Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, August 16, 1857.

I presume the brethren and sisters are not tired. [Voices: “No.”] You have heard what has been said today by brother Brigham; and I want you to understand most definitely that what he has said expresses my present feelings, and also the feelings that I have had for some time.

I am aware that my words have not gone into every heart, You have supposed that I was hard and rough in my remarks; but if I had listened strictly to the Spirit of God, I should have been a great deal rougher, and so would brother Brigham.

Well, what he has said today is God’s truth. The time has past for us to be abused and persecuted as we have been. We have been driven from place to place, and hunted by our enemies long enough. We have been broken up five times by our enemies.

7 “And again, verily I say unto you, if after thine enemy has come upon thee the first time, he repent and come unto thee praying thy forgiveness, thou shalt forgive him, and shall hold it no more as a testimony against thine enemy—And so on unto the second and third time; and as oft as thine enemy repenteth of the trespass wherewith he has trespassed against thee, thou shalt forgive him, until seventy times seven. And if he trespass against thee and repent not the first time, nevertheless thou shalt forgive him. And if he trespass against thee the second time, and repent not, nevertheless thou shalt forgive him. And if he trespass against thee the third time, and repent not, thou shalt also forgive him. But if he trespass against thee the fourth time thou shalt not forgive him, but shall bring these testimonies before the Lord; and they shall not be blotted out until he repent and reward thee four-fold in all things wherewith he has trespassed against thee. And if he do this, thou shalt forgive him with all thine heart; and if he do not this, I, the Lord, will avenge thee of thine enemy an hundred-fold; And upon his children, and upon his children’s children of all them that hate me, unto the third and fourth generation. But if the children shall repent, or the children’s children, and turn to the Lord their God, with all their hearts and with all their might, mind, and strength, and restore four-fold for all their trespasses wherewith they have trespassed, or wherewith their fathers have trespassed, or their fathers’ fathers, then thine indignation shall be turned away; And vengeance shall no more come upon them, saith the Lord thy God, and their trespasses shall never be brought any more as a testimony before the Lord against them. Amen.”—[Book of Doc. and Cov., sec. lxxxvi.]

I said last winter that I never would sit in another Legislative Assembly under Uncle Sam again, except they behaved themselves; and I say it now. It has been my feelings, for years and years, that the time would come when we would not endure the abuses of bloodthirsty enemies any longer; and I would ten thousand times rather go and live in the mountains than to live here under oppression and unjust government, such as United States’ officials have sought to mete out to us, the Saints of the Most High God.

I do not feel vain, but I feel to say, brethren and sisters, lay aside your vanity and your feelings to exult: there will be a time when you can exult and do it in righteousness and in mercy. There will also be a day when you will be brought to the test—when your very hearts and your inmost souls will melt within you because of the scenes that many of you will witness. Yes, you will be brought to that test, when you will feel as if everything within you would dissolve. Then will be the time you will be tried whether you will stand the test or fall away.

I have not a doubt but there will be hundreds who will leave us and go away to our enemies. I wish they would go this fall: it might relieve us from much trouble; for if men turn traitors to God and His servants, their blood will surely be shed, or else they will be damned, and that too according to their covenants.

Brother Brigham would rather go to battle against the whole world with three hundred men filled with the Holy Ghost, than to have the whole of you, except you are united with us; and I am sure I would.

The day is to come when one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. When that day comes, the Lord will make the enemies of His people flee as if there were thousands after them, when there is only one; and that is the way that God will deal with our enemies. The day of God Almighty is at hand, when He will show forth His power, and when He will deliver His people from all their enemies.

Some who have been apostates for years past are beginning to come back to us; and, inasmuch as they did not stand and be valiant for the truth, we are now going to place them in the front ranks, and put them to the test.

I stand in the name and in the strength of Israel’s God, by the side of my brother Brigham; for there is my place; and your place is to stand where you belong.

Let me say to all of you, Learn to be true and faithful; and, instead of laying out your means for fine bonnets and fine shoes, and for coffee and tea, my advice to you is, if you can get five or ten dollars, go and buy a good blanket, a gun, or a sword. And we want you, ladies, to provide yourselves with weapons, and with all that is necessary, and be ready to defend yourselves; for you won’t always have your husbands to defend you.

I have often told you that you would look upon this day, and say it was the best day you had ever seen.

I have received a good many letters from the several Bishops in the country wards, stating that they have understood that we are working by night and by day, giving endowments to those who are going out to help the handcarts in. I want to tell you we are doing no such thing: we are working one day in a week to keep the devil from getting asleep.

I will say for the benefit of those who are going out on the Plains, and who have not had their endowments, if they will live their religion they shall be protected as much so as these who have had them. When we went up to Missouri, 205 men, we had not had our endowments; but we went to redeem Zion according to the word of the Lord; and that was a preparatory work. And I will say to you that, if you will live you religion while you are gone, when you come back you shall have your endowments, and God shall bless you, while the man or the woman who has received their endowments and does not magnify their calling, will not be benefited at all by them, and they will only tend to their condemnation.

The Lord bless every righteous Saint from this time henceforth and forever. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 28, 1857.

I arise to express some of my feelings in relation to the brethren who may address the Saints from this stand from time to time. I wish you to understand that when you are called upon to speak to us here, we wish you to speak upon the same principle that brother Chislett has. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Brother Chislett has spoken upon that principle. We do not expect the brethren to rise up here to instruct the people with regard to the special duties devolving upon them, or to give the revelations of Jesus Christ to lead the people.

Let me ask this congregation, what does strengthen your minds, your faith, and your confidence in your religion? Is it not the Spirit of the Lord? It is. Is not that what you require day by day? Do you not receive as much of the spirit of intel– ligence, of the spirit of knowledge, and the consoling influences of the Holy Ghost, to have people rise and testify of the things of God which they do know, of those things which they have experienced themselves? Does not that vividly bring to your minds the goodness of the Lord in revealing to you the truths of the Gospel? Does not that strengthen your faith, give you an increase of confidence, and witness to you that you are a child of God? Most assuredly it does. Therefore, when any testify of the things of God, it strengthens their brethren precisely as it did in days of old when they observed the counsel to “speak often one to another,” “strengthen the brethren,” and so on.

A mutual interchange of feelings one with the other, increases confidence in our own hearts, as well as in the hearts of our friends. We are made sensible by our own experience that in changing and interchanging our views, we reveal our hearts, feelings, sentiments, and confidence that we have in each other; consequently, it is a natural result that we increase confidence in each other by our mutual conversation. This is proved to us day by day. Perhaps all have not the opportunity to prove this in so public a manner; but some few have.

In my experience I have learned that the greatest difficulty that exists in the little bickerings and strifes of man with man, woman with woman, children with children, parents with children, brothers with sisters, and sisters with brothers arises from the want of rightly understanding each other. It is not that this man or that woman wishes to do wrong; but if they do wrong with their connections or with their neighbors, it is in consequence of a misunderstanding. Let us learn then to give each other our true sentiments.

It is a great fault in the Elders of Israel, when they talk to a congregation, that they speak a great while about something, but you cannot always easily tell what. It may be more or less natural for some to do this, but it is a habit which can be overcome. Persons can learn to express their feelings by their words. Do not hesitate to tell your feelings.

Many have a foreboding in their hearts; a restfulness, a tremor comes over them, when they arise to address a congregation. They think that it will not do to tell the people just what they understand, but talk about it and talk about it. In this way they darken counsel. Do not darken counsel by your words.

I do not now refer in the least to what has been said this morning; for I really believe that the feelings of brother Chislett were portrayed frankly, honestly, and childlike. That is the way I like to have the Elders talk; and I wish to have them testify to what they know. That will help and encourage others to get the same Spirit; for, in the midst of all that we hear from this stand with regard to counsel and implicit obedience to counsel, you and I must have the testimony of Jesus within us, or it is of but little use for us to pretend to be servants of God. We must have that living witness within us. We need the light of the Holy Spirit continually, day by day, as you have been told hundreds of times. How easy it would be for your leaders to lead you to destruction, unless you actually know the mind and will of the Spirit yourselves. That is your privilege. And when you testify in this public congregation, or in your prayer meetings, testifying of the things of God that you know and understand, you are at liberty to speak freely upon those things which you believe. Instead of getting up to instruct, to lead, guide, and direct the kingdom of God, we want the brethren to tell what they know, what they understand, the joy that they feel, and their experience day by day.

We do not expect the brethren to rise here to instruct pertaining to the leading of the Church. But do they instruct, when taking the course I have suggested? Yes; they instruct me; they cheer and comfort my heart; they increase confidence in me towards them. When they rise to speak here, they cannot hide their feelings, the sentiments of their hearts. And when they exhibit an honest, childlike spirit, it increases my confidence in them, and so it does the confidence of the people, and we are all encouraged and strengthened; we are edified and benefited, and we increase in our religion.

Allusions were made to our situation and the situation of the world. No tongue can fully portray that sub– ject to you. It is impossible for any man to rise here and exhibit the true state of this people—of the blessings of the favor of God towards them. That is not to be known or realized, except by the revelations of the Spirit of the Lord.

This is the kingdom of God; and no man can understand it, except by the Spirit of God. We are enjoying the blessings of our Father in heaven. No person can understand these blessings, except by the Spirit of revelation. When that Spirit has gone from the hearts of individuals, these valleys cease to be the valleys of peace to them, cease to be the valleys of comfort and joy to them, and they seek for other climes. They first wander from the Saints and from their religion in their feelings, and finally they wander in person.

This people are blessed, and are a blessed people. When I meditate upon our present circumstances, and view the situation of the people, I can feel nothing in my heart only to say, “God bless them.” They are a God-blessed people. They do manifest to God, angels, and men, that they are willing to sacrifice, if we may use the expression, all that they have, or expect to have in this world, in its present situation, that they may be the children of light, and walk in the favor of God, and secure their inheritance in the celestial kingdom of our God. All else is in the shade to them. They prove by their works that they are a blessed people, and you will be blessed. You need have no fear but the fear to offend God. If you have any tremblings in your hearts, or timid feelings with regard to our present situation, let me tell you one thing, which is as true as that the sun now shines, that whatever transpires with us, with our enemies, with the world here or there, will still more promote the kingdom of God on the earth, and bring to a final end the kingdoms of this world.

But the people of the Most High God must be tried. It is written that they will be tried in all things, even as Abraham was tried. If we are called to go upon Mount Moriah to sacrifice a few of our Isaacs, it is no matter; we may just as well do that as anything else. I think there is a prospect for the Saints to have all the trials they wish for, or can desire. Do not be discouraged when you hear of wars, and rumors of wars, and tumults, and contentions, and fighting, and bloodshed; for behold they are at the thresholds of our doors. Now, do not let your hearts faint; for all this will promote the kingdom of God, and it will increase upon the earth. Why? Because the world will decrease. We will be strengthened, while they will be weakened. Righteous principles will be multiplied and spread abroad, while wickedness will diminish and become limited in its power. The Saints of the Most High will increase. God’s kingdom will increase upon the earth. And all we have to do, in order to increase, is to be sure that we are the children of God, inheritors of the blessings, promises, and faith of Abraham of old: then, whatever transpires, it is no matter.

The world are determined to destroy the kingdom of God upon the earth: they wish to obliterate it. The kingdoms of darkness are determined to destroy this kingdom. In their feelings they are fighting you and me, and do not know that they are contending against Jehovah. They have not the least idea of that, but think they are contending against the “Mormons.” They are not contending against you and me—they are contending against the God of heaven. Do you think he can manage his own affairs? “Yes, if he only will,” you say. Do you think He can lead this people to victory and glory? “O yes,” every heart responds, “if He has a mind to.” Do you think we are safe in trusting in God? “Yes, if the Lord will actually preserve us.”

How are you going to be assured of all this, and a great many more things? There is but one way—live so that you have the abiding witness within you that, if all the rest go to the devil, I am a servant of God, and will go into His presence. Let every man and woman take that course, and then the Lord will take care of the whole of them.

There is a great deal said by our enemies with regard to destroying us. I will tell you how I feel about that. I have heretofore used a comparison, and it is a very plain one. When I see a number of little boys by the Tithing Office, where we shell the corn, building a cob house in order to pluck the sun from the heavens and bring it down to the earth, I believe that they will accomplish their design just as readily as I believe that the devil and all his imps will accomplish the destruction of this people.

There are very many here who have been brought into tight places—into what we used to call running the gauntlet; and I want to know whether there is a faithful heart in this congregation—one who has been in this church for twenty-five years, but what the Spirit of the Lord has witnessed to him in every difficulty that He enlarged His kingdom more and more, and weakened our enemies. Has not that been the testimony of every heart? [Many voices, “Yes.”] It has been so.

When the brethren were driven from Jackson County, Joseph gathered up 205 men, and went to Missouri to see whether he could not bring about a reconciliation, that the Saints might live then in peace. At that time hosts of Missourians were gathered in different places. True, there were a few in the camp who apostatized, because they could not have the privilege of fight– ing. So far as I was concerned, I did not wish to fight. Perhaps you will think that I was very enthusiastic, should I tell you the feelings that I had at that time; but they were true, and have remained so with me to this day. Inasmuch as we were called to go there by the prophet of the Lord, though I knew and had a witness of this fact, we were in the midst of our enemies, and surrounded by them on every side; yet my faith then was, and it has continued with me, that they might array their sharpshooters with their best rifles and cannon, and shoot at me, and every other man that felt as I did and do, and they would see me a little to one side, and could never make a ball take effect on me. That is the way I feel now. Unless the Lord wishes to deliver this people into the hands of their enemies, they may shoot at me or any other man—they may fight, and howl, and bark, until they wear out their lungs and exhaust all their means, and will sink down and rot in their own corruption, and we will live and spread abroad. That is my faith.

Brethren and sisters, my heart is all the time, God bless you, God bless you. You are blessed. No tongue can tell the blessings that this people enjoy, if they have the Spirit to understand their blessings. Where is there peace, besides in the valleys of these mountains? Where is the place that people can serve God, but in the valleys of these mountains? Brother Chislett just told you, “Nowhere.” Where is the continent, the people, nation, or kingdom, in which and among whom the Book of Mormon could have been translated, angels have visited the servants of God to restore the priesthood and establish the kingdom of God, and that have risen, grown, and spread abroad, but in the government of the United States? Nowhere else, as you were told here a few Sundays ago. How is it now, with the present feelings of the people? Could that work now be done in the United States? It could not. The very duties performed by Joseph, Oliver, David, Hyrum, and others, could not now be done in the United States; for the people would rise en masse and put them to death, or drive them from their borders.

The kingdom rises, increases, and spreads out to the right and left—it goes to the east, to the west, to the north, and to the south; and when the Gentiles are faithfully warned by the words of life freely given to them, and they utterly reject them, you will then find that the blood of Abraham that is scattered upon the islands of the sea and on this continent, will come like doves to the windows, and like clouds before a mighty torrent of wind. They will come and acknowledge the truth, though not at once, and they will greatly increase in the knowledge of their fathers. We can say to the praise of God’s name, and to the praise of the industry of the Saints, that this will commence, and hundreds and thousands of them begin to turn from their wickedness, forsake their folly and their loathsome degradation, wash themselves, and begin to live more as men and women should, and to learn at the hands of the servants of God. They will go into the waters of baptism, confessing their sins, and taking upon them the new and everlasting covenant, by thousands; and it will increase; and many generations will not pass away before they become a white and delightsome people.

The nation that gave me and many of you birth is very nigh to the hours of sorrow. Their cup is very nigh filled to the brim. They reject the servants of God; they reject the Gospel of salvation; they turn away from the principles of truth and righteousness; and they are sinking in their own sins and corruptions. I would that they would have mercy on themselves. I will pray the Lord to have mercy on them, but I pray them to have mercy on themselves to return to the Lord, forsake their wickedness and learn righteousness, and then God would have mercy on them, and bestow His blessing upon them, if they would receive them. But they harden their hearts, shut their ears, stop them up tight, close their eyes, and are determined to hear nothing that is true concerning this people, or the doctrines we preach. But every lie they can hear, imagine, or hatch up, they publish to the world, and it is drank down; they roll it under their tongue as a sweet morsel. They reject the truth and receive lies, until their cup is nearly full to the brim.

The Lord’s time is not for me to know; but He is kind, long-suffering, and patient, and His wrath endureth silently, and will until mercy is completely exhausted, and then judgment will take the reins. I do not know how, neither do I at present wish to know. It is enough for us to know how to serve our God and live our religion, and thus we will increase in the favor of God.

You often hear people desiring more of the knowledge of God, more of the wisdom of God, more of the power of God. They want more revelation, to know more about the kingdom of heaven, in heaven and on the earth, and they wish to learn and increase.

There is one principle that I wish the people would understand and lay to heart. Just as fast as you will prove before your God that you are worthy to receive the mysteries, if you please to call them so, of the kingdom of heaven—that you are full of confidence in God—that you will never betray a thing that God tells you—that you will never reveal to your neighbor that which ought not to be revealed, as quick as you prepare to be entrusted with the things of God, there is an eternity of them to bestow upon you. Instead of pleading with the Lord to bestow more upon you, plead with yourselves to have confidence in yourselves, to have integrity in yourselves, and know when to speak and what to speak, what to reveal, and how to carry yourselves and walk before the Lord. And just as fast as you prove to Him that you will preserve everything secret that ought to be—that you will deal out to your neighbors all which you ought, and no more, and learn how to dispense your knowledge to your families, friends, neighbors, and brethren, the Lord will bestow upon you, and give to you, and bestow upon you, until finally he will say to you, “You shall never fall; your salvation is sealed unto you; you are sealed up unto eternal life and salvation, through your integrity.”

Let every person be the friend of God, that whatever He reveals to you, you can wisely handle without asking Him whether you shall tell your wife of it or not. You can recollect the backhanded blow I gave to some of the brethren last winter. They were in pain, because they knew something which they could not tell to their wives. I would not trust such men out of sight with my dinner. God will not trust the least thing to such persons. Sisters, if you are in pain, because you cannot tell your husbands everything, you had better take a little catnip tea, and get over it, if you can. What will God reveal to such persons? Just enough to keep them from the gulf of despair, and lead them along until they get a little sense. I say this that you may learn to reveal that which you ought, and to keep the rest to yourselves. By so doing you prove to God that you are His friends, and will keep His secrets.

The world may howl around you and plead for the secrets of the Lord which he has given you, but they will not get them. When the Lord has proved His children true to what He has given into their charge, and that they will do His bidding, He will tell such persons anything that they should know. A great many desire just enough of knowledge to damn them, and it does damn a great many.

Giving endowments to a great many proves their overthrow, through revealing things to them which they cannot keep. They are not worthy to receive them. Brother Heber takes the lead in giving endowments, and you may ask, “Why do you give such folks their endowments?” To qualify them to be devils, if they wish to be. The plan of salvation is calculated to make devils as well as Saints; for by and by we shall need some to serve as devils; and it takes almost as much knowledge to make a complete devil as it does to fit a man to go into the celestial kingdom of God, and become an heir to His kingdom. We want to complete the education of a number of such fellows; they are running to the States, to California, and elsewhere, and are trying to reveal this, that, and the other; but I defy any one of them to give any idea of what is taught them in their endowments, except a garbled mass of trash. God takes that knowledge from their minds. We have to make devils, and we are preparing them. Everybody must have the same chance for accepting or rejecting the blessings of the Gospel, you know.

Suppose that we should meet a man at the judgment, and he should say, “Here is my friend Brigham; I was in Great Salt Lake Valley, or in Nauvoo, and I did everything that he told me; but he would not let me go in and obtain my endowment; and it offended me so that I actually did forsake the faith, when I verily believe that if I had have had the privilege, I would now have been numbered with the Saints; but, instead of that, I am found on the left hand.” Shall I give them occasion to make such an accusation? No. I wish to give everyone as good a chance for salvation as I have myself; then out of their own mouths they will be judged. If the Lord did not take this plan, we would not.

I will tell you a truth; it is God’s truth; it is eternal truth: neither you nor I would ever be prepared to be crowned in the celestial kingdom of our Father and our God, without devils in this world. Do you know that the Saints never could be prepared to receive the glory that is in reserve for them, without devils to help them to get it? Men and women never could be prepared to be judged and condemned out of their own mouths, and to be set upon the left hand, or to have it said to them, “Go away into everlasting darkness,” without the power both of God and the devil. We are obliged to know and understand them, one as well as the other, in order to prepare us for the day that is coming, and for our exaltation. Some of you may think that this is a curious principle, but it is true. Refer to the Book of Mormon, and you will find that Nephi and others taught that we actually need evil, in order to make this a state of probation. We must know the evil in order to know the good. There must needs be an opposition in all things. All facts are demonstrated by their opposites. You will learn this in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and in the revelations given through Joseph. We must know and understand the opposition that is in all things, in order to discern, choose, and receive that which we do know will exalt us to the presence of God. You cannot know the one without knowing the other. This is a true principle.

Brethren and sisters, my heart rejoices exceedingly. I cannot talk all my feelings, I cannot tell you what I feel and what I see in the spirit; for, as I lately told you, if I should undertake to manifest my feelings before the people, I might display a style and manner which many would deem that of a perfect ranting Methodist, and halloo, and shout Glory! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! and this, that, and the other. The tongue of man cannot express the feelings I have in seeing this people returning unto the Lord, in seeing them faithful to their covenants, in seeing that there is no contention among them, in seeing the willingness and obedience of their feelings. They are willing at the call to go and do whatever is required of them. I contemplate these things; they are before me.

I will cite one instance of the freedom from contention. Brothers Lamb and Jolly came to me the other day with a difficulty that existed between them. Brother Lamb has seen the day in this Church when there would have to have been a High Council over such a case as he and brother Jolly came to me about; but in five minutes it was settled, and both parties felt perfectly satisfied. How did it used to be? They would argue and argue, and aggravate feelings in themselves and in others. Now brethren will come and settle a difficulty in two or three minutes, and say, “It is right; all is right; all I want is to know what right is, and 1 am ready to do it. I have no will of my own: give me the good Spirit, and I feel right; I bow down to it, and feel the power and blessing of my God.”

When I see the people willing and obedient, my heart is all the time full to overflowing. I almost sit up nights to say, God bless you. And I say further, let every man on the face of this earth that curses this people be cursed. [Many voices, “Amen.”] And every man that blesses them shall be blessed. [Many voices, “Amen.”] And those who oppose this religion, and feel to destroy it from the earth, shall go down to hell. [Many voices, “Amen.”] And their time is very short: they will find it plenty short enough.

Suppose that the wicked kill us, who cares? They never will kill any, but what it will swell the kingdom a little faster. And if my blood is required to enlarge this kingdom, and build it up, and increase the speed of it on the earth, I do not ask but one thing, and that is, that the grace of God may be sufficient for me at the moment and every moment. I do not care what I do, if God only be with me, and I be led in the path of honor and glory; for we all want to secure to ourselves eternal salvation.

I did not expect to speak more than a few minutes. I will return to the subject and say, brethren, do not get up here with a feeling to give a very interesting discourse—to lead out upon the mysteries of the kingdom of God, thinking thereby to tell something that will edify the people; for that will not edify them. What will? Come down to the simple, childlike spirit of the Gospel, and give us the testimony of Jesus, and all will be edified, and we will grow together. May God bless you. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 21, 1857.

My health is not very good, though I am in most excellent spirits. I have a good spirit on me, and my spirit is to do good; I have no other desire in my heart. And when I do good to my brethren and my sisters, it is the greatest happiness I have in this life to see them appreciate it; and the next thing is for me to appreciate everything I receive from God through my brethren.

Is there anything in this life that I hold more dear to me than I do this Gospel and this kingdom? If there is, I know it not. If there ever should an object get between me and that, I should most humbly desire that object might be taken from me.

I am a weak man, and I am in a fallen world—in a world of devils and evil and corrupt spirits. Will they seek to afflict me in my body? They seek to afflict brother Brigham in his body; and it is just about as much as he can do to live and dwell here. And if it was not for the Spirit of God that inspires him, he would not want to live here; he would want to leave, and so would I.

I just know that there are more devils in this valley and in the world who are opposed to him and his two counselors, than there are opposed to all the Elders of Israel; but they do not know it. And then their opposition is made manifest against those who stand next to us in authority, and so on down. But we shall live and prosper. And this people—every man, woman, and child that will follow brother Brigham and his brethren, will go into the celestial world also, as you have heard me say—every one of brother Brigham’s posterity and mine. And every man, woman, and accountable child that will live their religion, obey counsel, honor the Priesthood and our God, shall live.

A great many ask, “Why do you put those ifs into this promise? Because all promises and blessings are conditional: they are conjunctions; and where there is a conjunction there is a condition, if I understand the English language; and I believe that I understand it about as well as anybody. I can make grammar faster than you can swallow it; and my grammar is just as good as anybody’s, if theirs is not better than mine.

I feel to say, God bless you.

I have been pleased to hear brother Lamb today. He began his discourse at a period long before the possession of the garden of Eden by Adam, and came down to this time; and when he got down to where he himself was acting, he began to bear testimony of this work and of the servants of God living in his day, and the Holy Ghost fell upon him; and it did not until then. God bless him, that he may be blessed, and live long, and increase, that there may many lambs spring from him; and may the same blessing rest upon all of you who wish to increase. And those that do not wish to increase, may God help them to dry up quickly, that they may pucker up and come to an end. And let them that will increase, increase, and increase, and multiply, and fill the earth with the knowledge, and power of God. Why? Because this work is true.

Joseph was a true prophet of God, and Brigham is his successor, and I am his brother, and Daniel is my brother; and we will live and prosper until the devils are all shut up in hell, where they belong. They will cease troubling this earth: for they will all dry up like an old herring, as will every one that sympathizes for them or with them. Now, sympathize with the Devil, if you want to crimp up. Just as quick as you begin that, the juice will run out of your eyes; and when the juice is drawn out of a tree it will dry up and die.

God bless you. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 14, 1857.

I cannot express my feelings; I can imagine, but cannot give vent to my imaginations, when I realize the situation of the Saints in the valleys of these mountains. I expect, if I should give way to my feelings mingled with the weakness pertaining to mankind, that you would call me more foolish than a Methodist, or even more foolish than a right down shouting Ranter.

I think that I know how to prize the blessings I enjoy; and I also really think that there are a great many here who know how to prize theirs. My soul is full of gratitude. We are far from our oppressors, far from those who seek to destroy us solely on account of our faith, and are secured in the midst of these sterile, inhospitable mountains and valleys. They are so to every person, upon natural principles, but the Saints live here.

When I go abroad, when I visit a neighbor, when I meet a man or a woman in the street, when I assemble with the community in which I live, I am in the midst of Saints, or at least of those who profess to be Saints; and if they are not Saints, I think they are trying to become so with all their might. I know how to prize these blessings; and, if I was a right good old fashioned shouting Methodist, I should get up here and begin to talk, and it would not be long before I should be shouting “Glory!” “Hallelujah!” “Praise the Lord!” and you would hear the response, all over the meeting, “Amen!” “Glory!” and in a short time we should get into a real shout.

I am full all the time; and there are many here who know how to enjoy the society of the Saints. I am not obliged to mingle my voice with the wicked and the ungodly; I am not obliged to associate with them. Brother Rich knows what it is to be with the wicked, for he has been living in the nethermost corner of sin and iniquity for a long time; and he knows how to appreciate the society of the Saints here—how to mingle with them with a heart of gratitude.

I wish to say a few words to the Saints upon what we call our holy religion. If you and I are in the line of our duty when we talk, when we sing, when we preach, when we pray, when we rise up and when we lie down, when we go out and when we come in, in all the varied scenes and duties of this busy life, every iota that we perform is embraced in our holy religion. The one is inseparably connected with the other through the whole march of life, from the day that persons know the truth until they have completed their work on the earth preparatory to entering into a higher state of bliss. The religion that we have embraced is designed to correct people, to give them a true system, true laws, true ordinances, true customs, and to correct them in every point in all the social duties and enjoyments of life. It teaches us every principle that is necessary to prepare people here on the earth to become a perfect Zion—the pure in heart—a perfect heaven on earth.

When the law is revealed to us and the ordinances committed to our charge, if we exercise ourselves therein according to the best knowledge and wisdom that we have, and continue so to do, God will add to us, until we shall know how to establish Zion in perfection, and have the kingdom of God, in the fulness thereof, in our midst and within us, and enjoy the society of holy beings. All the real business we have on hand is to promote our religion.

When the brethren rise up here to exhort you, as brother Hyde has, to attend to a little temporal business, that is a portion of our religion. I told you, I think, last Sabbath, while speaking on that subject, to seek now to sustain this community—to seek to sustain ourselves. As brother Hyde has remarked, the first thing now to attend to is to prepare for a day of want and sorrow.

I told you, you will recollect, that we have the kingdom of God with us: we sought that first. There may be here and there, in this congregation, a person who has not done this; but almost every man and woman before me have sought the kingdom of God with all their hearts. Some may have done so in Missouri, in Illinois, in other parts of the United States, in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France, England, and in many other foreign lands. They have sought the kingdom of God with all their hearts, and have found it, and enjoy the principles, and spirit, and power of it. It is that which gives me the privilege of looking at you in these distant valleys.

We have got the kingdom: we sought it with all our hearts; though many of us have been robbed of our substance not less than five times. Yes, we have been robbed many times of all we possessed on earth, because we sought the kingdom of God and its principles. We have been driven from our homes time and time again. We have many times suffered the loss of all temporal possessions. I say we; though there are brethren and sisters here who have not been in the Church over a year, and some two, others three years; but you are numbered with the Saints, and the Saints have suffered the loss of all things, time and time again. What for? For the kingdom of heaven’s sake and its righteousness.

It is our privilege to be as wise in our generation as the children of this world; and not only so, but it is our duty to be as wise in our generation as the children of this world. We have the true light and knowledge, and we ought to know as much as the philosophical world, or as any other people on the earth. We ought at least to know as much about politics as do the political world, or as do any other people. I expect that we do; and if we only apply our minds in the proper time and channel, we know as much about the Christian world as do any other people, and we ought to know as much about the whole world as do any other people. In fact, we ought to know more upon all those matters than any other people; for we are privileged with far superior advantages, through faith and obedience to the Gospel.

There is one principle which we will acknowledge to be infallible; and I feel like illustrating it by a few circumstances pertaining to this people. We are under obligation to trust in our God; and this is the groundwork of all we can do ourselves. You know that we cannot actually make one hair white or black by exercising the power that we have. We cannot, as it is written, add to our stature one cubit. That proves that in and of ourselves alone we can do nothing. We have been trusting in God, you know, all the time, in order to accomplish what we have. We have trusted in the Lord, or we never would have received this Gospel. We have had confidence in him, and in His revealed will to the children of men. If we should lose this confidence, our faith, and our hope, we are then left without any strength; consequently we know better than to leave our God. In performing everything we can for our temporal salvation, do you not naturally understand that it is through a more or less implicit confidence in our God?

It is not by our works alone, but we are co-workers with the God of heaven—with our Father: we are helpers. We expect to be saved, and we have the work to perform to save ourselves. That is necessary to give us experience to know what to do with our salvation when we have obtained it. We do not intend to forsake our God, nor to say that we have done this or that; for we have not done it alone, and do not expect to. We must learn, and I may say that very many have learned in a great degree, that it is by implicit confidence in our God that we perform all that we do here pertaining to His kingdom on the earth.

We have heard much said, during six months past, to this congregation, with regard to our acts—with regard to our conduct one towards the other. There has been much said in regard to the spirit of reform. That spirit manifested itself in the case of our immigration last season. We did prove to God, angels, and good men and good women, also to wicked men and women, and to the devils in hell, that we had confidence in our God and in our religion.

Perhaps many of the congregation are ignorant with regard to the true situation of this community, in a temporal point of view, at the time assistance was sent to our late immigration and for the year past. You may take men that are keen observers, close calculators, and they can prove to themselves and to you this one fact, that last September—and I do not know but in August—this community had eaten up the small amount of produce that grew the previous year, so that there was not a bushel of grain to start upon, or that had been kept over. When the harvest came, and the grain and vegetables were all gathered, the declaration of close ob– servers was that you could not find enough provisions raised throughout the Territory to sustain this community nine months. It was not in the country; it did not grow here. It was not in the fields of wheat when the grain was threshed; the potatoes and the buckwheat were not gathered; the peas and the beans did not grow; and the amount necessary to sustain life was not on hand to sustain this community nine months, if a close calculation had been made.

I couple this with the faith and acts of the people in assisting the immigration last fall. We said to the brethren, Get the wheat ground, take the flour, and go and bring in the immigration. And I bear my testimony in the name of the Lord God of Israel, that if this community had not have done as they were requested pertaining to the immigration, we this day would not have had a bushel of wheat in the market in this Territory.

But this community took their teams, loaded up provisions and clothing, and went to the immigrants on the Plains; and some of them went almost naked and barefooted. I know of men who were in the City on business when the call was made, and they started off to assist those who were in the snow, and were gone two months without shoes to their feet or comfortable clothing to keep them warm; for they had not brought those articles from home with them, on account of expecting to return. They did not go back to get a new pair of shoes and clothing sufficient to keep them from freezing among the snows of these mountains, and then stay at home; but they promptly obeyed the call, saying, If I can borrow flour, I will take it to the brethren, and will pay it back when I come in.

Did the people prove that they had implicit confidence in their God? They did. They left their families with– out wood, and their grain lying in the field; their wheat not threshed, their potatoes not dug; no forage gathered for their cattle, and no preparations for sowing the fall wheat; and trusted in the Lord to provide for them, or to have an opportunity to sow in the winter, or the next spring, or never. What was the result of that highly praiseworthy conduct? Hundreds of lives were saved, and we have plenty.

Some go against the people selling wheat to anybody but those who build up the kingdom of God. Have I ever objected to it? I say, let the Saints have it, if you have got it. But what did we see here a year ago last winter? A merchant bought up a large amount of wheat at from a dollar to a dollar-and-a-half a bushel, and flour at from four to five dollars a hundred. What was the result? He could not take it to the States nor to California; and I bought it at a much less price than he paid for it in cash and goods, and paid him in cattle. I am now buying wheat for seventy-five cents a bushel that the merchants here have bought in at from $1.25 to $1.75 a bushel.

If this community had not hearkened to the wants of their brethren and sisters who came in last fall, this would not have been; but we would now have been in want. Who believes this? I reasonably know it; and it would almost be impossible for me to view the matter in any different light. I was careful to look for the welfare and salvation of this people.

I have always looked for their salvation, both spiritually and temporally. I looked well to it last year, and the year before that.

A year ago this spring was about as hard a time as has been in this Territory. There was not flour nor wheat for sale. I had not much, and I was feeding a great many. I told you then what I intended to do; I can tell you now what I did. When the pinching time came on, my knowledge with regard to the dealings of God with His people taught me to labor in accordance with my faith and His promises, and I said, “I will part with that which I have to sustain life, until the last four ounces are gone; for, if I undertake to keep enough to sustain my family and workmen, and deprive the destitute, I shall come to want with the community, and we shall not sustain ourselves. If I will not turn away any that are in need, I can induce the next brother to do the same, and this community will not suffer for the staff of life.” Still, I suppose that some did suffer; and what was the reason? If all persons had felt in their hearts to hand out just as long as they had anything to deal out, and not have been pinched up in their feelings, and bound up in their hearts and in their affections in the love of the things of this world, and one man on this side, and another on the other side had not have said in his heart, “True, I can spare five hundred pounds of flour; but now is my time to get fifty dollars a hundred for it, and now is my time to make the spoil,” there need not one have suffered. There was just enough such men in the community to affect the faith of the Saints, and to cause a few to suffer.

If there had been as many to act as they should, as there were to act as they should not, our bins would have been as full of flour as they are this year. All that saved us this year was renewing our covenants, keeping the commandments of God, and walking humbly before Him. That is what causes the wheat to be here, whether you believe it or not.

It is the liberal heart, the liberal feelings of men and women—of those who are full of faith in God that they will not suffer, because He will provide for His people in the last days. He has done so; but He will not provide for you and me, except we live our religion. If we will live our religion, walk in the light of the Lord’s countenance, day by day, so as to have fellowship with our Father and His Son Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and with every good being in heaven and on earth, let me tell you that hell may spew and bellow, and the devils may howl, and they cannot scathe you and me any more than can a few crickets. But, to enjoy the protection of the Almighty, we have got to live our religion—to live so that we have the mind of Christ within us.

We have obtained the kingdom of heaven and the keys of it long ago, and now we have got to live so that they will not be taken from us, but that we will continue to increase in all the graces of His Spirit. Then, instead of backsliding, we shall become rich in heavenly things, and grow up into Christ our living head, until the things of this world are as plentiful with us in our days as they are with the children of the world.

We ought to have a little more wisdom; and I mean to have it, and mean that this people shall have it. They shall have more knowledge and understanding pertaining to heaven and heavenly beings, and to earth and everything pertaining to it, than any other people. I am determined that I will so lead this people, according to the best of my ability and skill, that they shall obtain it, with the help of God and the prayers of faith. If the people had been as liberal last year as they have been this, there would have been no crying for bread. This year our hearts are soft—they are a little more elastic, and our blessings are more. Another circumstance I will mention is this—

We were owing a debt of $12,000 to one of the merchants in this city, and have been disappointed in the East with regard to drafts and money matters. As I have frequently told you, and tell you now, when the business of this Church that belongs here to be conducted is conducted in other lands, we have as yet no men but what get in a muss and entangle our feet. They undertake to do that which should be done here, and God is not with them to dictate their doings as they should be dictated, and they fail in their calculations. Such transactions had somewhat straitened our financial condition. We were not ready to discharge this one debt. We had expected to pay the debt in cash, but had the opportunity of paying it with the cattle, when upon examination we had but a few scattering here and there—a few cows, and a few two-year-olds and yearlings. Last spring we raked the herd ground, and gathered up all the cattle that would answer any purpose for working, for sale, or for beef.

Said I, “Every cow that I own shall go to pay this debt; and if the brethren will come and buy my mules and horses, they shall go also.” The next man said the same—“We will turn out our whole stock, and pay this debt, and trust in God for the result.”

We stopped the teams which were hauling stone, expecting that we should have to go to drawing stone with our horses and mules. By that method we had one hundred head of cattle to turn into good feed, to rest a few days, and be fit for traveling. We had sent north and south to the Bishops of the various wards, and also hunted the ranges for our own cattle; and, said I, “I know that God has provided for me, and I am not afraid to trust Him;” and so said the next, and the next. We wanted to turn out four hundred head of cattle, in order to accomplish what was desired.

Yesterday we turned out the last of the cattle that we needed to pay that debt. We went to the herd ground, where brother Stringham had said there were none, and we got about one hundred and seventy head there. And the brethren began to bring in and bring in, and the cattle that we had drawn stone with are all still in the good feed, and the debt is paid, and we have now almost two hundred head of cattle on hand more than we had when we commenced. We are now better supplied with cattle for teams and beef, and with milk cows, and everything of the kind, than when we commenced; and we have not touched one of those animals that we needed to work on the Public Works.

But if I had puckered up to begin with, and if brother Kimball, and brother Wells, and Bishops Hunter, Hardy, and Little, and the rest of the brethren had done the same, and then sent out to see whether the brethren abroad would turn out stock to meet the liability, we never would have got those cattle into our hands. We would not even have seen them in the Territory; our eyes would have been so darkened that we could not so much as have seen them. I will venture that we can find more cattle now than we could six weeks ago, notwithstanding we have just turned out so many. These are stubborn facts; there is no dodging them. They cannot be philosophized away with me, for I know they are true.

If this people will continue in well doing, I warrant them that they will multiply. You know the figure that brother Kimball presents once in a while; but I am not for stripping the old cow to death. And I say to the brethren, If any of you have turned out a cow or cattle to your injury, come, and we will return them again. If you do not wish for them back, feel as I do, and let them go. I have given them, and I will not go and take them back again. A good many have turned out cattle on donation. When we wrote to the Bishops on the subject, we prepared the way so that we might receive them; for I felt then, by the Spirit, that a good many men and women would say, “Would you take anything as donations, for our tithing, &c., is paid? I have a cow or an ox, or a little money, that I can spare as well as not, and I will turn it out, if you will take it as a donation.” The brethren were not instructed upon that point, so I informed them by letter that, if they were disposed to donate, they might; but we would take cattle on tithing or on the P. E. Fund debts; for there is a great amount owing us. If these debts were paid, we should have an abundance; for there is nearly $200,000 dollars due to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund alone. We cannot now collect these debts, for the brethren are poor; hence we have to operate without those means.

If any have suffered by their donations, I will say to them, We have more cattle than we had in the commencement, and we are better able to give than we were before we paid those debts. Do you not see the hand of the Lord in this? I know it, and I want every man to live so that he may see the hand of the Lord in all things, like the sun shining before him, that he may see the dealings of the Lord among the people, as plain as to see the path home today. If we live so, all is right; we are safe; we know how to save ourselves spiritually and temporally. What do you think of such a people? Are they not blessed of the Lord? They are a God-blessed people; and I do bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, even so. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Charles C. Rich, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 14, 1857.

Brethren and sisters, I can say that I feel rejoiced with the opportunity of beholding your faces in this place. It has been a little over two years since I enjoyed such a privilege, and perhaps I can appreciate it better by being deprived of it. Those who have been absent from this place can appreciate this privilege as well as myself.

I see a great many faces that I am acquainted with, and many that I am not. Thousands have immigrated from different countries to this place, since I left here, who have embraced the everlasting Gospel for the same purpose I have—that is, for the purpose of being Saints.

I have often remarked, and truly feel, that even the Saints themselves do not appreciate the blessings they enjoy. Those who have been away from the Saints, in the world, have been made acquainted with the doings of the world and with their spirit: these can to a little extent appreciate the blessings that the Saints enjoy.

We have embraced the everlasting Gospel in different countries, and immigrated to this country, for the purpose of obtaining salvation; and truly there is nothing to hinder us in obtaining it, if we only embrace the Gospel as it should be embraced; for if we embrace the Gospel as we should, we embrace the salvation that pertains to it; that is, it will save us all the time.

The difference between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the ceremonies that are in the world is, that they propose to save people a thousand years hence, or some other time; but the Gospel we have embraced proposes to save us at the time we receive it, and so continue to all eternity.

For this purpose we immigrated to these valleys, that we may live our religion, obey the precepts of the Gospel, and do as we should do every day we live; consequently, we are all the time saved by discharging the duties incumbent upon us today: we are saved today. But, if we do not do these duties today, we are not saved today. It is this course that will make us happy—that will establish us in a present salvation, and make us rejoice continually.

Truly we can embrace these principles of salvation which have been revealed to us in the Gospel; we can live them: but we have seen that at present we cannot do it in any other land than this. Consequently, this is a choice land to us; and we have much reason to rejoice in the blessings we enjoy.

When I look around and behold the prospects before the Saints, and the great improvements since I left this place, it astonishes me. We have great reason to acknowledge the hand of God in the rich blessings he is continually bestowing upon us. It remains for us to fully embrace the principles of salvation taught to us from time to time, and live our religion from day to day.

If we pursue this course, we shall all the time be saved and prepared for what is coming tomorrow; but, if we do not do this, we can neither be prepared for present duties nor for the duties of the future.

It is to me the greatest satisfaction I can think of to enjoy the privilege of being with the Saints, and being engaged in establishing the principles of the kingdom of God on the earth. If we cultivate those principles in our bosoms and practice them in our lives, it brings universal peace and happi– ness; this is what we will enjoy. Principles that dwell in the bosom of our heavenly Father he has revealed unto us, and will continue to reveal to us what will make us happy and prepare us to dwell with him in heaven.

That we may live and discharge the duties incumbent upon us all the days of our lives, and build up and establish the kingdom of God on the earth, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, p.m. June 7, 1857.

I can bear witness to the truth of what brother Hyde has said with regard to the principle of government; and I wish to add my testimony in these words. There is no people on this earth, in a national capacity, but what have been operated upon to return to what they themselves, in their own government, have prepared the way to accomplish. That is the overruling hand of God in the midst of the people, when they know it not.

Pertaining to the officers that brother Hyde has alluded to, there is no statute law in the United States, in neither the Constitution nor the statutes at large, but what allows the Latter-day Saints every prerogative they could ask for. There is no right or privilege that we could ask to enjoy—none that any other people could reasonably ask to enjoy, but what is guaranteed unto us by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Officials who feel to traduce the name and character of the Latter-day Saints, whether they be judges, marshals, Indian agents, or holding any other office under the United States’ Government in this Territory, have to violate and trample under their feet their oaths to be loyal to the Government and laws by which they profess to be governed, in order to intrude in the least on the rights of this or any other peaceful, law-abiding community. To the honor of a few of those officials that have come here, we can say that they have honored the law under which they came, while others have trampled it under their feet. And for officers to infringe upon any of our rights, they have got to transgress the law that they are sworn to maintain. These are facts. If men will only observe the laws of the United States—will only honor the laws they are sworn to honor, we are safe.

It would please me much if the congregation that assembles here from Sabbath to Sabbath could hear the details of the foul slanders of men that have been here, that they might know what they will spew out. The great majority of this people have no idea what rottenness those characters carry within them; and they did not find it here: they brought it from the places from whence they came. They come here as full of foul matter as any shell or skin can be stuffed; and yet I have heard some of the Saints say that such and such a one of the lot was a perfect gentleman. Speaking as the world view men and things, in the eyes of the vast majority of mankind, the Devil is the greatest gentleman that ever made his appearance on this earth. In accordance with their estimate, you cannot begin to produce a person who is so much of a gentleman as the Devil himself.

There are but few here that actually know the face of a Saint from that of a devil; and that is one reason why we are exhorting the people all the time to obtain the spirit of revelation, that they may know whether they are right themselves or not, and whether their neighbors are right or not; and that when truth is presented to them they can partake of it and receive it with a keen appetite, as food which their spirits rejoice in; and that when evil is presented they can detect it. But there are so many who profess to be Saints that live beneath their privileges, that it becomes a constant task on me and others to plead with the people to repent, to forsake their heart wanderings, and return to the Lord their God, and seek His face and favor, and never stop until they get the spirit of revelation within them, that they may know for themselves who are gentlemen and ladies, who are angels or devils; and know and understand the truth from error, light from darkness, and be able to detect every deception and every deceptive character. How long shall we labor? We will labor on until we are worn out.

I am exceedingly thankful that the excessive labors that have been upon me are not on me now as they have been. The spirit of reformation has taken hold on the people; it has kindled the fire of the Almighty in Mount Zion to burn out many of the ungodly that could not stand it, and they have fled. I feel happy; it is a rest to me. I feel as though I should endure yet for many years. But the labor that has been upon me in observing the groveling backwardness of many of the Latter-day Saints, to see where they were going, was indeed hard to be endured. It is not long since many of our Bishops and other leading men in this community could not tell a Saint from a devil. Do you not suppose that that danger is before me all the time? But within the last six months, comparatively a hundred tons of care and anxiety have been removed from my shoulders; and I hope that this fire will continue to burn among this people until those poor, miserable curses—those poor, miserable gentlemen, shall all leave us. I pray that the fire of God may burn them out. I pray for this continually.

There are few men who, like myself, feel the burden of this; but take the mass of the community, and it is, “How do you do, Mr. Devil?” And for a pound of tea, or a pint of whiskey, it seems that many might be bought. And when a “Mormon” undertakes to sell goods here, many of the people think that he ought to give them away, or sell to them upon credit, which they never try to cancel. And if the “Mormon” merchant deals upon a business principle, the people will flock to the Gentile stores, where they will trust them. Why will they trust them? Because they know that they will get their pay. I know of men bearing the character of Latter-day Saints, who, because a “Mormon” dealer would not let his goods go out of the store without pay, or a good prospect of pay, would go to the Gentile stores and get trusted, and then say, “O what a good man that Gentile is!” while, at the same time, he is as full of hell as an egg is full of meat, and all he wants is a chance to spew it out. They will meet you with bland expressions, with soft silky hands, and velvet lips, and will blarney around you; but let a mob come, and they are ready to point out their victims here and there, and be glad to see us destroyed.

Those whom the Government sends here are a most miserable set; and, as a general thing, they do know enough to tell a decent lie. But this is not altogether to be wondered at, for they are under the same difficulty as we are sometimes: it is hard for them to tell a man who has got brains in his head from one who is filled with pudding. The President and his Cabinet know nothing about the characters whom they send here: if they did, many who have come here never would have been sent. If we cannot always discern the children of men, it is no wonder that they are blind, and cannot send men here capable of making a decent lie. If they have not already told every falsehood about us that they can invent, they will be mighty sorry when they think of it; for, if they could have told any more, they would have done so. They have made and told every lie that they knew how to; and if there is any blame on them for not lying more, it must be attributed to their ignorance.

I would like to come here next Sunday morning, at about eight o’clock, and read to you those beautiful stories they have invented and published (Oh, they are lovely!), and let you understand how little sense they contain. They have us eaten up by crickets, then by grasshoppers (I suppose that the grasshoppers must have beaten the crickets); and when they found that the grasshoppers and crickets had not eaten us up, then the drouth came and destroyed us; and after all that, the cry from one end of the nation to the other now is to destroy the “Mormons.” They will have quite a job, for there is more than one that can work at that game.

What do you suppose the Government thinks about those furiosos and their lies? The Government feels about that matter somewhat as a friend felt towards Morrill, who was going to deliver that GREAT—(but I cannot hollow loud enough)—that GREAT speech, that he thought was so full of thunder; but behold, when the shell cracked, it made no noise. I have no doubt but what his friends were determined to have the speech hushed up; they saw its shallowness, and were satisfied that it would not accomplish one thing that he designed it should. Men who think, know that all such persons are devoid of the principal item, viz., good sense to discern that they do not rightly understand things themselves. They are like the chap who thought he knew it all, and a doctor said to him, “Between you and me, we know everything.” The young man thought it was first-rate, and calculated to find out what the doctor knew. Says the doctor, “I cannot think of but one thing that you do not know.” “O doctor, will you reveal that to me?” “If I thought it would do much good, or if you would profit by it, I would reveal it to you. Perhaps I may as well tell you; for there is one thing you do not know, though I believe that you know everything else, and that is, that you are a fool; which I have learned since I began to converse with you. And now, between you and me, we do know the whole of it.”

Government knows full well the miserable nonsense and the tirade of abuse that is heaped upon us; but what do they care about it? If they had the power of putting such characters on chips, as we do, and carrying them out, perhaps they would never give them office; but they have not that faculty as we have. We can look men out of our community, and they will run and howl, thinking that their lives are in danger.

I presume that there are still hundreds and thousands of communications daily sent to the President of the United States by applicants for office, whom, if he could take up on chips, as we can, and set them out at Washington, he would most gladly so dispose of. But what is to be done? Why, give the poor, miserable dog a crumb, or an old bone, and say, “Get out, now!” and that is the way they get here. To the praise of a few who have been here, be it said, they kept the law; but almost universally the Government officers that have come here have trampled the laws under their feet, and have spurned them to derision.

If officers of the law will keep the law, it is all we ask of them while they are here; but if they do not keep the law, we will make them suffer the penalty. They are afraid of “Mormonism,” like the Irishman who was arraigned before a court of justice for a misdemeanor. He lamented bitterly, and the judge told him not to mourn, for he would see that he had justice done to him. “And sure that is what I am afraid of,” replied Paddy. So it is with them; they are all the time afraid of justice. When they come here they are afraid that justice is going to overtake them, instead of the “Mormons” doing them harm; and they do not like justice.

I will now say a few words in regard to the brethren’s helping us on the Public Works. I think that scores of men have come to me and said, “Brother Brigham, don’t you want a team to work on the Public Works? I really want to let a team go on to the Public Works.” We have not needed them until now. We are going to sell our oxen to pay our debts, and we will now let the brethren work with their teams, as they have desired. We shall now prove them by their works, James said, “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” We will apply that Scripture to you; if you will show your faith without your works, we will show you our faith by our works, and see how many will follow the example.

There are horse teams and mule teams in abundance, and the spring work is pretty nigh done. Horse teams and mule teams will haul rock as well as oxen, though it is generally supposed that they cannot. We will sell our cattle to pay our debts; for, if some poor, miserable people tell the truth, and we have to leave here, I do not want to go away in debt to our enemies; for the Lord has told us not to go in debt to our enemies. If I can get the brethren to do as we want them to do, in a short time we will not owe a Gentile one half dollar. We never would have been in debt to our enemies, if I could have had my plans carried out. Some others have had their way; and I, with a few others, have had to stand and lift the load. If I could be permitted to have my way, I would always have the dollar on hand to buy my enemy, instead of owing him a dollar and having to be sold for it. I would always have a purse ready to buy those who are for sale, instead of being out of means at the sale. I would make every thousand dollars return two, whereas I cannot do that while letting others have their way.

We want you to report yourselves forthwith, brethren. You can tell your neighbors, and the word will go through the city and county. But we do not want men to come here and say, “Here is a horse,” or “I will turn out an ox,” or, “Brother Wells, I will send a team, if you will support it and hire a man to drive it.” We do not want any such proffered blessings, but we want them proffered upon the principle that you hire your own board or bring it with you, and bring your horse feed and maintain yourselves, just as you do at home about your own work, and come and do the labor necessary to be done. We do not wish any man to say, “Here I am; I want you to board me, and I want some horse feed, stable room, reins, whippletrees and everything else.” We want men to stay at home, unless they come to do the clean work and provide for themselves and animals.

We have wagons rigged for transporting heavy blocks of stone, and we are going to try hauling them with horses. If you do not believe that horses and mules can haul heavy stones as well as oxen, come and see my horses and mules do it; they will do it better than oxen.

Would you like to assemble here next Sunday morning and hear those pretty stories read? They are delightful. If that is your wish, you will all signify it by being here by eight o’clock next Sunday morning, when you shall hear those beautiful stories, and learn how delightful you appear in the eyes of the world, according to their representations. In the absence of important news, I think the reading of those stories will cheer you so much!

There is but one fact that makes our enemies mad at us, and it is a principle visible and tangible to the natural senses, though I would not say that it is the internal working of the natural senses to the natural man. But one fact can be produced, that makes our enemies angry at us, and that is this—we actually will sustain our leaders; we will be of one heart and mind, which is the same thing. I do have that power and influence here that no other man on this earth has in the midst of his community, with the exception, perhaps, of some whom we call heathen, and the members of the Church of Rome. And I do not suppose that there can be a bishop or priest in the whole Roman Catholic kingdom who has a people around him that have that implicit confidence in him which this people have in their leaders.

If the President of the United States could have the influence that I have in the midst of this people—even over as many people in the United States as there are Latter-day Saints that I preside over, he would in a moment give $100,000, which is his salary for four years. They spend their scores of thousands and hun– dreds of thousands to get the name of having an influence—of being a man who can wield a certain amount of power. This is also the feeling with Cabinet officers, Senators, Representatives, and Governors of States; and even the clerks in the different departments at Washington will, if they have the money, give a large portion of their salary just to get a clerkship. Office hunters will throw a hundred dollars here, and fifty dollars there, to secure their election or appointment. Candidates for Congress will deal out a thousand dollars to a certain set of men to go to one district and electioneer, and five hundred to another, and two hundred to another, according to the influence of the people in the district. They buy their positions with money, and know that they have not the influence that they would like to have, and which they see that I have; and that mortifies them. And I presume that not many Presidents of the United States have been elected without its costing them a quarter or half of their salary.

What do you suppose that Fremont expended during the last presidential campaign? Probably not less than two million dollars. His California property was rated at eight million, and a company in England proffered five million for one half of that property which the Government had ceded to him. It is presumable that he expended twice ten hundred thousand dollars, and perhaps five hundred thousand on the top of that; but he did not succeed in being elected President. Had he succeeded, he would have been the most influential man in the Government, simply because he had become the President.

It has been the practice for years, in the United States, for each party to have what they call a Corruption Fund, to which the members contribute their fifty cents, five dollars, or fifty dollars. What for? To carry on an election. There is not an election for a President of the United States that probably costs less than one-half of the worth of the State of New York or Pennsylvania. Hundreds of millions are expended in the presidential election at each four years.

What do they do in Congress? Before the last presidential election, there was not as much business done by that army of men as would rightly occupy the time of any legislative body for a very few days. What were they doing? Log rolling. They also get fine ladies to electioneer with different influential gentlemen, and they exert their influence in the various States where they reside. The female portion of the community have elected the President for years and years. And the Corruption Fund is made use of by the different parties, one man throwing out five hundred dollars for one place, another a thousand, another two or three thousand. But I will now stop speaking on that subject, for there is no end to those matters.

Commotion and war are abroad among the nations, and they will continue to be troubled; and sore vexation, and mourning, and weeping, and desolation await the inhabitants of the earth.

While we enjoy the privilege of the holy Gospel, does it not become us, as men and women of God, to be sober, full of faith and good works, and to administer salvation to one another, and to every person that will receive the truth at our hands? It becomes us to be Saints indeed. We know that the world is angry at us, and that we cannot help. We mean to pursue our course, build up the kingdom of God on earth, and establish Zion. We have also got to assist in rebuilding Jerusalem; for, as brother Kimball has said, if it is built up, we have got to assist in doing it.

The house of Israel is scattered upon every island and among every nation: they have to be gathered by the Gospel’s being preached to them; and we expect to have the Devil to fight. Joseph said, years ago, that he had all hell on his back, and all the world. All the evil influences that knew anything about him were combined to crush him; but, said he, “I will rise above them all, and bear off the kingdom;” and so he did, until he was slain. God suffered him to be slain for His testimony, that it might become a law through being sealed by his blood, which was the case the moment his blood was spilled, the same as with the law of Jesus Christ when he spilled his blood. Then the testimony became in force. It must be so; God suffered it.

It now remains with us to bear off this kingdom, build up Zion, and establish the law thereof, until Christ shall reign King of nations as he now reigns King of Saints, which is nearer at hand than you and I may believe. May the Lord help us to be faithful in this, that we may rejoice in the perfect law of liberty, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, a.m. of June 7, 1857.

I am thankful for the privilege of assembling with the congregation of the Saints on another day that is set apart to worship God. I delight in hearing the servants of the Lord speak of those things that pertain to life and salvation. Practical religion is what we all need, to prepare us to enjoy that which we have in our anticipations—that which we hold in our faith. Merely the theory of any religion does people but little good. This is the great failing of Bible Christians, as they are called. They have the theory of the religion of which the Bible testifies, but the practical part they spurn from them. This is why the Latter-day Saints have become so obnoxious to the Christian world. They believe in the practical part of the religion of which the Scriptures are a history. You may take the plan and details of former Christianity; But, unless it is reduced to practice, it will not benefit the people.

I delight extremely in plain simplicity. Brother Kimball desires to be plain and simple, even like a child. I delight in this. I believe, according to my feelings, that if I had all the mastery of language that has ever been obtained by the learned, my spirit would delight more in childlike conversation, and that, too, in a simple language, than in the most learned literary style that is used. A plain clear method of expressing ideas is the most pleasing to me. I always delight to hear brother Kimball speak, and I will take the liberty of saying to this congregation that brother Heber C. Kimball, in his spirit and in his faith, I do believe, is as true, as faithful, and correct, as any man that ever lived; but he has not that peculiar mastery of language that some have. He does not tell the people all that is in his mind: that would be impossible. He conveys a great deal in a few words.

There is no person that ever heard me complain of or disapprobate in the least anything that brother Kimball says. The reason is simply this: I do know his spirit, and what is in his mind. Whether he tells one fourth of it, or speaks it to the right or to the left, or whether he hits a particle of it, I know what he means, and know that his meaning is just right. If he was blessed with the talent to clearly convey and explain the ideas that are in his mind, I will venture to say that he would be one of the greatest speakers that ever spoke on this earth, for true knowledge, sentiment, and principle. We need the spirit by which he speaks and lives in order to understand all that he means by his expressions. I say this, not having any fear in my mind that brother Kimball will, in his feelings, cast any reflections upon me for thus expressing myself.

I know that I am a great many times placed under difficulty to bring before the people the truth in a manner plain and simple enough to reach their understandings; and I know that this is the case with others.

I have seen Joseph when it was impossible for him to give the people his views upon a subject that he designed to speak upon.

Such is the case with myself; such is the case with every man that I ever heard speak. It is so with brother Kimball and many others who arise to address you here. When some rise here to present a dish of mental food to the congregation, they will be two hours, perhaps, in bringing out a dozen kernels of corn; but brother Kimball produces a full dish of both corn and beans in one quarter of the time, or less; and we have a fine soup and sweetmeats mixed with it—a taste here and a taste there. If it could be comprehended by the people, they would generally find as much in one of his sermons as there is in forty or two hundred sermons delivered by those flowery speakers that sometimes address you.

Brother Kimball was afraid of tiring us. I said that I should never be afraid of being tired with eating sucketash so long as I had room for a single spoonful. I generally deal out the sucketash, and I do not care whether there are two beans to one grain of corn, or one bean to two grains of corn; for those who like the beans best can pick them out, and those who prefer the corn can select it out. I really like the sucketash that brother Kimball has just laid before you, for it contains ingredients that pertain to our salvation.

I told you last Sabbath, and I can tell you again today, what brother Heber has just told you, that the enemy of all righteousness never was more formidably arrayed against the Saints than at this very present time. There never was a greater hatred against pure, undefiled, practical religion; and it seems as though every person was our enemy. But if your eyes were opened, as were those of Elijah’s servant, you would see more that are for us than all that are against us.

When people falter in their path, and stumble, and fall, if they had eyes to see—if they would cling to the Lord, and sustain His cause here upon the earth, in preference to turning their backs upon it, they would see that there are infinitely more for His cause than there are against it.

Men and women must have eyes to see, or they cannot understand these things: they must be revealed by the Spirit of God; for that is the only way in which people can understand the things of God. This makes it our imperative duty to study and know the will of God, and then do it with all our might. It brings us under the deepest obligations, for our own safety and security, to live so that we can have the mind of Christ within us, and understand the mind of the Lord day by day. If we do this, we are a happy people. As brother Heber observed, we are the happiest people upon the face of the whole earth.

You cannot go into any other community on the earth, and find that peace and union and those principles of honor, of justice, and of right between man and man, that you find in this community. You cannot find the same amount of good works, faith, virtue, kindness, gentleness, and peace that you find here: there is hardly enough of these good qualities among the world to enable me to establish a comparison. The whole world is in a turmoil, in a terror, and every man’s hand seems to be against his neighbor, nation against nation, party against party, people against people. The world is in confusion, but this people are dwelling in peace.

As I told you last Sabbath, I have an experience with regard to the feelings of over one hundred brethren during our late travels. Perfect peace and union reigned. If there was a cross word, I did not hear it; if there was a cross look, I did not see it; if there was a cross feeling, I did not perceive it. Can any other community produce such a set of men and women? Is any other people blessed like this people? No. We have the privilege now of living in peace, of securing to ourselves our temporal salvation: we enjoy this right. And we will find those words of brother Kimball to be true with regard to the suffering of the children of men around us; and if we do not hearken to the counsel given us, we will see the day in which we will wish that we had. We will lament, if we do not go to and secure to ourselves means for our temporal existence.

It is true that the Savior says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness;” but now we have the kingdom of heaven with us. We have sought it, and we have it in our possession. We enjoy the blessings of that kingdom; consequently, if we neglect everything else, we would be foolish, we would become extinct. But inasmuch as we have the kingdom of God within us, inasmuch as we have it here among us, inasmuch as we have the keys of it, the glory of it, the comfort of it, the power of it, and the laws of it, let us now go to and sustain our bodies, that we may live long on the earth to do good. And let us sustain our families—our wives and children—inasmuch as we have the necessary means and blessings preparatory to having all things added unto us.

Be wise: be as wise as the generations of this world. In the days of Jesus, those who received the kingdom and the spirit of the kingdom seemed to lose all sight of a temporal salvation; and Jesus said to his disciples, “The children of this world are wiser in their generations than the children of light.” The children of light did not know how to sustain themselves; they did not understand how to preserve themselves and the kingdom with them.

There is danger on the other hand with this people. We have witnessed it; we have an abundant proof of it, that when the people actually turn to the world and seek after the things of this world, in order to secure to themselves the comforts of life, their affections appear to be weaned from the kingdom of God, and they become attached to the things of the world. It would be better if you and I never should have anything pertaining to this world, than to lose the spirit of the Gospel and love the world.

But have we not learned enough? Do we not now understand enough to know that strict economy is required at our hands, in order to sustain ourselves and prepare for our friends, and also for our foes, and to be able to deal out the staff of life, not only to our friends, but also to our foes, and prove to them, what we have preached all the day long, that we are the friends of mankind? We are actually their friends, not only spiritually, but temporally. Let us go to, then, and lay up in our storehouses, and prepare for the day of famine, of sorrow, and of trouble; for all those things written in the prophecies, in ancient days and in this our day, will surely come upon the inhabitants of the earth.

I bless you and your substance, with all that pertains to you; and if I could, I would so bring the Spirit of God upon you that you might have eyes to see, and be able to know the mind and will of God for yourselves.

We are in the happiest situation of any people in the world. We inhabit the very land in which we can live in peace; and there is no other place on this earth that the Saints can now live in without being molested. Suppose, for instance, you should go to California. Brothers Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich went and made a settlement in South California, and many of the brethren were anxious that the whole Church should go there.

If we had gone there, this would have been about the last year in which any of the Saints could stay there. They would have been driven from their homes. It is about the last year that brother Amasa can stay there. Were he to tell you the true situation of that place, he would tell you that hell reigns there, and that it is just as much as any “Mormon” can do to live there, and that it is about time for him and every true Saint to leave that land.

Suppose that we should go south. A great many wanted to go to the Gila River: that was proposed when we first came to this Valley. It was said to be a lovely country, and that men could live there almost without labor. What if we had gone there? You see what has followed us here; but what would have been the result, if we had gone there? Long before this time we would have been outnumbered by our enemies: there would have been more against us than for us in our community. Suppose we had gone to Texas, where Lyman Wight went? He tried to make all the Saints believe that Joseph wanted to take the whole Church there. Long before this, we would have been killed, or compelled to leave that country. We could not have lived there; and it is as much as ever they can do to let us alone here.

As I have often said, I am thankful to a fulness that the Lord has brought us to these barren valleys, to these sterile mountains, to this desolate waste, where only Saints can or would live, to a region that is not desired by another class of people on the earth. When they come and have succeeded in getting our money, they will not stay any longer. When they have made all they can out of the Latter-day Saints, they wish to leave. And when you see a person who becomes tired of “Mormonism,” and falters in his path, backslides in his feelings, at once his eye is to the States, to California, or to some other place besides this. Though, previous to their departure, such persons will write to their friends, and to newspapers abroad, every conceivable misrepresentation; and even the majority of the officers that have been sent here are trying to make the Government believe that we are taking the country; that we are actually usurping power to ourselves with regard to the soil; that we are transgressing the laws of the United States; that we are treasoners in our feelings, alienated from our Government, and so on and so forth. They also declare that the “Mormons” are getting out what little timber there is in the canyons, and that if the timber is used up this land is not worth one penny an acre.

In playing the game that they do, they give us nine out of ten. A gentleman by the name of Morrill wished to deliver a speech in the House of Representatives, on the “Mormon” question; but his friends managed to prevent it; for they saw the light surface on which he rode while he was writing his speech. They saw that the delivery of his speech would do the “Mormons” more good than harm, and they managed to head off its delivery by a motion to adjourn, which prevailed. He felt chagrined at losing the opportunity to make his speech, which he thought was full of thunder, and which occupies six-and-a-half columns in a large newspaper, and much of it in nonpareil type. They did not want to hear it. Every man of sense said, “Mr. Morrill, this will destroy your influence with your constituents, and do the ‘Mormons’ more good than hurt, and ruin our cause.” No doubt his friends wished to steal it from him and let it have a stillbirth; but Mr. Morrill feels himself imposed upon, runs straightway to the Globe Office, and gets it stuck into the paper, much to our credit and advantage. That is the way all our enemies do; they overshoot the mark they are aiming at.

Another man has written and got published a long article; and I have really thought that I would like to have the speech, which was never delivered, the long article, and some other articles of like character read before the public congregation. William Smith, brother to the Prophet, is the one suspected of having dictated the writing of the long article mentioned. He defies the United States to send a Governor here that can do anything with the “Mormons,” except himself. He declares that no man can go to Utah but a man who is well acquainted with the “Mormons,” and one who has as much influence among them as Brigham Young; and presents himself as the man. He also tells about the Danites, and asserts that they are in every town and city throughout the whole of the United States, and that their object is not known by the people; that they are all over the world; that there are thousands of them; and that the life of every officer that comes here is in the hands of the Danites; that even the President of the United States is not safe; for, at one wink from Brigham, the Danites will be upon him and kill him. After all this, he says that no man can go there; and when he gets through with his story, sufficiently so to expose who he is, he says, in purport, “I can go there; and if you do not believe me, try me; and if you think I cannot, give me the right to go there with a good large army.

Judge Drummond comes out with death and thunder on the “Mormons,” and that no other man ought to govern the “Mormons” but Judge Drummond, the HORSE DEALER; and so it goes. And they publish that we have thousands and tens of thousands of men scattered over the world, full of fervor, integrity, and courage, and ready at a moment’s warning. Just one word from Brigham, and they are ready to slay all before them; and then they turn round and proclaim that the “Mormons” ought to be used up, and that you can do this and that with them. It is all a pack of nonsense, the whole of it.

“The devil is mad, and I am glad; And what can we do to please him?”

I know what I think, but I will not tell it now. It would please me better to have him kicked out of doors than anything else, and especially from this community.

If we would not say one word about people’s living their religion, and let this Temple alone, and the spirit of improvement in regard to our religion, and everything pertaining to the world, and bid the world welcome to our houses and firesides, and strike hands with them, and call them our friends, we should have no difficulty with them. They have nothing against us, only they cannot do as they please when they come here, but have to observe the laws of the United States and this Territory, and a certain degree of moral decorum. They cannot do as they please in their corruptions, and they raise a hue and cry against the “Mormons.”

If we would not say to the brethren and sisters, Try and live your religion according to the Spirit of the Gospel, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the truth, and in all the graces and gifts of God’s Spirit, all would be peace between us and the wicked. If we were to say nothing about building a Temple to the name of Israel’s God, the Devil would not be mad, and the case would be like that of a priest. In his vision in the night, he came along to a pretty good-sized town, walled in fine and nice; and he thought that he came to one corner where there stood a post, and that the Devil sat asleep and nodding on the top of it. But he opened his eyes—and noticed the priest, and asked him, “Which way are you going?—to the city?” “Yes,” replied the priest, “but what are you doing here?” “O I am just overlooking the city.” “How many devils does it take, besides you, to take care of this people?” “There is no other here besides myself; the whole people are under my control, and I have trained them so well that I have nothing to do; and they are so well learned in the doctrine of the devils, that they can almost get along without me. I am merely here to see whether they continue to do as they have been doing. I was thinking that I should have to go to another city; but, as you have come, I shall have more work.” If we live so that the devil has need to look after us carefully, all is right.

The world would like to have us their friends, and to have us to do service to their father the Devil. We profess to be Saints of the Most High, and the people prove it by their actions. They are full of integrity and good works, and yet there are a few that ought to mend their ways; though I am happy to see that there are not many in this community, and that that number is growing less. And it is my constant prayer, all the day long, that God would multiply the righteous and righteous principles throughout the world, while he decreases the ungodly; and also that we may so live as to enjoy all the brethren have spoken of this morning, root out the devils, and bid all foul spirits to depart from our houses and community, that we may enjoy the peace of the Gospel in its fulness.

I pray both for my friends and for my enemies, that, if they will not repent, the earth may be speedily emptied of the ungodly. I have often told you how I love my enemies. I would do something for their salvation, if the Lord would permit me. And if the time was come, I would take a step to give them, not a superlative heaven, but a comparative place of peace. If it was in my power, I should perhaps be for doing this before the time.

Pray that our enemies may have no power over us; pray for the Spirit of the Gospel, that the Lord may strengthen the Elders, and keep them in the spirit of humility, while they are out preaching the Gospel; pray for the anointed of the Lord, for the house of Israel, those poor degraded Lamanites, that light and truth may spring up among them more and more. They begin to improve greatly; pray that it may continue, that they may come to a knowledge of the truth, and help to build up Zion, and they will be a shield to us in the day of trouble. All this, and a great deal more, I feel to say; but, for the present, I will give way. May God bless us all. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 7, 1857.

I feel as though I would like to express a few of the sentiments and feelings that are passing in my mind. We have had much preaching, exhortation, correction, and reproof, and some might say a great deal of chastisement; though I call chastisement neither more nor less than reproof or correction. When we are corrected by our leaders, it is to set us right, to show us the wrong course, and induce us to pursue the right one. If I do wrong, if I get astray, it is perfectly right that someone should correct me; and when I am corrected, it is not right for me to justify myself; for, if I do, I sustain the course of an incorrect purpose. When I am corrected, it is my duty to listen, to reform, and walk in the straight and narrow way. If we will not learn by precept nor by example, we have to learn by the things we suffer. Is it not better for people to learn by correction than by bitter experience? The old saying is, that “Experience is a hard master.”

There are some who are not so much benefited by preaching as they might be, because they do not remember and apply what they hear. It has a pleasing effect upon the ear, like a tune well played upon a musical instrument, but makes so little of an impression, that it cannot be repeated by the hearer. The word does not enter the ear and proceed to the heart, which is the place of deposit. There the word of God should be deposited, which would be at the seat of government in the human form. We each have a seat of government within us, because we are incorporated bodies. Every man that comes into this world is an independent being, upon the same principle that our Father and our God is independent, only He is independent to a greater degree, being further advanced in perfection. He came here, and helped to organize this earth; and having had an experience in organizing earths before He came here, He was capable, and had every principle necessary to create this earth and fill it with inhabitants. If there had not been a seat of government in Him, and all those powers and faculties necessary to propagate the human species, He never could have done that work. We are His sons and daughters.

Now, what course is it for us to take as a people? It is for us to unitedly go to work and live our religion, practice it in our lives; and the more you live it and practice it the better you will be, and it will beget a love of truth and righteousness in you that you never can get rid of in time nor in eternity. Then our posterity will also partake of that holy principle which is in us, wherefore they will naturally love the truth from their infancy. A great many people do not think that our characters and course of life are going to affect our posterity, but they will. The seed from a good ripe cucumber will produce good fruit, like that which produced the seed. Has the woman an interest in this, as well as the man? She has. The tree that bears the fruit affects that fruit for better or worse. The Savior says that a good tree will produce good fruit, and a corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit, but it will produce corrupt fruit. Upon the same principle, how can a woman produce a good posterity when she is corrupt? She cannot.

If we will do right, will do just as we have been told in all things, we will dwell in peace and quietness from this time henceforth and forever, and I know it.

For sometime past, the weather has been warm, and the ground parched by heat, and now the Lord has again given us rain. What a beautiful shower we had last night! Do I not feel thankful? Yes, as much so as for anything of this nature I ever received. Did it bless me? Yes. It also blessed everyone of you, whether you have any grain, fruit, and vegetables growing, or not. Why? Because if you have not, you have to live upon the products of the fields and gardens of some of your neighbors. It affects everyone of you as much as it does me; you are blessed as much as I am; I can only eat what one man can eat. I cannot partake of these benefits to any greater amount than you can, and all that I expect while I dwell in the flesh is what I want to eat, clothes that are comfortable to wear, houses to live in, and what I want to drink; I cannot drink all City Creek myself; I can only just partake of enough of those blessings to sustain myself.

My feelings are that we are blessed above all the people that ever did live, that we read of. We are blessed above the people of Enoch; and far beyond the people in the days of Jesus, for they were driven, scattered, and peeled throughout the world, and they have never yet been able to gather again. But we are gathered, and we never will be scattered again—no never, while the earth stands, if you will do as you are told. Will we go to Jackson County? Yes, we will go there, just as we will to the city of Fillmore, independently. We will go and come at our pleasure, and no one to molest us; and we will build up that city, and that, too, upon natural principles, just as we go and build up Farmington, in Davis County, or this city, or any place we occupy.

How will it be with our enemies? The Lord deals with them and leads them, just as much as He does you and me. Can He hold them as with a bit, the same as you can a horse? Yes, and He can put it into the hearts of that people to send up a petition here for the Mormons to buy that whole land, and we will be under no necessity of shedding blood. God does not want to shed blood without it is necessary, any more than He wants us to go and slaughter a beast when we have no need of it. But when we have need of meat, and are driven to it by necessity, then it is all right. If it is necessary that we should shed blood, then it is right. All things are right that are done according to the will and pleasure of God.

My feelings are to exhort you, to pray you, be ye reconciled to God and to His servants; and if you will be reconciled to His servants you will be to God, and you cannot without. How can you be reconciled to a Being you never saw, and not to a being you do see? If you cannot love those you see and associate with everyday, how can you love a Being you never did see? It is impossible. And one of the greatest sins you commit is to sin against those you do know—those whom God has sent and authorized—for it is His authority which you rebel against; and, in sinning against it, you sin against God the Father who sent them. Upon the same principle, when we send brother Bernhisel to Washington, should they take him and misuse him, they show despite to the authority that sent him. You send a minister to Europe, and should they cast him out and whip him they show despite to the authority that sent him—to the whole United States, in case they had sent him.

Our Father and our God has sent Brigham and his brethren. If you rebel against them, you rebel against the authority that sent them. You sin not only against the authority or servants he has sent, but you sin against God who authorized them. If brother Brigham sends brother Wells to me as a delegate, to authorize me to do a thing, and I refuse, I sin against brother Brigham and against the one that sent him. Now, brethren, what are we told to do? Read a revelation that Joseph received of the Lord to Thomas B. Marsh concerning the Twelve; He told them to go forth and preach the Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, or cause it to be done; and after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, of famine, of fire, and of desolation; it shall come upon the world, and it shall begin at my house, saith the Lord, that is, with that portion who rebel against Him in the midst of His house.

You can also read other revelations wherein the Lord says that, after you have done so and so, He will send famine, and earthquakes, and desolating sickness, &c., &c.; and that he who rejecteth you rejecteth me, and he that rejecteth me rejecteth my Father and my God. When you do this, you do it at your own risk, and to your own sorrow and distress, and the Spirit of God will so teach you all the time.

These calamities are coming; go and read for yourselves. If you do not believe me, and brother Brigham, and the Twelve, believe the revelation that God gave to Joseph. And then, if you do not believe Joseph, believe Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Prophets; and if you cannot believe them, believe Jesus Christ; and if you cannot believe him, believe the Father. [Voice: “And if they believe the Father, they will believe all the rest.”] Yes; brother Brigham says that if you believe the Father, you will believe all the rest. You can believe Jesus; and if you can believe Jesus, you can believe his Apostles, and then you can believe Joseph and his Apostles, and brother Brigham and his Apostles. Has brother Brigham got Apostles? Yes, he has ordained Twelve. Brother Joseph ordained Twelve, and so did Peter.

Brother Brigham is an apostle of Jesus, and I know it, just as much as ever Joseph was. I do not ask you to believe that for me; I know it is true. Brother Brigham, myself, and some others walked with brother Joseph in his regeneration, but we do not know whether we shall sit at his right hand or his left, or not; that is for the Father or others to dictate. It mattereth not, however; for if we keep the commandments of God we shall triumph over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and over every person living upon God’s footstool that does not surrender themselves and all they have to him.

Brethren and sisters, this is the time in which to prepare. If you are not saved temporally in these Valleys, I shall not be. If you will take a course to bring distress on this people, we shall have to be distressed. I have learned enough to know that, when we were in Kirtland, and distress and desolation came upon this people, I had to suffer with them. I fled for England; brother Joseph and brother Brigham fled to Missouri; and every man that would honor “Mormonism” and sustain it had to flee. Why? Because some would not honor it. The righteous had to suffer with the wicked; and it is the ungodly who bring trouble upon the righteous, and they have to pay that debt. If it is not in ten thousand times ten thousand years, they will have to pay the debt for unlawfully bringing distress upon the righteous.

What shall we do? The Lord is blessing us; and such a time of blessing I never saw. We never have been blessed so much as we are this year. Go to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west, and you will see the earth matted over with vegetation to such an extent as I have never before seen. Go into our gardens and orchards, and you will find our trees even now actually breaking down with fruit. We shall have to thin out the peaches on the boughs, or they will break before they can ripen the load that is upon them. The limbs are breaking down with apples, plums, currants, and every kind of fruit that we are raising; and the strawberry vines would break down, if they were not already on the ground. I never saw the like in the States, nor in England, nor anywhere else.

The people are doing right; they are waking up; and the Lord looks upon us as a good father looks upon his boys who are in the field at work, digging and watering the ground, in the hot sun, up to the knees in mud, with their wives and their children. Says he, “My boys, you are good boys; I will give you some rain, I will wet your crops, and rest you a little while; but I will not let you have but a little water, for if I send the rains here the devil will come upon you with his gang. I will not let you have much rain, only enough to ease your labors a little while.” That is the way my Father feels, and I feel so, when I have His Spirit; and that is the reason I can comprehend Him when I have His Spirit. You have heard me say that I felt joyful, funny, and jocular, according to the portion of the Spirit of the Lord I enjoyed. Do I feel like dancing and jumping? Yes, and like doing everything else that is good and comfortable. When I have the Spirit of the Lord, I feel so; and that makes me think that my Father in heaven felt so before me.

Brethren, go and build your storehouses before your grain is harvested, and lay it up, and let us never cease until we have got a seven years’ supply. You may think that we shall not see times in which we shall need it. Do you not comprehend how comfortable it will be for us to know that we have grain enough to last us seven years? But it would make me feel bad for brother Brigham, myself, and a few others, and the Tithing Office, to have our granaries full, and the rest of the people have none. Why? Because we should have to hand out of our granaries as long as there was a kernel left. [Voice: “We should have to buy the whole of them.”] Yes, we should have to buy your fine dresses, your jewelry, and everything you have got; which we shall do, if you do not lay up in store.

I ask, would things have been with us as they are now, if we had not repented and commenced anew? Now, 7 tons, or 14,000 lbs. of flour are dealt out of the Tithing Office every week to the hands upon the Public Works; and can they reduce the supplies that are in that office? They have not been able to yet, for some of the cellars are being dug out to put in grain. We have not storeroom enough to hold it, and we are obliged to go to the flouring mills to get storage for it. And the men who deal out the flour say that they have not reduced the supplies on hand, that they continually keep about so, and a little more so. If you can account for that, go at it.

Does the Lord cause our grain to increase? He does, and that, too, upon natural principles. Sow one bushel of wheat, for instance; and when you harvest the product of that, you get, say, from 25 to 50 bushels. Where do those 25 or 50 bushels come from? Say that I go and put 100 pounds of flour into my bin, and that I afterwards take out forty times more flour than I put in, how did it come there? Upon the same principle that one bushel of wheat increased to forty. I will take one peach stone and plant it, and in about four years that peach stone will produce a tree that will bear from 500 to 1,000 peaches. Where did they come from? There was only one planted. They all come from the elements. Then cannot God increase our grain in the bin, as well as He can increase it in the field?

Brother Brigham and I once started with $13.50 and traveled 500 miles, paying $16 for every hundred miles travel, and paying for from two to three meals of victuals a day, and once in a while paying 50 cents apiece for a night’s lodging; and when we got through, we had not quite as much money as when we started. But if we had not any, it was quite a miracle, though we had some money left. We performed that journey with the means I have mentioned. That money we spent was in the elements, or else an angel of God went where it was, and got it, and put it into our pockets. Brother Brigham kept the purse; I put my money with his, and he kept paying out; and if it had been in the line of our duty to have kept traveling to this day, we should had money unto this day. And once in a while we would take a weak sling, for we were so weakened by disease that both of us could not take a common trunk two feet long and ten inches square and put it in a wagon. We were feeble, and we continued so until we landed on Europe’s shores, and then disease left us. The Devil meant to afflict us, to see whether he could not back us out; but he had two hard fellows to deal with.

The Lord was with us, and His angels went before us; and when we went to Kirtland, the people would not let us preach there only once apiece. I preached once, and compared them to a mess of old cracked pots, and everything else I could think of, and declared that I would not preach there again. I never wanted to. They said that we were under the censure of the Almighty, because we were sick and afflicted. The Lord suffered it to be so, that He might try their righteousness and virtue.

Let us go to work, every man and woman of us, and lay up our stores, and build good storehouses, and increase. If we will do this, brethren, we will have some of the finest seasons you ever saw. Our grain will increase, and we will lay a foundation for the world and the ungodly, and we will buy them for our servants. They will be glad to come and work for us for bread, and each one of us will be like Joseph in Egypt was to his father’s house. They will come to us and buy grain and the good things of this world; for I know that we are the people who have got to do that thing.

Will you be slack, brethren, and let the evil come upon us, when we forewarn you of the future events that are coming? Now, supposing that I had not the spirit of prophecy upon me, then I had better sit down. If a man gets up here and lets the Spirit of God dictate him, he cannot help prophesying, for the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of prophecy, and he will foretell future events, and you cannot help it. We are telling of what the prophets have said—of what the Lord has said to Joseph. Wake up, now, wake up, O Israel, and lay up your grain and your stores. I tell you that there is trouble coming upon the world. They have a pretty good drouth in some places this year. I do not know whether brother Amasa has told you, but almost everything is burnt up in Southern California. They have got to live there and get bread, and probably will be glad to take a handcart.

Is it so in the United States? It is. They have got to eat that dish; and when famine, pestilence, and starvation come upon us in a small degree, it will increase upon them fourfold, packed down and running over, and they cannot help it. Let them exult. There never was such a prejudice existing against this people as there is at this day. The Devil is stirring them up because we have commenced that Temple; and we will build it, and they cannot help themselves; and we will lay up the grain for seven years, and thousands of them will worship us for a little johnny cake, and I will live to see it: so will you. And when you see it, you will then have knowledge, won’t you?

We do not so much care whether you have any confidence in our being Prophets, or not; but if you will go to and do as you are told, you shall see these things, and have a knowledge of all we tell you. That is practical religion, if all men go to work and till the earth, raise grain, and live our religion, and not come up here as a few of you dandies do, and suck our vitals out of us by getting into fancy shops, and this, and that, and the other. You are no better than we are, and not half as good. We are the saviors of men, and we have got to work for it—to dig and scrape; and the harder we scrape the quicker it will come about. This people work, and they are the best people that ever did live; but there is a great chance for improvement.

I improved yesterday: I worked and made all the improvements I could, and did the best I could; but it came night, and I laid down to take a nap, which is typical of death. This morning I have risen up and again commenced my labors; and I am going to improve today, and do better than I did yesterday. But in comes another night of sleep; I lay down, which is typical of death; and I rise in the morning, which is typical of the resurrection, and I renew my labors. I have to begin where I left off; but you cannot realize but that you have to take one jump away ahead, when you come to leave your bodies and go into the spirit world. That is not so, for you will have to commence to hoe your row where you left off.

People talk about running races for a wager. No person can gain the wager, only those that run lawfully through to the place appointed. These half runs will not gain the prize. There are a great many that turn back and run the other way, but their road will be a thousand times longer than ours; and the straighter we run the nearer we get to the point we have to gain.

As for our storehouse ever being empty again—if we will take the course laid down to us, it will never be. And we have to increase our storehouses more than a hundredfold; and if this people take that course, the granaries will be fuller than they are now; and they must be built in a more substantial manner. And when we have built this Temple, it is hardly a comparison to what we will build the next time; and the Devil will still rage worse and worse, and he will rage, and rage, and foam; but if we will do right he never can come over these mountains; or, in other words, he may get here, but the tabernacles he wants to come here never can—no never, for they will fall without our touching them. [Voice: “And it will be laid on the ‘Mormons.’”] Yes, they lay the killing of Babbitt and Gunnison to the “Mormons,” and they say that Dr. Bernhisel will kill Brigham in one year [laughter in the stand and in the congregation], because he has got jealous of him. I must confess that would be the biggest miracle that I ever saw. Almost every evil that has been committed during the past twenty years has been laid upon the “Mormons;” and they are trying to make themselves believe that the “Mormons” have Danites, or destroying angels, in every nook and corner.

Now, you may call that extravagant, but the world believe it. I never saw people so foolish as are the world at this time, and they never can affect us. I want you to keep that in view. That is my text; they never can trouble us, if we do as we are told. And when brother Brigham crooks his little finger, let our hands move. I am preaching what they say.

We shall prosper, and the soil and the mountains will grow rich, and we will never lack for anything. We may draw wood out of the mountains continually, as we need it, and there will still be as much as there is now. We will eat bread to all eternity, and our bins will still be full. You may wear dresses to all eternity, if you will make them, and there will always be plenty.

I am in my element when I am among this people and speaking to them; and my prayer is, by night and day, that I may be as simple as a child in my communications, and speak the truth. As for my praying that God will make me eloquent, as the world call it, I never want it, but that He may make me eloquent in the truth, to speak it in its plainness and simplicity.

Brethren and sisters, here in these mountains is the center of government; here is headquarters for the whole earth; and this will be headquarters until this headquarters make another. And when headquarters are made at Jerusalem, we shall make them. Why? Because this is the dispensation of dispensations; and where Israel has dropped down, we have got to build them up and establish them, just as much as men and women have to be raised in the resurrection where they lie down, by the authority of God.

The earth is the Lord’s, and we are His servants; and let every man, according to the authority he possesses, dedicate his houses, the material of which they are built, the earth they stand upon, and his orchards and fields; and they will be blessed, and I know it. We are in the best place on the earth in which to sanctify and bless the earth and the inhabitants upon it, and the mountains, and the little hills, and the fountains of water. That is our business, and to bless each other, and build each other up, and raise up a pure and a holy people. That is what we are here for; and if you do not honor the calling you are called to, you will be good for nothing.

God bless you, brethren; God bless you, sisters; and God bless your children, and the earth, and all there is in it, for your sake. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1857.

Brother Brigham has expressed my feelings in regard to our journey to Salmon River, so far as he has spoken upon that subject. The trip was considerably fatiguing, for our travel averaged nearly two hundred miles a week, which left but little time to rest, only when our animals were eating. Yesterday and the day before I felt sick, and I told brother Brigham that I felt as though I was sore and afflicted from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. That expression conveys an idea of my physical feelings, and still I have recruited, for I am now eight pounds heavier than I was when I went away.

As for the country north, I am satisfied with it; for, were we to go a great way beyond where we were, it would not be an easy job to touch us, for we got pretty nearly to the end, and there was no way to get further with wagons, but by crossing the Rocky Mountains, to some of the headwaters of the Missouri. But with all the poor country I have seen during our journey, much of it is far beyond that part of Vermont in which I was raised until I was eleven years of age; and had I always remained there, I never should have personally known but what it was a beautiful country; for people are prone to think that the regions they are brought up in are the most beautiful in the world. I have been back there twice, and have never found, in all my travels through these mountains, so rough a country as where I was born; and I presume it was so where brother Brigham, and Joseph Smith, and many more of the Elders of the House of Israel were born: they came from a rough, hard country.

After receiving the Gospel, the Lord has so ordered it, that we have come to where he has led us, because at present there was no other place. We have come into the mountains, to become inured to hardship, privation, and want, and to raise up a posterity that will become hard, substantial men, to bear off this kingdom to every nation and kingdom upon the face of the earth. That is why it is so, and I am thankful. I would not change these mountains for any portion of the earth I ever beheld, until God has accomplished His designs with us here. When He has done this, and when we have overcome and kept His commandments, these mountains and these valleys are ours, and all the earth in the four quarters thereof, and we can go and come at our pleasure; and that day is not a great way off, for many generations will not pass away before that time will come.

I do not fear the world. We are here in the mountains and in the valleys, and are as secure here as though we were in heaven; because, if we were there, and did not keep the commandments, we would have to suffer the consequences. When Lucifer sinned against God and His commandments, he was cast out, with all those that sustained and upheld him in his rebellious course. Many suppose that when they get to heaven they can sit down upon flowery beds of ease and have nothing to do. I never expect that day. It is just so with a great many, when they come here, they suppose that everything is going to be prepared for them; they suppose that they will sit down in ease, and eat, and drink, and wear, and that there will be no person to trouble them. We have come here to become inured to work—to build temples, and improve upon the elements that God has placed around us, that we may become more skillful tomorrow, through the experience of today. What I do not today, when the sun goes down, I lay down to sleep, which is typical of death; and in the morning I rise and commence my work where I left it yesterday. That course is typical of the probations we take. But suppose that I do not improve my time today, I wake up tomorrow and find myself in the rear; and then, if I do not improve upon that day, and again lay down to sleep, on awaking, I find myself still in the rear. This day’s work is typical of this probation, and the sleep of every night is typical of death, and rising in the morning is typical of the resurrection. They are days’ labors, and it is for us to be faithful today, tomorrow, and everyday.

Brethren, this is the course we have to take; it is a progressive work from one day to another, and from one week to another; and if we advance this year, we are so far advanced in preparation to better go through the next year. If I have one thousand bushels of wheat laid up this year, can you not understand that I am better qualified to lay up two thousand bushels during the next year? And then in the succeeding year I am better prepared to add four thousand bushels to my amount on hand, and then eight thousand, and so on.

My feelings are for us to wake up as a people, everyone of us; and, instead of taking a course to throw away our substance, let us gather together; for, so sure as this people will do this, they will be blessed, and God will hold the nations by the bit, as you hold a horse. If we are faithful, He will do it—mark my words. God will hold the world by the bit, and they cannot help themselves. If we will do right from this time henceforth they never can move or take a step against us, but what they will fail in it; and I know it. It is for us to do right, to walk humbly, and keep the commandments of God, repent where we have done wrong, and do wrong no more.

There never was a time when the devil worked harder with this people than now. He will work with men and women, and try to stir up contention in this Church; and you have got to guard against it with all your hearts. As brother Brigham has mentioned, there never was a time when the devil worked harder to destroy this people than now; and it is for every man and woman and child to wake up, and live their religion, and serve their God. Now is the time. Is it a good time? I never saw a better time since I was on the earth than I see today. I never saw this people so prosperous, and I never saw the earth with such a carpet upon it as it has this year. In all the lands I ever traveled, I never saw such wheat, and oats, and barley, as are now growing from here to Bear River; and they say it is so in the south, in the east, and in the west. And at Limhi the crops look promising. They have sowed 125 bushels of wheat and other grain at Salmon River.

Everything is flourishing; but how easy God can clip it, even now. He can send the grasshoppers, and make a perfect desolation of this year’s crop, as easily as I can throw this book lid over. Why? Because He rules in the armies of heaven, and controls the affairs of this earth, according to His own pleasure, and the world know it not. He sends angels and ministering spirits to transact His business, upon the same principle that brother Brigham sends his brethren to England, Denmark, the States, and this way, and that. He sits upon His throne and says, Joseph, go and do that; Peter, attend to that; and they do it. This is a natural principle there just as much as here, though the people cannot realize it so sensibly. He sends his Elders and delegates, as we sent brother George A. Smith, and brother Bernhisel, and brother John Taylor. Brother Brigham did not go; but his authority accompanied those brethren; also the power of God who controls him. If I should tell one of my wives to go to Box Elder and transact business for me, she has more authority in that matter than any king upon his throne, or the President of the United States. Why? Because she goes in my authority.

I go in brother Brigham’s authority, which is the authority of God. That power you have all got, so far as you are faithful. I have heard brother Brigham say that a Bishop now has more influence over his ward than Joseph had over the Church in his day. Joseph could not so thoroughly control the people, for they were wild like bulls; but when he could not make them do what he wanted them to, he suffered them to do what they pleased.

I speak of these things by way of encouragement to you, brethren and sisters. You are a good people: I respect you; I have pride in you, when you live your religion; but let us wake up. We have done first-rate; but we can wake up more, and keep waking up, and attend to the things you have been told to attend to; and one of them is, to lay up stores of corn, wheat, oats, peas, beans, buckwheat, and everything else that can be preserved; for you will see a day when you will want it; and it will be when we shall feel the effects of famine, and when the United States have not any food. And inasmuch as we are wise and prudent in this matter, we shall have power over them, and they cannot help themselves. And the day will come when the wicked shall not come here to impose upon our good feelings, and for us to nourish them, while they are infusing the poison of their corruption in our midst. I have borne and borne that wickedness until I will not bear it any longer. How long have I borne their abuse? For twenty-five years; and the law of the land is, that a man is of age when he is 21; and we have served four years beyond that time, free gratis. We are now pretty free, and we will be more free when we are thirty. It will be so, if we will do right.

It takes us all to do right, like the limbs and branches of one tree partaking of the nourishment of the stock to which they belong, and the stock draws its nourishment from the root. Let us find out the nature of the roots, that we may better understand the trunk and the branches. I have to take the alphabet of salvation with which to learn the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and then, as I progress, I can read all the celestial law by the same letters. We learn the alphabet of the English language, then we learn the spelling book, the reader the geography, history, and everything by means of the same alphabet.

The first principles of the doctrine of Christ are the alphabet of the celestial law; therefore, not leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. Let us be diligent in keeping the commandments of our God, that we may be saved in His celestial kingdom. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1857.

We have accomplished our short and speedy journey to the North in safety and in peace, and again have the privilege of assembling with you in this Bowery for the purpose of worshipping the Lord our God, for which we are thankful. Every heart responds to these sentiments, and we give glory to our Father and to our God. His hand is over us for good; He has preserved us, He has marked out our path. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Patriarchs of old, of the ancient Prophets and Apostles, of Joseph and of this people, is our God—the only wise and true God, our Savior. It is him that we look to; in him we trust, and from him we receive all our blessings.

I believe that every heart is filled with thankfulness, and is also measurably filled with joy and peace. I can truly say to you, my brethren and sisters, that I am thankful to you, as well as to my Father in Heaven; for I have felt the strong cord of faith in my absence arising from this people to our Father and our God in our behalf. And I have no doubt but that our brethren who have just returned from their missions to the East can testify to the same. They have felt that the faith of the Saints has been in their behalf; they have been sustained and upheld, and brought through their trials by the arm of Jehovah, by the faith of the Saints.

The brethren have done me a kindness, and I am thankful to them for it. I am also thankful that I live in the midst of a people whose hearts and faith are measurably one, that what they rightly ask for is granted unto them; and that when they feel to bless an individual or a people, that individual or people is blessed; and when they feel it a duty that the Lord should stay the wicked in their progress, their faith accomplishes their desire. I am thankful that I am in the midst of such a people—that I am numbered with you, my brethren and sisters in the gospel of salvation.

I have sustained, I believe, a good character before our Father and our God. I believe that your faith has been united with ours to accomplish that which ought to be performed; and on this occasion I am thankful that I have had your prayers, and have accomplished the business proposed. I requested the people to have faith for us, and to willingly release us to visit the northern country. They voted that they would do so, and their acts have proved that their faith was and is in accordance with their votes.

On our journey, I can truly say that we had perfect peace. In my travels with the Saints, up to this day, I can truly say that I never had the pleasure of journeying with so peaceful and orderly a company as the one with which I traveled to Salmon River. They were schooled and instructed, and knew how to contribute to the comfort of each other, and performed every duty in peace, without noise, without strife, without contention. Every man was at his post, performing the duties assigned him, and that, too, in the faith of the Gospel, with a perfect resignation to the requirements upon him. I believe that I have never seen men together, to anywhere near the same number, who were so united as the company I have traveled with this spring.

We took up our line of march on the morning of the 24th of April, and were gone one month and two days, during which time we traveled 763 miles, and that, too, over a very rough country, 381 1/2 miles out. Only one accident occurred worthy of mention and that happened on the evening after we drove out of Fort Limhi. While chopping some firewood, brother Franklin Woolley had the misfortune to cut his foot, but the wound is already so far healed that he is walking about.

We did not lose an animal, though we left two at the Fort. Brother Woolley’s was the only accident that occurred in our camp; and I do not think that I heard one cross word from man or woman during the journey, unless it was from myself. I think if anybody was out of humor, or cross, or irritated, it must have been myself, for I did not see anybody else so; and I endeavored to keep my own temper as cool as possible.

I feel to bless the brethren who accompanied me and those we have visited, and I feel to bless the brethren, with all that pertains to them, who have tarried at home. Strict industry and quietness have marked well their doings in my absence, so far as I have seen or been informed. The improvements in the settlements we have passed through bespeak a contented, industrious spirit, and this place bespeaks faith and industry during our absence.

Our crops look well, and I find that the brethren have attended to making things comfortable about their houses so far as I have seen, though as yet I have not been much about the city. The Temple Block indicates hard labor; and I feel that the brethren are united in the great work that is upon us, and I am thankful for it.

I could give you a detailed account of our journey, and a description of the country through which we have passed; but perhaps it is unnecessary today, though I will say, that I had not received, from all the northern travelers with whom I had conversed, hardly one correct idea of that region of country. I have asked several who had been there to describe Salmon River Valley and the intermediate country, the quality of the soil, the nature of the climate, the positions of the mountains, &c.; but I must say that, when I came to travel through the country, I might readily suppose that I had never conversed about it with a man who had been there. I have frequently asked with regard to the location of Fort Hall, and the replies have been, “It is built near Snake River.” Is there anything of a valley? “Yes, something.” Is there any timber there? “I think there is pretty plenty of timber on the river, such as cottonwood, quaking asp, and willows.” Is it anything of a country for settling? “I should think likely it might be.” Is there any timber in the mountains? “I should presume there is.” How are the mountains situated? “Similar to other mountains in other countries.” That is about all I have ever been able to learn of the country, previous to my late journey.

When we began to approach Fort Hall, we learned that we could see over it and all around it to a great distance; and, if our eyes had been good enough, we might have seen the little Fort some 30 miles before we reached it. It is located on Shanghi Plains. From the Rocky Mountains, at the source of Snake River, this plain extends some 150 miles to 200 miles in a westerly and southwesterly direction: and from the mountains south of Snake River to those north is a distance of some 90 miles. I never had this idea before, nor could I get it from any man I had conversed with. It is a vast, desert plain, and we called it Shanghi Plain. I think it is as desert a country as ever was brought together to aid in holding the earth from parting asunder.

Upon the banks of Snake River, when it does not overflow, there is a lengthy, narrow strip of good soil, varying from a quarter of a mile to ten rods wide, and in some places not six inches wide. It is a sterile, barren, desert country, filled with belts of rock and sand. As we passed over some portions of Shanghi Plain, the brethren undertook to remove the stones, so that we might drive our wagons with a little more ease to ourselves and less danger to our vehi– cles. I begged of them not to take all the rock out of the road; for, if they did, there would be nothing to travel on.

Much of the track in that region was a perfect bed of rock covered with occasional strips of sand, which much retarded the progress of our teams. I wished the sand and the rock to lie there, for I was confident that, if they were taken away, California and Oregon would be separated from the States by a vast gulf.

Malad Valley, north of Bear River, has been considered a pretty desolate, cold, hard, sterile valley; it was so looked upon by us, as we passed through it on our way North. At the same time, we considered it a tolerably good grazing country, and thought that people could possibly live there. But after we had traveled over the Basin rim into Bannack Valley, descending a mountain, beside which the one we call the Big Mountain is a mole hill, down through the little Bannack Valley on to Shanghi Plain; and traveled northeasterly and northwesterly, almost in a semicircle, to Spring Creek; then up Spring Creek over to Salmon River; and wended our way down that stream, through swamps and willows, and climbed over points of bluffs to keep from being mired; and had paid our brethren a visit, and returned again to Malad Valley. It looked to us like one of the most beautiful valleys that any person had ever beheld; while, before this experience, we thought that nobody could live there; and I expect that, if we had gone a few hundred miles north, it would have looked still better to us; for the further we went north, the further we found ourselves in the northern country. And if the Malad is a good valley, we can go further north to those not quite so good; and the further we go north, the less good characteristics are connected with the valleys, except in the articles of fish, water, and, in some instances, timber; and when people are obliged to live in the north country, that will be high time for them to go there. That is about the amount of the geographical part of our journey that we shall now present, though I think that I am pretty correct in my observations, and could mark out the road, the mountains, the valleys, and streams, and could sketch a tolerably good map of the country.

I have accomplished what I designed to accomplish, and I believe the brethren will join with me, at least, on one point, viz., that we started from here to rest the mind and weary the body; and so far as the body is concerned, I believe all parties will agree with me in saying that we have done that most effectually. I see one man that went for his health—brother East. I expect that it will prove a benefit to him. Others also went for their health. It is a hard medicine to take, but the result will be beneficial.

I rested my mind. From the time I left this city until my return, I do not think that this valley, this Tabernacle, my own house, or any of my family scarcely ever came before me to reflect upon. We spent part of the first Sabbath at Box Elder, and on the next we were camping away up Snake River, where we held meeting in the forenoon.

A number of the brethren spoke, and I told them that I would say a few words, and relate some of my feelings, especially those pertaining to the journey and myself; but I could not have told, from my sensations, whether I had been from home a week, a month, or a year; and I could not fully realize whether I ever had a house or lived in it, or ever had any family, only those that were with me. This was a blessing to me. My mind was so taken from the cares that surround me here, that it was perfectly relaxed into an easy state of rest; and I had no anxiety, not in the least, about one care that had formerly been upon me; or whether I ever saw this valley, this congregation, or say family again; or ever saw any other country than the one where I was at the time. All my home reflections, desires, and cares were as far from me as the east is from the west.

Whether this was the case with others I cannot tell, but I believe they are all joined in saying that their bodies were most thoroughly tired. I feel that I am renewed, though my body has been very tired since I returned. But I am becoming rested, and I now feel just about right. I feel that I have renewed my strength, renewed the vigor of my body and mind; and I believe that I am as ready to act in any capacity now as ever I have been in my life, and a little more so; for I hope, as I grow old, to grow wise. As I advance in years, I hope to advance in the true knowledge of God and godliness. I hope to increase in the power of the Almighty, and in influence to establish peace and righteousness upon the earth, and to bring all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, even all who will hearken to the principles of righteousness, to a true sense of the knowledge of God and godliness, of themselves, and the relation they sustain to heaven and heavenly beings. I hope to increase and advance, as I do in days and years, in the wisdom and the knowledge of God, and in the power of God; and I pray that this may be the case, not only with myself, but with all the Saints, that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, and be made perfect before Him.

There never has been a day for ages and ages, not since the true church was destroyed after the days of the Apostles, that required the faith and the energy of godly men and godly women, and the skill, wisdom, and power of the Almighty to be with them, so much as this people require it at the present time. There never was that necessity; there never has been a time on the face of the earth, from the time that the church went to destruction, and the Priesthood was taken from the earth, that the powers of darkness and the powers of earth and hell were so embittered, and enraged, and incensed against God and godliness on the earth, as they are at the present. And when the spirit of persecution, the spirit of hatred, of wrath, and malice ceases in the world against this people, it will be the time that this people have apostatized and joined hands with the wicked, and never until then; which I pray may never come.

I feel thankful for the privilege of lifting up my voice before you this day, my brethren; I feel that it is a great privilege. There is no other people on the earth that are blessed like this people, though some of them say they are not blessed, because they have trials—that they are not blessed as they wish to be, because they have cares upon them, because they are persecuted and hated. But I say that in all this you are blessed, if the words of the Savior are correct, which you and I believe. He said to his disciples formerly, which will also correctly apply to the Saints in our day, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so perse– cuted they the prophets which were before you.” If this is not now done to perfection by the world, wait a little while, and it will be. The world will hate us to perfection; and if they have not spoken all manner of evil against us, falsely, it is because they have not knowledge enough to do it. At this time there is no falsehood which they can invent, but what they are active in their service to their father the devil against the Saints; consequently, according to the words of the Savior, “Blessed are ye.”

We know that we are blessed, and God knows it, if we love the Lord our God; and our works prove that we do. Blessed are the Latter-day Saints, if they love God and keep His commandments. And, let the world revile them, and do what they will, we are blessed, because we have the words of eternal life, and know how to perform, and are actually performing the works, to secure to ourselves an eternal salvation and an existence in the presence of our Father and God, while they will be wasted away, and be destroyed from the earth, and from every kingdom where there is peace and righteousness.

We are blessed, and we may never expect our happiness and heaven until we gain a perfect victory over the devil, hell, and the grave; and that we cannot do in this mortality; but we can conquer to a certain degree, and gain admission into the favor of our Father and God, and receive His promise to be received into His celestial kingdom, when we shall have a perfect victory and power over everything that is evil. I will give way for others. May God bless you. Amen.