Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 26, 1857.

I will read a portion of the writings of the prophet Daniel, commencing at the 27th verse of the 2nd chapter of the book of Daniel. [The speaker read the verses alluded to, from verse 27 to verse 49 inclusive.]

These verses are of themselves a text and texts, a sermon and sermons.

We have a great deal of talking, preaching, exhorting, counseling, giving advice, &c., from this stand and in many other places where the Saints assemble; but perhaps it may be the case with many, as it is somewhat with me, that they in a measure neglect to read the Bible, and forget many things which are written therein. Perhaps there are many who have not read much in the Bible since they came into this Church, not having had much time to do so.

I was a Bible reader before I came into this Church; and, so far as the letter of the book was concerned, I understood it. I professed to be a believer in the Bible so far as I knew how; but as for understanding by the Spirit of the Lord, I never did until I became a Latter-day Saint. I had many a time read Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, but it was always a dark subject to me. I was well acquainted with many of the priests of the day, and I would frequently think to myself that I would get some knowledge from them. And as I became acquainted with smart, intelligent, literary priests and professors of religion, I thought, Now I can obtain some intelligence from this or from that man; and I would begin to ask questions on certain texts of Scripture; but they would always leave me as they found me, in the dark. They were there themselves; and I knew of a surety, before I heard the Gospel, that the priests were blind guides leading the blind, and that there was nothing left for them only to stumble here and there, and perhaps fall into a ditch. That much knowledge I had previous to my becoming acquainted with what is called “Mormonism.”

It would be very profitable to the inhabitants of the earth to learn one fact, which a very few in the world have learned, that they are ignorant—that they have not the wisdom, the knowledge, and the intelligence outside the circle of what is called the wisdom of man. For persons to know and understand their own talent, their own strength, their own ability, their own influence, would be very profitable to the inhabitants of the earth, though but very few learn it.

I do not know that I feel particularly thankful that I learned what I did with regard to the lack of intelligence and knowledge professed by Christians to be in their possession; but I have been thankful that my lot and fortune were such that my God gave me good, sound sense. I am thankful for that. When the Gospel came to me, surely within me and all around me I could see very plainly what the Apostle meant in the words, “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”

I could see clearly where the inhabitants of the earth were, in their position before their God. The whole world—everything upon this globe—was veiled in darkness. There was a mist, a fog, a veil, or covering over the minds of the whole of the people on this earth; and what they understood was nothing more than a faint glimmering of light that would dazzle before their eyes for a minute, and they would see it no more. They were like a ship befogged on the ocean and depending for guidance upon a lighthouse whose glimmering rays could only be discerned at long intervals, when the ship could again be put upon a safe course. But the wind has shifted; and, without light or compass, they do not know whether it is blowing east, west, north, or south; and then how could they tell whether they were directing their course aright? The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me, I saw that all the so-called Christian world was groveling in darkness.

We profess to have the light, intelligence, and knowledge with which to understand the things of God. The dream of King Nebuchadnezzar and its interpretation by Daniel are as plain to the man and woman filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, as are the most common lessons to the school children: they most clearly understand the interpretation. Daniel saw that in the latter days the God of heaven was going to set up his kingdom upon this his earth. He has set that kingdom up, as you who are here this day are witnesses.

What brought you from the States and other regions to these mountains? What caused the men and women before me to leave their good farms, their good houses, their merchandise, and all the luxuries and comforts of life so dear to the natural man? What caused many women to leave their husbands, their children, their parents? What caused all this? What is the reason of such conduct? Can any man tell? The world are trying to; but they are even more ignorant about it than they are of the present movements and designs of the President of the United States. They know not the reason why the people are assembled here; for they cannot and will not see and understand anything only as they discern it by the powers of the natural man.

I have told them many times, and I can now tell them again, if the whole world could hear my voice, they are to be pitied; and I pray for them. We have traversed the earth to preach the Gospel to them. We have often started upon our missions almost destitute, without hats, nearly without shoes and any of the comforts of life, to travel thousands and thousands of miles to preach the Gospel to the people. If they will not be benefited, our skirts are clear of their blood, and they must bear the blame.

Can they tell the cause of this people’s being here today? Can they give the cause for the influence I have over the Latter-day Saints? They cannot. If this was not the kingdom of God upon the earth, do you suppose that the world would be arrayed against it? No. There is not a sound, well-informed mind in the world but what would decide at once that there is no cause of enmity against this people, and that all hostility towards us arises from the fact that we have the eternal Priest– hood and the influence thereof. The kingdom of heaven is here, and we are in it, and they are angry at us solely for that.

There is not a king, governor, or ruler, but what desires, and is endeavoring to obtain the influence that I and my brethren possess and are lawfully striving to obtain. Do you suppose that there was ever a President of the United States but what desired the confidence of his constituents? No, never. Was there ever a senator, a representative, a governor of a state, a politician, or a priest, but what desired the same power in his sphere that I have in mine? They cannot get it, because they do not know how. What is the reason? They have not got the kingdom of God, which binds the people together. They are ignorant of it, though we have traveled, barefooted and almost naked, to preach it to them; and I say that they are to be pitied.

How many times I have gone to preach to them, and, with all the kindness and calmness I was capable of, told them that I had something to cheer and comfort them, if they would hear it with good honest hearts. How often I have asked, “Can I have your meetinghouse or your schoolhouse to preach in? Can I have the privilege of preaching to the people?” “No, you cannot, if I can prevent it.” That is the spirit of the priests.

It is the priests and elders of Christendom who have the power of hell in them which causes the trouble that you see, and that you have seen and borne for many years. They are like that unruly member, the tongue, which sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell.

The priests have this fire, and who fans the flame? Brother Smoot has told you who blows the bellows. It is the politician, the drunkard, and the filth and offscouring of the earth, who run at the beck and call of those who have a dollar or sixpence for them—of those who will treat them and give them an oyster supper and a good lodging.

There is another class, the speculators, who endeavor to get up some plan or other by which to make money. Brother Smoot has given you a few items concerning their present movements in the east. Through their whining, bickering, howling, groveling, squalling, and scratching, and in a political and speculative point of view, many are striving to most egregiously befool our Government and squander its revenue. And the priests are also at the bottom of this movement; for they have the power that is of hell, and others blow the flame and furnish the fuel to persecute the Latter-day Saints, because they are in the kingdom that the God of heaven has set up in the last days, and that shall never be destroyed.

It is a little more than twenty-seven years since I commenced reading the Book of Mormon and defending the cause we are engaged in. My mind was open to conviction, and I knew that the Christian world had not the religion that Jesus and his Apostles taught. I knew that there was not a Bible Christian on the earth within my knowledge. A few years previous to that time Joseph had obtained the plates and began translating the Book of Mormon; and from the time he found those plates in the hill Cumorah, there has been just that tirade of abuse, lying, slandering, defaming the name and character of the Prophet and his associates, that there is at this day. It is no hotter a time now than it was then; there is no more persecution now than there was then.

God has commenced to set up his kingdom on the earth, and all hell and its devils are moving against it. Hell is yawning and sending forth its devils and their imps. What for? To destroy the kingdom of God from the earth. But they cannot do it.

The God of heaven showed Nebuchadnezzar that this kingdom would never be destroyed; and that is my testimony. This is the kingdom of heaven—the kingdom of God which Daniel saw—the kingdom that was revealed to King Nebuchadnezzar and interpreted to him by the Prophet Daniel. This is the kingdom that was to be set up in the last days. It is like a stone taken from the mountain without hands, with all its roughness, with all its disfigured appearance—uncomely—even a stumblingblock and a stone of offense to the nations of the earth. This is the kingdom that is set up; and the history of the kingdoms of this world all understand, or can read and understand it.

Some may cry out, “Your saying that this is the kingdom of God, does that make it so?” No, not by any means. “Your testimony,” Mr. Young, “is, that this is the kingdom of God on the earth—that which was shown to Daniel the Prophet centuries ago.” Yes, that is my testimony. “Does this make it so?” No it does not; but let me tell you that it is true; consequently, I bear my testimony of its truth, though my testimony does not alter that truth in the least, one way or the other; neither does any other man’s. That is my testimony, and has been all the time.

Why I testify of these things is because they are revealed to me, and not to another for me. They were not revealed to Joseph Smith for me. He had the keys to get visions and revelations, dreams and manifestations, and the Holy Ghost for the people. Those keys were committed to him; and through that administration, blessed be the name of God, I have received the spirit of Christ Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy. Our testimony does not make this true, and the testimony of our enemies that it is not the kingdom of God does not make that true or false. The fact stands upon its own basis, and will continue so to stand, without any of the efforts of the children of men.

I have told you the cause of all the bustle and stir against us. The blind are leading the blind; and if their hearts were honest—if they would throw off the mask of prejudice and erroneous parental education, they could receive the truth as well as you and I. Once in a while one says goodbye to the traditions of the fathers. A few will cast off those prejudices that surround the people, and say, “We will read, pray, think, and meditate, and we will ask God for ourselves.” That is the reason why you and I are here today. We asked God for a testimony, and he witnesses to us from the heavens that this is the kingdom which Daniel saw, and we have embraced it, and it is dearer than everything else upon the face of this earth.

Do we expect that the devils will howl? Yes. When has this Church had the peace that we have had since we have been in the mountains? Never. Where is there peace now upon the face of the earth like the peace we enjoy here? Nowhere. Brother Smoot said that he had been in the lower regions. He could say that with propriety; for, in fact, we are all in the lower regions. Where do you think the devils live?

Do you suppose that there is any such thing as a devil? Yes, a great many believe that there is. Where does he live? The answer comes very readily. He lives in hell, of course. Then, if there are devils here, we must also be in hell. Do you not think that the devil is in pain? I should think he was, by the groanings that are uttered from the east. You see that with propriety brother Smoot could say that he has been to the lower regions; but when he arrives here, although the altitude is much greater, he still is in the same world. We are all here, and we are surrounded by the devils.

Men rage and boil with wrath and indignation, and they do not know the cause of it. If they think, “What injury have the ‘Mormons’ done to me?” the response from their own minds will be, “Not any.” What can the men truthfully say, who have civilly passed through here to the west to make their fortunes? That here is a place of peace and contentment; and, though a thousand miles from civilization and from all the luxuries and many of the comforts of life, yet here is a people satisfied, contented, and happy. Did they injure you? “No.” Did they treat you kindly? “Yes.” Ask the people in the east what is the matter? “We cannot tell you—only somebody has said something.” What have they said? “We do not know; we only heard a rumor—that is all.”

The people abroad are just as foolish, unwise, and shortsighted as they can possibly be represented by the best learned men in the world. What are they doing? What they have done all the time. Have they been trying to destroy “Mormonism?” Yes. Did they destroy it when they took the life of Joseph? No. “Mormonism” is here, the priesthood is here, the keys of the kingdom are here on the earth; and when Joseph went, they did not go. And if the wicked should succeed in taking my life, the keys of the kingdom will remain with the Church. But my faith is that they will not succeed in taking my life just yet. They have not as good a man to deal with as they had when they had Joseph Smith. I do not profess to be very good. I will try to take care of number one, and if it is wicked for me to try to preserve myself, I shall persist in it; for I am intending to take care of myself.

When they killed Joseph, they were talking about killing a great many others. Would you believe that the apostates say that I was the instigator of the death of Joseph and Hyrum? And William Smith has asserted that I was the cause of the death of his brother Samuel, when brother Woodruff, who is here today, knows that we were waiting at the depot in Boston to take passage east at the very time when Joseph and Hyrum were killed. Brother Taylor was nearly killed at the time, and Doctor Richards had his whiskers nearly singed off by the blaze from the guns. In a few weeks after, Samuel Smith died, and I am blamed as the cause of his death. We did not hear of the death of Joseph until some three or four weeks after he was basely martyred.

What is now the news circulated throughout the United States? That Captain Gunnison was killed by Brigham Young, and that Babbitt was killed on the Plains by Brigham Young and his Danite band. What more? That Brigham Young has killed all the men who have died between the Missouri River and California. I do not say that President Buchanan has any such idea, or the officers of the troops who are reported to be on their way here; but such are the newspaper stories. Such reports are in the bellows, and editors and politicians are blowing them out.

According to their version, I am guilty of the death of every man, woman, and child that has died between the Missouri River and the California gold mines; and they are coming here to chastise me. The idea makes me laugh; and when do you think they will get a chance? Catching is always before hanging. They understand, you know, that I had gone north and intended to leave this place with such as would follow me; and they are coming to declare a jubilee. It is their desire to say to the people, “You are free; you are not under the bondage of Brigham Young; you need wear his yoke no longer; now let us get drunk, fight, play at cards, and race horses; and every one of you women turn to be whores and become associated with the civilization of Christendom.” That is the freedom they are endeavoring to declare here.

I will make this proposition to Uncle Sam. I will furnish carriages, horses, the best of drivers, and the best food I have, to transport to the States every man, woman, and child that wishes to leave this place, if he will send on at his own expense all those who want to come to Utah; and we will gain a thousand to their one, as all who understand the matter very well know. It would have been much better to have loaded the wagons reported to be on the way here, with men, women, and children, than with provisions to sustain soldiers; for they will never get here without we help them; neither do I think that it is the design of President Buchanan that they should come here.

I am not going to interpret dreams; for I don’t profess to be such a Prophet as were Joseph Smith and Daniel; but I am a Yankee guesser; and I guess that James Buchanan has ordered this Expedition to appease the wrath of the angry hounds who are howling around him. He did not design to start men on the 15th of July to cross these Plains to this point on foot. Russell and Co. will probably make from eight to ten hundred thousand dollars by freighting the baggage of the Expedition. What would induce the Government to expend that amount of money for this Territory? Three years ago they appropriated $45,000 for the purpose of making treaties with the Utah Indians. Has even that diminutively small sum ever been sent here? It is in the coffers of the Government to this day, unless they have stolen it out, or improperly paid it out for some other purpose.

Have they ever paid their debts due to Utah? No. And now they have capped their meanness by taking the mail out of the hands of Hiram Kimball, simply because they knew that he was a member of this Church. If he had only have apostatized in season and written lies about us, it is not probable that his mail contract would have been taken from him without the least shadow of right, as has now been done. He was to have $23,000 for carrying the mail from Independence to this city once a month, which was the lowest bid; but because he is a “Mormon,” the contract must be disannulled, and that, too, after he had put by far the most faithful and efficient service on the route that there ever has been, as is most well known at Washington. If I thought that my prayer might be answered, I would pray that not another United States’ mail may come to this city; for until Mr. Kimball began his service it has been a constant source of annoyance, disappointment, and to us loss. We can carry our own mails, raise our own dust, and sustain ourselves.

But woe, woe to that man who comes here to unlawfully interfere with my affairs. Woe, woe to those men who come here to unlawfully meddle with me and this people. I swore in Nauvoo, when my enemies were looking me in the face, that I would send them to hell across lots, if they meddled with me; and I ask no more odds of all hell today. If they kill me, it is all right; but they will not until the time comes; and I think that I shall die a natural death; at least I expect to.

Would it not make any man or community angry to endure and reflect upon the abuse our enemies have heaped upon us, and are still striving to pour out upon God’s people? Brother Bernhisel says that McGraw’s mail contract was out in August last; but they demanded at his hands and would pay him to carry it two or three months longer. The Post Office Department knew, or should have known, that it had forwarded the acceptance of Mr. Kimball’s bid for the new contract in that mail which McGraw was not carrying; and then it took advantage of the failure of that mail and trumped up a false allegation of the unsettled state of Utah, and on those grounds disannulled the contract with Mr. Kimball. Our mail rights and other rights and privileges are most unjustly trampled under foot; but they can spend millions to raise a hubbub and make out that something wrong is being done in Utah.

Let me be the President of the United States a little while, and I would say to the Senators, Representatives, and other officers of Government, Gentlemen, you must act the part of men and statesmen, or I will reprove you. What are they angry at me for? Because I will reprove men for their iniquity, and because I have such influence here—the very thing they are all after. They think that they are going to obtain it with money; but they cannot do it.

There is no influence, truth, or righteousness in the world only what flows from God our Father in the heavens. We have that power, that influence; we also have such love and submission that we submit ourselves to our Father and God, as a child does to a kind parent.

May God bless you, brethren and sisters. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 26, 1857.

If the brethren and sisters would like to hear me talk a little in my rough way, I will try.

My feelings are like this, that I may have no will but that which is extract from the will of God, that my will may be the will of God, just as much as there are three drops of water, the first, the second, and the third drop, and the second and the third drops run into the first, and they are combined in one. Now, inasmuch as they are combined and have become one with the Father and the Son, it is a pretty hard thing for any person on earth to extract those three drops; they cannot be extracted or divided, for they are one, and they are one with the Father and the Son.

We receive the Spirit of Jesus as he receives it from the Father, and we receive it from the Son, or down through the channel of the Holy Priesthood from the Father; then we are like one vine or one tree, the Father being the root, and the Son of God the tree or vine that sprung from the Father, and we are the branches, or this Church is the main branch sprung out of that vine. Then, inasmuch as we abide in Joseph or in Brigham, and then Brigham abides in Joseph, and Joseph in Peter, and Peter in Jesus, and then Jesus in the Father, don’t you see we are one? And then we will extend it to the Twelve in these last days; they are one with the First Presidency, and then the Seventies with the Twelve, and then the High Priests and other officers. Ain’t we one?

That is the way we have got to be one; we have got to come to that; and when we do, the Spirit of God will rest upon us, and the Spirit of Jesus, and of all the Prophets, and Apostles, and holy men of God that ever did live or ever will. Then the same Spirit and power will rest upon our sisters as it did upon Mary, and Elizabeth, and Anna, and thousands of others.

I wonder if the brethren understand me? If you do not, I shall have to get some more simple figure; for a tree in its nature is like a grape vine, or a cucumber vine, or a watermelon vine. You plant a cucumber seed, and it brings forth a cucumber vine. You may take this vine, and there is a main vine, and then there are other vines that break out of that main vine; you take away one of these vines from the main true vine, and it would cease to exist, because it is disconnected from the vine to which it was connected; therefore it cannot bring forth fruit. Don’t you understand this, you men and women that are farmers?

Brother Brigham was speaking this forenoon, showing what an influence he has over this people. I want to know if he has any over a man or woman that is not in this vine, he being the head now? When Joseph was here, he was the head of the vine in the flesh; but since he stepped away, brother Brigham is head of the vine, and we are connected to it; all you men and women, and then all the Saints throughout the world are connected to that vine to which he is connected; and he has power and influence over them, because they partake of his nature and his element, and he partakes of the element that came through Joseph, and Joseph from Peter, and Peter from Jesus, and Jesus from the Father, and then it extends through all the Quorums that pertain to the house of Israel.

I was speaking the other day how you should make your connections very strong; and, instead of breaking these fibers pertaining to that cable, you should keep adding strength to strength. If you do that, there never will be a separation between us and those that hold the Priesthood before us—no, never.

What an almighty influence our Father and our God will have when He has gathered all His children! Will they control the remaining portion of the human family? They will. As I said that day, and as brother Joseph has said today, we hold the keys—that is, brother Brigham and his brethren—they hold the keys of the living and the dead.

What! Of those that do not belong to this Church? Yes, just as much as those that do; and they cannot get salvation upon any other principle. Well, now, you need not think that is a tight jacket; for I will tell you it is a jacket you have all to wear. You may grunt, and you may take a course to kill this people and destroy the Prophet. Good God! There will a hundred come up where you kill one. Bless your souls, if a man is a Prophet, and that Prophet has a posterity, his whole posterity are prophets. Tell about raising up kings, and priests, and prophets unto the Most High God! You may kill brother Brigham: kill him, if you can; but I tell you, you will never do it, nor his brother Heber, until the time comes.

I never killed anybody, and I have a pretty good assurance to live a good while. You may kill brother Brigham, if you can, and what will be the effect of it? There will be a thousand Brighams that will rise through him, just as much as it would if you went into your field and you found an almighty big mustard stalk, and it was ripe, and you had no more sense but hit it a crack and break it down; there will be a thousand, and perhaps a million of mustards come from the old stalk. It will be just so if you kill brother Brigham or Heber, and it was so when they killed brother Joseph; there is a thousand now living where there was but one when he was killed.

Prophets! There is not a man or woman in this congregation, if they live their religion and have the Holy Ghost upon them, but what are prophets, everyone of them. I feel as Moses said to a certain class that had the sweeny; they were superstitious, and could not bear to hear any men and women prophesy but themselves: they complained to Moses of a certain person prophesying; and said he, “I wish to God they were all prophets.” I wish to God you, brethren and sisters, were all prophets and prophetesses; you may be, if you live your religion; you cannot help yourselves. We shall be like so many drops of water all run into the first drop; then the first drop and all the drops become amalgamated together, and they are like one drop. Bless your souls, our little children will prophesy, that come out of us, because we are one.

It is living in the vine of the last dispensation that makes us one, and we should be one, for Jesus says, “Except ye are one, ye are not mine.” As brother Brigham, brother Smoot and others have said, can the world do anything against this work? No. Jesus says that they can do nothing against the truth, but for it; and it will increase it, just the same as it would to destroy the old mustard stalk that has got ten thousand little seeds; you only increase it ten thousand times.

Can the world obliterate “Mormonism”—this Church and kingdom of God? Gentlemen, you might just as well go into the heavens and undertake to obliterate the worlds and the stars that you see on some of these beautiful nights when it is so clear. You can see the stars; they are as thick as the hairs on my head. What are they? They are worlds like this, and redeemed worlds, as this will be sometime; and we are the boys that will help to redeem it. We look a good deal like other folks.

I speak of these things, brethren, by way of encouragement. They may just as well try to obliterate those worlds that are redeemed, and perhaps ten times larger than this world, as to undertake to obliterate “Mormonism.”

You call us fools; but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a God, and also upon Brigham Young, our Governor in the Territory of Deseret.

Well, I will say there is no other man, except it is his successor in the Priesthood, that will ever rule over me as a Governor. [Voices, all over the congregation: “Amen.“] A man not holding the Priesthood may come here in the capacity of a Governor, if he pleases, and will act properly in the line of his office; but if he does not magnify wholesome laws, we will teach him his duty.

Sending a man here with 2,500 troops! They have no design in God Almighty’s world only to raise a rookery with this people and bring us into collision with the United States; and when they come here, the first dab will be to take brother Brigham Young, and Heber C. Kimball, and others, and they will slay us. That is their design; and if we will not yield to their meanness, they will say we have mutinied against the President of the United States, and then they will put us under martial law and massacre this people. That has been the design of the men that have been here. [Voice in the stand: “They can’t come it.“] “No, they c-a-n’t come it.”

Drummond, and those miserable scoundrels, and some that are now in our midst—how do I feel towards them? Pray for them? Yes, I pray that God Almighty would send them to hell. Some say across lots; but I would like to have them take a round about road, and be as long as they can be in going there. How do you suppose I feel?

I have been driven five times—been broken up and my goods robbed from me, and I have been afflicted almost to death. I am here with wives and children, and as good women as can be found in the United States. You may search the States through, and you cannot find as good ones. Have others here got as good? I do not know that I will talk about others; but I will say what I have a mind to about my own. I have got women that were brought up decently and respectably; and they are virtuous women; and you may send all the men from hell, and they cannot come around my women and brother Brigham’s, notwithstanding some have told in Carson Valley that our women are all prostitutes, and that they could use any one of them they pleased, as I have been informed.

That is the story they have told about you, sisters, as I have heard. How do you like that statement? Still there are some here who sustain such characters in their wickedness, as they did Drummond and others. I think just as much of the persons who sustain those miserable characters as I do of them, and no more. And I think just as much of those who sympathize with them. Whether they are men or women, I do not care one whit. I know the virtue of my women, and the virtue of brother Brigham’s women, and of those of our brethren who are connected with us.

The world say that we have things in common stock. There is no such thing. We throw our interest together, but my wives are wives that are given to me by the Almighty God through the proper source; and it is so with every other man. There is no man in this Valley that is a Saint that meddles with my wives, nor I with his. Those things are not carried on here. Every man has his house by himself and his concerns; but, if we have a mind to throw in our property into the general reservoir and hold it in common, then every man has a stewardship; I want to know what business it is to anybody? I have a right to throw in my property in connection with brother Brigham’s, and he with me, and then occupy it forever, and let the avails thereof increase our riches; and if every other man would take the same course, it would be far better for us. If we cannot be one in temporal things, how can we be one in spiritual things?

We do not believe in whoredoms here; we do not admit of any such thing as women to whore it, or of men to come here to do any such thing. We have none of this. [Voice: “That is civilization.“]

Yes, such as they have in New York at the Five Points there. Some of you have, perhaps, been there, and in Philadelphia, and in every other city in the United States. There is the city of Rochester, about as small a city as there is in the United States. I have been there when there was but two little log cabins, when there was not such a thing known as a prostitute; and now, at this day, there are thousands of persons of ill fame, and the authorities license such things.

Christians—those poor, miserable priests brother Brigham was speaking about—some of them are the biggest whoremasters there are on the earth, and at the same time preaching righteousness to the children of men. The poor devils, they could not get up here and preach an oral discourse, to save themselves from hell; they are preaching their fathers’ sermons—preaching sermons that were written a hundred years before they were born.

We are very tenacious, as brother George A. said, pertaining to the law of God and the institutions of heaven. We know there is no other way for men to be saved—there is no person on the earth can be saved upon any other principle than the one that saves me. Says one, “What is that?” The first step is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and when you have, and laid your sins aside, and think you will quit sinning, then be baptized in water, that your sins may be washed away, or blotted out, that you may receive the remission of them; and have a man that has got authority to do it lay hands upon you, that you may receive the Holy Ghost.

Can you change these ordinances? No. They are eternal; they always were and always will be; and no man or woman upon earth can be saved without them. You may get a Methodist priest to pour water on you, or sprinkle it on you, and baptize you face foremost, or lay you down the other way, and whatever mode you please, and you will be damned with your priest. There is but one way, and that is to be buried in water, buried with Christ by baptizing in water, that your sins may be blotted out by one having authority, or else it will do you no good.

Every man that is alive can act for himself under the hands of a man having authority. How will you manage for the dead? You will have to do it by proxy. For instance, I have got a father who died before “Mormonism” came; I go to brother Brigham when we have a place for it: says I, “brother Brigham, I want to be baptized for my father;” he takes me and baptizes me for my father, I acting as proxy, or for and in behalf of my father, and it is done upon the same principle that we do it for ourselves; and that is recorded.

Can I go and be baptized for my mother? Yes, I can be, though that is not the strict order of the law of the kingdom; but let a man act for a man, and a woman for a woman, that each may bear their share. I will let my wife go and attend to that, she acting as proxy for my mother, and I for my father. Well now, I have got to attend to all the ordinances faithfully that I attend to for myself, and then, when the time comes, I can take my father and mother, and act for my father, and my wife act for my mother; and then they can be connected in marriage, and then their father and their mother, and so keep going on until we get back where we came from, and connect the Priesthood together, and have the chain perfect from these days to the days of Jesus, and then back to Adam.

Perhaps my father may not receive the Gospel. If he don’t, my baptism will not do him any good. He is in the spirit world; he has to believe and embrace the Gospel in his heart and affections, and then I receive knowledge from him through a proper authority, and I am administered to for him. You might as well go and be baptized for a devil as for a man who will not receive the Gospel in the spirit world.

I expect I shall have to go and preach to the spirits in prison where they live, in London, in Germany, and other places. What! After I am dead? Yes. You may call us wild for believing such things. Go and read the Bible—the book your mother taught to you when you were sitting on her knees and nursing at her breast. This good old Bible, you think we do not believe it: we believe every word of it, and practice it. If we do not, we are determined we will, by the help of God, that portion of it that alludes to us.

Plurality of wives! I have a good many wives. How much would you give to know how many? If I were to tell you, you would not believe it. I suppose many of you have not believed a word we have said today. We do not care whether you do or not. I am speaking to the unbelievers, and not to the Saints. If I spoke lies, you would believe quicker. Suffice it to say I have a good many wives and lots of young mustards that are growing, and they are a kind of fruitful seed.

You know my comparison was, when Dr. Bernhisel was at Washington, we did not know what the Dr. would think when we let the old cat out of the bag. I told him that the old cat would have kittens, and the kittens would have cats. It is so with “Mormonism;” it will flourish and increase, and it will multiply in young “Mormons.” “To be plain about it, Mr. Kimball, what did you get these wives for?” The Lord told me to get them. “What for?” To raise up young “Mormons”—not to have women to commit whoredoms with, to gratify the lusts of the flesh, but to raise up children.

The priests of the day in the whole world keep women, just the same as the gentlemen of the Legislatures do. The great men of the earth keep from two to three, and perhaps half-a-dozen private women. They are not acknowledged openly, but are kept merely to gratify their lusts; and if they get in the family way, they call for the doctors, and also upon females who practice under the garb of midwives, to kill the children, and thus they are depopulating their own species. [Voice: “And their names shall come to an end.“] Yes, because they shed innocent blood.

I knew that before I received “Mormonism.” I have known of lots of women calling for a doctor to destroy their children; and there are many of the women in this enlightened age and in the most popular towns and cities in the Union that take a course to get rid of their children. The whole nation is guilty of it. I am telling the truth. I won’t call it infanticide. You know I am famous for calling things by their names.

I have been taught it, and my wife was taught it in our young days, when she got into the family way, to send for a doctor and get rid of the child, so as to live with me to gratify lust. It is God’s truth, and I know the person that did it. This is depopulating the human species; and the curse of God will come upon that man, and upon that woman, and upon those cursed doctors. There is scarcely one of them that is free from the sin. It is just as common as it is for wheat to grow.

Do we take that course here? No. I have buried several children; I have buried them in New York State, too, in Monroe County, where I lived all my young days, and where I became acquainted with brother Brigham, which is rising of thirty years that we have been together, about twelve miles from where Joseph Smith lived and found the Book of Mormon. I buried two children there, lawful children, born to me by my first wife; and then I have buried some ten children here, born to me by my lawful wives; and I have had altogether about fifty children; and one hundred years won’t pass away before my posterity will outnumber the present inhabitants of the State of New York, because I do not destroy my offspring, I am doing the works of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and if I live and be a good man, and my wives are as good as they should be, I will raise up men yet, that will come through my loins, that will be as great men as ever came to this earth; and so will you.

I will tell you that some of the most noble spirits are waiting with the Father to this day to come forth through the right channel and the right kind of men and women. That is what has to be yet; for there are thousands and millions of spirits waiting to obtain bodies upon this earth.

I thought a good deal about one verse of brother Poulter’s song that he sang here today—one verse in particular, speaking of the ladies. A man is a man, if he is connected with the Priesthood and is a good man of God—a holy man. That man can produce wonders, although he may be inferior in stature.

A great many women are more nice than wise. If they can get a man with a pretty face, they think it is all there is about it. Some men think if they can get a woman that has a handsome face, that is all there is of it. But it is that woman that has a head and sensibility—I do not care if her head is three feet long—it has nothing to do with the character that lives in the body. It is the character that is in the man’s house, the spirit that is in the man; it is the spirit that is in the woman and in the house that makes the woman and that makes the man.

Talk about going into the spirit world. The whole nation will go there. Are they going to know Jesus Christ? Are they going to know Joseph, and Brigham, and Heber? No, they won’t know us there, because other men will go and preach to them; and then they have got to believe on those men, or else they cannot pass them and go by those authorities.

Then let us live to be men and women of God, and cultivate that Spirit that dwells in us; for I have told you many a time that if you receive a bad spirit in you here today in this Bowery, you may get up and go out of door; but will you not have the same spirit as you had received when you started to go out? If you retain that wicked spirit, going out of door will not make you better.

When a man becomes a devil, and has killed the Prophets and Apostles, while he is in this house, or tabernacle of his spirit, will it change his feelings to go out of door, or to lay down that tabernacle? There will then be the same spirit and disposition that is in the spirit while it is in the body. When it leaves the body, does that change the spirit?

It is the spirit in man which affects the conduct; it ain’t the body. I can stand here and let you go to work and defile this house. I have to answer for that sin. If my spirit is guilty in letting my body do a thing that is contrary to the will of God, it is my spirit that has got to pay the debt. It is my spirit that is to be judged in the day of eternity and is answerable for the sins that I suffer my body to do.

I want you to think of these things, live your religion, keep the commandments of God, do as you are told, lay up your grain.

Brother Joseph made me think of one thing this morning when he was talking, that we are the very characters that will have to save the poor curses that are trying to kill us. They are trying to destroy that Priesthood that pertains to them as much as it does to me. We have got to save them and they have got to come to us. It is degrading to their feelings; but, as degrading as it is, they will come bending to us. What! To brother H. C. Kimball? Yes, as true as the sun shines, if I live my religion; and you will have to bow to me, brother Brigham, and Joseph Smith, and the Twelve Apostles, and thousands and millions of others; for I will tell you, if you make war while you are in the flesh with the servants of God, you never can be redeemed until you make an atonement to satisfy us, and then Joseph, and Peter, and Jesus, and to satisfy the Father: you have offended the whole of them.

The day will be, and it will not be many years either: it will be about the time the United States want to send a sufficient force here. About the time they will get unto the hottest times will be about that time. They will persecute us all the time the same as Joseph’s brethren did Joseph in Egypt. They whipped him and threw him into a pit, and then they thought of killing him; but Judah prevailed and saved him, and then they took him and sold him as a slave, and he obtained favor in the eyes of the King, and finally held dominion over that whole kingdom, and reared the kingdom, and raised grain previous to the famine, and saved and redeemed his whole father’s house and millions of others; and everything had to bow down to the power of Joseph.

As true as that thing is true, so true it will be that our enemies will have to bow down to us; and we may do the best we can to store up stores; and it is all we can do before they will come bending unto us. And the President of the United States will bow to us and come to consult the authorities of this Church to know what he had best to do for his people.

You don’t believe this. Wait and see; and just about the time they think they have got us, the Lord has got them fast. Now mark it, George; you may write every word of it.

I will tell you that brother Brigham and his brethren can tell the difference between the wheat and the chaff. [Voice: “The Lord gives wheat and the Devil gives chaff.”] Retain all the wheat; and if there is any chaff there, give it to the Devil; and the wheat, and the oats, and the barley you shall have; and the day is at hand for you to go to work to raise sheep and raise flax, and there shall be a coat on it four times thicker than any flax you ever saw, and everything else shall increase.

Why do you ask God to give you these things until you go to work and raise them? I sowed wheat three years before I got a bit. The Devil or somebody tried to prove me; but I would have stuck to it until this day. I would not give a dime for a man or woman that is not of that character.

Am I going to be a Joseph? I will be a Heber, and Brigham will be a Brigham, and he will lay up stores for the inhabitants of the earth, and we will redeem the earth and the inhabitants thereof—I care not whether they are dead or alive; and I would rather have a lot of dead creatures than many that profess to be Saints here. If they were dead and out of the way, their absence would be a help to us; for they try to hinder the progress of the work of God; but we will be the saviors of the children of men in the last days.

Mark my words, and see if these things do not come to pass quicker than you can prepare yourselves for them.

Will this land be a land of milk and honey? Yes. Missouri is cracked up to be the greatest honey country that there is on the earth; but it will not be many years before they cannot raise a spoonful in that land, nor in Illinois, nor in any other land where they fight against God. Mildew shall come upon their honey, their bees, and their crops; and famine and desolation shall come upon the nation like a whirlwind.

Go and read the Prophets: they all say so. You never saw a Prophet in your life but what would say so. Don’t be frightened: I tell you it will come. I am willing that my friends that have come through here from California should tell them of it; and it would be better for you to believe it yourselves, and go and make calculations accordingly.

Shall we ever be brought to want? I tell you, if we live our religion, we never shall. Cannot God Almighty send manna here, honey, and everything else, just as well as he could in the days of Moses? This is the last dispensation, and it has got all the power, the interest, the miracles that were in all of them, and tenfold more.

Last year or the year before they made some thousands of pounds of sugar at Provo and other places from the honeydew. Where did they find it? On the leaves of the cottonwood, the quaking asp, and the milkweed. They are now making honey from milkweed.

What does all this mean? And then don’t you believe God can rain sweetening as well as running water? This I can prove by thousands of witnesses—good sugar, as handsome as I ever made in the United States; and I have made hundreds of tons of it. The maple trees in the States will be blasted; yes, and they might as well try to make sugar from an oak tree: and everything else will be mildewed and go to destruction, when we shall have thousands.

Have not we felt the rod? Yes; and God says judgment shall come, and it shall commence at the house of God first, and then it will come upon those that have rebelled in the house of God; and of all the suffering that ever fell upon men and women will fall upon the apostates. They have got to pay all the debt of the trouble that they have brought upon the innocent from the days of Joseph to this day, and they cannot get rid of it.

Will we have manna? Yes. The United States have 700 wagons loaded with about 2 tons to each wagon with all kinds of things, and then 7,000 head of cattle; and there are said to be 2,500 troops, with this, and that, and the other. That is all right. Suppose the troops don’t get here, but all these goods and cattle come. Well, that would be a mighty help to us; that would clothe up the boys and the girls, and make them comfortable; and then, remember, there are 15 months’ provisions besides. I am only talking about this. Suppose it extends on for four or five years, and they send 100,000 troops, and provisions, and goods in proportion, and everything else got here, and they did not.

I am talking by comparison to the Saints, and you that are without do not understand it. I am a kind of funny fellow; I always was. I will tell you what kind of a chap I am, and brother Brigham, and brother Joseph, and Hyrum, and David, and Charles, and all those boys. I will tell you now, as true as you live, I am one of the sons of the old veterans that won the liberties of this land, and so is brother Brigham, because he knew his father, and I knew my own father; and it is not every man that does.

You may write that—there is one man on the earth that knows his daddy. We are the boys, with thousands of others that their fathers, their grandfathers, and great grandfathers redeemed this land; and God Almighty inspired those men. They were naturally heirs to the Holy Priesthood, every one of them, pretty much; and we are their sons, and we will redeem this land, and we will save the children of this land, and the Constitution of the United States; and we will bring about the restitution of the house of Israel.

I do not care if we die in twenty minutes—as true as there is a resurrection, or ever was, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Joseph, and thousands of others will be redeemed and get their resurrection; and I will see you as I see you today, and we will save all that we can, and the rest will have to go to hell.

I believe in annihilation in one degree. Men will sin so that they will be damned spiritually and temporally. There will be a dissolution of the natural body and of the spirit, and they will go back into their native element, the same as the chemist can go to work and dissolve a five-dollar gold piece, and throw it into a liquid. Does not that show there can be a dissolution of the natural body and of the spirit? This is what is called the second death.

May the Almighty bless you! May the peace of God be with you, and upon your children, and your children’s children, forever and ever! And may God Almighty curse our enemies. [Voices: “Amen.”] I feel to curse my enemies: and when God won’t bless them, I do not think he will ask me to bless them. If I did, it would be to put the poor curses to death who have brought death and destruction on me and my brethren—upon my wives and my children that I buried on the road between the States and this place.

Did I ever wrong them, a man or woman of them, out of a dime? No; but I have fed thousands where I never received a dime. Poor rotten curses! And the President of the United States, inasmuch as he has turned against us and will take a course to persist in pleasing the ungodly curses that are howling around him for the destruction of this people, he shall be cursed, in the name of Israel’s God, and he shall not rule over this nation, because they are my brethren; but they have cast me out and cast you out; and I curse him and all his coadjutors in his cursed deeds, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood; and all Israel shall say amen.

Send 2,500 troops here, our brethren, to make a desolation of this people! God Almighty helping me, I will fight until there is not a drop of blood in my veins. Good God! I have wives enough to whip out the United States; for they will whip themselves. Amen.

Related by Elder Amasa M. Lyman, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 19, 1857.

I have not got up to preach a long sermon; but, as President Young said, if anybody wanted to talk, to talk away. I have a matter in my mind, and I have felt disposed to mention it to the brethren and sisters. I was reminded of it by an expression that was dropped by the President in his remarks this morning, where he said, if we could have our eyes opened, as were those of the servant of Elijah, to see the innumerable hosts that are in our favor, we would not have to wait and to wonder when the help of Israel will be sufficiently numerous; for we should know there are more for us now than can be against us.

When we were in Nauvoo, at the beginning of the last winter we spent in Illinois, about the time the clouds were gathering so thick, and the last storm began to break upon us, we heard the thunders and threatenings of our enemies wherein they stated that we were to be driven away.

At that time I was confined to my bed with sickness, but I heard the report of the proceedings day after day; but I could not come out to see the face of the heavens, to judge what the issues would be. To get away was impossible with me at that time, and we knew that the longer we stayed the more we should be oppressed by our enemies.

After I had commenced to recover my health, one morning, while lying in my bed in open day, as wakeful as I am at this moment, the surrounding objects which I could see when in my natural condition all in an instant disappeared, and, instead of appearing to keep my bed, I found myself standing in a place where those acquainted with Nauvoo and the location of the Printing Office, subsequent to the death of the Prophets, will remember. There was a vacant lot in front of the Printing Office; I stood there, and I heard a rumbling noise something like that which attends the moving of a mass of people. I turned round to look in the direction of Main Street, and behold! The whole country was filled with one moving mass of people that seemed to be traveling directly to the point where I stood. As they approached somewhat nearer, they seemed not to be traveling on the ground, but somewhat near the altitude of the tops of the buildings.

At the head of the company were three personages clothed with robes of white, something like those which many of us are acquainted with. Around their waist was a girdle of gold, and from this was suspended the scabbard of a sword—the sword being in the hand of the wearer.

They took their places with their faces directly west; and as they stopped, the individual in advance turned and looked over his shoulder to me with a smile of recognition. It was Joseph; and the others were his two brothers, Hyrum and Carlos.

I contemplated them for a few moments; but to tell my feelings would be impossible. I leave you to guess them; for it would be futile to attempt a description.

After contemplating the scene a few moments, I was again in my bed as before, and the vision had dis– appeared. This was my assurance, in the commencement of our troubles there, that I received of the guardianship that was around us and the protection that we were receiving from the hosts of heaven.

The sequel of our history proves that it was no idle tale. Our safety was pledged and guaranteed; but what does our history prove? That the heavens have labored for us—that those who have gone behind the veil labored for us; and they still labor for us. If it were only ourselves that guaranteed the success of “Mormonism” on the earth, it would be but a poor guarantee; but that help that has sustained us will not be taken or withdrawn from us.

While we seek to sustain the truth we shall be sustained. As the President observed, we shall be preserved just so long as our Father in heaven requires us. All the interests which we have upon the earth ought to be pledged to sustain the truth; and when our interests require us to go from here, why should we dread it, anymore than we dread to go to England or to any other place.

We serve our interests when we serve our God; and it is all that we have to do. It is so with me, and it has been so, and it should be so with all of us. It is not choice with me whether I stay or go. I have friends there, and I have friends here; and if I were to calculate which I love best, I could not tell.

Well, brethren and sisters, may the Lord Almighty bless you is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 19, 1857.

I am heartily delighted with what has been said here this morning, so far as I have heard—for I did not come in time to hear all the remarks.

It is my greatest joy to see this people engaged in their religion, faithful to their calling, true to their trust, and fervent in spirit. And when I see the brethren and sisters striving to add faith to faith, and good works to good works, and feeling to renew their obligations, and covenants, and labors day by day, it is satisfying to me—it is joy and peace.

This is a marvelous work and a wonder. Do not the people think it is? What a stir this people make in the world! The sound thereof has gone forth almost, if not entirely, to the uttermost parts of the earth. Our Elders have been round the world and round the world again. They have been to the most noted nations, and to a great many isolated tribes and islands. I do not know but what the sound of “Mormonism” has gone forth into all the earth, and it makes a great stir wherever it goes.

Brother Truman O. Angell said that it appeared as though this people and the work we are engaged in are of the greatest importance. I can say that this work is of the greatest importance to you, and me, and the people of the earth; for no person can get salvation without it. And the remark of brother Carrington, that the unbridled passions of people forge their fetters, is true. There is no freedom anywhere outside the Gospel of salvation. The inhabitants of the earth imagine that they are enjoying great freedom. It is not so. If they would stop and reflect, they would find that they only place each other in bondage. This is the case with all the nations of the earth. Do you see that equality among them that you see here? Where is there a people or nation that does not oppress each other? When our Elders go forth and preach the Gospel, if it was in their power to cast from the people the yoke of bondage, instead of our gathering into the Church, from the British Isles, for instance, two or three thousand or ten thousand a year, we would gain our million a year.

That is a free nation: in the common acceptation of the term they are a free people: they are very liberal. But how many can embrace the work there with impunity? But a few; for people have not moral courage enough to break through their iron fetters. The people are bound down and cannot embrace this work. Thousands and millions have heard this Gospel preached who would have been glad to receive the blessings of it, if they could have done so without endangering their own existence on the earth. Life is sweet, and the majority of men will do anything to preserve it. Jesus said that a man would give all that he had for his life; and in our day there are a great many who will do almost anything to preserve their natural lives. To accomplish this, they will bow down to the whims and sayings of designing men, of the priests of the day, and to the laws and customs of individuals. Were it not for this, you would find that there would be millions embracing this work where there are now but hundreds; for there is no freedom only in the Gospel of salvation.

There is not an individual upon the earth but what has within himself ability to save or to destroy himself; and such is the case with nations. Is there liberty or freedom in destruction? No. When you look at things naturally, which is as far as the natural man sees, a person who takes a course to destroy himself temporally would be considered very unwise. And to the natural man we are taking an unwise, an unnatural course, wherein our religion is obnoxious to the Christian world. Did not your friends say to many of you, before you left your homes, that you were foolish—that the world would despise you and hate you? Did they not ask you if you could not see that troubles were coming upon the Saints, and say that you were very unwise in going with them—that you had better stay where there was safety? They can see nothing more than natural things; they do not understand the ways of God; they are unacquainted with His doings, with His kingdom, and with the principles of eternity.

So far as the natural man is concerned, it appears that the Latter-day Saints are very unwise to embrace in their faith those obnoxious principles that render them so odious in the eyes of the political and Christian world—the popular world. The Latter-day Saints see further; they understand more than what pertains to this world. The Gospel of life and salvation reveals to each individual who receives it that this world is only a place of temporary duration, existence, trials, &c. Its present fashion and uses are but for a few days, while we were created to exist eternally. The wicked can see no further than this world is concerned. We understand that when we are unclothed in this present state, then we are prepared to be clothed upon with immortality—that when we put off these bodies we put on immortality. These bodies will return to dust, but our hope and faith are that we will receive these bodies again from the elements—that we will receive the very organization that we have here, and that, if we are faithful to the principles of freedom, we shall then be prepared to endure eternally.

Can the wicked be brought forth to endure? No; they will be destroyed. Which, then, are the wise, and which are the foolish? We all naturally know—we can naturally understand that man cannot stay here always. The inhabitants of the earth are continually coming and going. This is not our abiding place. All can see naturally, if they would but observe the facts before them, that this world is but of short duration to them. They appear here infants, pass through childhood and youth to middle age, and if they live to a good old age, it is but a short time, and then they must go. But where do they go to, and what will become of them? Will this intelligence cease to be? There are but very few, if any, who really believe this. And the thought of being annihilated—of being blotted out of existence—is most horrid, even to that class called infidels.

The intelligence that is in me to cease to exist is a horrid thought; it is past enduring. This intelligence must exist; it must dwell somewhere. If I take the right course and preserve it in its organization, I will preserve to myself eternal life. This is the greatest gift that ever was bestowed on mankind, to know how to preserve their identity. Shall we forge our own fetters through our ignorance? Shall we lay the foundation to build the bulwarks for our own destruction through our wickedness? No; the Latter-day Saints know better. We will lay the foundation to dwell eternally, and that, too, in the heavens, with beings superior to those with whom we associate in our present situation and circumstances.

We have the principle within us, and so has every being on this earth, to increase and to continue to increase, to enlarge, and receive and treasure up truth, until we become perfect. It is wisdom for us to be the friends of God; and unless we are filled with integrity and preserve ourselves in our integrity before our God, we actually lay the foundation for our destruction. The world think that we are going to be temporally destroyed. That is nonsense. All things are temporal, and all things are spiritual with the Lord; there is no difference with Him, neither is there with any person who has eyes to see things as they exist. To those who have their minds open to eternal things, spiritual and temporal things are all one.

This is only our place of temporary existence. We cannot live here always with our bodies full of pain and subject to decay. Deprive us of food and we die; deprive us of water, and after a short time we die; deprive us of air, and we live but a few moments. We all know that this is not the state for us to live in and endure to eternity. Our eyes are looking beyond this sphere of action, and I trust that we are laying the foundation to endure eternally. If we do, we must be the friends of God—the friends of the principles of life and salvation; and we must adhere to those principles and shape our lives according to them, or else we lay the foundation for our own destruction.

Talk about liberty anywhere else! What liberty is there in anything that will be dissolved and return to its native element? What liberty can any intelligence enjoy that is calculated to be destroyed? There is no liberty, no freedom there.

The principles of life and salvation are the only principles of freedom; for every principle that is opposed to God—that is opposed to the principles of eternal life, whether it is in heaven, on the earth, or in hell, the time will be when it will cease to exist, cease to preserve, manifest, and exhibit its identity; for it will be returned to its native element. I say, let us live our religion, serve our God, trust in Him; and when we are called to contend against the enemy within ourselves, contend against him manfully, just as we would against an open enemy—contend against those passions that rise in the heart, and overcome every one of them.

You will hear some of the brethren say, as brother Carrington has just said, that there are times when the blood courses like lightning, upon seeing men who are opposed to us—who are striving with all their powers to destroy this people. Can they destroy us? No, they cannot. There are a great many in this congregation who are witnesses that the Devil has been warring, with all his imps arrayed against this work, ever since the organization of this Church, and trying to obliterate it from the earth. Have they gained any ground? No; they have lost ground all the time. This people, with brother Joseph at their head, and with all the powers of Satan, earth, and hell for him to contend against, have built up the kingdom of God and spread the principles of the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.

In regard to the battle in heaven, that brother Truman O. Angell referred to, how much of a battle it was I have forgotten. I cannot relate the principal circumstances, it is so long since it happened: but I do not think it lasted very long; for when Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, claimed the privilege of having the control of this earth and redeeming it, a contention rose; but I do not think it took long to cast down one-third of the hosts of heaven, as it is written in the Bible. But let me tell you that it was one-third part of the spirits who were prepared to take tabernacles upon this earth, and who rebelled against the other two-thirds of the heavenly host; and they were cast down to this world. It is written that they were cast down to the earth. They were cast down to this globe—to this terra firma that you and I walk upon, and whose atmosphere we breathe. One-third part of the spirits that were prepared for this earth rebelled against Jesus Christ, and were cast down to the earth, and they have been opposed to him from that day to this, with Lucifer at their head. He is their great General—Lucifer, the Son of the Morning. He was once a brilliant and influential character in heaven, and we will know more about him hereafter.

Do you not think that those spirits knew when Joseph Smith got the plates? Yes, just as well as you know that I am talking to you now. They were there at the time, and millions and millions of them opposed Joseph in getting the plates; and not only they opposed him, but also men in the flesh. I never heard such oaths fall from the lips of any man as I heard uttered by a man who was called a fortuneteller, and who knew where those plates were hid. He went three times in one summer to get them—the same summer in which Joseph did get them. Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist priests and deacons sent for him to tell where those plates were, and to get them out of the hill where they were deposited; and he had not returned to his home from the last trip he made for them more than a week or ten days before Joseph got them. Joseph was what we call an ignorant boy; but this fortuneteller, whose name I do not remember, was a man of profound learning.

He had put himself in possession of all the learning in the States—had been to France, Germany, Italy, and through the world—had been educated for a priest, and turned out to be a devil. I do not know but that he would have been a devil if he had followed the profession of a priest among what are termed the Christian denominations. He could preach as well as the best of them, and I never heard a man swear as he did. He could tell that those plates were there, and that they were a treasure whose value to the people could not be told; for that I myself heard him say. Those spirits driven from heaven were with him and with others who tried to prevent Joseph’s getting the plates; but he did get and secrete them, though he had to knock down two or three men, as he was going home, who were waylaying him to kill him. From that day to this, a part of the hosts of heaven made mention of in the Bible, with the cursed corrupt priests and the cursed scoundrelly Gentiles with them, have been trying to put down this work. But what have they gained? I should suppose that they would have stopped their operations long ere this, after uniformly meeting with such bad success.

When I commenced preaching, I told the people that if they would let us alone, and not raise any persecution, we would go peaceably along among the people and preach to them; but that just as sure as they fought us and opposed this work we would actually revolutionize the world a great deal quicker than if they let us alone. I have stuck to that faith ever since; for every time that there has been an opposition raised against this work, God has caused it to swell like seed in the ground; He has caused the seed to sprout and bring forth the little mustard trees, as brother Kimball has said.

The Gospel is certainly bringing forth a multitude of Saints. Has it not been so all the time? Yes, it has. A great deal could be said on this subject, but I have not time to say it now; for there are some other matters I wish to speak about.

We have issued almost 2,000 tickets inviting our brethren and sisters to pass the 24th of July at the Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon; and no doubt a great many more would also like to receive tickets. Hence, I want to tell you my feelings on the subject. If I call upon my friends to join me in a short excursion, to form a social party at my residence, or to unite upon any festive or memorable occasion, I never know where to stop in my feelings until every Latter-day Saint is invited. I wish those who do not receive invitations to go into the canyon to understand that it is not because we have any feelings against your going there, nor is it because we wish you to tarry at home, nor because we not desire your society. But is it consistent for all the people to go? It is not. We will therefore gather up some that ought to go—some who can conveniently go, and leave the rest, with precisely the same good feelings towards those who tarry at home as those who go into the canyon.

Last season it was observed, “I would like to have gone into the mountains to celebrate the 24th; but I did not want to go without an invitation.” I did not want you to, and I will tell you why. If we had permitted such a course, a great many would have gone that were not wanted there, as there are persons who would like to put fire into the canyon and destroy the timber, or create a disturbance, if they could get a chance. We expect those who go to observe the instructions on the tickets they receive, and to go, tarry, and return in harmony and peace. Let all who go observe good order and try to make themselves happy. If I were to satisfy my feelings, I would invite the whole of you. I will do so by-and-by, and we will have a party right here in this Bowery on some Sabbath day, where we can all be together and enjoy each other’s society.

There is another item that I will touch upon. Two weeks ago today, I mentioned the course of some individuals in this place who are writing slanders concerning us, stating that a man cannot live here unless he is a “Mormon,” when at the same time they come here to meeting with perfect impunity. Some of them are in the meeting today, and are now preparing lies for their letters. A parcel of them clan together and fix up letters, and they write to the East how desperately wicked the “Mormons” are—how they are killing each other, killing the Gentiles, stealing and robbing, and what wicked, miserable creatures the “Mormons” are. And when any of them go from here, they report, “We have barely escaped with our lives: Oh! It was a very narrow escape that we made; but we did manage to get out of the place with our lives; yes, we did get away without being killed.” They all safely escape to tell their lies.

They say that it is with great difficulty that they can live with the Saints, when at the same time no one has molested them during all the time they have been writing lies to stir up the wicked to destroy us. They pass and repass in our streets with the same privileges that other citizens enjoy; and there are professedly of our faith those who sympathize for them. May God Almighty let His curse rest on all such sympathizers. [Many voices, “Amen.“]

Will troops come here and inquire into my just rebukes of such characters and conduct? “Oh!” says one, “I am afraid they will come; and what shall I do?” They have been with us many a time. We have been accustomed to seeing a hundred to our one, with their guns to shoot us, and their knives to cut our throats. Do people imagine that they can kill “Mormonism?” I may die for my religion, and who cares for that? Brother Carrington has told you that God can carry on his own work, and the spirit of Joseph which fell upon me is ready to fall upon somebody else when I am removed.

There are a few apostates here, and I have understood the whining and sympathy they manifested for our enemies. It makes me think of what I heard from a High Priest’s house, that he did not know a Saint’s face from the Devil’s. It is just so with a great many. They would not know the angel Gabriel, if he were to stand here to preach to them, from Lucifer, the Son of the Morning. If Lucifer were to hand out a dollar—“You are a gentleman; won’t you call at my house?” “Here is another dollar.” “Call over at my house; I have some daughters: perhaps you would like to be introduced to them. I have a fine family; call in, and get acquainted with my family.”

Do you know that there is no fellowship between Christ and Baal? Do you think that a union has taken place between them? Can you fellowship those who will serve the Devil? If you do, you are like them; and we wish you to go with them; for we do not want you. We wish that all such men and women would apostatize and come out boldly and say, “We are going to hell upon our own road;” and I will say, “Go ahead, and may the Devil speed you on your journey! Here is sixpence for you.” But do not be snooping round, pretending to be Saints, at the same time be receiving such men into your houses and such spirits into your hearts, as many do. Well, all that is necessary, and it will be so; but the time will come when “judgment will be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet;” and if it is not hailstones, it will be some other kind that will sweep away those who make lies and love them.

Brother Truman said that we are here, are we not? We are in the tops of the mountains, and all hell cannot remove us. What do you suppose Joseph and Hyrum would have said, if they could have been here with only one hundred such boys as they could have chosen? Their enemies might have hunted them to this day, and they would have wasted them away as fast as they could have come.

Brother Truman said that there are as many for us as against us. Yes; there are ten to one for us more than those against us; but the difficulty is that all have not eyes to see. The soldiers of the Lord are in the mountains, in the canyons, upon the plains, on the hills, along the mighty streams, and by the rivulets. Thousands and thousands more are for us than those who are against us, and you need not have any fears. They may be permitted to kill our bodies, but that is yet to be determined. They try to fire a pistol; the cap snaps, and they are in the lurch; for some would have a dagger into them before they would know it. Or, if they tried to shoot with a rifle, perhaps the person aimed at would be standing a little one side of the range of the bullet.

Brother Carrington’s testimony proves to you that men’s eyes are liable to be deceived. It may appear strange to some that he could not tell me from Joseph Smith, when I was speaking in the stand in Nauvoo during the October Conference of 1844. Somebody came along and passed a finger over his eyes and he could not see anyone but Joseph speaking, until I got through addressing the congregation.

They may shoot, and they will see Brigham a little to one side, and Heber in another place, and fire away—at what? At shadows. We shall live as long as the Lord wants us to. They may lie and write lies, and they may stay here, if they behave themselves; but if they do not stop their devilish conduct they will be over– taken; for we will make their words true in regard to their being in danger, if they persist in their efforts to bring destruction upon us. We do not ask any odds of them, nor of hell, nor of the world. We only ask favors of our God; and He is the Being we serve: to Him we go; and we do not pray to a God without body, parts, passions, or principles; for we do not serve such a personage. We serve the living and true God, who has body, and parts, and passions, and feelings for His children; and the wicked may help themselves the best they can. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered at the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 12, 1857.

I feel very much to appreciate the remarks of brothers Thomas S. Smith and Edmund Ellsworth. Brother Edmund’s remarks were very good, and will be salvation to every man and woman that will receive and treasure them up in their hearts.

Here in Great Salt Lake City is the seat of government for the Church and Kingdom of God, pertaining to every person that has ever come into a probation on this earth, whether they are now in tabernacles upon this earth, or whether they are in the spirit world, or in hell. This is the place of deposit of all those keys pertaining to the salvation of the human family; and there never will one soul of those spirits now in prison come out of that place, except the keys of the kingdom of God that are now held in Great Salt Lake City open the door and let them out. They may peep and mutter, and may have revelations until doomsday, and may declare to all eternity that Joseph Smith is a false prophet, and that brother Brigham is a false prophet, and that this Church is false, and they will still remain in hell until we let them out.

Brother Brigham Young holds those keys; and brother Heber C. Kimball, and Daniel H. Wells, and others, hold those keys in connection with brother Brigham; and not one soul of you has any keys or power of salvation only what is in us; and that is one thing for you to learn. Those keys and powers were on Joseph Smith when he was in the flesh; and before he departed, he laid his hands on brother Brigham, and brother Heber, and others, and conferred the keys of salvation upon them; and we are here, in the last dispensation of the kingdom of God that pertains to every man and woman on earth, in hell, and in the spirit world; and the redemption of not one individual soul will be obtained upon any other principle.

You may call that pretty snug doctrine and pretty rough; but I would not give a dime for anything that is not rough. What do you think of the stone to be cut out of the mountain without hands? If there are to be no hands, how do you suppose it will ever be polished? Can you polish a stone without hands and chisel? It is to be taken out of the mountain without hands, and it will smash every nation and kingdom except God’s. It will never be polished until it has done that rough work. It will knock the bark from the trees, and will break everything before it.

Let the spirit world peep, and rap, and rap, and rap again. We know you not. Depart, ye workers of iniquity, and get out of the way, and stop your peeping and rapping.

This is the kingdom of God. You talk about building up the kingdom of God; but how can you build up the kingdom of God, except you build up the king and his officers? We are to become kings and priests unto our God, in accordance with the revelations given to the Apostle John. Our lives are a preparatory work to fit us to receive that authority and power; and when we have got that, we will raise up a kingdom. You cannot raise up a kingdom any greater than yourselves. And if you have not attended to these things, you cannot raise up a kingdom that will bring about the purposes of the Almighty.

How can I take a course to save the children of men any further than I am saved myself? If I have saved myself today, I can save you today; and if I continue on and save myself tomorrow, I can save you tomorrow, and so on from day to day, until finally we are saved in the celestial kingdom of God.

Are the keys here? Yes, the very keys that our Father placed upon His Son Jesus; and He placed that authority upon Peter and his associates; and they have been restored again to this earth through the ministration of the Prophet Joseph.

It is written that the first shall be last, and the last first. This is the last kingdom, and the Lord will make it first; for it has got to raise up, and establish, and confer power upon every one of those kingdoms that have been. That is what we have got to do. Why do you not realize this? You could, if you lived your religion and called upon God by day and by night.

What good do your prayers do, when your works do not correspond? Men may talk about praying, and exhort the people to pray; and if you do not live in a manner to fulfil your prayers, what do they avail you? Faith is dead without works, just as much as my body is dead without my spirit. When my spirit leaves my body, my body is dead; but put them together, and they make a soul—a spirit in a tabernacle. What is the use of our professing to be Saints, unless we live our religion? By our faithfulness and by our good works we shall obtain knowledge.

How can you find out whether brother Brigham is called of God, except you have a revelation from God? And then some are not fully satisfied, but will doubt the revelation that God has given them.

You think you would not. I have known many who have. Oliver Cowdery received revelations and wrote them; so did David Whitmer, and so did Thomas B. Marsh. About the time he was preparing to leave this Church, he received a revelation in the Printing Office. He retired to himself, and prayed, and was humble, and God gave him a revelation, and he wrote it. There were from three to five pages of it; and when he came out, he read it to brother Brigham and me. In it God told him what to do, and that was to sustain brother Joseph and to believe that what brother Joseph had said was true. But no; he took a course to sustain his wife and oppose the Prophet of God, and she led him away.

What!—sustain a woman, a wife, in preference to sustaining the Prophet Joseph, brother Brigham, and his brethren! Your religion is vain when you take that course. Well, my wife may say, “If you will sustain Brigham in preference to me, I will leave you.” I should reply, “Leave, and be damned!” and that very quickly. That is a part of my religion—“Leave quickly, you poor snoop.”

That was the trouble with Emma Smith. Joseph stood for the truth and maintained it; she struck against it: and where is she? She is where she is, and she will not escape until Joseph Smith opens the door and lets her out. She declared that she would leave him, if he would not sustain her instead of sustaining brother Brigham, and Heber, and the rest of the Twelve Apostles of God. That is as true as that the sun shines. She had her choice, but Joseph would not follow her.

Thomas B. Marsh was once the President over the Quorum of the Twelve—over brother Brigham, me, and others; and God saw fit to give him a revelation to forewarn him of the course he would take; and still he took that course. We told him that if he would listen to that revelation he had received, he would be saved; but he listened to his wife, and away he went. His wife is now dead and damned. She led him some eighteen years; and as soon as she died he came to Winter Quarters—now Florence, and has written to us, pleading for mercy. We have extended it to him, and he will probably be here this season or the next. He says that he has sinned before God and his brethren, and is pleading for mercy; for he feels as though our Father and God would have a little bread for him after all the rest have eaten all they need.

I speak of these things to show men their standing. Women were never placed to lead. Did you ever see a ship rigged for sailing to England, or to any other port in the world, without a helm, and rudder, and a man who knew the points of the compass and how to receive instructions for guiding that ship. And then you will sometimes see a number of boats lashed with cables to a large ship, and they are all led by that ship, and that is guided by the power and intelligence on board of it. Women are made to be led, and counseled, and directed. If they are not led, and do not make their cables fast to the power and authority they are connected with, they will be damned. Instead of cutting those little fibers that pertain to those cables which connect them with the ship, they ought to be adding other strands to the cables, that they may stand when the sea becomes boisterous.

And it is for the Twelve to be connected, and make the cable which binds them to the First Presidency stronger and stronger; and for the First Presidency to make theirs stronger in relation to God and those who are connected with Him. All the time keep adding to that big cable. And it is for the Seventies to fasten their cable to the Twelve, and to keep increasing its strength; and so on down to Priests, Teachers, and Deacons. Then let every man’s wife strengthen the cable that connects her with her husband; for, if she does not do so, she will go to hell, and you cannot help it.

Women are to be led. If I should undertake to drive a woman, I should have to drive her before me; and then she becomes my leader the moment I do that. I should lead her; and she should be led by me, if I am a good man; and if I am not a good man, I have no just right in this Church to a wife or wives, or to the power to propagate my species. What, then, should be done with me? Make a eunuch of me, and stop my propagation.

I am telling you solemn truths; and I do not know of anything that bears on my mind more to this people than for us to live our religion and be subject to those to whom we should be subject. As brother Brigham said, last Sunday, it is for every man to make peace with his neighbor and with the man who leads him, and for a man’s wives to take a course to please their husband, and for us all to make peace at home and abroad, when we go out and when we come in. That is the course for you to take—that is your duty; and when you take a contrary course you are wrong.

Some of the sisters say that their husbands are contrary and stubborn, and that they will do this and that, and they cannot control them. Ladies, there is not one of you that has common good sense but what would leave the man that would suffer you to lead him: you would rightly consider that he was not following his calling, if he would bow to your mandates. No man in this Church has a right to a wife, except he is a good man—a man of truth. And when a man violates his calling and priesthood, he forfeits his wife and everything that pertains to that calling and priesthood, or to that limb, when the limb is severed from the tree. Many have been severed from this Church and left their wives and children; for they clung to Gospel faith and priesthood. Now, except those men make restitution, can they hold one of the wives they have taken? No, not one of them. Can they retain, and keep, and preserve their children—their posterity? No, they cannot. Why? Because those limbs have been cut off and have never been restored, and the fruit was taken by the Husbandman of the vineyard and laid up in store. Then they cannot get it, can they? No, they never can, unless they prove themselves worthy and make restitution to satisfy the demands of justice, and that fourfold. They may then receive it back, but not without that restitution. That is justice and righteousness, and I am telling you of it in the name of the Lord; and I know it to be true.

There are thousands of men and women among the nations of the earth that it will be more tolerable for, in the day of judgment, than it will for you, if you violate your calling and do not honor your priesthood. You know that it was declared that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the children of God who had received the priesthood, and heard the voice of a prophet, and disobeyed it. Sodom was so wicked that they could not hear the word, because they would not admit a man of God to come into their midst. And they would have killed Lot, if the angels had not got him out with the few that believed on his words.

If you cannot believe brother Brigham, and brother Heber, and brother Daniel, and the Twelve, whom have you to go to hearken to? Who is there to lead you? Lay aside the men who lead you, and where is your salvation? Have you not great reason to love these men? They are your servants, and they serve you faithfully. They watch over you by night and by day, and over the Saints throughout the whole world.

If you cannot love the leading members pertaining to this Church, how under the heavens can you love a man you never saw? You cannot, and never did. Tell about loving God! You do not love Him a particle when you do not love your benefactors and the man that feeds you and clothes you. You do not have a drawing of tea, a pound of coffee, or anything else, but what he serves you with it. You say you love him; but some of you lie like hell, and you deceive yourselves. Now, do not tell me that you love my God, and at the same time not love brother Brigham and me, whom you have seen.

Uncle John (referring to Patriarch John Young), did you ever see anything bad in me? I never got drunk but a few times in my life, and then I was right straightforward. I never got so drunk but once, but what I could whip any man I ever saw, except brother Brigham. I know that I am a poor, weak, frail man, and dependent upon my God as much as you are. Do I expect salvation upon any other principle than that upon which you expect to obtain it? No, not in the least. I cannot get salvation and disobey the man that leads me. But whether he feeds me or not, or gets me a hat or a pair of boots or not, what has that to do with my integrity? I am to be true to him—as true as the sun is to this earth, even though I should be barefooted and bareheaded, as I used to be when I was a boy; for I never thought of having anything to wear in the summer seasons but a tow frock and a pair of tow breeches, and go bareheaded; though my hair was not burnt off by the sun; it came out by the roots, through studying and laboring in the great Latter-day Work. That is the course for me, and brother Daniel, and the Twelve, and all the faithful to take.

Tell about loving God and His people! If you do not love the man that leads you, you do not love that Being who confers all the blessings and privileges we enjoy. Tell about loving God, and not love the men that lead you! Get out with your nonsense. Will that apply to the Elders? Yes, and to the Seventies, the High Priests, Bishops, Teachers, and all men. Any further? Yes, it applies to you ladies, in your family capacity. You have not any priesthood, only in connection with your husbands. You suppose that you receive the priesthood when you receive your endowments; but the priesthood is on your husbands. Can you honor God and the Priesthood, and abuse your husbands like the Devil? How can you honor the Priesthood, except you honor the man you are connected with? I am talking about good men: I will not in this connection say any– thing about bad men. How can you honor the Priesthood, except you honor the one you are connected with?

The Father is the root, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. The First Presidency is a quorum pertaining to this branch of the house of Israel, and the Twelve are connected with us; they make part of a branch. And then the Seventies, another large branch on the same vine, and the High Priests, and Bishops, and so on, all belong to the vine. Now, from whence did you come, sisters? From whence spring you and your children? You spring from these main limbs and from that Priesthood. If you did not spring out of the Priesthood, where did you come from? Not many of you have legally sprung out of the Priesthood anywhere in the world in the latter days; but if you have a legal man, who has a legal Priesthood, you can raise heirs to the kingdom of God, and they become connected with it, without any of your washings, anointings, and sealings. Go and read the Scriptures, and they will teach you a great many things, and it will strengthen your faith in what you hear from brother Brigham, brother Heber, and many others.

Do not tell me that you love God and Jesus Christ, and that angels are around your habitation, conversing with you by night and day, and treat the Priesthood as though it was a thing of naught. Angels who would thus visit you are swamp angels—they are filthy. Would God honor one of them? No; nor would one of His servants—no quicker than they would honor the Devil in hell.

I am talking of things pertaining to your salvation—not to that of my family alone, but to that of all the families of the house of Israel. You have got to take a course to strengthen the cable. Many cables are chains composed of links; and is there not room to put on more links, to extend the chain, so as to reach to the bottom of the deepest waters? Yes. You must become a link on that chain and strengthen it, or you will be lost.

If you prefer the figure of a cable made of flax, seagrass, or hemp, go to work and increase the strength of it, and tie yourselves to the Priesthood and to the man that you are connected with, or let there be a final conclusion to dissolve the partnership, and go somewhere else. I do not want halfhearted characters to labor with me. Poor miserable creatures, they are not fit for anything. Some of them have been in the house of Israel from fifteen to twenty years, and are following the Devil. Are there any such characters in this congregation? Yes, several, both men and women. There are men and women ready to oppose brother Brigham in what he said last Sunday. He told the truth of God in every word he spoke. Do you suppose that he is so unwise to say a thing which he does not know to be true? He understands what he speaks, and he looks before he jumps, and God Almighty will lead him straight, and he will never stumble—no, never, from this time forth; nor will you, brother Hyde, if you will follow him; neither will any other man.

There are poor, miserable curses in our midst; and there is not a thing spoken of but what there are men and women who will go and tell them everything that is said (thank God for that!), and tell more than what is true. There are men and women in this congregation of that stamp. I wish I had some stones; I want to pelt your cursed heads, for you lie like hell. Are you valiant to stand by the work of God, and by your brethren? If you are not, you had better put out, you poor curses.

There is a poor curse who has written the bigger part of those lies which have been printed in the States; and I curse him, in the name of Israel’s God, and by the Priesthood and authority of Jesus Christ; and the disease that is in him shall sap and dry up the fountain of life and eat him up. Some of you may think that he has not the disease I allude to; but he is full of pox from the crown of his head to the point of its beginning. That is the curse of that man; it shall be so, and all Israel shall say, Amen. [The vast congregation of Saints said, “Amen.”] He is laying plans to destroy us, and is striving with his might to stir up the Government of the United States and the President to send troops here to bring us into collision and destroy this pure people—man, woman, and child. May God Almighty curse such men [Voices all through the congregation: “Amen!”], and women, and every damned thing there is upon the earth that opposes this people. I tell you I feel to curse them today [Voice: “And they shall be cursed.”]. Yes, they will be; and the Devil shall have full possession of every man and woman that raised the tongue to sympathize with those poor curses. I ask no odds of them, no more than I do of the dirt I walk on; for if it was not there I could not walk upon it. Now, go home and sympathize, all of you who wish to.

I tell you that the most of this people are a God-blessed people, as Amasa says; and you shall ever be blessed, with your wives and children after you, forever. And I bless you in the name of Israel’s God, and you shall be blessed.

Are there any poor, miserable devils in our midst? I cannot step into the street but what some poor, miserable curse is ready to pounce on me, if he dare. Tell about your religion! Shame on you! Go home and put on sackcloth and ashes, and repent of your meannesses. Are such kind of characters here? Yes, in this congregation. Could I pelt them with stones ? Yes, if I had the stones here, I could throw them straighter than any rifle that ever was fired.

Let us live our religion by day and by night, when we are at home and when we are abroad, and let us go to and gather up our grain and save it. Save your grain, brethren; save everything that can be saved; for we shall have need of it. The day is now on hand for this people to lay up in store, and to leave off a few ribbons, and jewelry, and fine satins. And where you have from seven to fifteen dresses too good to wear every day, dispose of some of them, and do not trouble your husbands so much. Are you serving God and keeping His commandments, and at the same time seeking to destroy your husbands?

In the house of Israel there is now clothing enough to last us ten years and make us comfortable, if it could be put into the storehouse of God and properly distributed, to clothe men, and their wives, and children, who may be worthy and needy. That is the Apostle’s doctrine, you know. Am I in earnest, brethren? I am telling you the truth; I am telling you God’s truth, and what the Spirit says to me. Stop, stop this extravagance, and in the name of Israel’s God go to work, accumulate, and build up the kingdom.

Tell about building up the kingdom of God, while you take a course to make slaves of your husbands through your love of finery!! Your husbands must be observed and listened to. If you want to offend your God, offend His servants. And how can you love God whom you have not seen, and hate your brethren whom you have seen? Do not talk to me such nonsense any more.

I am in earnest; I am anxious for your salvation—for you to put the best foot forward and lay out your present means for the best purpose, and in a way that they will temporally save this people universally. Save your wheat, corn, barley, buckwheat, oats, and everything that can be saved. You can dry potatoes for keeping as well as you can pumpkins. What is there that you cannot dry? I could even take a great many men and hang them up on a pole, and they will dry in a week, because there is little or no juice in them; and the less juice there is in them the less time it takes them to dry up, upon natural principles. If a cow gives only a gill of milk, do you not know that you can dry her quicker than when she gives a pailfull?

Sisters, how can you fulfil your callings and appointments, according to the blessings of the Patriarch and Prophet, except you lay up stores and become saviors, like unto Joseph? Have not some of you received the blessings and promise that you should be instrumental in teaching the Lamanites habits of cleanliness, and how to cook, make clothing, &c.? You have those blessings upon you; and most of you have not taken the first step to fulfil them.

God Almighty bless the righteous [Voices, “Amen,”], the meek, and humble of the earth, and those who will do right. Your strength shall increase, if you will step forward and do as you are told. It shall increase twentyfold, while that of those who do not do so shall decrease twentyfold, because that branch or limb that does not bring forth fruit will lose its strength, and it will go into those who do. It will be so.

Is brother Brigham a Prophet? Yes, he is a Prophet and an Apostle, and then he is more than that. He is a man foreordained from before the world was to come along and follow Joseph; and so are you, every man. Do you know brother Joseph? You could think that the Spirit of Jesus could come in the meridian of time, —that is, when the time was half out—the first child that was born to his Father on this earth, and take a body. That all seems rational, through your traditions. But, perhaps, many of you have never thought that Joseph was with Jesus in the spirit world ere the organization of this earth, and came forth in this last dispensation.

If you all live your religion and are faithful to the end of your days, that proves that you were chosen as were Jesus and John, who were prophesied of many hundred years before they came, as were many others. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was raised up to bear the Savior. Elizabeth was ordained and set apart to come along near the meridian of time, and so we were ordained to come along near the end of time.

You will find out that I am telling you the truth, and that is why I want you to live your religion and serve your God, keep His commandments, and listen to your brethren.

I bless you, and I wish I could make the blessings of God cleave to you like a plaster, that they would never leave you until you become righteous men and women. I bless the earth that we occupy, and the hills and mountains; and I bless every good thing there is; and I curse the ungodly and everything that is attached to them and that will stick to them. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder Amasa M. Lyman, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 12, 1857.

It is a matter of gratification to me, my brethren and sisters, to be here with you, because the religion that we have embraced is true.

Views are sometimes expressed by those who address the assembly as to whether what they might say will be edifying and pleasing to the people who may hear. I have no reason for believing that what I may say will be unpleasing to those who hear. Why? Because, if it pleases myself, it will edify those who hear, from the simple fact that what I would delight to talk about the most is that that has edified me the most, and continually edifies me when I am edified, whether from what I learn from my own study or from what I hear from those around me who speak.

I feel myself as though that I was a Saint. If the Saints are called “Mormons,” then I am a “Mormon;” and I do not feel that I live any life or have any existence but that of a Saint. Not that I suppose that I know everything or act perfectly; but these are the feelings that I cultivate; and the reason that I rejoice continually is, that “Mormonism” is true—that the doctrine I have embraced and the religion that cheers me is not a phantom.

My religion has become convenient to me, from the fact that I have found it adapted to everyday use. The happiness that it imparts—I do not care what part of man’s existence or being you may talk about, or apply it to—the happiness it imparts it can impart every day. The bliss that can happify one hour of a man’s being as a Saint, from a knowledge of the truth, and from the influence that truth will exert over him, will, upon the same principle, happify every hour of his life. That light of truth that will enable him at one time to testify of the truth of the work of God, of the manifestation of His hand and His power in the establishment of His kingdom, and the revelation of the Gospel to man in the last days, will shine upon his path unceasingly, if he is constantly and unceasingly faithful.

This leads me to be happy continually; for it does away with a great many of the probabilities of a man’s doing wrong, or being decoyed from the path of rectitude and virtue, and after having preached salvation to others, himself becoming a castaway, because the light that would save them once will save them all the time. They have only to be diligent, faithful, true, and obedient to the requisitions of the truth, to secure its presence with them continually.

This has led me to entertain vastly different notions and ideas of salvation from those I once entertained, whether of my own or that of the Saints universally. It has resolved itself in my mind into very simple truth, and yet a very extended and important one. I find that all the notions I used to entertain, years ago, about salvation and its greatness are comprised in knowing the right and then doing it—not in matters that are foreign from ourselves and from what we have to do, but in the everyday occurrences that fill up the history of our lives here.

There is no way that I know of or have ever heard of, believed, or entertained any conception of, that will enable you any better to love God than to love man who is made in the image and likeness of God. Do you want to honor Him? Then honor man that is made in the likeness of God. “But,” says one, “some men are not good,” then honor those that are good, who are his ministers, in whom he is represented on the earth. We cannot go away to his far off dwelling place to pay our respects and obeisance to him there—to present our offerings before Him, or to tell how much we love Him. What can we do? We can find here, in close proximity with ourselves, the individual in whom we can learn His will, receive the declaration of His truth, the order of His institutions and requirements. They are in our midst. This led one in ancient times to say, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and He has commanded us that we should love one another.”

This makes our religion wholly a practical matter. Let people who can live by theorizing, theorize away until doomsday; and, if we will be saved, we want practical virtue—practical truth exemplified in our actions, in our words, and thoughts; we want to live together as a holy people—as a people who fear and honor God. How? By getting down on our knees and saying our prayers, by singing graciously and putting on a long face, by going to meeting on the Sabbath, or by wearing an amiable smile, that when contemplating it you would not think we ever frowned in the world? Is this the way we are to honor God and live right? No; it is something else besides this. To pray is good, to smile is good, to be pleasant is good; but to be holy and acceptable in the sight of God is to be good all the time, in all places, under all circumstances, and with all people.

We want to learn to get along comfortably with the little duties of life that we meet with every day—that make up the labor of every day. We want to learn to do those things right. You want to learn to be as holy at home by your firesides as you are when you go to church. You want to feel well, to enjoy the Spirit of God in every condition and relation of life.

To love the truth supremely, above everything else is salvation. Do not sacrifice it, therefore, or throw it away, for the sake of indulging in a little petty quarrel at home or abroad.

How shall we honor God? We cannot administer to His wants directly, if He has any; but His children are here, and we can feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We can do that here. Whether there are any up yonder to be found in those destitute circumstances, or not, I do not know. I have not been there to see. I can see them here without going there; and one thing which makes me think that “Mormonism” is true, and that this view of it is true, is, because it is what I have experienced.

Now, if it is not the truth, then I am frank to say I do not know anything about it; but this is what I have learned. If I should find myself in a time or place that the Spirit of truth is not in me, and where I could not feel its sacred impulse to give shape and form to my actions, and regulate them according to the revealed will of heaven made known to me, I should be fearful and should have torment; for fear hath torment; I should be afraid I was going to apostatize—that some dark cloud was hanging around me, fatal to my happiness. But I have confidence in the truth, because it is that which abides with me all the time. In the darkest spot I ever have been called to labor or travel in, or have had an existence in, since I embraced the truth, I have always had it present, and enjoyed its light.

If I knew there was any part or portion of myself that was not under the influence of “Mormonism,” or the Spirit of truth, I would want to get out that piece and parcel, and have it repent and be baptized for the remission of that sin, that the whole body might finally become perfectly holy and completely imbued with the influence of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, and the love of truth, which would preserve me today, tomorrow, and in all time from falling away.

Is it necessary we should all feel so? I suppose it is just as necessary for you as for me. I do not suppose because I, through the favor or mercy of God and the kind dispensations of His will and providence, have been called to minister as one of the Twelve Apostles to bear off the Gospel to the nations of the earth, that it is any less needful for me, so far as my own soul is concerned, to enjoy the Spirit of God always than it is that you should. I shall be nothing more than saved when I have got all the way through, or as far along as it may be my lot to progress.

“But,” says one, “Won’t it be good for us if we do as we are told?” Yes. What will be the result? You will not always be under the necessity of being so miserably poor that you have to go out in the night to your neighbors to borrow a candle. Do people live this way? Yes. I have lived on borrowed light. How long? Until I got a candle of my own. Until the principles of truth became established in me, I lived on the strength of the instructions and light of heaven that dwelt in others, reflected by them on my path—I followed along by the light of a borrowed candle. How long? Until the Savior’s words were fulfilled, and the promise verified in myself, and the light of inspiration was planted in my own soul; then the blessings of light and truth came rolling upon me like a river.

Would to God that all the Saints enjoyed this light. What would be the result? There would be more practical purity, more righteous actions, and less evil in the community—more of the Spirit of God, as a natural consequence, because every Saint would be possessed of a living fountain of light and truth—that inspiration which inspires the Apostle, enlightens the mind of the Prophet, tears away the veil from the future, and enables man to look upon and contemplate the excellencies of our Father’s kingdom.

It was in view of this that on a certain time, when report was made to one of the ministers of truth that some of the congregation of Israel were prophesying, the reply was, “Would to God that all the people were prophets.” Why? Then they would all have the light of truth in them, and the knowledge of truth that would save them.

If this was the case, what would be among the results? Sinners in Zion would be afraid, and fearfulness would surprise the hypocrite. Why? Because they would feel uneasy, for this simple reason—they would know they are not honest, and they would be afraid lest they should be overtaken in their guilt.

This, my brethren and sisters, is the “Mormonism” I feel; it is the “Mormonism” I preach—that I have when I pray—that I have about me every day. It is the “Mormonism” I have when I wake up at night, and that I keep with me all night, if I do not go to sleep. Is it good to me? It is. Is it salvation to me? It is. Why? Because it frees me from evil and enables me to live without committing the amount of sin that I would commit if it were not for its presence.

The best reason that I can give you for its being good is that it has been good to me; it has done me good. I might tell you that the Gospel is true, because the ministers of truth say so, have testified so, lived for it, and died for it, in ages gone by; but I do not know so well how they have felt; I do not understand so perfectly; I cannot comprehend with the same clearness how it was that they felt, as I can understand how I have felt myself.

When people tell me they have felt as I have, or, in describing their feelings, I find they have experienced what I have, though I know what I have experienced better than I know what anybody else has experienced: yet, if they have the truth, I also have the truth; and if they are saved by it, then I may hope to be saved by it. This is what I would like to see the Saints enjoy—a knowledge of the truth, and that knowledge to have such an influence over them that they would cease to do any wrong whatever.

When there is no wrong done, how much sin would there be committed in the length and breadth of the land of Zion among the Saints? If there was no individual to do a wrong, I am under the impression it would take a good or a bad mathematician to calculate the amount of sin that would be committed.

Says one, “We expect to see that day.” You do? When there will be no sin? When? “Why, it is that better day that is coming by and by.” What is going to bring it about? Upon what principle do you ever expect to see the time when there will be no sinners in the land? Will it be when the grace of God is manifested in some strange or different way from what it has been to you? “We suppose so, as a matter of course, because we see sins committed now every day.” Do you know of any good that has been done? “Yes, a good deal.” What does it consist of? “Good has been done in the condition of the people as the result of reformation. They have spoken more truth and less falsehood than they did; there is less hypocrisy, less tattling and evil speaking; the people do not think of quite so many evil things to do, and consequently, they do not do much evil: that is the way this change has been brought about.”

And did you ever think for a moment that this was the principle, and the only one upon which sin would be driven away and its power effectually broken upon the face of all the earth? Says one, “The Devil has got to be bound.” And do you know what kind of a chain he will be bound with? What will deprive him of power? When there is no person upon the face of the earth that will listen to his insinuations or yield to the impulses of his influence to perpetrate evil, how much power will the Devil have on earth?

I want you to look at this; I want you to remember that whenever there is a diminution of evil in the community, it is because the people do less wrong than they did; they are more faithful, more truthful, more righteous, more holy, and are making greater progression and advancement towards the consummation of the work of God. It is by the development in them of the principles of righteousness and the establishment of these principles in them to the exclusion of every other principle and feeling. When this is effected, our salvation and redemption are secure. When we do right exclusively, and no wrong, we have nothing to fear. When this becomes the case with the people, will the kingdom of God be built up? Yes, in the hearts of the Saints.

Says one, “Won’t it be built up externally too?” Yes; but it is a simple matter to build up the kingdom so far as houses, palaces, and thrones are concerned, only get the principles of the kingdom of God built up and established within yourselves. Then you will simply have arrived at the point that you will live your religion; that is, the light that is in you will be the spirit of your religion operating upon you, and in you, and through you, and over you, and round about you, that your whole being and everything pertaining to your existence will be under its sacred and hallowed influences. Do not settle down and think you are living your religion because you have done a few good things, because you are a little more faithful than you were last year, and because the Lord is blessing us this year with plenty. Remember, and keep it constantly in view, that there is much improvement to make, much to gain, and much to learn.

You want to have your religion established within you—a living fountain from which the principles of eternal life and truth will flow out and pervade your active being, regulating your actions and conduct in such a way that everything connected with your life shall be in perfect harmony with the truth; then you will live your religion, then you won’t need to be waked up in the night, and somebody come along with borrowed light to place it in your habitation; you would have one there all the time, so far as the light of truth and of your religion is concerned: it would be in you all the time, always trimmed, always burning.

If an evil spirit comes to us to tempt us to do evil—if we resist that spirit, what will be the result? The Devil will go away. When he comes again, and only meets with the same treatment, with the same success, and finds that he cannot get us to say an evil thing or do an evil deed, how long will he tempt us? He would soon come to the rational conclusion not to go there again; he would find it a speculation that would be of no profit to him, while his defeat is our victory.

Whenever evil things, evil thoughts have possession of our bosoms, and we have not spoken a word—not given the thought shape, form, and signification to those around us, who knows of it? Nobody. Who is injured? Nobody. There is no harm done, no stealing, no murder committed, no slander perpetrated, no falsehood told. What has been done? The spirit that would instigate evil has been subdued within us, and we have died a death unto sin, and have individually become alive unto righteousness. One of the best things I ever heard in my life was a simple thing that President Young taught here sometime past, which was, that it is not always right to speak the things we think. It is just as necessary that you should be able to think and not speak as to think and speak; the one is just as necessary as the other to your salvation. “But,” says one, “is it not just as bad to think it as to speak it?” Why, thinking never killed anybody. Suppose a man had a thought in his mind that he would kill me, if he did not do it, you know, as far as I am concerned, I would live. But suppose, acting on the old adage, that it is no worse to do it than to think it, and he had laid wait for me by the roadside and taken away my life, what would have been the consequence? Then the sin of murder would have been on his soul.

It is the same with every wrong thought and evil suggestion that may occur to your minds. What will be done if you act on this principle? The father at home, if he thinks a wrong thing, won’t say it. The wife and mother will do the same; and what will be the result? Harmony in the domestic circle will never be destroyed by evil speaking. What then? If harmony be there, the Spirit of God will be there. Why? Because it delights to dwell in a quiet place; it does not love contention; it is no friend to strife; it is not fond of bickering or saying hard things. The Spirit of God will come and take his abode with us, if we prepare our minds for its reception, and make it welcome, and study to cultivate a feeling that is congenial with its own nature.

It is with the Holy Spirit as it is with us. When we seek to gratify ourselves in the associations around us, for whom do we seek in such a time? We seek individuals whose tastes and feelings are congenial to our own, whose “Mormonism” is like ours, whose regard for truth is like our own. Then what do we enjoy? A free, frank, unrestrained feeling, and sentiment: we pour out the feelings of our souls; there is a principle of reciprocity existing between the parties.

So it is with the Holy Spirit of truth. Where it finds a mind so regulated that there is an affinity and congeniality between that mind and itself, there is the place where it will dwell; and when that mind becomes so trained in the truth as to be completely and perfectly subject to its influence, it will remain there constantly and unceasingly; it will not pay a casual visit, but take up its constant abode with that individual, and then its light is there, revelation is there, inspiration is there; it is there to increase in intensity, extent, and in power; it is there to continually pour out upon that soul the unceasing, unbroken tide of life. Then the fountain of life becomes established in the soul; that fountain is flowing continually and unceasingly. Even as the blood passes through the heart to the extremities of our physical system at every pulsation, so also the Spirit of truth pervades our being.

Do I believe “Mormonism” to be true? Do I know it to be true? Yes, I do. Why? Because it has saved me. It has saved me in the first place from ignorance, and then it has saved me from its consequences—that is, to the extent to which it has imparted to me knowledge; and it has imparted to me knowledge according to my faith and devotion to the truth, and the extent to which I have labored to subject myself to the influence of its sacred principles.

People suppose, perhaps, that myself and those similarly situated in this work have a great deal to do for others; but my work is for myself. It is for myself that I preach, that I go abroad, that I come home again; it is for myself that I do all I do.

You may say I am selfish. Why? Because I promised my Father, when I went into the waters of baptism, that I would obey His commandments as they were made known to me. I made Him that brief promise, and it has cost me all that “Mormonism” has cost me. It has cost me all the toil and labor that has been crowded into my history during the past twenty-five years of my life, to keep that little covenant.

My Father promised me, if I would keep His commandments, I should be saved. Then whom am I working for? For brother Amasa. My interest, my life, money, if I have any, my honor, my salvation, my all is in the kingdom of God. I have not anything anywhere else; and, as I said, before, if I knew there was a shred of my whole being that was not baptized into the spirit of “Mormonism,” and into this universal love and devotion to it, I would want to hunt it out before I slept, and have it baptized with the same feeling.

I imagine to myself I have the spirit of a Saint—the spirit of “Mormonism.” Why? Because I have labored to be obedient, faithful, and true, to maintain my integrity; and the result is manifested in the spirit I have felt and still feel. If this is not “Mormonism,” I am in a good place to be told wherein it falls short; and when I learn what “Mormonism” is, if I have not learned it, I shall begin to learn it: I have made up my mind for that.

I feel the Spirit of God just as pure a source of comfort to me when I am away as when I am here. “Do you feel as well when you are away?” No; for I lack the comfort and the genial influence that hovers here like a deathless flame over the congregations of the Saints.

This is my testimony of “Mormonism,” as I have felt it, realized it, experienced it, and lived in it—not as I lived in it last year, but today. Today is the best day I ever saw; today is the most blessed of any day I ever passed since I lived on the earth, because today shows me the greatest increase of those things that constitute the greatness, glory, happiness, and blessedness of the Saints; and tomorrow will be the same, in respect to these matters, and more abundantly.

That this may be the case with us is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by Patriarch John Young, Delivered at the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 12, 1857.

I feel very happy, my brethren and sisters, for the opportunity I enjoy this day in this place. I feel that the Lord is merciful unto me and unto us all as a people, and I feel much pleasure in rising before you to bear my testimony to the truths of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ, which have been laid before us this day by his servant brother Kimball.

I am thankful to my heavenly Father not only this day, and at this time in particular, but at all times. I am thankful that I live in the day that I do, and that I am associated with the greatest and best men that ever lived upon the earth, and that I have the opportunity of sitting under the sound of their voices, even the oracles of the Almighty, before whom the visions of eternity are passing continually, and who are competent to administer unto the people the words of eternal life.

I thank the Lord for the blessings that we as a community enjoy, and for the good admonitions, for the truth of heaven, for the principles of salvation that are from time to time made known unto us by the Prophets of the Lord. I am thankful to my God that He has gathered us from the nations of the earth where we were scattered into these chambers of the mountains, where the Prophets of the Most High can speak, as they are dictated by His Holy Spirit, the things that are necessary for them to know and understand.

I can well remember the day when the Prophets of the Lord stood up to address the people, that they did not feel that liberty which they feel and enjoy here. This was at a time when they were surrounded by enemies upon the right hand and upon the left, and when those enemies were laying plans to catch and to destroy them; and when I reflect upon this, I thank God that He has brought us to a place where we can administer the words of eternal life without fear or dismay; for we are here secluded and far away from our enemies.

I am thankful for the great and glorious principles that I have heard from brother Kimball this morning; and I can bear my testimony before angels and before my heavenly Father that every word he spoke has been by the inspiration and power of the Holy Ghost. I would like to have you tell of a time, if you can, when brother Brigham and brother Heber did not speak by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know you cannot do it; and yet there are men who are continually whining because the First Presidency are so severe upon the workers of iniquity; but I don’t feel to take off the curses, but, by the authority and power that I have and the priesthood that has been sealed upon me, I seal those curses brother Kimball has pronounced, upon the heads of the guilty.

[The congregation responded, Amen.]

I just know there are men here right amongst us who thirst for the blood of the Prophets of God; and there are those professing to be Saints who are fostering them in their hellish designs; but I pray my heavenly Father to purge out these cursed characters from among us. The time has come when the ungodly and the hypocrites are to be searched out. This is undoubtedly the time the Prophet spoke of when he said, “The sinner in Zion shall be afraid, and fearfulness shall surprise the hypocrite.” The people are better prepared for this now than ever they were; for there never was a time when light was reflected upon this people as at the present; no, there never was such a time as there is now; and I know it, if no other man does.

I have heard brother Brigham say that it should be better and more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for this people who hear the truth and do not obey it. Day after day, and Sabbath after Sabbath, the servants of God are administering the words of eternal life; and if the people do not walk in the light, it would be better for them to have a millstone tied to their necks, and they drowned in the depths of the sea, than for them to remain here and live in sin, and add to their guilt and crimes every day of their life.

Brethren, we are blest; yes, we are greatly blest: our fields are clothed with grain; they are greatly burdened with the crops that are upon them. Everything that I behold, as I travel abroad, exhibits abundantly the blessings of our heavenly Father. He is pouring out liberally of His blessings upon us; and, if we are faithful, they will be multiplied more and more upon our heads.

I am thankful to find such a good spirit among the Saints in the various parts of the Territory where I have visited. Last week I visited Utah and Cedar Valleys, and the brethren were willing to drop their scythes and come to meeting, notwithstanding it was a very busy time with them. I held meetings at both settlements in Cedar Valley, and I can say there is a good spirit prevailing there; and I feel that there never was more of the power of the Lord, nor a greater witness of His Spirit resting upon the people than at the present time. It seems as if they were willing to give their very life’s blood to sustain the Prophets of God that are amongst us. It is a matter of consolation to us all to learn that the people are becoming so united.

Now, my brethren, let us be faithful and work righteousness in this the day of our visitation; for we shall not always enjoy the blessings that we now do. Though our land is blest, and though we have peace and plenty, I do not know that this will always be the case with us; we may yet have to pass through severe trials. I know that there will always be peace to those who have the peace of our heavenly Father in their own souls. When a man has the approbation of those who are at the head of the kingdom, he also has the approbation of our heavenly Father; for He sanctions their doings upon the earth.

It is not my desire or intention to take up much time this morning; but I was desirous to bear my testimony to the truth set forth by President Kimball, a man filled with the Holy Ghost.

I wonder if someone won’t go away and say that brother Kimball and the authorities were misinformed. I can tell you they are not; for those men who stand at the head of affairs have the light of heaven with them all the time; they have the power of the Spirit and the visions of the heavens with them always, and they can read men and women from head to foot.

After this, I don’t want anybody to go away from the meeting and say, “I guess they were mistaken.” Don’t let us hear any more of it, brethren; never let such a thing be spoken, that a Prophet of God is mistaken. I ask this congregation, and I adjure you in the name of the Lord to speak, if ever you heard brother Brigham, brother Kimball, brother Jedediah, or brother Wells say anything that was not strictly true. I answer, you never did.

[President H. C. Kimball: If it were so, a man might be a Prophet one minute and a devil another.]

I know there is an undercurrent working all the time; but I tell you, my brethren, we have to stand up to the work in which we are engaged, and live humbly before our heavenly Father, and keep His Spirit with us always. This is what we have got to do, and, as brother Kimball says, save ourselves and those that are with us, and know that we are born of God and that we are heirs of salvation. It is our privilege, as well as that of the Prophets of God, to have this Spirit and this light in us; for we are the children of the light, and not of the darkness; therefore the day of the Lord Jesus will not overtake us as a thief in the night.

I feel comfortable and happy in being associated with the Saints of the living God; and I never felt more grateful for my position among this people than I do at the present time; for I realize that the hand of the Lord is with us all the day long.

When I heard brother Kimball talking about brother Thomas Marsh, it caused me to think of bygone days; for I was well acquainted with him; and when I heard what I did, I felt to thank my God that He had preserved me and my brethren from the power of the Devil; and I know that it is the Lord’s doing, and not our strength that has saved us. I feel humble, and I wish to feel so all the time. I cannot express to you my feelings in full; but this much I can say, that I have never had such an experience in my life as I have had for the year past. It seems as though the veil of darkness was rolled back; and it is so to a great extent, and we begin to know and realize that the day of our redemption draws near.

Talk about fear! We have nothing to fear from our enemies. If we have anything to fear at all, it is those of our own household—those corrupt villains in our midst, who profess to be Saints. Our enemies are entirely powerless. They used to think that Missouri could whip out the “Mormons,” and then they thought that a few counties in Illinois could do it; but of late they have come to the conclusion that it will take all the United States to whip us out; and it is true too, and then they can’t.

I knew last fall that the reformation would commence in the States about the time that it did here, and I told brother Brigham so; and I now pray that it may continue, and that they may be clothed with darkness, and that all their schemes and plans may be frustrated, and that they may be caught in their own snares, and fall into their own pits. There has never been such a fuss in the United States as there is at the present time; and I may also add, that there never has been a time when we have commenced to build a Temple but the Devil has called upon his servants to prevent us from doing the work, if possible. It was so in Kirtland; it was so in Far West and in Illinois; and I expect it will be so here; but it will all tend to roll on the work of God.

I feel to bless you—all you that are honest in heart; and I say the time has come when fearfulness will surprise the hypocrite; and I pray that we may be able more perfectly to discern betwixt him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not. This is what the Prophet said should be with the people in the last days; and he said there should be a book of remembrance kept, that those who are faithful might be his in the day when he shall come to make up his jewels. My prayer is that we may be among those jewels, which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Afternoon, July 5, 1857.

I can say one thing in regard to preaching before this congregation. It is a great deal harder to speak to the people in the afternoon than it is in the forenoon, because they generally come together after partaking of a hearty dinner; and that, in connection with the word they receive in the forenoon, fills them up, and they are somewhat like a barn that is nearly full of hay; for you know it is a great deal harder to put in the last load of hay than it is the first. I speak of these things because the circumstances that surround us call them forth.

In relation to the things we have heard today from brother Brigham, and brother Feramorz, and others, I will say that I appreciate them, and I not only believe them, but I know them to be true. This is the work of God, and all the world cannot stay its progress. They have given me the character in the world of calling things by their right names. It is a good deal with them as it was with the old Dutchman, who said, “It is not the thing itself, but it is the name of the damned thing!” That is it exactly. They can talk and hint about everything, but never call them by their names. I call that hypocrisy; and there never was a nation that lived upon the earth that was fuller of it than this nation.

As to what they call “Mormonism”—properly speaking, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I say it is true; and Joseph Smith the Prophet, who was killed in Illinois, in Carthage Jail, is the author of it; or, in other words, he was the instrument in the hands of God of bringing it forth. Peter, James, and John, three of the ancient Apostles, came and ordained him and set him apart for the work of the ministry of this last dispensation.

I am bearing testimony of those things that are true—things that I know and understand. And I also testify that Hyrum Smith was a Patriarch of God, and just as much so as Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob ever were. Joseph Smith the Prophet ordained his father a Patriarch, and he ordained Hyrum. The same Gospel which was preached by Jesus and by His Apostles has been delivered unto us through Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the living God; and the keys and powers pertaining to that Gospel and priesthood are now resting upon brother Brigham Young; for he is Joseph’s legal successor. All the prophets from the days of Adam and from the creation of the world have conferred their priesthood and keys of this dispensation, and brother Brigham holds them in connection with the old Prophets and Apostles, and in connection with our Father and God pertaining to this earth.

I am telling you the truth, and testifying to that which God has made manifest unto me. Well, the world want that we should lay aside that which God has revealed, and not speak of Joseph Smith, or of the revelations which he gave.

When I was abroad preaching, some said to me, we would be popular if we would say nothing about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, baptism for the remission of sins, or the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; they said if we would let these things alone we would be popular. Good heavens! We are now more popular than any other religious community upon the earth. We extend, as some would call it, from Dan to Beersheba; we extend to every nation, continent, and country, and almost to every island of the sea. The Gospel has been carried to almost every people. We have offered them the principles of life and salvation, and we shall continue to do so while there is any hope for them.

I expect, like us, the inhabitants of the earth will have their ups and downs, their troubles and afflictions. There has been a great chill among them: they had one when we had one; and now the fever has begun to increase with us it has begun to increase upon them; and by-and-by there will be another chill; and it will keep doubling and redoubling till the whole world is in motion. Will it overthrow this work? No, never.

I want the gentlemen that are here today, and who are going East, to tell the people of the United States that they need not trouble themselves; for “Mormonism” will increase and triumph until every king will be cast down from his throne, and the President of the United States, unless he and the people repent; and what they call “Mormonism” will continue to increase henceforth and forever.

When they killed Joseph Smith, and Hyrum, David Patten, and many others, they supposed that that was the end of “Mormonism”—that it was annihilated. Bless your souls, instead of its being annihilated, it has increased a hundredfold; and we have now more Elders preaching the Gospel—yes, about ten times more than there are people in this vast congregation this afternoon; and I presume there are some seven or eight thousand here today.

You may think this rather extravagant, but there are more Elders in England than there are people here today; and England is not as big as the State of New York, where I lived. They will spread and increase from this time on, and this work is bound to increase and spread abroad, and all hell cannot pull it down.

Suppose the Gentiles were to try to put it down, and to kill brother Brigham, and me, and brother Daniel, and the Twelve Apostles, still there are some fifty or sixty Quorums of Seventies that are capable of spreading abroad this kingdom. Why, bless you, it is like the mustard seed: you know it is most troublesome to get out of the garden. You get vexed with it and go and kick it about, and by that means you make ten thousand more little mustard trees.

Well, you know they drove us far away into these mountains; and now see the multitude of little mustard trees that are growing up! (Laughter.)

We want you to tell this, gentlemen, when you get down to the States; for we don’t have a mail very often, and therefore we drop a word here and there, and we want everybody to carry the tidings. It is not only me, but the Prophet Brigham talks just so. I suppose you will think, “What a monstrous fellow he is!”

I have been afflicted with colds ever since I came from the north; but I, all the time, grow fat. I do not drink ale, whiskey, rum, or any kind of spirituous liquor, but I seek to drink largely of the peaceable Spirit of God, that I may be strengthening to my brethren and sisters. For the world and the United States, and their opposition, which they call outside pressure, we care very, very little. We have some big mountains between us and them, and they cannot remove them because they have not faith.

Such a row as there is in the States at the present time I never before heard of. It is “Mormonism!” Down with “Mormonism!!” Mr. President, send up the troops and set those “Mormons” in order.

Gentlemen [to the strangers], did you ever see anybody out of order here? Have you seen anybody drunk? You have not, unless it was yourselves. I have not seen anybody drunk—no, not on the fourth of July. I have not seen a drunken man in the streets, much less a woman. One reason is, perhaps, that we have not got any liquor; and God grant that we may not have much.

You do not see many people about our streets idling away their time. Tomorrow morning you may see a few persons who have come from the country to get a little counsel; but after that you won’t see a man in the street, excepting those who are going to or coming from their work; for they are all hard at work, hoeing their corn, watering their wheat, and getting their wood from the canyons.

God Almighty bless this people, I say, and increase their faith and their strength, that they may increase and multiply. And may God increase the “mustard seed,” and cause it soon to fill the earth. May the Lord our God bless the bees in the hive of Deseret, and root out the drones; for they only eat out the honey, while the bees go out and gather it in.

Well, gentlemen, we are calculating that we have got the best crops that we have ever had, and the best that are in the world; and the Lord our God has blest the land for our sake. We had a famine last year, but we lived through it; and we are now going to work to lay up our grain, and we are building storehouses to store it away in; and we shall not only store away grain but other things that will keep; and the day will come that you (strangers) will have to come to us for bread to eat; and we will be your saviors here upon Mount Zion. You don’t believe it now; but wait a little while, and you will see that it will come to pass.

Many of the people of the United States exulted over us when we were brought to a morsel of bread, and had to deal out one to another in order to subsist. I put my family on short rations, in order to have some to deal out to others, and so did brother Brigham and many others; and at the same time our enemies and the priests in their pulpits were praising God that we had hard times, with trouble and perplexity. We never were more happy in our lives than we were at that time, and we did not have the bellyache through eating too much; but we were lively and diligent in serving God; and that is the reason we are becoming so corpulent this year. Last year we had not enough, but this year we have plenty, and we are going to lay it up in store—wheat and everything that will keep. I am telling these gentlemen what we are going to do, so that they can carry the news to the States.

Ladies, we do not want you to tease your husbands for silks, and satins, and fine bonnets, but go to work and manufacture your own clothing; and if you will do that, you will do the best thing that you ever did in your lives. This is as true as that the Lord ever spoke by His prophets. The time has come for us to lay up our stores.

Will the world follow our example? No, they will not; and if we do our duty, who cares whether they do or not. They will come with their bonnets, their fine clothing, and their jewelry, and be glad to work for us to get their bread. You tell that in the States, gentlemen, won’t you? Whether you do or not, they will learn of it. They publish nearly everything that we say, and this will be published.

We are a people, here in the valleys of the mountains, who are hated and have been broken up and driven for our religion till we have got used to it. Brother Brigham told you he had been driven five times, and so have I; and I have had everything taken from me that I had; but yet I have got enough to eat and drink, and enough of everything, and so have you; and my prayer is, all the while, God bless you.

Lay up your stores, and take your silks and fine things, and exchange them for grain and such things as you need, and the time will come when we will be obliged to depend upon our own resources; for the time is not far distant when the curtain will be dropped between us and the United States. When that time comes, brethren and sisters, you will wish you had commenced sooner to make your own clothing. I tell you, God requires us to go into home manufacture; and, prolong it as much as you like, you have got to do it.

You will also see the day that you will wish you had laid up your grain, if you do not do it now; for you will see the day, if you do not take care of the blessings God has given to you, that you will become servants, the same as the world will.

We have told you this before. You have been exhorted, year after year, to prepare for hard times: you have been told of this often enough. We have told you that when hard times come again you won’t have the privilege that you had last time of having food dealt out to you gratuitously, but you will have to pay for all you get. This will come to pass. I suppose there are many who don’t believe it. To such it is like a tune that strikes upon the drum of the ear, passes off, and is forgotten.

I will prove to you that I will put my faith with my works and lay up stores for my family and for my friends that are in the United States, and I will be to them as Joseph was to the people in the land of Egypt. Every man and woman will be a savior if they will do as I say. You may write this down and send it to the States; for it will be published.

Let repentance take place amongst you where it is necessary, and let confidence, diligence in the performance of duty, and humility be manifest in your lives; keep the commandments of God; be subject to God’s authority, and save yourselves all the time; and the Lord our God will have pleasure in making you like Joseph of old. Now, if persons were coming from the old country, from far distant lands, would you not feel comfortable if you had plenty to feed them with when they come?

These things bear heavily upon my mind, and they have done so for some time. There are very few who have got any surplus grain on hand. There is considerable in the Tithing Store, and there are a few individuals who have some on hand; but there is not a great deal in the country, excepting our present crop. It behooves us to be saving and to prepare for the time to come. The day will come when the people of the United States will come lugging their bundles under their arms, coming to us for bread to eat. Every Prophet has spoken of this from the early ages of the world. Already we begin to see sickness, trouble, death, famine, and pestilence; and more yet awaits the nations of the wicked. Jesus said, When you hear of these things in foreign nations—destruction and desolation, you may then look forth for my coming, and know that it is nigh at hand. In relation to the world, our enemies, their soldiery, and their governors, I do not fear them, and I never did.

If you will do right—keep the commandments of God, I can say with all the propriety that any man, prophet, or apostle ever did, you shall never want for food, or raiment, or houses, or lands; and no power on the earth can injure you. There is no power that shall prevent our prosperity; for we shall increase, while every other power upon the earth that is opposed to this work and our God will go down. I just know it. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, July 5, 1857.

It rejoices my heart to hear the brethren testify of their faith and good feelings, and of their confidence in God and in their religion. It is a matter of rejoicing to me to see those who profess to love and serve the Lord live up to their professions.

Brother Park very correctly observed that if this people will actually do the will of those who are placed to lead them, they will be owned, honored, and blest of their God who dwells in the heavens. I can say, for one, that I cannot be pleased, I cannot be satisfied, I cannot feel to fellowship this people as I wish to do, unless they live their religion and serve their God every day, every hour, and every minute of their lives. There is no time allotted to us to use outside of the limits of duty. But, in doing our duty, in serving our God, in living our religion, in using every possible means to send forth the Gospel of salvation to the inhabitants of the earth, to gather Israel, and establish Zion, and build up the kingdom of heaven upon the earth are incorporated all blessings, all comforts that men can desire.

It is a mistaken idea in the inhabitants of the earth to conclude that it will not do for them to yield obedience to the commandments of heaven, lest it should abridge them in their comforts and in their enjoyments; for there is no real peace, there is no real happiness in anything in heaven or on the earth, except to those who serve the Lord. In His service there is joy, there is happiness; but they are not to be found anywhere else. In it there are peace and comfort; but when the soul is filled with joy, with peace, and with glory, and is perfectly satisfied therewith a person even then has but little idea of that which is in store for all the faithful.

Thrust a man into prison and bind him with chains, and then let him be filled with the comfort and with the glory of eternity, and that prison is a palace to him. Again, let a man be seated upon a throne with power and dominion in this world, ruling his millions and millions, and without that peace which flows from the Lord of Hosts—without that contentment and joy that comes from heaven, his palace is a prison; his life is a burden to him; he lives in fear, in dread, and in sorrow. But when a person is filled with the peace and power of God, all is right with him.

I cannot be satisfied with myself, neither can I be satisfied with this people, unless they live in the enjoyment of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, having the testimony of Jesus within them. When they live in that manner, they are prepared to judge of all matters that come before them; they are then capable of discerning between truth and error, light and darkness. They can then readily discover the things that are not of God, and distinguish them from those that are. This is the only way for you to know that your leaders are leading you in the path that leads to heaven. Without taking this course, a people or nation is liable to be led astray by their leaders, and thereby be prepared to be destroyed; but when the people understand for themselves—when they know and understand the things of God by the Spirit of revelation, they are not only satisfied but safe. If this people will do as they are told—will please those who preside over them, they will do well for themselves. And if they will do this from morning to evening and from evening to morning, all will be right, and their acts will tend to promote the kingdom of God upon the earth.

As brother Wells lately observed here, it is very little difference what comes or goes. If the world are angry at us, that only fits and prepares them for their destruction. If they afflict the Saints of God, it prepares them for their reward; it prepares the righteous for bliss and immortality, and the wicked are the sooner ripened for their doom. It is very little difference whether men come here as soldiers or as civilians, all will promote the interest of the kingdom of God. It will promote the interests of the Saints, inasmuch as they are united; and though the wicked, in their eagerness to destroy the Saints of God, do not see this, yet God will make it all turn for the good of His people.

True, this people might have done better; but, considering all circumstances, they have done as well as could be expected. It might be shown to them, and perhaps this congregation will acknowledge it, that if this people had invariably been careful to observe counsel, they would have promoted the kingdom of heaven a great deal faster than they have. I will bring up a circumstance to illustrate this idea—one relating to us in these Valleys of the Mountains. It was just now observed by brother Feramorz Little that his feelings would be perfectly satisfied if he should never see another train of goods come in here for sale among this people. I would have been satisfied, if that could have been the case from the beginning.

At a time here when a person could go with a sackful of gold and say to a man, “Can I hire you to do some work for me? I have a sackful of gold;” and the man would say, “No; I cannot do it;” and every man would say, “No; I am too busy; I cannot do it;” and the person still saying, “I have hats full of gold;” but it was so plentiful, that men had such quantities of money that they were lugging it about until their backs ached—suppose that that money had been put into the hands of the Trustee-in-Trust, and used for the benefit of the kingdom of God, would it not have been much better than to pay it to the merchants to carry out of the Territory? One merchant, in a day-and-a-half, received for sales a large kettle-full of money, and in two days he took a great deal more. Suppose that that money had been put into the hands of the Trustee-in-Trust and those associated with him, they would have laid goods down at your doors for from thirty to forty percent cheaper than you got them. But could the people see that? No; their eyes were dim, and they could not see their own interest.

If the people had concentrated their means during the nine years past, they would now have been worth millions where they have only thousands. I know that now as well as I should have known it if the experiment had been tried, and that result proven. But no; the people would pay their money to others to carry out of the country.

I will tell an anecdote relating to the feelings of some in those days. I stepped into a store at the time when money was so plentiful, and the store was crowded. Every man, woman, and child, had their pockets full of gold. A woman stepped up and said, “Mr. So and So, have you any soap?” He replied, “I do not think there is any.” She then asked, “Have you any sugar, or coffee?” He answered, “I do not know whether there is or not: there was some this morning; but I think it has been sold.” It was not long before a woman reached over and touched the one enquiring, and said, “President Young has bought everything of that kind that has been brought in.” I reached over and tapped her on the shoulder and said, “What do you tell that infernal lie for? President Young has not bought a pound of tea, a pound of sugar, or a pound of coffee, since these goods came in.” The people were then in such a state of mind that they would rather have given all they had to the Gentiles than for me to have had a pound of tea or the handling of their money.

They were not all possessed of that feeling; but there were enough to influence the channel of trade and give it an unwise direction; and if there are not now too many of that class, I shall feel thankful, and we shall be able to hold the wheat and the cattle so that those who are passing through and temporarily sojourning in our midst will have to pay a fair price for those articles. But I presume, if the Gentiles come, some of you will run and sell your wheat and your cattle to them for a much less price than we would give you, and be perfectly satisfied with it. If there is not an influence and practice of that kind, I shall be glad of it; for it will prove to me that the people believe what they say.

I am careful about touching anything that is the object of people’s worship—the gold, the goods, and the things of this world, which please the eyes and entice the affections of the people. You who know me know that I have not been under the necessity of asking you to help me much. Instead of the Presidency’s living upon the people, it is well known that they have sustained the people. Suppose that I had not launched forth in business, and that brother Kimball and others had not, what would have been the result? This community would have been living in their log huts, whereas they now have good houses and comfortable homes.

I am decidedly in favor of practical religion—of everyday useful life. And if I today attend to what devolves upon me to do, and then do that which presents itself tomorrow, and so on, when eternity comes I will be prepared to enter on the things of eternity. But I would not be prepared for that sphere of action, unless I could manage the things that are now within my reach. You must all learn to do this.

If the people take a wise course and let a few have the handling of the wheat and other commodities that are for sale, and let those who wish to buy come to them to purchase, it would be much better for this people. By pursuing that course, our enemies would either be under the necessity of giving us a fair price, or have to purchase their supplies in the States, and haul them across the plains, through the hills, and over the mountains. How do you think they would prosper in that operation? I think they would soon become discouraged and want to leave these regions.

It is an ignorant excitement which causes some people in the States to feel and act as they do. Who is there, of all who are really acquainted with our proceedings and will let good reason and good sense operate, that has one word to say against us? No one. But the priests have hallooed so much about these Latter-day Saints—the “Mormons” as they term us, that they have become excited; and what is the reason of their outcry? It is simply this—we have the words of eternal life, and they have not; we serve the God of heaven and they serve somebody, they know not whom. We have the true religion that the Bible gives an account of, and they seem to be entirely ignorant of it and of the God of heaven. Only let us leave God out of our religion, and all would be right.

A great many have said to you and me, “Just leave out Joe Smith, the Book of Mormon, and modern revelations, and you will become popular.” Brother Clements said, last Sunday, that he told a priest that he could materially abridge that leaving out by saying, “Just leave God out of the question, and you will be ‘Hail fellows well met.’” We are not going to leave out Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, nor the gathering, nor the building up of Zion.

You hear brethren talk of coming to Zion to enjoy the blessings of this land; but do you not see that it is the shortsightedness of men which causes their disappointment when they arrive here? They read in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon, and Book of Doctrine and Covenants, about Zion, and what it is to be; but brother Park and others could not realize, before they came here, that they were the ones to help to build up Zion. They gather here with the spirit of Zion resting upon them, and expecting to find Zion in its glory, whereas their own doctrine should teach them that they are coming here to make Zion.

We can make Zion, or we can make Babylon, just as we please. We can make just what we please of this place. The people can make Zion: they can make a heaven within themselves. When people gather here, they should come with a determination to make Zion within themselves, with the resolution that, “I will carry myself full of the Spirit of Zion wherever I go; and this is the way in which I will control evil spirits; for I mean that my spirit shall have control over evil:” and do you not see that such a course will make Zion?

This American continent will be Zion; for it is so spoken of by the prophets. Jerusalem will be rebuilt and will be the place of gathering, and the tribe of Judah will gather there; but this continent of America is the land of Zion.

The priests are angry because they are afraid that their religion is nothing but a sandy-foundationed fabric; and whenever they meditate upon the subject and humble themselves, and the Spirit of the Lord finds its way to their hearts and convicts them, the truth then is made manifest before them, and they begin to learn the falsity of their systems; and when that spirit leaves them, they become angry. “Mormonism” is declared to be true by hosts of witnesses, and this makes the priests angry; for this Gospel bears its own weight and testimony, and they know not how to gainsay it. True, I have aimed to point out their errors; but it is not you or me that they are opposed to, although they throw their darts at us; but it is the spirit of conviction that goes with the report of this work; for wherever it goes it strikes conviction to the heart, and that is what disturbs the priests and the people.

The foolish, and those who are controlled by the hissings of the priests, rage against the work of God, and corrupt politicians urge them on. There is not an honest man in the United States or in the world but what, if he could hear this doctrine taught without knowing that it was a “Mormon” who was teaching it, would drink down these principles. They would swallow every word and say, “That is true; you have more light than I have.” But if you say “Mormon,” that sends the fat into the fire, and arrays their prejudices against you. Do you know this, you Elders? [Voices, “Yes.”]

As I have said before, I have often gone incognito, and taught persons the Gospel, and they would drink down its principles as eagerly as a thirsty ox would drink water; but an ignorant prejudice causes all the trouble. The excitement among the priests, and directed by politicians, raises this erroneous prejudice and hue-and-cry.

You know that I have said that, if it was now my calling to go and preach the Gospel, I could make as many converts as I ever did; for I would go in such a manner that the bitterly prejudiced would have to labor hard to find out that I was a “Mormon,” until I had induced them to love the truth. Then they would say, “If that is ‘Mormonism,’ I want it.”

Persons who are as ignorant as jackasses pass through this city, and they are so prejudiced that they cannot see and hear well enough to report things straight. But let persons of good understanding come here, and hear the Elders testify, and stop to investigate, and every honest heart among them will receive the Gospel. Do you not know that they would?

The “Mormons” are trying to take care of themselves. Our enemies may come to kill us, but we know that there is a God in the heavens. I care no more about the threats that are made than I do about the floating of a board on the waters. They have kicked us and cuffed us about so much that I have got used to it. I have been driven, and had to leave my home five times on account of my faith in the Gospel of our Savior; but I have never until now been a conspicuous character; and I say to my enemies and to the enemies of righteousness, you have now got to fire long shots, unless you come much nearer to us than you are.

I will say to all parties, If you come here and do not observe wholesome laws, we will introduce you to them. In regard to troops coming here, as has been rumored, should 1,500 or 2,000 come, what will you see? You will see that they will ask us to make their soldiers behave themselves, until they can get out of this place, which they will do as soon as possible. They are not coming here to fight us; though, if they were to, I should pray that the Lord would bring those here that mobbed us in days gone by, and just let us look at them. But no; the priests, and some editors and politicians wish to have innocent soldiers sent here to fight us. Let them bring those priests, editors, and politicians who have howled so long about us, and we will attend to their cases. But I pray that I may never witness such scenes as I have in the midst of this people. If they will let us alone, we will preach the Gospel; and if they do not, we will do it, and we will build up Zion, if all the devils in hell howl. Let us know that we have to build up Zion until the Spirit of peace shall overrule our country.

Do you ever reflect upon the matter? Look at St. Louis. More murders have been committed there in almost any few days than have been committed in this Territory since it was organized. It is customary there to have murders committed almost daily; but we, above all other people, ought never to have such a crime committed in our midst; and we never have had, so far as the Latter-day Saints are concerned.

I will now tell you something. It is a secret; and I wish you to keep it to yourselves. There have been men here who have had their plans arranged for robbing; and I will take the liberty to say that, when we find them, “judgment will be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.” Those are my feelings, and I express them plainly, that the good and honest may be able to pass from the Eastern States to California, and back and forth, in peace. And when a “Mormon” unlawfully disturbs anybody, I say, let him be overtaken by a “Vigilance Committee.” And when mobocrats come here, they will find a “Vigilance Committee.” Now, listeners, send that to the States, if you wish. I want the people in the States to know that there are a few poor curses here, and also to know that we do not want a gang of highwaymen here. And I say to all such characters, if you come here and practice your iniquity, we will send you home quick, whenever we can catch and convict you. I wish such characters would let the boys have a chance to lay their hands on them.

If men come here and do not behave themselves, they will not only find the Danites, whom they talk so much about, biting the horses’ heels, but the scoundrels will find something biting their heels. In my plain remarks, I merely call things by their right names. Brother Kimball is noted in the States for calling things by their right names, and you will excuse me if I do the same.

We will build up Zion and establish the kingdom of God upon the earth, and the wicked cannot help themselves. I have not built up this kingdom, neither did Joseph Smith. What the Lord told brother Joseph to do, that he did. And what the Lord tells you and me to do we will do, by the help of God. May God bless us all. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, Delivered in the Bowery, Sunday Afternoon, June 14, 1857.

Brethren and sisters—I arise to call your attention to a subject that has been presented to you, time after time, from this stand. I may, perhaps, refresh your minds, and present some things to you that you may not have fully comprehended or understood.

We have been told to store up our grain and to take care of it. The history of the past forms ample ground for advice of this kind. We have not only seen, but felt the folly of placing too low an estimate upon the productions of the earth. When they were plentiful, they have been thought of little value. We have found ourselves comparatively destitute at times, in consequence, and, in the time of this scarcity, have suffered in our feelings—have been pinched with hunger; and it does seem that the subject of laying up our grain has been presented under circumstances that cannot fail to impress every heart with its importance.

I will tell you how things look to me. They look as though the Lord had said—I have tried my people; I have withheld the bounties of the earth, and in this day of want I have given them advice to store up their grain: and if ever they could be brought into circumstances to make them appreciate these words, it is now.

It is now a pretty scarce time for clothing: it is hard to get many of the comforts of life in the shape of wearing apparel. We have no money: many of us have no surplus of the products of the earth to exchange; and if we had, our market is comparatively bare of many of the articles we need.

Some consider that great trials await us; but I will call your attention to one. It is a very great trial to be short of clothing, boots, shoes, &c. (to say nothing of the silks, ribbons, laces, and other gewgaws), to answer our desires, and perhaps not our real wants and comforts. But the Lord may pour out an abundant harvest of grain; and, while we are destitute of those things, our granaries may be groaning with the weight of the grain that is in them. But by-and-by the market is richly supplied with goods, such as we need. It is supplied with every material or fabric, and perhaps silver and gold, and a liberal price is offered for our grain; and with this grain we can buy those articles of clothing that we need. Now here comes the trial. (But keep in mind “home manufacture.”) We know these circumstances pinch. We want the clothing, and we have an abundance around us, and means in our hands to obtain those articles in exchange for our produce and wheat. This will try us, whether we will abide the counsel that has been given, or whether we will not. I presume to say that just such circumstances will appear before this people. I have not the least hesitancy upon my mind in saying that such will be the case. Here you have grain to any amount; and here is your silver, your gold, your goods, your groceries, and your wares of every kind, and everything that you can desire to make yourselves comfortable. Now, all this is in the midst of this counsel to store up your grain, and to hold on to it. It is the counterpart, or tempter to beguile. How many will there be who will go and exchange one for the other? Say one and another, I must have a little of this, a little of that, and a little of the other; and thus, little by little, goes the grain that we were commencing to store up, until it has leaked away and our granaries are empty.

It is strange that we should do this, when we really desire bread, and have so keenly felt its need! We had none at one time—that is, comparatively none. Starvation, ghastly and appalling, threw its hideous forms and frightful shadows in our face; and what was the counsel of God then? Was it not to remain faithful over the little that we had, and to divide out the limited supplies that we had, and to relieve the necessities of the poor and needy? And did not the people, in a goodly degree, comply with this counsel? Yes, they did. Well, has not our heavenly Father, by multiplying our grain in our storehouses, like the widow’s meal and oil, thwarted off impending calamities? He certainly has.

Now there is a prospect of a bountiful harvest. We cannot tell what may be; but if we are true and faithful, like the needle to the pole, we shall have an abundance to supply not only our present wants, but some to lay by for the future. This is the result of abiding in the counsel of God, and the Lord says, I will give them liberally; for they have said that they will not let it go to waste; for they design now to keep it for the children of the kingdom and for the time of great want, when strangers shall come to them also for bread. And now, therefore, I will pour out a bountiful harvest, to prove their integrity.

I have told them to prove me, and now I will prove them. You bring along your tithes and offerings into my storehouse, and see if I will not pour out a blessing—see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you will not have room to receive. I will prove you now, and see if you will be as faithful to me as I have been to you.

If this grain be stored up and properly taken care of, we may go destitute of many comforts that we desire; but, after the Lord has proven us, in this respect, to see if we will resist the temptations of the adversary—to see if we will resist the shining gold and the fine apparel, and to see if we will abide the law, and lock up and preserve our grain, is it not as easy for Him to provide us with those things that we really need for clothing as it was to increase our limited stores, or to give us now a plentiful harvest? Is it not said, “Surely, thou shalt clothe thyself with them all, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.” And is it not said that the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and riches to Zion? What shall hinder them from bringing the treasures by which we can all be clothed? What will induce them to come here at all with their riches, their gold, and their silver, and fine apparel? Let the Almighty shut down the gate of prosperity, as He will do, and a general dearth ensue, and they know that in Zion it is fruitful, and that the good things of the earth are produced there—let them know that there is bread, and you will see them coming here to pour out their treasures for a bit of bread; but if you shall not have it stored up for them, you will not do your duty. The Lord can do this. He can bring these things about; and, brethren, the test is right before us. It is not an imaginary thing, but it is actually coming to test us, to see whether we will, under these circumstances, abide the counsel that has been given to us.

There is hardly ever a commandment given to any person or persons before whom a temptation is not placed to decoy them, if possible, from an obedience to that commandment. Our parents in the garden of Eden had had but little experience in this world; and it seemed that they must have a trial corresponding with the experience and knowledge they had of things as they were. The instruction of Father Adam was, “Of all the trees in the garden thou mayest eat, excepting one; and in the day thou eatest of that, thou shalt surely die.” The Lord said, “Adam and Eve, you may enjoy yourselves; but there is one tree I command you that ye shall not eat of; for in the day that ye do, ye shall surely die.”

It seems that they were well provided for. There was an abundance of other kinds of fruits; but there was a kind of itching desire for that which they were forbidden to eat of; and they were led on by temptation until they did partake of that fruit, and thus the devil got power over them.

Well, if counsel has been given unto us to store up our grain, I should not wonder if there were temptations placed before us, to induce us to noncompliance. High prices in silver and gold may be offered as an inducement. Men may come and say, “I will give you a high price for your wheat: here are goods of every kind we will give for your grain.” There, you perceive, is the temptation and the counsel before us. We should like the comforts of life, and would no doubt like to purchase them; but the counsel of the servants of the Lord would lead us to do differently.

Such scenes as these, brethren and sisters, we may see, and they may not be far ahead of us. They may be very near; for things change very suddenly sometimes. It is for us to abide in the counsel of God, and never turn aside nor cast a longing look upon the riches and comforts of this life, when we have to violate a holy precept to gain them. Remember it, brethren and sisters; for I want to impress it upon your minds. Keep your grain for yourselves and for strangers who, in times of famine abroad, seek at your hands bread from heaven and earth. When the servants of God set good counsel before you, and these temptations follow, they will not command, perhaps, when the temptation is present; and these things will be trying to you: they will be so, to see if you will stand by your integrity, or fall by your instability.

I want to tell a little anecdote which came to my ears. I do not know that I shall be right; but, if I am wrong, there are those present who can correct me. It is said that there is a man in this city, a natural miner, who has a peculiar gift to discover metals of value, though hidden in the earth at any depth. He can point out the very place where they are. He happened in a gentleman’s house in this town one day, and they were discussing his powers to discern any metal in the earth. The lady, doubting his ability, took a piece of lead, and slyly stepped out and buried it, being careful to leave no visible marks by which any other than herself could find it. She returned and told him that in the garden was a piece of lead buried, and wished him to find it if he could. He made the attempt; and, after a little rambling, pointed to the very spot where it was; but the lady, thinking to bluff him off and discourage him, made perfect ridicule of him, and asked what had led him to think it was there. She pretended to regard him as insane, and the poor man came to the conclusion that he might be mistaken, as the lady appeared so sanguine in her ridicule. He gave it up as a mistake, doubting his own gift. Since the time that he was bluffed off from the faith in the natural gift that God had given him—(Pres. H. C. Kimball: And that by a woman!)—yes, and since that, it has been taken away altogether. Before this, he was never mistaken in such matters; but since, has no more powers of discovering than any other.

Now, we have the gift of God, and that is the gift of wise counsel—of good counsel given unto us for the purpose of self-preservation. Will we, by any reason, by any craft, by any device, by any machinations, by any swerving from our purpose, lose that gift? Remember that if we are upon the enemies’ ground, the gift that is given to us may be destroyed or taken from us forever; and probably the time may be that you and I may not have the counsel of the servants of God from day to day. If it is necessary, however, we may have it; and if it is not; remember it, ye Latter-day Saints, and everybody that fears God and serves Him with full purpose of heart! Remember the counsel that is given, “STORE UP ALL YOUR GRAIN,” and take care of it! Prize it above gold and silver, above rich clothing and fine apparel, and above everything else except the bread of life! And I tell you it is almost as necessary to have bread to sustain the body as it is to have food for the spirit; for the one is as necessary as the other, to enable us to carry on the work of God upon the earth.

Brethren and sisters, may God bless you, and bless your fields, and flocks, and all that you possess. Take care of your fields, your flocks, and your herds; take care of and preserve everything that God has given us to take care of upon the earth. May God bless you, and bless us all, and give us the gift of eternal life; and may the angel of life preserve us; and may we feel to lay shoulder to shoulder, and prove to God and our brethren that we are ready and determined to roll forth this great work—

“While life, or thought, or being lasts, Or immortality endures.”

—Amen.