand that he helped to make this world, and was the chief manager in that operation.

He was the person who brought the animals and the seeds from other planets to this world, and brought a wife with him and stayed here. You may read and believe what you please as to what is found written in the Bible. Adam was made from the dust of an earth, but not from the dust of this earth. He was made as you and I are made, and no person was ever made upon any other principle.

Do you not suppose that he was acquainted with his associates, who came and helped to make this earth? Yes, they were just as familiar with each other as we are with our children and parents.

Suppose a number of our sons were going to Carson Valley to build houses, open farms, and erect mills and workshops, and that we should say to them that we wish them to stay there five years, and that then we will come and visit them, when I go there will they be afraid of me? No, they would receive me as their father, just as Adam received his Father.

The very man who walked and talked with and knew the God of heaven, and knew and understood all about making this earth had associates who were associated with Enoch, and yet twenty-five years of the travel and experience of Enoch with his people had not advanced them so far, in my opinion, as this people have advanced in the same time, taking into account the difference of traditions and other advantages.

They had not a diversity of languages, but all spoke one language; they were not trained in the various traditions in which we have been, for they received only one from Adam; they were as intimately associated as we would be in living in this City two hundred years, with the gates shut down upon all egress and ingress, and under such circumstances do you not think that our traditions would be all alike?

Yet Enoch had to talk with and reach his people during a period of three hundred and sixty years, before he could get them prepared to enter into their rest, and then he obtained power to translate himself and his people, with the region they inhabited, their houses, gardens, fields, cattle, and all their possessions. He had learned enough from Adam and his associates, to know how to handle the elements, and those who would not listen to his teachings were so wicked that they were fit to be destroyed, and he obtained power to take his portion of the earth and move out a little while, where he remains to this day.

You know that I sometimes reprove you because you deserve it, yet there is a constant and rapid increase of willingness to build up this kingdom.

Where is there a woman that would say to her husband, or to her son, “I do not wish you to go on the mission you have been called to perform?” That would say, “It is true you were called, but I do not like to have you go, cannot you get excused and stay at home?” I do not believe you could find five such women in this Territory.

There may be a few who are going to California that would say, “Yes, you may go on your mission, but I will go with you.” All they desire is to get away. Can you find five such women?

I care not if they should be old ladies of seventy-five years of age and had not the first thing to subsist upon, and though their whole dependence was upon their sons or husbands, they would say, “Go John, my son; or, go husband, if you do not we shall suffer; but if you go and do your duty God will provide for us in your absence.” Are not these the feelings of every wife and mother?

In the midst of all this some talk about sacrifices, but upon that point I wish to be allowed to differ from the class who view the matter in that light.

There may be some few exceptions, but I have made no sacrifices. “Mormonism” has done everything for me that ever has been done for me on the earth; it has made me happy, it has made me wealthy and comfortable; it has filled me with good feelings, with joy and rejoicing. Whereas, before I possessed the spirit of the Gospel, I was troubled with that which I hear others complain of, that is, with, at times, feeling cast down, gloomy, and desponding; with everything wearing to me, at times, a dreary aspect.

But have the trees, the streams, the rocks, or any part of creation worn a gloomy aspect to me for one-half minute since I came in possession of the Spirit of this Gospel? No, though before that time I might view the most beautiful gardens, buildings, cities, plantations, or anything else in nature, yet to me they all wore at times a shade of death.

They appeared at times as though a veil was brooding over them, which cast a dark shade upon all things, like the shade of the valley of death, and I felt lonesome and bad. But since I have embraced the Gospel not for one-half minute, to the best of my recollection, has anything worn to me a gloomy aspect, under all circumstances I have felt pleasant and cheerful.

When surrounded by mobs, with death and destruction threatening on every hand, I am not aware but that I felt just as joyful, just as well in my spirit, as I do now. Prospects might appear dull and very dark, but I have never seen a time in this Gospel but what I knew that the result would be beneficial to the cause of truth and the lovers of righteousness, and I have always felt to joyfully acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all things.

When I was among the wicked, they looked to me as do the wicked, and when I saw devils possessing the bodies of the children of men I knew that God permitted it, and that He permitted them to be on the earth, and wherein would this be a state of probation, without those devils? We cannot even give endowments without representing a devil.

What would we know about heaven or happiness were it not for their opposite? Consequently we could not have got along so well and so rapidly without those mobocrats. And if mobbers should happen to come here do not look too sour at them, for we need them.

We could not build up the kingdom of God without the aid of devils, they must help to do it. They persecute and drive us from city to city, from place to place, until we learn the difference between the power of God and the power of the devil.

But does it then follow that we should say to them, “Come on here, we are good fellows well met?” By no means, care must be observed that we do not overrun the rule; we only need enough of them to help do up the work.

If we should get too many here they would overcome the good, and the Saints would have to flee.

Some of our Elders desire all the time to say, as I plainly phrase it, “How do you do brother Christ, and how do you do brother devil? Walk in and take breakfast with me.”

I consider such men useful in their places. This fact was very clearly exemplified to me in a dream which I had while so many were going to California, at a time when many of the brethren were under quite an excitement about the Saints going there to dig gold.

I thought considerably about the movement, and there had been a feeling abroad among the people that when the Saints got into the mountains “judgment would be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet,” that the axe would be laid at the root of the tree, and that every person who did not meet the measure would, in accordance with the iron bedstead rule, be chopped off if too long, and stretched out if too short.

Several supposed that this would be the case; and perhaps thought that they would be able to so sanctify themselves, that in one year they could take Great Salt Lake Valley and the regions round about up to Enoch, or have him come here. I did not so view the matter, and did not give any special instructions upon it.

At that time I dreamed that while I was a little below the road and just north of the Hot Springs, about four miles from here, I saw brother Joseph coming and walked up to the road to see him, and asked him where he was going? He replied, “I am going north.”

There were two or three horsemen along, and some men were riding with him upon a few boards placed loosely upon the running gears of a wagon, upon which were also a tent and camp utensils. I wished to talk with him, but he did not seem inclined to conversation, and it occurred to me that he was going to Captain James Brown’s to buy all his goats.

I had been promised ten or a dozen of them, but I thought that he was going to buy every one, and that I should not get a single goat to put with my sheep, and I laughed in my sleep.

Pretty soon he came back, with a large flock of sheep and goats following the wagon, and as I looked upon them I saw some sheep that were white, pure, and clean, and as large as a two-year-old cow, with wool from ten to twenty inches in length, as fine as silk and as white as the driven snow.

With them were all lesser sizes down to the smallest goat or sheep I ever saw, and all mixed up together. I saw some sheep with hair like that of goats, and goats of all colors, red, black, white, &c., mixed with the sheep; and their sizes, colors, and quality of fleeces, seemed to be almost innumerable.

I remarked to Joseph that he had got the strangest flock I ever saw, and looked at him slyly and laughed, and asked him what he was going to do with them. He looked at me in his usual shrewd manner and replied, “They are all good in their places.”

On awaking I at once understood the dream, and I then said, go to California, or where you please, for goats are as good in their places as sheep, until the time for them to mingle is over. And in striving to guide and improve the flock we sometimes have to cry out, shoo, and at other times to draw them nigh by calling, sheep, sheep.

We are trying to train the flock, and to turn the goats into sheep, and the spotted, ring-streaked and speckled into beautiful white, and how shall we succeed? Perhaps we shall see rather a curious flock at last, but we will do the best we can.

Sometimes I rise up here and really feel to storm at some who are in this community, for their conduct is awful, it is outrageous. I presume I could come here this afternoon and eat bread and drink of the cup, in the name of Israel’s God, with men who would go straight from the communion and steal my property.

Let us consider this point a little, for this matter has been through me, round me, over me, and under me; I have turned it inside out and round about and looked at it, and then I have turned it over again. Brother Fullmer has just alluded to the rails disappearing from fences. Are not your fences taken? Is not your clothing taken when it is hung out to dry? And is not wood taken from your woodpiles? How many have to lock up their wood, or lose it? Taking property without leave from the owner is what I call stealing, but many who practice that do not so understand it.

Even if I had to work by the day for bread, wood, clothing, and comforts for myself and family, and should then without authority go and take wood from brother Joseph’s woodpile, were he living here and President of the Church, my judgment, what I know of right and wrong, the traditions of my fathers, and the teachings of my parents and of the neighbors where I was brought up would all confirm me in the belief that I was stealing. Do all persons feel so? No, they do not.

During two or three of the past winters, except the last, I have no question but that women and children carried from one to three cords of wood per day from my woodyard, and when the wood was scarce they would take my fence poles. I have myself seen them take backloads of wood and then fill their bags with the chips and small sticks, but when they took my fence poles and posts I stopped them, and told them that if they were not satisfied with taking my wood without taking my fencing to leave my yard, and not to come there to steal any more.

But do I see some there yet? Yes, you may see women and children carrying away my wood every day. If my workmen ask them what they are doing, they reply, “Brother Brigham said I might have some wood, he will not say anything.” Do you suppose that those persons fully realize that they are stealing? No.

I will tell you a little that I know about the difference in traditions and customs, and will go no further than where I have traveled and preached. A large number of the inhabitants in the old countries are tenants, renting houses for longer or shorter periods, generally for from three to twelve months.

Now suppose that A, when vacating a house, accidentally leaves his pocketbook in a cupboard, and that B, who next occupies the same building, finds A’s pocketbook with, perhaps, twenty sovereigns in it; what does the custom of that country warrant in such a case? Their traditions are such that B claims that property as his own, and A cannot get it, unless B is honest enough to give it up.

B’s course in that case may not be in accordance with law, but it is according to custom, which in such instances is stronger than law.

An American would consider, if he was to find hand irons left in the fireplace, or a chair or sofa left in the sitting-room, that the former tenant had the right to call and take them away; and if he was to undertake to smug– gle any of those things he would consider himself stealing.

That difference of feeling and conduct arises from the difference there is in the traditions of different countries. In America a man would as soon venture to go into his neighbor’s house and steal a chair, as to retain one accidentally left there by a previous occupant. I will notice another difference in traditions.

Among various other occupations I have been a carpenter, painter and glazier, and when I learned my trades and worked, both as journeyman and master, if I took a job of painting and glazing, say to the amount of one pound sterling, or five dollars, and through my own carelessness in any manner injured the work or material, I considered it my duty to repair the injury at my own expense.

In Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, or anywhere else in England if you employ a glazier to work to the value of one pound, ten or fifty pounds, and he can manage in any way to put the windows in such a position that the wind will blow them over and break them, he will do it, in order to get the work to do over.

Do they think they do wrong? No. Why? Because their employers would make them do their work for nothing, and then compel them to live on roots and grass if their physical organization could endure it, therefore, says the mechanic, “If I can get anything out of you I will call it a godsend.”

Servants in the houses of the great ones, if they can get anything out of their masters besides their wages, call it a godsend. If they can take bread, meat, butter, and cheese, without the masters knowing it, to support their wives, mothers, fathers, children, brothers, and sisters who are not capable of taking care of themselves, they will put that provision in their possession, to keep them from starving to death, and call it a godsend.

Let me do that in this country, and I should consider myself a culprit, according to my judgment and traditions. No matter if I were suffering for bread, and at the same time working among millions of it, if I could not procure it by my labor, I must ask for it and have it given to me, for if I got it in any other way, I must consider myself a thief. Are the Americans altogether excusable? No, for if I wish to find the rough and ready ones, I can do it as quick in America as anywhere else.

Shall I tell you what are some of the traditions of a few of the Americans? Yes. If they have not all they need to eat, drink, or wear, and find an ox or cow on the range over Jordan, or anywhere else, that belongs to me or you, and can take that animal and kill it they will do so, and then sell the meat to you and me, and call that a godsend, and say, “O we are all of one family.” That is an American tradition among a few; but as a general thing, the customs of this country and the traditions of the nations across the great waters differ materially.

When I went to England the brethren and sisters would not have me to shave on the Sabbath, they would pay any price to have me shave on Saturday. Said I, “I will shave on Sunday morning, if I have no time to do so on Saturday.” I told them that I did not come there to learn their customs and traditions, but to teach the people the Gospel of salvation. That we had traditions in America with regard to blacking boots, shaving, &c., on Sunday, as well as they, but if I had no time to do that work on Saturday, I would do it on Sunday, if I deemed it necessary. And if I wished to go to meeting and worship God, it was just as acceptable to do so on Saturday as on Sunday.

Adam Clark is taken by many as a standard amongst the commentators, and it is said, if the clock struck twelve on Saturday night, and he happened to have but one shoe blacked, that he would drop the blacking and brushes, and go to meeting next day with one shoe blacked and the other unblacked. That might by some be esteemed a pious example, and by others a waymark to the kingdom of folly.

Such are a few of the traditions extant among different people. I have no question but that many in our community do things which are actually sinful if they did but know the right, but their traditions are such that they act with impunity, and pass on as unconcerned and unconscious of wrong as if they had just been on their knees praying. If we live long enough together, we shall have a tradition of our own, and that is, to be so trained in the law of the Celestial kingdom, to so learn the law of right, as to be able at all times to know right from wrong, and then always to do right. Is this the case now? No.

Suppose that several of the brethren were to go for fuel and timber in Red Bute Canyon, where we generally went when we first came to this Territory. Some go on up the canyon cutting a tree for timber in one place, and preparing fuel for loading in another, while others follow up with their teams, and you know that when they get a little brush-whipped they are apt to become angry, to forget themselves a little, and to say, “Damn it,” and directly one will begin to say to himself, “This canyon is as much mine as any persons; I think I shall take this tree and this wood that are already cut.”

Another comes across a wagon that is broken down, and takes one of the hounds from it and puts it into his own. Still another passes by where somebody has lost an axe; he finds it and takes it along, saying, “Well, it is lost here, we are away in the wilderness, these are as much my premises as anyone’s; I will take out this helve and put in another, and grind the axe over a little, and nobody will know it; thank the Lord, I have an axe now.”

Do you know that some people feel and act in that manner? I know they do. Some will find wood cut in the canyon and load it on their wagons, perhaps that which granddad, with his crippled limbs, had toiled hard to collect together; but that makes no difference, they pile it on, saying, “I believe I am blessed of the Lord, I am much favored of Him today,” and come out rejoicing, having found a load of wood already cut. But what have they done? They have found loads of wood cut to their hands, and apparently have not reflected but what an angel had cut it expressly for them. This is a tradition and custom of the Mountains. Some of you may inquire whether I believe what I am talking about. Let me tell you what I have observed; two or three years ago I went up City Creek Canyon to show a man where he might get wood on shares, which I was having cut. I came to where my men were cutting wood and brush to clear out the road, and I told them to pile it so that my teamster could drive up and load it handily. Soon afterwards an old gentleman came along and, without any privilege from me, drove off the man to whom I had just engaged the wood and began to load it on his wagon. That individual was an old Saint, one who had been twenty years in this Church.

What is the feeling with some of the Yankees, English, Scotch, Irish, French, Germans, &c.? “We have come to Zion where all things are common.” The devil has put this idea into the minds of some, and the devil, I was going to say, cannot take it away from them. They possess this feeling, and they are determined to have it so. With such the idea is, “We are all children of one parent, we all belong to the household of faith, we are one family, and we will have it so, and will not be beat out of it.”

This notion is partly right and partly wrong, and, as I have often said, people ought to know how to discern between the things that are of God and the things that are not of God. This is the spirit they receive in the first place—“Ye are one in Christ Jesus,” and that is right, but are we one out of Christ Jesus? Many would like to have it so. You have come here from all quarters to be one family, yet if some of you come across a wagon wheel, you will appropriate it to your own use, asking no leave; or if you have no axe, you will get one from some part of the great family, and thank God for an axe; and if you come across piles of wood, that you have not labored to cut, you shout, “Thank God, hallelujah, I have found some wood ready cut to my hand.” That is being one out of Christ.

Others will say, “Let us take down this fence, and turn our cattle into this meadow.” You can find plenty of earth and pole fences purposely thrown down, and might hear the trespassers exclaim, “O, this is Father’s land, let us enjoy it.” Others will say, “Damn it, it is mine as well as yours.” I will take some of the reputed best men now in this congregation, who, through carelessness and thoughtlessness, when they have done their forenoon’s work on their five acre lots, turn out their cattle to feed, but at the same time are sure to keep them off from their own lots; and you will find their cattle in other people’s oats, wheat, or grass, while they lay asleep. Yes, some of the would-be-thought best men in this congregation are sure to keep their cattle on their neighbor’s lots, and off from their own, and should you pass along and rouse them up, saying, “Why, brethren, your cattle are in my oats,” they would reply, “Really, brother, I did not know it, I turned them out a little while, and lay down to rest.”

All such people deserve whipping and scolding, and require much training. What for? Not for their goodness, their faith, obedience, honesty, and anxiety to build up the kingdom of God, but for their careless, indolent feelings, for their stupidity in laying down and permitting their animals to trespass upon their neighbor’s crops, for trying to train themselves into the belief that it is right to take this or that, or to do thus and so, when it is not strictly according to the law of God. You and I have got to learn better things.

Let this land come into market and the brethren buy sections, half sections, or quarter sections, and so on, and how soon you would hear, “Bless you, now we have law to defend us.” Can you not see that tradition makes the brethren, where there is a little difficulty, walk into the courtroom with all the confidence imaginable, feeling almost like little gods, and exclaiming, “Now things will be done as they should be, matters will go right now.” And what is done? Why, the lawyers and court take pretty much all the money; for a debt of five dollars taken into court they will expend one hundred dollars of your means in lawyers’ fees, jury fees, and other court expenses, when the question could have been settled in five minutes.

This is an American tradition, though there are fortunately many exceptions to the power of this general tradition. Some men will go into court and spend five hundred dollars and feel as nicely about it as possible, even when their case has not been adjudicated as justly as a sensible “Mormon” boy, ten years old, would do it. And yet, when they know this fact full well, they will spend their time, day after day, and their means with seeming contentment, saying to themselves, “Oh, if we can only go into the court, and address the court, and say, may it please the court, may it please your honor, may it please you, gentlemen of the jury, O, how joyous we shall be—we shall feel as though we were men of some importance, if we can only get up and strut and splutter before a court.” Even when merely a judge is sitting there, like a bean on the end of a pipe stem, who would be flipped off should a grain of good sense happen to strike him, how big he feels while sitting there for days to adjudicate a case that should not require five minutes.

We have got to learn better than to practice and follow after such nonsense, and learn the principle and law of right. That is the doctrine, the tradition which this people have got to come to. Will they come to it? Yes, or be damned, one or the other. I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for all the law that was ever made on this earth, outside of that which has come from heaven, to control a righteous man, neither would any man or woman that desires truth and righteousness. Cannot you observe the law of righteousness as easily as you can observe the poor, miserable, sunken laws devised by a set of wicked men? Some may reply, “My traditions will not let me.”

How do you suppose that the Lord looks upon litigation? It is just as mean and contemptible, in the eyes of angels and of the Almighty, to go to law, and thereby wrong a fellow being, as it is for you to go and steal my property, yet some of you justify yourselves in going to law, and in your other false and unholy traditions. Learn the law of Christ and let alone the traditions of the children of men; make the law of Christ your tradition, for we have got to come to this position.

I will now return to where I began, and again ask, why do you require to be talked to so much? You know right from wrong; there is hardly a person here, but what knows right from wrong, then why do you not all do right? Because of your filthy traditions and dispositions. I have often sincerely and absolutely thought that the doctrine and practice of a certain lawyer was in the end strictly worldly wise; he first studied divinity and preached to the people for the salvation of their souls, until he learned that they did not care so much for their spiritual as for their temporal salvation, when he studied and practiced medicine, but soon discovered that the poor miserable wills of men were more to them than the salvation of their bodies, and he finally studied law and indulged all his clients in the expensive gratification of their wills, which was dearer to them than the salvation of soul and body.

When we have an antipathy towards a person, the temptation is strong to be revenged, and one is inclined to say, “I will do this and that, and will let the passion of the moment control me.” But we have to learn the law of Christ, and to train ourselves to it until it will become the tradition of this people, and then you can bring up your children in the way they should go. In every nation, community, and family, there are peculiar traditions, and the child is trained in them. If the law of Christ becomes the tradition of this people, the children will be brought up according to the law of the celestial kingdom, else they are not brought up in the way they should go. Children will then be brought up, under the traditions of their fathers, to do just right, and to refrain from all evil, and when old they will not depart from a righteous course. Solomon could not carry out this principle in his life, because he was not thoroughly brought up in the way he should go. The old Indian adage is rather the most applicable to the present practice of many, viz., “Train up a child, and away it goes, as it pleases.”

If this people could be shut out from all communication with other people, and have no customs and traditions introduced foreign to the law of Christ, we should soon see eye to eye, and our traditions would be framed according to the celestial law; and we should then be prepared to bring up our children in the way they should go.

I have spoken with much plainness concerning several traditions and practices, in order that the Saints abroad may correctly understand that we are not all, as yet, fully sanctified by the truth, and that both they and the world may know that the Gospel net still gathereth fish of every kind, that the flock has some goats intermingled with sheep of various grades, and that the day of separation has not yet arrived. May God bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 13, 1856.

[Elder Pratt read the 7th, 8th, and 9th paragraphs of the Book of Ether.]

I have read, from the Book of Ether, a portion of what is written concerning that great and wonderful vision, shown to a man in all respects just like unto ourselves, so far as his nature was concerned, all men being subjected to certain evil influences, through the transgression of our first parents. At the same time, if it had not been for their transgressing the commandments of the Lord, in the garden of Eden, this congregation would not have been here.

Because Adam and Eve transgressed we are here with mortal tabernacles; and these mortal tabernacles are subject to vanity, through the power which the adversary has on account of our organization in the flesh; he has power over the spirit, and to bring us into captivity and bondage, and subject us to the yoke of bondage, of sin, of the fallen and corrupt nature; but by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was prepared before the foundation of the world, we have hope of being redeemed from that which is a yoke upon us in the economy of this probation, for mortality was instituted by the Lord to give us an opportunity of proving ourselves.

Our first parents thorough transgressing the law of God, brought death into the world, but through the death of Jesus Christ, life and immortality were introduced. The one brings into bondage; the other gives us hope of escape, of redemption, that we may come forth with the same kind of body that Adam had before the fall, a body of immortal flesh and bones.

Adam and Eve were immortal, the same as resurrected beings, but previous to their transgression they had no knowledge of good and evil.

After the redemption we will not only have the same kind of bodies that they possessed in the garden of Eden before the fall, but we will have a knowledge of good and evil through our experience. For this purpose we are made partakers, through our agency, of the knowledge of evil in this life, that we all may know how to appreciate good when we are put in possession of it.

Hence in our immortal tabernacles, when brought forth from the grave, we shall have a knowledge of our past experience, a most perfect knowledge. There will be no imperfection of memory, but we shall remember, as the Prophet tells us in the Book of Mormon, all things that have taken place during our mortal lives; everything that we have thought and done.

We shall remember that we have been made free from sin through the ordinances of the Gospel; we shall remember the new birth that we received while in this mortal state, the being cleansed from sin through the blood of Jesus Christ, and made new creatures; all those things will be plain and clear before the mind of the immortal man.

There is a great lesson of instruction given in the short history which I have read before you; it shows the privileges pertaining to our religion in some respects, and it shows how much there is to be received, and how much we have not received in mortality.

We also learn from the history we have read, the principle upon which these blessings are to be received, viz., by faith in Jesus Christ. The brother of Jared did not receive these blessings without faith; he exercised faith in the Lord, in the revelations previously received, or which the Prophets had spoken in former days; he exercised faith in the promises given to the fathers.

All the circumstances through which they were called to pass, had a tendency to create a great amount of faith in those ancient men of God. It is true that the brother of Jared had been a Prophet for many years; faith had been centered in his heart, and he could lay hold of the promises of God. He was a Revelator at the time the tower of Babel was built; he was a man capable of receiving instructions from heaven; and hence his brother said, at the time the language was confounded, “Enquire of the Lord if He will take us out of the land, and if it please the Lord to let us go by ourselves, let us be faithful, that we and our posterity and nation may be blest.”

From these few sayings of Jared we find that he had the utmost confidence in the revelations of his brother, for he knew him to be a Prophet and a Revelator. While wandering many years in the wilderness, the Lord continued to reveal Himself unto them in the wilderness; He had shown forth to them His glory, had come down and talked in a cloud and shown them many things which were to come to pass, and instructed them to build barges and cross large bodies of water, before they came to the ocean.

Being taught for many years in the things of the kingdom of God, their minds were somewhat prepared for the journey before them. They were instructed to build eight barges with which to cross the great ocean; and after being fully informed upon those matters, and having finished the barges, the company saw that there was no light in them, and it would have been very difficult to carry fuel such a long distance, in order to have produced light.

Now reflect upon the faith of this man of God; rather than be tossed upon the bosom of the great deep for many days excluded from the light of sun, moon, and stars, and rather than be under the necessity of taking wood to make fires, without any outlet for smoke, and before he knew how the Lord was going to provide light, he carved out sixteen stones, which, though white and clear like unto glass, gave no light.

He carried those stones into a great mountain, and called upon Him who at the beginning said, “Let there be light and there was light,” to touch those stones that they might have them for lights upon the bosom of the deep. This would be sufficient if there was not another word written, to convince any person that he was a man of great faith, and that when in difficulty he called upon the Lord, and the Lord hearkened to his voice, and put forth His hand. And because of this man’s faith he beheld the finger of the Lord when He touched the stones, and those stones were filled with the principle of imparting light.

This was a miracle to those that beheld it, and why so? Because it was contrary to the general laws with which they were acquainted, though in fact it was no more of a miracle for the Lord to show His finger than to do anything else, or than the falling of a stone to the ground. The same Supreme power that causes the fall of a stone, can cause a stone to give light, and in this instance did perform that operation, and they beheld it, and had constant day until they had crossed the sea. One may enquire, “Brother Pratt, why do you refer to those old historical events, why don’t you refer to that which belongs to our everyday duties?” Because there are those around me here who are better qualified to teach you in relation to your everyday duties; they are able to instruct you from Sabbath to Sabbath, and are constantly pouring forth instructions for your edification and benefit.

These ideas came into my mind, and are calculated, if properly understood, to be used as examples for our good; they are written for our edification and that of our children. The heed that we give to the everyday duties which are pointed out to us, will determine in a great measure our reward. It may be asked, “Do you think that it is really our privilege, as the children of God in this dispensation, to attain to the same blessings which were received by those ancient people of God?” Yes, and far greater; for you will find in this same history, in a part which I have not read, that a portion of the same things should be given to the Latter-day Saints through their faith. The Lord says, “Then will I show the great and marvelous things of my kingdom unto them, as I did to him.”

But it all depends, recollect, upon the great principle of faith, and you are to obtain these things upon condition of practicing those everyday duties which you are hearing proclaimed from day to day. With such wisdom, and by continuing steadfast therein, your faith will increase in those great and heavenly principles, until you can lay hold by faith upon all the great and marvelous things that were communicated to him.

What were communicated to him besides what I have read? It may not be amiss to read a few more words, for I fear that we are too careless in relation to those things which pertain to our welfare, which, with the various duties and cares of life, make us careless in listening to the Living Oracles. It is my belief that if this people more carefully read the oracles of the ancients, they would be directed more diligently to attend to the Living Oracles.

We are commanded to search the Scriptures for instructions, but I fear that we neglect this counsel too much, and become careless. In consequence of such neglect, the Lord reproved this Church some years ago, and said that the whole Church was under condemnation, because they had neglected the Book of Mormon; and He told them that unless they would repent, they should be held under condemnation, and should be scourged, and judgments should be poured out upon them. If you would read these things in the Spirit, and call upon God to give you His Spirit to fix the sayings of the Prophets upon your minds, you would do good and derive benefit therefrom. If the Saints will give most earnest and diligent heed unto the instructions given in those books which have been pre– served, and especially to the instructions which are given by our President, they will prosper and be blest in all things.

I will again read, “And because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil.” Says one, “That is a curious saying; I thought the Lord could do whatever He pleased.” This was because the Lord had given His word that He would do according to the faith of the Saints—righteous sons and daughters of Adam—hence He could not restrain the brother of Jared from looking within the veil.

When there is sufficient faith in the hearts of the children of men, it is impossible to withhold blessings from them, if that faith is exercised, for if the Lord should do so, He would forfeit His own word, and we read that it is impossible for God to lie.

I will now read as follows: “And it came to pass that the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt not suffer these things which ye have seen and heard to go forth unto the world, until the time cometh that I shall glorify my name in the flesh; wherefore, ye shall treasure up the things which ye have seen and heard, and show it to no man. And behold, when ye shall come unto me, ye shall write them and shall seal them up, that no one can interpret them; for ye shall write them in a language that they cannot be read. And behold, these two stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also, with the things which ye shall write. For behold, the language which ye shall write, I have confounded; wherefore I will cause in my own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of men these things which ye shall write.”

Now notice the words of Moroni, upwards of 400 years after Christ: “And when the Lord had said these words, the Lord showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth. For he had said unto him in times before, that if he would believe in him that he could show unto him all things—it should be shown unto him; therefore the Lord could not withhold anything from him, for he knew that the Lord could show him all things. And the Lord said unto him: Write these things and seal them up; and I will show them in mine own due time unto the children of men.”

You recollect that when the Book of Mormon was translated from the plates, about two-thirds were sealed up, and Joseph was commanded not to break the seal; that part of the record was hid up. The plates which were sealed contained an account of those great things shown unto the brother of Jared; and we are told that all those things are preserved to come forth in the due time of the Lord. The 11th paragraph informs us respecting the interpreters. I will read it—

“And it came to pass that the Lord commanded him that he should seal up the two stones which he had received, and show them not, until the Lord should show them unto the children of men. And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the mount from the presence of the Lord, and write the things which he had seen; and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men, until after that he should be lifted up upon the cross; and for this cause did king Mosiah keep them, that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people. And after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people he commanded that they should be made manifest.”

These interpreters, the two stones that were given to the brother of Jared, were the two stones that were found with the plates. Again, the Lord says in the next paragraph a portion of which I will read—

“Come unto me, O ye Gentiles, and I will show unto you the greater things, the knowledge which is hid up because of unbelief. Come unto me, O ye house of Israel, and it shall be made manifest unto you how great things the Father hath laid up for you, from the foundation of the world; and it hath not come unto you, because of unbelief. Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel. And then shall my revelations which I have caused to be written by my servant John be unfolded in the eyes of all the people. Remember, when ye see these things, ye shall know that the time is at hand that they shall be made manifest in very deed. Therefore, when ye shall receive this record, ye may know that the work of the Father has commenced upon all the face of the land. Therefore, repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and believe in my gospel, and be baptized in my name; for he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned; and signs shall follow them that believe in my name. And blessed is he that is found faithful unto my name at the last day, for he shall be lifted up to dwell in the kingdom prepared for him from the foundation of the world. And behold it is I that hath spoken it. Amen.”

I have felt disposed to read these paragraphs, for I highly esteem the Book of Mormon, as I presume do all the Latter-day Saints. But many lay it upon the shelf and let it remain there for a year or two, consequently they become careless concerning the dealings of the Lord with the Former-day Saints.

You are not to suppose that you are going to be jumped into the midst of revelations, and by one great and grand step are to burst the veil, and to rend it from your eyes, do you think that you are to step into the celestial kingdom and see it all at once? No, these blessings are by far too precious to be attained in such a way; they are to be attained by diligence and faith from day to day, and from night to night. Hence you are to become habituated to do good in your thoughts and conduct, in all that you do, until you become perfectly initiated into the great principles of righteousness, and continue to live uprightly until it becomes a kind of second nature to be honest, to be prudent, to govern all your passions, and bring all of the influences of the flesh, of the fallen nature, into the most perfect subjection to the law of God.

I know that it is necessary for you to keep the commandments of the Lord, and not only to keep those found in the written revelations, but to strictly observe all the words of wisdom, counsel, and advice that He has given through His Spirit and His servants. And when you have given diligent heed to counsel, it becomes a second nature to pay the strictest attention to the covenants made and the counsel given by the Living Oracles of God.

These principles are not to be learned by one or two days’, or one or two months’ humility and obedience, for that would be like a child’s going to school a week and being kept six weeks at home, where there is no one to instruct him. It is obvious that a person keeps retrograding, if he does not progress; you are called upon to increase and progress in knowledge and truth until they influence all your actions and doings, until your conduct is rightly influenced, not only in relation to your neighbors, but in relation to all that belongs to your neighbors. When you have learned righteous principles be careful that they never escape your minds, and that your conduct never severs you from them. This is the time and this is the day that your faith should lay hold of this great and good Spirit, and that you should strive for the rich blessings of heaven, concerning which I have read in your hearing this morning.

Latter-day Saints, are not these things worthy of living for? Suppose that you could have the privilege, by living only one week in strict obedience to all the laws of the kingdom, to have these blessings; I verily believe that there are not many Latter-day Saints, but who, if they knew that they could enjoy all the blessings of the ancients and have the visions of the heavens laid open to their minds, so that they could have before them the past, the present, and the future, so that they could understand the things of God, would live very faithful, and be of one heart and of one mind.

Would not everyone who heard such promises try to obtain the prize, to enjoy the blessings promised? The counsels and instructions of those whom God has appointed would be fresh before them every moment; when they arose in the morning it would be the first thing they would think of, and it would be the last thing at night. They would be able to do twice as much labor as when their minds are not upon the things of God. Their minds would be so entirely swallowed up that they would feel like Alma and others, while among the priests of king Noah, when they had burdens upon their backs; their burdens were made light so that they were able to bear them cheerfully, and so it would be with the Latter-day Saints. Let them have that Spirit one week, and they would find their bodies stronger and more active, and they would almost forget whether they had been to their breakfast, dinner, or supper, their minds would be so completely swallowed up with heavenly things, and everything would prosper.

You are to claim blessings by your conduct, you are so instructed; some are apt to be so neglectful and remiss in their duties that they are not able to claim them. They forget what is in store for them, and do not pray for the Spirit to impress those blessings upon their minds, but suffer their minds to be drawn out too much upon temporal business instead of the things of God, and become weary in mind and body, so that they feel like neglecting the more prominent duties, such as family prayer and many others.

This is because they do not enjoy sufficient of the Spirit of the Lord, for it is able to strengthen everyone of you. Look at the promises made to the missionaries, “He that shall go forth to preach the Gospel without purse or scrip shall not be weary, nor darkened in spirit nor in body.”

What is it that strengthens them so that they do not become weary in body and in mind? The Elders abroad are called upon to labor diligently, and many times to sit up almost all night to teach the pure principles of eternal life, and when they lie down they rest perfectly calm as though they were not weary, and arise invigorated with faith, intelligence, and power; their minds and bodies are strengthened by the power of God.

So it would be with you, if you were sent on a mission, as well as with those who now go to preach the Gospel of salvation for the gathering of the honest in heart.

The Elders go forth in faith and with prayer for the gathering of Israel; to bring them to Zion, to plant vineyards, to build houses, to help build up the cities of Zion, and beautify the earth.

You are all on a mission to make yourselves of one heart and of one mind before the Lord, and if you are faithful you can claim the promises that He will pour out His Spirit upon you, and that Spirit will be poured out upon those who are faithful from morning until evening, and they will be quickened and invigorated to perform whatever is necessary.

If you come to this house with your minds upon the things of this world, and hear the servants of God speak upon the great things of the kingdom, their words will go in at one ear and out at the other, your minds will be darkened, the devil will step in and tempt you, and you are liable to be prostrated in body and mind by his power, because you have given way.

While we are here there is a chance for every Latter-day Saint, and I feel to say, set yourselves in order, ye heads of families, and then set your families in order; regulate your lives one towards another in your families, in your neighborhoods, and in all your communications and dealings one with another.

In this way the enemy will not have power over you, and all your works of light and righteousness will be regulated by the principles which you have received, and by the order which should govern the Saints of God; showing that you are sick of your old traditions, confusion, and discord, and that you are contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints; believing that the same blessings which they enjoyed may be poured out upon your heads.

Perhaps, before I again return to behold the Saints in these valleys, a great temple may be reared upon this Block, upon the foundation already laid. Before that time, perhaps, the services of the Lord may be administered therein, with baptism for the dead, as the Lord has promised, and other sacred and holy ordinances pertaining to the last dispensation; ordinances that have been kept sacred from the foundation of the world, things kept to be revealed in this last dispensation.

If the time is so near at hand when a temple shall be completed for these sacred and holy purposes, there is none too much time for you to prepare yourselves in the holy course of righteousness.

You cannot expect to live as many have lived, and then be able by one tremendous great effort to at once call down the powers of heaven into your midst. All, who will enjoy the privileges which it is the prerogative of the Latter-day Saints to enjoy, must live for them.

Why not Saints have these blessings? Is it because God is partial, and willing to bestow greater blessings upon some than upon others? No, it is because you do not sufficiently prepare yourselves before Him, for you have to become sanctified; hence it is said in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, speaking of the Temple which shall be built in Jackson County, “That those that enter therein shalt behold the face of God.”

The promise was not made to the impure, to those who had not sanctified themselves before the Lord, but to the pure in heart. It naturally follows that similar blessings are prepared to be poured out by the Most High upon the Temple that shall be built upon this Block, and upon the people who shall go therein. How many of this congregation would be prepared to receive such blessings?

The Lord might say to the angels, such and such ones have been faithful to all the calls that have been made upon them; they have not turned to one side; they have not given way to their passions; they have not neglected the counsels of my servants; they have exercised faith in me and have lived to it and by it; and now do you messengers go forth and show yourselves unto them in that Temple, that their eyes may be opened, that they may become as the brother of Jared—to see and taste the joys of the other world. But let the eyes of those who have not been diligent be dark, let them not have sufficient faith to behold your or my glory, let the veil that is over the nations remain between them and my glory. I will venture to say that there are at present comparatively few that would be prepared to receive the great blessings which are in store. I feel anxious upon this point, my brethren and sisters, not only for your sakes but for my own.

When you shall rend the veil that is between you and the heavens, it will be by your works of faith and obedience. Do you realize that you are the individuals to rend that veil? Jesus has done his part, and he is willing that the veil should be rent; he has made intercession before the Father; he has offered his own life, and what more can he do? When you shall have faith to rend that veil which is over your minds, you will find that the heavens are ready and waiting to bestow the blessings promised, just as soon as you are prepared to receive them.

Here let us reflect a little upon the principle by which the brother of Jared was capable of seeing things that are behind the veil, and by which Moses saw every particle of this earth, inside as well as outside. How did they see these things? The revelation says, “By the Spirit of God.” If Moses had the Spirit so that he could discern all things in the earth, while he was quite a finite being like the rest of us, why should not we have that same gift imparted unto us?

The brother of Jared was so filled with the Spirit that he was enabled to behold the person of Jesus Christ, and all the inhabitants of the earth that had lived previous to his day, as well as those who should live afterwards. They rent the veil between them and the heavens by their faith and obedience to the commandments of the Lord; they saw the history of past events from the beginning of the world, and all the inhabitants that ever had been.

There is such a thing as a natural man’s looking into the past, but their power is very much restricted. Lord Ross constructed a very powerful telescope, having an object glass six feet in diameter, and by it a man can see a vast distance into space, and behold what existed ages ago. With this mighty instrument it has been determined that other worlds exist hundreds of thousands of millions of miles distant from us, and that the light from them which reaches the eye through the telescope must have been traveling several hundred thousand years before it reached the eye, hundreds of thousands of years before Adam was placed in the garden of Eden.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago the distant bodies of the universe were lighted up by the glory of God, and the light thereof has at last entered the tremendous telescope of Lord Ross, and thus individuals have been enabled to see—what? Not those bodies as they exist at the present time, but to see them as they existed tens and scores of thousands of years before this world was made.

Here, then, is looking at the past, and that naturally, independent of the mind’s being waked up by the power of God, as were the minds of the brother of Jared and Moses.

Again, this glorious and heavenly principle, with which a righteous man is endowed, reaches forward into the future for thousands of years to come, as far as the Great God will permit the sceneries of ages to be opened to mortals. It is not the fault of our organization that we do not enjoy this principle, but because we do not entirely get rid of those erroneous traditions which we have received from our fathers.

The faith of the Gospel is what is required to lead us on until we burst the veil asunder; for this faith will enable us to burst off the shackles by which we are bound, and prepare us to enjoy the holy Priesthood, with all the blessings guaranteed to the Saints of God, and to gaze into the hidden things of eternity.

Reflect upon past experience and upon the workings of the Spirit of God, and you will discover that you have often been forewarned of events long before they took place; and if you cast your minds into the book of the Spirit of God, and behold the acts and doings of the Lord in ages to come, you will find that the same principle that exists in the bosoms of the Gods is with you, though in a very undeveloped condition. Let your minds be set upon the will of God and upon His kingdom, and what will be withheld from your sight?

There are many principles contained in the words which I have just read. Jesus, for instance, stood before the brother of Jared, not in his body of flesh and bones, not as an infant, not as a small spirit one foot or two feet high, but a full-grown spirit; and when the brother of Jared beheld the finger of Christ he beheld a full-sized finger as of a man, for says Jesus, “When I shall take a body of flesh and bones and redeem my people I will appear as thou now seest me, but this is the body of my spirit; I show myself in the spirit, you behold it, you see that it is of the size of a man.”

“All men in the beginning have I created after the body of my spirit,” as much as to say that “you, the brother of Jared, did not receive your existence a few years ago here in the flesh, that was not your origin, but all men, all those that I will show you that have existed or will exist upon this earth, in the beginning have I created after the image of the body of my spirit.” They were all spiritually organized before they came here.

This is the only place in the Book of Mormon where pre-existence is clearly spoken of, and this was revealed before the organization of this Church, and is a doctrine which was not in the possession of the Christian world, hence it shows that it was dictated by a Spirit capable of revealing a doctrine unknown to the Christian world—the pre-existence of man.

There is much doctrine in the Book of Mormon and Book of Doctrine and Covenants that would be instructive to the Saints, if they would not let them stay upon their shelves. Knowledge of truth would not harm you, though it may be better for some to let their books remain shut, rather than to transgress against greater light, for then greater would be their damnation and punishment. In proportion as we advance in the knowledge of the things revealed from the heavens, and in the powers and keys that are conferred upon us, the greater will be the condemnation, if we fall therefrom. This shows the propriety of every man and woman’s habituating themselves, as I have already said, to righteousness.

If you were, within one week from this time, to be let into all the visions that the brother of Jared had, what a weight of responsibility you would have upon you; how weak you would be, and how unprepared for the responsibility; and after the vision had closed up in your minds, and you left to yourselves, you would be tempted in proportion to the light that had been presented before you. Then would come the trial, such as you never have had. This is the principle upon which the devil is allowed to try us. We have a circumstance in relation to Moses’ being tempted; when the vision withdrew, and the heavens closed, the devil presented himself and said, “Moses, son of man, worship me.” Moses replied, “Who are you?” “I am the son of God,” was the answer. Then said Moses, “You call me son of man and say that you are the son of God, but where is your glory?” Could Moses have withstood that terrible manifestation, if he had not practiced for many years the principles of righteousness? A mere vision would not have strengthened him, and even to show him the glory of God in part would not have enabled him to combat with the powers of darkness that then came to him. It was by his knowledge of God, by his perseverance, his diligence and obedience in former years, that he was enabled to rebuke the devil, in the name of Jesus Christ, and drive him from him.

So it will be with you, whether you have the necessary preparation or not, for the Lord will say to the powers of darkness, you are now at liberty to tempt my servants in proportion to the light that I have given. Go and see if they will be steadfast to that light; use every plan so far as I permit you, and if they will yield they are not worthy of me nor of my kingdom, and I will deliver them up and they shall be buffeted. You, Satan, shall buffet and torment them, until they shall learn obedience by the things that they suffer.

Hence the propriety of preparing for these things, that when they come you will know how to conquer Satan, and not want for experience to overcome, but be like Michael, the archangel, who, with all the knowledge and glory that he had gained through thousands of years of experience, durst not bring a railing accusation, because he knew better. And when Moses withstood Satan face to face, he knew who he was and what he had come for. He had obtained his knowledge by past trials, by a long series of preparation; hence he triumphed.

So it must be with Latter-day Saints, and if we prepare ourselves we shall conquer. We must come in contact with every foe, and those who give way will be overcome.

If we are to conquer the enemy of truth his power must be made manifest, and the power which will be given of the Lord through faithfulness must be in our possession. Do you wish to prevail—to conquer the powers of darkness when they present themselves? If you do, prepare yourselves against the day when these powers shall be made manifest with more energy than is now exhibited. Then you can say, the evil powers that have been made manifest, the agents that came and tempted me, came with all their force, I met them face to face and conquered by the word of my testimony, by patience, by the keys which have been bestowed upon me, and which I held sacred before God, and I have triumphed over the adversary and over all his associates.

Brethren, pray for me, that I may accomplish the mission that has been given to me acceptably in the sight of the Lord, acceptably to these my brethren that are presiding over me, acceptably to the nations, to the Saints here in Great Salt Lake Valley, that I may be one of the Saints that shall be perfected in righteousness, in long-suffering, in patience, in humility, and return in joy and peace to rejoice again in your midst. I ask the Lord to bless us, one and all, with his Holy Spirit, and to guide us in the way of life. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Parley P. Pratt, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1856.

My brethren, sisters, and friends, I have rejoiced in the return of this anniversary of the rise of the Church, and to see so many of those that we have reason to believe love the truth, assembled in general conference; in beholding and seeing the faces of so many as were assembled on yesterday, and as are here today; to feel the spirit, behold the unanimity, and the good feeling that appear to exist, and the dispatch with which we are enabled to transact business; and in reviewing the past, looking at the present, and contemplating the future, my heart has been cheered.

I have been highly edified and interested, and have had reason to rejoice in looking at the Saints gathered in from the north and from the south, from the east and from the west, who have met to rejoice and reflect upon the things of God. I have rejoiced while listening to the edifying discourses which have been delivered. I have not heard anything more useful and more to the point for a long time than the discourse on yesterday in the forenoon; it was practical and instructive in all its points, just the advice and counsel that are needed at the present time; nor have I been less edified and instructed in the remarks made, as I conceive in the spirit of prophecy, in a great measure, that flowed from my brother yesterday in the afternoon, a parting discourse as we may call it, as he expects soon to depart to a foreign land on the other side of the ocean.

I have also been led to reflect much in contemplating that this is the twenty-sixth year since the restoration of the Church of God, visibly as an organization upon the earth. Twenty-six years have rolled away in the experience of this Church, and it naturally leads the mind to contemplate upon the past, and past events will rise in review, the memory will fall back upon them and whether we look at the past, the present, or the future, the mind cannot but view it, if it is constituted like mine, or influenced by the same spirit that mine is influenced by, with pleasure and delight.

Twenty-six years ago, the coming summer, mine eyes glanced over the Book of Mormon, and I afterward heard the voice of the servant of the Lord and enjoyed the smiles and the blessings of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum, and received under their hands and those of Oliver Cowdery the Priesthood, or a portion of it, and the keys and power of the same, they having received it by the ministering of angels, to be carried through to all the people of the earth; and at that time all the people of this Church upon the face of the earth, could have been assembled in the vestry of this Tabernacle without being much crowded.

The joy which filled my bosom in reading that sacred record, waking up our minds and giving us the knowledge of the past dealings of God with the inhabitants of this vast western hemisphere, and of a nation of people as ancient as that of Abraham or of the Jaredites, and giving us a knowledge also of a branch of scattered Israel led away from the land of their fathers 600 years before Christ, and the glorious fact, the most important of all others in the book, that the risen Jesus in his glorified immortal flesh and bones set his feet upon this western hemisphere and ministered publicly to thousands and thousands of the Nephites, blessed them, revealed to them his Gospel in its fulness, and was glorified in their presence, and thousands of them had the privilege of bowing at his feet, of bathing his feet with their tears and of kissing them, and of handling him and seeing and beholding the wounds that were pierced in his side and his hands and feet, and of hearing the words of salvation and the commandments of God from his own mouth, and then from day to day they had the privilege of assembling in general conference and hearing his prophesyings, and his remarks on the prophecies of the Prophets referring to himself and to others, prophecies also concerning this our day, and the coming forth of this work to us, and the visions that should appear and be given at the opening up of this dispensation; all these things received in faith in my heart, and by the spirit of knowledge and of light and of understanding, and of hope and joy, and charity filled my heart in a way that I never can express to any being; to have the same joy understood, it must be experienced.

Nor have I been disappointed in my hopes since I embraced this Gospel. After twenty-six years of progress—progressive fulfillment of the things spoken by that Redeemer to the Nephites, and the things written by his commandment and brought forth unto us, I not only believe but I realize and know by the Spirit of the Lord as well as a man knows anything that he sees and hears, and better too, for a man might be deceived in seeing or in hearing, but I know these things by that light that reflects on the understanding, and in which there is no mistake, nor deception; by that I knew that the work was true and that Joseph Smith, the finder, translator, and the restorer of the Priesthood upon the earth, was a Prophet and an Apostle of Jesus Christ—a restorer, raised up according to that which is written, to bring back and commit unto the person appointed, those covenants, those keys, those ordinances, that Gospel and plan of salvation which were had in old times, but which had been suspended and lost from the enjoyment of the people; I say, that he was such, I had a knowledge and an understanding.

He was only about twenty-four or twenty-five years old when I first met him, and I became intimately acquainted with him and his brothers, and with his father’s house, and I remained so, as far as I was not separated by foreign missions, until his death; and did I not know, and do I not know and bear testimony that he lived and that he died an Apostle and Prophet of Jesus Christ? And from the day of his death, or long before that until the present, I have been intimately acquainted and associated with the Apostles of this Church and kingdom under all circumstances, whether in sickness or in health, whether in the midst of life or in death, whether in prosperity or adversity; whether abounding or suffering want; whether by sea or land; whether in the midst of peace or of mobs and oppression. And do I not know that President Young and his counselors and the other Apostles associated with him in this Church, hold the keys of salvation? That they hold that authority which administers life and salvation to the obedient and the humble, and which to reject is condemnation, wherever it exists, to every soul of man upon the earth? Yes, I do know it, and I do this day bear testimony of it, and of that glorious Gospel in its fulness which was restored to the earth twenty-six years ago, that filled my heart with joy and charity and love for my fellow men, and with a desire to do good, and to impart the truth as it is revealed.

Has it become dim and waxed cold in my heart, or departed from it? I say unto you no! But if it be possible for a man to rejoice more than I rejoiced twenty-six years ago, I say if it be possible, then I rejoice more today than I did on yesterday and more than I did twenty-six years ago—and why? Because my heart is larger; it was full then, it is full now, and although outwardly and according to the flesh, and in the world I may be in tribulation and sorrow, and care, and labor, and anxiety, yet in Jesus Christ there is peace, in the fulness of the Gospel there is joy, in the Spirit of God there is gladness; and whether we look to the past we rejoice with thanksgiving, and whether we look to the present our hearts seem to grow larger, and whether we look to the future there is hope and a fulness of joy, and we increase in understanding—and why? Because the Spirit that is in us sheds forth in abundance in our souls joy and satisfaction, and the Gospel inspires us with a degree of knowledge and light, and certainty in regard to what we are about, in regard to the work we are engaged in and the prospects that lie before us.

We know for what we labor, although in the flesh, subject to mortality and its weaknesses, we may be partially asleep, or in other words we may know in part, comprehend in part, prophesy in part, and hope in part, not seeing and realizing the fulness, nor the thousandth part of the fulness that will be consummated in the progress of this work. But after we see enough of it to serve us for the time being, and we enter into it with sufficient comprehension to rejoice with a heart full of joy and of satisfaction, it inspires us to act with all our heart, might, mind and strength.

I have often been reminded by the faithful laborers in this Church, the Presidency and others, of the parable in the Book of Mormon that these latter-day laborers should be called to prune the vineyard of the Lord. It says that “Their numbers were few, but they did go to labor with their might,” and it says, “The Lord labored with them.”

Well, do they not do so? Do not the old Prophets and Apostles help us? Have we not their aid and their influence in our favor? Zenos and many other Prophets are helping us. Lehi and all the Prophets understood the principle of union and concentration that would be necessary in the last days. And Nephi in bringing up this prophesy which was uttered by the Prophet Zenos and putting it in his book, shows that he considered it of importance to the people of God, and it is written there that we might see and understand how it was that the great work of the last days was to be fulfilled.

Is it not being fulfilled every whit? Have not the eleventh hour laborers been called? Are not their numbers few? And have they not labored with all their might, many of them? We won’t say all, because there are many called but few chosen, but those chosen men that have been faithful, have not denied the faith, nor departed from the labors assigned them, nor forsaken the cause, but have held on and held out all the day long; and many more laborers of more recent date, have they not labored with all their might, temporally, and spiritually? Verily I say unto you, yea, and the Lord has labored with them; and if you want the proof look around here! What else but the power of these laborers and the powers of the Almighty God with them could have led these thousands and tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints over seas, deserts, through the mountains, overcoming every obstacle and then have sustained them in these Valleys? Did not the Almighty labor with them when He clothed them and fed them? Was not His eye over them in providing circumstances through which they might be fed and clothed, and have the necessary comforts of life? When He caused them to flourish in the midst of a desert country? When He inspired the Gentiles to pass through here with all kinds of tools, clothing, shoes, seeds, with cattle and horses, flour, bacon, powder and lead, from the frontiers of the United States, and throw them down at the feet of this people cheaper than they could buy them where the articles were produced?

Did not the Lord labor with His servants and with this people? Yes, He did. And when they had made the track where neither wagon nor horse tracks had been seen for hundreds of years and for hundreds of miles of the journey, and made the bridges and crossed the streams, they had not more than made a commencement on their journey when five hundred men were called for by the United States to go to the seat of the Mexican war; and these men took California and made it secure to the government of the United States.

When these men were discharged from government service, two thousand miles from their friends and without means to return, did not He guide them to bring forth the treasures of the earth, to bring forth the shining dust, and turn the world upside down? And did He not cause persons from all parts of the earth to follow in their wake, with their implements, their provisions, and their various kinds of tools, from the United States to this country, and when they came here they found themselves too heavily laden, their animals worn out; but they were bound to press onward, and hence they stripped for the race and harnessed for the battle, to see who would reach the gold mines first.

Well, suppose a man had stood up and prophesied before the Battalion went to California, or when we were first driven out from Illinois, that we should ever be prospered, clothed and fed until we could come here into these mountains and raise food for our own sustenance, who would have believed it?

And suppose a man had prophesied thus—“The Gentiles will follow you like a flowing stream by scores, and hundreds, and thousands, and they will bring their flour and bacon, their sugar and dry goods, their tools and implements of husbandry, their iron, and everything that is of use and pour them out at your feet, so that your every want will be supplied, and the treasures of the earth will open under your feet, and the treasures of the ancient mountains shall be opened unto you, and the clouds shall drop down their rains. “Suppose that all this had been prophesied; also that Great Salt Lake City would become the great central seat of government for this country, and that the Gentiles would come like a mighty flowing stream, and that we should after all our difficulties be sustained, who would have believed it? Why someone would have said, this is wild enthusiasm; it is too good to be true.

Well, this people came, sustained themselves on the journey, and arrived in this desert country, plowed up the parched earth and put in their seeds, after bringing them more than a thousand miles, besides what they had to bring to sustain themselves on their journey, and they have lived until now on what they could raise in these deserts. Who ever heard such things? And yet the very moment that we are tried, some of us are complaining, and you will find that our stores are not overflowing with plenty, and the insects eat our grain, nearly everything is destroyed by the grasshoppers and drought, and we are then brought to ourselves.

For these trying times some will begin to say in their hearts that the Lord has forsaken us, and the Lord has forgotten us, but He will show that He hath not. Can a mother forget her suckling child? Say, mothers, can you forget your infant children? Peradventure you may, but it is not likely; yet though a mother may forget her child when it cries with hunger, yet the Lord says He will not forget Zion. He may show that He is displeased with the acts of some, He may hide His face from them in His justice, yet in His loving kindness He will chastise them, but He will make a way for their escape. Brethren, will His friends ever forsake Him? Or will He ever forsake them? No, never.

To sinners He has never made any promise, but that they shall be rewarded according to their works; but to the Saints that keep the commandments and abide in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to them that do believe and know His will, He has made these; but those who have known Him and in the day of tribulation forsaken His laws will be beaten with many stripes. To all those who stand firm and steadfast when the love of many shall wax cold because of the famine and pestilence, and great trials with which the Saints of God are to be tried before the judgments pass from the house of God to the wicked, to all such He has made precious promises, and they will be fulfilled; and the promises concerning things to the house of Israel as well as to the Saints of the Most High will surely be fulfilled, for those promises hold good to the other side of the veil; for although the remnants of Israel are not yet in the Church, although not in the covenant, yet they are beloved for their father’s sake, and the promises have claim on them because of the promises made to their fathers; and though these their children do not understand it, and though they are in a state of ignorance, not knowing the Lord, ignorant in relation to the promises obtained by the obedience of their fathers, yet the promises extend to them as well as to us Latter-day Saints.

Do you suppose these promises will be fulfilled? I know they will. I knew they would twenty-six years ago this summer; I knew it then, I have testified to it ever since; I know it now, and though heaven and earth should pass away, yet not one jot nor one tittle of the promises of God concerning the Latter-day Saints, concerning Zion, concerning Jerusalem, concerning the Jews, concerning the Lamanites, concerning the remnants of Joseph, concerning the seed of Lehi, or concerning the ten tribes of Israel, or any of the branches thereof—not one will fail, but they all will be fulfilled in their time and in their season.

The work has rolled on progressively up to the present time; not one jot or tittle has rolled out of its place, but it has moved on harmoniously, and it will continue to progress, and all the promises will be fulfilled.

In order to aid in their fulfillment, the Latter-day Saints, the faithful, those who hold the keys of this ministry, must fill their storehouses with grain, their treasures with the comforts of life, their cellars with vegetables and all kinds of food, which can be preserved, and this will be done in the own due time of the Lord.

Whatever straits, whatever poverty, and however long they may last, yet the Lord will smile upon us and we shall again have plentiful harvests; and however much there may appear to be in the world at the present, yet in the own due time of the Lord they will need bread and provision, and the necessaries of life, and if faithful to the counsel given, we shall be able to succor the poor, and have means to help the laborers and the mechanics, and to supply the wants of the needy.

We shall be able to call into requisition the skill of the able mechanics, to have the benefit of machinery, and we shall have all the skill, and all the power, and all the wisdom, and all the treasures, and all the means necessary to build up Zion, gather the people, redeem Israel, fulfil the promises, and build the holy temples and cities of our God; redeem and bring about the restoration of the living, and administer for the dead, and do all things necessary to accomplish the purposes of God whereunto we are called.

Who will live to see it? We will live to see a great deal of it before we die, but in one sense of the word, we all will live to see it, for we will never die, but we shall part with our bodies, and beyond the veil, we shall then be no less interested in this great and glorious work.

I know some people are apt to think, while the Latter-day Saints are a small people, and considering what we sift out, and what go to California and the States, and with one thing or another, that we do not increase very fast, and that we cannot accomplish all these things that were predicted.

Well, I do not expect that the Latter-day Saints will accomplish the work; I never thought they would. I will tell you my opinion, no, my knowledge, and my testimony; call it opinion if you please. The Latter-day Saints never expect to do it all themselves, but they expect reinforcements of the former-day Saints, and that the two will carry it all out.

You know the prophecy of Daniel about the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens being given to the Saints of the Most High God to possess it forever and forever; you have read it and no doubt understand it.

Well, a mock court under the administration of Austin A. King, since governor of Missouri, while Joseph Smith and others were taken by a mob and were made subject to this inquisition, and to a mock trial, and while undergoing this mock trial the question was put to a witness, “Do these people, these ‘Mormons’ believe in this verse in the Prophet Daniel?” and at the same time quoting it. “Yes,” said the witness. “Put that down,” said the judge, “it is a strong point for treason.” “But,” says one of the lawyers in defense, “Judge, you had better put the Bible down for treason.”

That was a very suitable reply; but mind you the text does not say that the Latter-day Saints would possess the kingdom, but it says that the Saints of the Most High, and of course that includes the Latter-day as well as all the former-day Saints from Adam down to the end of time.

Well, then, when the former-day Saints reinforce the Latter-day Saints, and all the powers of heaven are in the midst of Zion, and all the people from Adam and from Jesus Christ, and from the least and last Latter-day Saint all combine their faith and their works, and their powers, and their gifts, I would leave it to any intelligent person in Christendom whether or not they will be able to do this.

I say they will; I know it; but to say that the Latter-day Saints ever undertook it is not correct, for they never undertook any such thing. It is, as I told them in California, in public debates and everywhere throughout the State where I had an opportunity of speaking to them, and while they were threatening the sword because they could not get the governor out of the chair. I told them to their faces that they need not worry themselves about the Latter-day Saints undertaking that job, for they never would, and they never would be strong enough; but the Saints of the Most High had undertaken it, and I told them that these would reinforce the Latter-day Saints, and then they will all combine together, and they will do it, for it has to be done, and it will be accomplished; and this is what we are here for today; it is for what we are assembled at this conference, and we never had but that one object in view, neither have we now, whether we come together to sing, pray, prophesy or bless, to saw wood or to chop it in the canyon; if we are Saints we never had but this one object in view.

Just so with the former-day Saints, they never had anything in view, in heaven or on earth, but this one object in relation to the earth and the inhabitants thereof, and that was to rule and reign on the earth and over it, and over the elements, and over the people, and over all kings and all presidents, and all governors, and all rulers, and all powers that exist upon this planet, and finally over death, and hell, and the devil, and all his hosts, and the last enemy that will be conquered on this earth is death; so it is written.

Well, that is the object, brethren, is it not, of our coming together into these mountains? This is the object, and we have armed forces enough to do it, and they will be brought to bear, and our part of the business is to get ourselves ready. The powers of the heavens will not cooperate with unholy powers directly, and fully, and immediately; of course we as a people are not yet holy, we have not yet gained that fulness of the Gospel and of righteousness, but hardness of heart and blindness of mind do prevent us from rending the veil, and it doth cause us still to measurably remain in that state of blindness spoken of by the Prophet.

We have not yet learned all things as they are, and to entirely overcome iniquity, and because of this the powers of heaven, although ready, cannot fully commune with us, for we are not ready. For this cause your President labors, and for this cause his counselors preach here, and lift up their voices from day to day, and from time to time, and for this cause the Apostles labor and toil amongst you; it is to get a modern people, a latter-day people, a latter-day kingdom or Church ready, united, sanctified, enlightened, made holy, and prepared for the glorious union, and immediate presence and cooperation of those who have gone before us; for the conquest of the earth, the elements, and all the powers connected therewith, to put down iniquity, to put down Satan, to put down sin, to put down corruption, darkness, and error, and misrule, that the cause of light and truth, and the principles of virtue and rectitude may prevail, and the reign of peace and righteousness be ushered in.

This is the object, and now, is it not worthy of our attention and of our suffering a little? Why, the Almighty God will chasten His people from time to time, because He loves them, and He will purge out the sinners from among them, and some will repent and become righteous, and a great many who promise themselves that they are going to repent and become first-rate Saints, but do not begin, need not flatter themselves, for they never will do so in that manner.

When you see men that are not ready to repent, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, but say, I want to indulge in sin a little longer, and then I am going to turn round and be a first-rate good Saint, I will tell you they are deceiving themselves, for they will not do it, for every time they think of doing it they will love sin as much as they did before, and they will continue to love sin, and why? Because, when He (the Lord) spoke they would not hear; when He sent His servants they would not listen, and they would none of His reproof, and because of this He will laugh at their calamities and mock when their fear cometh, and when they call He will not hear, and when they seek Him earnestly they will not find Him.

A man cannot be righteous of his own will and without the Spirit of the Lord; there is no assurance for men, they cannot have the Spirit unless they determine to walk in the light as fast as they see it. Those who promise to repent, but want to indulge in sin a little longer, do not repent, and their hearts are not fit for the kingdom of God.

That man is on the right track who always loved the truth, and lived up to it, as far as he could, with all his exertions, and walked in the light thereof every day, and every time he saw a little more truth obeyed it, and if he did anything at all it was his purpose continually to avoid error and walk in the truth. If he failed at any time it was his weakness, his error of judgment, his mistake, his temptation; it was not because he did not want to do right, or to put it off purposely and choose sin; but it was through his weakness and temptation.

I tell you there is a poor prospect of a man that makes no progress; there is a more promising prospect of a man that has no light, yet lives in the practical duties of his religion, that man or that woman must be happy. Why, bless your souls, there is hope with such a man, and though he may err in judgment and make mistakes, and though he may trespass, and though he may sin many sins that are not unto death, make many mistakes through weakness, and have to be borne with a long time, yet I tell you there is hope of such a man, because if he lives he learns to see his duties, and if he stumbles and falls down, what of all that?—he will get up again and start on his journey, and when he starts the next time he will start well.

Brethren, don’t seek to discourage or crush such a man; it will not do to destroy a man because he makes one or two blunders; it will never do to cry for spilt milk, but try again; and if you cannot overcome at first, try again, and keep trying until you overcome.

But when a man is not trying, but loves to live in sin, but still says every day, “I am going to be a good ‘Mormon,’” I have but little hope of such a man, and I generally say to him, you will not do it, for the Lord will not give you His Spirit when you please to get ready to repent.

But the honest man says, “I have been brought to see the truth, and I will do the best I know, though I have a thousand traditions, and though I make a thousand mistakes, and my brethren have to bear with me, yet I will do the best I can, and will be willing to try again; and if I find myself weak and unable to progress and overcome, I will pray that the good Spirit and the strength of the Lord may help me.” When a man talks in this way, there is hope in his case; I don’t care how such traditions have been entwined around him, or how many blunders he may make; I say there is hope in those who seek diligently to learn their duties, and endeavor to live up to them; and this makes me have hope for this people and for myself.

But when a man is careless and indifferent to the blessings of providence, and keeps putting off his repentance, and is continually looking after the things of this life, the Lord don’t want such a man; he has no use for him, and damnation awaits such a man, and he will have to wait patiently for the return of the good Spirit to again lead him to repentance. Such a man won’t prosper, for a man that will fix his own business first, and then serve God, he is not worthy of Him. He has no business with his own business, his business is to serve God, he has no other business; as I said, whether preaching or whatever place he may be in, he should have but one object in view—the kingdom of God. In whatever part of the earth he may be located, whether among the Saints or in the very midst of wickedness, and where the power of the devil holds sway, it is his duty to preach righteousness faithfully before the people.

Well, brethren, I bear testimony that Joseph Smith and the witnesses to the Book of Mormon were, and, so far as they held out faithful, are men of God, holding the keys of the dispensation of the fulness of times, which is calculated to lead the people out from the iniquity and abominations of this lower world; and that their successors, the Apostles, your President and his Counselors, received the keys under the hands of the Pro– phet Joseph. They are the Apostles of Joseph Smith, and holding the keys of a dispensation which will never come to an end, for although all other institutions on the earth come to an end, this will stand forever.

They are faithful and they labor diligently, and I bear them record that they labor with all diligence, and God is with them, and their counsels will lead to exaltation, and to celestial glory and eternal life, and those that are with them bear a portion of the same keys; they are men that have been faithful and true, many of them have been proved to be such through a long series of years, and they would lay down their lives for the cause; and they, I say, hold a portion of the keys of this kingdom, which they received under the hands of Joseph the Prophet and others of the Apostles, and they will bear those keys and this ministry triumphant to the nations, and while they live they will live for this purpose; whether the flesh lives or not, they will never cease in this world, nor in the spirit world, nor in the resurrected world; whatever their circumstances may be, they never will cease to labor until they accomplish that which they have undertaken; they will labor for this worthy object.

I am not speaking of the eternities, but they will labor for this earth and every creature therein until the conquest is achieved, and death swallowed up in victory; for the powers and keys of endless life, without beginning of days or end of years, have undertaken the great work of the redemption of this earth; they have not and will not pass to others until they have redeemed this little world. Christ offered himself a sacrifice for this earth, for men, for the animals, for fishes, and the creeping things. Christ died for the earth and for the elements; Christ died for all mankind upon its face. Christ died, his blood was spilt, the Priesthood was given, and the labor will continue with the Priesthood from generation to generation, until the kingdom will finally be given to the Saints to possess for ever and ever. He died to accomplish the salvation of all except the sons of perdition, and they have had all these blessings applied to them, and have partaken of them, known them, and then turned enemies to them, and there is not anything greater that you can do for them, and they perish, for after the blood of Christ has been shed and they despised it, nothing more can be done for them than already has been, for they have rejected the means of salvation.

If salt won’t save me, what else will? If salt loses its saltiness, what will salt the earth? All this was undertaken, and it will be carried through until every son and daughter of Adam have an opportunity of participating in its benefits.

Then here is my heart, and here is my hand to every good Saint in this world, in the world of spirits, in the resurrected world, and in all the worlds connected with this warfare and this work—here is my heart and hand! Depend upon it, if I am counted worthy, I will be somewhere about, whether I stay here or go there, whether I stay in the flesh or go into the spirit world, or whether in the resurrected world, depend upon it, while my name is Parley P. Pratt, I will be somewhere about, and while I am, I will have that one object in view, and if I go into heaven, I shall think of nothing else until this is done, nor act with any other view, and I want to be counted worthy, and I mean to try to be, and trust in God for the rest. God bless you all. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1856.

It certainly is enough to try the nerves of the strongest man and the lungs of a giant, to rise and address such an immense assemblage as is here this morning, especially with the reflection that they are expecting to listen to and be edified with what I may be able to say.

When I reflect that yesterday I saw the Saints coming in from the south, and some of them on foot, both men and women, bringing their children some fifty miles in their arms, as many did, to get here and attend this Conference, and consider that such labor is to be requited by the instruction and intelligence which they will receive, and then undertake to address an assembly under these circumstances, I feel the necessity for the faith of the Saints to be exercised in my behalf, to enable me to speak for the instruction and edification of so vast an assemblage.

When I was about twenty-one years old I went on a mission, in company with Elder Don C. Smith, the youngest brother of the Prophet Joseph, through the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. When he rose to preach he wished to see a pretty good sized assembly, and to talk at least a couple of hours; when it was my turn to speak, some thirty minutes, perhaps, was as much time as I would wish to occupy. We occasionally had a small assembly, then Don would say, “Come, George A., you are good at preaching a picayune sermon; suppose you try this time.”

It would seem today as though a picayune sermon would not answer the purpose, if the size of the congregation is the scale in which the discourse should be weighed.

It is said, in one of the parables, that “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.”

In 1830, on the 6th day of April, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized with only six members. Joseph, in one of his letters in relation to Alexander Campbell, in December 1835, said that “the three measures of meal might be compared to the three witnesses who were called upon to testify of the Book of Mormon, and who selected and ordained twelve Apostles to go forth and be special witnesses to all the world.”

Whether the application was really intended to be laid down as a rule I will not say, but it is very evident that when Joseph Smith laid the foundation of this kingdom he commenced depositing the leaven of truth, and that that leaven has continued to increase up to 1856, when an assemblage of the Saints, who are here as representatives of this people, is crowded out of such a spacious building as the Tabernacle, and obliged to assemble in this large Bowery, also densely filled.

It shows that the leaven is operating, and I may say gives fair and conclusive ground upon which to expect that the whole lump will eventually be leavened.

The condition of our Territory, the nature of our soil, the peculiarities of our climate, appear as if designed expressly by the Almighty for the fulfillment of this prophesy, and the upbuilding of the kingdom of heaven in the last days.

It matters not what corner of the earth men come from, unless they possess the spirit of the leaven of truth they will remain but a short time in these mountains before they begin to consider it the wrong place, for the leaven is working, they cannot quite endure the climate and the peculiarities of the country, or something of the kind, and off they go.

On account of our altitude we are most advantageously situated for the drainage of the filth, scum, and corruption, when it accumulates to a certain extent, for it flows off in different directions, thus leaving the people of the kingdom remaining as it were alone.

Could anyone have supposed that, when the proclamation of the Gospel was commenced twenty-six years ago, the people who would receive that testimony would be knocking for admittance into the national confederacy as an independent State?

Had it then been predicted, prophesied, or proclaimed to the world, that such would be the case, the very strangeness of the matter, the difficulty of the task, the unheard of idea, would have been so great an apparent absurdity that men, who would have believed it, would have been considered greater fools than those were deemed who received the testimony of the Prophet concerning the ministry of angels.

We stand here today a great and mighty people, the servants of the Most High God, and almost every single circumstance, which has occurred from that time to this, has had a tendency to condense us together, to unite us more and more, and to place us in circumstances and situations to spread forth the curtains of Zion, to enlarge her habitations, to lengthen her cords and strengthen her Stakes, and to make the place of the feet of the Saints glorious.

Such, then, is the present aspect of affairs. Much has been done, and much now remains for us to do. The great work has only just commenced. When we entered into this Church we began our education, and it frequently happens that two or three years, and perhaps more, have to be spent in unlearning what we had learned amiss.

The human mind is wonderfully susceptible and tenacious of traditions, and whatever may have been our traditions, it is an extremely difficult task for us, as human beings, to dispense with our traditions at once. They will hang about us, we will retain them, more or less, hence it often happens that, when you baptize a sectarian preacher into this Church, and a great many of them have been so baptized, in a little time his foolish traditions will become so apparent as to make him despise himself.

For this cause scores of them have turned away and joined the mob to destroy the Saints, rather than be stripped of their traditions, which they had so long hugged to their bosoms, and considered of so much value.

A portion of the persecutions which followed this people in their early history have been influenced, to a considerable extent, by the corruptions of those who professed to be in the midst of the Saints, who had been baptized and lived with the Saints, but finally, when their corrupt practices and traditions were about to be exposed, would turn away and join the enemies of this people, and seek their destruction with greater malice, seemingly, than those who had never joined us.

We ought to make profitable lessons for ourselves from observations of the past. I know, brethren, that we have our traditions on a great many subjects. Take a man, for instance, who has been a lawyer, or a magistrate, in the States, or in England, one who has read Blackstone, Kent, and a few other law books, and undertake to explain to him a simple mode of administering justice, one that can be plainly understood by all the people, and I do not care how much education or “Mormonism” he has, the very moment the simplicity of administering justice is laid before him it comes in contact with his traditions, and he will quibble about the meaning and placing of words, the mode of spelling, or the tail of a comma, and continue so to do, perhaps, during his whole life, without ever learning that matters brought before us ought to be dealt with according to the nature of the case and the circumstances, without going back a thousand years for precedents to govern us.

Take a man who has been educated a sectarian minister, he has certain grave ideas imprinted on his mind, he must pray in a certain form, and perhaps use a certain tone of voice when he offers up his prayer, and however much he may believe the Gospel of the last days, he will constantly be at a loss to know whether he is governed in some things by the principles of truth, or whether in reality he is not following some of the whims or traditions of his early education.

You may apply the same rule in farming. Take a man from the Western States, place him on some of our farming lands and tell him, “Here are twenty acres of land, and it is all you can properly farm, unless you have more help than yourself. Now fence and cultivate it, and you can make an abundant living.” He would be apt to say, “You must be mad; bless you, I need 160 acres, I can cultivate that much at least. I have always done so, and I will not have anything to do with such a little patch.”

I have seen many engage in farming here, and have known them to work four or five years without having the first acre secured by a good fence, and without cultivating the ground in a manner suited to the soil and climate. Why? Traditions interfere, they have been traditionated to run over a great quantity of ground, and to not half cultivate it, until farms are almost entirely exhausted.

Incorrect traditions, though long followed, have to be surrendered, and we have to build up Zion. The plan of Zion contemplates that the earth, the gardens, and fields of Zion, be beautiful and cultivated in the best possible manner. Our traditions have got to yield to that plan, circumstances will bring us to that point, and eventually we shall be under the necessity of learning and adopting the plan of beautifying and cultivating every foot of the soil of Zion in the best possible manner.

When the Saints become instructed, when this people become united as they should be, when they learn things as they should learn them, they will not be subject to the constant and unpleasant annoyances to which they have been subject.

Many think there is no necessity of doing anything more than to throw a little seed in the ground and plough it under, that then they are sure of a crop. They often farm without fences, sow their seed without properly preparing the land and attending to it, and then trust in God for the balance.

Others think it irreligious to speak upon temporal subjects on the Sabbath day, that it is a violation of the day to talk concerning our business transactions on the Sabbath.

If I understand the order of building up the kingdom, it is a spiritual work, on every occasion, to give proper instructions necessary for the good of the kingdom. Very small matters lead sometimes to great results.

There are many here, as religious as this congregation looks, who have not got a good fence around their farms, yet they will kneel down in the morning, perhaps, to offer a prayer. By the time they have got one knee fairly to the floor, peradventure somebody thunders away at the door and cries out, “Neighbor, there are twenty head of cattle in your wheat; they have been there all night, and are there now.”

The man of no fence is roused up, and instead of praying he is apt to think, “Damn it,” and to start off to get the cattle out and put them into the stray pen.

Perhaps another neighbor has not been quite as wide awake in the morning, and had prepared no place in which to secure his cattle: he is about ready to say his prayers when his ears are saluted with, “Neighbor, all your cattle are in the stray pen, and $100 damage is to pay.”

Thus you must see that some temporal arrangements are necessary, to enable men to enjoy that quiet which would be desirable in attempting to worship our Heavenly Father.

You may think that these small matters amount to but little, but sometimes it happens that out of a small matter grows something exceedingly great. For instance, while the Saints were living in Far West, there were two sisters wishing to make cheese and, neither of them possessing the requisite number of cows, they agreed to exchange milk.

The wife of Thomas B. Marsh, who was then President of the Twelve Apostles, and sister Harris concluded they would exchange milk, in order to make a little larger cheese than they otherwise could. To be sure to have justice done, it was agreed that they should not save the strippings, but that the milk and strippings should all go together. Small matters to talk about here, to be sure, two women’s exchanging milk to make cheese.

Mrs. Harris, it appeared, was faithful to the agreement and carried to Mrs. Marsh the milk and strippings, but Mrs. Marsh, wishing to make some extra good cheese, saved a pint of strippings from each cow and sent Mrs. Harris the milk without the strippings.

Finally it leaked out that Mrs. Marsh had saved strippings, and it became a matter to be settled by the Teachers. They began to examine the matter, and it was proved that Mrs. Marsh had saved the strippings, and consequently had wronged Mrs. Harris out of that amount.

An appeal was taken from the Teacher to the Bishop, and a regular Church trial was had. President Marsh did not consider that the Bishop had done him and his lady justice, for they decided that the strippings were wrongfully saved, and that the woman had violated her covenant.

Marsh immediately took an appeal to the High Council, who investigated the question with much patience, and I assure you they were a grave body. Marsh being extremely anxious to maintain the character of his wife, as he was the President of the Twelve Apostles, and a great man in Israel, made a desperate defense, but the High Council finally confirmed the Bishop’s decision.

Marsh, not being satisfied, took an appeal to the First Presidency of the Church, and Joseph and his Counselors had to sit upon the case, and they approved the decision of the High Council.

This little affair, you will observe, kicked up a considerable breeze, and Thomas B. Marsh then declared that he would sustain the character of his wife, even if he had to go to hell for it.

The then President of the Twelve Apostles, the man who should have been the first to do justice and cause reparation to be made for wrong, committed by any member of his family, took that position, and what next? He went before a magistrate and swore that the “Mormons” were hostile towards the State of Missouri.

That affidavit brought from the government of Missouri an exterminating order, which drove some 15,000 Saints from their homes and habitations, and some thousands perished through suffering the exposure consequent on this state of affairs.

Do you understand what trouble was consequent to the dispute about a pint of strippings? Do you understand that the want of fences around gardens, fields, and yards, in town and country, allowing cattle to get into mischief and into the stray pen, may end in some serious result? That the corroding influence of such circumstances may be brought to bear upon us, in such a way that we may lose the Spirit of the Almighty and become hostile to the people? And if we should not bring about as mighty results as the pint of strippings, yet we might bring entire destruction to ourselves. If you wish to enjoy your religion and the Spirit of the Almighty, you must make your calculations to avoid annoyances, as much as possible. When brother Brigham was anxious to have men take ten acres of land each and fence it, many thought that he was behind the times. The result is, from the time I came into the Valleys, in 1849, to the present, I never have been to the big field south of this City, or around or through it when it was fenced, and if any other man has seen it fenced, he has seen it at some time when I did not. The reason of this is, and has been, either we undertake to accomplish more than we can do, or neglect to do our duty in many respects.

In traveling through the other settlements you find similar difficulties. I do know that there has been more quarrelling, faultfinding, and complaining, throughout the settlements south of this County, in consequence of bad fences, in consequence of men neglecting to fence their fields and secure their crops, than from almost any other source of annoyance.

People have undertaken to fence far more land than they have ever tried to cultivate as it should be.

Brother Kimball requested me to preach on matters of policy, and I have come to the conclusion that the best policy is to undertake to cultivate a little land, and to fence and cultivate it as it should be, and to only keep as many cattle as we can take care of, and keep from destroying our neighbors crops. In that way I believe we will be able to avoid a good many annoyances, and to adopt a great deal better policy than we now have in those respects. In the City of Provo, there has been more grain destroyed, every year since I first went there, than has been saved, and the main cause has been the want of proper fences.

In the commencement of new settlements, we have generally committed an error in undertaking to fence too large a field. When we first established the settlement of Parowan, in Iron County, the brethren got together in a general council, and took into consideration the propriety of fencing a field. I recommended that they should fence 640 acres with a heavy, substantial fence, and cultivate it like a garden; and when that was done, then they might increase their possessions. There was not half a dozen men, out of the hundreds who were there, who came with me, who agreed with me. I was told that I was no farmer, though they would admit that I had a little experience in preaching.

It was urged that my advice, if adopted, would be equivalent to ruining the settlement, consequently, to avoid a general murmuring throughout the camp, it was concluded to fence in 6,000 acres.

We have worked at that job from that day to this, and have not yet had an acre of land securely fenced. They have now come to the conclusion to adopt the identical plan suggested at first, and to fence in a section of land to begin with.

There has been a constant complaint about selling the land for fencing, quarrelling here and there about cattle doing mischief, and they have become thoroughly converted to the doctrine I recommended. Experience had to teach them the lesson, though it was not so much experience with me, for my father taught me that a man could not raise a crop with any certainty unless he first fenced his land, and it was considered one of the most ridiculous things a man could be guilty of, in a new country, to plant a crop and let the cattle destroy it for want of a fence. Some settlements have made tolerably good fences, but as a general thing the poles are stretched too long for their size, the points sag down, and should a cow or an ox happen to pass by such an apology for a fence, and understand that it was designed to keep out animals, they would be insulted, and, were it not against the law to fight a duel, you might expect such cow or ox to give you a challenge for such gross insult. The inhabitants of this County, perhaps, know better how their fences look than I do. I am going to advise my brethren, the farmers, if they have more land than they can fence, to sell, rent, or throw it out to the commons, and secure one acre at least, and from that to ten, or as much as they can actually enclose as it should be, and then cultivate it in good style. Do not haul off the straw to burn, but save it all, and all the manure you can produce. In this way Zion can be made to blossom as a rose, and the beauty of Zion will begin to shine forth like the morning, and if the brethren have not learned by experience that this is the course to pursue, by that time they will learn it. I presume a great many have become satisfied that it would be better to avoid many of these annoyances.

There has been some grumbling, in many of the settlements, that the Indians destroy the crops, that they go through the fences and let their horses into the fields. It has been in my way, frequently, to look at these fields, and, as a general thing, there was no fence there, or, if a fence at all, not such an one as would induce any person to go round it. The leaving of bars, the throwing down of fences have been as often through the carelessness and neglect of white men as of Indians.

On one occasion last season, I heard a tremendous complaint brought up in meeting, that the Indians had done great damage by throwing their fences down and turning their horses into the fields, but before the meeting was dismissed it was made apparent that the Indians only traveled the path made by the white man, and were actually more careful than many white men, for they had been seen to take down the fence and put it up again, when white men would take it down and leave it so, or break it by driving over. I recommend, as a system of economy, that we commence from the year 1856 to avoid these errors, these blunders, that we may escape the results flowing from them.

There is another thing that I think by this time has become understood throughout the Territory, and that is, that we live in a cold northern latitude, at a high altitude, and that we are liable to have very cold winters. There have been several severe winters already. In the winter of 1849-50, many of the animals belonging to the United States’ troops perished in Cache Valley. Many have supposed that our cattle were going to live without being fed; that they would run on the range and fat all the winter, as in Central America; this supposition must have been this winter pretty fully exploded. A system of true policy and domestic economy would indicate, then, that we must collect and preserve feed for our animals, and prepare barns and stables to shelter those necessary to be kept for immediate use.

At last Spring’s Conference, the brethren came in their carriages by hundreds and thousands; I now see numbers of the same persons footing it to this Conference with sore feet, walking 50 or 100 miles. What has become of their horses? They are so poor they cannot get up alone, or are out on the range, as there was nothing to feed them with. Let us take a valuable lesson from this circumstance, and make suitable provision for our stock.

So many coming to this Conference on foot, called to mind some of the history of my early days. I have traveled some thirty thousand miles on foot, and a great portion of that distance with a valise on my back, without purse or scrip, to preach the Gospel, and I understand something about sore feet. But I must say, when I saw brother Graves and his wife walking fifty miles to attend Conference, and carrying a child, that I thought they were indeed anxious to hear instructions. Says sister Graves, “I came all the way here from England to hear brother Brigham, I have not yet had a chance, and I am now determined to hear him.” I will prophesy that the time will come when they, through faith and perseverance, will come to Conference in their carriage.

Good domestic policy requires us to be careful in providing such comforts and necessaries as we can produce within ourselves. If we let our sheep perish our clothing will be scanty, or we shall be forced into the stores to support distant producers. If we let our cattle die we shall not only lack beef, but our homemade leather will be missing. In short, the difficulties and wrongs which may grow out of such carelessness are numerous. It should by all means be our policy to produce every article, which we can, within ourselves.

These sentiments are strictly within the scope of my religion, and those comforts and conveniences, which we are constantly in need from day to day, are necessary to enable us to perform the duties God requires at our hands. One of those duties is, to take a course that will enable us to enjoy the blessings and comforts of life, that we may preserve our health and strength to labor for the upbuilding and spread of the kingdom of God.

Much is said in the world, and considerable excitement raised on the subject of “women’s rights.” Complaint is made that the rights of women are taken away, that they have not the privilege of working outdoors like men, have not a chance of voting at elections, of holding commissions in the army and navy, or of being elected to honorable offices in government. Whether “women’s rights conventions” will terminate as did the lady’s rebellion in Hungary, in almost universal war, is not now for me to say. But I will say to our “Mormon” sisters that they have the best prospect of having their rights, of enjoying the privilege of a healthful share of our outdoor labor, of cultivating the gardens and of aiding in the management of business, of any women at present on the earth, for every Conference calls for a considerable number of missionaries, who are sent forth to preach the Gospel, and to perform other duties in relation to the upbuilding of the kingdom in the last days. This operation leaves many wives and daughters at home, frequently not under the most favorable pecuniary circumstances, and the result is that it calls into requisition their economy, brings out their energies, educates them in matters of business, and, I think, enables them to exercise, as long as they probably may wish to, those avocations and duties which custom has assigned to men, but which are so earnestly sought for by the “women’s rights conventions.”

If any of our ladies are really anxious for the privilege of cultivating the earth and producing the necessaries of life, they most certainly have a fair field to labor in; and if any lack this privilege, and will let that fact be known, their husbands can be advantageously sent forth to preach the Gospel.

The various policies now agitating the world, indicate the crazy state of its society, all split up into parties; and law, and agitation appear to be the general order of the day. Our women, who feel proud to exert their talent in sustaining and administering to the wants of those around them, while their husbands are abroad gathering the Saints or preaching the fullness of the Gospel, merit a constant prayer that the Lord will guide, direct and counsel them, and enable them to fulfil the duties of their several callings, to the end that their husbands may feel at ease while abroad fulfilling their duties, that the anxiety which would naturally rest upon their minds, in relation to affairs at home, may be entirely removed, that they may devote their whole faith and energy in the spread of the Gospel among the different nations whither they may be called to travel.

Many of us have, formerly, been very anxious to be made partakers of the privilege of civilizing the Indians, but now we have become exceedingly annoyed with the loose conduct of some few of them, and may have felt a bloodthirsty disposition towards them. The Lord has placed us in a position through which we are brought in contact with them, and requires us to use all reasonable exertion to reclaim the fallen remnants of Israel. We are not to be discouraged if we have to labor much to reclaim them, and should not thirst for their blood, nor suffer ourselves to be led into a feeling to shed their blood, but should cultivate a strong desire to ameliorate their condition, in every instance where it is possible so to do. Reflect how long the Lord has borne with us and our many follies, and learn to labor long and patiently with the children of the forests, that we may, peradventure bring them, or their children, to the knowledge of their fathers, for it is written that the remnants of them shall be saved. After the remnants of Israel shall be gathered in, not many generations shall pass away before they shall become a white and delightsome people. Then we may, perhaps, look back with regret at our present impatience, and at the disposition of some to destroy that race. God created them, and wickedness and corruption have degraded them to their present condition, but according to the education they have had, the code of morals they have learned, they are more moral and virtuous than many of the white men in the world.

It is said that men will be judged according to their works, based upon the knowledge they have been privileged to possess. Now, I believe that many of the Indians residing in these mountains have done better, according to their opportunities and knowledge, than have some of us. We have had far superior advantages, and of course better conduct and a more perfect walk ought to be expected from us. I have frequently observed the feelings of our brethren towards the Indians, and it takes but very little to rouse in some a disposition to kill and destroy them. Of all the policies that is the worst, for it is much easier, cheaper, and in every way better to feed than to fight them. Aside from that view, in one case you are not guilty of shedding blood, but in the other you bring their blood upon your heads, provided it is not shed justifiably. Occasions may occur, perhaps, when it is necessary to fight them, but they might be far more rare if the brethren would always strictly fulfil their duties.

The history of the settlement of most if not all new States has been fraught, checkered, blooded, with the perpetration of cruelties to the Indians. These should learn us a profitable and valuable lesson, and all the brethren should cultivate a disposition to conciliate under all circumstances, and to avoid, so far as possible, every cause of offense between us and these scattered remnants of Jacob. I have always endeavored to exercise a pacific policy, and still believe it to be the best. The past has proven that a few Indians can conceal themselves in the mountains, and keep a settlement in a state of constant alarm for years. And how has it been even in a level country? The Florida war cost the government of the United States thousands of lives, some twenty millions of dollars, and lasted many years, and after all they purchased a peace, when they could not otherwise reach Sam Jones and his party. Billy Bowlegs, when passing through the gallery of portraits in New York City, recogni– zed the likenesses of Generals Scott and Taylor, and said, “I licked both those generals in the Florida war.”

Peace had to be bought and presents made, which could have been much easier done at the beginning, and thus have avoided the difficulties and consequent expense and loss of life. I hope our brethren will always be courteous, and take a course to avoid the occurrence of any difficulty in this Territory.

I will return to the subjects of home products. We are so situated that we cannot profitably transport our grain to a market outside our borders, nor in case of scarcity easily bring grain here; for these reasons prudence would dictate us to make timely and suitable provisions for storing all surplus, that in case of famine, or great scarcity, we might have a supply of bread.

The Emperor of China has a policy for the preservation of the people of his empire, something like this: he receives one-fifth of all the grain produced, and stores it up against a day of scarcity. That country is so well provided with canals, that in case grain is cut off in any portion of the empire, breadstuff can be easily furnished to the people. And even in case of a general famine, the immense population could be sustained, for some years, from the Imperial stores which have accumulated.

We as well as others, should learn to store our provisions when there is plenty, that we may be prepared against a time of need. The First Presidency, from time to time, since we came here, have taught that it was necessary for us to provide against the day of famine and great trouble, and that it was not only necessary for us to provide for ourselves, but also for the thousands and millions who are flocking to these mountains, for shelter from the calamities that are fast falling upon the world. A goodly share of the human race are now in extreme destitution, and those who are not in very straightened circumstances manifest great wrath towards each other, and war and cruelty are the consequent results. Millions and millions of funds are diverted from the industrial channels and invested in the operations of war, leaving multitudes of people in a state of utmost destitution.

The grain ports of Russia have been closed for a long time, the war question continues to grow still more complete, and as the perplexity increases, multitudes more are deprived of necessary food. These derangements are constantly increasing, and will increase; and the time is not far distant when millions of people will fly to these Valleys as the only peaceful, plentiful place of refuge. Then it becomes the Saints to store up food for themselves, and for the hosts who will come here for sustenance and protection, for as the Lord lives they will flow here by thousands and millions, and seek bread and protection at the hands of this people.

I lately asked one of the brethren why he had not built a house; said he, “I thought we might be driven away from here, and I should lose my labor.” You can understand what I think about being driven, for I calculate that the Lord has got His children into the mountains where He can handle them at His pleasure, and He is perfectly willing that we should stay here and will not suffer our enemies to drive us, unless we rebel against Him, and I do not presume that we shall do that. We are so nicely situated that when a man gets uneasy, or feels like leaving, he can travel over the rim of the Basin and disappear in the far-off regions of gold and plenty, where the comforts of life abound, and that is all he cares about.

When a man apostatizes from this Church, rejects the authorities of the Priesthood and rebels against the principles of the Gospel, he cares no more for anything spiritual, or what pertains to pure religion, than the wild bull of the plains. All he cares about is to satisfy his appetites, gratify his lusts and be filled with the good things of the earth. I have heard numbers of such persons say, “From this day on I care nothing about religion: it is only for myself, my family, and the things we can get, that I care about.” When a man begins to think that brother Brigham is stringent in his measures, and to feel that there is not room enough, that he cannot get enough land, the next thing is he will be seen drunk in San Bernardino, or somewhere else, although he did not go there with the intent to get drunk, but that is the natural result of losing the spirit of the Almighty. It actually does seem that the Lord has placed us in the most complete position for getting rid of all such characters, and occasional seasons of scarcity, occasional dry years, occasional visits of grasshoppers, and an occasional severe winter, produce constant annoyance in the minds of those who wish to get into a paradise in a hurry. If those who are disposed to complain will but reflect a little, they will understand that we are actually situated in the best country in the world.

Do any of you recollect when you used to have the ague THIRTEEN months in the year? Do you recollect of ever calling upon an Elder to lay hands on the sick, and of his beginning to shake while he was attending to the ordinances? Can you not recollect that at times, in Nauvoo, there would not be a house without two or three sick persons in it a great portion of the year? And when a heavy person died there, do you not remember that it was as much as we could do to get enough men round the coffin to lift it, because we all were so used up with the ague, and were so very sickly? Is it so now? Are nine out of ten of the brethren sick here? Do you go to your houses and find a couple shaking on one bed, another in a fever, and a child on the floor unable to get up, and perhaps not one in the family able to get another a drink of water? You can remember such scenes in our former locations, but you are now in a country where these things are comparatively unknown. Do you recollect the time, when in the midst of agues, that the only nourishment many could give the sick was a coarse corn dodger? Corn was often not worth more than twelve cents a bushel, but you could not always get out to carry it to mill; and when you could, you often found the mill so constructed that it would grind two kernels into one, and such was the nourishment for the sick.

Every night the sickly season was talked of, and that sickly season lasted all that part of the year in which we wanted to be at work raising bread. And when you went to meeting, and looked round upon the congregation, you saw an assemblage of pale countenances; and often saw numbers of them starting off before the close of the meeting, because they were unable to stay any longer, and looking as though they would fall down and never be able to rise again. But I now challenge the world to produce a healthier looking congregation than this.

I have heard some say that they were bothered to get provisions, but if there is a fatter, heartier looking congregation in the world I do not know where it is, and challenge the world to produce one. Some have been asking me what I was going to say, at Washington, about our present scarcity, and I gave them to understand that I should tell them that I was about the only person in the Territory but what had plenty to eat, and that the people had thought best to send me away, for fear I would get too lean. The health which has been enjoyed by this people, since they have been in the mountains, exceeds all bounds of previous belief. Through exposure in crossing the Plains, and during our persecutions, has resulted a great portion of the small amount of disease that has appeared among the community. Notwithstanding all these circumstances—the health and the manifold blessings conferred upon us—some have been discontented. I have known men come here so poor that they had to beg the first meal of victuals, and by working three or four years become independently rich, but still they alleged that the country was so hard that they could not live in it, and that they must leave because they had to pay so many taxes, and because so many difficulties surrounded them. I have seen those same men laying on the banks of the Mississippi shaking with the ague, and begging me to administer to their wants, and I suppose they think they will be pretty happy if they can only get back there again. These facts display the weakness of human nature, indicate that our feelings are liable to fluctuate, that our memories are often short and our dispositions uneasy.

These tabernacles must be dissolved, but it is our duty to exercise our talents to the best advantage, and to perform the most good in our power, that we may rightly fulfil the end of our creation, benefit our fellow men, and be prepared for the next state of existence. Let us then be careful not to defile ourselves or corrupt our way before the Lord, not to have our integrity tarnished, but live in humility and in righteousness all our days.

Of all men upon the face of the earth, we are the most favored; we have the fulness of the everlasting Gospel, the keys of revelation and exaltation, the privilege of making our own rules and regulations, and are not opposed by anybody. No king, prince, potentate, or dominion, has rightful authority to crush and oppress us. We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they envy us our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow-minded, pinch-backed race of men, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy, and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. They ought to be ashamed of such conduct, and the still fouler channel which flows from their practices; and it is not to be wondered at that they should envy those who so much better understand the social relations.

I have offered these remarks, on the subject of policy, in rather a rambling manner, something like the parson, who was told that he did not speak to his text, “Very well,” says he, “scattering shots hit the most birds.” May the Lord bless us all, and prepare us to enter His kingdom. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1856.

I feel very grateful to my heavenly Father and to His servants, that I have the privilege of rising this afternoon for the purpose of speaking a short time to the assembly that is before me. Whether I may be able to make those in the outskirts of this vast congregation hear my views, so as to distinguish and understand what I may say, will be better known after I get through.

When I seldom speak before a public congregation, I find that my voice in some small degree fails me, but as I begin to exercise my lungs, and preach some 5, 6, or 8 times a week, I find my voice sufficiently strong, to make a very large congregation hear. It is certainly a source of great joy to me, to see such a vast assemblage of people called Latter-day Saints. There are, perhaps, as many assembled on this occasion, as ever have been assembled, at any one time, since the organization of this Church. Look back upon the history of the past, since the rise of the Church of Christ, and contemplate the various scenarios through which we have been called to pass; it is rejoicing to the mind of the humble servant of God, to think that the Lord has sustained us by His merciful hand, by His outstretched arm and by His kind providence, and has bestowed upon us so great and choice blessings.

How very different we must feel from many who held the Priesthood in ancient times; for instance, in the days of Noah; how very different we must feel compared with what that Patriarch felt. When he looked upon the small assembly of believers converted through his instrumentality and that of his sons, his soul must have been sorrowful, because of the world. (Elder Pratt here blessed the sacramental bread.) How very different, as I was observing, those holding the Priesthood under the present dispensation, must feel compared with those who held the Priesthood in ancient times. If Noah had not been nerved up by the Spirit of the living God, and armed with power from on high, he must have been discouraged under the difficulties that surrounded him. Called upon to publish repentance to the generation in which he lived, in connection with his sons; called upon to proclaim the downfall and destruction of all the nations of the earth, if they would not listen to his heavenly message; called upon to put works with his faith, and prepare an ark of safety for the salvation of those who would listen to his voice, he labored and toiled for a long period; and beholding the hearts of the generation to whom he preached, perfectly sealed up against the truth of heaven, he no doubt sorrowed over their wickedness and abominations; and unless he had been sustained by an Almighty power, he must have been overcome by the discouragements and difficulties which he had to encounter; but the great God, who accomplishes His purposes by few or by many as seemeth Him good, sus– tained him, strengthened him, gave unto him power from on high, and inspired him to perform the work assigned to him, and to save himself with his own household.

How very different is the case with us at the present period. Although in one respect, we have reason to mourn and lament, when we see hundreds of millions of the inhabitants of the earth, rushing down into the vortex of ruin in their wickedness. When we behold this, it is calculated to give sorrow to the heart. In another respect, it is the same as it was in the days of Noah; but a few, comparatively speaking, among the hundreds of millions who now dwell upon the earth, have their hearts open to hear and receive the truths of heaven.

“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the coming of the Son of man.” There are but a few who heed the warning voice of the Latter-day Saints, but yet, that few are calculated to uphold and sustain each other in the midst of the wickedness with which they are surrounded. The more there are united with one heart and one mind, the more can be accomplished in the name of the Lord. There are some things that cannot be performed, although we had the power of working great and mighty miracles; indeed, the great God Himself who has power to control the heavens over our heads, and the earth upon which we stand has not the power to do that which would be naturally impossible, or in opposition to the great, necessary, and fundamental truths of nature, which are eternally unalterable, and cannot be otherwise than they are; for instance, He has not power to be personally present among all the nations of the earth at the same instant of time; consequently, He needs agents to assist Him in carrying out His purposes and His works, where He cannot be present Himself personally. So it is in regard to those who have faith in God; though they may be able to say to yonder mountain, be thou cast down and become a level plain, and it should obey them; though they might have power to say to the Salt Lake be thou dried up and it should obey them; one thing they could not have power to accomplish, and that is, for each to be on a mission at the same instant of time in Europe, Asia, Australia, in the Pacific Islands, and among the various tribes of Lamanites that are scattered over this vast continent.

These are the things that each one alone could not do; hence the more there are engaged of the Saints of the living God, having the same faith, bound together by the same great principles of righteousness, being of one heart and of one mind, the greater will be the works which can be accomplished in the earth; because such a people can spread forth on the right hand and on the left, and can proclaim to millions and millions of people, the glorious tidings of salvation at the same instant of time; while one man alone, though he have power to work mighty miracles, could only proclaim them to a few. In this respect, then, we are blest and we rejoice. Again, we rejoice, in another respect; the Lord our God has clothed His servants with power to bring the honest in heart together from the various nations and kingdoms of the earth, so that their strength might be collected in one, in order that their union and power might be greater, for the accomplishment of that which could not be accomplished in a scattered condition. In this respect, then, we are favored, as well as being favored with the privilege of spreading out our missionaries to the four quarters of the globe.

But it may be asked, “What can be accomplished by a concentration of Saints, in one Territory, that could not be accomplished by them while scattered here and there?” I will answer you. If we were scattered forth, only among the people of the United States, instead of over the nations and kingdoms of the earth, we could not organize ourselves, so as to be governed by our own laws; but by a concentration of the Saints from the distant nations of the earth into one Territory their numbers give them power which they never could gain in a scattered condition. By their numbers, they can appeal with faith and confidence, and with a degree of assurance to the parent government of the United States, and say, “Give us a free and independent State.” Without sufficient numbers, it would be useless to ask for admission. Hence, in the concentration of numbers, we are blest, as well as having power to preach to millions in all parts of the earth at the same time.

In what respect would it be a favor and a privilege for the inhabitants of this Territory, composed mostly of Latter-day Saints, to be organized into a free and independent State of this great republic? Among the many privileges resulting from a State government, I will mention one, namely, we should then have the privilege, according to the great principles contained in the Constitution of our country, of electing our own officers. The people would have the privilege of selecting those whom they desired, instead of being ruled over by those whom they desired not. Would not this be a favor? It certainly would.

We should have the Constitutional privileges, as a free, sovereign, and independent State, which are enjoyed by all other States of this Union: in other words, we should more fully be made partakers of the blessings which our Lord promised to us, more than twenty-five years ago, which I will repeat from the Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 62, paragraph 2—

“It shall come to pass that they (my servants) shall go forth into the regions round about, and preach repentance unto the people. And many shall be converted, insomuch that ye shall obtain power to organize yourselves according to the laws of man; That your enemies may not have power over you; that you may be preserved in all things; that you may be enabled to keep my laws; that every bond may be broken wherewith the enemy seeketh to destroy my people.” In other words, that you may not be tyrannized over by unrighteous governors, judges, and officers, that you have no voice in electing or appointing who may, according to their own will, trample upon your rights as American citizens.

The prophecy which I have quoted has been fulfilled in part, indeed it has been fulfilled to a very great extent. True, we are not a free and independent State; but we are organized according to the laws of man; we have the privilege of making laws, not for one little village, or to govern one little city, or only a few miles square, but we have already the privilege of making laws, the influence of which extend over many villages, cities, valleys, settlements, and counties.

All this has come to pass in fulfillment of the prediction, uttered more than a quarter of a century ago, when the Church was not a year old, and very few in numbers. Have we not reason to rejoice in the high and inestimable blessing, already received in fulfillment of the word of the Lord, especially when compared with the few privileges enjoyed by all the other nations of the earth?

Where can you find a people or nation, that scarcely begin to have the liberty and privileges which the Latter-day Saints enjoy here in these mountains? They cannot be found. What wretchedness, tyranny, oppression, and every other evil that can be named, are already falling upon the nations of the earth! Pestilence, plague, the want of confidence in officers, rulers, governors, kings, and emperors, is everywhere manifest; and, in fact, there is, at the present time, scarcely any confidence between man and man; businessmen have lost confidence in their neighbors with whom they transact business; and why? Because of fraud and bankruptcy. In a moment, when all is supposed to be favorable, when it is believed that debtors are handling their millions, a sudden rumor breaks upon the unhappy creditor, like the roaring thunder of heaven, proclaiming that their debtors have become bankrupt. Confidence is gone, it has taken the wings of the morning and flown away from the nations, and found a resting place within these peaceful vales.

Will confidence again be restored, while the wicked rule? No; it will grow weaker and weaker. Officers will not have confidence in one another; the people will not have confidence in their rulers; and rulers will not have confidence in the people. Why? Because rulers have oppressed the people; they have trampled upon their rights; they have governed with partiality and injustice; consequently, they know that the people, if they had the power, would revolutionize their governments and overthrow their power; therefore, they have no confidence in the people, and the people have no confidence in them, neither in one another.

Merchants and the great men of the earth have but little confidence in each other; hence, their business transactions are continually being broken up. Many become bankrupt with millions in their pockets, which is calculated to destroy confidence.

What is to be done? I will tell you what will be done. The day is near, even at our doors, when the wise and thoughtful among the great men, rich men, and heavy capitalists, will look to these mountains and to the inhabitants of these peaceful vales for safety, not only for themselves, but for their abundance of riches. They will come, bringing their riches with them, to secure their own safety, for there will be no safety but among the people of God; and they will say, “Behold they are united, they are strong, they are at peace, they can be depended upon, they are not bankrupts, they will not cheat their creditors while they have millions in their pockets. We will go up there, and we will deposit our riches in their midst for security, and there also we will dwell, for there is no safety abroad for us.”

Latter-day Saints, do you think, when you hear me relating these things, that I am in earnest and mean what I say, as a reality; or do you think that it is merely a wild fancy that passes through the imagination, like a dream of the night?

Do you suppose that these things are mere chimeras of the brain, or like castles in the air that vanish away with the bidding? No; you know them to be facts, predicted years ago.

I am declaring to you realities, as they do and will exist, and as they will come to pass, as sure as the Lord God lives, and rules, and reigns in the heavens. Where can the people look for confidence and safety, if not in the kingdom of God which is built up in the last days, and which, according to the Prophets, shall never be thrown down, and never perish?

Do you suppose that the nations of the earth are always to be in ignorance in regard to the greatness, dignity, power, and majesty of the kingdom of our God? No, brethren, no; God has decreed that He will exert the very powers of heaven in this last dispensation, to give His Saints power, dominion, and rule in the earth.

If all our ancient fathers who died in faith, holding the power of the Priesthood and the blessings of the celestial kingdom, are to be engaged, as the powers of heaven, to bring about and accomplish the purposes of the Lord in the last days, in the establishment of this kingdom, we may be sure that their united faith, together with the faith of the Saints here upon the earth, will bring to pass and accomplish that which could not be brought to pass in any former dispensation; for faith is a powerful principle—it comes by hearing, it increases by union, and it is made stronger by numbers.

Where there are two or three who go to lay hands upon the sick, they, if faithful, generally have more confidence before God than if they were to administer singly; they prevail more before the Lord; and hence, the commandment is, that two or three lay hands upon the sick and pray over them, that they may be healed. We are instructed to send for two or three Elders, because it is supposed that two or three will accomplish more than one can by officiating singly.

Again, we are told that where two or three are assembled to worship the Lord in the right and proper way, they have claim to greater blessings than the man that bows down to worship by himself; and why is this? It is because, if united and pure in heart, their faith is greater. What mighty faith and greatness of power will be in exercise when all the ancient fathers, Enoch and all the inhabitants of his City, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph who was sold into Egypt, Moses, and all the ancient and modern men of God upon both the eastern and western hemispheres, are met together with one aim and with one object in view, to bring about and accomplish the great purposes of the latter days? Something will have to move when so great an amount of faith is united before God. No wonder, then, that the Lord has said that He has put forth His hand to exert the powers of heaven to roll forth this kingdom in the latter day! No wonder, then, that the Lord, through His servants, has predicted that the glory of Zion should become greater and greater, until the nations of the earth should fear and tremble because of her. No wonder, then, that there should be power enough centered among the Latter-day Saints to excite the distant nations of the earth, and cause many of them to come from afar to worship in His house upon the tops of the mountains!

The faith of the ancients was exercised to bring about this event—the ushering in of the latter-day work. They not only exercised faith to accomplish and bring about the purposes that pertained to their own day; they not only exercised faith to preach glad tidings of salvation to the generation in which they lived, but their faith reached down to the latter day, as the day of rest. Through a long period of darkness of many generations which were to intervene between their day and the latter time, they saw that day of redemption when they should reign most gloriously on mount Zion with immortal bodies.

They felt interested, then, in the sceneries that were to come to pass in the latter days; they felt interested in the glories that were to open upon the world, when their children should be made partakers of all that their fathers desired to accomplish and bring to pass in their own day, that which they sought for and found not, because of wickedness.

If we had to depend upon our own faith alone, to bring about this latter-day work, it would be rather discouraging. The powers of darkness are so strong that our weak human natures might be overcome were it not for other powers that have great influence to aid and assist us. There are evil influences that are ever ready to throw iniquity in our path, and unless we were assisted by beings more powerful than we are, we should most certainly fail to accomplish the work assigned to us.

Consider all these things, Latter-day Saints, and be filled with joy and give thanks to that Being who has thus gathered and established you here in these peaceful Valleys. You say, “It is a rugged country, that it is difficult here to procure a livelihood;” but let me say, that many of you have not been here long enough to try it.

Let me say to this congregation, that there are resources yet undeveloped in this Territory—resources that are able to make you the richest of all people upon the face of the earth, if you only unite yourselves with one heart and one hand to carry out the purposes and plans that are devised by the Presidency of this Church. Let them plan, let them devise and lay out before this people the great work that has to be performed in this Territory. I do not mean that they shall tell you where you shall go out and plant a hill of potatoes, or when you shall pick up a basket of chips, but I am speaking of your greater duties—the important purposes and measures devised and planned by the Presidency of this Church for the general good of this people.

If you will be strict to carry out those plans and measures, and constantly hearken to all counsel from the proper source, you will become the richest of all people upon this earth. Why? Is it because this country is so much better than any other? No; but because the people are better calculated to develop the riches of the country than any other people upon the earth; and even if the resources were not half so great, the people here, if they abide counsel, can unitedly turn everything to the best advantage, and thus far surpass other countries of much greater facilities in other respects. [Blessed the sacramental cup.]

Who are there under the sound of my voice that doubt the divine authenticity of the great work in which they have enlisted? Who are there that doubt the divine authenticity of the Priesthood organized in this Church and kingdom? Are there any that doubt the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon? You that have searched into the history of this Church; you that have read the sacred, pure, and heavenly principles contained in the Book of Mormon, and in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants; you that have heard the sacred principles proclaimed from Sabbath to Sabbath by the mouths of the servants of God, holding the authority of heaven, the living Priesthood in your midst—you that have seen the power of the Almighty working with an invisible hand among the nations of the earth, but very visible to you in bringing about His purposes, establishing you as a free people, organizing you according to the laws of the land, breaking off your yokes and enabling you to worship God according to the great revelations and commandments that He has given; you, that have been so highly blessed, ought never to doubt.

What Latter-day Saint with all these things before him can be justified in doubting the divine authenticity of this work? No one can. I will tell you what makes people doubt; it is when they fall into wickedness; when the devil begins to enshroud their minds with a veil of darkness; when the devil presents to their eyes the great microscope that he has had in existence ever since the fall of man; when he magnifies the faults of their neighbors, and enlarges the weaknesses and imperfections of those holding the Priesthood, then they exclaim, “Oh; this cannot be the latter-day work, it is not the work of the Lord, the Priesthood must be in transgression, they are all wrong”—(President B. Young: that is the devil’s looking glass.)

Such is the devil’s looking glass or microscope that is calculated to magnify everybody’s faults but the individual’s looking in it: and when he wishes him to see his own, he turns the glass the other way, so that his own faults can scarcely be seen. You know that when you look through the big end of a telescope, or when you look into a convex mirror you see objects diminished, and it is just so, when the devil presents your own faults and your own imperfections. It is then, Latter-day Saints, that you doubt; it is then that you feel miserable, and it is then that you are almost ready to apostatize and deny the faith.

But when you can get the Lord’s microscope and look into your own conduct instead of the conduct of others, and see your own imperfections and your own faults and can have a realizing sense of your own follies, of your own unworthiness before God, and begin to humble yourselves and repent and turn away from sin, then your doubts are gone; they have fled; they trouble you no more; you have an abiding witness in your own hearts, a greater witness than prophecy and its fulfillment, greater than the printed word, greater than the testimony of the servants of God. You have the testimony that assures you every moment that this is the work of God; you feel it; think it in every thought; your whole souls are swallowed up in the work in which you are engaged; you feel that there is nothing that you own or possess, nothing upon the face of the whole earth to be compared with the greatness of the value of the principles which dwell within your own bosoms.

I am speaking to men and women who know by their own experience that these things are true; every one of you can bear testimony of them, who have ever tasted the good Spirit of the Lord, and that have felt its influences upon your hearts.

You very well know, that when you enjoy this good Spirit, you have no trouble, let what will take place, it is no trouble to you, so far as you are concerned. You feel resigned; you are in the hands of that Being who placed you here upon the earth; you feel strong in the midst of weakness; you feel that God is your help, and that He will succor you; you know that He lives and that He loves and cherishes you, and that He has a good feeling towards you, like that which dwells in the bosom of a tender parent towards his own child; you know that the Almighty God has this tender feeling towards you, when you do right; and therefore, you have no trouble.

If you go hungry, you are not troubled; if called to sacrifice your own lives, you will not be troubled, but you would say, “Father, I have done thy will; if my work is finished let me come into thy presence; let me behold thy face in peace; let me dwell in the society of the sanctified; let me go where my works shall be continued, where I can accomplish more good, and do more for thy cause.”

These are the feelings of a righteous man and of a righteous woman.

Perhaps this will be the last opportunity that I shall have as an individual of meeting in a general conference with you for—I was going to say, for a long period of time, but I will say, for the short period of two or three years. I know not how long it may be, before I shall have the privilege of meeting again with the Saints in these Valleys of the mountains, whether I ever shall, I do not know of a certainty, but I feel that I shall again behold the faces of the Saints in Utah; I feel that I shall again lift up my voice upon the mountains and in these Valleys and bear testimony of the great and important truths which we have received; I feel that I shall again meet with you to rejoice in the flesh, in this mortal tabernacle. (President: Prophesy!) I could almost prophesy that I shall, but when it comes to prophesying about myself, I feel a little delicate in doing so; but if the Lord will, I wish to live upon the earth to do much good.

I have been in the Church almost twenty-six years, lacking about four months, and I have endeavored to do some little good; but really when I look back upon the twenty-six years of my life, or nearly that, which I have spent in this Church, when I look back upon my feeble labors, and my feeble endeavors, they seem to have been very small.

And although I have traveled much, and preached much, and written much, and tried to do some little good, yet after all, when I compare that which I have done, with that which it seems to me I ought to have done, in days gone by, I feel very weak, and am anxious that I may not be taken from the earth, until I have done more.

I feel willing to perform any mission, whenever the First Presidency of this Church require it of me. If they say go to China, East Indies, Australia, Europe, England, or wherever it may be upon the face of the whole earth, I hold myself in readiness.

These have been my feelings from the commencement; I do not know that I have ever backed out from any mission that was given to me; but have always rejoiced in every mission up to this time.

I believe that two years ago this day a mission was appointed me while I was yet in Washington to return here, and then go back to Cincinnati to assist brother Spencer and others in establishing a stake of Zion in that country; and I came home with that expectation, to return again the following spring; I had no other idea, when I came home, nor until the word came from the Presidency, saying, brother Pratt you need not go to Cincinnati.

That released me from that mission, but I felt just as willing to go upon that as I do to go on the one that is now before me; I rejoice in all those missions, and I wish I could do more good when I go upon a mission.

I am sometimes troubled lest I may not be able to retain a sufficiency of the Spirit of the Lord and the power of the Priesthood, to accomplish the work required of me acceptably before God. I believe that I am troubled about that more than anything else, and especially when there is a mission which places a great weight of responsibility upon me, where it is expected that my brethren will require a great deal at my hands. But inasmuch as you have lifted your hands to sustain me, in connection with my brethren that have been appointed to various nations, I feel to say before you, brethren and sisters, with uplifted hands, God being my helper, that I will endeavor with humility and untiring obedience to the commandments of God, to do some little good; I will try to carry out the counsels and instructions of the First Presidency of this Church, as they shall give them from time to time.

And inasmuch as I feel to bear this humble testimony, not in my own strength, not in my own name, but in the name of the Lord, I feel also to crave your assistance and your prayers and supplications that the Spirit of the Lord may be poured out upon brother Benson, and upon the other brethren who are appointed as missionaries, and upon your humble servant, that we may perform a good work—a work that shall be acceptable to you, to the Presidency of this Church, and to God, and return heavily laden with sheaves, which is my earnest prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 23, 1856.

Through my labors in giving the brethren and sisters their endowments, and superintending the laborers from the different Wards, in addition to seeing to those affairs more directly personal, my body is considerably wearied, and that is the reason why I have requested the Bishops to come with the brethren of their respective Wards, and to bring the necessary tools and labor with the men, thus setting an example, and not place that burden upon my back. I bless those Bishops who came and labored with their brethren during the past week. I should be relieved from such duties, but I am often compelled to attend to them, or they would fall upon brother Brigham. I am always willing to do all in my power to relieve him, but such cares and labors do not all belong to him, nor to me nor to brother Grant, but they belong to Bishops, and to those who are appointed to take the immediate oversight of the labors, pertaining to public improvements, to look after such matters, under the directions of the First Presidency of this Church.

As brother Grant has just remarked, and as others have often taught, brother Brigham has understanding, through the power and influence of the Spirit, sufficient for teaching the Saints their duty, and if they do not perform it, if this people do not save themselves by obeying his counsels, they are bound to go to hell. I know this perfectly well, and so does everyone who has the Spirit of the Lord dwelling within him.

Compared with the hosts upon the earth, only now and then one will receive the Gospel, and after that, only now and then one of those who do receive the truth will be saved by it, and obtain celestial glory. If all the Saints would obey counsel, doing as they are directed, is there any difficulty in their being saved? No, no more than there is raising a crop of grain. We have only to take a wise, judicious course, listen to counsel, and obey those instructions which we receive from this stand, from day to day, from Sabbath to Sabbath, and from year to year. Can I save you? No, I can only advise a righteous course, and encourage and aid in walking therein, it then remains for them to take the course which I advise, and I always advise people to adopt that policy which Joseph taught and advocated, and which brother Brigham now lays before us, from day to day. This is what will save you, and you cannot be saved upon any other principle. I have power to save myself, and if I do not save myself, who will save me? All have that privilege, and naught can save us but obedience to the commandments of God. You say, that you have repented and been baptized for the remission of sins, that you have received the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, that you pray, pay your tithing, and day by day, fulfil all the duties required at your hands; such a course is saving in its nature. The most of those present have received their endowments, their washings, and anointings, and have made covenants to their God and their brethren, before witnesses, that they would be faithful, that they would be true, that they would listen to the counsels of the Lord’s servants, and cease to do evil. All who have done this have been pronounced clean, and will they then go and pollute themselves with the wicked? I am sorry to say that a few are unwise enough to do so.

Both men and women have also covenanted that they will have no unlawful intercourse with each other. After all this, do any of you make a practice of speaking evil one of another, of cheating one another, of lying and deceiving? Yes, some who are under the covenants just named, actually indulge in those evil practices, and I say to all such, that if they do not repent of their follies and sins, their washings and anointings will prove a curse instead of a blessing, and will expedite their condemnation.

If a man sins to that degree that he is cut off from the Church, he forfeits the blessings promised on condition of keeping his covenants. When a man loses his membership in this Church, he also loses his Priesthood, and of course the blessings of his endowments. Do not flatter yourselves that you can retain the blessings of the Gospel, and at the same time pursue a wicked course, for you cannot do it.

I feel the importance of these truths, and my mind is often exercised and profited by contemplating upon them. The other night, as I lay in my bed, so weary that I could not sleep, I reflected much upon the principle of obedience, and the government of God in this Church. I then, in my reflections, applied the principle to families in every way, shape, and manner which I could think of, and said, in my heart, I wish I had the skill of a ready writer and power to write what passes through my mind. In the morning I called upon brother Carrington and mentioned the circumstances to him, and I told him that I wished he would write upon the subject of obedience, which he promised to do at the earliest opportunity. I feel the importance of this, for I know that this people cannot continue to prosper as they have done, unless they do as they are counseled; all must be obedient to the powers that be ordained of God.

If it is necessary for me to be subject to my file leaders, I wish to know whether it is not equally for you, and for every High Priest, Elder, Seventy, Apostle, and all others, to be obedient to the Priesthood of those who are appointed to direct them? Is it not right for all men to be obedient to their superiors? And if so, is it not right for women and children to abide the same principle? My spirit, my body, my family, and all I possess in this world are devoted to this kingdom, and so I may say in regard to brother Brigham. These are my feelings upon this subject, and I have had no different feelings during the last twenty-five years.

Is there any difference in the wickedness of the world now and thirty or forty years ago? I think there is. I do not now recollect of having then heard of a divorce in all the region where I lived, and as for a whore or a whoremonger there were few, if any, known in that locality, and if such were found, they were considered unfit for civilized society. But now look down and see what the world is! I have traveled over some of it; I have traveled through most of the enlightened portions of the United States, and much in England, and I have generally found that those who are called the most enlightened are the most corrupt. Does the sad condition of the world hurt my feelings? Not particularly, for that is their own affair; but when the Saints transgress I feel sorrowful. When brother Brigham comes here, and chastises us through the spirit of revelation, or is moved upon to instruct the Saints to their profit, if any portion applies to me, I treasure it up, and humble myself before my God.

I will give you a key which brother Joseph Smith used to give in Nauvoo. He said, that the very step of apostasy commenced with losing confidence in the leaders of this Church and kingdom, and that whenever you discerned that spirit, you might know that it would lead the possessor of it on the road to apostasy. If then you have got this spirit in your hearts, or in your families, and if brethren and sisters, husbands and wives are contending and quarrelling one with another, I say, there is the spirit of apostasy, there is a place where the Spirit of God does not abide in its fulness. Do you suppose that God, His Son, the Holy Ghost, or angels will dwell in a house where there is quarrelling and loss of confidence in the leaders of His appointing? Would you stay in such a habitation? Then let us banish all strife and contention; let no children contend against their parents, nor wives against their husbands, nor anyone against the authorities which God has established. This should be the course in every family, and in every quorum, and let all be actuated and governed by the pure spirit and principles of eternal truth. Let my family take my counsel, as I take the counsel of my President, and they will go into celestial glory, where I am bound to go by walking in that path.

Say to all the legions of devils between this and hell, “Walk in your own course,” and they will not have much power over us, nor over our children. Why? Because we should live above their allurements, and they would be obliged to go about more congenial business, and God would defend us so long as we did not give way.

It is for us to learn to be obedient in our callings and to the Priesthood, in our several quorums and families, and in all circles where we associate together. This is a lesson which must be learned, and when you learn the doctrine of obedience, you will have power to control the weaknesses of your nature, to control yourselves in every respect. But you never will learn this lesson, and gain this knowledge, until you are willing to be controlled by those who lead you in this kingdom.

I desire to stand in my place, to be beneficial to the Saints, to go in and out before the house of Israel, pure and holy. This is my character, and these are my wishes, notwithstanding my weaknesses, which I admit; and this is the character of brother Brigham, and I know it. God bless his soul forever, and he shall live forever, and go into the courts of glory, and enjoy the society of the Father, of Jesus, and all the Apostles; and I will be along with him there, and so will my brethren who are faithful. We will stand so near each other that the devil cannot get between us, and let all our brethren do the same.

Every family should do so, and if they all did, what trouble would there be? What could the wicked do if all the Saints stood faithful in their own places? Do you suppose that they could commit whoredoms? If no woman would bow to wickedness, where would be the whoredoms? Would there be any? No, there could not be any.

After you have received your endowments, a wicked course will more seriously affect you, it will, therefore, be requisite for you to be much more careful how you trifle with holy principles, and transgress your covenants. For this reason I wish the Bishops to take heed who they recommend as worthy to receive endowments, for we shall require a strict account from them.

We have placed Bishops in the different Wards throughout this Territory, and they should be filled with the Holy Ghost, and know every man and woman in their Wards, that they may be able to discern who are worthy of receiving an endowment.

I have heard of some individuals saying, that if the Bishops come into their houses and opened their cupboards they would split their heads open.

That would not be a wise nor safe operation, for there are some hard heads appointed to counsel and direct you in the path of righteousness.

Brother Brigham and I were raised in the midst of mountains, and we have never yet seen the time when threats would swerve us from the line of duty.

I would like to bless all mankind, if they would take a course that would justify me in doing so, and I have extended my hand to the lawyers, judges, military, and civil officers of the United States, and desire to treat them as I would my own children, but how have some of them treated us? They have endeavored, with a few honorable exceptions, to corrupt the morals of this people. I am opposed to those who strive to work corruption for we wish to be pure, and their course leads to death, hell, and the devil, while we desire to rise in the scale of life and happiness. Amen.