A Discourse by J. M. Grant, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, October 26, 1856.

While the sacrament is passing, I will occupy a short time, for I wish to bear my testimony to the truth of what we heard in the forepart of the day. It is not for want of truths or testimonies that the people are care– less, but it is for the lack, on their part, of living up to the truths and testimonies they hear.

We have, in the revelations of God and in the teachings of the servants of God, a great variety of truths, but those truths are not specially in force and brought to bear upon our minds, and to be carried out in our practice, until we are fully impressed by that gift of the Lord God, which we call the Holy Ghost.

When the Spirit of the Lord rests upon a community, they naturally are inclined to feel after the Lord their God, and they are inclined unto righteousness, and they like the influence of that Spirit which leads into all truth; it is sweet and very delicious to them. But when darkness beclouds the people in consequence of their transgressions, they have but little relish for the things of God; they relish everything else but the things which pertain to the kingdom of God on the earth, and the kingdom of God hereafter. They cannot enjoy the Gospel as do those who are not in the dark, for those who are in the light can appreciate the light they are in the enjoyment of.

But while people are in the dark, they do not see the light; their deeds are not made manifest, for it is the light that maketh manifest. If a room be dark, the objects in that room are not discernible, but when light breaks into the room, the objects therein can be plainly seen.

We may say the same of the people of God; when they are in the dark, no difference how much light they may have had, if they pass from the light into the dark, they may remember that they once saw the light, they do not enjoy the light because they have passed from light into darkness, and they do not discern the objects in themselves. They gradually are sliding from the law of God, or from the Church of God, and do not discover where they are going or what from, from the fact that they are in the dark, they cannot see.

But when the light comes they discover that they are about falling from a precipice, about plunging into ruin, about going to destruction; the light makes this manifest, and they see their situation.

I have no idea that chastisement from this stand will increase the darkness, or aggravate the transgressions of the people; but if light breaks forth from any source and reflects upon the people, they then see the motes, the beams, and the dross in themselves. While the light makes manifest, the Spirit of God reveals the secrets of the heart, and makes manifest those dark spots that exist among the Saints of God.

Some suppose that they can pass by the Priesthood of God on the earth, and very lightly esteem the men who hold it. They think it is not material about offending the Bishops or the presiding Elders, or the councils that preside over them, and no difference, specially, about brother Brigham, “he is only brother Brigham, no difference about giving offense to him, or in associating with him.”

“We are conscious,” says one, “that we have offended him and many of the Councils of the Church, but notwithstanding this, we will go to God and ask Him, in the name of Jesus Christ, to forgive us, and we will make it all right between us and our God; and if we can only keep the stream pure between us and our God, no difference whether the water is dark and turbid between us and His servants, or not. We can get the Spirit of God for ourselves, and the blessings we want we will ask God for, no difference about offending His Servants.”

A great many people actually suppose that they can treat with impunity the authority of God, and the light of God, the chain that the Almighty has let down from heaven to earth, which we call the Priesthood; that they can break and insult that chain and trifle therewith, as much as they please, and when they please, that they can abuse Jehovah in His power and attri– butes. I reason in a different circle, or upon a different principle; I have practiced a different principle. When I offend one of God’s servants, I consider it my duty to atone, to make reconciliation for my offense, no matter whether he be above or below in this Church, as the term is used; no matter whether it be President Brigham Young or my teacher, I have erred in either case.

A great many say, “If I can only keep the stream clear between me and the heads of the Church, that is all I want or care for.”

A High Priest in the road the other day, a talented man, an important man, said, “If he could only keep the stream clear between himself and the heads of the Church, that he would consider that he was all right.” I said to him, if you act upon that principle, in the same sense you have thrown it out to me, it will send you across lots to hell. The spirit of the principle to me was, that it did not matter about offending persons below him, or injuring different individuals in the Church, such as Elders, Priests, Teachers, Deacons, and Members, if he could only keep the stream pure between him and the First Presidency.

This idea a great many people entertain; they can offend their Bishops, or the Bishop’s Counselors, and the Teachers, and they can offend the President of a Branch of the Church, the President over the High Priests’ Quorum, and the President over the High Council, and they can offend all the Church, so they can only have the good graces of brother Brigham and his Council, that is enough for them.

That is actually the idea of some people. Such doctrine as that, with me, is the height of nonsense. You have not their good graces, only as you treat every person right. If you are dishonest with one of those poor benighted Indians, you foul the water between me and you, and God Al– mighty will not give me power to bless you, until you rectify that wrong with that poor Indian, or with the least person on the footstool of God. And you should not pass by your Bishop and insult him, if you do, you will forfeit your claim to the throne of God in heaven, until you make reconciliation to that Bishop, or to any other person you have injured; and then it is time enough for you to bring your offerings, and they will be accepted in the sight of God, and in the sight of His servants.

We exist here in an organized Branch of the Church, we have several councils, quorums, and organizations. We were called upon during the last Conference, to elect a President of this Stake of Zion; Daniel Spencer and his two Counselors, Elders Fullmer and Rhodes, preside over this Stake. Now suppose they know that the Bishop of some ward, or one of his Counselors, is teaching an erroneous doctrine, it is the duty of Daniel Spencer to send for that Bishop, or that Counselor, or instruct some one in that ward to rectify that people.

The Presidency of this Branch of the Church should go to work and learn whether every quorum in this Branch is doing its duty. The First Presidency, by their sanction, have ceded the local Branch of this Church in Great Salt Lake City, to Daniel Spencer and his Council, and he should understand whether the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth wards are in order; and if his jurisdiction extends beyond the city, he should ascertain whether every man is doing right within the bounds of that jurisdiction. And he ought to come up to the First President of the Church, and consider himself one of his Council, and report the situation of the different wards; and he ought to have a book containing full and correct reports from every Bishop of the different wards, that when the First President of the Church shall say, brother Spencer, in what condition is this or that Branch of the Church, he may be able at once to give a truthful report. He ought to know all about the High Priests, their number, and the number of the Seventies; where they meet, and what they are about. His eye ought to be through the city like the eye of God, to search the people over whom he is made President; and he ought to know that his Counselors are alive and active in the discharge of their duty. I do not know whether he can report so now or not, but I very much doubt whether he can.

Brother Spencer should come to the First President of the Church, and not consider that he is intruding, for he is rightly connected with him. Can a man be intruding when he does those things he has a right to do, and which pertain to his duty? No. Neither can he be intruding by reporting to the First President of the Church.

The presiding Bishop belongs to the First Presidency of this Church, and he ought to know about the situation of each ward, and not merely talk about the people’s paying their tithing, for there has been too much mere talking about it already. I would ask, have the people in this city paid their tithing? I sincerely doubt whether one fourth or even one eighth, have paid it. It is the duty of the Bishop not only to sound his trump outside this city, but in this city, and learn what persons are deficient in this point, and not cease with merely talking about it. Talking so much and not doing is one of the grand evils; it is not for the Bishop to merely talk about the people’s paying their tithing, and say that they are good fellows, &c., but we want him to know that the people pay their tithing, and that they are right; and then come to the First President of the Church and tell him those facts, reporting faithfully the situation of all the Bishops in the Church, and how they stand in their accounts with the General Tithing Office; and let him gather all the pile together.

If Bishop Hunter waits until the roads are muddy, he may expect to meet with drawbacks and losses, the bins are now as full as they will be. Strike while the iron is hot, is the old adage; but my adage is, strike while the roads are good, and while there is grain.

If you wait until after cold weather comes, after the mud comes, and after the people come in hungry, the bins where the wheat is now may be like they were with brother Browning; he had several hundred bushels of tithing wheat, and when we sent for it, there were somewhere about forty or fifty bushels; it had wasted; the cats, the goats, the ducks, the rats, the mice, the geese, and the ganders all were at work in those bins.

I want the Bishop to understand that we want the tithing brought to the storehouse of God, while it can be brought without delay; not merely to talk about it, but we want the work performed. I tell you that the people in this city do not walk up to their duty on the subject of tithing.

Members of the quorum of the Twelve, when at home, ought to be right about the First President of the Church with the power of God that is in them, and communicate some of that light to brother Brigham to comfort him. Do you expect brother Brigham to put fire into the whole of this people, and no man on earth put fire in him and bless him, and give him instruction and information? Must he impart and teach, and teach, and no man tell him anything?

We have missionaries who go out to different parts of this Territory, and over the earth, gaining experience and information, but can we get them up here to tell us one single thing they know? No, unless you take them by the back of the neck, and the seat of their pantaloons and haul them in sight, making them squeal like a “possum cat,” before you can get anything out of them.

We want you to impart what you know, if you have the light of God, or any information about heaven, earth, or hell. We want you to furnish your share to the fund of information, and not cry, all the day long, give, give, give, without imparting anything to the giver. We want the Twelve, when they are full of the Holy Ghost, to come up and bless us. And if any of you know how to make a good goose yoke, a hog yoke, a good jackknife, or anything else that is valuable, do not put your hands on your mouths and cry mum.

If you know how to raise wheat, potatoes, or anything else, impart your knowledge, that the light in you may not be hid under a bushel. It is so with almost every person in the Church; if they have light they keep it under a bed, or under a bushel; they keep it locked up within their bosoms, and we cannot get it out.

If a man knows anything valuable, we want him to impart his knowledge. We want the President of the Seventies, brother Joseph Young, about us; we do not want him to go on the hill where Lorenzo lived, but we want him to live in the city near brother Brigham, because, if he does not, he will die. Some of brother Joseph’s Council want to wander off, saying that brother Brigham says they may go. Why? Because they want to. If the light of God was in them, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, they would know that their place is at headquarters. We want such men to come and be one with the Prophet, and believe and understand for themselves.

If you offend your brother, you have to make reconciliation. You might as well baptize a dog, as baptize a man or woman who will not make reconciliation for the offenses they have committed. Some women will say, “What is the difference, suppose I offend my husband, if I can only lie to brother Brigham, and tell him a first-rate tale, and make out that my husband is a poor curse? I will get as many blessings as I want from brother Brigham, and from others that I can make believe that I am a good woman.”

I may not have used their words exactly, but those words portray their practices. That woman who offends her husband, if he has on him the power of the Priesthood and does right, I would not give a groat for all the blessings she will get from the Holy Ghost. You may as well baptize a dog, or a skunk, as such a woman, until she makes reconciliation with that man of God whom she has offended.

I sometimes talk about the old stereotyped edition of “Mormons.” Is it that I do not love our old fathers in Israel? No, for I know their labors, toils, and anxiety, and I love them; but many of them feel that they have done enough. Men have to be rewarded according to their works; if a man ceases to work, there is no more blessings for him. He is lariatted out, as Orson Pratt lariatted out the Gods in his theory; his circle is as far as the string extends. My God is not lariatted out.

I do not want the old men to grow dull. Was father Adam dull in his old age, when he blessed his children, and predicted what would befall them down to the latest generation? Will a man, fired up by the fire of the Almighty, be dull? No. I do not want the old men to think that they have done enough, but to exert themselves to the last, and not to believe in a God that is lariatted out, nor be lariatted out themselves, and say, “I have worked ten, fifteen, or twenty-five years, and I do not want to work anymore, my rope is long enough now.”

Do not imbibe that principle, but keep advancing and advancing in the knowledge of the truth, in the light of the Almighty which brightens up your intellects, enlightens your minds, and makes you feel the fire and power of God Almighty in your earthly tabernacles. We want our fathers in Israel to wake up and bless their children, to bless the young men and the Church of God, and let the fire of the Almighty be in them. We want the presiding Patriarch to freely call upon the Prophet, brother Brigham; and we want the heads of the different departments of the kingdom of God to come up and strengthen the hands of the Prophet.

The old men, those men who have been in the Church twenty years and more, are ready to run from the man of God that holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven. If you was full of the Holy Ghost you would not do this, but you would be round about us, instead of being all the time with your wives. It is the greatest piece of nonsense that was ever planted in a Gentile breast, for a man to tie himself down to be at home day and night with his women. Where would this kingdom go, if brother Brigham and his Council were to do so? It would go to hell, across lots, in double quick time. Do not let your wives bind you up with green withes and strong cords as Delilah did Sampson, and make you powerless. Break asunder the cords, the ropes and cables that bind you, and come forth, ye old men, out of your shells, and break your lariats and your stakes, and begin to drink of the fountain of life, with God and His servants.

I might say to the young men wake up from your sleep, that you may have the blessings of God poured out upon you. And if the women want to know what I think of many of them, let them read the 32nd chapter of Isaiah; I had better read part of it for you. “Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech. Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.”

I want to say to many of our old women, and to hundreds and thousands of our young women, that the life of God Almighty is not in you; you are at ease, and careless, and dull, and blind, and you do not understand the rights that God Almighty wishes you to enjoy. I want such women to humble themselves in sackcloth and ashes, until they get the Holy Ghost. I want every mother and daughter in Israel to serve their God, have the light of God in them, instead of pride, foolery, nonsense, and everything that is light and vain. Rise up, ye careless women that are asleep in Zion, and betake yourselves to mourning and lamenting before God, until the light of heaven shall shine upon you, until the light of God shall chase away your pride, and your abomination, and your sins, and be round about you, and until the eye of heaven smiles upon you and blesses you forever. I want you to be blest and saved, that your children may rise up and be blest. I want the women to understand that there is something in Zion for them to do, instead of going to sleep. There is a work upon you; you have made covenants and sacred obligations, as well as the men, and we want you not to falsify those obligations, but to keep the law of your husbands, and listen to them, and know that they are your head.

A man is a president to his family. If the Church has a head, which is Christ, then is the man the head of his family. Some men are not the heads of their families, but their wives walk on them, their daughters walk on them, and their sons walk on them, and they are as the soles of their shoes.

Talk of some men’s being the heads of their families. It makes me think of the old deacon, that went to teach a man and his wife who were quarrelsome; said he, “Do you not know that you and your husband are one flesh?” “You don’t say that, do you, deacon?” “Yes, the Lord has made you one.” “Lord God,” said she, “if you were to pass by here when me and my old man are quarreling, you would think there were fifty of us.” This is often the case in Israel; instead of the men being the heads of their families, they are as sole leather under their feet.

I want the women to understand, when they have a good husband, one that does his duty, that he is president over them and that they have made covenants to abide the law of that husband. Talk about women leaving their husbands! I would be far from taking a woman that would leave a GOOD man. A woman that wants to climb up to Jesus Christ, and pass by the authorities between her and him is a stink in my nostrils. I have large nostrils, and I often talk about smelling, for my olfactory nerves are very sensitive. I want women to know their places and do their duty; but there is a low, stinking pride in a woman, that wants to leave a good husband to go to another. What does it matter where you are, if you do your duty? Being in one man’s family or the other man’s family is not going to save you, but doing your duty before your God is what will save you.

Because I am one of the Council of the First President, will that save me? No, but if I am saved, I shall be saved because I do my duty as a man of God. Shall a man be saved because of some particular Quorum to which he belongs, or a woman be saved because she is in some particular family? No, that is foolery. Men and women are saved because they do right. It is nonsense for a woman to suppose, that because she is sealed to some particular man she will be saved, and at the same time kick up hell’s delight, play the whore, and indulge in other evil acts and abominations.

Even some mothers in Israel actually suppose that if their daughters are sealed to a certain man they will be saved, no matter what they do afterwards. That is damned foolery; and I want men and women to understand that salvation is based on a better foundation, that it is made up of righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost.

We want you to understand that the power of the Holy Ghost should be in you. We want fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, and the whole Church renovated and made one. Do you suppose that I can be saved by standing alone, or that brother Heber can, or by attempting to use our Apostleship independent of brother Brigham? We have sense enough to know that we have no power, only as we are one with him. Or can the Twelve, or anyone else, have any power, only as they are one with brother Brigham? No. In the same way no woman can be right, only that woman who is one in spirit with her husband. We should then be one in understanding, in power, in the gifts of God and in the light of the Gospel, and do right all the time. May God Almighty wake up the fathers, the mothers, the sons and the daughters, and bless you all and keep you in the path of your duty, and save you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by President J. M. Grant, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 12, 1856.

I am glad this morning to hear from brother Daniel Spencer, and to learn that he feels that the Lord has blest the people in this land, as well as in the land where he has been sojourning for a time.

I do not and have not felt that I need a mission to a foreign land for the purpose of causing me to understand myself, or to fill me with the Holy Ghost, or to prepare me to be useful in this land; neither have I felt I needed to go to the United States or any other part of the world to put on the Gospel armor. I feel it to be necessary that I should wear that armor here, and if I ever have had it on, I feel that I have had it on in this land; and I do not deem it necessary for many men to cross the ocean to get the Holy Ghost, or to enjoy the power of God. If they will do the will of God in this land, they will see their situation and be filled with His power from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet; I believe that if the Saints were to have more religion in their own homes they would be better off.

Were I thirsty and could go to a spring or lake whose water was pure and clear as crystal, even the best that could be found, I should have no occasion for going to another and more distant place to procure water. And if I should find ice there, should I say it was too much trouble to break it? No, but I should labor to break that ice; and the thicker the ice, the more persevering I should labor, until I got some of the water of the crystal fountain.

While paying attention to the prayers of some persons in their family devotions, I sometimes notice that they often stop praying without breaking through the darkness and obtaining the Holy Spirit. If I found that it was necessary to pray three hours I would keep praying for that length of time, or until I got the Spirit, unless I remembered that I had neglected a special duty, when I would go and attend to that duty; after which I should want to return and pray until I got the Holy Ghost; I would keep praying until I broke the ice and obtained the Holy Ghost.

Some think that they have already labored enough to obtain heaven. Such persons put me in mind of Sidney Rigdon, who said that he had suffered enough to obtain salvation. He said that the sufferings of Jesus Christ were light in comparison with what he had endured, and he would be damned to hell if he would suffer any more.

I notice that some who gather here think they have already suffered enough, and feel like saying, “I will be damned to hell if I will suffer any more.”

Many of those who have come with handcarts think that they have done wonders, therefore they want every hat hoisted in deference to them, and every meal bag gratuitously opened; and they want everybody to feed, clothe, and lodge them, and find them everything they need, because they have dragged a handcart across the Plains.

You deserve credit for what you have done, but I make this observation that you may know that you have not yet got into the harbor of eternal life; and that you may not think that you have not anything to do now that you have come here, for unless you keep on the armor, you will be overcome.

We want people that have come here with their Gospel armor on to keep it on, that they may shed abroad the light of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. We have given the same instructions to Elders that have returned, and we want every class of men and women in this Church to keep on the Gospel armor.

I want to say to every institution in our midst, whether the talent they have is under the supervision of eight, ten, or twelve men, we wish you to manifest that you have the Holy Ghost for your guidance, and then to go to work and convert Great Salt Lake City. I want you to try your skill and the power of God upon this city, and exert yourselves through your Wards, under the direction of the Bishops, that you may be the means of filling the people with the Holy Ghost, and in order that you may have power and discretion to act wisely, see that you have the light of heaven in your own hearts.

Many talk of their visions, revelations, and mighty works; but we have to have minds and men that think, and have wisdom in all their ways. It is for us to occupy our minds and direct our labors in the proper channel, and to use our talents and intellects as the head shall direct.

There is a drought and has been; the people have felt too much like putting their temporal affairs first, and then attending to the spiritual at their leisure.

So much do many act upon this principle that their intellectual faculties become dark, they do not get into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the gift of the Holy Ghost, of the light of eternity; but their temporal matters are first and foremost. If they have a gewgaw, they take great pleasure in going round to exhibit it, and they will borrow beads, rings, watches, and all kinds of gewgaws to gratify the pride of their hearts. Such hearts are not right before God, and such conduct must be done away from among the Latter-day Saints.

I will now mention another thing; some will ask you three dollars a day for common labor, and others will not lift a pick, shovel, or ax, short of two dollars a day; and they have left the best situations in the Territory and have gone to Provo and other places, because they could get but $1.50 a day. They are our handcart men who are acting so. This proves that they came here for the loaves and fishes. They will tell you that they have learned to draw the handcarts, and now they expect the highest wages.

I want to notify all Saints, whether they came with handcarts, horses, mules, or oxen, wagons, carriages, or wheelbarrows, that in this land we wish you to keep the commandments of God, and when you have food, raiment, and shelter, be satisfied and don’t be greedy. Do not expect to get as many comforts around you the first year, as men have got in many years by hard labor and toil. Remember that some of us came here in 1847, with scarcely anything, and we have had to toil assiduously to accumulate what we have. Do not you the first year, month, or week, covet everything that you see; do not covet every man’s house and business, but seek the blessings of the Lord God of Israel, and bring up your temporal matters in their place and season.

I will explain what I mean by place and season. Go to different parts of the Territory and advance the people in their religion, make them humble and faithful so that the Spirit of the Lord shall govern them, till all shall be sweetened in their minds and be united as one, till they shall see eye to eye, and hear ear to ear, and if they do not keep up their temporal affairs, they will fall right back. A man that advances in spiritual and in temporal matters at the same time, minding to keep the spiritual first, will not let the temporal lead him; he will not place his heart upon his farm, his horses, or any possession that he has. He will place his desires in heaven, and will anchor his hope in that eternal soil; and his temporal affairs will come up as he advances in the knowledge of God.

The temporal will keep pace as the spiritual advances. I do not believe that a man who is full of the Holy Ghost is going to live contentedly in a hogpen, in filth and in dirt, when it is in his power to prevent it. Go through our city and you will find some who are living in dirt and degradation; some who like dirt, who like to have their cow in the house and their chickens in the buttery; who like to have their pigs and children near enough for them to feed together; and their children are as naughty and filthy as they can be. And yet such persons think they have the Spirit and power of God! This is one reason why so many people die, while journeying to this place; it is because the Holy Ghost is sick of them.

If you want the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves clean. I know that some think, when they get here, “O, we are in Zion, everything is right; there is no use in washing our children or combing their hair.” I want you to understand that we wish you to be clean outside as well as inside; we want you to be clean and pure; to be good-natured and possessed of every qualification requisite in a Saint of God; to have everything that can bring the light and gift of God among you.

I want the people to be pure in their words, in their deeds, in their spirits, and to be diligent in their prayers. I want men that come in from Europe, and from different parts of the United States, to purify themselves and go to with their might to work righteousness. I want the returned missionaries to know that if they have been out preaching the Gospel, we also want them to go to work now they have come home.

I want everyone to understand that we have plenty of grunters, plenty of those who are made up of whining. Yes, we have more of those instruments to play upon than we have any use for.

We want you all to keep the light of our God. And we want to see the spirit of reformation in the people; we wish them to have it in practice in their houses; not only to talk about it, but to practice upon it.

The difficulty is that we cannot get the people to practice; they will listen as to a fine sermon, and we can get them to work in the canyons and in the fields, and to do many other things; but there are too many who like intoxicating drinks, tobacco, filth, dirt, and meanness. Some like to break the Sabbath, to brand another’s ox, which they find on the range, and to occasionally steal a little; there are some here who will steal, when they have an opportunity.

I wish to inform the newcomers that if they want to find the finest and best men in the world, they are here; and if they want to find the meanest, most pusillanimous curses that the world can produce, we have them here. We have here some of the most miserable curses that ever the Almighty frowned upon, for it takes an apostate “Mormon” to be a mean devil. We want you to have eyes to see; we do not want you to see merely what is in the books you have read, in your mathematics and your philosophy, but want you to have in you the Holy Ghost, to be full of the spirit of the Lord Jesus.

We have Elders who are fine speakers, fine orators, and who wish to talk very properly after the manner of the world. They did so in Europe, and they want to do so here; they want to preach those old sermons over, those that they have been accustomed to preach in the old world. But we want Elders to get up and preach as the Holy Ghost shall dictate; we do not want any of your long, prosy sermons; we prefer the word of life by the power of the Spirit.

I desire to see men reform in their acts, and not say “let our neighbors be converted,” but let them say, in the name of Israel’s God, “the reformation shall be carried into our houses, to our children, and we will take it home with us, and will gird on our armor, and go ahead in the cause of God,” for this is what we are sent here for.

May God grant that you may all strive to work righteousness, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Woodruff, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1856.

Brethren and sisters, I feel to take the liberty of occupying a few moments in expressing some few of my feelings. I have heard all the brethren that have spoken for several days past. I have heard them say that it was with great difficulty that they expressed their feelings, and I did not wonder at this, for anyone who will reflect upon the state of the world and the kingdom of God upon the earth, and the dealings of God with us, will be filled with feelings and reflections which they cannot express. No man could listen to what we have heard today and yesterday, and I may say for the past month, without having many feelings in reference to the condition of the people, Church, and kingdom of God. There is no man that has been acquainted in this Church and kingdom, that has felt any responsibility resting upon him, that has any desire in relation to the gathering of Israel, that has beheld with his eyes for the last week or two, and that has listened to our brethren, but must have felt that the Spirit of God has been with them.

I have a desire to bear my testimony with my brethren, for I feel thankful to God for His blessings unto us, and unto our brethren who have journeyed on foot to the valleys. My heart was filled with joy on listening to our returned missionaries who have told of the dealings of God with them. I have been much edified and interested in listening to the testimony of our returned missionaries.

When I first met the train of handcarts my soul was full, the scene was overwhelming, our hearts were swollen, as brother Kimball said, till they felt as though they were as big as a two bushel basket. Was it sorrow that produced this? No, but joy; and why so? Because it looked as if the very flood gates of deliverance were opened, and as if we could say to the starving millions, “Come home to Zion, and improve the opportunity that is now open, and renew your covenants, reform yourselves in your lives and conduct.”

President Brigham Young has talked about this plan for some time before it came before the public; he has felt that an improvement and change must take place in relation to the gathering of the people, as well as a reformation of life of all those who were gathered.

Whatever counsel the Presidency of this Church have been led to give unto this people, it has been dictated by the Spirit and power of God, and our safety and salvation lies in obeying that counsel and putting it into practice. We should learn to listen to the operation and manifestation of the Spirit of Truth.

When President Young launched forth into the wilderness, leading the pioneer camp to seek a new location and home as a resting place for the Saints, there were many men that felt as though it was a wild speculation, they thought it was taking a stand that was dangerous, but were they men of faith? They might well feel so if they had not the Spirit of God, but all those that were governed and controlled by the right spirit, felt as he did, and that God was leading him, and that he would lead the people right; and it is so with the handcart trains.

We should learn a lesson by this handcart operation as we should by every other operation of the servants of God. I know how it looks to the Saints, but “Mormonism” to men that have not the Spirit of God is a great mystery and a strange work indeed, they do not understand the ways or work of God; it looks to them like leading the people to destruction; but in all cases where destruction comes in all ages of the world, it is where the counsels of the Prophets of God are not fully carried out, but where the people deviate in some measure from their counsel. And this was fully manifest in the days of the ancient Prophets as well as in our day.

The word of the Lord and the words of His servants have been proved many times, and that before our eyes; our leaders were led by the Spirit of God, and I can bear testimony that our Prophets and leaders have the Spirit of the Lord, and they are clothed upon with the holy Priesthood of God, and all the powers and keys thereof, and with the holy anointing, and are fully authorized and qua– lified to build up the kingdom of God upon the earth; they are inspired by the very same spirit that the ancients were; they want to build up the kingdom of God, this is their object.

When I saw brother Ellsworth come into this city covered with dust and drawing a handcart, I felt that he had gained greater honor than the riches of this world could bestow, and he looked better to me than he would have done had he been clothed with the most costly apparel that human ingenuity can produce; he looked better, I say, to me, than a man adorned with jewels and finery of every description. The honor any man can obtain by his faithfulness in this cause and kingdom is worth far more than all the honors and riches of the world.

The Elders of this Church have been inspired while on their missions abroad among the nations of the earth; they have had the Spirit of the Lord, and they have borne it forth among the people, and we can see the spirit by which they have been governed in their works. I feel thankful that the Lord has heard our prayers in their behalf, for these men have been remembered; there has not been a prayer offered up by a man or a woman in Israel who have enjoyed the Spirit of the Lord, but they have offered their prayers and exercised their faith in behalf of and in favor of those men; they have prayed for the “handcart company,” that they might be strong and be able to perform their duties, and we have prayed that they might be preserved from cholera, from sickness, and from the power of the destroyer; and these prayers have ascended up on high and entered into the ears of the God of Sabaoth, and our brethren have felt the power of them; they felt, as brother Ellsworth said he felt, viz., that they had the prayers and faith of their friends in Zion.

Do I look upon these brethren and sisters that come in with handcarts with any less degree of respect than I should if they had come with horses, with dromedaries, with mules and swift beasts? No, I do not; but I feel that they have accomplished a good work in thus coming to Zion, in the way the Presidency have pointed out.

I feel to rejoice also to see the Spirit and power of God poured out so powerfully upon the Presidency of the Church and those who have been faithful either at home, or those who have been on missions abroad.

The Presidency of the Church are calling upon us as a people to repent and put off our sins. It is right, it is just that we should awake and reform, for we have got to have the same spirit; we have to wake up from the deep sleep and slumbering condition in which we find ourselves. We must arise to a sense of our position and to understand the signs of the times, and become acquainted with what the Lord requires at our hands.

I am satisfied, and have been for some length of time, that the Lord would open some way of relief for the poor Saints; it would require all the Saints that are upon the earth with their means—I was going to say that it would require all the means in the world to bring the poor in the way they have been gathering. There must be a change in the way of the gathering, in order to save them from the calamities and the scourges that are coming upon the wicked nations of the earth. It would require more gold than all the Saints possess upon the earth, to gather the Saints unto Zion from all nations in the way they have been gathering, but now the handcart operation has been introduced to this people, it will bring five here to where one has been brought heretofore.

I rejoice in all those men who have stood up to their posts as men of God, and defended the words of His servants, and assisted in carrying out their plans and designs in gathering the people from the nations; they have been inspired by the power of the great God, and they have carried the words of His servants into operation with success, and had it not been so, the devil would have gained a great victory over the Saints; they have conquered, and this has been the case in every operation that we as a people have taken in hand under the direction of the servants of God.

The moment that you take in hand any new operation in the kingdom of God, that moment you have to renew your warfare, and the Saints will find that wherein they undertake any new enterprise and are sent to the nations of the earth, the devil will be up against them. Look how he raged when the Prophet Joseph commenced preaching upon this continent, and then again when we went from this country to Europe, it seemed as if all hell was let loose. As soon as brothers Kimball and Hyde arrived in England, all the devils in Europe, or in England at any rate, were let loose upon them, and it was precisely the same in London when the brethren went there; and I will say still further, it has been so in every place.

I thank God that those men that have been appointed to lead these handcarts have been filled with the Holy Spirit, and have had courage and faith to carry out the plan designed by the servants of the Almighty. It is an omen, not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles; it shows them that there is a God in Israel whose power and Priesthood have been committed into the hands of men upon the earth, and their works cause “the wisdom of the wise to perish, and the understanding of the prudent to be hid;” and this power and principle is felt by the great and the mighty among men.

I feel thankful that the Lord has preserved our brethren the missionaries, and that they have been permitted to return to our midst, and that we have the privilege of greeting them, and that we can rejoice together in the goodness and mercy of God.

I wish to say a few words to the Elders. I suppose we are all Elders; do you teach your families the way of life and salvation? Do you teach your wives and children the counsel of God? We should impress upon the minds of our children the evil consequences of committing sin or breaking any of the laws of God, they should be made to understand that by doing wrong they will inherit sorrow and tribulation which they can easily escape by doing right, and they should learn this principle by precept without learning sorrow and affliction by experience from doing wrong.

We as a people should be humble, be prayerful, be submissive to the powers that be, that we may receive the promised blessings of our Heavenly Father.

I want now to say a few words upon the subject of our reformation. The Presidency have called upon us to reform our ways, to renew our covenants, and to commence to live the lives of Saints. I take this liberty because I have the opportunity of speaking to you. I say then that they have called upon us to put on the whole armor, to reform our conduct. Men having authority have called upon us to forsake our wickedness and our follies, and I may here say that the Presidency have preached to the people in this Territory, not only for the last month, but for the last year, and I have thought that it was a good deal like throwing a ball against a rock, it did not penetrate but bounded back, but they have told us that we were asleep as a people, and we have been told of the condition that we are in by the Prophets of God, and as brother Grant has said, we may take the Church as a body with the Priesthood, with but few exceptions, and we have been asleep. What! Should the Apostles of Jesus Christ go to sleep, men who ought to have their minds upon nothing else but the things of the kingdom of God? No, they should not, they should not be asleep, but they have not always felt as they should feel.

You may take the Twelve, and the Seventies, and High Priests, and all the other quorums, except the First Presidency, and they have been more or less asleep. I believe the First Presidency have been awake or they would not have known that we were asleep, and they now think that it is time for us to awake and arise from our slumbers, and I feel so too.

I will tell you how I feel about it; men bearing the Priesthood of God, it is a solemn truth, and you know it as well as I do, that almost all the male members in this land bear the holy Priesthood of the Most High, and yet at the same time we have had more stealing, more lying, more swearing in one year than there should have been in a thousand; we have had more stealing here in Utah than has been for our credit, and when you have taken up that you may also take up every other sin and pile them up together and what is our condition before God? Why, we have violated our covenants which we made at the waters of baptism. What is the use then of our saying that we have been righteous, that we have been holy, when we have actually been in a sound sleep, when we have been so much out of the way? It is no use whatever, and the time of sifting and purifying the Saints has come, and for one I am willing to put on the garment, and keep it on, until we burn out all the evil that exists.

Why will we suffer our hearts to be set upon the things of the world, when they should be upon the Lord and the building up of His kingdom? And as long as the angels are ready to write down our actions, and the Spirit of God is taken away from the nations of the earth, and they are filled with wickedness and abominations of every kind, and the judgments of God are ready to fall upon the earth, for “Hell has enlarged herself, and the pomp and glory of the world will descend into it.” And where should men be awake if not here in Zion?

It is our duty, brethren, to live in that way and manner before our God, that we will find no difficulty in administering in any of the ordinances of the kingdom of God; we should live so that the spirit and power of the Holy Ghost will rest down upon us; we should humble ourselves before the Lord in our closets, and live day by day, so that we can know what is right and what is wrong, and when the Presidency give us any instruction or charge, to live so that we will be ready to follow their counsel.

I believe that the majority of the people are ready to wake up; I believe that they already begin to feel the reformation spirit in them, and it is certainly time, for there are great events at our door, and I likewise feel that we will have as much labor upon our hands as we will be able to perform; it is a great and an important day that we live in, and when we look upon the work of the Lord as Elders, as High Priests, as Seventies, and as men should who bear the Priesthood, we should never be asleep, but be ever ready to do the work of God, and to build up His kingdom, for the day is now come when we must awake and become the friends of God; we must not allow anything to stand between us and our God, or we shall be cut off.

There has been a great deal among us which has been wrong, and for which we have been reproved, and will not hand the garments to my neighbor, but I will give everyone their due, and take that portion to myself which belongs to me. It has been a custom at times when reproofs have been given, and the garment would fit a man, to hand it to his neighbor, but I know that but few of us will escape.

I know that I can take the reproof to myself, and I consider that it is one of the greatest victories for a man to gain, to learn how to control himself. Show me a man that does control himself and I will show you a safe man; or a man that has prepared himself by this principle is on the road to salvation. A man that is prepared to lay all that he hath upon the altar, and his life with it, for the Gospel’s sake and the kingdom of God, is in the right way, but the moment that we teach a doctrine that we do not practice we show our weakness. The moment a man or a woman becomes angry they show a great weakness, and so it is with any of us when we do anything wrong.

I feel, as President Young said, that our Father in heaven is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, and when I have looked at the magnitude of the work, and the nature of our Priesthood, and the authority and responsibility which rests upon us and upon all the hosts of Israel, I have felt oftentimes to mourn and weep over the passions and follies to which man is subject in this life.

If men could see and understand their relationship to God, and the position they occupy, they would not see one moment of their lives that they would desire to do a wrong thing, but they would pursue a straightforward course, they would avoid all kinds of evil words and improper expressions.

What was intended by the establishment of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Was it for men to become darkened and sleepy? No, for the moment that we do we come under condemnation. I say, then, that we have all been reproved by our brethren. I speak of the reproofs given because they have been among the things foremost before our brethren, who have preached to us for some time past.

I feel that this call of repentance and baptism for the remission of our sins is an important one, and that we cannot again go to sleep with impunity, and I feel that inasmuch as we will walk in the light, awake from our slumber, repent of our sins, we shall receive the blessings of the Gospel of Christ, and all things that pertain to the kingdom of our God.

These things that God has given to us through our Prophets, will prove the savor of life unto life, or of death unto death.

When I was a boy, there was an old man used to visit at my father’s house; his name was Robert Mason, and I heard teachings from him from the time that I was eight years old and upwards, and they were teachings that I shall ever remember, and he taught my father’s household many important truths concerning the Church and kingdom of God, and told them many things in relation to the Prophets and the things that were coming upon the earth, but his teachings were not received by but few, they were unpopular with the Christian world, but nearly all that did receive his teachings have joined the Latter-day Saints. Prophets were not popular in that day any more than now, and I have often thought of many things which the old man taught me in the days of my youth since I received the fulness of the Gospel and became a member of the Church of Christ.

He said, “When you read the Bible do you ever think that what you read there is going to be fulfilled? The teachers of the day,” said he, “spiritualize the Bible, but when you read in the Bible about the dreams, visions, revelations and predictions of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, or any other of the Prophets or Apostles, relative to the gathering of Israel and the building up of Zion, where they say that Israel shall be gathered upon litters, swift beasts and dromedaries, you may understand that it means just what it says, and that it will be fulfilled upon the earth in the last days. And when you read of men laying hands upon the sick and healing them, and casting out devils and working miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, it means what it says.” And he further said “The Church of Christ and kingdom of God is not upon the earth, but it has been taken from the children of men through unbelief, and because they have taken away from the Gospel some of its most sacred ordinances, and have instituted in their stead forms and ceremonies without the power of God, and have turned from the truth unto fables, but,” said he, “it will soon be restored again unto the children of men upon the earth, with its ancient gifts and powers, for the Scriptures cannot be fulfilled without it; but I shall not live to see it, but,” said he to me, “you will live to see that day, and you will become a conspicuous actor in that kingdom, and when you see that day, then that which the Prophets have spoken will be fulfilled.”

And as brother Van Colt said about his father and grandfathers, that they did not join any church, it was so with me; I did not join any church, believing that the Church of Christ in its true organization did not exist upon the earth, but when the principles of the everlasting Gospel were first proclaimed unto me, I believed it with all my heart, and was baptized the first sermon I heard, for the Spirit of God bore testimony to me in power that it was true. And I believe that I should never have joined any Church had I not heard some men preach who had the holy Priesthood. But when I heard the fulness of the Gospel, I was greatly blessed in receiving it, and was filled with joy unspeakable, and I have never been sorry, but I have rejoiced all the day long, and when I saw that train of handcarts, I thought of the teaching and words of the old prophet Mason, for he came the nearest to being a true Prophet of God in his predictions and works of any man I ever saw, until I saw men administering in the holy Priesthood.

He also cast out devils in the name of Jesus Christ, by the laying on of hands and the prayer of faith. “But,” said he, “I have no right to administer in the ordinances of the Gospel, neither has any man unless he receives it by revelation from God out of heaven, as did the ancients. But if my family or friends are sick, I have the right to lay hands upon them, and pray for them in the name of Jesus Christ, and if we can get faith to be healed, it is our privilege; and I will here say that many were healed through his faith and prayers, and that, too, within my knowledge.” And when that first handcart company came into the city, I, indeed, thought of the old prophet, for if they did not come with litters it was as near as possible to it, and I now believe that from this time forth handcarts will be used more than horses, mules, and oxen.

I thank God that I have lived to see this day and generation, and I pray God to bless you and me, that we may do our duty in our families, and among our friends, and in our neighborhoods, and in every circumstance in which we are placed. I also feel thankful to see our brethren and sisters coming in, and especially the missionaries, for they have returned filled with the gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost; it does my soul good, and I feel to thank God for these things.

When I came into the Tabernacle, and saw the offerings that were made, I felt satisfied that there was an improvement; and I will say here that whenever the Prophets who lead us call upon us, we should be ready and on hand to take hold of that wheel which he points to and pull, and when we get the spirit of our calling, and the power of God upon us, the Church and kingdom will grow. As President Young said, the veil will be rent, and when the armies of Gog and Magog arise, they will say, let us not go against Israel to battle, for her sons are terrible, and we cannot stand.

If we as a people follow the counsel of the Presidency of this Church, repent of our sins, wake up, do our duty, keep on the armor of righteousness, live our religion, and are filled with the Holy Ghost, we shall soon see that sinners in Zion will tremble, and fearfulness will surprise the hypocrite.

I feel to bless you, brethren and sisters, and pray that we may do our duty in all things, and ever honor the Priesthood, and at last be crowned in the Church and kingdom of God; I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Franklin D. Richards, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 5, 1856.

My brethren and sisters in the Lord, I rejoice exceedingly in being permitted to go to the nations of the earth to engage in the discharge of duties laid upon me, and in getting back in safety to your midst. To see how you have increased in numbers, and how you have extended abroad, truly indicates that the work of the Lord is onward here, and it is onward too in the old countries, where the Gospel has been preached with success.

I cannot take the time now to rehearse the varied circumstances and incidents of my mission, for the main thing before us now is to help in the brethren who are on the Plains. The subject of immigration by handcarts is one that will do to talk about; I have learned that by experience in the little I have had to do with them; it will also do to pray about, and it does a great deal better to lay hold of and work at, and we find it to work admirably.

We have not had much preaching to do to the people in the old countries, to get them started out with handcarts. There were fifteen or twenty thousand waiting for the next year to roll around, that they may be brought out by the arrangements of the P. E. F. company. Those who had any objections to this mode of traveling we wanted to wait, and see if the experiment would work well.

The subject is popular in those countries, and the hardest part of my talking was to find the means to bring out the many that were urgently teasing me to let them come. When the first handcart company came in it was a soul stirring time; banners were flying, bands of music played, and the citizens turned out almost en masse to greet them. But they will yet come with handcarts by thousands, and when they get here, they will be most likely to enjoy “Mormonism.”

This time we have not been preaching them easy and smooth things, for we had heard of the hard times you have had in the valleys, and we have invited them to come and share with you; and we have given them to understand that in coming here they came to work out their salvation.

The Saints that are now on the Plains, about one thousand with handcarts, feel that it is late in the season, and they expect to get cold fingers and toes. But they have this faith and confidence towards God, that He will overrule the storms that may come in the season thereof and turn them away, that their path may be freed from suffering more than they can bear.

They have confidence to believe that this will be an open fall; and I tell you, brethren and sisters, that every time we got to talking about the handcarts in England, and on the way, we could not talk long without prophesying about them. On shipboard, at the points of outfit, and on the Plains, every time we spoke we felt to prophesy good concerning them. We started off the rear company from Florence about the first of September, and the Gentiles came around with their sympathy, and their nonsense, trying to decoy away the sisters, telling them that it was too late in the season, that the journey would be too much for their constitutions, and if they would wait until next year, themselves would be going to California, and would take them along more comfortably.

When we had a meeting at Florence, we called upon the Saints to express their faith to the people, and requested to know of them, even if they knew that they should be swallowed up in storms, whether they would stop or turn back. They voted, with loud acclamations, that they would go on. Such confidence and joyful performance of so arduous labors to accomplish their gathering will bring the choice blessings of God upon them.

I would like to say a word to the sisters here, for they have a tremendous influence sometimes. Let me say to some of those that came out in the earlier years of our settlement in these valleys, you thought the journey quite long enough, and that if it had been a week, a fortnight, or a month longer, you did not know how you could have endured it. Many of you came in wagons, bringing the comforts of life with you in abundance.

Sisters, think of those fatiguing times, and stir up your good men in behalf of those who are footing it, and pulling handcarts thirteen hundred miles, instead of riding one thousand as you did. The aged, the infirm and bowed down, and those who have been lame from their birth, are coming along upon their crutches; and they think it is a good job if they can walk the most of the way through the day, and avoid riding all they can.

Indeed persons of nearly all ages and conditions are coming. There are also delicate ladies, these who have been brought up tenderly from their youth, and used to going to school and teaching school, playing music, &c.; but when they received the Gospel they had to bid goodbye to fathers, and mothers, and were turned out of doors; that taught them the first principles of gathering up to Zion. And the idea that there was a place here that could be truly called home, inspired them to go along, to the astonishment of their friends, and kindred, and that of the Gentiles on the way.

When I think of the devilish doings of those abroad, I feel wroth in my soul to see what the Saints have to put up with. The wicked found, after trying their best, that they could not coax away even the most tender and delicate from their toil of drawing their handcarts, from fifteen to twenty miles a day. The Saints are happy to perform this labor, and make the welkin ring at night, when their day’s toil is over, with their songs of praise and rejoicings. I could but think of the way Israel walked in olden times, when the Lord rained down manna for bread, and they were not allowed to keep any till tomorrow, and in that wilderness required of them to build a gorgeous tabernacle and carry it on their shoulders.

I have thought that the gathering of the honest in heart in these latter times is much like that good old mode; and it must be good, because it is in the Bible. The Gentiles found that they could not turn away the good and the faithful, who are back in the hills pulling their handcarts.

Many of those now back are poor, and had not enough to get away from their homes with, and now they have scarcely a change of clothing. If they can have some slices sent out to them, and a few blankets to make them comfortable at night, and flour enough, with what beef they have along, to make them a good meal in the morning, they will make those handcarts work powerfully. But if they are tenderfooted through going shoeless, and when they lay down at night, if they lay cold, it will tend to retard their progress very much, however good their faith and resolution may be.

I realize in talking to you, and applying to you for help to aid those brethren and sisters, that it is as just and worthy a cause as can be espoused. I pray you, as you regard those on the Plains, as you wish them to come and share with you the words of life and the ordinances of the House of the Lord, and as you desire Zion to be strengthened, and righteousness to take the place of wickedness on the earth, to arise up and bring those Saints in, for it is late in the season, and ten to one they will have snowstorms to encounter; though the Lord will not let them suffer any more than they have grace to bear. It is our highest privilege to do all we can to ameliorate the sufferings of those brethren that are thus trying to work out their emigration.

President Young wrote to me a year ago, stating that if I got his letter I should have joy in carrying out his plans; I testify here that I never entered into any measures that filled up my soul with joy, faith, and energy so much as this plan for gathering of the honest poor. It was late when I began the work, but we could not get at it any sooner. We have wrought with our might, and brother Daniel Spencer has been a pillar of strength upon which the hopes of thousands have rested securely. I rejoice exceedingly with him in the excellent feelings that his own conscience and bosom inspires him with when he remembers his labors.

Brother Wheelock has been like an angel among the churches in the old countries and they have been strengthened in the work we are called to do. We did not stop to enquire whether the plan was a feasible one or not, that was none of our business; and when the word said handcarts, we understood it so.

Brothers Van Cott, Grant, Kimball, Webb, and others have labored with all their mights this season. I assure you it has been by some hard thinking, hard working, and doing the best we could unitedly that we have accomplished what we have. But our souls cannot be satisfied nor rest, until we feel assured that the brethren and sisters now on the Plains are brought forward, and made as comfortable as the circumstances of the case will admit of.

Before leaving England, on the 26th of July, I had the pleasure of welcoming brothers Pratt and Benson to that interesting and important field of labor. We had a joyful Conference at Birmingham, and a Council of the general authorities of the Church in those countries. Those brethren expressed themselves very satisfactorily and cheeringly, as to the condition in which they received the work at our hands; they spoke with great energy and power. The fire of the Lord was felt through that Conference, and will be felt in all the Conferences through the Pastors and Presidents who were with us, counseling on the condition of the work of the Lord in the European missions. The cause of truth is progressing there as well as here.

It gives me great joy, on returning, to see what an advancement there is in the increased outpouring of the Spirit of God upon this people. Those that stay here continually cannot so abundantly realize and appreciate this, as those can who go out into the world for a season and return again.

I feel thankful for the privilege of being with you to try to partake of that Spirit, and improve with you in the work of reformation. I realize every time I go out from you, that the works of darkness are more consolidated and powerful against the cause of God on the earth, hence the Saints need increasing strength and power. I feel joyful to come back here, and feel the spirit and influences that are here.

The brethren that abide here year after year, do not know the power that is in them by the workings of the Holy Ghost, and the exercise of the holy Priesthood; but when they get out in the field of battle, where they have to contend against the adversaries of truth, then they can realize the strength of the Lord upon them, they can realize that He is with them, and makes their labors successful.

It is, I believe, as comforting a thought as the human soul can enjoy, to realize the worth of home, while abroad in the world. When you were first called to receive the Gospel, many of you were at once alienated from your homes and nearest kindred, and have never found a place where you could feel at home, until you found it among the Saints. This is the only home for the righteous on the earth, and blessed is that Saint who can appreciate it, and enter into the righteousness and power of it, and enjoy its benefits in their true light and spirit.

I felt today that I could love to sit and drink in the Spirit’s gracious influences. I could feel, while on my way in from the Weber, that there was a spirit here watching over the people, such as is not to be found anywhere else on the face of the earth. It is nourishing and cherishing to the servants of God, and the whole Church in these mountains. How thankful we ought to be. The Lord has brought His Zion here to strengthen her; to admonish, reprove, build up, and prepare His Saints for the events that are coming. And I pray the Lord to give us hearing ears and understanding hearts, that we may always have ready hearts to do His will.

In ten years past, last July, I have been sent to England on three missions; and out of that ten years I have been absent from home something over seven. I have made a good many acquaintances and friends in the old countries; I have labored with joy in my field of labor, and God has blessed me. My heart has been made glad, and I have been enabled to bless others.

During the last two years, we have sent out eight thousand Saints; and nearly double that number have been added to the Church by baptism in that country. I fear that I have almost become a stranger in Israel; there are but few that I am acquainted with here, and it helps me to appreciate the privilege of getting home, and of seeing brother Brigham and Heber, and Jedediah, and the Saints in Zion.

The Elders that go out to labor in the world, are from time to time called upon to measure themselves, and they have labors and duties laid upon them that no man can perform, except in the name of his God. And it behooves every man and woman to strengthen themselves in the name of their God continually, to have their armor on, and keep it bright, as the President said to us last night; I do not intend to lay it off.

I thank God for the strength He has given me among the nations; I praise His name for these good brethren that were with me. I never labored with a company of brethren with more joy, satisfaction, and good cheer; I mean these brethren who went with me, Joseph A. Young, William H. Kimball, George D. Grant, and others. They have been like the deer on the mountains to carry the expresses of the Saints, and to render any and all kinds of help in hard times. They are men for whom the Lord has much regard; and though their words might not come forth in the same smooth shape as those of some men, yet they hit as hard when they were called upon to chastise the wicked; and they also comforted those that needed comfort.

They took hold with me, shoulder-to-shoulder. I do not wish to take much credit to myself, for what I have done has been accomplished in the name of the Lord; my brethren out of the Office and in the Office helping me to their utmost. I wonder and am astonished, when I think of what the Lord has brought His people through in the last days. What would have put another people under ground, they have surmounted by the influence and power of the Eternal.

Already we are a great people, there is hardly room for us, yet we are but as a drop of the bucket to the great work before us which has yet to be done; and the more there is accomplished the more we see there is to do, and doubtless it will keep on so, worlds without end.

I want to grow up with the Church: it fills my heart with praise, and melts me into contrition, when I think I am called upon to engage in such a work. I wish to employ all my energies and influence, everything I can control in its interests. I ask the Lord to lend me the blessings and comforts of this life for the time being, and to inspire me to use them to His glory, whether it be a family, or earthly substance.

It is one thing for a man to learn to live away from home, and to preach the Gospel and magnify his calling there, and it is another thing for a man to learn to live at home, and magnify his calling here. I want to obtain grace, that I may magnify my calling at home and away from home, and I desire the continuation of your confidence, love and faith, that I may live and wisely improve upon that which is not my own; that in the end I may receive the true riches.

Concerning the handcart companies this year, it is an experiment. We cannot yet tell you exactly what it costs to come through in that way; but we know that it is going to cost those on the other side of the mountains cold feet, and a great deal of affliction and sorrow, unless we help them. The word today is, mules, wagons, flour, shoes, and clothing. I entreat you, as you value yourselves, and the interests of this people, do to those brethren and sisters that are out on the Plains as you wish to be done by.

Many of you have been permitted to live at home to enjoy the comforts of life, and you have accumulated to yourselves wagons and teams, and now is a time for you to do good with them. I feel to thank the Lord my God; my heart is full of thanksgiving and praise to Him, for blessings bestowed upon me and upon His people, while I have been gone. When we were crossing the Plains, men, women, and children were destroyed, but the Lord has preserved us, and permitted us to arrive in time to attend Conference.

May He ever help us to appreciate His goodness unto us, and thereby we be led to do good unto others so long as we dwell on the earth, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by H. C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, October 5, 1856.

There is a little matter of business I wish to lay before this congregation this morning, and I do not know of anything that will test the people only to lay before them their duty, which gives them a chance to step forward and act therein.

We have not as yet any durable location; we are merely probationers in this present state, and we shall always be so, until we obtain a permanent exaltation, by following in the footsteps of our God. He is our Father and our God, and His Son Jesus Christ is our Savior, and the Holy Ghost is to be our comforter, and will comfort all those who will prepare their tabernacles as fit temples for him to dwell in.

When the Holy Ghost dwells in us it will enable us to discern between right and wrong, will show us things to come, and bring things to our remembrance, and will make every one of this people prophets and prophetesses of God.

We have acknowledged brother Brigham to be our leader, and he holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven here on the earth. Whether people believe it or not, he is God’s representative in the flesh, and is the mouthpiece of God unto us.

Brother Joseph Smith many a time said to brother Brigham and myself and to others, that he was a representative of God to us, to teach and direct us and reprove the wrongdoers. He has past behind the veil, but there never will a person in this dispensation enter into the celestial glory without his approbation.

Brother Brigham is brother Joseph’s rightful successor, and he has his Counselors, and together they are an earthly pattern of the divine order of government. Those men are God’s agents, His servants, and are witnesses of your covenants, which you will have to fulfil. And what you do not fulfil in this year you will have to do in the next; and what are not then fulfilled will have to be in some future time.

Some people think that, because they have passed through a great many troubles, have been to the nations to preach the Gospel, and have been robbed and plucked up several times, that will make an atonement for their sins. What you have passed through has nothing to do with atonement for sins. If you have sinned you have got to make an atonement for that sin, and the trials you have passed through in doing your duty are not the atonement. Trials are to test you, to prove whether you will do those things that are right. Some try to make out that their trials will answer as an atonement, but I tell you that they will not. If you commit sin there must be an atonement to satisfy the demands of justice, and then mercy claims you and saves you. But, as brother Grant has said, many of our old men think, because they were in the Church in the first beginning, that they can now lay upon their oars, that is, that they can sit down in the ship and not use the oars anymore. But God requires every man and woman to be faithful; and if they have sinned, they have got to make an atonement for that sin, and your trials do not make that atonement.

God says that we shall be tried in all things, even as was Abraham of old. He was called upon to offer up his son, and was found willing to offer him up, but, as the sin was not sufficient to require the shedding of his son’s blood, a lamb was provided, and its blood atoned for the sin that Abraham’s son was to be offered up for, and saved the son.

If you are ever saved, you have got to take a course to draw near to the throne of God; and how can you draw near to the throne of God, except you draw near to those men who are placed as His representatives in the flesh? The same principles, the same order, the same Priesthood, the same gifts, and the same powers are instituted, established and organized in our day as they were in the days of Jesus, and all the reason that people do not see it is because of their traditions; the veil of darkness is over their minds, and they cannot see it.

With all the instructions that are given to you by brother Brigham, brother Heber, and brother Jedediah, many of you will go home and find fault with them; and you will have your contentions and your animosities, when you should take a course to sustain their words, for you cannot sustain them without sustaining their words, nor can you serve God and slight their counsels. If you expect the favor of God, favor His servants and sustain them. This is plain doctrine, and you will find it so, and I am not ashamed to teach it to you.

When brother Brigham points out a course, it is for this people to rise up and go to and carry out His purposes with their might; and until that is done this kingdom never will prosper as it should, worlds without end.

Now I will come to the business, and tell you what is wanted. Our brethren and sisters are on the Plains with their handcarts, and there is snow on the ground, and many are barefooted, and destitute of comfortable clothing, and we want some men and teams to fix up this day, and be ready to start for them tomorrow. We want horse and mule teams, if they can be had; but if they cannot, we want ox teams.

We do not wish you to take out loads, though it will be well to put in a couple of hundred pounds or so of forage, grain, &c., to two span of mules or horses, or to two yoke of cattle, with a light wagon, and go speedily and take those people into your wagons and bring them here, doing as you would wish to be done by in the same circumstances.

Would not all of you, if you were out on the Plains, say that if you were the good people in the valleys you would go out and help them in? Would you not all feel so? But you are not there, and you do not fully realize their feelings.

Now manifest your faith by your works. You will not, probably, have to go any further than Fort Bridger before you meet some of them, and you can go and return in a week, or may be in two weeks, and may be in twenty days.

“O, dear,” says one, “I have not got up my winter’s wood.” Well, you will not get it up by staying here, but if you will help in those on the Plains and do all other things that you are required to do, God will give us a summer all winter; and if you do not do so, He will give us winter all summer.

Our God can change the seasons and drive away the storms, the tempest and the snows, to favor this people, if they will do right; and if you wish to be favored of God, favor us and this people; favor your brethren, and do as you are told.

Brother Dan Jones has been talking to you about the clay in the hands of the potter. If you get hold of a lump of clay that is snappish and willful, and not willing that you should twist it into any shape or form, what is the use of working it? You throw it back into the mill and let it be ground again, and then take it out and make of it a vessel unto honor.

Perhaps some do not really believe that when a man is thrown back into the mill, or goes into the spirit world, that he ever will be redeemed, but he will, if he has not sinned against the Holy Ghost. He will be ground and worked up until he becomes passive, and then God, through His servants, will redeem him, and make him a vessel unto honor.

A great many will go to hell, and the very men that are preaching to you now will visit you and offer you salvation, after you have laid there, perhaps, thousands of years, for you must stay in the mill until you are passive and obedient.

Jeremiah, at the command of God, went to the potter’s house where the potter was molding the clay, and when he went to turn it on the wheel it was refractory and rebellious; and he worked at it and sweat over it, but after all it was rebellious, and fell down on the wheel.

What did he do then? He cut it off from the wheel and threw it back into the mill, and after he had ground it awhile, he took it out and made of it a vessel unto honor; so of the same lump he made a vessel unto dishonor, and one unto honor.

Did the potter make it dishonorable? No, the vessel made itself unto dishonor; and the next time it was pliable and passive, and the potter made of it a vessel unto honor, because it was honorable and submissive.

I wished to make these few remarks, because they touch upon things that are on my mind all the time. And if you wish to be Saints, for God’s sake be Saints, and if you wish to be devils, be devils, and get out of this place; and let those that will be Saints, be Saints; and let them commune together and carry out the purpose of God.

I would rather have three hundred men and women that are perfectly amenable to the authorities of this Church, than a numerous people that are rebellious; and I could do more to bring about the purposes of God, and do it ten times quicker, with a few faithful persons, than with hosts of the wicked.

You know this, every one of you. I can accomplish more work with one man that is amenable to me, and will do as I tell him, than I can with twenty who are disobedient; so I can with one woman. I had rather have one woman that is humble, than twenty that are not; and she is more honor and glory, and happiness and heaven to a man, than twenty disobedient ones.

You that have but one wife know this pretty well but we who have scores, know it better; we are further advanced in the experience of this life.

Now, brethren, what do you say? This is the word of the Lord to us, that we rise up and gather up our teams and start forthwith, not with loads, except feed; take hay and deposit it in different places, so that you can have some when you come back, and bring in those brethren and sisters, and you will have a pleasant time, and God and His angels will go with you, and you will be prospered, upheld, and sustained.

That man that drops down his head under his wife’s arm, and says, “I guess they don’t see me;” and that wife that says, “O, my husband, I cannot spare you, I cannot sleep alone, for when night comes I shall get cold;” O, the poor little things.

I say that those who will take counsel and prepare themselves to go back on this mission shall be blest; and if a man has but one yoke of cattle, let him put that on with those of some other person.

I now want every man that will actually go and help, and not say he will go, and not go, to rise up.

[One hundred and fourteen teams were volunteered, and reported ready to start forthwith.]

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 5, 1856.

I wish the most strict attention of the entire congregation, for if there is walking and talking within and around this bowery, a great many will not be able to hear. And I request those who wish to talk and whisper, to remove so far that they will not disturb the congregation today, nor during the Conference, as the assembly, undoubtedly, will be very large.

If we could possibly build a bowery, or a tabernacle, that would bring the people so near to us that we would not have to speak so loud, we should certainly do it; but this we cannot do, for by the time that we could build a tabernacle for seating fifteen thousand persons nearer the speaker than are the outskirts of this congregation, the people would have so increased, that we should just be as far from our object as now.

I shall require the people to be perfectly still, while they are here and we are trying to speak to them. Let there be no talking, whispering, nor shuffling of feet. It would be beneficial for mothers who have small children here that will cry, to leave the bowery, if they cannot keep their children still. I make this suggestion, in consequence of what has passed.

I will say, in regard to the sisters who bring children here to make a noise, they have never yet sufficiently thought, nor sufficiently considered their own place in this world, nor the place of others, to know that there is any other person living on the earth but themselves; and they think, when they hear people talk, that it is a noise through a dark veil. I cannot say much for the education, based on good feeling, that such persons have. Were I to describe it in a plain way, I should say that they are people of no breeding, that they were never bred but came up; that is about as good a character as I can afford to give to any mother that will keep a squalling child in a meeting. I have never said to the congregation, look and see who they are, for you may distinguish by your ears, without looking, the mothers that have had good teaching and been brought up in a civilized society.

So it is with some men; and to the disgrace of some of our police, I will state that in Conference times, and when we have unusually large assemblies, they will converse right in the congregation, and just on the outside, disturbing the meeting. I would that we had a police that understood good breeding. If the police want to know how to manage to keep order, notwithstanding I have frequently told them, I will now tell them again. Instead of shouting “silence,” go and touch the unruly person.

Were I a policeman I would follow a practice of my father’s; it used to be a word and a blow, with him, but the blow came first. I should act upon that plan, when persons are holding caucus meetings in or about our congregations; and if they would not desist, I would rap them hard enough for them to take the hint without my speaking.

I make these remarks, because I wish the brethren who will speak to you today, the Elders who have lately returned, to be heard. Those who speak in large assemblies understand that they often have to raise their voices as though they were giving commands to a large army, but we expect our Elders will speak as they have been in the habit of doing. If they can raise their voices above the crying of children and the talking and whispering of the people, so that all can hear, it will be well; but this we cannot expect.

Tomorrow our semi-annual Conference commences, and I notice that many have come in from a distance. We shall have large congregations during the Conference, and we wish perfect order maintained.

I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak today and during the Conference, it is this, on the 5th day of October, 1856, many of our brethren and sisters are on the Plains with handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be—to get them here! I want the brethren who may speak to understand that their text is the people on the Plains, and the subject matter for this community is to send for them and bring them in before the winter sets in.

That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess, it is to save the people. We must bring them in from the Plains, and when we get them here, we will try to keep the same spirit that we have had, and teach them the way of life and salvation; tell them how they can be saved, and how they can save their friends. This is the salvation I am now seeking for, to save our bre– thren that would be apt to perish, or suffer extremely, if we do not send them assistance.

I shall call upon the Bishops this day, I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until next day, for sixty good mule teams and twelve or fifteen wagons. I do not want to send oxen, I want good horses and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have them; also twelve tons of flour and forty good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams. This is dividing my text into heads; first, forty good young men who know how to drive teams, to take charge of the teams that are now managed by men, women, and children who know nothing about driving them; second, sixty or sixty-five good spans of mules, or horses, with harness, whipple-trees, neck-yokes, stretchers, load chains, &c.; and, thirdly, twenty-four thousand pounds of flour, which we have on hand.

I will repeat the division; forty extra teamsters is number one; sixty spans of mules or horses is part of number two; twelve tons of flour, and wagons to take it, is number three; and, fourthly, I will allow the brethren to tell something about their missions, by way of exhortation to wind up with.

I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the Plains, and attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties, otherwise your faith will be in vain; the preaching you have heard will be in vain to you, and you will sink to hell, unless you attend to the things we tell you. Any man or woman can reason this out in their own minds, without trouble. The Gospel has been already preached to those brethren and sisters now on the Plains; they have believed and obeyed it, and are willing to do anything for salvation; they are doing all they can do, and the Lord has done all that is required of Him to do, and has given us power to bring them in from the Plains, and teach them the further things of the kingdom of God, and prepare them to enter into the celestial kingdom of their Father. First and foremost is to secure our own salvation and do right pertaining to ourselves, and then extend the hand of right to save others.

I have given you my text and the subject, and shall give way to the brethren, and request close attention, and that there be no noise; for I realize that men who go forth to preach are in the habit of speaking to small congregations, in small halls, where all can hear without much elevation of the voice. This cannot be done here, for we have to shout, and exercise our lungs to the utmost, to make so many people hear.

I am satisfied that the prayer by brother Spencer was not heard by one-third of the congregation this morning; a little moving of the feet, a little whispering, the noise occasioned by mothers trying to keep their children still, a little noise of this kind and a little of that, all tend to break the sound of the speaker’s voice, and the people cannot catch his words, and of course are not edified. May the Lord bless us all. Amen.

Remarks by President J. M. Grant, Delivered in the 17th Ward Schoolhouse, Great Salt Lake City, October 2, 1856.

You are not acquainted with the spirit that prevails with this work, neither with the fact that many of the people who come to this place think that the Presidency will save them, regardless of their own individual conduct.

We gather all kinds of people in this kingdom; some of them are as corrupt as men can be, and they are scattered all over the Territory, and I think you have a few of them in your Ward.

Elders while abroad in the vineyard feel to have the Holy Ghost, but many of them, when they get home, act like the devil. They will do well until they get their companies here in the Valley and turn them over to the Presidency of the Church; then they will say, “I will not have them in my charge anymore, let the consequences be what they may.” They will not render the Presidency any encouragement or assistance about their companies after they arrive here.

Now we have all kinds of people in this Church, and you have some of the different kinds. Some cannot pray night or day, nor ask a blessing, lest they should spend some time which they wish to use for something else. Some think the reason why we do not progress more rapidly is because we are continually adding new clay, but I would rather have new clay than to undertake to make a vessel of honor out of a good deal of our old clay, for much of it has stuck to the tempering vessel until it stinks.

If there is a place on the earth where we should be faithful, it is in this city; or if there is a place where we should watch our children, it is here. Go to all the quorums in this city, and you will find some of their Presidents and Officers as corrupt as the devil. We have men that can beat the Gentiles in any mean tricks they are a mind to start up, but those who intend to serve God should do right.

I want to see the Bishops of the Wards right, then I want to see the Teachers right; I want to see them all filled with the Holy Ghost, then they can do something. Did I ever cry peace and safety to this people, that they were ALL doing well, and that their warfare was over? No, I never did. When I know that sudden destruction awaits a people, if they do not awake to their situation, I cannot cry peace.

This people are asleep; and I will vouch that there are many of them who do not pray, or if they do, three such prayers “would freeze hell over,” as a Methodist minister once said. I want you to pray with the Holy Ghost upon you.

It is your duty to keep clean. I have given the Teachers a new set of questions to ask the people. I say to them, ask the people whether they keep clean. Do you wash your bodies once in each week, when circumstances will permit? Do you keep your dwellings, outhouses, and dooryards clean? The first work of the reformation with some, should be to clean away the filth about their pre– mises. How would some like to have President Young visit them and go through their buildings, examine their rooms, bedding, &c.?

Many houses stink so bad, that a clean man could not live in them, nor hardly breathe in them. Some men were raised in stink, and so were their fathers before them. I would not attempt to bless anybody in such places. You may inquire why I talk so. Can you talk in a better style about dirt, nastiness, and filth? If you can, I cannot, and at the same time make people feel enough upon the subject to put away their filth and be clean. If you want me to speak smoother, do better and keep cleaner. Were I to talk about God, heaven, angels, or anything good, I could talk in a more refined style, but I have to talk about things as they do exist among us.

Some people wish to have me shut my mouth, and to have President Young talk. But, thank God, they cannot shut my mouth until I get through, for I never had a gag in my mouth.

I now want to tell you of another fault there is among some of the people; they want to hear a new man preach and teach, and do not wish to hear the Bishop of their own Ward. I understand that tonight, while we have a meeting here, there must be a party got up in this same Ward. I would see them in Tophet before I would allow it.

There are many of the Seventies who are spiritually dead and damned, and so are many of the Elders. Many of the Presidents of Quorums are like pipe which needs to be burnt out, before it is fit to be used. It is the same with many of the High Priests and others. I pray God that this people may rise up and get the Holy Ghost, and wake up and live their religion, which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 28, 1856.

I think it is now proven to a certainty that men, women, and children can cross the Plains, from the settlements on the Missouri River to this place on foot, and draw handcarts, loaded with a good portion of the articles needed to sustain them on the way.

To me this is no more a matter of fact this morning, after seeing the companies that have crossed the Plains, than it was years ago. I have no different knowledge, feelings, or faith, upon this subject today than I have had from the beginning. It has been a matter of doubt with many of our Elders who have gone out to preach, and with many who have stayed at home, as to the propriety of starting a train upon the Plains for men, women, and children to walk.

Probably my faith has been based upon actual knowledge. There are a great many men who know but little about what they can do, and there are a great many women that never consider what they can perform; people do not fully reflect upon their own acts, upon their own ability, and therefore do not understand what they are capable of doing.

My reasoning has been like this: Take small children, those that are over five years of age, and if their steps were counted and measured, those that they take in the course of one day, you would find that they had taken enough to have traveled from twelve to twenty miles.

Count the steps that a woman takes when she is doing her work, let them be measured, and it will be found that in many instances she had taken steps enough to have traveled from fifteen to twenty miles a day; I will warrant this to be the case. The steps of women who spin would, in all probability, make from twenty to thirty miles a day.

So with men, they do not consider the steps they make when they are at their labor; they are all the time walking. Even our masons upon the walls are all the time stepping; they take a step almost at every breath.

Many people have believed that they could not walk much of a distance, if they had to walk right along in a road, but this is not so. Our carpenters, joiners, masons, tenders, road makers, tillers of the soil, and persons of almost all avocations in life, men, women, and children, are subject to continual travel. These things I have contemplated, and I have seen walking put into practice.

The longest journey on foot that ever I took at one time was in the year 1834, when a company of the brethren went up to Missouri, the next season after the Saints were driven out of Jackson County. Many in this congregation, and some on the stand, were in that company; brother Kimball and brother Woodruff were in it. We performed a journey of two thousand miles on foot; we star– ted on the 5th day of May, and accomplished that journey inside of three months, carrying our guns on our shoulders, doing our own cooking, &c. And instead of walking along without having to labor, much of the way we had to draw our baggage wagons through mud holes and over sections of bad road. Twenty or thirty men would take hold and draw a wagon up a hill, or through a mud hole; and it was seldom that I ever laid down to rest until eleven or twelve o’clock at night, and we always rose very early in the morning, I think the horn was blown at three o’clock to arouse us, to prepare breakfast, &c., and get an early start; and we averaged in the outward trip upwards of forty miles a day,

If we laid by a day, or half a day, we generally calculated to make the travel of the week average forty miles a day.

We spent considerable time in waiting upon the sick; and some days and nights the brethren who were able, were standing over the sick and dying, and burying the dead; we buried eighteen of the company. Notwithstanding all this, inside of three months we walked about two thousand miles.

I am not a good walker, though I have walked a great deal in the course of my life, but it is not natural to me to be a great walker. I have walked much during my missions to preach the Gospel; and we have many in this congregation who have walked from twenty to thirty miles on a Sabbath, after working hard all the week and then preached two or three times.

When I was in England I found that I was poor at walking, in comparison with the females there. Brother Edmund Ellsworth, who has led this first company of handcarts over the Plains, says that the females have stood the journey better than the males; taking the girls and the boys of equal age, the men and the women, and the females have best endured the travel.

In England I could walk comfortably with the men, but if the women undertook, they could easily outdo me in walking.

Our American women think it strange to advance such an idea as women’s walking. I will refer you to one individual that many of you know, and that is sister Turley, who now lives in San Bernardino; after working hard all the week, she and her husband frequently used to walk twenty or thirty miles on the Sabbath, and attend three meetings.

There are many in this congregation that used to walk and preach, and some of them did so on weekdays as well as on Sabbaths.

True, in those old countries people are not in the habit of taking journeys of hundreds of miles as the Americans do, but they walk through their towns and counties, throughout their circuits, and walk a great deal more and better than do the Americans.

The common people, the masses that work in the factories, do not own teams in the old countries, and if they wish to visit or go to a fair, they go on foot. If they should get any way of conveyance to places where the railroads have not yet reached, they hire a cart, or perhaps a wagon on springs, and six, eight, twelve, or twenty persons will get in and ride for a few miles; but that is only for the sake of the name of riding, and not particularly for the comfort of it, for they would, as a general thing, rather foot it than ride in many of their modes of conveyance.

To the American this seems strange; but you may go into Scotland and Wales, and then cross to the little island called Ireland, and then to France and the German States, and pass on to Italy, and you will find the generality of the people in the habit of performing their journeys on foot, not depending upon being conveyed in vehicles.

They are in the habit of working and walking, and their toils and labors are very excessive, and apparently without cessation. Go into the mountainous regions of some of these old countries, and you will see men, women, and children packing soil, like it would be to take it from the banks of Jordan and carry it halfway up the sides of these mountains, and, when they can get one, two, or three rods of level surface, making their gardens upon the rocks.

They will take cows up to such places, and pack up fodder, and there keep them, for they are not able to go down and feed and return again the same day.

They will walk on the brinks of precipices, clamber around the rocks, pack up the soil from the bottoms, and thus make a subsistence, raising a few potatoes and whatever vegetables they can, and there they live summer and winter; they are all the time toiling and laboring.

In many districts of England, it is the custom to put children into factories at five years of age, and there they remain so long as they live. Children from five years old and upwards, will go for miles to their labor early in the morning, winter and summer, and must be at the factory at factory time, and there they must stand upon their feet until they are dismissed for half an hour, or an hour, to eat their breakfast, or their dinner, and all the rest of the time they are upon their feet. They are used to labor, accustomed to being on their feet and walking.

We have not yet had a report from any of the brethren who have led the handcart companies, with regard to their traveling across the Plains, any more than to say they are here. I think brother Ellsworth says that seven persons died in his company, between here and Iowa City. How many died in the companies last year? How many will die in the companies who ride? Double that number, very likely. As for health, it is far healthier to walk than to ride, and better every way for the people. When they get up in the morning, instead of wearying the women with running through the long grass hunting the oxen, &c., they are there in camp, and if they wish to do any walking, they can take hold of their little handcarts and go on about their business. When they come to sandy hills, it is then no doubt hard. (Voice, they can then double teams.) Yes, they can easily double teams, for they are right on hand all the time.

The handcarts look rather broken up, but if they had been made of good seasoned timber, they would have come in as nice as when they started with them. True, the brethren and sisters that came in with handcarts have eaten up their provisions, and some have hired their clothing brought, and they had but little on their carts when they came in.

They also started with full loads, and I presume it was hard for them at first, but they became inured to it. And yesterday I heard many of them, and especially the women, observing to some of the sisters that came to see them, while they were questioning them about their journey across the Plains on foot, “that if we had the journey to perform again, and had our choice, we would go on foot rather than go with teams, and be plagued with oxen and wagons.” Why, I will answer one query, “We have not time to wait for oxen and wagons.”

The handcart companies that have come in, had a few strong teams with them, well able to travel, but the companies had to wait every day for these teams, and they hindered them exceedingly. If this is not so, let brother Ellsworth correct me; this is what I have heard some of them say.

They could have been here ten days ago, perhaps twelve, had it not been for waiting for the teams. If persons have a journey to perform and can get at railroad speed with handcarts, it is better than to drag along with ox teams.

This is the subject I have on my mind, and I presume the people feel as I do; it is an interesting subject, an interesting event in our history as a people. There is nothing that can be brought before the Latter-day Saints of deeper interest than to know how they can be gathered together, without so great an expense as has hitherto attended the gathering.

We know that our sorrows and our cares in this particular are measurably at an end if we can avoid buying teams and expensive outfits to bring the people here. We have now proved that they can come pretty much by themselves, working their way along and drawing their own provisions, and also their little ones, and the maimed, and old, and blind. If any way can be opened for the gathering together of the poor, it takes off a great burden and labor from the body of the people.

It is an interesting subject, and my feelings are precisely as they have been all the time. I have believed, and I believe today, that I can take my own family, my women and children, across those Plains, asking no odds of any team in the world, only what we make ourselves; and I believe I could beat any ox train at it. I have always believed it, I believe it today. I presume my family would feel, as others feel, that it is a hard task, a great trial; who can bear such great afflictions? To have to walk a thousand miles? Those who get into the Celestial Kingdom will count this a very light task in the end, and if they have to walk thousands of miles, they will feel themselves happy for the privilege, that they may know how to enjoy celestial glory.

I recollect that in my young days, before I made any profession of religion, when people were disposed to call me an infidel (though they did not know what infidelity was) because I did not believe in the sectarian religion, I could not see any utility in it, any further than a moral character was concerned, yet I believed the Bible. I felt in those days, after I had made a profession of religion, that if I could see the face of a Prophet, such as had lived on the earth in former times, a man that had revelations, to whom the heavens were opened, who knew God and His character, I would freely circumscribe the earth on my hands and knees; I thought that there was no hardship but what I would undergo, if I could see one person that knew what God is and where He is, what was His character, and what eternity was; and I presume that the people feel with regard to religion, to the doctrine of the Gospel, partially, if not altogether, as I did. They are very anxious to know the ways of life, they want to know the ways of God; they want to become acquainted with His character, to know who He is and what He is. They want to understand just as they are directed to understand in the New Testament, and said to be the words of the Savior, “this is eternal life, to know the only living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.” To know that God, and to know Jesus, the people who wish to do right are willing to undergo anything. Those that gather here, if they will do the best they know, will know God, and Jesus whom He has sent, and be as familiar with Him as they can be with any character whose face they see not; they can know His character and understand His ways.

I shall now give way, and call upon brother Ellsworth to address you; and if any of the other brethren who have been called upon to come to the stand, are in the congregation, they will please come forward, for it is of great interest to me, to learn something of the travels of our brethren and sisters.

A Discourse by President H. C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 28, 1856.

I feel very thankful to my Father and my God in regard to the two handcart companies that have just come in, led by brothers Ellsworth and McArthur.

I went out with brother Brigham to meet those companies, and when within a mile and a half of the foot of the Little Mountain we left the company that was with us, and drove on until we met Captain Ellsworth’s company. I did not shed any tears, though I could have done so, but they would have been tears of joy; my heart was so full that it was impossible for a tear to pass it; that is the way I felt. Why did I have those feelings? Was it because the company were on foot, dusty, and pulling handcarts? No, for I was aware that they had come into these valleys easier than most, if not all, other companies. Their task was light in comparison with that of the pioneers in 1847, for they had to build bridges, cross deep and wide rivers upon rafts, and make hundreds of miles of road, digging up and throwing out stones and cutting down trees and thick brush.

Brother Mills mentioned in his song, that crossing the Plains with handcarts was one of the greatest events that ever transpired in this Church. I will admit that it is an important event, successfully testing another method for gathering Israel, but its importance is small in comparison with the visitation of the angel of God to the Prophet Joseph, and with the reception of the sacred records from the hand of Moroni at the hill Cumorah.

How does it compare with the vision that Joseph and others had, when they went into a cave in the hill Cumorah, and saw more records than ten men could carry? There were books piled up on tables, book upon book. Those records this people will yet have, if they accept of the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts, and keep the commandments.

Again, how does it contrast with Joseph’s being sent forth with his brethren to search out a location in Jackson County, where the New Jerusalem will be built, where our Father and our God planted the first garden on this earth, and where the New Jerusalem will come to when it comes down from heaven?

I mention these few things by way of contrast with the handcart operation; they are events that I have heard Joseph speak of, time and time again.

There will not one soul of you go to build up that holy city in Jackson County until you learn to keep the commandments of God, and listen to the counsel of brother Brigham and his counselors, of the Twelve Apostles, of the Bishops, and of every officer in the Church of God; until you are willing to keep what we call the celestial law.

What is the celestial law? A great many of you think that you have not come to it, but the fundamental principles of “Mormonism,” faith in Jesus Christ, repentance for sins, and baptism for their remission, which is the door into the kingdom of God, are the first letters of the alphabet of the celestial law; and if you turn away from those principles, you turn away from everything that your salvation depends upon.

There is a reformation proposed; it has already commenced in the north, and the people there are repenting, that is, they say they repent; and many have gone forward and been baptized for the remission of their sins.

But, brethren and sisters, you may go forward and be baptized, and say you repent, and receive the laying on of hands, and if you do not repent and lay aside your wickedness, you will go to hell. I tell you that there is nothing that will turn away the wrath of God, and the chastenings that are to come on this people, if they do not repent indeed; now mark my words.

There has been too much said here, by brother Brigham and his brethren, to fall to the ground unnoticed, and you must observe every word of it.

I am very thankful that so many of the brethren have come in with handcarts; my soul rejoiced, my heart was filled and grew as big as a two-bushel basket. Two companies have come through safe and sound. Is this the end of it? No; there will be millions on millions that will come much in the same way, only they will not have handcarts, for they will take their bundles under their arms, and their children on their backs, and under their arms, and flee; and Zion’s people will have to send out relief to them, for they will come when the judgments come on the nations. And you will find that judgments will be more sore upon this people, if they do not repent and lay aside their pride and their animosities, their quarrelling and contentions, their disputations among themselves.

Those that have come in with the handcarts may wonder how this can be, for doubtless many of them thought that they were coming to where it was all peace and harmony, and so remain forever. So it would, were it not for the wicked ones that come here. You who come with the handcarts have brought nobody here but yourselves, and probably, as brother Ellsworth said, there are as good people among his company as ever were on the earth, according to their knowledge; and then he said there were some of the worst. I do not doubt it, for he never stopped to select them, but he brought all that happened to be in the net, and there were several kinds, I suppose.

Any man or woman that has got the Spirit of the Lord, may know that God is with those missionaries who have come in with these companies, and they have made a character for themselves that will live forever, and they will live forever; and God bless them forever, and they shall be blessed forever. And when brother Brigham, and Heber, and Jedediah, and the Twelve Apostles go through the straight gate into the kingdom, they shall go with us.

Your face looks good to me, brother McArthur; I sat beside you today, and it warmed my heart clear through. I have known him from his boyhood, and so I have the others. And Joseph A. Young, and William H. Kimball, they know nothing but “Mormonism;” they were born in it. They could not fully discern the difference until they went on a mission to the lower world, where they were under the necessity of depending upon their God, and now they know that God lives, that “Mormonism” is true, that Brigham Young is a Prophet of God, and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet.

No man or woman can have the spirit of Prophecy, and at the same time do evil and speak against their brethren; and you will find that man or that woman barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of God, and filled with disputations.

When you hear false statements from disaffected characters, do not circulate them; do not send them back to England, France, &c., to prevent those from coming here that otherwise would come. The Saints will gather, and handcart companies will become common; there will be more of them than there will be of ox or mule trains.

If brother Brigham should say to me, next spring, go back and bring up a handcart company, I am ready to do so. I can do it with less fatigue than the labor I perform every day of my life. Will twenty or twenty-five miles daily travel excuse me? No. I am never still, never idle, and I never expect to be, in heaven nor on earth.

I have often told you that all my lazy hairs were gone; and I have often told the young Elders, to encourage them, that the first mission I took, after I was ordained one of the Twelve, was through New England and into Nova Scotia, 1,500 miles travel on foot with my valise on my back. Soon after I started I found that I was rather unlearned, though I knew that before, but I knew it better after I started.

I began to study the Scriptures, as brother McArthur did, and I had so little knowledge that the exercise of study began to swell my head and open my pores insomuch that the hairs dropped out; and if you will let your minds expand as mine did you will have no hair on your heads. I expected to lose all my hair, and my head too; but I am alive and in the house of Israel; and I expect to live to see this people prosper, the house of Israel gathered, and scattered Israel connected with this people; and we will bring about the purposes of God. My body may fail, but my spirit will never die, nor will the spirit of any good “Mormon.” Let us “live our religion.”

I presume there were as many devils after those handcart companies as ever followed any company of Saints that ever left the States, and their object was to defeat them in this attempt, but they have not been permitted to do it.

The Elders that go forth and preach the Gospel will have to lead the handcart companies over the Plains, and learn to go on foot. Am I not glad? Yes, I rejoice exceedingly. I have prayed for those companies night and day, and I never was more pleased to see any persons than I was to see those brethren and sisters, and the Elders that have brought them here. I baptized several of them eighteen years ago in Chatburn and Downham, England, and I thank God that they have come here. It proves that they were good Saints, to stand so long in that wicked country, and sustain “Mormonism” eighteen or nineteen years.

In Tithebarn I stood upon a barrel and preached, and a woman came and took hold of my coat; I said, “What is wanted, lady?” “I want to be baptized.” I jumped from the barrel and baptized twenty-five persons, some of whom are here. That was nineteen years ago, when “Mormonism” was introduced into that nation; I went over about the time when the Church was broken up in Kirtland, and when there were not twenty persons on the earth that would declare that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God.

When we returned from England, we could report from two thousand to twenty-five hundred Saints added to the Church, after being away about eleven months. When we got back the Church was all driven from Ohio, and we went to Missouri. I arrived there in time to be sick three weeks; and then the mob prevailed and we were driven out.

And as fast as we could get well and get out of a place, I was taken sick and driven again. That is the way I have been kept going, and I expect to be kept going in that way, if this people do not do right and keep the commandments of God.

“Live your religion,” keep the commandments of God, listen to the servants of God, and you will stand forever, and the world cannot trouble you.

Last Sabbath I referred to the conduct of the ancient inhabitants of this continent, and the dealings of the Lord with them; and it is the only way in which those who profess to be the people of God are kept humble. When they prospered in riches they were lifted up, and God sent famine and pestilence among them, and sickness and death, until He pretty much destroyed the nation, until they humbled themselves; and I wish to apply that experience to this people, and they will feel it if they do not repent.

Your ears may hear my words, but do my words enter your hearts? Will you repent sincerely before God? If you will, we never will be afflicted, no, never. I do not know of any way for this people to appreciate their blessings, only by affliction and by being brought into sorrow. And if you do not repent, the little we saw night before last, when the handcart train came in, will be no comparison to the straitened circumstances you will be brought into; and people will look upon us and weep to see the suffering and affliction that we will be brought into.

Many of this people have broken their covenants by speaking evil of one another, by speaking against the servants of God, and by finding fault with the plurality of wives and trying to sink it out of existence. But you cannot do that, for God will cut you off and raise up another people that will carry out His purposes in righteousness, unless you walk up to the line of your duty. On the one hand there is glory and exaltation; and on the other no tongue can express the suffering and affliction this people will pass through, if they do not repent.

Brother Brigham is placed here, and he has chosen men to stand by him, holding the keys of life and salvation to this people; and we shall bear off the kingdom, even though there be but few that will stick to us. They cannot be shaken, for God says everything that can be shaken shall be shaken, and that which cannot be shaken shall remain.

Scores will shake, and the earth will be caused to shake, and the thunders will roll and the lightnings flash, and the desolation of famine and pestilence awaits the world and its inhabitants.

How many times I have told you to take care of your grain and not waste it, for before another harvest many of you will see such times as you did the past season. Some do not believe this, but a great many do, and they are laying up their grain. Much wheat has already been sold here, by those who were begging last year, for a dollar a bushel, and from that to a dollar and a quarter, and a dollar and a half. I had grain enough, last spring, to have sustained my family and lasted me another year, though it takes over a thousand bushels to feed my family one year; but I have fed it all out, and now I have not over two hundred bushels, and I shall have to buy eight hundred more to feed my family till another harvest.

I am going to live my religion; and if need be I will sell my furniture, my beds and bedding, and everything I have, for grain. I look for hard times, and this year is not going to end them.

There are from eight to ten thousand people coming here this year, and scarcely a man in all the valleys of the mountains has any old wheat; nearly all had to commence consuming the present crops; just look at it, and reflect.

I have not stopped rationing my family to half a pound a day, and do not mean to this year: though I would have added a little more to it if they had needed it, but they do not. Many are wasting their grain, and feeding it to their horses and cattle; and others are lavish with it. Do not lay out your means, your wheat, and your substance, for that which profiteth nothing, for ribbons, gewgaws, jewelry, artificials.

For God’s sake cease this course; for your own sake, for my sake, and for Christ’s sake, let us go to work and make our own shoes from our own leather, and make and produce all we need, and use it wisely.

If I would suffer it, I should have to lay out $500 yearly for morocco shoes and bootees at from three to five dollars a pair, for the women could not wash without putting on a pair of fine shoes. How many times have I told you these things? And brother Brigham has told you. They are on my mind all the time, and I cannot get them off, but I must keep telling you until my mission is complete; I cannot help it. I foresee the consequences of an unwise course, as plainly as I see your faces today.

Let the men who are on the Public Works, if they get a pound of breadstuff a day, lay up one-third of it; I tell the men who are laboring for me to lay up their flour for a rainy day. Why? Because when I get my grainery full, I do not want to deal it out to you; for harder times are coming by and by, and there is going to be an awful famine. And if we do right, we shall take a course to lay up our surplus grain, and labor to cultivate the earth six years, and let it rest during the seventh. Brother Brigham taught us that when we first came into these valleys, and brother Woodruff has his prediction written, and by and by it will come out in the History.

I want you to repent and lay up wheat, corn, and everything else you save. I have handed out bread to some of the most industrious and saving people, until I have handed out every ounce, and had to borrow for six weeks. Why did I do it? That I might answer a good conscience before God and man, and not come under condemnation. Will I do it another year? If I do, you shall pay for it. Why? Because it will not answer for us to be dilatory and neglect our duties, when the servants of God are teaching us from Sabbath to Sabbath, and from day to day.

I hope that the Bishops will step forth and get places for those who have just come in; and I hope that the people will employ them, and not let them lay in their tents, for if they stay there idle they will become sick; but if you set them to work they will not be sick.

I will not tell you to do a thing that I will not do myself. I have spoken to a man that brother Ellsworth gave me an introduction to, and to his wife and child, and to his wife’s mother, who is seventy-six years of age, and I am going to provide them a home and set them to work. I told the man that he need not make any calculation on receiving wages, for if I took care of them all, I thought I should have plenty to do to feed them and make them comfortable through the winter; for the winter is at hand, and it probably will be a hard one. I will use them as well as I was used when I was in England. I spent seven months in London, and established a Church there, brother Woodruff was with me, and did not do it with their purse and scrip. That is now a great Conference; it is the greatest Conference in the world, except this. Listen to what you hear, and tell your neighbors of it; and when it comes spring, do not have it to say that you are without bread. When you get your full rations, save one-third of them. I feel for this people; my heart is good towards them; I feel kind and generous, and I do all that I can to do them good. But I cannot do everything, and set everybody to work. Every one of you extend the hand of kindness and benevolence to those that have come with the handcarts. They have shown their faith by their works, and it made the tears come out of your eyes to see them, and God bless them forever and ever; and I pray that not one of them may ever deny the faith. And I bless every one of you, and everything that is within the pale of the kingdom of God; and I curse everything that seeks to pull this people down and destroy them; I say, may the curse of God descend upon them, that they may go down and become powerless; and those that speak well of, and administer to Zion, they shall be blessed forever, and no enemy shall prevail against them from this time, henceforth and forever, and all who are in favor of this say amen. [All the congregation said amen.]

Remarks by President J. M. Grant, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 21, 1856.

I feel that the remarks which we have heard this morning are true, and they apply directly to you who are now present, and to the inhabitants of this city and of the Territory generally, and we do not excuse any of you.

If the arrows of the Almighty ought to be thrown at you we want to do it, and to make you feel and realize that we mean you. And although we talk of the old clay’s being ground in the mill, we do not mean it to apply to some other place, for we have enough here who have been dried ever since their baptism, and many of them are cracked and spoiling.

Some have received the Priesthood and a knowledge of the things of God, and still they dishonor the cause of truth, commit adultery, and every other abomination beneath the heavens, and then meet you here or in the street, and deny it.

These are the abominable characters that we have in our midst, and they will seek unto wizards that peep, and to stargazers and soothsayers, because they have no faith in the holy Priesthood, and then when they meet us, they want to be called Saints.

The same characters will get drunk and wallow in the mire and filth, and yet they call themselves Saints, and seem to glory in their conduct, and they pride themselves in their greatness and in their abominations.

They are the old hardened sinners, and are almost—if not altogether—past improvement, and are full of hell, and my prayer is that God’s indignation may rest upon them, and that He will curse them from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet.

I say, that there are men and women that I would advise to go to the President immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to their case; and then let a place be selected, and let that committee shed their blood.

We have those amongst us that are full of all manner of abominations, those who need to have their blood shed, for water will not do, their sins are of too deep a dye.

You may think that I am not teaching you Bible doctrine, but what says the apostle Paul? I would ask how many covenant breakers there are in this city and in this kingdom. I believe that there are a great many; and if they are covenant breakers we need a place designated, where we can shed their blood.

Talk about old clay; I would rather have clay from a new bank than some that we have had clogging the wheels for the last nineteen years. They are a perfect nuisance, and I want them cut off, and the sooner it is done the better.

We have men who are incessantly finding fault, who get up a little party spirit, and criticize the conduct of men of God. They will find fault with this, that, and the other, and nothing is right for them, because they are full of all kinds of filth and wickedness.

And we have women here who like anything but the celestial law of God; and if they could break asunder the cable of the Church of Christ, there is scarcely a mother in Israel but would do it this day. And they talk it to their husbands, to their daughters, and to their neighbors, and say they have not seen a week’s happiness since they became acquainted with that law, or since their husbands took a second wife. They want to break up the Church of God, and to break it from their husbands and from their family connections.

Then, again, there are men that are used as tools by their wives, and they are just a little better in appearance and in their habits than a little black boy. They live in filth and nastiness, they eat it and drink it, and they are filthy all over.

We have Elders and High Priests that are precisely in this predicament, and yet they are wishing for more of the Holy Ghost, they wish to have it in larger doses. They want more revelation, but I tell you that you now have more than you live up to, more than you practice and make use of.

If I hurt your feelings let them be hurt. And if any of you ask, do I mean you? I answer, yes. If any woman asks, do I mean her? I answer, yes. And I want you to understand that I am throwing the arrows of God Almighty among Israel; I do not excuse any.

I am speaking to you in the name of Israel’s God, and you need to be baptized and washed clean from your sins, from your backslidings, from your apostasies, from your filthiness, from your lying, from your swearing, from your lusts, and from everything that is evil before the God of Israel.

We have been trying long enough with this people, and I go in for letting the sword of the Almighty be unsheathed, not only in word, but in deed.

I go in for letting the wrath of the Almighty burn up the dross and the filth; and if the people will not glorify the Lord by sanctifying themselves, let the wrath of the Almighty God burn against them, and the wrath of Joseph and of Brigham, and of Heber, and of high heaven.

There is nothing to prevent you from being humble and doing right, but your own little, foolish, and wicked acts and doings. I will just tell you that if an angel of God were to pass Great Salt Lake City, while you are in your present state, he would not consider you worthy of his company.

You have got to cleanse yourselves from corruption, before you are fit for the society of those beings. You may hear of people in other cities being baptized and renewing their covenants, but they are not sinners above all others; and except the inhabitants of Great Salt Lake City repent, and do their first works, they shall all likewise perish, and the wrath of God will be upon them and round about them.

You can scarcely find a place in this city that is not full of filth and abominations; and if you would search them out, they would easily be weighed in the balances, and you would then find that they do not serve their God, and purify their bodies.

But the course they are taking leads them to corrupt themselves, the soil, the waters, and the mountains, and they defile everything around them.

Brethren and sisters, we want you to repent and forsake your sins. And you who have committed sins that cannot be forgiven through baptism, let your blood be shed, and let the smoke ascend, that the incense thereof may come up before God as an atonement for your sins, and that the sinners in Zion may be afraid.

These are my feelings, and may God fulfil them. And my wishes are that He will grant the desires of my brethren, that Zion may be purified, and the wicked purged out of her, until God shall say I will bless the rest; until He shall say I will bless your flocks, your herds, your little ones, your houses, your lands, and all that you possess; and you shall be my people, and I will come and take up my abode with you, and I will bless all those that do right; which may He grant, in the name of Jesus. Amen.