A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 1, 1857.

A more sensitive man than brother Joseph Smith never lived, and that sensitiveness was in proportion to the light he had. So it is with brother Brigham, and so it is with brother Heber, and so it is with brother Daniel, and it will increase upon him as he presses his way forward, and works in the harness, and becomes used to it; and he will be just as good a team-horse as the Lord ever used, and I know it.

I will speak of brother Joseph Young, I often speak of him; he is one of the most sensitive men that ever walked on the earth, and that is in proportion to the light he has, and if the Lord had not laid His hands on him and said, “My servant Joseph, be thou sick and go to thy bed and rest,” he would have been in his grave long ago. His late sickness saved his life. That may be a curiosity to you, but the best days I ever had with re– gard to the happiness of my spirit, have been when I was prostrate on my bed, and in reality could not help myself. People will say, “O how I pity such and such brethren and sisters, because they are unwell.” If persons would appreciate their blessings when they are on beds of sickness, and say, “Father, thy will be done, and not mine,” there would be no room for that pity. When necessary in God’s providences towards me, I would as soon lay on a bed of sickness as to do anything else, for we have got to learn that lesson. I have to struggle, and brother Brigham has to struggle to exist here on the earth.

I will say, not that I speak of these things to boast, that if this people, both men and women, would pray, and that devoutly before God in their secret places, one quarter as much as brother Brigham, and I, and brother Joseph Young do, you would see dif– ferent days from what you see today. When Jesus came to his people on this continent, and appeared in their midst, they could not at first realize and appreciate him. They saw him and felt the wounds in his side, in his hands, and in his feet, and he talked with them and instructed them, and chose and instructed twelve disciples. And after healing their sick and blessing their children, he administered bread and wine to the people, and taught them to “watch and pray always.” He could not heal their sick, until through prayer they had become humble, and got the power of God on them. And when he had done this he said, bring all your children, and he blessed them one by one, and the power of God rested on them, and angels descended from heaven and encircled them round about, and ministered to them before the eyes of the people.

What do you suppose we are going to do with you? Are you ever going to be prepared to see God, Jesus Christ, His angels, or comprehend His servants, unless you take a faithful and prayerful course? Did you actually know Joseph Smith? No. Do you know brother Brigham? No. Do you know brother Heber? No, you do not. Do you know the Twelve? You do not, if you did, you would begin to know God, and learn that those men who are chosen to direct and counsel you are near kindred to God and to Jesus Christ, for the keys, power, and authority of the kingdom of God are in that lineage. I speak of these things with a view to arouse your feelings and your faithfulness towards God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, that you may pray and be humble, and penitent.

When Jesus Christ came to this earth, he came to fulfil the law, and he taught the people to seek to the Father with a broken heart and contrite spirit, and then whatever they asked He would give. If you so come unto Him, repenting and being sorry for your sins, then He will hear you and forgive you, and He will forgive this whole people. Why? Because brother Brigham never would have said to you that God would forgive you if you would repent, unless he had received some intimation of that kind from the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. But brother Brigham told you the truth, and the Lord will forgive you, if you stop sinning now, and begin anew today to work righteousness with full purpose of heart. Then through continued faithfulness that Spirit, light, and glory will rest upon you, that brother Joseph has been talking about this morning.

I am speaking of these things to comfort you, for they comfort me. I am talking to you of nothing more than what I know, feel, and have experienced. What brother Joseph Young has said, is good. I feel very well in my body and in my spirit, that is, I feel well in regard to the things of God. I feel well, because there are some trying to live their religion, and worship their God in spirit and in truth. When they hear the servants of God declare the truth here, they understand it, and the seed springs up, and brings forth fruit to the glory of God, and that fruit will remain. But there are others who hear the word and do not conceive; they sit and hear the voice of God speaking through His servants, and like the sound thereof, but the moment they leave this place they forget it.

Some say that they have not faith, that they cannot believe. What is faith? It is confidence. What is confidence? It is faith. Some people are striving and striving to get faith, when saving faith is simply confidence in God, flowing from walking in obedience to His commandments. When you have confidence in yourself, in any man, woman, or child, you have faith; and when you have not confidence, you have not faith. I believe they are co-partners, and the principle of faith and confidence is synonymous to me.

If you have not faith to deed your property over to the Trustee-in-Trust, it is because you have not confidence in the Trustee-in-Trust. If you had confidence in him, you would have faith in him. You may pay your tithing—you may tithe your sage, mint, and catnip, and this and that, and the other, and after all you may be leaving the more weighty matters undone. It is not best to become stereotyped in paying tithing and stop at that; but if you are going to become stereotyped, I wish you to stereotype the whole edition, and let it remain so, and then go on and make another. I do not object to your stereotyping one letter at a time, if you will go on through the whole edition.

In regard to deeding over your property, no one compels you to do it. I do not compel you to do it, the Trustee-in-Trust does not, God does not; but He says that if you will do this, that and the other thing which He has counseled for our good, do so, and prove Him. He goes to work and proves us, as we go to work and prove one another under various circumstances. The Lord says, cast in your tithes, and then your offerings. Tithing is one thing, and offerings are another. And when that is done, consecrate your property to the Church, and make strong the hands of our President, and he will handle and distribute it to the best advantage. We are to be tried in all things, like unto Abraham, and God even told Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. He went and built the altar, got the wood and the knife, and was ready to do the work; but instead of offering up his son, the Lord said to him, take this ram and offer him up, and put your son to usury, and be shall become a multitude of nations—his offspring shall be as numerous as the sands on the seashore, and as the stars in the firmament. It will be just so with the property deeded over to the Trustee-in-Trust; every man becomes a steward, and puts out his property to usury. The principle of the consecration is to hold property secure and in the channel of blessings and increase.

Our property should not be dearer to us than salvation, and should freely be put to the best use for building up the kingdom of God. To illustrate my ideas, I will use a comparison. Here is my little finger, does not the blood go into that finger as freely and as fully, in proportion as it goes into my leg, or into my arm? Does it always stay there? Does that little finger become selfish—superstitious with the principle of idolatry—and never restore that blood to the fountain? No, for if it did, the fountain would be weakened, and the finger would wither, because of an interrupted communication. How can this Church exist upon any other principle than that of free interchange according to the dictation of the head? My finger restores back the blood to the fountain, where it again becomes impregnated with the principles of life, and then when it goes back again is not that finger impregnated with the power of my vitality—of my attributes? If that is a fact, when we take the same course with the things of God and turn in our property, it will become empowered with the attributes of God and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, and of all those who act with them in the eternal worlds, and from them to us, and from us back to the throne of God. And except we become impregnated with saving principles as they exist with God, with Jesus Christ, with angels, with Peter and with Joseph, you may bid farewell to salvation, every soul of you.

I wish that this whole people would so get religion that brother Brigham and myself, and other good men could always freely and fully teach you all things pertaining to salvation, and show you your condition, even as the Lord views it. Here is the kingdom of God, here are the Prophet and the Apostles, the Patriarch, and all the leading men of Israel, and where is there a man in Europe, or in any other country, who sprung from this Church, but what sprung from the authority, the life, vitals, and power of this Church and kingdom? If he has not got his power unto salvation in this Church, he has not any power towards an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of our God. And those who have power from the true source have not predominance over those who hold the keys in advance of them, for the kingdom of God is a kingdom of order. How can you become impregnated with the spirit and power of God, except you become impregnated through us? There is no true path, except to do as you are told by those whom the Lord has called and chosen, and placed to direct you.

I do not care so much whether you have faith or not, for if you have confidence in yourselves, I would risk the confidence you should have in us. And if you have lost confidence in yourselves, you will not have much confidence in your brethren; and in that case I want to know what confidence you can have in your God? The Lord often takes a course to try the confidence of His people, for He planted a branch of the olive tree in the poorest spot in all the land of His vineyard, and He caused it to yield much fruit that was good. That was considered a marvelous work, and one of His servants said, “How camest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; but go to and do all things as I command you.”

Now suppose I should say, here, John, William, and Richard, I want you to go up near the arsenal and dig a well, and when you have dug ten feet you will find water. They would be very apt to say, “We have not a particle of confidence in that operation.” I would reply, I do not care about that; it is the well I want, and that will afford water. They go to work without one particle of confidence in what I say, and dig to the depth of ten feet, and come to good water. By so doing, have they not obtained knowledge without confidence? Yes, by their works. And Jesus says, by your works shall you be judged, and by your works shall you be justified. John, Bill, and Dick, dig the well, and I have accomplished my design with them, though they had not a particle of confidence in me, nor in God. And when they have found water, they say, “That gives me confidence in you, brother Heber, and in your God.” The result of their works gives them confidence. It may stimulate some of you to go to work upon that principle, viz., to do as you are told, without knowing whether you will get water or not.

Well, go to work and dig the Big Cottonwood canal on the same principle. Begin tomorrow morning, and do not cease until that canal is done, and I will warrant the water to come, and when it comes, that will increase your confidence. Brethren, will you all with your Bishops lay aside everything that is not of greater importance, and go to work on that canal until it is finished? If you will work, instead of merely saying you will, and go to with all your hearts, it will be but a short time before you see the rock being boated on it for our Temple; and it need not be only a few years before the Temple is built, wherein you will receive your endowments and blessings. And God our Father will protect us and give us good peace, until we have accomplished that work and many other things. He will strengthen our feet and fill our granaries.

Will you go to work at once on the canal, letting your Bishops lead out and you follow? If you will, raise your right hands. [All hands were raised.] If you live up to the covenant now made, you will soon accomplish the work; and it will be but a few days before the ground will be in readiness for ploughing and seeding, and God will bless the earth and strengthen it to yield an abundance, through your going and doing that little work, and letting the water into that canal, so that we can boat rock from the quarry unto this place. Let us go to and do, instead of merely saying. That is drawing our feelings into the one reservoir.

Upon the same principle, let every man render over his property with an eternal deed that cannot be broken; throw it all into the big reservoir. Suppose that one puts in one drop, another two, another ten, and another a hundred, do you not see, when you throw in your property—your substance—into one reservoir, that it makes us all one, and that you cannot become one without this principle? You may work to all eternity, and never connect the branch with the vine, upon any other principle than that of putting your property and temporal blessings with your spiritual interests, whereby they will both become one. If you do not do that, I do not mean in one thing only, but in everything that God requires of you by His servants, if you do not bring your substance forward and lay it down at the Apostle’s feet, you will be stripped. Brother Brigham is the chief Apostle of Jesus, and he is our President, our Prophet, and our leader, and we the Twelve are his brethren, and you have got to lay down your substance at their feet, as the Saints did in the days of the ancient Apostles of Jesus.

Look at Ananias and Sapphira. I have heard you read their history a great many times, and talk about it. They came with a part of their substance, and lied about it. You may do as you have a mind to. In one sense, we do not care whether you lie, or tell the truth. If you tell the truth and do right, who is blessed? Is it anyone but yourselves? It is not brother Brigham, nor brother Heber, only in connection with you, inasmuch as you take a course to do right; for being members of the same body to which we are connected, it influences the whole body, and the whole body is blessed at the same time. It does not particularly make any difference with us, as individuals.

You have got to render an account of everything you have, for we are all stewards. You Bishops, Seventies, High Priests, Elders, Priests, Teachers, Deacons, and members, where did you get the Priesthood and authority you hold? It came from this very authority, the First Presidency that sits here in this stand. There was an authority before us, and we got our authority from that, and you got it from us, and this authority is with the First Presidency. Now do not go off and say that you are independent of that authority. Where did you get your wives? Who gave them to you? By what authority were they given to you? Where did you get anything?

If you do not take the course you have been told to take, and as I am trying to tell you, viz., to render all you have on this earth, every man in this Church and kingdom will be as bare when he leaves this earth as he will find himself when he gets out of it for he cannot even take his shroud with him nor a pair of stockings. I do not care if he has forty wives and a thousand children, every soul of them will be taken from him. Your wives are given to you as a stewardship to improve upon in building up and establishing the kingdom of God, and your children are given to you as a stewardship. Where did their spirits came from? Did they come from you? No; they came from God. Who is the Father of those spirits? God, and He will require them of you, and those spirits have also got to give an account to their Father from whom they came; they have got to render up an account. Thus you see, that you have to render an account of your wives and children, of your substance, and everything that pertains to this earth, and you cannot avoid it, without suffering a loss.

I want to get you to live your religion, and worship our God. I am not troubled about our not prospering; I trouble myself about living my religion and being faithful to the things of God, and that leads me to confidence, if not in myself, in my leader. It is not so much a matter about my trying to obtain confidence in myself, or in you. We are to be connected like a vine, and then when we receive any good thing we will become impregnated with God, with Jesus Christ, with the Holy Ghost, and with angels, and it is the only way in which we can become one.

I feel as brother Joseph Young feels. God bless him, and may he live a hundred years, if he wants to. I pray that God may renew him in body and blood, and bless him with every good thing that he desires; also brother Brigham, and brother Daniel, and brother Heber, and every other good man. That is my prayer and my feeling. And may the Lord bless every good woman with the same blessings.

Brethren, tumble in your interest into this great reservoir, and we will drink up the earth. And if you do not do it, as the Lord lives, the First Presidency of this Church and the Twelve will drink you up. If you trifle with me, when I tell you the truth, you will trifle with brother Brigham; and if you trifle with him, you will also trifle with angels and with God, and thus you will trifle yourselves down to hell. You cannot with impunity trifle with God, for the day is too far advanced for that. Do not trouble yourselves about your sins if you have repented of them; and if you have not, it is time you did.

I will say to the Bishops in general, take those who are humble, those who have repented and made restitution, and baptize them for the remission of their sins, and then lay hands upon them, that they may receive the Holy Ghost, and they will receive it, if you take counsel and do right. And you will feel as you never felt before since you were born, and the works of God will continue, if you will do right, for the time has come.

God bless you, peace be with you forever. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, on Sunday, March 1, 1857.

I am not much in the habit of taking texts, especially of late years, and more especially since the commencement of the reformation. However, this afternoon, I think I will take a text, as a subject for the few remarks that I may make on this occasion, and that one was presented to me this morning when in conversation with brother Kimball, and that text is embraced in one word, which is Union.

I expect that a great deal might be said on this subject, and probably a great deal has been said, but more may yet be said, and that which intimately concerns us at the present time. If we would rightly understand things as they are, a more inte– resting subject could not be introduced at the present time, and it embraces a great deal more than what we should be enabled to say in one hour, or in one day. Unless we go into the practice of paying more attention and more regard to the interests of others, we shall not get along as a people, near so well as, perhaps, many of us have been anticipating.

In the Gentile world, where the Gospel first reached us, our manner of training, our habits and our education, all went to influence our minds to look after self, and never to let our contemplations or meditations go beyond that which pertained to ourselves. In making any exertion that would in any way tend to benefit our– selves, to exalt ourselves, and assist us in amassing riches, or in gathering information that would confirm or aid in the bringing about this object, we considered we were doing first-rate, for that was the object of life with us.

We then depended upon ourselves almost entirely, and thought that we should have means around us, gathered for the purpose of securing ourselves from the evils that we found we were continually exposed to, in regard to poverty and in regard to the lack of friends. We were all looking within ourselves, we regarded our own dear selves in all our meditations, and directed all our exertions for our own individual benefit. This is what our parents taught us to a great extent, and it mattered, with us, but very little, how or what course was pursued if we could gain those things we desired, if we could secure to ourselves those things which were necessary for our own comfort, and for our own individual temporal convenience.

This is the education of the world, and this is the way they are taught, this is one reason we have so much difficulty in acting upon the principles of union. Then it should not seem so very strange that the same feelings that were in the minds of the people around us, that were instilled into us by traditions, should linger around us at the present time, and become a blind or a barrier against receiving those blessings and privileges that we might otherwise receive, and be injurious to us when we receive the Gospel and endeavor to become Saints of God.

I can discover that these things have extended and spread themselves in the feelings and hearts of the Saints pretty extensively, and they act very powerfully in hindering the Saints from obtaining the blessings and privileges which it is their right to receive. Until these feelings are re– moved, we shall be liable to be baffled in regard to the blessings that are promised to the people of God.

We talk considerably in regard to the principle of loving our neighbors as well as we love ourselves; we talk about it, and we sometimes think about it, but how much do we really enter into the spirit of these things, and see that the difficulty lies within ourselves. We must understand that we have got to act upon certain principles by which we can bind ourselves together as a people, to bind our feelings together that we may become one, and this never can be accomplished unless certain things are done, and things that require an exertion on our part. How would you go to work to bind yourselves together? How would a man go to work to unite himself with his neighbor? If two men were associated together who had never been acquainted, how would they go to work to secure each other’s friendship, attachment, and affection one towards another? Why something would have to be done, and that not by one party only, but would have to be done by one as well as by the other. It would not answer for one to do the business alone; it would not do for one to answer those feelings and do the work himself, but in order to become as one in their sentiments and affection, the action of both would be requisite.

Now it is so ordered and so arranged, that we are dependent, in a great measure, one upon another. For instance, take us as a people, we are dependent upon a being that is above us to secure our peace, our happiness, our glory, and exaltation; we are individually dependent upon the exertions of an individual who is above ourselves.

For instance, we are all dependent upon Jesus Christ, upon his coming into the world to open the way whereby we might secure peace, happiness, and exaltation. And had he not made these exertions, we never could have been secured in these blessings and privileges which are guaranteed unto us in the Gospel, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, for he made the necessary exertions.

In order to accomplish the gathering of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, there had to be something done to liberate them from their thralldom, and this something had to be done by a higher power, by an individual that had more wisdom, more intelligence, more understanding, and more power and means within his hands for the purpose of securing those blessings which they needed. They never could have got out from their difficulties nor from their bondage, unless this power had been exerted by one who had more intelligence, more knowledge, more information in relation to the means of their deliverance.

It is just so in a thousand other cases, there has to be a power exercised for the benefit of the people, there has to be exertions made, and they never can receive the blessings and privileges that are for them, unless those exertions were made by an individual possessing more knowledge, more wisdom, and greater power than themselves.

Jesus, on a certain occasion, speaking to Peter, said to him, “Simon Peter, lovest thou me?” He answered that he did. Well, then, replied Jesus, “feed my sheep.” Jesus interrogated him again, saying, “Simon Peter, lovest thou me?” Peter answered, “I do, Lord.” Jesus said unto him. “Feed my lambs.” In this case we perceive there was an exertion to be made for the benefit of those that had not that power and information, but this alone is not sufficient.

Had Moses, for instance, having done all that he did, had he delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage, and having done all that he could and all that mortal man could do for their redemption, having done all in his power, and been willing to lay down his life and to sacrifice everything that he had to accomplish that work, would he have secured the people to himself, and have brought about that union which was so necessary, without any exertion on their part? No, most assuredly it would not have been accomplished, for there had to be a return, an exertion on their part, in order to secure that union and that love, and to secure that fellowship between them and him, which it was necessary should exist, and so it is in reference to Jesus Christ, though he has sacrificed himself and laid the plan for the redemption of the people, yet unless the people labor to obtain that union between him and them, their salvation never will be accomplished. Thus we see that something has to be done by each party, in order to secure each other’s friendship, and to bind us together as a community.

Now, let an individual possess information and intelligence, and let that individual be one who holds the Holy Priesthood, a man who has been in the Church for years and years, let him be one that is filled with knowledge and understanding, and let him go to work and look about him, or in other words, let him consider there are others around him that are less favored than himself, and that they are not all so strong, nor so forward in the blessings and graces of the Gospel as he is. Let him reflect that those around him desire the intelligence and blessings that God has given him through his greater experience in the things of the kingdom; then begin to impart that information to those around him, and to communicate his strength to those that are weak, and shadow forth his light to those who are in darkness. Then, so far as regards himself he is doing that which is necessary for him to do to secure their good feelings and affections to himself.

But let him take the opposite course, and think of improving his own dear self, and that there is only himself to be saved, that all he has to accomplish is to secure life and salvation for himself, and only think of his own sins, to reform himself, and to take care of himself. A man who takes this course is going upon a principle that will always keep him bound up and contracted in his feelings and contracted in his views, and will never accomplish the thing that is desired.

As, for instance, you let an individual keep his ideas and knowledge to himself in going on to acquire any information in relation to any particular branch of study or business, will he ever accomplish the thing that is required?

A great many pursue this course in reference to their mechanical skill, but this is not the right way.

In pursuing any kind of study, a man has to continue to work, and after going through one course, he has to go through again, and keep at work in order to make himself master of them, and he never will master them near so well as by communicating his information while engaged in gaining it. Let him go to work and gather up his friends, and endeavor to give them the same knowledge that he has received, and he then begins to find himself being enlightened upon those things which he never would have known unless by pursuing that course of teaching, and imparting the information he is in possession of unto others. Anyone that has been a schoolteacher will understand me well upon this point.

So you perceive that he who indulges in this narrow contracted kind of feeling, instead of benefiting himself in keeping the knowledge he possesses within himself, he is the loser in considering that by keeping all he has received to himself he would be exalted in spirit, in knowledge, and intelligence.

Let a man remember that there are others that are in darkness and that have not advanced so far in knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence, and let him impart that knowledge, intelligence, and power unto his friends and brethren, inasmuch as he is farther advanced than they are, and by so doing he will soon discover that his mind will expand, and that light and knowledge which he had gained would increase and multiply more rapidly.

I have heard brother Kimball state that when he was very much downhearted, he would find somebody worse than himself, and endeavor to comfort him up, and by so doing he would comfort himself, and increase in spirit and in life. It is upon this principle that I am speaking.

If you want to secure the friendship and affections of our friends, go to work and comfort them with that light which you have received, remembering those blessings came down from God, and that by doing this you are only doing what every man should do.

Those of you who have got the Priesthood, go and make friends among the individuals by whom you are surrounded; or select one and try to start his feelings, his faith, his circumstances, and his mind, and try to enlighten them, and if they are sinners, endeavor to save them from their sins, and bring them from their bondage in which they are placed, to participate in the light and liberty which you participate in, for in this way you can do good through the information which the Lord has imparted to you. In this way you will discover that their minds will be drawn out towards you, and their affections will be gained and centered upon you.

In order that this thing may be accomplished, and in order that those blessings which are necessary may be secured, and that the feelings and faith that we want as a people may be secured to us, we have to go to work individually and more anxiously, more ambitiously than we have done before to bind each other’s feelings together.

Now, for instance, take a shepherd who has charge of a large flock of sheep; he goes into his field, and his flock hasten to gather around him, and follow after him. How is this accomplished? The shepherd has gone from day to day, and from time to time, with plenty of salt, and they discover that he has it with him every time he makes his appearance, and that he has those things that are necessary to supply their wants. They learn by experience, that he has looked after their welfare, and they appreciate his kindness; it is a good deal so among men.

If you will allow me to carry out the figure, though perhaps it may not apply quite so well as some other, but it is the one now upon my mind. You let the President of your settlement, or the Bishop, or President Brigham Young, for instance, continue to administer incessantly among this people, and let them do all that individuals will call upon them to do; they will be worn down, and as brother Kimball was speaking, unless there is something done by the people as a return for that which is done by those men, there never will be a perfect people, but will be very far off from perfection. And it is still more so in regard to the cultivation of that feeling which is necessary for us to have one for another.

In regard to the shepherd’s flock of sheep, what do they do in reference to making a return for the good that is done to them? Is it sufficient for them to return one tenth part of their wool, which, would be a very great source of benefit, providing they only give that? If one of them could speak and say we will give you one tenth part of our wool for the purpose of manifesting unto you our gratitude, would not that be a very good and proper acknowledgement?

But they do more than this, they do as brother Kimball was speaking, they put everything into the reservoir, they return their entire fleece. This secures a very good feeling in the shepherd or in the bosom of the farmer towards the sheep that he had been administering to, and they find themselves, after the next year comes round, in possession of a great abundance.

Well, I was thinking of these things as brother Kimball was speaking this morning. If the people had confidence in the things which are taught, and if they would let their minds expand, and throw in their substance for the establishment of Zion and the extension of the kingdom of God, they would learn that it is the very principle upon which they would receive stores of those things which they are after.

But there is a fearfulness in the minds of the people, they are afraid to trust their substance in the hands of the Lord, but if we expect acts of kindness and affection; if we understand our true position, and want to secure the affections of the Almighty and all good men, so that they will be bound to us, we have got do something that will secure to us those affections, and other manifestations of that kindness which we have previously participated in.

If individuals would look upon this principle as they should look upon it, view it in its proper light, they would take much more pains than they do, for they would see the necessity of binding the feelings of their brethren together, they would see and understand the importance of this more than they do at the present time, and they would enter into the spirit of it. We might carry this principle into families, and illustrate upon it quite largely.

For instance, if you ever secure a union in any family in Zion, if you ever secure that heavenly union which is necessary to exist there, you have got to bind that family together in one, and there has got to be the Spirit of the Lord in the head of that family, and he should possess that light and that intelligence, which, if carried out in the daily life and conduct of those individuals, will prove the salvation of that family, for he holds their salvation in his hands.

He goes to work, and associates his feelings and affections with theirs as far as lies in his power, and endeavors to secure all those things that are necessary for their comfort and welfare, and they, on the other part, have got to turn round and manifest the same feeling, the same kindness, and the same disposition, and to the utmost of their ability manifest feelings of gratitude for the blessings which they receive.

This is necessary, that there may be a oneness of feeling, or oneness of sentiment and a corresponding affection, that they being one, may be bound together in this way. Now, it is just the same in regard to ourselves as neighbors, as Saints of God, as individuals that hold the Priesthood, and that have traveled in the light of truth, and got the power of God upon them, and who know what salvation is.

The things of God have been revealed to this people, that they may go to work and obtain more faith and more confidence in God than any other people upon the face of the whole earth. We have to eat, drink, and clothe ourselves, as well as other people, but in gaining these things we should regard sacredly each other’s rights. When two individuals are bound together, as they eventually must be if they ever stand in the presence of God, rather than to take a course to injure each other’s feelings, when they are united as they should be and as they will be, they would sooner have a limb severed from their body, they would sooner suffer anything that could be executed upon them than to disturb or hurt each other’s feelings. There would be the same love that existed between David and Jonathan. Before David would do anything to disturb the feelings of Jonathan, he would have suffered a hundredfold of trouble to come upon himself. I think we sometimes pass by those things which are of such great importance. I often think of the little anecdote that is recorded in the Bible about the sons of the prophets. On a certain occasion, when the sons of the Prophets were cutting timber, it appears that the axe fell off the handle into the water, and it seemed there was a great disturbance in the feelings of the young Prophets. Why, says one, master, the axe was borrowed, and it seems there was quite an anxiety about the axe on account of its being borrowed property. I have thought that had the circumstance transpired in these days the expression would have been on this wise, “O, it is no matter, master, the axe was borrowed.” But in those days they had feelings in regard to their neighbors, and in consequence of this the power of God could be manifested for the purpose of raising the axe from the bottom of the water. Thus we see they had feelings of interest for the welfare of their neighbors and friends as well as for themselves.

Now an individual, in order to secure the highest and greatest blessings to himself, in order to secure the approbation of the Almighty, and in order to continually improve in the things pertaining to righteousness, he must do all things to the best advantage. Let him go to work and be willing to sacrifice for the benefit of his friends. If he wants to build himself up, the best principle he can do it upon is to build up his friends. This is the same principle I wish to refer your minds to in relation to the master who wished to make himself perfect in those sciences which he had partially studied, and he did it by communicating to his scholars that information which he had obtained, and he did it again and again, and by teaching them he improved himself.

You, brethren, that are going forward in any undertaking, and that want to get rich, and that want to make large farms, to get many wives, and to extend your household and your popularity, you make up your minds to make your wives comfortable, to feed and clothe your children, and do those things that are required of you. But while you are engaged in this, let your minds be expanded to comprehend and look after the interest of your friends that are around you, and where it is in your power to secure benefits to you friends do so, and in so doing, you will find that those things which you need will come into your hands quicker than if you labor entirely to secure them to yourselves, independent of regarding the interests of your friends. I know this is a good and important principle.

Now if a man has been blessed of the Lord, and has got information from the eternal world, has been endowed with much grace and knowledge from on high, and is one to whom the Lord has imparted many great and glorious blessings, when he comes in contact with his friends that are around him and that have not had this advantage and this experience, if they in their arrangements should run across his track, let him exercise those godly feel– ings which will tend to secure their confidence and goodwill. And just so far as he exercises them above that of his fellows, he exhibits the education that he has received in the principles of righteousness, and just in proportion as a person does this to those that are ignorant around him, just in that proportion will he secure the good feelings of those individuals; it cannot do otherwise. Peradventure in a future day, when through the mercy of the Lord that darkness is taken away, and they receive the knowledge that you have, they will discover that you have acted upon the principles of mercy and salvation, and in consequence of that you secure their good feelings, their faith, their prayers, and their confidence; this is upon natural principles. You will find that wherever you exhibit a feeling of brotherly love, you secure that brotherly friendship and kindness which is so desirable. I can refer you to your own experience in this; I can think of a thousand instances of the kind. I can think of thousands of instances where brother Brigham and brother Heber imparted to me certain knowledge and blessings, under certain circumstances then surrounding me; I remember them, they are fresh in my memory, and those acts have secured a feeling in my bosom that never could have been there had not those acts of kindness created it. You take the same course, and so far as you have exercised yourself in the Priesthood, and secured the blessings and knowledge of your Priesthood, you may work for your friends upon the same principle, and if you consider the circumstances by which they are surrounded, and act so far as may be consistent with your calling, and if they have got the spirit that is wrong, and that you perceive would lead to apostasy, go to work and see what they want, and see what por– tion of information you can impart to them. If they want those things that are good, and you see that through their misfortune and weakness they have got into darkness, try to get that spirit from them, and you will discover when they have overcome the evils of their nature, and secured their salvation, you will find that you have bound their feelings to you in such a way they never will be severed, and when you need a manifestation of friendship, you will always find a friend in time of need. Now this can be done, but not without some self-sacrifice. We have just got to feel, brethren, that there are other people besides ourselves; we have got to look into the hearts and feelings of others, and become more godly than what we are now.

We should be bound together and act like David and Jonathan as the heart of one, and sooner let our arm be severed from our bodies than injure each other. What a mighty people we would be if we were in this condition, and we have got to go into it, however little feelings of friendship we may have in exercise at the present time. I can just tell you that the day will come when we must become united in this way if we ever see the presence of God. We shall have to learn to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We must go into this, however far we are from it at the present time, yet no matter, we must learn these principles and establish them in our bosoms. Now this I can see clearly, and that is the reason why I talk about these matters in the style in which I do, for I wish to plant them in the minds of the Saints, and to have these things among their everyday feelings. I see that some of the Saints are laying a foundation to destroy the confidence of their brethren. If a person will allow himself to fall into temptation of this kind because others do, and to transgress the law of right, to come in contact with things that pertain to the rights of his brethren, and trample upon the interest of his brethren, he may see the day that he will repent in sorrow, and not have forgiveness as soon as he would like.

Now let a person trample upon the interests of brother Brigham, while he is endeavoring to do him good, would he not find that his confidence in God is departing? A man that would do this, would just as soon trample upon the rights of the Lord, for he is doing this, and the man that will trample upon the rights of his brethren, no matter who they are, he will trample upon the rights of any man, if he can do it and get along without being particularly punished. If in our movements and dealings with each other we are seriously tempted in these matters, we have got to know that it is our business to learn to secure the peace and happiness of those that are around us, and never take a course to trample upon the feelings and rights of our neighbors. Let a man go and trample upon the rights of a brother, and how long would it take him to destroy that feeling of confidence that had heretofore existed between them? And when once destroyed, how long will it take to establish that feeling which once existed between them? It will take a great while. This is what we have to place our eye upon; I feel it so; in all our thinking, in all our movements, and in our secret meditations, we want to let our minds reflect upon the interests of all around; and to consider that they have rights and privileges as well as ourselves; we ought to have this firmly established in our minds.

Now you take a man that is continually looking after the interests of the people around him, and let him feel to bless anything and all things that belongs to his brethren, and he will in this way establish happiness in himself and around him. Let a man take the opposite course, and instead of blessing and laboring for the benefit of others, find fault and pull down, will he make the same improvement? Assuredly he will not.

I think the people are very good, and that they feel first-rate towards brother Brigham and the general authorities of the Church, they feel to bless them all the time. At the same time they do not feel in the way I think they might feel; but they feel like blessing, and actually do have a first-rate good feeling, especially when filled with the good Spirit as they have been of late. They have not been accustomed to make any sacrifice of a temporal character, and I think they do not feel in this way as they might, if they had more understanding. They feel to bless all around them, and their feelings of kindness are first-rate. Now this is a very good thing, but a person that can take all his temporal substance that is valuable, comfortable, happifying, and nice, and take of that substance for the purpose of benefiting another, that is the way I should think a man could show that he is establishing those principles in himself. If we feel that it is our duty to go to work more ambitiously than what we have done to secure confidence, we will proceed, if it is in our power, to yield temporal blessings and favors, to secure the friendship of those around us. In this way, and in no other, can we be bound together, and manifest that we have a kind and brotherly feeling. We must exhibit this feeling by our works, and instead of shaking a person by the hand, and saying, God bless you, my good fellow, and the next day pay no regard to what we have previously said, but trample upon his best feelings and sever them from us.

I feel that if we secure to ourselves the blessings and privileges of this reformation, we must also try to secure something for the interests of those that are around us, for there is a self-sacrifice to be made for the interests of those with whom we are associated. We see this in the Savior, and in brother Joseph, and we see it in our President. Jesus, brother Joseph, and brother Brigham have always been willing to sacrifice all they possess for the good of the people; that is what gives brother Brigham power with God and power with the people, it is the self-sacrificing feeling that he is all the time exhibiting. It is so with others, just in proportion as they are willing to sacrifice for others, so they get God in them, and the blessings of the eternal worlds are upon them, and they are the ones that will secure not only the rights of this world, but will secure the blessings of eternity. Just in proportion as you women, you wives, sacrifice one for another, just in that proportion you will advance in the things of God. Now if you want to get heaven within you, and to get into heaven, you want to pursue that course that angels do who are in heaven. If you want to know how you are to increase, I will tell you, it is by getting godliness within you.

Let angels be here, do you suppose that they would enjoy themselves here? They would until they felt disposed to leave. Well just so individuals can enjoy heaven around them in all places. We have got to go to work and do this; we must go to work and establish heaven upon this earth, notwithstanding the evils that are around us, the devils that are around us, and notwithstanding the wickedness that exists, still we have got to go to work and establish heaven upon this earth.

A person never can enjoy heaven until he learns how to get it, and to act upon its principles. Now you take some individuals, and you refer back to the circumstances that surrounded them twenty years ago, when they were living in log huts, when they had a certain amount of joy, of peace, of happiness at that time, though things were uncomfortable. Now they may have secured comfortable circumstances and temporal means that would administer to their temporal wants and necessities, but if they have not secured friends, the good feelings of their brethren, they are unhappy, and more so than they were twenty years ago.

I do not feel to occupy more of the time today, but may the Lord bless you brethren and sisters, and may you think of these things, and may we love each other, and live so to exalt ourselves as far as the Lord shall give us wisdom and ability, and secure confidence with each other, which may the Lord grant for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 1, 1857.

About the Devil’s Gate, and the property left there last season. We expect to start back some teams, according to the notice which was read this morning, as soon as the season will permit us to carry feed for the different stations on the route. Those who have goods left at the Devil’s Gate, by making proper arrangements, can have them brought in; and if any persons prefer going for their own goods, of course they have the privilege.

I have been highly interested and entertained this day by the instructions and exhortations we have received; they are calculated to inspire confidence and love towards our Father and our God.

Brother Heber and brother Lorenzo Snow have spoken upon the unity of our feelings and the identifying of our interests; and it is frequently urged upon this people to identify their interests, that we may have no undivided interests—no half-heartedness. To be powerful we must be united, and to be united we must have our interests identified. How can we have them better identified than in that we have set our hands to do—than in consecrating all our property to the Lord? We have started out in a good cause; let us not look back, but let us urge forward in the things of God, and work together for each other’s benefit, for in this we shall not sacrifice anything.

We talk a great deal about sacrifi– ces, when strictly there is no such thing; it is a misnomer—it is a wrong view of the subject, for what we do in the kingdom of God is the best investment we can possibly make. It pays the best, whichever way we may look at it, it is the principle of all others to be coveted—to be appreciated—and is the best investment we can make of all that pertains to us in this life. It is an inestimable privilege, and should be so esteemed by the community. We cannot fully fathom it, we cannot as yet altogether understand it, for ear hath not heard, nor eyes seen the benefit that will accrue to the individual that will be faithful unto the end in this Church and kingdom, and receive the exaltation to which he is looking forward. There is virtually no sacrifice about it. It is like sacrificing the things of time in time, to gain eternal riches, and such a sacrifice sinks into insignificance in a moment. All the sacrifice we could make, even of life itself, in this world, is nothing to those who are faithful. Let us not be half-hearted, but let us go into this matter whole souled, and cleave unto God and His servants, and identify our interests in His kingdom.

As to the devil, what have we to do with him? It is true, what we heard this forenoon while brother Joseph Young was talking. If we could breathe twice where we now do once, the Holy Ghost is ready every moment to administer to our salva– tion, and the evil spirit is also ready to lead us into temptation. That is true, but look at the word the Lord gave us through our first parents, when He planted us on this earth. He said to the serpent, “Because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” We have that advantage over the devil; we can, if we have a mind to, resist him, and he will flee from us. He can be cast out, and he is subject to us. We have the length and breadth of ourselves clear from being contaminated with him. I will say that, without fearing successful contradiction. If he overcomes us, we first let down the bars, and invite him to enter; or he would not come further than our heels.

The Lord gave us our agency to do as we please, and it is for us to say whether we will be for God or the devil. We may make ourselves angels to the devil, or Saints of the Most High. We may have the blessings of the Almighty assisting us, or reject them and go to the devil; it is optional with ourselves. I will admit that we have been corrupted in our generations for thousands of years, and that the devil has power over us through this cause in a measure that he otherwise would not have; and were it not for the multiplicity of the blessings of the Almighty that gives us power and strength, we would most likely be overcome of the devil. We have become small in stature and short in years—weak in body and mind—compared with our forefathers in the primitive ages of the world. We know they attained to a great age, and large in stature, and had great power with God. We know there has been a falling away, and we have come down through the loins of progenitors who have corrupted their ways, changed the ordinances, and but little of the blood of Abraham may be flowing in our veins.

God has looked at the generations of men, and has brought spirits into the world, and they have come through this long line of corrupted generation. What has He made known unto us? He has developed little by little the ways of the Lord, if we will pursue the course His servants have laid out through the channels of the holy and eternal Priesthood. He has again opened to the children of men the channels of life, and we may bring ourselves back again to the might and power, life and immortality spoken of this morning. The Lord will cut His work short in righteousness, and will permit us, if we are faithful, to progress so fast that we may make up in a few years what we have lost in a thousand. We may gain, in a few generations of righteousness, what twenty of unrighteousness have robbed us of. It is a work of righteousness which the Lord will bless and prosper.

The principles of plurality have been established, in order to raise up a righteous seed unto God. The way has been pointed out, and it is a blessing that has been restored to this generation. It is a turning back to the holy principles of ancient days, even to that purity that was known in primitive ages. In this way only may we rise from corruption, through the Holy Priesthood of our God. We do not handle these things with proper sacredness, perhaps. It is a principle that is calculated to produce health, strength, and happiness here, as well as salvation hereafter. It is so esteemed by many, and when you see the principle as it really is, you will say that it is as I tell you.

I know our forefathers have changed the ordinance, and corrupted their ways in their generations, and it has brought misery and degradation on the human family. And now, if we can turn round and reform in this, ourselves—our posterity—will be better prepared to reform themselves and become mighty before God. They will be better capable of receiving those principles which have been made known to us; they can lay hold with greater power and faith on the blessings of the Priesthood, and can obtain greater power than we now can, because they will not have the traditions around them that we have. They will be measurably free from the corruptions which have been entailed on us.

I do not wish to take up much time, but I wish to impress these facts upon the people. I wish to have my sisters feel that this order is the order of God, and that in it they will find happiness and exaltation; in it they will find every principle that is calculated to lead them to glory and favor with God, and exaltation into His presence; and by it they are redeeming themselves and their posterity from the corruptions of man, that have been in existence for many generations before us, and from which they have been brought out by the sound and proclamation of the Gospel. I believe they do feel to appreciate and understand this; and I wish to exhort the brethren also, that they adhere to these holy principles and try to see and understand them as they exist, and act according to the principles of life and salvation, and not according to those of death and destruction; that they make allowance for thousands of things they may have around them in their families.

There are many men who think they have an understanding of these things, and make no allowance for the traditions that hang around the women. Do you realize that they have been brought up in their Gentile notions, as well as yourselves? A man may have, perhaps, three or four wives, and not make such allowance for them as they do for him, and find fault, and be very exacting in requiring of them the most perfect obedience to every whim and notion. By taking such a course he is liable to lose the Holy Ghost, and if he does, he will lose his women. It is upon the principle that you are a man of God—that you have the Holy Ghost and desire to raise up a holy seed to the name of the Most High—that your wives have been sealed to you; they would not upon any other principle have come to you. Now if your wives discover that you lack in any virtues pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and if you take a course that is not calculated to exalt them, do you not see that you lose their confidence? You will lose them also.

The reformation has touched the hearts of both men and women. The people generally are turning round, and they will serve God more perfectly than hitherto. Many of you have never tried this order until now, and let me tell you, brethren, that it is necessary for you to keep the Holy Ghost. If you have not got it, you must get it, and never be without it. You must shed forth that influence on your family, as brothers Joseph and Heber told you this morning, or they will leave you. They will not stay with a man who is destitute of it, if they are good women, neither should they. This is a word for you, my brethren, who are now starting out on this principle. It is a good, virtuous, and holy principle, and not to be trifled with. The women, as a general thing, have power and faith in this kingdom, and they come into this order with full purpose of heart, desiring to do right; and in leading them, if you will be careful of your own feelings, and have a little magnanimity of mind, it will be better for you, and they will stick to you, because it is for their salvation in the kingdom of our God. It is for this they are here, and they will cleave to you for it; and it is your office, right, and privilege to extend that blessing to them. I do not make these remarks for wives to run ahead of their husbands, for they seek their salvation through them. Of course there are exceptions to all general rules. I am speaking upon general principles, to Saints of the Most High. This is a good people, generally.

I say to the sisters, seek to have confidence in your husbands, and believe that they are capable of leading you; and when you seek instruction, believe them capable of giving it to you; and be faithful, humble, and obedient to them. Their feelings should not be concentrated in you, but your feelings should be in them, and their’s should be in those who lead them in the Priesthood. Their feelings are concentrated in the Lord their God and what is ahead, and there is where they should be. You should be glad to see them step forward and walk onward in the path of their duty, and not require them to devote themselves to you to the exclusion of things and duties of life which lie before them. As they progress and lead on, you will feel to travel in the same road. This is the order, and if order is maintained in this thing, you will see the beauty of it; and it will be a satisfaction to you and them to believe that your husband, he who is at your head, is progressing in the things of God. That should be a satisfaction to you, and it will be, if you are inspired by the right spirit and feeling. In this way you will have happiness, and see good times.

I have heard brother Brigham remark, many times, that he did not believe that Enoch had a better peo– ple than this, a people who progressed half as fast in the things of God as have the Latter-day Saints, notwithstanding they lived in primitive ages when they were comparatively pure, when they were not corrupted as our progenitors have been. They built and perfected a city in 365 years. I believe, and I have often heard brother Brigham and Heber so express themselves, that this people have made far more progress towards perfection in the same time than did Enoch’s people. I rejoice in this and to see this people obedient to their head, to their Bishops, and to their God.

There are great blessings, happiness, and salvation for this people, so long as they continue faithful in these things. And the more they identify their interests and become subservient and passive in the hands of this Priesthood here, they will be, both men and women, the more satisfied and happy in this life, and better prepared to live in the flesh, as well as to enter into the life which is to come.

May the Lord bless us and help us to do right; and may we be worthy to receive His blessings. The Lord delights to bless His servants and handmaidens, and He will bless us until we become powerful in this land, and are made capable of bringing to pass His purposes and designs in the last days.

If we are in the world, we are not of it, because they will not let us be. They drive us and scatter us, and try to destroy us, but it matters not. We have been brought to these chambers of the Lord; we have nothing to do but praise His holy name, and we can make the arch of heaven ring with praises to our God and King, and no one to make us afraid; though it makes the sinner fear and tremble, while there is none to make the Saints afraid in Zion.

Let us do the things that are for us to do, no matter what they are, whether spiritual or temporal, for they are united together, and we do not wish to sever them; it is not necessary we should. We have to do with spiritual and temporal things, they go hand in hand, and the Lord will bless us, if we are faithful, which is what we seek. Do we not feel well when we do that which meets the approbation of our Father and our God? Then let us be careful how we do anything to displease Him, for then we do not feel well. The idea of offending or grieving our Heavenly Father is unpleasant. Let us also be careful how we do anything to displease our Bishops, and let the wives be careful how they do anything to displease their husbands, and let us all be united and dwell in harmony, and see how beautifully we shall move forward as a people—as the Saints of the Most High God—being such in character as well as in name.

Let us cultivate good feelings one towards another, that we may promote our own peace, happiness, and final exaltation in the kingdom of God. We can enjoy ourselves in heaven only upon this principle, and if we can bring out minds to enjoy that principle here, then we have a heaven here. If we have a heaven at all, we have to make it, and for this reason we have the power given us to make it; the devil cannot get into our hearts, unless we give him a welcome there.

May the Lord bless us, and preserve us, and help us to do His will on the earth and bring to pass His purposes, which favors I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 22, 1857.

I feel it a privilege to bear testimony before the Saints to the exhortations we have heard this morning from brothers Richards and Wells. We have had good teachings, good counsel, and good doctrine taught us. And I presume I feel in a measure like the rest of my brethren when I rise to speak to this people in the Tabernacle, where such large congregations of Saints assemble; I have a desire that what I say may do the people good, may edify them. My brethren also have the same desire.

We realize that the minds of this people need feeding continually, and we all have to depend upon the Holy Spirit and the Lord to feed our minds from that inexhaustible fountain of intelligence which comes from God, for we cannot obtain food from any other source to feed the immortal mind of man. Here are a large assembly of minds who are reaching forth to receive light and truth before the Lord.

I realize that we have a great many lessons to learn in the school we are in, and myself as a teacher in connection with my brethren have also a great deal to learn. I feel that I am yet in my alphabet, and feel sometimes that I am incapable of teaching this people, when I realize they are in the road which leads to celestial glory—to eternal life and eternal exaltation. I know I am dependent as I know my brethren are upon God, upon the Holy Ghost for all the light, truth, and intelligence which we have to impart unto you.

The words which brother Wells quoted, and which brother Samuel Richards referred to, furnish as strong a proof as can be furnished as to the true principle of prosperity, touching things temporal and things spiritual. I refer to the words of Jesus Christ which he spoke to his followers: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all other things shall be added unto you.” I will tell you, brethren and sisters, we may try it all the days of our lives, we may try every path and every principle in this world, and we as Saints cannot prosper upon any other mode of proceeding than by first seeking the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness; when we do this there is no blessing, there is no good, no exaltation, gift, grace, desire, or anything that a good man can wish that is profitable, and good for time and for eternity, but will be given unto us.

A great many people have tried to seek for happiness independent of first seeking the kingdom of heaven, &c., but they have always found it an uphill business, and so shall we if we try it.

We as a people should have learned by this time, after having the experience we have gained, to make up our minds to take hold and build up the kingdom of God, and it should be the first thing before us, for if we build up the kingdom of God we build up ourselves, and if we do not we never shall be built up. This is the truth. There seems to be something connected with the kingdom of God and that is righteousness; we are exhorted to seek the righteousness that belongs to it as well as the kingdom itself.

The kingdom of God is a righteous kingdom, all its laws are righteous, its government is a righteous government, and the king who governs and controls it does so upon righteous and eternal principles, and we must act upon the same principles of righteousness. Who cannot see that if a man seeks first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness that he will become righteous and hence he will be blessed and justified in all of his acts?

With regard to the feelings of the people that brothers Wells and Richards have referred to, touching the consecration of their property and dedicating themselves to God, I will say, if we build up the kingdom of God we should be in that kingdom, and all we have should be in it, and we should have faith enough in the Lord to know it is in a safe place.

I am a good deal of the opinion of old Captain Russell, who was an extensive ship-builder, and paid thousands of dollars yearly to the Gentiles as insurance fees. After he embraced “Mormonism,” he began to reflect, “here am I paying thousands of dollars yearly to the Gentiles to insure my ships, and I have to trust to the God of heaven after all to save my ships from sinking, and to prosper me in all my undertakings; this is not right.” So he went to Liverpool, where the insurance office was, to settle his insurance bills and close up his business with the firm.

The gentlemen of the firm asked him when he had got through, saying, “Have we not treated you well, Mr. Russell?” “Yes, I have no fault to find with you.” “What, then, is your object in pursuing this course? We have done business with you a good many years; we want to know if you are going to change your insurance office?” “I am.” “Will you tell us where you are going to have your business done in the future?” “Yes, I am going to have it done in heaven, for the insurance offices do not control the winds, the elements are not obedient to them, and I have been paying ten thousand dollars a year for insuring a few ships, and I have to trust in the Lord anyhow, so in the future I shall pay my insurance fee into the Lord’s treasury.”

The gentlemen of the office thought he was cracked or beside himself, for I tell you trusting in the Lord in these days is an unpopular business with the world. But the Saints have to trust in the Lord, and we might as well begin and seek this kingdom and the interest of it, and the righteousness of it, and build it up first as last. I believe the people are reforming in this thing; I believe they are increasing in their faith, and have manifested it here in the city this winter, and I am glad to see it.

The exhortation we have had this morning is proper and seasonable, as we have been sowing the seed of the word this winter among the people, and we should watch and see that the seed is sown in good ground, and try to cultivate the principles we hear, that the fruits of righteousness may appear in abundance. In doing this we will be saved.

We have had one of the most interesting seasons this winter that we have ever enjoyed since the Church and kingdom of God has been organized in the last days. We have had new lessons opened unto us by the servants of the Lord, and among those things the mercy of the Lord has been manifested in a great degree towards this people. I have reflected on His mercy and I feel we should be faithful and humble, and prove true unto the Lord our God because of this mercy which has been manifested unto us, and we should be very careful hereafter, as President Young exhorted us the last time he spoke concerning this people continuing to commit sin. He plainly laid before us the consequences of this course; we should let the past suffice wherein we have done anything in which we cannot be justified. I am satisfied that the people in these valleys will never hear the same proclamation which we have heard this winter.

If this people with the light they have, the teachings they have, and the examples they have had set before them intermingled with chastisement—if they still will go on and be neglectful of their duties, with regard to their salvation they will have to pay the debt, for the sinner in Zion will be cut off from the Church of God, and will have to pay the penalty whether it be small or great. It is of the utmost importance that we should guard ourselves against sin as the tree of life is guarded. We have no time to throw away in the service of sin, in committing iniquity and grieving the Holy Spirit of God.

I tell you when you look around and see the state of the world on the one hand, and what we have to perform on the other, and what the kingdom of God has got to arrive at in order to fulfil its destiny and the revelations of Jesus Christ, our chief object should be to build up the kingdom of God and roll it on.

As I remarked last evening in the High Priests’ Quorum, we have been rolling this kingdom uphill, up a mountain; we have been toiling against a mighty current all the day long from its first organization, but the day will soon come, if this people will do their duty and take hold of the kingdom of God as they should do, it will soon get on the top of the mountain, and then it will begin to roll down from the mountains, and it will gather both strength and speed as it goes, and then instead of singing “Get out of the way, the handcarts rolling,” it will be “Get out of the way, the kingdom’s coming,” and it will not stop until it has filled the whole earth. The Lord has proclaimed this in all the revelations He has given on the subject.

This kingdom has got to stand, spread itself abroad, and gather unto itself strength. The Lord is going to work with this kingdom, and with this people. The Lord says in the parable of the vineyard, “My servants labored with their mights, and the Lord labored with them, and they prevailed, and brought forth the fruits of the kingdom, and the bitter branches were broken off, and the tame olive brought forth good fruit, and the vineyard was no more corrupt.” This should be uppermost in our minds, we should look for the building up of the kingdom, and secure not only blessings for ourselves, but seek to become saviors of men on Mount Zion, and try to do all the good we can, laboring to promote the cause and interest of Zion in every department thereof where we are all called to act.

By pursuing this course we shall be prospered, and have continual peace in our minds, and as the Lord has said, nothing will be withheld from any man that seeks for the righteousness and blessings of the kingdom of God. Salvation should be the uppermost thing with us, and you will find if ever we seek to do something else besides carrying out the dictates of the Holy Spirit, we will get into the fog and into darkness and trouble, and we shall be ignorant of the way we are pursuing. Every day that we live we need the power of the Lord—the power of His Holy Spirit and the strength of the Priesthood to be with us that we may know what to do. And if we will so live before the Lord, the Spirit will reveal to us every day what our duties are; I do not care what it is we are engaged in, we should first find out the will of the Lord and then do it, and then our work will be well done and acceptable before the Lord, but if we take a course against light and against the Spirit of God, we will find it an unprofitable road to travel.

I feel as though the Lord is going to do a great work in the midst of this people. There are a great many things at our door, a great many changes to take place in the earth, and the kingdom is growing; and I would here exhort all the Latter-day Saints who hear me this day to study well the position you are in, and search your hearts and see if we are in the favor of the Lord our God, and then let us increase continually in faith, in hope, in righteousness, and in every virtuous principle which is necessary for us to have to sustain us in every trial through which we may be called to pass, in order to prove us as the friends of God, whether we will abide in the covenant or not; we will be tried from this time, until the coming of the Messiah or while we live on the earth.

If we could open the vision of our minds, and let it extend into the future and see this kingdom, and what it is bound to accomplish, and what we have to do, the warfare we have to pass through, we would certainly see that we have a great work on hand. We have not only to fight the powers of darkness, the invisible forces that surround us, but we have to war with a great many outward circumstances and to contend with a great many difficulties that we must of necessity meet, and the more of this we have to meet the more we should be stimulated to action, and to labor with all our power before the Lord for the establishment of righteousness and truth and the building up of the work of God, and to see that His name is honored upon the earth.

Brother Wells has said, why the world is troubled about us is because we are united. This is true; the world and the devil are afraid of it, and he has labored all his life to divide everything where righteousness dwelt, or at least ever since he was cast out from the presence of God, what he did before that I cannot say any further than what is revealed. We have got to be one and labor together to build up this kingdom because we cannot establish it upon any other principle.

We should be careful to know that we are right and then go ahead, and we will find it to our advantage, and we shall be satisfied with our reward if we pursue that course which is according to the commandments of God. When we come into the presence of our Father in heaven we shall meet with His approbation, this alone will reward us for our labors.

If we go to work and build up the kingdom of God instead of ourselves, it is no matter in what shape we do it, whether it is in building a canal, or in building a temple, preaching the Gospel, cultivating the earth, or anything else, let us take that and make it a business, and we will find the Lord will help, sustain, and nerve us with His power, and will assist us in everything we have to do, and if we are called to lay down our lives in the defense of God and eternal truth, then all right, and if we live, all right, and when we come into the presence of the Lord we shall be satisfied with our reward and blessings.

The Lord has said He would prove us whether we would abide in His covenant even unto death; indeed we have been tried from the commence– ment of this great work, but there has been an invisible hand at work for our defense all the time; the wicked have not seen the power that has sustained us, they cannot see the inside machinery that is at work in this kingdom, the nations of the earth cannot understand it, and they never can comprehend it, but the Latter-day Saints understand it, and they know that it is the power of God and the word of God, for the Lord has made proclamations and decrees, and covenants concerning Israel in the last days, and all the Prophets, from righteous Abel to Brigham Young, have proclaimed it to the nations of the earth, as with the voice of thunder, and we know they will be fulfilled; we know the Gospel has to be offered to the Gentiles first, we have offered it to them for the space of twenty five years, that we may be prepared to go to the house of Israel.

The Gentiles in a great measure, have rejected it; we have borne a faithful testimony to the nations of the earth, and they prefer to take their own course, and act on their own agency; they would rather build themselves up than the kingdom of God. The consequence is, it will soon be taken from the Gentile nations, and it will not be long before the judgments of God are abroad among them, and those bitter branches will be taken off the tree.

Now there is no personage, or subject, or work upon the face of the whole earth, but what is more popular than the Lord, and His Gospel, and kingdom; His name is dishonored and blasphemed, with impunity by nearly all the inhabitants of the earth and in the midst of every nation under heaven, but the day is nigh at hand when He will make bare His arm of power, and show the world that there is a God in Israel, who will no longer bear the blasphemies of the wicked without bringing them to judg– ment, but He will send forth those angels, those messengers who dwell in the presence of God, who are waiting with their sharp sickles in their hands to reap down the earth; but this will not be until the Gospel has been fully offered to the Gentiles; then the bitter branches will be broken off.

This kingdom will go forward, for the Lord God has decreed it, and Zion will arise and be adorned with beauty and power, and true refinement, in light and knowledge, and in every good gift that will prepare the minds of men for the Society of their Heavenly Father and of celestial beings. These lessons have got to be given, and we have got to learn them, and we have got to bring ourselves to the celestial law of God; we have to be quickened by the Spirit and power of the kingdom of God and its righteousness, that we may be prepared to carry out the purposes of the Lord; then this kingdom will be borne to the house of Israel, and they will receive it.

The door has already been unlocked to the Lamanites in these mountains, and they will begin to embrace the Gospel and the records of their fathers, and their chiefs will be filled with the Spirit and power of God, and they will rise up in their strength, and a nation will be born in a day, because they are of the seed of Abraham, and God has promised to bless the descendants of Abraham, and they will be saved with the house of Israel, for the Lord has spoken it, and made those promises unto them through their fathers.

Again, here are the ten tribes of Israel, we know nothing about them only what the Lord has said by His Prophets. There are Prophets among them, and by and by they will come along, and they will smite the rocks, and the mountains of ice will flow down at their presence, and a high– way will be cast up before them, and they will come to Zion, receive their endowments, and be crowned under the hands of the children of Ephraim, and there are persons before me in this assembly today, who will assist to give them their endowments. They will receive their blessings and endowments, from under the children of Ephraim, who are the firstfruits of the kingdom of God in this dispensation, and the men will have to be ordained and receive their Priesthood and endowments in the land of Zion, according to the revelations of God.

Again, here is Judah, which is the tribe of Israel, from whom Jesus sprang; how many times have I seen them among the nations of the earth, standing in their synagogues, even greyhaired rabbis, with their faces to the east, calling on the great Eloheim to open the door for them to go back to Jerusalem, the land of their fathers, and to send their Shiloh, their king of deliverance. When I have seen this my soul has been filled with a desire to proclaim unto them the word of God unto eternal life, but I knew I could not do this, the time had not come, I could not preach to them. I might have stood in their midst for a month and preached unto them Jesus Christ or their Shiloh and king, but I should have failed to establish one particle of faith in their minds that he was the true Messiah.

They do not believe in Jesus Christ; there is an unbelief resting upon them, and will until they go home and rebuild Jerusalem and their temple more glorious than at the beginning, and then by and by, after this Church and kingdom has arisen up in its glory, the Savior will come to them and show the wounds in his hands and side, and they will say to him, “Where did you get those wounds?” and he will answer, “In the house of my friends,” and then their eyes will begin to open, and they will repent and mourn, they and their wives apart, and there will be a fountain opened for uncleanness to the house of Judah, and they will for the first time receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, they will begin to comprehend where they have been wandering for the space of two thousand years.

You cannot convert a Jew, you may as well try to convert this house of solid walls as to convert them into the faith of Christ. They are set in their feelings, and they will be until the time of their redemption. They are looking forward to the time when they will go home and rebuild Jerusalem; they have looked for it many hundreds of years, they are looking for the coming of their king, and they do not suppose for a moment that he has already come, but they are looking for him to come as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, not as a lamb led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that is dumb before his shearers; they are looking for him to come with power and great glory.

I thank God that the day is at hand when the Jews will be restored. I have felt to pray for them; I feel interested in their behalf, for they are of the seed of Abraham and a branch of the house of Israel, and the promises of God still remain with them. It is true they fell through unbelief, and the kingdom was taken from them and given to the Gentiles, and when it came from them, it came clothed with all its gifts, powers, and glory, Priesthood and ordinances which were necessary for the salvation of men, and to prepare them to dwell in the presence of the Gods; and when the kingdom was given to the Gentiles, they for a while brought forth the natural fruits of the kingdom. But they, like the Jews, have fallen through the same example of unbelief, and now, in the last days, the kingdom of God has to be taken from the Gentiles, and restored back to every branch and tribe of the house of Israel; and when it is restored to them, it must go back with all its gifts, and blessings, and Priesthood which it possessed when it was taken from them. But the Lord has said that in restoring these blessings to the children of Abraham, that He would be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. But from what branch or part of the house of Israel will the Lord look for this petition or request to issue, if not from the Latter-day Saints, for we are out of the tribe of Joseph through the loins of Ephraim, who have been as a mixed cake among the Gentiles, and are the firstfruits of the kingdom, and the Lord has given unto us the kingdom and Priesthood and keys thereof. Hence the Lord will require us to ask for those blessings which are promised unto Israel, and to labor for their salvation.

These things will be required at our hands; a great work is before us, a work worthy of intelligent beings—worthy of the most noble of spirits that ever existed around the throne of God in time or in eternity, in heaven or on the earth. Then, if we would feel right about this important subject, and look upon it as it is, we will go to work and labor with all our mights to build up the kingdom of our God, to carry out the purposes of the Lord, in the building up of Zion, the establishment of his kingdom, and restoration, and salvation of the house of Israel; we should listen strictly to those men who are the word of the Lord to us.

The Prophet Jeremiah saw this kingdom established, and saw that Ephraim was the firstborn, and in gathering the children of Jacob and establishing Zion in the last days, their nobles should be of themselves, and their governor should proceed from the midst of them. I have looked forward for years by faith to that time when the children of Zion would have the privilege of having their rulers, and a governor of their own choice of the house of Israel, to rule over them and counsel and lead them.

We have had a governor since we have been a Territory, who is actually of the loins of Joseph, the son of Jacob. Jeremiah saw this, spake of it, and it has been fulfilled. There has been a great exertion to make this prophecy fail. It hurt the feelings of the Gentiles to think this prophecy should have its fulfilment in these days. It has been fulfilled so far, and I feel thankful today that all the prophecies which have not been fulfilled will be; hence I have hope and confidence in looking forward to the fulfilment of the blessings that are promised to us.

Let us be faithful and seek diligently to build up the kingdom of God in righteousness and do our duty, and try to save ourselves, our wives, and children, our kindred and our friends, and the house of Israel, and also the Gentiles as far as they will be saved, and then we will be satisfied with our reward which we shall obtain in this life and in the world to come. I pray the Lord to bless us all, and save us in His kingdom, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 22, 1857.

Brethren and sisters, while brother Samuel Richards was addressing you, a great many reflections passed through my mind, a few of which I will try to lay before you, in regard to the parable of the sower and the seed. The Scripture reads—“Behold a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up, and choked them: But others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.” I have thought of this parable considerably this winter. You will find that when the seed is cast into stony ground, it will spring up quickly and grow rapidly, but when the sunbeams come upon it with strength and power, it will wither and die. Have any received the good word during what we have called the reformation, and will they now wither and die? Or will they be like the seed that is cast into good ground which takes root downward, and springs upward, and bring forth the works of righteousness unto salvation? And now, as the season advances, we will have to be more specially engaged in our various business avocations, and shall not have so much time to spend in hearing the word of the Lord as we have had during the past winter, therefore let us see to it, that the plants now growing in our bosoms do not wither and die.

I have told you, and others have, that we have no expectations in this life of a worldly nature but what will go into the grave with us when we go. “Mormonism” and the Priesthood which we have resting upon us reach behind the veil, and what we have to do here is to prepare ourselves in this channel for the blessings we expect to receive hereafter.

It is a true remark, “He that seeks to save his life shall lose it.” What is there worth having outside of our faith and religion? If we want to live either here or in eternity, this is the only channel wherein we can obtain that which is really worth having. If we want to be prospered, let us put on the yoke of Christ and keep it on, seeking first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and all other things will be added thereto. This is the only principle upon which we can obtain aught that is of lasting worth, no matter what it is that we want.

In order to redeem Zion, we had to come from Nauvoo to the mountains, and we must abide here until the Lord shall say to the contrary. If we want wives and children in eternity, we must be faithful stewards over over those committed to our trust in time, that we may receive an inheritance in eternity. If we want inheritances in this world—if we want worldly possessions—we must be faithful stewards in the things of this world, and hold them as from the Lord, always keeping them upon the altar. No matter whether in spiritual or temporal affairs, the principle is the same, faithfulness is required. And if we do not feel willing to devote ourselves with heart, mind, and talent, as well as our worldly possessions, to the cause of God, we are not worthy to receive the inheritance to which we are looking forward.

How is it with those who turn away and wither and die, after having partaken of the good word of life, and partaken of the powers of the world to come? In view of these things the Savior said unto the generation in which he lived, “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for you.” This will strictly apply to us, if we turn away. Or might it not be said with equal force, it shall be more tolerable for Carthage and Warsaw than for us in that great day, if we turn away from the principles of life and salvation that are poured upon us? There is no damnation so complete as that which will come on those persons, who, after having tasted the good word of God, after having received the principles of life and salvation, and been made acquainted with the powers of the world to come, again turn unto the beggarly elements of the world. Then it becomes us to hang onto these principles and to this power—to this principle of life and salvation which has been revealed to us—and not let them slip from us, and we finally go down to perdition.

Do we see and appreciate the blessing of this Gospel which has been made known to us? Sometimes I think we do, and at other times I think we become careless and indifferent. This should never be, but we should progress and increase in the knowledge of God and in faith, for it is a treasure indeed, and is like all other things pertaining to the kingdom of God. We must be faithful to increase in it, as well as in light and knowledge. Let us get the truth and stick to it, and not let it slip through our fingers.

We go to the ends of the earth, and proclaim this Gospel to those who sit in darkness, and we feel desirous for the salvation of Israel—we desire to impart to the world the good and saving feelings we possess. This is good, and there is nothing in the world that begins to compare with the things accomplished by the Latter-day Saints. They go upon the principle of faith for their support, and they prosper. There is no people equal to this people. They are the pure in heart, which constitutes Zion. If they will only apply to their everyday lives the principles which have brought them together, and faithfully live their religion, they are the happiest people in the world, and a people the Lord delights to bless, when He can do it without sending them to hell; and there is nothing but what they will be able to accomplish, inasmuch as they are faithful.

They love the authorities of this Church; they love brother Brigham, and he has great influence over them. What fault has the world to find with brother Brigham? None, except that the people are united in sustaining him, and that his word and counsel are as the law unto them. What right have they to find fault with or complain of this? He has a just right to his popularity; Joseph Smith had a right to his; the Lord gave it to them. And there is no governor, president, emperor, or king, but what would be glad to get just such a popularity, and is seeking for it all the time. They seek to gain an affection in the breasts of the people over whom they preside, but they have not that wisdom, and hence cannot obtain it, it is not for them. But brother Brigham has obtained it, and all the rulers and all the world are seeking the same thing and finding fault with him, and would take his life, because he has that which they are seeking for and cannot find. That fact of itself shows up their inconsistency.

Would not the governors of the United States be called the best men in the world, if they had and could retain the popularity which President Brigham Young enjoys? If there was any such person among them, the people would say, “Let him be the governor, for his equal cannot be found!” and yet they would destroy Governor Young, because the people are willing to adhere to his counsel. They are afraid of the union of Church and State, this they dread very much. Any person would like to have all the popularity that brother Brigham has, but the people of the world are afraid to trust any of their men with the affairs of the nation, especially if the person happened to be a preacher, for they have no confidence in each other nor in any of their numerous religions. They have no confidence in their clergy’s knowing anything about politics or temporal affairs in general, but they say, “We know more about such things than you do. It is your calling to administer in spiritual things only; you may have the keeping of our consciences, but when it comes to temporal matters you must stand aside.” They consider that their clergy, and of course their God, knows no more about temporal things than they do about spiritual things. They leave all spiritual matters to their sectional clergy, to whom they dare not trust their temporal matters, but, on the contrary, do thrust their clergymen from their national halls.

This shows clearly all the faith and confidence they have in their God and in their clergy, for if they had any faith or confidence in their God, they would also have in their clergy, who should be His servants. But this is in strict keeping with their religion, for they go to meeting to hear their clergy dilate upon an imaginative something, filling the immensity of boundless space, sitting upon a topless throne, and which they call God. We are entirely different, and I rejoice that it is so. We have men to counsel and guide us in whom we repose unlimited confidence, men who are before us and lead ahead, and the counsels they give we feel to appreciate and abide both in spiritual and temporal things. We hold ourselves ready to go at a moment’s warning to the uttermost parts of the earth to subserve the principles of our holy religion, by making them known to others, to save Israel and bring out those the Lord has scattered, to aid in building up Zion, and in building temples of the Most High, wherein we may go and receive the blessings of eternity. We hold our property—our possessions—on the altar, ready at a moment’s notice to be handed over to subserve the cause of Zion.

Notwithstanding these are our feelings, our governmental and temporal affairs are kept as distinct from our religious concerns as are those of any other people, and far more so than are those of many others. We have never organized a political party, as some people have done, to enable us to express our peculiar conscientious notions about freedom, slavery, and Catholicism, about which so much frenzied zeal has been exhibited during the past ten years. Our holy religion does not interfere with our political or governmental affairs, only to make us more competent, faithful, and energetic in the duties pertaining thereunto. It is eminently above all such considerations, and only influences them, as it does all the varied duties of life, by lending its aid, light, and intelligence.

These are the principles which unite us together; let us keep them warm in our bosoms, and be alive and continue to increase in the knowledge of God. Let us strive to have our minds expand, and let us perform our duties with an eye single to the glory of God, and the advancement of His cause. In this course we see our own salvation and eternal exaltation, and find the road we ought to travel, and we cannot find anything outside of this worth having. We are interested in it; it is the best investment we can make. No matter how poor a person may be, he can be faithful and work the work of righteousness, and it is the poor and meek that will inherit the earth.

I ask my Heavenly Father to bless us one and all, individually and collectively, and to preserve us and enable us to remain firm in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may not go astray but cling to the principles of life and salvation, cleaving to the Lord our God, serving Him with willing hearts and minds perfectly, and do it because we like to do it, being partakers of the truth because we love it, and for the principle’s sake, and because it is better than anything else. It is meat, drink, clothing, and lodging to us, as well as everything else worth having. If we will do this, we need not fear for the future.

If we have our wives and children arising around us and multiplying greatly, let us all be for God, and other things will come along in their season. We sacrificed all things when we came into this kingdom, laid aside our former associations in life, and left everything that pertained to them, regardless of the future and of the consequences resulting therefrom, and can we not keep on this same road, preserve those feelings which filled our bosoms when we came into the Church and kingdom of our God, and strip ourselves of every earthly tie for God? We can do this, if we are disposed. We will do it, and I verily believe that we will get the majority of this people at last. Many may turn aside, but that makes no difference. Those who remain faithful will get their reward, while those who turn away will, in a time to come, see where they have missed it.

Let me exhort you to do the works of righteousness and be faithful in the kingdom of God, and cleave together unto Him with full purpose of heart, and work the works of righteousness all your days, and never falter and fall. I know we shall not fall, but the kingdom will increase and grow and spread abroad, and her stakes will be strengthened, and her cords will be lengthened, and the kingdoms of this world will be broken in pieces, and become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. We shall accomplish this work, or our children will. The purposes of the Almighty cannot fail; the kingdom is set up and established, never more to be thrown down.

We are aware that the world is arrayed against us, and has it not been so from the beginning? But what have they been able to accomplish against this people? If they have driven and scattered us, they have scattered the seed still wider, and it will be so again. They do not know who they are fooling with; they are fooling with the Lord. He knows how to set up His kingdom, and if we are submissive in His hands, like clay in the hands of the potter, we shall not again be scattered and peeled. We have heretofore been driven measurably because of our unrighteousness, and of our unworthiness, and God’s inability through that cause to bless us, and because of the wickedness of the wicked. How soon would another persecution have come on us I cannot say, if the people had not turned around and sought the Lord with penitent hearts.

I trust that persecution will be warded off now a few years longer, and that the blessings of the Almighty will be drawn upon the people. I know that He delights to bless His people, but He has to chastise them like a parent has to chastise an unruly child. These chastisements have not hindered the rolling on of His work, for it has rolled on with accelerated power all the time. The people have had to suffer, more or less, but we are in His hands, and if we want to draw down His blessings upon us, we must do our duty, or the chastisements of the Almighty will be upon us again, as in times past, for our good. They will not impede the progress of His work, but it will go forth with still greater accelerated power.

May God bless us and enable us to work the work of righteousness in His sight all the days of our lives, for His Son’s sake. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 8, 1857.

I feel myself somewhat under obligations to come here and talk to the people, inasmuch as I have absented myself for some time, and others have occupied this stand.

Perhaps I will not talk to you long, but I desire to pursue some of the ideas that brother Cummings has just laid before you. I can testify that every word he has spoken is true, even to the advancement of the Saints at a “snail gallop.” Though that is rather a novel expression, still it is true, as well as all the rest which he advanced.

The items that have been advanced are principles of real doctrine, whether you consider them so or not. It is one of the first principles of the doctrine of salvation to become acquainted with our Father and our God. The Scriptures teach that this is eternal life, to “know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;” this is as much as to say that no man can enjoy or be prepared for eternal life without that knowledge.

You hear a great deal of preaching upon this subject; and when people repent of their sins, they will get together, and pray and exhort each other, and try to get the spirit of revelation, try to have God their Father revealed to them, that they may know Him and become acquainted with Him.

There are some plain, simple facts that I wish to tell you, and I have but one desire in this, which is, that you should have understanding to receive them, to treasure them up in your hearts, to contemplate upon these facts, for they are simple facts, based upon natural principles; there is no mystery about them when once understood.

I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God our heavenly Father, or the great Eloheim. You are all well acquainted with Him, for there is not a soul of you but what has lived in His house and dwelt with Him year after year; and yet you are seeking to become acquainted with Him, when the fact is, you have merely forgotten what you did know. I told you a little last Sabbath about forgetting things.

There is not a person here today but what is a son or a daughter of that Being. In the spirit world their spirits were first begotten and brought forth, and they lived there with their parents for ages before they came here. This, perhaps, is hard for many to believe, but it is the greatest nonsense in the world not to believe it. If you do not believe it, cease to call Him Father; and when you pray, pray to some other character.

It would be inconsistent in you to disbelieve what I think you know, and then to go home and ask the Father to do so and so for you. The Scriptures which we believe have taught us from the beginning to call Him our Father, and we have been taught to pray to Him as our Father, in the name of our eldest brother whom we call Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world; and that Savior, while here on earth, was so explicit on this point, that he taught his disciples to call no man on earth father, for we have one which is in heaven. He is the Savior, because it is his right to redeem the remainder of the family pertaining to the flesh on this earth, if any of you do not believe this, tell us how and what we should believe. If I am not telling you the truth, please do tell me the truth on this subject, and let me know more than I do know. If it is hard for you to believe, if you wish to be Latter-day Saints, admit the fact as I state it, and do not contend against it. Try to believe it, because you will never become acquainted with our Father, never enjoy the blessings of His Spirit, never be prepared to enter into His presence, until you most assuredly believe it; therefore you had better try to believe this great mystery about God.

I do not marvel that the world is clad in mystery, to them He is an unknown God; they cannot tell where He dwells nor how He lives, nor what kind of a being He is in appearance or character. They want to become acquainted with His character and attributes, but they know nothing of them. This is in consequence of the apostasy that is now in the world. They have departed from the knowledge of God, transgressed His laws, changed His ordinances, and broken the everlasting covenant, so that the whole earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof. Consequently it is no mystery to us that the world knoweth not God, but it would be a mystery to me, with what I now know, to say that we cannot know anything of Him. We are His children.

To bring the truth of this matter close before you, I will instance your fathers who made the first permanent settlement in New England. There are a good many in this congregation whose fathers landed upon Plymouth Rock in the year 1620. Those fathers began to spread abroad; they had children, those children had children, and their children had children, and here are we their children. I am one of them, and many of this congregation belong to that class. Now ask yourselves this simple question upon natural principles, has the species altered? Were not the people who landed at Plymouth Rock the same species with us? Were they not organized as we are? Were not their countenances similar to ours? Did they not converse, have knowledge, read books? Were there not mechanics among them, and did they not understand agriculture, &c., as we do? Yes, every person admits this.

Now follow our fathers further back and take those who first came to the island of Great Britain, were they the same species of beings as those who came to America? Yes, all acknowledge this; this is upon natural principles. Thus you may continue and trace the human family back to Adam and Eve, and ask, “are we of the same species with Adam and Eve?” Yes, every person acknowledges this; this comes within the scope of our understanding.

But when we arrive at that point, a veil is dropped, and our knowledge is cut off. Were it not so, you could trace back your history to the Father of our spirits in the eternal world. He is a being of the same species as ourselves; He lives as we do, except the difference that we are earthly, and He is heavenly. He has been earthly, and is of precisely the same species of being that we are. Whether Adam is the personage that we should consider our heavenly Father, or not, is considerable of a mystery to a good many. I do not care for one moment how that is; it is no matter whether we are to consider Him our God, or whether His Father, or His Grandfather, for in either case we are of one species—of one family—and Jesus Christ is also of our species.

You may hear the divines of the day extol the character of the Savior, undertake to exhibit his true character before the people, and give an account of his origin, and were it not ridiculous, I would tell what I have thought about their views. Brother Kimball wants me to tell it, therefore you will excuse me if I do. I have frequently thought of mules, which you know are half horse and half ass, when reflecting upon the representations made by those divines. I have heard sectarian priests undertake to tell the character of the Son of God, and they make him half of one species and half of another, and I could not avoid thinking at once of the mule, which is the most hateful creature that ever was made, I believe. You will excuse me, but I have thus thought many a time.

Now to the facts in the case; all the difference between Jesus Christ and any other man that ever lived on the earth, from the days of Adam until now, is simply this, the Father, after He had once been in the flesh, and lived as we live, obtained His exaltation, attained to thrones, gained the ascendancy over principalities and powers, and had the knowledge and power to create—to bring forth and organize the elements upon natural principles. This He did after His ascension, or His glory, or His eternity, and was actually classed with the Gods, with the beings who create, with those who have kept the celestial law while in the flesh, and again obtained their bodies. Then He was prepared to commence the work of creation, as the Scriptures teach. It is all here in the Bible; I am not telling you a word but what is contained in that book.

Things were first created spiritually; the Father actually begat the spirits, and they were brought forth and lived with Him. Then He commenced the work of creating earthly tabernacles, precisely as He had been created in this flesh himself, by partaking of the coarse material that was organized and composed this earth, until His system was charged with it, consequently the tabernacles of His children were organized from the coarse materials of this earth.

When the time came that His firstborn, the Savior, should come into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father came Himself and favored that spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting any other man do it. The Savior was begotten by the Father of His spirit, by the same Being who is the Father of our spirits, and that is all the organic difference between Jesus Christ and you and me. And a difference there is between our Father and us consists in that He has gained His exaltation, and has obtained eternal lives. The principle of eternal lives is an eternal existence, eternal duration, eternal exaltation. Endless are His kingdoms, endless His thrones and His dominions, and endless are His posterity; they never will cease to multiply from this time henceforth and forever.

To you who are prepared to enter into the presence of the Father and the Son, what I am now telling will eventually be no more strange than are the feelings of a person who returns to his father’s house, brethren, and sisters, and enjoys the society of his old associates, after an absence of several years upon some distant island. Upon returning he would be happy to see his father, his relatives and friends. So also if we keep the celestial law when our spirits go to God who gave them, we shall find that we are acquainted there and distinctly realize that we know all about that world.

Tell me that you do not know anything about God! I will tell you one thing, it would better become you to lay your hands upon your mouths and them in the dust, and cry, “unclean, unclean.”

Whether you receive these things or not, I tell you them in simplicity. I lay them before you like a child, because they are perfectly simple. If you see and understand these things, it will be by the Spirit of God; you will receive them by no other spirit. No matter whether they are told to you like the thunderings of the Almighty, or by simple conversation; if you enjoy the Spirit of the Lord, it will tell you whether they are right or not.

I am acquainted with my Father. I am as confident that I understand in part, see in part, and know and am acquainted with Him in part, as I am that I was acquainted with my earthly father who died in Quincy, Illinois, after we were driven from Missouri. My recollection is better with regard to my earthly father than it is in regard to my heavenly Father; but as to knowing of what species He is, and how He is organized, and with regard to His existence, I understand it in part as well as I understand the organization and existence of my earthly father. That is my opinion about it, and my opinion to me is just as good as yours is to you; and if you are of the same opinion you will be satisfied as I am.

I know my heavenly Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and this is eternal life. And if we will do as we have been told this morning, if you will enter into the Spirit of your calling, into the principle of securing to yourselves eternal lives, eternal existence, eternal exaltation, it will be well with you. But if, after being put into a carriage and placed upon the road, after having everything prepared for the journey that infinite wisdom could devise, this people stroll into the swamp, get into the woods among the brambles and briars, and wander around until night overtakes them, I say, shame on such people.

I am ashamed to talk about a reformation, for if you have entered into the spirit of your religion, you will know whether these things are so or not. If you have the spirit of your religion and have confidence in you, walk along and continue to do so, and secure to yourselves the life before you, and never let it be said, from this time henceforth, that you have wakened out of your sleep, from the fact that you are always awake.

We talk about the reformation, but recollect that you have only just commenced to walk in the way of life and salvation. You have just commenced in the career to obtain eternal life, which is that which you desire, therefore you have no time to spend only in that path. It is straight and narrow, simple and easy, and is an Almighty path, if you will keep in it. But if you wander off into swamps, or into brambles, and get into darkness, you will find it hard to get back.

Brother Cummings told you the truth this morning with regard to the sins of the people. And I will say that the time will come, and is now nigh at hand, when those who profess our faith, if they are guilty of what some of this people are guilty of, will find the axe laid at the root of the tree, and they will be hewn down. What has been must be again, for the Lord is coming to restore all things. The time has been in Israel under the law of God, the celestial law, or that which pertains to the celestial law, for it is one of the laws of that kingdom where our Father dwells, that if a man was found guilty of adultery, he must have his blood shed, and that is near at hand. But now I say, in the name of the Lord, that if this people will sin no more, but faithfully live their religion, their sins will be forgiven them without taking life.

You are aware that when brother Cummings came to the point of loving our neighbors as ourselves, he could say yes or no as the case might be, that is true. But I want to connect it with the doctrine you read in the Bible. When will we love our neighbor as ourselves? In the first place, Jesus said that no man hateth his own flesh. It is admitted by all that every person loves himself. Now if we do rightly love ourselves, we want to be saved and continue to exist, we want to go into the kingdom where we can enjoy eternity and see no more sorrow nor death. This is the desire of every person who believes in God. Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of our God and our Father, and being exalted, one who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and sees the beauty and excellency of the eternities before him compared with the vain and foolish things of the world, and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man or woman in this house but what would say, “shed my blood that I may be saved and exalted with the Gods?”

All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? That is what Jesus Christ meant. He never told a man or woman to love their enemies in their wickedness, never. He never intended any such thing; his language is left as it is for those to read who have the Spirit to discern between truth and error; it was so left for those who can discern the things of God. Jesus Christ never meant that we should love a wicked man in his wickedness.

Now take the wicked, and I can refer to where the Lord had to slay every soul of the Israelites that went out of Egypt, except Caleb and Joshua. He slew them by the hands of their enemies, by the plague, and by the sword, why? Because He loved them, and promised Abraham that He would save them. And He loved Abraham because he was a friend to his God, and would stick to Him in the hour of darkness, hence He promised Abraham that He would save his seed. And He could save them upon no other principle, for they had forfeited their right to the land of Canaan by transgressing the law of God, and they could not have atoned for the sin if they had lived. But if they were slain, the Lord could bring them up in the resurrection, and give them the land of Canaan, and He could not do it on any other principle.

I could refer you to plenty of instances where men, have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels to the devil, until our elder brother Jesus Christ raises them up—conquers death, hell, and the grave. I have known a great many men who have left this Church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle’s being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force.

This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it. Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, except the sin unto death, would not be satisfied nor rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain that salvation you desire. That is the way to love mankind.

Christ and Belial have not become friends; they have never shaken hands; they never have agreed to be brothers and to be on good terms; no, never; and they never will, because they are diametrically opposed to each other. If one conquers, the other is destroyed. One or the other of them must triumph and utterly destroy and cast down his opponent. Light and darkness cannot dwell together, and so it is with the kingdom of God,

Now, brethren and sisters, will you live your religion? How many hundreds of times have I asked you that question? Will the Latter-day Saints live their religion? I am ashamed to say anything about a reformation among Saints, but I am happy to think that the people called Latter-day Saints are striving now to obtain the Spirit of their calling and religion. They are just coming into the path, just waking up out of their sleep. It seems as though they are nearly all like babies; we are but children in one sense. Now let us begin, like children, and walk in the straight and narrow path, live our religion, and honor our God.

With these remarks, I pray the God of Israel to bless you forever and ever, for you are the best people on earth. I can say that I am happy that you are doing so well as you are. Continue to increase in all the graces of God’s Spirit until the day of His coming, which I desire with all my heart, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 8, 1857.

I know not what I shall say or how I shall be led to address you, but I have no doubt many are thinking that perhaps I shall be led to speak as plainly as I did two or three weeks ago. With regard to that I wish to tell you, brethren and sisters, that I never could have led myself in such a train of ideas; the Holy Ghost led me to speak upon those items that you consider small items, for if you did not consider them of little moment you would reform in your practices touching those points, and take a different course from what you do. I do know, and that most positively, that if this people would put into practice those things that I recommend, they would be blessed, for they are fundamental principles of our holy religion.

These things are the ax that is laid at the root of your trees; and what is it? It is rottenness. Where is that rottenness? It is at the root of the tree; and if the roots have become rotten—have become defiled—then of course the tree will also be rotten, with every branch pertaining to it, and the whole tree will perish. You are every one of you compared to a tree, or to a body; and there is no body, neither will there be, but what has a root to it; if it were not so you could not produce a posterity. It is for you to take that evil—that corruption—away from the root. It is a corruption that the world is dabbling in, and this people are dabbling in it more or less. Such a thing as adultery never would be known in the house of Israel, if some were not dabbling in that evil, and if rottenness was not at the roots of some of the trees. It is this which leads to the principle of adultery, and the body has become tinctured with corruption.

It is like this: take a good sweet barrel and fill it with good sweet pork, and then deposit in the center of it a tainted piece as big as my fist, and how long will it be before it will ruin the whole barrel of good meat, in case the tainted meat is not removed? Upon the same principle let wickedness be in our midst undisturbed—pay no attention to it at all—and it will ruin this whole people. It will canker the roots of the trees and spread, until all the branches per– taining to those trees are defiled and corrupted. We have got to lay those evils aside—to cease tampering with them, and pursue a course that will lead to regeneration.

Many may not know what regeneration is. If I can tell you what degeneration is, then I can tell you what regeneration is. For instance: take a quart of the strongest alcohol, and mix ten quarts of water with it, and you have reduced its strength ten degrees lower than it was; or if you mix twenty quarts of water with it, then you have reduced it twenty degrees below the point at which it was. I bring this up as a comparison, to show that the world have become degenerated. Upon the same principle some are a great many degrees below zero, that is, below the point of perfection at which God first made us.

Some are so far from the summit they first occupied that they cannot see it, nor can they see our Father who lives there. How is the quart of strong alcohol to be restored back to its original strength? It must go through the process by which it was first produced, or some process for separating it from that by which it has been degenerated. I do not know of any other way; and that is regeneration.

What I mean to convey is that we become degenerate by receiving principles that are less pure and perfect than the principles of God. Some have received the principles of the opposite, that is, of the devil, and have been degenerating and degenerating until they are, as it were, 260 degrees below zero. I merely use this figure to show you the principle of regeneration and degeneration.

I was speaking here a few Sundays ago for you to multiply and increase. Our generation is on the increase, and is returning back towards our Father and God. Brother Brigham has talked here today so plain that a little child cannot misunderstand it. He spoke about our Father and our God; I believe what he has said, in fact I know it. Often when I have been in the presence of brother Brigham, we would feel such a buoyant spirit that when we began to talk we could not express our feelings, and so, “Hallelujah,” says Brigham, “Glory to God,” says I. I feel it and say it.

Some of the brethren kind of turn their noses on one side at me when I make such expressions, but they would not do it if they knew God. Such ones do not even know brothers Brigham and Heber; if they did they would not turn a wry face at us. I am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured Being. Why? Because I am cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured when I have His Spirit. That is one reason why I know; and another is—the Lord said, through Joseph Smith, “I delight in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance.” That arises from the perfection of His attributes; He is a jovial, lively person, and a beautiful man.

I cannot refer to any man of my acquaintance in my life as being so much like God as was brother Brigham’s father. He was one of the liveliest and most cheerful men I ever saw, and one of the best of men. He used to come and see me and my wife Vilate almost every day, and would sit and talk with us, and sing, and pray, and jump, and do anything that was good to make us lively and happy, and we loved him. I loved him as well as I did my own father, and a great deal better, I believe. Thus you see that I am not partial in my feelings. If I see a tree bring forth better fruit than the tree I was brought forth from I will like that tree the best.

“31 There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.

“32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.

“33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?

“34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!

“35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and father and mother.” —St. Mark iii.

Why should I be partial and selfish? Some men cannot go and live but a short time in Tooele, or San Pete, or Box Elder, or in any other of our settlements, before they begin to feel that there is no people like the people in the place where they are living. I do not mean Bishop Warren Snow, for it will not hit him; no, but it will hit lots. I don’t mean Lot Smith, but I mean that it will hit many.

I am national in one respect: I am strongly in favor of the house of Israel, and of all good men and women of every nation, clime, and country, for they are of my kindred, and have sprung from the same Father and God that I have. But, as brother James W. Cummings said when speaking about them, do I love the wicked? Yes, I love them insomuch that I wish they were in hell, that is, a great many of them, for that is the best wish I can wish them. And those that killed Joseph and Hyrum, and David W. Patten, and other Patriarchs and Prophets, I wish they were in hell; though I need not wish that, for in one sense they are in hell all the time; and if they have not literally gone down into hell they will go there, as the Lord God lives, everyone of them, and every man that consented to the acts those murderers performed. That is loving the wicked, to send them there to hell to be burnt out until they are purified. Yes, they shall go there and stay there and be burnt, like an old pipe that stinks with long usage and corruption, until they are burnt out, and then their spirits may be saved in the day of God Almighty. It is my feelings that they may be damned for their awful iniquity in shedding innocent blood, as also all who sanction their acts, both men and women, together with all who associate with them and partake of their spirit, for that spirit is opposite to God and His servants.

As brother Brigham has said, I can say that every word is true that brother James has spoken. God bless him and fill him with the Spirit of righteousness, that the power of God may be upon him; and God bless every good man and woman; the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shall be upon them, and you cannot help it. We will arise and live our religion and serve our God; instead of running down into degradation we will regenerate ourselves.

Brethren, do listen to what I said here a few weeks ago. It was spoken in plainness, but it has gone from my mind and I am glad of it, for through tradition and human weakness I presume I should feel bad, if I could think what I did say. It was the truth of God, and it laid the ax at the roots of trees, for I told you where you were corrupting yourselves. You are corrupting yourselves—where? In the root. Now let us take a course and pursue the other path, and go on unto perfection—unto the restitution, and go back to God from whom we sprung.

Does the Lord hear me when I pray to Him? Yes, I do not know that I ever asked Him in earnest for a thing that was right, but what I received an answer from Him. I know that He lives; I know that His Son Jesus Christ lives; I know that the Holy Ghost lives; and I know that the angels of God live. I know that Joseph, Hyrum, Willard, and Jedediah, and all other good men who have died in the faith, live and associate with those who held the Priesthood before they did. And they are with brother Brigham and with us, and will be with us forever, for we never will be separated, and I know it. I know that, brother Brigham, just as well as I know that I see this people today; and I shall be with you, and we will have a happy time when we meet Joseph and Hyrum and Willard and Jedediah and father Smith! Will not the old gentleman be jolly! Yes, for he always was; and he will be more so in proportion to the greater light and knowledge he has. Those are the men we are going to meet with; also with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, three of the old polygamists.

Do you suppose that Joseph and Hyrum and all those good men would associate with those ancient worthies, if they had not been engaged in the same practices? They had to do the works of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in order to be admitted where they are—they had to be polygamists in order to be received into their society. God knows that I am not ashamed of those good men now, and how much more I shall prize my associate polygamists, when I am further advanced in knowledge, I do not know. I am talking in earnest, and from the experience I have had.

I know the character of the human family and the course that many men and women are taking; they are making a desolation and taking a course to bring destruction upon their root; they are following a course that would ultimately depopulate the earth. All will come to that, if they do not take a course of continual increase forever and forever.

How long do you suppose it will take a little man like me, though I feel perfectly able to thrash any six common wicked men, if I am faithful in keeping the commandments of God and true all the days of my life to my brethren, as I have been hitherto and mean to be more so, to get into the celestial kingdom of God with my whole posterity, in case there should be no obstruction? How long do you suppose it will be before my posterity increases to over a million? A hundred years will not pass away before I will become millions myself. You may go to work and reckon it up, and twenty-five years will not pass away before brother Brigham and I will number more than this whole Territory. Now, if that number proceeds from us, I tell you our roots are fruitful. Take away every cause of death to those roots and nourish them and cherish them, and they will increase and you cannot help yourselves. In twenty-five or thirty years we will have a larger number in our two families than there now is in this whole Territory, which numbers more than seventy-five thousand. If twenty-five years will produce this amount of people, how much will be the increase in one hundred years? We could not number them, or if we did sum up the amount to any given time, they are still on the increase.

But some of you are taking a course to spend your lives for nought, while brother Brigham and I are becoming like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Prophets. Why do you not be profitable to yourselves, and put out your lives to usury? Do you understand me? That is the principle I love to talk about, and I would just as soon talk about it here today, before you, as in the chimney corner. Some say that I am vulgar, but I never spoke a word of vulgarity here. Those who are vulgar receive my language as such, but the pure never received it so. To those who are pure, all things are pure; and to those who are vulgar, all things are vulgar.

I have not spoken vulgarly, but have spoken of the acts wherein some have degraded themselves in the eyes of heaven. God cannot abide with such persons, nor His angels, and the Holy Ghost will not dwell with them, when they are so corrupt. Some still continue in the corruption they were in while they mingled among the wicked in the world. Is it not time for all to quit it—to reform and break off from those things? Brothers Brigham, Heber, and Daniel do not do as you do. We have taken another course—a course of exaltation, and put out our lives and strength to usury, while some of you are throwing away your lives—spending your existence for nought—the axe is laid at the root of the tree—and you will be cut down by and by, except you forsake such evils.

“19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” [St. Matthew’s Gospel, 7th chap.]

My feelings are that I may be like clay in the hands of the potter, or like a fiddle in the hands of the performer. I am not going to dictate God, but I feel to say, Father play through me in a manner that shall be for the salvation of this people. These are my feelings all the time and my prayer, and that should be the prayer of every man, and not get up here, as almost every man does, and say, “I am no preacher, I am not an eloquent man, I have not got silver lips,” and this and that. We know all this, and what do you want to tell of it here for? It is like a fiddle’s getting up here to make an excuse for the fiddler. I would knock a fiddle into a cocked up hat, if it should undertake to dictate me, would not you, brother Smithies? Brother Smithies is our chorister and is a very modest man, but he would not permit the fiddle to dictate him. I do not like to hear the Twelve, the High Priests, the Seventies, the Bishops, nor any member in this Church and Kingdom who has got the Priesthood, get up here to make apologies.

While speaking of our sins, brother James said let us forsake them and turn over a new leaf, that is, throw the old one entirely overboard and commence a new life, as though we never had commenced. I will illustrate this idea by bringing up a figure. Suppose that you have an old scrapbook, in which you have written from your childhood all kinds of scribbling, pot hooks and hook pots, and marks of every kind and description, using it one year one end up, and then turning the other end up and writing down again, insomuch that the old scrapbook presents to view a miserable mess of confusion. Now, can you correct that book and put every character into line? You cannot correct it, except you entirely blot out the old marks, and commence afresh to write in it and keep it as it should be, so that you will not be ashamed for the angels to look upon it and be able to say, “It is well done.” You cannot correct the old book, for it has become a blot. What shall you do with it? If you do as you have been told, you will take the old scrapbook and tumble it overboard, or lay it aside and not undertake to look at it any more, and take a new blank book and fill it up anew, and learn to be men and women approved of God.

Brother Brigham says that if you will all quit your sins and follies and begin now to pursue a righteous course, your sins shall all be remitted; the old book will be laid aside and never again presented before you. But if you persist in your sins after this mercy, the old book will be brought up against you again, and you will have to pay the debt or be judged by it. If you will now quit your sinning, God will have mercy upon you and His servants will, and you will be blessed. Do you not know that the Prophet says, that if the people turn away from their sins and repent, and forsake them, thus saith the Lord, I will no more remember their sins against them forever; but if they turn from their righteousness to their unrighteousness, I will bring all their former sins back upon their heads, those which they have committed in all their days? And if you persist in your sins, you will have to be judged out of the old scrapbook. Is not this a great promise?

It is easy to do right, to lay aside old erroneous notions, hypocrisy, thieving, lying, and a thousand other things that are a rebellion against God and against His authority. I want to know if God will love and respect and send His angels to one of my wives, though she were fifty, sixty, or a hundred years of age, if she is disobedient to me when I am as merciful, generous, and kind a man to her as ever lived? If she disobeys me, persists in taking a course contrary to my will and the will of God all the time, saying, “I will do as I please, and the angels will come and visit me?” Neither God nor His Son Jesus Christ will send the holy angels to minister to such a woman, and she need not tell about their coming to visit her, nor about receiving revelations from heaven concerning brother Brigham, and about what brother Brigham and brother Heber should do. Damn such fixings, they are not of God; they never saw Him, nor never will, unless they repent of such foolishness. I discard such things, and so does our God, and so do angels. Get revelations for the Prophet of God to be subject to your requests!!! Get out, you stinking things, and your swamp angels too. I am as independent of you as God upon His throne, and of all such creatures and so is any man of God that is valiant in the latter days. I ask no odds of the world and its corruptions, nor of anything that pertains to it, for God my Father and my Elder brother Jesus Christ, and his faithful servants are my friends.

I have spoken these things with good feelings, and these principles are laying the axe at the root of the trees, and that tree will fall which is not connected with God and His children. The Scripture says that there is an axe laid at the root of every tree, that is, it is laid at the root of every man and woman, and that axe will be used to slay them, if they persist in iniquity. If there is an axe at the root of my tree, let me so live that I may be worthy to pick up that axe and slay the wicked, and not be slain. That man or woman who will not do that, will be slain.

God bless you. I feel good; I feel to bless you. I bless the Saints, the good men, the good women, and the good children the wide world over, and I bless the earth we inherit; but I feel to curse the wicked, and the ungodly, and those who are taking the road to destruction. I bless all Saints, and all good people. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 1, 1857.

Let the congregation be as still as possible.

I wish to occupy a short time in speaking to you, and I am not able to talk with the ease that I could wish, for my health has for some time obliged me to confine myself pretty closely to my rooms. This is the first time that I have walked so far as to come to this Tabernacle since the burial of Jedediah M. Grant. My bodily afflictions would not permit me to walk much, and they also still hinder my efforts in speaking or exercising. I have been troubled this winter as are many in this high altitude, with a rising of the blood to the head; that is what is troubling me this morning, insomuch that I hardly felt able to get here.

Aided by the faith and prayers of the Saints, I will endeavor to speak so that you can hear me, and to edify you according to the best of my ability.

I have a great desire to teach people the way of life and salvation; I have been occupied in that labor for many years. It has been my chief business to instruct the inhabitants of the earth how they can secure unto themselves eternal life. The more I become acquainted with the principles pertaining to salvation, and the more strictly I adhere to them, the more importance I attach to them.

If I do not always view people as they really are, yet I see them par– tially as they are, perhaps, as looking through a glass darkly, and in the vision of my mind, looking at this people called Latter-day Saints, and leaving out the residue of the inhabitants of the earth, to give vent to my understanding, I could cry aloud and weep before the Lord. It appears to me that very many, in their understandings, according to the past conduct of the people, leaving out the present, are too much like brute beasts, or like the door on its hinges, which opens and shuts as it is acted upon, and is insensible. This appears to be the situation of some of the people.

Sometimes this seems strange and inconsistent, knowing that mankind are organized to receive and continue to receive, and that receiving one fact in the understanding does not deprive them in the least of receiving another. There is no heathen nation but what expects their posterity to improve in all the knowledge they possess, and that is required by the parents. But the Christian nations with whom we have been associated, boast of their intelligence, suppose that they are exhibiting great knowledge, and that it towers to the heavens, and expect their children to improve in all the arts and sciences in their possession.

When people have the privilege of securing to themselves eternal exaltation, when the words of eternal life are given to them, what a pity it is that they do not understand, how liable they are to fall out by the way, and that this is necessary in this state of probation. Place before some persons that which their appetites crave and require, and they will forsake every other thing, even their best friends. They will contend against their best friends and benefactors, in order to glut their appetites. When I look at this people, to say nothing about any people but the Latter-day Saints, if I have a correct understanding, some few of them look to me to be much like what we call brute beasts. The people are instructed, from their youth, that there is no end to their learning. They are taught by their parents and by their teachers that they can continue to learn, that they can store up knowledge, treasure up the wisdom of the world, and never see the time, although they shall live to the age of Methuselah or older, but what they can add to their store of knowledge.

When I apply these principles to the Latter-day Saints, it would seem that when they are once filled, when they are once fed upon the words of eternal life until their souls are satisfied, they conclude that that meal will last forever. They think they will never require any more, and so they become empty, faint, wearied, dull, stupid, and before they are aware of it, they need a spirit of reformation; they need a fresh manifestation of the power of God to stir them up and waken them out of their sleep, to remove the scales from their eyes, to arouse them from their lethargy. And when again awakened, they begin to see that they have been without food; then they can realize that they have neglected the more weighty matters. I ask the Latter-day Saints, is such the case? Is it true that any of the Elders of Israel, with their wives and children, neglect the things of God, and turn to the paltry, corruptible things of earth, and let their affections and feelings be attracted from holy principles, and placed on objects of no moment? You can answer this question at your leisure.

You that see and understand things as they are, you who can obtain the visions of eternity, whose minds soar aloft to things beyond this veil of tears, how does it appear to you? Do you feel as though you can weep over the people? Whether you do or not, that is my feeling. To observe for what trifling things men and women will turn away from the spirit of the holy Gospel, after traveling a few hundred miles with, perhaps, a few little trials to pass through, such as being perplexed with wild cattle in their teams, with misfortunes and losses; and they thirst, thirst greedily for the vain and foolish things of the world, and neglect the Spirit and principles of the holy Gospel. It has killed them spiritually to pass through those sorrows, privations, and trials.

You may ponder these ideas in your hearts, at your leisure. Such conduct is one of the most astonishing things to me that ever I have experienced or beheld; yet I have reasons for thinking that I understand the natural causes why the people are as they are.

I flattered myself years ago, that whoever embraced the doctrine of salvation would so live as to enter in at the straight gate, in this, however, I have been mistaken. If we this day had congregated the vast multitudes that have taken upon them the name of Christ, that have entered into the new and everlasting covenant to serve the Lord our God, those who have embraced the Gospel of salvation that has been revealed through His Prophet and Seer in the last days, and then selected out those who still stand firm in the faith, you would find that but a small portion of the vast congregation had kept the faith; far the greatest number would be on the left hand. If you were to inquire of them individually, “after you heard the Gospel, believed and embraced it, did you think you would ever leave the faith?” every man and woman would reply, “No, no; I will believe and obey until death; no power on earth shall deprive me of the blessings of the Gospel that I have embraced; for it I have sacrificed my all.”

Again, would not thousands that have forsaken their fathers, mothers, children, or companions, for the sake of the Gospel, but are now enveloped in the spirit of the world, when asked whether they know this Gospel to be true, reply, “We believe it;” and when asked whether Joseph Smith was a Prophet, reply, “We believe it?” Ask such persons why they do not gather with the Saints, and the ten thousand obstacles that would be presented would tower up like mountains and keep them from gathering. Ask them why they do not pay their tithing, and they have ten thousand excuses and reasons to render. Inquire why they do not do something for the Gospel, and instruct them if they cannot pay their tithing, nor gather with the Saints, to go and preach to their neighbors, and they will say to you, “O, my neighbors are pretty well off, they are good people; here are the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, &c., and they are good people, and I really do not feel it my duty to preach to them.” Where are such persons? They are in darkness, they have apostatized. Another great class you will find have come out in open rebellion to the faith, to those principles they once testified they knew to be true, and that too by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Now leave that vast multitude, and come to this place. Here is the gathering of the people; here is the carcass, and the eagles gather to this place; here they are by thousands and scores of thousands. Look through this vast multitude before me, and through the inhabitants of this Territory, and then go to the United States and to Europe, and the Islands of the sea, and gather up all who profess to be Latter-day Saints, and how many of them are there in the way to enter into the straight gate? How many are going to be crowned with the Gods? You will all admit that this is a hard question to answer. Do you think one half of them will enter in at the straight gate, pass by the angels and the Gods, and receive a celestial exaltation? I pray they may, even if I do not believe so.

Is there any person deprived of this privilege? No, not one. Has the Lord cast an obstacle in the way of any individual, to deprive him of the privilege of being exalted? No, not one: but everything that could be done has been done, every provision that could be made has been made, every law that could be instituted to encourage and elevate the people, to increase their faith, their knowledge, their understanding, and to lead them to life and salvation, the Lord has brought to this people. Then the Lord is not to blame. Are angels to blame? Are they hindering the people? No. Are the spirits of the just casting stumbling blocks before the people, or tying their hands, or turning them away from the right path? No.

Do you think that one half of the people walk up to every known duty, are so doing and laboring that they are in the straight and narrow path that leads to the lives? Answer this question at your leisure. Yet every person will acknowledge that everything the Lord could do for our salvation has been done. All heaven is anxious that the people should be saved. The heavens weep over the people, because of their hard hearted– ness, unbelief, and slowness to believe and act.

You have been taught, all the day long, that you are in a world of sin; you have been taught, all your lives, that the seeds of sin are sown in your mortal bodies; you have been taught that the spirit warreth against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit; that the spirit of every man and woman that gets into the celestial kingdom must overcome the flesh, must war against the flesh until the seeds of sin that are sown in the flesh are brought into subjection to the law of Christ. This has been taught you, from your youth up. There is not a society in Christendom but what has taught these principles, and you have read them in your Bibles when you were children. Your mothers taught you that we were in a world of sin, and that the enemy of righteousness is all the time ready and watching to overcome every individual. You reply at once, “We believe this doctrine,” and yet, from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, from year to year, we go on as we have. Some will say, “I did give way to my evil passion yesterday, and I will give way again today, and I will let the flesh overcome the spirit. I will bring my spirit into subjection to my evil passions and evil influences that the enemy of Christ has sown in the human system. I will let the tongue speak just what it pleases; I will rail out against my neighbor; when I get mad I will blaspheme; I will deceive my brother, or my neighbor,” and thus they bring the spirit into subjection to the flesh, until the Lord Almighty will withdraw the light of truth from those individuals, and they are left, if not to apostatize, to deny Joseph as a Prophet, Jesus Christ as the Savior, and to esteem Holy Writ and all the revelations from God as a burlesque. They are left in the dark, to welter in sorrow in the flesh, and in the spirit world they never can be exalted.

Is it, then, any marvel, that those who dwell in the heavens should weep over the people? Do you wonder, now, that the Prophets used to weep over the people in ancient times? That Joseph used to weep over the people in his day? If you do, I do not.

Here is a large number of the Latter-day Saints situated upon the mountain tops, and right before each individual is eternal day or eternal night; eternal light or eternal darkness; eternal love or eternal hatred; eternal glory or eternal misery. This would want a great deal of explaining, to bring it down to your capacities, so that you can understand; but I use one class of these expressions to convey an idea of the opposite of the glory prepared for the very people now before me. The Lord has done everything He can do in justice and in truth; in His mercy and in His long-suffering and kindness there is nothing He has neglected, in order to put into the possession of this people power to secure to themselves eternal day, eternal peace, instead of eternal misery. Eternal glory, happiness, beauty, power, exaltation, excellency, and every good thing are prepared for the Elders that now sit before me to enter into the presence of the Father and the Son, where they could be exalted, sit with the Gods, be crowned with immortality and eternal lives; become the fathers, not only of many nations, but of an endless posterity; be the framers, not only of a kingdom, but of an endless chain of kingdoms. Nothing more can be done, than what has been done.

How many of those now looking on me will order their lives so that they will secure to themselves eternal happiness and exaltation? Do you think that one half of this congregation will answer that question? I pray that they may, whether I believe it or not.

Do you see people neglect their eternal welfare? A feeling prevails with some that, “we do not know these things, we have not seen these things, we do not understand that there is a kingdom prepared for the faithful; we do not understand that there is a place prepared for those that are unruly, those that disbelieve, those that neglect the truth and the Gospel when put in their possession. We do not know anything about these things.” Is this so? What do you say, brethren and sisters? Have you seen the Father and the Son? Do you know where they live? “O, no.” Have you seen the courts of glory, have they been opened to your view? “O, no.” What next? The spirit of unbelief takes place in your hearts. The enemy, the evil that is in the world, that has caused the trouble, sorrow, and perplexity, is with you, is your constant companion, and is continually suggesting that you know nothing about these things, consequently, without the utmost care and exercise of faith, and close application in life of the requirements of heaven, you are left to drink into the spirit of infidelity.

In this manner people are left in darkness, do not understand the things of God, neglect their salvation, and go groveling and feeling their way through this world, without a ray of light to shine on their path; hoping that there is a God, and, if there is, that He will be merciful to them; thinking that, if there is a heaven, they want to go there; if there is such a character as a Savior, they hope his blood will atone for their sins; and if there are any such beings as angels, they hope they will pick them up, by and by. It resolves itself to this, “If there is a God, O, be merciful to me.” You do not know, do you? “O, no, we cannot realize it.”

Let me ask a question, before I proceed further. How did you feel when the Spirit of the Gospel first entered into your hearts, when the light of the Gospel first shone in your understanding? Had you any such feelings then within you? Had you any doubts? How did you talk, when you first rose to testify that the Book of Mormon was true, that Joseph was a true Prophet, that this work was of God, that the Lord Almighty has revealed Himself in these our days? Had you any doubts? “No, I could not help bearing testimony to those things, I was so full of light and peace.” Did you hate anybody, at that time? “No. I was filled with peace and union; I loved God and all the works of His hands. There was no anger, malice, or wrath in me.” Do you feel so now? Many of you would tell me, “no.” Have you abode in that Spirit and feeling? You will answer, “no.”

You say within yourselves, “I believe the Gospel, I believe the Lord has revealed the truth concerning Himself, concerning the Son, concerning angels, salvation, eternal exaltation, &c.; I admit all this to be true.” Then you have to admit that we are organized to inherit all glory, power, and excellency; to be filled with eternal salvation and exaltation, and to become the sons of God, as the Apostle says, to be “Gods, even the sons of God;” fathers who shall endure, and whose posterity shall never end; though the Apostle turned the point very quick, because the people were not prepared to receive it. You admit the fact that we are organized expressly for the purpose of being exalted with the Gods.

You have the words of eternal life in your possession. What next? Take your own philosophy; if I am organized and capacitated to receive this glory and this exaltation, I must be the friend of Him who has brought me forth and instituted this exaltation for me; I must not be His enemy at any time. Again, you say, “we are organized to become Gods, even sons of God; to act independently.” You expect to see the time when you will have at your control worlds on worlds, if your existence endures. Take Abraham, for instance, you can read the promise made to him, and again to Jesus. “Now,” say you, “we are to have kingdoms, thrones, principalities, powers, dominions, &c.” Can you read it in this book? This is the Old and New Testament, which you and I were taught, from our youth, to believe is the word of God. If I am to receive these blessings I will be an independent character, like those who dwell in eternity. If this is the case, let me pause for a moment and use my own natural philosophy. How can I prove myself the friend of God, who has placed all this glory within my reach, unless His influences are withdrawn from me, to see whether or not I will be His friend? At the time when you receive the greatest blessings by the manifestations of the power and Spirit of God, immediately the Lord may leave you to yourselves, that you may prove yourselves worthy of this exaltation. Multitudes, on the right hand and on the left, when this Spirit and power are withdrawn from them, sink into unbelief, and do not know whether there is a God, or not. Ask them, “What did you realize and experience yesterday?” The reply is, “I do not know anything about it. I can see this house, I can see the sun, I can see men and women, but I can say no more.” “Do you believe what you believed yesterday?” “I do not know.”

Can a man be exalted upon any other principle? When men are left to themselves, it is then they manifest their integrity, by saying and feeling, “I am the friend of God.” Do all people realize that? If they did, let me tell you, they would cling fast to their integrity. When the mind of a righteous man is beclouded by darkness, when he does not know the first thing about the religion he believes in, it is because the veil is dropped so that he may act on the organization of his own individual person, which is calculated to be as independent as the Gods, in the end. When you are fully aware of this, then you are ready to lay down your lives for the cause of God and for His people, if you act on your own integrity and philosophy.

One of the greatest trials that ever came on the Son of God when he was in the flesh, upon that man whom we hold as our Savior, was when the mob had him in their possession. They spit on him, scourged him, mocked him, and made a wreath of thorns and placed it upon his head (and I will insure that it was so placed on his head as to cause the blood to start), and said to him, “Here is your cross, you poor, worthless scamp, take and carry it on to that hill, for there we are going to nail you to it.” How would you feel in such a time, and at that very hour and moment when this tabernacle suffers, should the Father then withdraw Himself and say, “Now, my son, I will see whether you will prove yourself worthy or not?” Did he walk up the hill? He did, and carried the cross until he fainted under it; then they took it and went on, and he submitted patiently to the will of his Father.

Will you submit patiently to the will of your Father in the hour of darkness? Will you say that you are the friends of God? O shame! Many of you will not say so, in the hour of darkness. Take these Latter-day Saints, the Elders of Israel, and let many of them pass where they can hear the name of Jesus Christ and the name of their Father and God blasphemed, and they will pass along as unconcerned, and will never move a muscle nor a nerve of their systems. That is nothing to them compared to what it would be to have their own dear name spoken against in the least. Speak against William, John, or Thomas, and then you will see the fire of resentment roused in that individual; while, at the same time, they may be opposed to their Father and God, to their Savior, to the Prophet, and to their holy religion. People may scandalize these as much as the tongue of slander can, and not a word said, nor a look of disapprobation given. But, my dear brethren, those holy men and women (pardon me if I burlesque the idea a little), your names are so dear to you that, let anyone speak a word against them, you are at once for fight.

If you want to know what you should do, when you hear a man blaspheme the name of God, and you feel that there are ten thousand million devils around you to see whether you will be for your religion, knock down the man that blasphemes, and say, “If I cannot pray, I can fight for my religion and my God.” When you are in darkness is the time for you to exhibit your integrity, and to prove that you are the friends of Him who has called you to this glory and eternal life.

Do you want to know how to pray in your families? I have told you, a great many times, how to do when you feel as though you have not a particle of the Spirit of prayer with you. Get your wives and your children together, lock the door so that none of them will get out, and get down on your knees; and if you feel as though you want to swear and fight, keep on your knees until they are pretty well wearied, saying, “Here I am; I will not abuse my Creator nor my religion, though I feel like hell inside, but I will stay on my knees until I overcome these devils around me.” That will prove to me that you are the friend of God, that you are filled with integrity. This is good for every person to practice in the hour of trial and darkness. Say, “I am the friend of God, and if you abuse Him, I shall abuse you.” This is what Abraham used to do. He would take his servants and go out, once in a while, and chastise the poor, miserable characters that ridiculed the Priesthood that was on him.

Here are the people that say they are Latter-day Saints. Now, if you can understand your own position, you will know, perhaps, better how to deal with yourselves and control yourselves; how to bring into subjection your own dispositions, your passions, appetites, and wills, and let the Spirit of Truth the Lord has given you commence and conquer and overcome, little by little, until you gain the mastery in the spirit. This prepares the tabernacle for a resurrection and eternal life. You cannot inherit eternal life, unless your appetites are brought in subjection to the spirit that lives within you, that spirit which our Father in heaven gave. I mean the Father of your spirits, of those spirits which He has put into these tabernacles. The tabernacle must be brought in subjection to the spirit perfectly, or your bodies cannot be raised to inherit eternal life; if they do come forth, they must dwell in a lower kingdom. Seek diligently, until you bring all into subjection to the law of Christ.

As to the knowledge of the people, what do they know? They know many things. What do they not know? Ten thousands of millions of times more than they know, for, comparatively speaking, they know but little. What knowledge we have, we have obtained by an experience. No man could know that he could build a building, unless he was to go to work and try. Were he to go to work and erect a building, he would then know that he knew how to do it.

Some things you do know, and there are a great many things that you do not know. “Can you mention anything that we do not know?” Yes, we could enumerate a great many things, and then have mentioned only a small portion of what is unknown to man. I will take that class of this congregation that do not know anything about God, heaven, earth, or hell, nor about anything else only as they sense with their natural senses, and ask them, can you tell me your own origin? I would be glad to see such a person, but he is not to be found. Take a man who does not know anything about these things, and he cannot tell his origin.

Again, with all the wisdom there is in the world, I can refer you to another thing which you do not know; you do not know how to take the native elements and organize a body like the ones you possess. You may take the chemical apparatus of the most extensive laboratory, and go into these mountains, and see whether you can, with all your knowledge and appliances, make a human body that can breathe, to say nothing about the spirit: you cannot do that; then you do not know how.

If we were to ask the question how we came here, we cannot answer it. We know that we are here, and we know that we live. We know that we see, hear, smell, &c., through the organization of our senses. We know that when we have something good to eat, and plenty of it, that we can satisfy our appetite, and we also know that we get hungry again; we get sleepy, awake, and go about our business. The brute beasts know all this, although their sensitive powers are not so acute, nor possessed of so extensive a range as are those of the human family; their attention more particularly belongs to the things of this earth.

The Scriptures say that man is created but a little lower than the angels, still the great majority do not know whether there is a God; they do not even know whether it is of any use to pray to our Father in heaven, nor whether they have got a Father there. We do not know how to make a spear of grass grow on the earth, nor a tree, nor any other kind of vegetation; all this is beyond our knowledge. They grow, but we do not understand how. They are produced from the elements, but undertake to organize the elements and make a cucumber grow, and we fail; that is beyond our knowledge.

We do know, by observation, that this earth revolves on its axis, that it has its circuit and performs its annual times. We know, by observation, that the firmament is filled with small flickering lights. The astronomer says he knows that many of those lights are actually suns to solar systems, the same as our sun is to us. Does he know that? Has he been there to see? “No.” Then he may be deceived; men’s eyes are often deceived. They have had their eyes, ears, and all the other sensitive organs brought to bear upon a person, and have been positive that they were conversing with and looking upon him, when at the same time that person was a hundred miles from them; they were certain that they heard him speak with their natural ears, yet they were deceived. So the astronomer may be deceived by his powerful glasses. But all the argument in the world could not make you believe that those stars, or lights, were not there; you see them. Suppose that our optical powers have all been deceived, just as they are in some instances. There is plenty of proof that the optic nerve has been deceived, even through a glass, persons supposing that they saw things which they, in reality, never did see.

Upon natural principles, leaving out the light of the Spirit, the light of revelation, or saying that there is no God, and such being the case, on the natural philosophy of the natural world, and the natural belief, and ideas of those who imbibe deistical principles, they do not know whether it is the sun or not that shines upon us; they feel warm, they think they see the sun. But if your optic nerve may deceive you, so the astronomer may be deceived. “No,” says he, “I cannot be deceived,” and this congregation says, “We cannot be deceived; we know that we hear you preach today; we see you in the stand today, and all the earth cannot make us believe to the contrary.” Maybe you are deceived. “But we cannot be mistaken in this, we do know that it is certain.” Suppose that you go home and tonight sleep very soundly, and that perchance a stupor should come over you, causing you to forget what has transpired today; I have known such circumstances. Suppose you forget tomorrow what has transpired today in this Tabernacle, and somebody should come along and ask you whether you recollected what brother Brigham said yesterday, you would answer, “I did not hear him say anything.” It would be said, “You were at the meeting, and I saw you.” You would ask, “What meeting? I was not at any meeting.” “Don’t you recollect of going to meeting yesterday?” “No, I do not.” Did you ever know a person so forgetful as this? Well, it is not more strange than much other forgetfulness, not a particle more.

A child says, “Mother, where did you put those shears, or that knitting? Or, what did you do with your pipe?” The reply is, “I laid it up.” “But you must have had it since.” “Don’t dispute me, child,” while all the time she had the pipe in her mouth. I bring up these small things, to compare with greater things. Have you never laid things carefully away and entirely forgotten them, and, when you have accidentally found them, had all the circumstances opened to your mind, and said, “O, I know all about them now, but I have never before been able to bring them to mind, since the things were so carefully laid by?” That is no more strange than it is that you should forget what the Lord has done for you fifty years ago; that is no more strange, than it is for you to forget when your spirits came into your bodies, for you came here under a covenant to prove yourselves, in a day of darkness, to be friends of God, and under a covenant that you would forget everything that had past previous to your coming here.

What do you know? All that you know, aside from what God has taught you, is not worth much to you; that I will say on my own responsibility. You know that the sun shines; you can see the stars shine in a clear night. You know that when you embraced the Gospel of salvation in England, the State of New York, Vermont, &c., you felt happy; that your hearts were full of joy and peace; that you felt as though the heavens smiled upon you, and that all around was glory. There was no malice, wrath, or root of bitterness in you, but since then a cloud has come over you, the veil has been dropped over the vision of your minds, and you have been left to act for yourselves. You know all this.

What do you know on natural principles? I do not say natural philosophy, because my religion is natural philosophy. You never heard me preach a doctrine but what has a natural system to it, and, when understood, is as easy to comprehend as that two and two equal four. All the revelations of the Lord Almighty to the children of men, and all revealed doctrines of salvation are upon natural principles, upon natural philosophy. When I use this term, I use it as synonymous with the plan of salvation; natural philosophy is the plan of salvation, and the plan of salvation is natural philosophy. I need not say any more with regard to what you do not know.

I have shown you, by instancing small circumstances of common occurrence, that people are apt to deny today what they knew yesterday; and you know that you have disputed others with regard to these little things which have transpired, after the circumstances connected therewith had escaped your memory. It is just so with regard to your religion. And when you come to the almighty philosophers, those who think they know so much, they are in the same dilemma; their optic nerves and their glasses may all deceive them. Unless a person is taught by the principle of eternity, and is insured by those principles that dwell with the Gods, he may be in doubt, because it is a doubtful case. All is doubtful, except what comes from the Almighty in His revelations to His people.

I will now say something about our immigration this season. In the providences of God when understood, you will see that one thing has a bearing upon another. The providences of God are natural principles, when they are all understood, but you take a little here and a little there, and you leave the people in mystery and doubt, and they will say that wonderful things have taken place, when at the same time you will find that they have all transpired upon natural principles.

Previous to the death of Joseph, he said that the time would come when the Saints would be glad to take a bundle, if they could get one, under their arms and start to the mountains, and that they would flee there, and that if they could pick up a change of linen they would be glad to start with that, and to go into the wilderness with anything, in order to escape from the destruction that is coming on the inhabitants of the earth. This we believed, or at least I did; though it seemed to be pretty hard that people should be obliged to leave their houses, farms, friends, and comforts that they had gathered around them, and run from them all. I am going to take that as a leading item for this season.

We have been experimenting. Five companies, I think, have come across the Plains with handcarts, and they have come a great deal cheaper and better than other companies. I believe that if a company was to try it once with ox-teams and once with handcarts, every one of them would decide in favor of the handcarts, unless they could ride more and be more comfortable than people generally are with ox-teams.

I count the handcart operation a successful one, and there is a lesson in it which the people have overlooked. What is it? Let me ask the sisters and brethren here, what better off are you today, than as though you had started with a bundle under your arm? You started with an abundance, but have you any oxen, or wagons, or trunks of valuable clothing, or money? “No.” What have you got? A sister says, “I have the underclothes I wore on the Plains, and a dress, and a handkerchief which I pinned over my head in the absence of my sunbonnets which were worn out, and I am here.” Are you here? “Yes.” Did you come across the Plains? “Yes.” Do you feel bad? “O, no; I feel pretty well.” Now reflect, what else do we want of you, and what else do you want of yourselves? “Why,” says one, “I want a dress and a pair of shoes.” Well, go to work, and earn them, and put them on and wear them. “I want a bonnet.” Go to work and earn it, and then wear it as you used to do.

What do you want here but yourselves? Nothing, but yourselves and your religion; that is all you want to bring here. If you come naked and barefooted (I would not care if you had naught but a deerskin around you when you arrive here), and bring your God and your religion, you are a thousand times better than if you come with wagonloads of silver and gold and left your God behind. If I want to take a wife from among the sisters who came in with the handcart trains, I would rather take one that had nothing, and say to her, I will throw a buckskin around you for the present, come into my house, I have plenty, or, if I have not, I can get plenty.

Some want to marry a woman because she has got property; some want a rich wife; but I never saw the day when I would not rather have a poor woman. I never saw the day that I wanted to be henpecked to death, for I should have been, if I had married a rich wife. I asked one of my family, when in conversation upon this very point, what did you bring, when you came to me? “I brought a shirt, and a dress, and a pair of slippers, and a sunbonnet,” and she is as high a prize as ever I got in my life, and a great deal higher than many would have been with cartloads of silver and gold.

The people are what we want. Reflect about this; and let the Elders when they go upon Missions, sound this in the ears of the Saints; and, if you please, philosophize upon it, weigh the matter well, and see what else there is that is in reality good for anything, but just the Saint at the gathering place; let the Saint come, and we have all we can get.

I want you to keep in mind what Joseph said, that the day would come when the Saints would be glad to take a bundle under their arms and run to the mountains. What else have they done this season? Men and women started with their fine things, they had their gold and their silver, their flocks and their herds, and their abundance, but they have nearly all come here naked and barefooted, comparatively speaking; thank God for that. What do I care, if not the first particle of the property that is left behind is ever gathered up again? You are situated precisely as we were when we left Nauvoo, Kirtland, Missouri, &c. We started naked and bare. If I can only take myself and my God, and my religion, it is all I want. The heavens are full, the earth is the Lord’s, and we have nothing to do but go to work and organize the elements and get what we want.

This is the day in which we are to learn and to increase in our knowledge. Have we got a good lesson this time? I think we have. What is it? That the Saints, when they start from England, may stop buying their silks and satins, their ribbons and finery. You cannot bring them here, unless Providence provides different for you, than it did for the immigration last season. If you have a fine silk mantilla, a fine satin dress, fine kid shoes, a fine lace bonnet, and you say that you want to carry them to Zion, do as they did last season. Here are the poor we had to bring over. Now let me tell you that if you had taken the money you paid to William Walker to bring out the baggage, and used it for the gathering of the honest poor, it would have done some good; but that property is spoiled, I understand, and I am glad of it. Much of it was spoiled before it was taken from Iowa City, or, if it was not then, it probably is now. And I expect that the goods are all spoiled at the Devil’s Gate. You will pardon me for my abruptness, but I will tell you what that operation made me think of, that what you did not leave in hell’s kitchen, you had to leave at the Devil’s Gate. If you only honor your God and your religion, the silks and the satins, and the money you paid out for them, may all go to hell with the balance. Live your religion, and the promise I make you is that you shall have what you want in righteousness. “Then,” someone may say, “I will have a new dress tomorrow, if that is it.” But will you not wait, until your patience is well tried? If you will not, I will make you, if I can. At the proper time, you will have all the riches you need. If you had riches now, they would do you no good.

Recollect the text, which is that the time will come when the Saints will be glad to catch a bundle under their arms and run to the mountains. The time has been when they undertook to come with an abundance, but they got here with nothing. Take the money that was laid out for those articles which you expected to put on when you came into this Tabernacle, and it would have more than made a comfortable fit-out for the companies from the States. If those articles had been left in the stores, and you had taken your sovereigns and half-sovereigns, and shillings, and pence, you would have had enough to have brought all the companies over those Plains. This is something that I want you Elders to think of; and I want you to thunder it among the people, long and loud, like the thunders of Mount Sinai.

Take the money heretofore spent for useless articles, and pick up your poor neighbors who have not the first shilling; make your way to Liverpool, pay your passage across the ocean to the United States, and then take a handcart, or a good hickory stick between two, and put your luggage on it, and let the handcart go, and walk to Zion.

When you get here, we want nothing but yourselves, if you have your God and your religion with you; but if you have not them, stay back. We have already got enough half-hearted Christians here; we have enough poor devils here now, and half-hearted hypocrites, and we do not want anymore of them to come here. All hell is boiling over to fill this place with such poor, miserable characters.

If you bring yourselves, it is all we want. Take the money that bought the goods which have been left on the way, and it would have brought every soul that came in last season, without the assistance of the P. E. Fund Company; and, instead of our paying out fifty or sixty thousand dollars, that sum would have been saved. That money would have made your fit-out across the Plains, to say nothing about what has been done for you at this end of the route.

Again, we could have taken every soul that has come in this season with the wagon trains, by the P. E. Fund, &c., and brought them from Liverpool cheaper than we brought them out of the snow at this end of the journey, to say nothing of the hardship and suffering. Do you not see that there has been a great outlay that we must save hereafter?

I will say to the Saints abroad, if you can get some good hickory cloth, or some buckskins, and let the sisters make dresses and garments that cannot be easily torn, and that will last till you get here, and come and bring yourselves, that is all we want. And for the time to come, let the P. E. Fund money alone, and let your silks and satins alone, and take the means you have, and bring yourselves to this place.

The Lord, in His providence, has shown you and me, and the community in this Territory, and will show to the people in the old countries, if the Elders are faithful, that they may bid farewell to bringing their millions’ worth of goods here. If they bring anything, let them bring their sovereigns here; the gold will do them more good here than anything else. Do not peddle it out in the world. Get the Lord to send an angel with you; get His Holy Spirit to travel with you to this place, and leave all trash behind.

If the companies are composed solely of young females, they may come by tens of thousands, if they like, for I have never yet seen anything in this market that can equal the handcart girls.

I want to see men and women come as I have suggested; and I think just as much of them, if they come and bring their religion with them, as though they came with cartloads of gold, silver and merchandise.

I wish you to contemplate upon these things! And I want you to listen to my exhortation in spiritual things. Here is a people before me that say they are in a reformation; I believe it. There is a good spirit they have now in their possession, which some have not had for some time.

I believe that the brethren and sisters are trying to do right, to make satisfaction, and to order their lives better before God and each other. And let me tell you that, when you have lived a whole lifetime, you will find that you have never righteously had a single hour to spend for anything except reformation, for an increase of faith, for a growth in the knowledge of the truth. You have no time to backslide, nor to spare for the world. It is God and His kingdom; all things else will be secondary considerations.

I am happy for the privilege of speaking to you today, and I trust that I shall see you here many times. I pray for you continually, and I know that you pray for me. I do not ask this people to pray for me, for I have the witness that there is not an honest heart in this kingdom but what is praying for me continually. You are before me always, and my whole desire is for your welfare, and the welfare of the kingdom of God on the earth. May God bless you. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 1, 1857.

I do not know, but the people are getting weary, though I rather think not, for your eyes look pretty bright; when people become weary, their eyes look dim.

I assure you, brethren, that I feel well, that is, I feel very well in my mind, and it is a great pleasure to me to see brother Brigham here in this stand once more. I am satisfied that he will be with us a great many years, if this people will do right.

All, who have the Spirit of the Gospel and live their religion, will admit that brother Brigham is our head, to use the figure which I did three Sundays ago; and our head has two Counselors, and together they are an independent Quorum. Still they are attached to the vine that runs through the veil. The veil is let down, and that throws brother Joseph on the other side of it, while we stand on this side, that is all the difference. The nearer you approach that organization, the nearer you approach the throne of God. I am talking to you who understand, there is no clip of that vine and Priesthood.

If this people are the members of that body of which brother Brigham is head this side of the veil, the more you rise up, the more active and useful those members become, the higher the head can rise, can it not? Being elevated by each member acting firmly in its office. If that be the fact, he is out of the reach of his enemies, is he not? They cannot approach him, he is out of their reach.

If you will take this course, you will live, and he will live and will dwell with us a great many years; but if you do not, you have no assurance that he will be permitted to tarry with you for many years, nor that I will, nor that several other good men, whom I could name, will. The period of their sojourn with you for your guidance, comfort, and edification in righteousness, will depend more or less upon your faithfulness, inasmuch as you profess to be attached to the body. The more useless the members of my body are, the more they oppress the head and the members that are nearly connected to the head, do they not? They tend to destroy its fruitfulness. We are members of Christ, and if everyone of those men, those members pertaining to the body of Christ, or to the Church, will do their duty, do you not see what a beautiful people we will be?

I know that this is the place of gathering, and I know that thousands, and tens of thousands, and millions will flock to this land, for wherever the carcass is, they will come with their budgets under their arms, I know that.

I want to know if persons who have nothing but a budget of clothing under their arms, nothing but one frock, one shirt, one pair of stockings, and one bonnet, are called to lay down their bodies and leave this earth, whether they are not just as well off as I would be, though I had millions of millions of gold, and thousands of wagonloads of the things of this world? At such a time, those persons would be just as well off as I would be, so far as taking any earthly possessions with them is concerned.

Suppose that tomorrow my body falls, that I die, these clothes will be taken from me, and a shirt and a shroud, and a pair of stockings will be put on this body, and a napkin about my head to keep my chin up, and that is all of this earth’s goods I shall then need, with the exception of the narrow house you would make and deposit me in. And should you go to my grave in five years from this time, you would find everything there that you put there, even to the ring now on my finger, in case you had left it at the time of my burial.

6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,

7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

What do I take from this earth? Nothing but my spirit and those eternal principles connected therewith as it leaves this body, and the dross remains to turn to its native elements, which restores back to the earth that which had been organized from it. When I die, I die to everything that is of an earthly nature, and leave all that surrounds me here by way of property in earthly possessions. Nothing leaves here, but heavenly matters and those things that pertain to heaven and happiness.

Then what good does it do to hoard up earthly treasures? None, whatever. What should you do with them? Put them to a good use. In what way? Go and buy, for instance, one sheep, and when you have got one sheep you have got one root, if you cultivate it, it will add to itself, and by and by you will have a large flock of sheep, whereas if you had the money in your pocket it would not have increased. If you will turn your means to raising sheep, horses, and cattle, to cultivating peach and apple trees, or to anything else that is useful, they will increase, just as we increase. We want to gather, and regather, and increase.

Many men are desirous to gather to themselves wives, and this, that, and the other thing. When I go into the world of spirits I throw off the old clothing and the old body, with all that pertains to it. And when I go there I shall be clothed anew, with the elements that are made in the country that I go to. Why? Because it is immortal and eternal duration. That is the difference between this world and that world; and then at the same time that world is this world, and this world is that world.

These are my feelings; and as for hurting my feelings to see my brethren and sisters come from the old countries without anything except a little food, and a budget under their arms, it did not worry me. Neither will it worry me to see the Elders, this season, take their handcarts and go through to the States, on their way to foreign lands. I feel now that if I was in the old countries I would not hear a word an Elder from here said, unless he had crossed the Plains with a handcart, or with a bundle or knapsack, but I would listen to the man that came with the handcart, or budget. You would say, “This is the boy for me;” you would hear his words, or, if you did not, his example has preached louder than earthquakes, and is the power of God unto salvation to those that believe and practice.

That day has come, and the other day has past. I have known men from Nauvoo, men who were there worth $150 or $200,000, come here with nothing but a handkerchief, containing a change of shirts, under their arms. They left their property there; and what we did not leave in hell’s kitchen we left at Devil’s Gate. The devil has a gate where he may catch everything that is not to do us good, but that is calculated to create a craving appetite for that which is not here.

There are some of this people who have been kept as long as they have, only upon the principle of their being fondled and pampered. If they could not have the privilege of nursing at the breast and have a full supply, or the use of a sugar teat to keep them alive, they would dwindle and die; they must have something to suck, in order to keep them alive and in existence, for they are nothing but pets; pets they are, and pets they will go to hell, but will find no sugar teats there.

Probably a few will leave next spring; they are all fair weather while they are in our midst, but when it comes spring they will leave. Thank the Lord for that; and while I feel as I do now, I shall be thankful for everything that transpires from this time henceforth, that is, if I live my religion.

Supposing that I have a wife or a dozen of them, and she should say, “You cannot be exalted without me,” and suppose they all should say so, what of that? They never will affect my salvation one particle. Whose salvation will they affect? Their own. They have got to live their religion, serve their God, and do right, as well as myself. Suppose that I lose the whole of them before I go into the spirit world, but that I have been a good, faithful man all the days of my life, and lived my religion, and had favor with God, and was kind to them, do you think I will be destitute there? No, the Lord says there are more there than there are here. They have been increasing there; they increase there a great deal faster than we do here, because there is no obstruction. They do not call upon the doctors to kill their offspring; there are no doctors there, that is, if they are there, their occupation is changed, which proves that they are not there, because they have ceased to be doctors. In this world very many of the doctors are studying to diminish the human family.

In the spirit world there is an increase of males and females, there are millions of them, and if I am faithful all the time, and continue right along with brother Brigham, we will go to brother Joseph and say, “Here we are brother Joseph; we are here ourselves are we not, with none of the property we possessed in our probationary state, not even the rings on our fingers?” He will say to us, “Come along, my boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives?” “They are back yonder; they would not follow us.” “Never mind,” says Joseph, “here are thousands, have all you want.” Perhaps some do not believe that, but I am just simple enough to believe it.

Help brother Brigham along, help brother Heber, brother Daniel, the Twelve, and every other good person. I am looking for the day, and it is close at hand, when we will have a most heavenly time, one that will be romantic, one with all kinds of ups and downs, which is what I call romantic, for it will occupy in full all the time, so that we may never become idle, nor sleepy, nor cease being active in the things of God, which will prevent dotage.

Am I thankful now? I never was more thankful in my life than I am today, to see this people. I know that the majority of them are rising, and that there are enough of them who will rise, and we shall see good days, and God will protect us and make a way for our escape, for this is the natural branch of the House of Israel, and it sprang from that root that was planted in the nethermost part of the garden. When it began to spread, the Lord said, “Cut away those bitter branches, but do not cut them away any faster than the vine grows.” Let us grow together and be one vine, but many branches, and we shall prosper from this time henceforth and forever.

“And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Let us go to and hew down the trees of the vineyard and cast them into the fire, that they shall not cumber the ground of my vineyard, for I have done all. What could I have done more for my vineyard? But, behold, the servant said unto the Lord of the vineyard: Spare it a little longer. And the Lord said: Yea, I will spare it a little longer, for it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard. Wherefore, let us take of the branches of these which I have planted in the nethermost parts of my vineyard, and let us graft them into the tree from whence they came; and let us pluck from the tree those branches whose fruit is most bitter, and graft in the natural branches of the tree in the stead thereof. And this will I do that the tree may not perish, that, perhaps, I may preserve unto myself the roots thereof for mine own purpose. And, behold, the roots of the natural branches of the tree which I planted whithersoever I would are yet alive; wherefore, that I may preserve them also for mine own purpose, I will take of the branches of this tree, and I will graft them in unto them. Yea, I will graft in unto them the branches of their mother tree, that I may preserve the roots also unto mine own self, that when they shall be sufficiently strong, perhaps they may bring forth good fruit unto me, and I may yet have glory in the fruit of my vineyard.

“And it came to pass that they took from the natural tree which had become wild, and grafted in unto the natural trees, which also had become wild. And they also took of the natural trees which had become wild, and grafted into their mother tree. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Pluck not the wild branches from the trees, save it be those which are most bitter; and in them ye shall graft according to that which I have said. And we will nourish again the trees of the vineyard, and we will trim up the branches thereof; and we will pluck from the trees those branches which are ripened, that must perish, and cast them into the fire. And this I do that, perhaps, the root thereof may take strength because of their goodness; and because of the change of the branches, that the good may overcome the evil. And because that I have preserved the natural branches and the roots thereof, and that I have grafted in the natural branches again into their mother tree, and have preserved the roots of their mother tree, that, perhaps, the trees of my vineyard may bring forth again good fruit; and that I may have joy again in the fruit of my vineyard, and, perhaps, that I may rejoice exceedingly that I have preserved the roots and the branches of the first fruit—Wherefore, go to, and call servants, that we may labor diligently with our might in the vineyard, that we may prepare the way, that I may bring forth again the natural fruit, which natural fruit is good and the most precious above all other fruit. Wherefore, let us go to and labor with our might this last time, for behold the end draweth nigh, and this is for the last time that I shall prune my vineyard. Graft in the branches; begin at the last that they may be first, and that the first may be last, and dig about the trees, both old and young, the first and the last; and the last and the first, that all may be nourished once again for the last time. Wherefore, dig about them, and prune them, and dung them once more, for the last time, for the end draweth nigh. And if it be so that these last grafts shall grow, and bring forth the natural fruit, then shall ye prepare the way for them, that they may grow. And as they begin to grow ye shall clear away the branches which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof; and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard. For it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard; wherefore ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad, and the bad be hewn down and cast into the fire, that they cumber not the ground of my vineyard; and thus will I sweep away the bad out of my vineyard. And the branches of the natural tree will I graft in again into the natural tree; And the branches of the natural tree will I graft into the natural branches of the tree; and thus will I bring them together again, that they shall bring forth the natural fruit, and they shall be one. And the bad shall be cast away, yea, even out of all the land of my vineyard; for behold, only this once will I prune my vineyard.

“And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard sent his servant; and the servant went and did as the Lord had commanded him, and brought other servants; and they were few. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto them: Go to, and labor in the vineyard, with your might. For behold, this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard; for the end is nigh at hand, and the season speedily cometh; and if you labor with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself, against the time which will soon come.

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

“And it came to pass that when the Lord of the vineyard saw that his fruit was good, and that his vineyard was no more corrupt, he called up his servants, and said unto them: Behold, for this last time, have we nourished my vineyard; and thou beholdest that I have done according to my will; and I have preserved the natural fruit, that it is good, even like as it was in the beginning. And blessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and have brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is no more corrupted, and the bad is cast away, behold ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard. For behold, for a long time will I lay up of the fruit of my vineyard unto mine own self against the season, which speedily cometh; and for the last time have I nourished my vineyard, and pruned it, and dug about it, and dunged it; wherefore I will lay up unto mine own self of the fruit, for a long time, according to that which I have spoken. And when the time cometh that evil fruit shall again come into my vineyard, then will I cause the good and the bad to be gathered; and the good will I preserve unto myself, and the bad will I cast away into its own place. And then cometh the season and the end; and my vineyard will I cause to be burned with fire.”—Book of Mormon.

I know that this is the work of God, and that we shall triumph. I am going to prophesy good pertaining to Israel, that is, to those that are Israel, for there are a great many who call themselves Israel that are not, and those that are not shall have the opposite. I will prophesy evil upon our enemies, upon those who hate God and kill His servants; may the curse of God be on them.

[The congregation responded with a loud voice, AMEN.]

God bless the good; God bless the oil and the wine, and all good men and good women, and good children; bless them from the crowns of their heads to the soles of their feet, that they may be sanctified in body and spirit, in root and branches, and in the seed that is in the root, that it may come forth pure.

These are my feelings, and they are good, are they not? You would feel just so, if you would get the same Spirit, which is the Spirit of God, and there is no bondage in the Spirit of God; it is freedom, it is glory, it is happiness, it is heaven when you go out and when you come in, and there is nothing impure or oppressive about it.

How does my heart feel towards brother Brigham? I have felt, time and again, as though I was a good mind to lay my hands upon him, and say, brother Brigham, God bless you with health, with the power of God, with the Holy Ghost, with angels and revelations, and every good thing, that you may be lifted up and get out of the way of the nasty little dogs and whelps, and bitches. Those are my feelings, and they are the feelings of every good man and woman in heaven and on earth.

Let us live our religion, serve our God, listen to the counsel we have received this day, and we will prosper always, for evermore, and we never will go down, but we will always be on the travel and going ahead, and on the increase from this time henceforth and forever, and I know it. Still I do not know how to make a spear of grass grow, nor how to make two loaves of bread from one, without I take and cut it in two.

Jesus had that power, so had Moses. When the Lord commanded Moses to tell Aaron to smite the waters of Egypt with his rod, he did so, and the waters were turned into blood; and when by the order of Moses, Aaron smote the dust with his rod, “the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt;” and many mighty miracles did Moses and Aaron perform in the sight of Pharaoh, by smiting with the rod. Are we in a day more mighty than that? Yes, and we will see more mighty works in the latter days, than were the wonders performed in Egypt. The power and manifestation that was in every dis– pensation will be manifested in this kingdom. It is the last time that God will set to His hand to gather His people. Then, brethren, let us be of this faith, all of us who are de– sirous, in this last time, to lay up fruit for our Father and our God, that we may have joy with Him. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday, January 25, 1857.

I am requested to get up and address you a short time. I do not know that I will be able to make this large assembly of people hear me this morning, but I will do the best I can to accomplish it. I feel that it is a very good sign to see so many people out to meeting, it seems as though they felt interested in meeting together to receive instructions; to see as crowded a house as this is this morning, is a proof that there is an increasing interest resting upon the people to hear the word of the Lord and receive instructions from the servants of God, and I do hope, brethren and sisters, that what instructions you do receive, you will prize, lay it up, and practice it, whether it be much or little.

I realize that the salvation of this people does not depend upon the great amount of teaching, instruction, or revelation that is given unto them, but their salvation depends more upon their obeying the commandments of God which are given unto them, their becoming a doer of the word, and following the counsel of those who are set to lead them. We certainly have a great amount of teaching, of instruction, of principle, of revelation, and of the word of God, which has been given unto this people, not only that which is recorded in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the Church History, but we have day by day, and night by night, instructions given unto us, we have a little here and a little there, a discourse today and another tonight, and we are continually receiving instructions from the servants of God. We receive instructions in our Ward meetings, and almost every time a few of us meet together, we do so for the purpose of receiving the word of the Lord.

It appears to me, then, that we are certainly a favored people, and that we are having a great deal of important instruction, such as is calculated to lead us unto salvation. Inasmuch then as we have been called upon to reform, or to advance and to grow in the principles of eternal life, and to become holy in our lives, I hope there are none of us but that will take hold with our whole soul and carry out the instruction, and try to practice it in word and deed. We frequently hear remarks made about the reformation being over, and about their having got through with it in this place or in that place, but the amount of it is there never will be any end to the reformation, or in other words there will never be any end to our advancement, there will be no end to our improvement nor to our increase, neither in time nor in all eternity.

If we act up to our privileges as a people, we have no more time to lose or to spend in an unprofitable manner. We should not act indifferently with regard to the blessings which the Lord is offering unto us, and which we have the privilege of obtaining; we should labor with all our might to build up the kingdom of God, that we may secure unto ourselves every blessing necessary for our salvation. We live in an important day; it is a day of mercy and a day of great blessings unto us as a people, and we should appreciate it as such.

I have reflected a good deal within the last few months, and especially while sitting and listening to the teachings of the First Presidency, the Twelve, and the Elders of Israel, in their various spheres and callings in which they are called to act. In my prayers and reflections I have thought much of our present position, and I have concluded that if we do not enjoy the Holy Spirit, and if the vision of our mind is not open to comprehend the things of God, and the power which is being made manifest for our benefit and good, that we are in great danger of suffering loss; we should see more fully the importance of taking hold with our might, and then, as brother Kimball says, the Holy Spirit of God would be diffused through our whole bodies, and through the whole body and Church of Christ.

I feel and see the importance of this work, and I see the necessity of our walking up to the line of our duty, that we may live and walk daily in the light of the Lord. I realize that the Presidency of this Church stand between this people and the Lord, for they are the head, and I realize that God reveals to them His will, and therefore we should look unto them for light and for information. The head may be full of light, of inspiration, revelation, and of the mind and will of God, but if those officers who stand next to them, and if we ourselves are asleep in relation to our duties, and are not in a fit state to receive that light, do you not see that the river is dammed up at the head? There is no current or medium through which the light may flow to the limbs and branches of the body.

I realize that it is the duty, not only of us who hold the Priesthood but of this people generally, to present ourselves in humility and faith before the Lord, that we may obtain the blessings which are in readiness for us, and we can obtain all the light, the knowledge, the faith, the intelligence and power which is necessary for our salvation by humility, obedience, and submission to the will of God. We should attend to this in order that our minds may be prepared, and our bodies become fit subjects for the reception of the Holy Ghost, so that the Spirit of God may flow freely through the whole body from the head to the foot. Then when this is the case we will all see alike, feel alike, and be alike, and become one as far as the Gospel and kingdom of God is concerned, as the Father and Son are one, and then this people will begin to see the position and relationship which we bear towards each other and towards God, and we shall feel the importance of attending to our duties, and we will willingly step forward and improve our time, make good use of our talents, and obtain the blessings that the Lord has for us to enjoy; but do you not see that if the people are asleep, and slothful, and not living up to their privileges, and the Spirit of God begins to flow from the head to the body, that it soon becomes obstructed and dammed up?

We may trace this principle through the Church and kingdom of God, and you may carry it into the family government, and you will find it as brother Kimball has already presented it to us. It is like the vine with its limbs, its branches, and its twigs. This is a very good figure to teach us the principle of righteousness.

In order for us to be prepared to do the will of God, and be in a position to build up His kingdom upon the earth, and to carry out His purposes, we must not only become united and act as the heart of one man, but we must obtain the Holy Spirit of God, and the mind and will of God concerning us, and be governed and controlled by it in all of our movements and acts, in order to be safe, and to secure unto ourselves salvation.

If I do not enjoy the Holy Spirit, there is something the matter, and I should labor until that is removed, for I consider that to be the first turning key, and we should do this to prove that we are honest before the Lord, and that we desire to do right in our minds and in our hearts. Yet, as I have said before, unless that Spirit is with us, we do not know whether we are doing right or wrong.

[President Kimball: Shut that door and let it remain so, for I tell you there is no one can enjoy the peaceful influence of the Holy Spirit where there is confusion; and I am sure this congregation cannot while that door is going clickitty-clack.]

As I was remarking, unless we do obtain the Holy Spirit, we are in danger every step we take, we are not safe, neither are we in a condition to build up the kingdom of God or do His work. I consider that the Lord requires this at the hand of every man and woman in Israel, every Latter-day Saint, that we first obtain the Holy Spirit, then bring forth the fruits of it unto salvation, then you will see this people keep their covenants and obey the commandments of God; this is the duty of all of us, and we should live our religion and follow its dictates. When this is done, you will see this people awake and bring forth works of righteousness, then they will have faith, and they will have power, and rise up, and the power and glory of God will be made manifest through such instruments as the Lord has chosen in this dispensation upon the earth, into whose hands He has committed the Holy Priesthood.

Ask any people, nations, kingdoms, or generations of men the question, and they will tell you they are seeking for happiness, but how are they seeking for it? Take the greatest portion of mankind as an ensample, and how are they seeking for happiness? By serving the devil as fast as they can, and almost the last being or thing that the children of men worship, and the last being whose laws they want to keep are the laws of the God of heaven. They will not worship God nor honor His name, nor keep His laws, but blaspheme His name, from day to day and nearly all the world are seeking for happiness by committing sins, breaking the law of God, and blaspheming His name and rejecting the only source whence happiness flows.

If we really understood that we could not obtain happiness by walking in the paths of sin and breaking the laws of God, we should then see the folly of it, every man and every woman would see that to obtain happiness we should go to work and perform the works of righteousness, and do the will of our Father in heaven, for we shall receive at His hand all the happiness, blessing, glory, salvation, exaltation, and eternal lives, that we ever do receive, either in time or eternity.

We should understand that we should not deceive ourselves in this matter, for if we deceive ourselves we shall suffer the loss. We may just as well search our own hearts, and at once resolve that we will do the works of righteousness, honor our Father in heaven, do our duty to God and man, take hold and build up the kingdom of God, and we will then understand that in order to obtain happiness and satisfy the immortal soul in a fulness of glory that man must abide a celestial law, and be quickened by a portion of the celestial Spirit of God; and we will also understand that to commit sin, break the law of God, and blaspheme His name, will bring sorrow and misery, and it will bring death, both temporally and spiritually. If we walk in the paths of unrighteousness, we grieve the Holy Spirit, and grieve our brethren, and injure ourselves.

Again, I wish to say a few words upon the blessings to be obtained by what we do, the labors we perform, the work we are called upon to do in paying our tithing, in building temples, and in doing those things that are required of us. These are things that are for our own benefit and good, these, with other subjects, have been impressed upon my mind for some weeks past, and it does appear to me that the people have not understood these things in their proper light.

Some of the people have looked upon the law of tithing as a kind of tax and burden laid upon them, but who is it for? Our tithing, our labor, and all that we do in the kingdom of God, who is it all for? The tithing is not to exalt the Lord, or to feed or clothe Him, He has had His endowments long ago; it is thousands and millions of years since He received His blessings, and if He had not received them, we could not give them to Him, for He is far in advance of us. I want the brethren to understand this one thing, that our tithing, our labor, our works are not for the exaltation of the Almighty, but they are for us. Not but what the Lord is pleased to see us obey His commandments, because by doing this it will place us in a position that will fulfil and accomplish the object of our creation, and bring about the end designed by our coming to take tabernacles here in the flesh. Again, when we do wrong, the Lord knows we shall inherit sorrow and misery if we continue in that wrong. Then I say, brethren, let us understand this as it is, and we shall do well. In paying our tithing, in obeying every law that is given to exalt us and to do us good, it is all for our individual benefit and the benefit of our children, and it is not of any particular benefit to the Lord, only as He is pleased in the faithfulness of His children and desires to see them walk in the path which leads to salvation and eternal life.

If we look upon things in this light, we shall do everything cheerfully, and whatever calls are made upon us, we shall gladly respond, and then the channels will be opened, there will be no obstruction in the edification of the body of Christ, and light and intelligence will flow from the fountainhead unto the people, then when a man speaks, the people will, by their prayers and faith, draw forth the word of the Lord from him, and they will have their minds upon the things of God, and not upon everything else as it has been heretofore.

If this people would rise up and do their duty, when men rise before them in this stand to point out the way of life, the Spirit of the Lord would reveal the things necessary for the people to understand, for the faith of the people would draw them out. All that is required is for the people to arouse themselves, and get the light of God within them.

Brethren, I do not feel to speak much longer; I have done what I was required to do—to occupy a few moments in opening the meeting this morning, and there are two of the Presidency here who will speak to the people, and we wish to hear from them. I will say, let us awake to righteousness, and in doing this we will see that there is no time to go to sleep; this we shall all know when we come to the end of the race, if not before. We are now in our alphabet, we are yet engaged in doing our first works, and there are many lessons and principles which we have yet to learn before we get to those who are gone far in the advance of us and received their reward with the just; and, therefore, I say, there is no time to be lost. Let us make the best use of our time, and in doing so, I pray that our minds may be enlightened, that we may live our religion, that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of God, from this time forth, that we may improve the talents we have received, and that we may be satisfied at the end of the race, which may God grant, for Christ’s sake. Amen.