Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, June 24, 1860.

I have no desire to detain you here and weary you, for there has been more said now than you can retain in your minds. All the items that have been advanced by brother Young are very good. When you reflect and take into consideration the religion of Jesus Christ, viewing it from the beginning to the present time, you can easily see that it is for you and I and every man upon the face of the earth to be wide awake to our duties, to be Saints, to be righteous, virtuous, pure, and holy men and women. It is all to be comprehended in the words of James the Apostle. He says, “Faith without works is dead, being alone.”

Now, our position is such that we are required to manifest that which is in us by our works. The following reasoning by the Apostle James is excellent upon this subject—“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James, chap. 2, verses 14-26.)

Can you tell me about anything that has been accomplished without works? It matters not how much faith you have got, except you have works with it. We read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants that men can accomplish much by faith; but of course that faith must be accompanied by works. Whenever a man of God undertakes to do anything, he does it by the power of faith and works. Upon this principle the Lord brings about his purposes, and there never was anything of any moment accomplished upon any other principle. The Almighty has said that in the latter days he will send forth his angels to inflict punishment upon the wicked, and that a certain angel shall blow his trumpet, proclaiming that time shall be no more. An angel will also be sent forth to destroy the wicked, or, as the Scriptures say, “to reap down the earth.”

There is virtue in the words of a man of God; and when he rises to address the people, he tells them his message plainly, commands them to repent of their sins and to be baptized for the remission of them; after which he promises them the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then, when persons are received into the Church, they begin their lives anew, as though they had never sinned, and thus go on unto perfection.

We are told to work out our salvation by our faith, and with fear and trembling. And cannot you readily see that works are required at the beginning of our career, and from that time to the end of our lives? Where is there a man in the world that ever raised a crop of grain without works? If a man wishes to raise a crop of wheat, he first ploughs the ground, then he drags it; he next sows the wheat; and when the dry season comes on in this country, he irrigates it; when it is ripe he reaps it, hauls it home, stacks it; and when he gets ready, thrashes it, takes it to the fanning mill, from there to the grist mill, where it passes through the smutter; it is then ground, bolted, and taken home ready for use. And every process that the wheat passes through is controlled by works. And it is so with us: we are required to perform works of righteousness all the day long.

Brethren, you are required to be very diligent and cautious; and, as brother Joseph said, Be careful not to put in anything that will sour and destroy the good that you do. Take good care of all the good you get; increase in faith and in good works; for, as James says, “Faith without works is dead, being alone.”

Then go on with your works of righteousness; be diligent and faith– ful in all things committed to your charge. Let the Elders be at their posts, and be ready to administer in the ordinances of the house of God whenever duty requires it of them. If the Elders will be faithful, the power of God will attend them in their administrations; but if the people to whom they administer have not repented, they will not receive the remission of their sins, nor the gift of the Holy Ghost; for that Spirit will not dwell with that person who does not honor his calling, and who is not sincere and truly penitent before the Almighty. You may go to meeting and sit from one day’s end to another, and it will not profit you anything, if you do not perform the works of righteousness required by the law of heaven.

I can live my religion, whether at home or abroad, whether I sit here, preach to the people, or do anything else that pertains to my calling and position. If it is necessary for me to preach, I rejoice in doing it, or in the performance of any other duty. If I do not confess, I shall be condemned.

I have noticed that there are not many of those “counter-jumpers” come to meeting: the saloon keepers are not much better. It is hard times with them; there is not much money stirring now; the business is almost done on credit nowadays. What do you think I think of old greyheaded men who sell whiskey all the week, and then come to meeting on Sunday? I do not fellowship such men, be they young or old; I disfellowship them all. I cannot fellowship the old men who have loved it from their youth, and then go and give it to young men, and lead them to destroy their bodies and defile the earth. It is drunkenness that leads to whoredom and abominations of every kind, and brother John Alger, senior, who sits before me, knows it as well as I do. He knew me when I was a mere boy, and there was not a drunkard in all that district of country; but now they are nearly all drunkards in that part of the State; yes, men and women are leading each other to destruction. Then who can have any feelings against me for talking against these things?

I wish now to speak of works. Let us consider those principles and ordinances that lead to life. The doctrines we teach are good and wholesome, and every man and woman that will observe them will be saved; they will be at peace at home and abroad. Do you think it will inspire a man who is already honest to become a Latter-day Saint? No; I am just the same in that respect now as I was before I embraced the Gospel. I was honest then, and I am honest now, and brother Alger knows it. The man that will be dishonest with what we call Gentiles will rob me, if I give him an opportunity. You should be as honest with those comers and goers as you are with me. God has never given you the right to be dishonest. There are too many such characters in our midst. Sometimes I am sorry, sometimes I am glad, and sometimes I am ashamed of what I see and hear. How long will such things continue? Not many years, I can tell you. Our Father will sweep them from the land, and that man who is honest, although he does not profess religion at all, will be saved; but those who profess and do not possess the spirit of their profession, and who do not live up to their privileges, will be cast out. None can stand or endure the trying day, except those who are active and diligent in the discharge of their duties.

There are some people who think I am very hard, and occasionally pretty rough in my sayings; but I can tell you that I am not as severe as I ought to be, considering the persons and cases I have got to deal with. When I see people taking a course to lead them to destruction, I feel anxious to save them from falling. I know that I am a poor frail mortal, liable to err; but I know better than to cheat or rob a neighbor, and so does every man that has been baptized into this Church; but men give way to temptation. If men steal, they know they are doing wrong and sinning against God.

In regard to trials that brother Joseph was speaking of, I consider that I never had any that affected me; and if anybody ever rejoiced in tribulation, I did when I had to break up and go and make a new home. When the proper time comes, we shall all have the privilege of attending to the ordinance necessary for the salvation of our dead. My brothers and sisters and all my relatives almost died before the Gospel was revealed; and when we get a Temple built, I will go forth and be baptized for them, and bring them to enjoy that which is their right. At present I have to say to you, brethren and sisters, Live the life of the righteous, do that which is required for the benefit of the living, and the day will come when you can go through the ordinances of the house of God for the dead.

I am free to acknowledge that a great majority of this people are improving, and I am sorry to say that a few of them are retrograding. Some have become contaminated by associating with this army. They are responsible for this themselves, for God never suffered an army to come here to corrupt the people, but to try them—to prove them in this as well as in other things. It is true the army has been a curse to many, more so than any previous influence with which they have come in contact. We have to be tried, and this has been suffered, to see what we would do. Many who have come here would, if they had an opportunity, debauch our families—seduce our wives and daughters. There are some honorable exceptions to this, and those who would not do it here would not do it at home.

There are many enemies of ours that look upon us as the outcasts of all creation, because of our religion. I expect to see the day when they will have to come and be our servants, and they cannot avoid this.

This is the Church and kingdom of God, and the religion we have embraced is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it will ere long prevail over the whole world, and the wicked cannot prevent it. Do you think they believe it? Yes, the Congress of the United States have more trouble about us than they have about the whole world besides.

This is a day of judgment; hurricanes are passing over the land and terrifying the inhabitants of the earth; and this is not the end. Many persons who profess to know have been predicting that in the year 1861 more events of a marvelous character would take place than in any previous year; but whether this is the case or not, I know that the judgments of God will pass over the earth.

In conclusion, I feel to bless this land, these valleys, mountains, waters, also our herds and flocks; I feel to bless all the righteous, and predict judgments upon the wicked. Let the Elders who meet to pray after the holy order of the Priesthood ask the Father to hasten the consummation of his work, that the Saints may inherit the earth.

God bless you all forever! Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 5, 1860.

Referring to the ideas advanced by our brother who has just sat down, in regard to the suffering of the children of men upon the earth, I will say it is a subject worthy of reflection. Have the enemies of the kingdom of God on the earth the power to bring more suffering upon the people who love and serve him, than they have to bring suffering upon themselves? I answer, They have not. We cannot find, in all the history extant, that mankind have ever exerted themselves more to destroy the kingdom of God from the earth than they have to destroy themselves. All their endeavors to overthrow the holy Priesthood of heaven and its righteous rule among men have always tended a hundredfold more to their own overthrow and utter destruction. Like the leaves of autumn, they have fallen to the ground and are forgotten. It was prophesied by Joseph the Prophet that the bones of those who drove the Church from Missouri, and killed men, women, and children, should bleach upon the Plains. This has been fulfilled. Did they suffer more than the people of God whom they drove from their homes—from their firesides in winter—from their fathers and mothers and friends, and the land of their nativity? Yes, there is scarcely a comparison. Their sufferings in crossing the Plains to the gold regions of California have been greater by far than ever the sufferings of the Saints have been in crossing the Plains to Utah. These are facts that are present with us. The bones of those who drove the Saints from Independence, from Jackson County, then from Clay and Davis Counties, and last of all from Caldwell County, from whence they fled into Illinois, have been scattered over the Plains—gnawed and broken by wild beasts, and are there bleaching to this day, while the Saints who have died on the Plains have, without an exception, had a decent burial where they have died—have had friends to condole with and comfort them in their dying moments, and to mourn for a season with their bereaved relatives. These comforts and blessings were denied the murderers of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and of scores of the Saints, and they were left in the bitterness of death without a friend and without mercy. They suffered immensely more than did the Saints whom they persecuted; they received that which they sought to bring upon the Saints, and that too in good measure, pressed down, and running over.

I have said and will say that there never was a colony settled on this continent, since its discovery by Columbus, with so little suffering as have had the Latter-day Saints who settled these valleys.

I will now leave these ideas, and turn my attention on to the remarks made by brother Lorenzo Snow in the forenoon. The principles and doctrine couched in those remarks are of great interest to the human family. I will take the liberty to treat upon the same principles, but shall carry the ideas still further, though in my own language and style of delivery. I will use a few words of Scripture concerning the evil that now exists and has existed upon the earth, referring to certain characters who have always been upon the earth and are still upon it, who are actually, to a great extent, “lording over God’s heritage.” I would plant my remarks here; and then for the context, I will use another saying—“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” I have but little time to expound and explain minutely, but will start at the beginning. God has created man in his own image, upright. Man in his creation is but a very little lower than the angels. In what degree and capacity is he lower than the angels? Angels are those beings who have been on an earth like this, and have passed through the same ordeals that we are now passing through. They have kept their first estate far enough to preserve themselves in the Priesthood. They did not so violate the law of the Priesthood and condemn themselves to the sin against the Holy Ghost as to be finally lost. They are not crowned with the celestial ones. They are persons who have lived upon an earth, but did not magnify the Priesthood in that high degree that many others have done who have become Gods, even the sons of God. Human beings that pertain to this world, who do not magnify or are not capable of magnifying their high calling in the Priesthood and receive crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives, will also, when they again receive their bodies, become angels and will receive a glory. They are single, without families or kingdoms to reign over. All the difference between men and angels is, men are passing through the day of trial that angels have already passed through. They belong to the same family that we do; but they have proven themselves worthy only of an exaltation to the state of angels, whereas we have the privilege of obtaining not only the same exaltation they enjoy, but of going further until we become Gods, even the sons of God.

My next reflections are upon the state of mankind, their position before God in their creation and being upon the earth in the connection of the spirit and tabernacle, and the influences that surround them. There are certain influences that we have no control over: man is controlled by surrounding influences in a greater or less degree. For instance, we cannot avert the consequences of the fall as it is called, of Adam, which came through his transgressing certain words or laws given to him by his Father and God. In consequence of this, sin came into the world, and death by sin. We are more or less controlled by the influences that have been introduced into the world by the power of Satan upon the children of men, and will be so long as we live in the flesh.

Permit me to diverge a moment from the legitimate chain of the subject before us. I do not myself wish, nor do I ask any man in the world to create a spirit of reformation to sing and shout ourselves “away to everlasting bliss.” There never was any such reformation desired by me. All I have ever asked for or contended for is a reformation in the life of this people; that the thief should stop his stealing, the swearer his swearing, the liar his lying, the deceiver his deceiving, and the man who loves the world more than his God and his religion wean his affections from those objects and place them where they of right belong. I do not wish anybody to cherish a wild enthusiasm, so common in the world, which is produced by the excitement of animal passions, and makes people weep and cry out in an insane manner. I wish the people to make themselves acquainted with facts pertaining to God, to heaven, to mankind upon the earth, their errand here, for what they are created, the nature of their organization, who has power over them, who controls them, how much they can control themselves, &c., &c.; and then let us see whether we can be men and conduct ourselves like Saints, or live and act like the wicked.

My reflections led me to inquire who it is that has influence over us. Can you inform me why people do wrong when they know the path of right and can walk in it as easily as we can walk home in broad daylight? Is the cause of this to be found in the heavens? No. Is it to be found in the spirit God has placed in our tabernacles? No. Where is it to be found? In the power of the Enemy of all righteousness, who holds dominion over our flesh, which flesh is intimately connected with the spirit God has placed within it. Herein is a warfare.

Brother Lorenzo was striving to lay before the people the necessity of their letting good overcome evil, instead of letting evil overcome good. His remarks supplied to me a number of texts, showing the precise situation of mankind before the Father and his angels, and before all the heavens. Men try to lord it over God’s heritage. I understand that saying in this wise: The spirits that are in men are as pure as the Gods are; then why do they consent to do evil? Because of the influences of evil that are in the flesh. Over it the Enemy of all righteousness has held dominion, has exercised a right, and has apparently triumphed. When mankind give way to evil and suffer the flesh to rule and contaminate the pure spirit tabernacled within it, they lord it over God’s heritage. When men consent to evil, the spirit within them does not answer approvingly. Though the inhabitants of the earth are in darkness and blindness, yet they are not so ignorant as they represent themselves to be. There is a spirit in them that reproves them continually when they do wrong, until they have sinned away the day of grace, and a mantle of darkness is thrown around them to shut out forever the light of God. Until then, they are checked continually, are taught, and chastened or justified as the case may be.

When people do right, they rest upon their beds, sleep sweetly, and rejoice in righteousness in their secret moments. When they do evil, it brings sorrow and deep pain to them in their private reflections. “But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” In every man there is a candle of the Lord which burns with a clear light; and if by the wickedness of a man it is extinguished, then farewell forever to that individual. The people say they do as well as they know how. This may be true. It is also true that there is a great amount of ignorance. But who among this people does an evil without knowing it? Is there a man in this kingdom who betrays his God and his brethren, without being perfectly conscious that he does an evil? I think not. Is there one who treats the name of the Deity with lightness, using his name in vain, that believes himself justified? I think not. Is there one who takes advantage of his neighbor or a fellow being, deceiving and wronging him, that believes he does right? I think not. When men do wrong, they know that they do wrong. Is there a person in this community that can lie, and feel justified in the belief that he is telling the truth? Does the thief feel justified in doing right when he steals his neighbor’s goods? No. The blackest vagabond, and renegade that walks the streets of this city or Territory is conscious when he does right and when he does wrong. Notwithstanding all this, there is a great deal of ignorance.

Just as long as we live within the purview of the reconciliation of the Spirit of God, that visits us from time to time, revealing the truth and the righteousness of our God, and yield to that and never cast it from us, whether we live or die, there is a salvation for us. There is a salvation for all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, no matter where they have lived or when, nor whether Christian, Mussulman, Jew, barbarian, or Gentile, that do not deny the power of God and sin against the Holy Ghost. You may discover that I am a Universalist. I am; and I am also a Calvinist, for the Almighty decreed all this before the worlds were. As I progress in my remarks you can see plainly that a widely extended field opens to our minds.

Is every man and woman capable of receiving the highest glory of God? No. We are surrounded with circumstances that control us to a certain degree. My father and mother moved into the State of Vermont, and it happened that I was born there. I cannot help that. They might have stayed in Massachusetts, close to Boston. If they had, I should have been born there, and I could not have helped that. My father’s name was John Young, and my mother’s maiden name was Nabby How. I cannot help that. My father was a poor, honest, hardworking man; and his mind seemingly stretched from east to west, from north to south; and to the day of his death he wanted to command worlds; but the Lord would never permit him to get rich. He wanted to command all, and that too in righteousness. I cannot help all this; I have no power to control such circumstances. When I was about twenty months old, my father moved from Vermont into the State of New York, where I lived with him until I became a man. I cannot help that. There are a thousand circumstances I cannot help or control that are thrown around me without any action of my choice.

I cannot help being here. We might have gone to Vancouver’s Island; and if we had, we should probably have been driven away or used up before this time. But here we are in the valleys of the mountains, where the Lord directed me to lead the people. The brethren who are in foreign countries desire to gather to the gathering place of the Saints, and they have for the present to come to Great Salt Lake City. They cannot help that. Why did we not go to San Francisco? Because the Lord told me not: “For there are lions in the way, and they will devour the lambs, if you take them there.” What now can we do? Why, instead of being merchants, instead of going to St. Louis to buy goods, we can go down to our Dixie land, the southern part of our Territory, and raise cotton and manufacture goods for ourselves. These are circumstances we are creating with which to surround our children, and to form the foundation of the future prosperity of this community. They will be more or less governed by the circumstances we create for them. They will make their own bonnets, ribbons, hats, coats, and dresses of every kind. While we are governed and controlled by circumstances over which we have no power, still we possess ability and power in our different spheres of action to call into existence circumstances to surround ourselves and our children, which will more or less control them; and, if they are planned in righteousness, will tend to lead us and our children to heaven. I have power to call upon the brethren to go south and raise cotton and indigo, the olive, and the grape. I have done it. In doing this, it throws them under the influence of new surroundings and new circumstances. They in their turn can, by perseverance and faithfulness, under the dictations of the Spirit of truth, bring forth a train of happy circumstances to bless them, to bless their wives, to bless their children, and to bless the kingdom of God.

I have power to send brethren to the east or to the west to buy our goods. I have power to say, John, William, or Thomas, Go and find a gold mine; but I am not disposed to exercise this power in that way. God has given this power to me. Let the brethren who have been called to go south go willingly, with their heads up and glory, hallelujah! in their hearts; for they are pioneers of future greatness, power, and independence to Israel. They possess power to do this. When the husbandman goes into his field, he has power to plough up the soil. When it is ready, he has power to plant corn in rows or otherwise; he has power to sow wheat or oats in drills or broadcast, and harrow in or cover the seeds, that they may grow. What we sow we shall also reap. We have great power committed unto us, and yet we are confined by certain laws that we cannot avert or control.

The power of choice all intelligent beings inherit from the Gods of eternity; it is innate. This statement might even be applied to the brute creation; but it is not my purpose to extend my remarks in that channel today. The Latter-day Saints can take the road that leads to life everlasting, if they choose; or, if they choose, they can take the road that leads to apostasy. As individuals, we must guard our affections from becoming contaminated with the love of earthly riches, or anything that is of earth, whether animate or inanimate. Uncertainty is strewed around us, and disappointment is the constant companion of those who worship at the shrine of the god of this world. If we center our affections upon any earthly object, whether within our reach or out of our reach, should we be bereaved of that object, we are left to mourn and lament in darkness because of our ignorance and folly. Let our love be for God and truth, righteousness and peace, being contented and happy with present endowments; and as the way opens to further progression, greater possessions, walk forward in the light of God and hold what we obtain for him and his cause, coveting not what we possess, and not with an avaricious desire reaching after what we cannot possess. If we do opposite to this, our whole existence will be creped with disappointment and mourning. Then let us keep the world and its allurements aloof from our affections. We may have the ability to build for ourselves beautiful houses, to plant choice orchards and vineyards, to adorn our grounds with flowers and sweet scented shrubs, and have lovely families, and possess horses and chariots, silver and gold, this, that, and the other, in abundance. But if our affections are placed upon these things, we shall either go out of the kingdom of Christ and miss being exalted sons of God, or will see our error, repent of our folly, learn to control our affections, desires, and passions, and willingly let “God rule within us to will and to do of his good pleasure,” having no mind only that which is of heaven.

Have we a will? Yes. It is an endowment, a trait of the character of the Gods, with which all intelligence is endowed, in heaven and on earth—the power to accept or reject.

Then, wherever the wisdom of God directs, let our affections and the labor of our lives be centered to that point, and not set our hearts on going east or west, north or south, on living here or there, on possessing this or that; but let our will be swallowed up in the will of God, allowing him to rule supremely within us until the spirit overcomes the flesh, and the world, Satan, and the flesh are vanquished and lie under our feet. Then and not till then will the righteousness of God reign triumphantly. It may be asked whether I have any idols? Yes, I have most darling idols—my God and my religion, and they are all the idols I wish to have. “Have you no wife that you idolize?” If I have, let the Lord take her and give her to somebody else. “Have you no children that you idolize?” If I have, let the Lord have them. I possess that which is apparently mine; but why should I call them mine, until I have passed the ordeals mortals must pass, and they are sealed to me by the authorities of the Gods in a way that they cannot be taken from me? They are now in my possession, and I hold them by the undisputed right of that possession. Anything we have upon this earth we only seem to have, for in reality we own nothing. No person on the earth can truly call anything his own, and never will until he has passed the ordeals we are all now passing, and has received his body again in a glorious resurrection, to be crowned by him who will be ordained and set apart to set a crown upon our heads. Then will be given to us that which we now only seem to own, and we will be forever one with the Father and the Son, and not until then.

There is a great difference in the individual capacity of people. Some can receive much more than others can: hence we read of different degrees of glory. How many kingdoms glory of there are, I know not; and how many degrees of glory there are in these kingdoms, I know not; but there are multitudes of them. Paul speaks of three, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon saw three, and multitudes more have we seen by the Spirit of revelation, according to the capacity of our understandings. Can we so live and direct ourselves as to receive glory, immortality, and eternal lives? We can. Then love not the world, nor the things of the world. Desire not that which is not for us, but desire only that which God has ordained for our benefit and advancement in the science of eternal life; then can we advance with accelerated speed in the things of God.

But is it not visibly manifest that the great majority want to lord it over God’s heritage. Wicked kings lord it over the consciences of their subjects, priests over their people, and masters over their servants; and wicked dispositions tell us to do this and to desire that which pertains to folly: they prompt almost constantly to lord it over God’s heritage. Where is God’s heritage? It is in our affections, our love, delight, glory, and happiness. Let us honor God’s heritage, sanctify it, and bring all into subjection that surrounds it and is connected with it, sanctifying the Lord in our affections. We see all the world trying to lord it over God’s heritage. It is in the spirit that the evil principle and power is trying to overcome and rule over the divine principle planted there. This constantly leads the children of men astray.

What power is legally ours? That which was given to Adam and the human family in former days. Power? Yes. Dominion? Yes. Glory? Yes. Honor? Yes. That which pertains to this world? Yes. That which pertains to the next? Yes. Let us understand this power and this privilege that God has guaranteed to the human family. He has first imparted power to mankind to control the elements; and when this is employed faithfully to magnify righteousness, then excellence, magnificence, splendor, beauty, honor, glory, and Godlike power will follow as the results. This power must be guided by the Almighty. Let the people be led by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and the finger of God will be made manifest before them day by day in their progress to eternal happiness; for this is the privilege of the faithful.

Shall we not choose for ourselves? Yes. Have we not rights? Yes. Have we not power? Yes. Have we not authority bequeathed to us from the heavens—a legacy from God to hold dominion over the elements? Yes. Then go to like men, like angels, like Him we read of, whom we love and serve and worship, who in his former capacity organized the elements as we are taught to do for our own benefit, beauty, comfort, excellency, and glory, and beautify the earth and make it like the garden of Eden, so that the angels will delight to come and dwell here, and Jesus Christ will delight to dwell with his brethren on the earth. This is our right. We are not destitute of rights and privileges. We have the right of choice. We have the right to dictate, to plough, plant, sow, reap, gather, mow, clothe ourselves and families, and gather around us in abundance all the comforts and blessings of life. Have we a right to inflict evil upon our neighbor, upon the divinity within him, or upon the divinity within ourselves? No. God should rule in the way and manner he pleases by the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ, which will lead the Saints to victory and glory. By-and-by we will possess more rights than we now possess, but not until they are given to us. God has decreed from all eternity that we should have rights, power, and authority over the elements to organize and bring them into use and make them beneficial and subserve the wants of the human family.

I wish to see this people manufacture their own clothing, and make as good cloth as is in the coat I now have on, and as good silk as is in the handkerchief around my neck, and as good linen as is in the bosom and wristbands of my shirt. When we administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, I wish as good wine as can be made in any country, and that too made by ourselves from grapes grown in our own mountain valleys. I want to see the people wear hats, boots, coats, etc., made by ourselves, as good as ever was made in any country.

If you will obey my counsel, you will constantly increase in the riches and the comforts of life; though every time I speak upon this subject I wish to keep in view that if we cannot handle the things of this world without unduly placing our affections upon them, I pray God to keep them out of our possession. I would rather have this people clad with sheepskins and goatskins than to have them possess the wealth of this world without feeling that they could trample it all under their feet at any moment. Earthly wealth and greatness should only be used to subserve the purposes of God upon the earth. This is what brother Snow was speaking upon this morning. I have briefly noticed the same subject, using my own style and language. Let the divinity within the people overcome that wicked, corrupt, hellish influence the Devil has power to introduce.

Do not imagine that I am in the least finding fault with the Devil. I would not bring a railing accusation against him, for he is fulfilling his office and calling manfully; he is more faithful in his calling than are many of the people. God is not yet going to destroy wickedness from the earth. How frequently we hear it reiterated from the pulpit that he is going to destroy all wickedness. No such thing. He will destroy the power of sin. When we have lived to see millions of worlds created—yea, more in number than the particles of matter that compose this earth and millions of earths like this, if so many could be numerated by man, and people live on them to pass through the ordeals we are passing through, you will never see one of them without a devil. The work the Savior has on hand is to reduce the power of the Devil to perfect subjection; and when he has destroyed death and him that has the power of it, pertaining to this world, then he will deliver up the kingdom spotless to the Father.

I have not told the Saints my feelings, but I will here say that it is my daily prayer that God will change the power and authority of our political Government into the hands of the just. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Parley P. Pratt, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, August 26, 1855.

I rise before you this morning, my friends and brethren, to preach to you the everlasting Gospel, for as my calling has been for the last quarter of a century to proclaim this Gospel, I have always endeavored to do my duty both before you and others, here and in many other places.

Before I came here this morning I was thinking what shall I say to the brethren and sisters, if called upon to speak, and after a moment’s reflection, I said, I will preach the Gospel, and when brother Kimball called upon me to address you, he said, “Brother Parley, we want you to preach the Gospel to us.”

The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is the only system whereby man can be saved, and his being the only name whereby we can approach our Father in Heaven with acceptance, the only name in which remissions of sins can be obtained, and the only name whereby man can have power over unclean spirits, over devils, over diseases, over the elements, and over everything this side the celestial kingdom and its influences; it is of the highest importance, therefore, that this message of life should be declared to all the world.

This Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was once born in Bethlehem, crucified on Calvary, risen again from the dead, and having ascended to his Father and to our Father to lead captivity captive and give gifts unto men, his name has become the only name under heaven through which man may be saved, receive everlasting life and exaltation; it is the only name by which man can get remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit and all its attendant blessings; it is the only name by which we may approach our Father in heaven and invoke his blessings—the only name by which we may control disease and the very elements by the power of his Spirit and the authority of his Priesthood.

This same Jesus, after having risen from the dead, after having received all power in heaven and on the earth, gave a mission to his Apostles, Peter and others, to go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and gave commandments that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name in all the world, beginning at Jerusalem.

Having given these commandments and instructed his Apostles that they should teach all things whatsoever he commanded, he ascended up on high and took his seat upon the right hand of God his father, and he then shed forth the gift of the Holy Ghost and bestowed gifts upon men.

Those Apostles began at Jerusalem to perform the duties of their Mission, for it had been said that they should tarry there until they were endowed with power from on high; and after receiving this power they stood forth and preached to the people on the day of Pentecost the crucified and risen Redeemer, and when the people were convinced of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, and wished to know what to do to get rid of their sins and become acceptable in the sight of Heaven, Peter told them to repent and be baptized every one of them in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and he then added, for the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call.

This being written in the 2nd chap. of the Acts of the Apostles, in the New Testament, as the first instructions given by Peter and the Apostles at the place appointed, and at the time appointed, and under the circumstances appointed, and this being the first attempt to carry out the great mission “to preach the Gospel to the world,” hence we conclude that the Gospel there preached, was the same Gospel that was to be preached in all the world, and that was to be efficacious to all the world, it matters not what color or country, what nation or language, learned or unlearned, Hindoo or anything else; it was the everlasting Gospel given by the Savior at the place appointed, and at the time appointed, when they were endowed with power from on high, the Holy Ghost descending upon them agreeably to the promise.

Consequently, at that time and under those circumstances which I have briefly named, the Apostles made that proclamation, viz., that all should repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and they were told that all who would do this should receive the remission of sins, and that the Gospel with its promises should go to every creature, and whether in some distant age or country that mankind should be found, it matters not; there the Lord should send his Gospel with the promise of remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost through obedience to the Gospel; yes, in every place and among all people the promises should hold good and the signs follow them that believe.

This Gospel, its history and characteristics, are clearly recorded in the New Testament, in the English version, translated by the order of King James, and handed down to us by our fathers, and it is also given to us by our fathers in the Book of Mormon, and in many other good books, and in the words of many other good men who lived in ancient times, and in the words of many modern men, and many of our young men are made partakers of it by becoming members of the Church of Christ, and they know what it is to become members of the body of Christ, and to be justified, freed from sin, and to stand before God with clean hearts and pure minds.

We have to know these things, and to be made sensible of what it is to feel the satisfying influence of his Holy Spirit.

Mind you do not forget when we preach this Gospel that it is a Gospel of repentance; do not slip over part of it, but while summing it up, look at it item by item. It is the Gospel of repentance, not a mere Gospel of baptism, but a Gospel of repentance and remission of sins to be preached in all the world.

Why have any people a notion or disposition to obey this Gospel? How can the people determine whether this Gospel is good? Whether it is of any value to them, or what it will do for the people generally if complied with? What would this Gospel do for the people of any age if they would obey it as a people? Whether it were a neighborhood, a town, a city, a nation, or a world, or a million of worlds. I ask what would it do for that neighborhood, that people, that city, that nation, or that world? I will tell you. There would be no thieving there any longer, there would be no lying there any longer, no cheating, no deceiving, no intentional breaking of promises, no wrong dealing, no extortion, no hatred, no envy, and no evil speaking. But why would all these things cease? Simply because they obeyed the Gospel; because obedience to the Gospel implies repentance, which means nothing more nor less than putting away all our evils and ceasing to do them. Among the people that obeyed the Gospel, there would be no longer adulterers, nor fornicators, nor any other evil that you can name.

Now what cause of objection can people have in any age, among any nation or language—in England or in Texas, or anywhere else to a Gospel that would have a tendency to put away all those evils from among men? But say you—Are there no evils where this Gospel is obeyed? No sir; where this Gospel prevails in the heart of an individual, that individual ceases from those things which are evil, for he is cleansed from them; he refrains from all that tends to evil; as the Gospel influences a man’s heart, he ceases to countenance all evil practices, and where the Gospel influences his family, there is a family without those evils, and if a town or a city can be found that is influenced by the Gospel, there you will find a town or city without those evils which I have named, and you will find them gradually putting away those which may be amongst them as fast as they perceive them.

But really, says one, in Utah, I thought the Gospel was pretty well obeyed, and yet we are not without those evils, we are not entirely free from those sins. Allowing such to be the case, that does not make these words false. Show me a man that is guilty of false swearing, a man that is found traducing his brethren, or that is found evil speaking, or that is a fornicator, or a thief, and I will show you a man that does not obey the Gospel; he may call himself a Mormon, a Latter-day Saint, or a brother in Christ, but that is not proving that he has repented of his sins, but as repentance is a part and parcel of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ, and without which we cannot be benefited by his atonement and his mercy, we cannot have the blessings he purchased without we associate repentance with our faith. I say, as repentance is an essential part of the Gospel, that the man who has not put away his sins has deceived himself, because this repentance is one of the first principles of salvation. If I have other sins, and then add the sin of neglecting repentance, my case is still worse than it was before.

I have known the Gospel, as I remarked, for 25 years, and in that time I have materially altered my views upon some points. I then thought that they came into the Church for the purpose of repenting and forsaking their evils, and receiving the Gospel with all their hearts and a resolution to do right. Well, it is true, that there is a oneness as far as repentance and faith are concerned in the outward acknowledgment, but do all who in word acknowledge the Gospel forsake their sins? We would all like to see such a state of things in the world; we would like to see our neighbors forsaking their sins, even if we could not forsake and overcome our own dear sins. Suppose we happen to repent and leave off our sins, would not that be about right? Would not that answer for us without waiting for others? Or can we have some ceremony performed that will do as well, something besides leaving off our sins and leading a new life?

Perhaps we may not come to the repentance of fear, or feel afraid of doing wrong, but the other part we will come to says one, for instance, the baptism for the remission of sins given by the Savior, in whose name we can receive every good gift, and without whose name we cannot receive any spiritual gift. Then seeing that he, with all this power in his hands, and he knowing all things that would be good for man, not only ordered that repentance should be preached in his name, but that the Apostles should baptize the people in his name, and to fulfil this Mission they did baptize the penitent believer for the remission of sins, and they exhorted the people every one of them to repent and obey this ordinance for the remission of sins, and they also assured them, that if they would do so they should have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the Apostles further assured them that this promise was to them that were afar off, to all nations and countries, it extended to every creature!

And, now, what objection can a man have to obeying one part more than another part of the Gospel? Why should men have such various opinions about the Gospel when it is so plainly set forth? One man says, I suppose that baptizing or sprinkling me when I was an infant was sufficient, for that was the custom in those days, and I suppose they called that baptism. Well, have we not shown you that repentance was of God, and therefore that all men must repent? Jesus Christ did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, and he also commanded his servants to go forth testifying to these that were seeking the kingdom of God, and gave them power to heal the sick and cast out devils.

Can little children commit sins? Can they hear the Gospel and receive it in their hearts? Can little children reason, think, repent, and bring forth fruits meet for the kingdom of God? Can little children be instructed to obey the Gospel in their infancy? To all these questions every rational man would answer—No. Well, then, what have we to do with the Gospel as it pertains to little children? We are willing to carry out the instruction of the Savior where we are told to bless them, and this we are willing to do wherever we see them, and to pray for them, but to sinners that are sufficiently grown to be free to act for themselves; persons who are sufficiently grown to be accountable before the Almighty, and to be capable of conceiving sin in their hearts, and of bringing forth the fruits of it, to such was repentance and baptism, and therefore the Gospel could never be applied to little infants; it was a Gospel of voluntary obedience, and therefore it could not apply to the infant in its mother’s arms.

Go and “teach” all nations, and baptize the people; not the teaching to “follow” baptism, but teach them to observe all the things spoken by Jesus. Well, now, if you baptize a little infant, then remember to tell it all the things; teach it, then baptize, after which you must teach it to observe all things.

But you see it won’t require a dead form to carry out the Gospel of Christ, but an infant could not ask what is the Word? Persons have been used to trust to a dead form and have their children sprinkled, but if any of you were sprinkled, it was at a time when you could not help yourself, and hence you do not know anything about it, only that you have been told that somebody sprinkled you when an infant.

Then, notwithstanding your infant sprinkling you never obeyed the Gospel, because it was a Gospel of repentance, and is to be so when carried to all whom the Lord our God shall call. The Gospel which we have to preach is a Gospel of repent– ance and of remission of sins to everyone that will obey it, including a baptism, a voluntary baptism, which is applicable to all the truly obedient, in every nation, who are determined to lead a new life, and bring forth fruit meet for repentance, and what was it? The Apostle in the New Testament, informs us that it was “to be buried with Christ by baptism into his death, and rise to newness of life in the likeness of his resurrection.”

In my travels abroad, I sometimes meet among many others, members of the Church of Rome, so called; I believe they call themselves such. I say to them—Are you sure there was such a church as that in the days of the Apostles, and that you are members of that church? If there was such a church, says I, it is spoken of in the New Testament. Well, are you sure that you are a member of the Church of Rome, that is spoken of as having grown, and swelled, and perpetuated itself? How have you become such? By being baptized is the answer. Then you would think an unbaptized person was not a member of that church? Yes, we would consider all such persons aliens.

Well then, I will convince you that you are not a legal member in the Church of Rome, baptism being the initiatory right into that church. How will you do it, says he? Because the Apostle in his epistle gives instructions and directions, how every member was initiated into the Church that was established by himself at Rome. He says that, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, and if ye have put on Christ, then are ye Christ’s.”

He also says, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”—Romans, chapter 6.

Now, says I, remember that every one of your members of the Church of Rome have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, and hence you must have risen to newness of life in the likeness of his resurrection. So writes the Apostle to the true Church of Rome, and you will find it in the New Testament as before stated.

Now, then, says I, you have acknowledged that no man is a member of the Church of Rome unless he has been baptized, and the Apostle himself says, that every member of the Church of Rome has been buried with Christ by baptism, and has risen again from that grave into the likeness of his resurrection. Where, sir, were you buried with him, and when did you rise from that grave in the likeness of his death and resurrection? And have you ever led a new life, avoiding this sin and the other which you before were guilty of?

Well, says the professor of Roman religion, you have got us in a curious position, I must acknowledge; I will have to give it up, for that is true; it is the written word of an Apostle of God.

I have never become a member of the Church of Rome, and am consequently an heathen, according to the views of the Roman Catholic Church. I have conversed with men who have come out as honestly as men could in their positions. Members of the Catholic Church have come out as honest as I have stated, and said that they must give up, but the Protestants are very tenacious, and will stick to their creed often in spite of reason. I presume they are like all men in reference to tenacity, they would stick to their oath, that, if possible, they might gain converts to their faith.

The question is often asked, are there any honest people among this sect and the other party; I tell you there are honest men in every sect of religionists, and if you try to classify men you will have a difficult job, for you will find honest men in this class and the other, and, in fact, among all classes and sects of men.

You need not suppose that honesty depends upon our traditions, or upon where a man was born; but there are honest people in every community, and in every sect under heaven, and there are those that hate the truth, and that would not aid in the spread of light and truth, nor lend their influence to any servant of God under the heavens.

Well, now, I love a man without regard to his country, or where he was brought up, without reference to color or nation; I love a man that loves the truth, and I do not blame any man under heaven for having been born and brought up in any particular town, city, or nation. You might as well blame a man for being brought up under certain traditions in countries where they have not had the opportunity of discoursing with others, no discussions, no free press, where they never could know anything else but tradition through life.

You might as well blame them for their country as for their traditions. Circumstances might come round, and so order the course of a man’s mind and his mission as to give him a new channel of thought, and prevent his making any distinction, as it was with the Apostle Peter.

There are whole nations, and generations of them that have lived and died with the same knowledge right before their eyes, and that without the opportunity of thinking of any other degrees of knowledge. Well, what did Peter do with regard to those he was called to visit and preach to? When he preached the Gospel under the instructions of arisen Jesus, when he undertook to preach the Gospel, repentance, baptism, and the laying on of hands for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, he said the promise is to you, meaning that present generation; and he thought a little more, and then said it is to your children, meaning the next generation; and finally his heart enlarged a little further by the Holy Ghost that was in him, and he uttered his dictation—to all that are afar off; and then he happened to think that they might count those that had been brought up in some other country, with different traditions, and he limited a little—and said to as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Although the mind of Peter was liable to be too contracted he knew one thing, viz.—that the Lord their God was in the habit of communicating with the people, and he understood that he always would be, for he knew that God lived, and he also knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was alive for he had seen and talked with him, and had handled him, and he had seen him ascend up on high; and he had heard him testify that he had all power given him in heaven and in earth, and he knew that he would have power to send the Gospel to every creature for he had the keys to send the Gospel wherever he pleased, to all tribes, nations, and languages in worlds without end, therefore when he made the promise he only limited it, or gave it a certain jurisdiction, recollecting where it belonged.

The promise he gave of the Holy Ghost was to all that are afar off, to those whom the Lord our God shall call. To express it in language more appropriate than any other, perhaps, the promise of the Holy Ghost is to wherever the Lord sends forth a revelation, wherever he makes proclamation of the Gospel, wherever he commissions men and sends forth the keys of the kingdom of God, and authorizes men to administer those ordinances in his name; it matters not whether in Judea or America, or whether it be in Samaria or England, whether to the heathen, the Jew, or the refined philosopher, it matters not whether we apply it to ancient days or modern times, wherever the Almighty God or Jesus Christ, his son, sees fit to reveal the fulness of the Gospel, and the keys of the eternal Priesthood, and the ministration of angels, there the promise contained in the Gospel was to hold good, and the nation or people obeying that call should receive remission of sins in his name, in obedience to his Gospel, and be filled with the Holy Spirit of promise—the Holy Ghost which is the gift of prophecy and revelation, and also included many other gifts.

Is that Gospel any less true because it was revealed to Mormon, and was preached by him? Is that truth any less true because it has been hid up in the earth, inscribed upon plates, and has come forth and been translated in this age of the world? Was not that Gospel as good when preached to the Nephites in America, as it was when preached to the Jews in Palestine?

And if as good why not write it? And if good enough to be preached and written, why not have those writings and read them, and rejoice in the spirit and truths they contain?

Rejoice, because it swells the heart, expands the mind, gives a more enlarged view of God’s dealings and mercies, shows them to be extended to all extent, published in different countries and upon different conti– nents, revealed to one nation as well as another; in short, it gives a man that feeling when he contemplates the bearing and extent of that Gospel, it gives a man a feeling which affords joy and satisfaction to the soul, it gives a man that feeling which angels had when they sung in the ears of the shepherds of Judea—“We bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be in a few countries, and to a few people?” No; that was not the song, though they were singing to those who had a few traditions in their families, which they had received from their forefathers.

The shepherds were astonished, and well they might be, and they brought everybody to this text throughout the whole of Judea. Still those angels were honest enough to sing the whole truth, notwithstanding the Jews looked upon all Gentiles as dogs, and I think I hear the shepherds saying, “that brought glad tidings to everybody—to these dogs?” Still the angels, a choir of them, were bold enough to sing—“We bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people!”

What a big saying for Jewish shepherds! Why, they must have enlarged their hearts, and wondered at this very strange news. Why Peter had hardly got his heart sufficiently enlarged to believe these glad tidings many years after they were proclaimed, although he had preached so much.

It swelled by degrees, and contracted again I suppose, and at last he had to have a vision, and a sheet let down from heaven, and things shown him, and explained to him over and over again, to get him to realize the truth of the glad tidings sung by angels at the birth of the Savior.

It was showing so much; it was too broad a platform, such a boundless ocean of mercy! It was making such a provision for the human family that Peter could not comprehend it. If the angels had said it was for the Jews, for the peculiar people of God, those that could receive the new revelation, why then it might have done; but to throw off their traditions, they who were the peculiar few, as they considered themselves, to believe that the glad tidings of the Savior’s birth was for those Gentile dogs, they could not endure this for a moment. They were of the house of Israel, the seed of promise.

This was indeed a peculiar vision, bringing the glad tidings of the Savior’s birth, for that was the peculiar mission of those angels, hence they did not bring the Gospel, they did not say anything about baptism, nor repentance, nor remission of sins, but they simply brought glad tidings of it, they announced the fact that a Savior was born at such a date and place, told the birthplace and events of a Savior being born at Bethlehem, under the circumstances named at that time, and declared that this news, this glad tidings should go to all people.

What was the result? Why it went through Judea, it was sounded through Samaria, it went to Rome and to Greece, it went to Ethiopia, it went to the utmost parts of the earth; it soon bounded over the sea; the angels of God that sung that song could never contradict their words. If, then, they had to carry it over the seas to every country and continent where the seed of promise was, they were bound to fulfil that Mission, and they swiftly flew to America, and proclaimed the glad tidings there.

They found the people there shut out by a cloud of darkness, from the light of truth. They found a people there called the Nephites and Lamanites who were a branch of the house of Israel that were cast off, or rather brought over the great waters from their country, and they bore the glad tidings to them (you have read it in the Book of Nephi), and they informed them that at such a time and place, the Savior was born.

By-and-by the Savior himself came over here and told it to the people, but this was after his resurrection, for the work was too much, and the field too large for his mortal life, for he had but a few years to preach the Gospel to the Jews, and part of that short life of 33 years he was a child, a boy, and hence, he had to be limited to that country where he had a mortal body, and could be borne by the mountain waves that might separate one country from another; but after his resurrection, he was as independent of the waves and mountains as he was of those who crucified him; for then he could rise above their power; he was able to pass from planet to planet, with perfect ease; he was able to ascend up and go from continent to continent; he was as able to ascend to his God, and to our God, as he was to appear to his disciples.

I say Jesus could not be held in Palestine, the mountains, nor the rolling seas had not power to stay his progress, for he had told his disciples, while he was yet living, that he had other sheep which were not of that fold, and said he, “They shall hear my voice.”

In fulfillment of this, and according to the nature of his grand commission, the Savior of the whole world, not half of it, in his glorified body, showed himself to the Nephites in America, and bestowed upon them the Priesthood, with all its gifts and qualifications, that same glorious Gospel that he had just before given to his Prophets and Apostles at Jerusalem; and he told those whom he had selected to hold the Priesthood upon this continent to go forth and preach the same glad tidings of sal– vation to all their world, fulfilling in part the words of Peter, “For the promise is to all that are afar off.”

And Jesus called to those Nephites, when he descended, and they fell at his feet, as many as could get near him, and they bathed his feet in their tears, and they examined his wounds, and heard the gracious words of his mouth, and they saw him ascending and descend again, and they felt so large in their charity and affections, and the light of truth was so large and extended in its benefits and benevolence, and the testimony so strong, that they feasted upon the blessings that were bestowed, and he then commanded them to write his sayings, and an account of the miracles he wrought among them.

They did as he commanded, and they liked the writings so well that they handed them down to each succeeding Prophet until Mormon, who was born three or four ages afterwards, and he could not hand those records down any further because of apostasy, and the blasphemy and wickedness of the people, and because of the wars and troubles that spread among the people; so he made a secret deposit of those writings, and put them in the earth, and he also wrote a book and called it the “Book of Mormon,” which was an abridgement of the other records, and this was hid up to the Lord, and through the interference of the Almighty, a young man, Joseph Smith, by the gift and power of God, I say, through that young man and the ministration of holy angels to him, that book came forth to the world, and it has since that time been preached and read in our language, and many others, and we rejoice in it, and have borne testimony of it in the world.

It is through that blessed Book of Mormon, with that blessed Gospel in it, that we have the testimony which we have in reference to the death and resurrection of the Savior of men.

It is true as recorded in the Book of Mormon, and as preached upon this continent, and it is true as written in the New Testament, and as it was preached to the Jews in Jerusalem, and as preached to the ten tribes, though we have not got their record yet, but we will have it, and we shall find that the blessed Jesus revealed to them the Gospel, and that they rejoiced in it.

And their record will come, so that we will know of a surety and of a truth, that they had the everlasting Gospel as well as their brethren in Jerusalem, and upon this continent.

When these things come to pass we will have three ancient records; delivered in three different countries. We have in the Old and New Testaments, and the Book of Mormon, and other good books all we at present require.

We shall eventually have the history of the ten tribes in the north, of the Nephites in America, and of the Jews in Jerusalem, and their written testimony will become one, and their words will become one, and the people of God will be gathered under testimony, into one body, and the testimony of the Latter-day Saints will become one with that of the former-day Saints (and it is now, so far as it goes), and the testimonies of those shall sweep the earth as with a flood, and by the voice of men and angels, and eventually by the great sound of a trumpet, and none shall escape.

Prior to this great destruction, the everlasting Gospel will be taught to them by the servants of God, by the testimony of men and angels, and by the testimony of Jesus Christ, and by the testimony of ancient and modern Prophets; by the testimony of Joseph Smith, and of the Apostles ordained by him, and by the testimony of ancient and modern Saints; by the testimony of the ten tribes; by the testimony of heaven and the testimony of earth; then shall the wicked be sent to their own place, and truth shall be established in the earth; and the voice of joy and gladness shall be heard with the meek of the earth.

Those that forsake their sins shall have abundant cause to rejoice with those that love the truth, and are made pure in heart by it.

Joy and gladness shall be heard, and there shall be glad tidings to all the meek, and to all the pure in heart; to all that love instruction, to all that will not harden their hearts; to all the sinners that will be obedient and refrain from their sins, and live a holy life.

The cry will no longer go forth, “they will not repent and be converted, that I may heal them;” for the Lord God, the blessed Savior, who is full of virtue, power and love, and healing, with his Priesthood will bless them, and they will find comfort for he will heal them.

From the fact that Jesus complains of a people that will not be converted, lest he might heal them, we would conclude from that conversion, that was a condition of the healing power. Why, says he, they will not turn from their sins and be converted, that I may heal them. But when they are converted and grown up into one, the day of his power comes, and then says he, they are converted, and I will heal them.

Don’t you see that he came to the Nephites (you have read it in the Book of Mormon), and he said, bring forth your halt, and blind, and dumb, and I will heal them, for I see your faith is sufficient and I will heal them all; and he healed them every one as they were brought to him. That day of general healing came to them, for the more wicked part of the inhabitants had been cut off, and I would to God that that day would come among us.

Well, let us be converted, and those that have been converted and have held on to it, be converted a little more, for I tell you I like conversion pretty often. I don’t mean that I like people to turn round from the truth, and then repent, and say, I am sorry; but I mean that a man needs converting today, and the next day, and the day after, because a man that is progressing learns by degrees; today he gets to understand that a certain principle or practice of his is wrong, and learns his error, he turns from it; but even then he does not understand all things pertaining to right and wrong. He has not learned all things that might stand in the way of building up the kingdom of God, and hence he wants or needs to be converted today, and the next day, and the next, and so on until he is converted from all his bad habits, and from his impurities, and he becomes just such a man as the Lord delights in.

And Jesus said, “Be ye as I am, and I am as the Father.” He contrasts himself and them with the Father, and then says, “What manner of men ought ye to be?” “Verily I say unto you, such as I am, and I am as the Father is.”

It is for this purpose that we came into the world, that we might become like the Father; and that we may become like him, we need converting every day, or at least until we are free from all evil, even if it be five hundred times; not to turn away from the truth, but keep going on to perfection.

We need converting until we feel that indeed the promise of the Holy Ghost is “to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call.” The Lord calls the Jews, the Christians, the Mormons, the Gentiles; he calls the ten tribes; and he called us also; God has called brother Joseph, brother Hyrum, and brother Brigham, and his Apostles, and the Elders who hold the Priesthood in this age, and he calls the people of America and of Europe, and the whole human family. Some he calls by his angels, and by his own voice out of the heavens. In this way he called Joseph and his associates, and revealed to them the fulness of the Gospel, put upon him the powers of the eternal Priesthood after the same order as himself, and told them to go forth and call others to assist them.

They did so, and others obeyed the Gospel; they laid their hands upon them, after they had baptized them, and confirmed them; and they ordained them to bear testimony of their calling, and the restoration of the Gospel in its fulness—that a new call had been made to the nations of the earth.

And it required another call in our day, for Peter had gone the way of all the earth, and also his brethren who were his contemporaries; and the brethren among the Nephites had gone, or had been taken away; and those holding the authority among the ten tribes had gone the way of all the earth.

And it was this that brought those glad tidings and those messengers to us; and those were the ones that brought the light of heaven to our beloved brother Joseph Smith.

Well, if I have been made a high witness of these things, what brought the truth to me? It was through the ministration of angels, under whose hands these my brethren have been ordained to the holy Priesthood, and it brought down with it the blessings of the everlasting Gospel, for it could not be in the world without a call; for those who previously held it had gone to another sphere.

The Gospel was revealed to ancient men in different climes and countries, whenever there were men to be saved, and it was revealed to modern men because there were modern men to be saved by it. The Gospel was to all whom the Lord our God should call in every age and country, and but for this call we would have been as blind as bats in the traditions of our fathers, led away by divers creeds and by the cunning of men who lie in wait to deceive. Where would we have been if it had not been for this call? We might have been good men enough perhaps, but where would we have been?

The introduction of the Gospel was worthy of an angel, yes, the errand was worthy of a corps of them; it was worthy of a host of them! It was worthy of a God! It was an object of importance that called Jesus from the bosom of his Father in the eternal world. A call was necessary then; faith was necessary, and faith comes by hearing the word of God; and how could you have heard it, if nobody had been called to deliver it? We were in the midst of darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. We could see revelations given in other ages, but we want them in our age; but we wanted a call.

I am aware that some will be thinking of their grandmothers or grandfathers who died in the middle ages, and who died in hope, as far as they could get at it. I know they will be querying all the while to know what has become of them.

Well, it is no matter; it is for us to attend to our own business, and see to our own salvation; if we do this we shall have no condemnation. We do not know but as we progress in righteousness, that in the provisions made by our great Father we may have to serve them, and to do for those good old fathers and mothers of ours, who did see the light afar off, but could not come at it for want of a call, for want of a Priesthood, which is without beginning of days, and men holding the authority of Heaven; yes, we may have to do for them what they have not had the privilege of doing for themselves.

Well, what is the provision? Why did I not just name to you, that this eternal Priesthood is without beginning of days or end of life, after the order of the Son of God? Do you suppose that when a man passes beyond the veil, he is any less a Priest? If angels, or men by the spirit of prophecy, have laid their hands upon him and ordained him to an office in the Priesthood of the Son of God, and have given him a call in the name of the Lord to give salvation to others, do you suppose that by passing the veil he becomes unordained?

What did Jesus say to the Jews? Says he, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the God you profess to worship; but says he, I want you to understand that he is not the God of the dead, for what glory would there be in that? But, says he, “He is the God of the living.” He was speaking to the children of Abraham who were dead, as much as to say that Abraham was living then.

Well, then, when a man holding the eternal Priesthood passes the veil, he still holds his authority, and his heart is full of affection and love towards God’s creatures, and he is clothed with the power of God, and he is his Prophet, Apostle, and Elder. It is impossible to keep a man silent who is filled with the testimony of Jesus. I would as soon undertake to shut up fire in dry shavings, as to shut up in that man’s heart the good news, for he has his Mission, which is to preach the Gospel to those that were and are in darkness.

The good old fathers and mothers who had not the privileges and blessings of the Gospel, for instance, go to deliver your message to them, that they may come to the light of truth, and be saved.

The Apostle, when addressing the Saints, says, “But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”—Romans vi, 17 and 18.

There was the freedom of obedience to that form of doctrine delivered to them. Obedience to that form of doctrine made them free, but it did not prevent them from acting as men in a temporal point of view.

The Apostle also speaks of passing from death unto life, because they loved the brethren. Passing the veil does not alter a man; it certainly takes him from the eyes of flesh, but the capacity, the intelligence, the thinking powers, are all alive and quick; and if they hear the Gospel, they will be glad, and the promises are made to them, and they will rejoice in them.

Let a man pass the veil with the everlasting Priesthood, having magnified it to the day of his death, and you cannot get it off him; it will remain with him in the world of spirits; and when he wakes up in that world among the spirits, he has that power and that obligation on him, that if he can find a person worthy of salvation, why, as soon as he ascertains that, and he remembers what he may teach and who he may teach, he then discovers that he has got a Mission, and that Mission is to those souls who had not the privilege which we have in this world, that they may be partakers of the Gospel as well as we.

And herein, when fully carried out, are the keys of the “baptism for the dead,” and the salvation of those not on the earth, a subject into which I need not now enter, although it is among the first principles of salvation but they are so lengthy that we cannot dwell upon them all at one time.

But suffice it to say, that when the Lord made provision that there should be one name by which man should be saved; and when he planned glad tidings of great joy to go over the islands and continents, and to the four quarters of the earth, he also remembered the spirits in prison, and he made provision wide as eternity, that it might reach the case of “every creature,” under every circumstance that could arise within the reach of mercy.

He so ordered it, that “all manner of sins and blasphemies, in due time, might be forgiven, except that which could not be justly forgiven, in this world, nor in that which is to come.”

The plan was so devised that every man might have repentance and remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost in his time and in his place, if he would; but if he would not, very well then, he might do as he pleased, whether in this world or any other, according to the clear freedom that he lives under.

You know you cannot compel one of the dumb animals to drink; you can lead him to the water, direct his attention to the clear, crystal, pure stream, but still he may die of thirst. And men may die because they will not leave off their sins, and lay hold of the cross; and if they will die of thirst, and will not lay hold of the salvation offered by a bleeding Savior, they may die the death of the wicked.

And if, because they will not give up their freedom to do right, they can go; they will die to all eternity, and never be compelled to obey the truth.

Well, friends, here is the Gospel; and where is the man’s heart so hard that he will not see and embrace it? A man must be hardened in wicked– ness, that will not abide the law of the Gospel. And that portion of you who have not obeyed, my invitation is to you all; and all of you in the Church who have not obeyed the Gospel in its fulness, see that you obey it in its fulness; I mean to every day attend to the repentance part of it—the leaving off part, forsaking your evils—the conversion part, and bring forth fruits suited to a new life.

I will have to be judged for my preaching, and you for your hearing. I shall be pretty careful for myself; I can do that I think. I shall look into things, prepare my mind to discern between the right and the wrong, otherwise I might neglect; and it will keep a man pretty busy to repent and bring forth fruits for a new life. There will be a good deal of watching and praying, and he will have to be pretty careful to live so as to get the Holy Spirit, so that it will not leave him, and he will be without it, like a fish out of water, or like a person in hot weather destitute of pure air. If he once loses the Spirit, after having received it, it will keep him pretty busy to get it again.

That repentance, and that burial in the name of the risen Jesus, wants a good deal of humility and perseverance, for there is the old man with his deeds to put off, and lay aside, and to walk a new life.

It does not only mean something, but it is shown forth in the actions of the man. Well won’t that keep a man pretty busy? I think it will in such a world as this. Well in this sense of the word the Saints are called upon to obey the Gospel and repent all the while, but we talk of dying unto sin and of walking in newness of life. The dying unto sin and rising in the new life, and the baptism were to be for a moment, but the stream that flows from obedience is perpetual.

Well, those out of the Church are certainly called upon to obey the Gospel; and when people are careless and indifferent respecting their duties, then it is that wicked people rise up amongst us, and we are then called upon to repent and obey the Gospel. I will clear my garments as far as one day will do it before I sit down. The little children are called upon to obey the Gospel, such as are capable of being taught, and they ought to be taught by their parents, so that they may understand it by the time they are eight years of age. Then they are called upon to repent, to understand and bring forth the fruits meet for the kingdom of God, and be buried in the likeness of death as Jesus was, and then leave off all their foolish and sinful ways, and rise out of their watery grave, understanding that Jesus rose again from the dead, from his grave, and knowing this they should then take up their cross. This is a figure to show us that then commences a new life.

Now you folks that have been brought up in the Gospel, in the light of heaven, but have been careless or wicked, rise up and obey the Gospel, and don’t you be baptized without you repent, for all you hear of the Gospel and attend to, unless you are as humble as a little child it won’t do you any good; and remember that it is through the name, and the atoning blood of Jesus Christ that you can have remission of sins through the ordinance of baptism which represents the burial. And those people that have not been brought up within this call and influence, I say come and obey it and do not call yourselves outsiders and aliens, but fellow heirs to the promises made to Abraham, and which were established by him and given to him for an everlasting covenant.

You may suppose that it was a part of the law given to Moses, and therefore done away in Christ. Let me tell you that the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and mentioned in the Scriptures, was made four hundred and fifty years before the law was thundered from Mount Sinai. Separate and apart from the Gospel the law was given to Moses, but not to disannul that covenant, and when the Lord Jesus Christ came he never disannulled it, but commanded his Apostles to preach it. It is much older than the law for it applied before Moses was born and also afterwards, and all we have to do is to come into it and be faithful as Abraham was faithful, and then we shall become sons, and if sons, the sons of Abraham, and if daughters, the daughters of Sarah, because we have embraced the same Gospel and principles. And then, when we get into heaven with Rachel and Leah they will not be ashamed of us, and what is more, we will not be ashamed of them. Then we shall be hail fellows well met, and we shall sit down in the kingdom of God, and go no more out forever. “And many will come from the east and from the west, and will sit down in the kingdom of God.” And unless we are faithful we shall be shut out. Therefore I wish you to understand that the promises that are special will not apply to us, and where they go we cannot come except by adoption.

May the Lord bless you. Amen.

I like preaching the Gospel this morning. Before I came here, I thought what shall I say if they call on me to speak today, and the thought came into my mind, I will preach the Gospel, and the moment I came brother Kimball said, brother Parley, come preach the Gospel to us. I replied, that is just what I was thinking of.

Remarks by Elder Orson Pratt, made in the Bowery, at Provo, July 15, 1855.

It is with a great degree of satisfaction that I arise to bear my humble testimony before the Saints here in Provo, in connection with the testimonies that have been borne to you by the servants of God who have addressed you heretofore. We have had some great and good instructions imparted to us since our meetings commenced here the day before yesterday. We have had instructions which are of the greatest importance—instructions that pertain both to our temporal and future prosperity. The teachings imparted have been clothed with wisdom, and the gift and power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which has inspired the hearts of the servants of God who have addressed us from this Stand, and more especially has this been the case with regard to the instructions that have been imparted to us this forenoon, setting forth our relations, as Gentile Saints (or Saints that have received the Gospel from among the Gentiles), with the house of Israel. Perhaps there is no subject that could be presented at the present time that is of so much importance, and that has so great a bearing upon the human family, as the one set before us this forenoon. It is one on which the salvation of the Latter-day Saints depends. It is one, also, on which the salvation of the remnants of the tribe of Joseph upon this American continent depends. It is one that we must not only understand, or reason about, or think of, but one in which we must engage every faculty and power of our minds, if we would be blessed as a people. It is for this object, as has been plainly shown to you this forenoon, that the angels of God descended from the eternal world and spoke in the ears of mortal man. It is for this object that the heavens have been opened, and the everlasting Priesthood sent down and conferred upon chosen vessels. It is for this object—namely, the salvation and redemption of the poor, lost, degraded sons of the forest, that God has given the Urim and Thummim, and caused to be translated one of the most glorious sacred records, or histories that was ever introduced into the world by mortal man. It is for this object that we have been permitted to leave the land of our forefathers, to traverse the sandy deserts and plains of Nebraska, and to locate ourselves here in the midst of these lonely and peaceful vales; it is that we might fulfil and accomplish the purposes of the great Jehovah, in the redemption of the remnant of Joseph who dwelt here before us. I shall not, perhaps, make a great many remarks this afternoon, as there are others present who no doubt desire to bear their testimony before the Saints; yet I feel to make a few observations in relation to that degraded people, and in relation to ourselves, and our duties in regard to them; not that I expect my feeble abilities will impart anything that is of much consequence or importance, more than what has already been clearly portrayed before your minds this forenoon.

With these preliminary remarks, I will select a passage of Scripture as a text. It reads as follows—“Woe be unto them that are at ease in Zion.” I think we will find this text in the predictions of Isaiah. We shall also find it in the Book of Mormon. I will repeat the words—“Woe be unto them that are at ease in Zion.” Do you think, brethren and sisters, while so much depends upon our exertions and conduct, that we can come to these valleys, or go anywhere else on this American continent, and settle down upon our farms, or engage in our merchandise or in our business transactions, and be at ease in Zion? It is of no use thinking of this for a moment; for the day, even the time of the re– demption of Israel, is now nigh at hand; and Zion, instead of being at ease, must travail in pain to be delivered. When the Saints first began to assemble themselves together in Jackson County, Missouri, and began to build fine houses and open rich farms, and were surrounded with every facility for becoming rich in this world’s goods—when they were thus inclined to settle down in pleasant places, with their affections placed upon the things of the earth—upon their houses and their lands, upon their grain, their flocks and their herds, and when the great and important duties required of them as Latter-day Saints were laid aside, or, at least, placed on the background—when they thus settled down, and were determined to enjoy their own Zion at perfect ease, did the Lord suffer them to remain at ease? No. He suffered them to be uprooted, to be driven from their houses and inheritances, and to be afflicted, tormented, and oppressed. Why did the Lord suffer this? Because the people felt a disposition to be at ease in the land of Zion, and to neglect the important duties required at their hands. This has been more or less the case from the day that we settled in the western part of Missouri until the present time. We have forgotten who we are; we have forgotten in a measure what God has been doing with us as a people; we have forgotten his purposes that he has determined to accomplish in our day and generation; we have forgotten the degraded, forlorn condition of the sons of Joseph; we have forgotten the predictions of the holy Prophets among their fathers, who so earnestly prayed to the Most High for themselves and their children to the latest generation, whose prayers have been recorded in the records of eternity and preserved in the archives of heaven, to be answered upon the heads of their posterity in the last days. We have forgotten these things to a great extent, and are dwelling at ease in Zion, and neglecting the great redemption of Israel.

It almost seems sometimes that the people are determined to take their rest and be at ease before their great labor is accomplished or their day of rest comes. They build houses, they plant vineyards, they sow their fields, they gather together large flocks and herds, they multiply their goods and substance, they surround themselves with the comforts and luxuries of this life, and say to themselves, “We will enjoy ourselves and be at ease in Zion; we will remain upon our farms and in our fine houses; we will engage in our merchandise and in various occupations; we will let the Lamanites take care of themselves, and we will let the purposes of the Almighty roll round without our help.” And after all these things, they will pray every day that the Lord will roll round events, accomplish his purposes, and fulfil the covenants made with the house of Israel, and yet not lift one solitary finger to facilitate the answer to their prayers.

As it was said this forenoon, God is not going to do this without our agency and exertions. What says the Apostle Paul concerning the Gentiles? “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these (that is the house of Israel) also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.”

The Apostle shows plainly that blindness in part happened to Israel, and that you Gentiles, as a consequence, obtained mercy. Has not the light of truth shone upon our minds, that these Lamanites, who are of the house of Israel, might, through the mercy of us Gentiles, obtain mercy?

[Elder Pratt then asked a blessing upon the bread.]

Through the mercy of the Gentiles, it is decreed that the house of Israel in the last days shall obtain mercy; that is, through the believing of the Gentiles, or, in other words, through the Saints of the living God who have embraced the covenant of peace from among the Gentiles, and have separated themselves from the wicked Gentile nations. It is through their mercy, through their long-suffering, patience, and forbearance, that the house of Israel are to find salvation and mercy. And if we do not accomplish this work, we shall suffer; and I just as much believe this as I believe that the sun shines in the firmament of heaven. Without this people become the saviors of Israel, we shall be accounted as salt that has lost its savor, and therefore no longer good for anything but to be trodden under the feet of Israel or of our enemies. Whosoever will not extend the hand of mercy to redeem this people will go down, and lose their influence with God and all good men. We are placed here as saviors upon the mountains, and God has placed us here because we understand principles that they are ignorant of. We know about God; we have learned something of Jesus Christ and of the redemption wrought out by him; we have also learned some little of the future state of man. We are in possession of knowledge which is hid from all the rest of the world. Shall we, therefore, dwell at ease upon our farms and in our habitations, and suffer these sons of the forest to remain in eternal ignorance of the great truths that we are in possession of? If so, woe be unto this people, or any other people that are entrusted with the sacred things committed to our charge, and who do not use them according to the mind and will of God; for it is his mind that they should be used for the redemption of those that are unacquainted with these principles by which alone salvation can be obtained.

But how can we save this fallen remnant of Israel? Can the redemption of this widely scattered and degraded race be brought about in a moment? It cannot. We have heard from the lips of our President, who spake by the wisdom of the Most High and by the power of the Spirit which rested upon him. He has pointed out the way, and shall we not walk in it? Shall we not give heed to his sayings? We are commanded to be of one heart and of one mind; and in this case in particular we are required to be united in all our exertions, and to use all the power and faculties of our minds for the salvation of the nations of Joseph. Will the brethren reach forth the helping hand, and try to redeem the sons of the forest with whom we are surrounded? I believe they will; for the purposes of God must be fulfilled; and we are the people who have to do the work; and to those who do not take part in it, I will apply the words of my text—“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.” And this woe will find them out; it will surely come upon them, and sorely afflict them from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof; and when the night cometh, it will not cease; it will follow them day by day, until they learn by sad experience that there is no such thing as being at ease in Zion until Zion has travailed in pain and brought forth her children, and especially when the work is of the importance of the one now before us, and required at our hands. Here are numbers of the Lamanites before me. How much good it would do them, if they could only sit down and read as we can concerning their fathers! Place yourselves in the same position, and imagine that you had lost all that was good and great, and suppose that you were among a people who understood all this knowledge, and suppose that they were not willing to put forth their hands to impart the blessings they enjoyed to you, how would you feel? You would feel as God feels, and the same as the old Prophets and Patriarch of the Nephites feel, who are now in the heavens, and who are acquainted with the purposes of God that are now transpiring upon the earth. How do you think they would feel, if they were to come down and look upon their descendants, and see them wandering in darkness, without the knowledge of God or their ancestors, and then turn and see a people in their midst who were in possession of the sacred records and prophecies of their fathers, and yet that people so careless, and so much at ease, that they used scarcely any exertion to impart the heavenly knowledge to them? Perhaps some may inquire, How are you going to impart information to so dark and degraded a people as our red neighbors? Do as brother Young has counseled, instead of driving them out from your midst to some desolate region. Cultivate their friendship; be forbearing and kind, and show a sympathetic spirit for them. Build for them a good schoolhouse, and let the people be engaged in teaching them the English language, both old and young, as far as they are willing to be taught. Teach them concerning their forefathers, the carrying forth of the Book of Mormon, and the plan of salvation which is revealed to us, with the promise of eternal life to all those who believe and obey. They require to be taught in order that they may have faith; for how can they believe without being taught by those whose right it is to teach? Teach them to read; and if you can persuade them to be attentive, it will not take them long to acquire a knowledge of our language. If you can possibly afford it, feed them and keep them from perishing with hunger. Just as long as they have to hunt in the mountains and canyons for food, and to eat snails, snakes, and crickets, in order to keep themselves alive—I say, so long as they have to do this, you cannot make them think of God. They will think of their hunting, and of procuring something to prevent starvation; for they must procure something to subsist upon, even if it is by stealing. Then if you want them to learn knowledge, and to acquire it in the best way, and with the least expense to yourselves, feed and clothe them, and then instruct them; and if you can get their minds bent down to study our language, it will be but a very short time before they will read as well as the best of us. Get them so that they can read the record of their forefathers—the Book of Mormon, and they will soon learn what God intends to do for them; and then the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon them, according to the intelligence and capacities they have for receiving the light of truth. In this way they may soon be fitted and prepared for a greater amount of knowledge, and receive the eternal Priesthood upon their heads, and then they will go forth to the surrounding nations, tongues, and tribes of their own people, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth. And this is the place for us to work; and we have the liberty and the means to first begin directly here at home; and when we have instructed and taught those directly in our midst, not merely by our theories, but by our precepts and examples, then will be the time to go and convert those in South America and in the distant regions of our continent. But if we cannot convert those whom we have around us, and persuade them to hearken to the Priesthood, it is but very little use to go to others at a greater distance; for here is the place. God has not sent us as a people to dwell in the southern extremities of South America; but he has caused us to be located here; and hence here is the place where he intends us to work. We are called upon to begin here in the city of Provo, on the lands that these Lamanites call their own, and where they have chosen their homes. You may say in your hearts that “it would be so much labor and trouble—it would cost us so much of our time and means to convert those around us, that we have not courage to perform the great undertaking.” But what were we sent here for? The Lord has caused us to come here for this very purpose—that we might accomplish the redemption of these suffering, degraded Israelites, as predicted in the sacred records of their forefathers, and this is what we are told by our President; and therefore we can have no excuse, for our duty has been plainly told us. This work is of the greatest importance of any work of the present day. I believe with all my heart, as expressed by our President, that this people will be our shield in days to come; and I believe that if we lose this shield by our carelessness, or by settling down at ease in Zion, it will be woe to us that call ourselves Latter-day Saints. Yes, it will be woe to us if we do not accomplish this work that is given us to do. Do you not know that they will be the principal actors in some of the grand events of times to come? What says the Book of Mormon in relation to the building up of the New Jerusalem on this continent—one of the most splendid cities that ever was or ever will be built on this land? Does not that book say that the Lamanites are to be the principal operators in that important work, and that those who embrace the Gospel from among the Gentiles are to have the privilege of assisting the Lamanites to build up the city called the New Jerusalem? This remnant of Joseph, who are now degraded, will then be filled with the wisdom of God; and by that wisdom they will build that city; by the aid of the Priesthood already given, and by the aid of Prophets that God will raise up in their midst, they will beautify and ornament its dwellings; and we have the privilege of being numbered with them, instead of their being numbered with us. It is a great privilege indeed (and we are indebted to their fathers for it), that we enjoy of being associated with them in the accomplishment of so great a work. It is to their fathers and to God that we are indebted for the enjoyment of such great blessings in fulfillment of the prophecies. Their ancient Prophets among their ancestry looked with interest upon their children, and they interceded day and night for their redemption. In answer to their prayers, an angel has flown through the midst of heaven to preach the everlasting Gospel to the nations; and it is therefore to them that we are indebted for many of the privileges that we now enjoy. If we are thus indebted as a people—woe be unto us who are gathered from among the Gentiles, if we neglect to pay the debt by our exertions to save them! Woe to us who have contracted the debt! For a day of judgment and retribution will come, and there will be no escape! No lawyers will be there to quibble and bring up technicalities of law; but the debt will have to be paid, for to their forefathers are we indebted for the light and knowledge that we possess. Therefore, let us bestir ourselves, and perform those duties incumbent upon us, and then we shall receive our reward. I do not wish to take up the time when there are others of our brethren that have not had the privilege of speaking; but I did feel to say these words. I felt to shout glory to God this morning when I heard our President speak of these things. My advice to you, my brethren and sisters, is the same as to myself—Let us wake up to a sense of these things; let us sacrifice whatever is required of us for the salvation of this people. With regard to going to foreign nations to preach the Gospel among the idolatrous heathen, I will say, for my own part, that I would prefer going and laboring for years in those mountains to save Israel; yes, for years, if that should be required by the First Presidency, though I stand ready to go to China, or to the islands and nations of the Pacific, or to any other part of the world, when counseled so to do. What are these sacrifices to the glory that is to follow?

[Elder Pratt asked a blessing upon the cup.]

Brethren and sisters, may God bless you, and may his Spirit inspire you when you lie down at night, and in your dreams of the night, when you rise up in the morning, and when you go about your temporal labors. May He inspire you continually to search and find out what your duties are to the remnants of Israel that are in your midst. I ask that God will give you this spirit of inquiry and earnestness in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, made in the Bowery at Provo, July 15, 1855.

I have sat and listened with a great deal of interest to the teachings of the Prophets and Apostles of the Lord, and I feel it to be a privilege, indeed, to enjoy the society of such men, to hear them speak, and to have a few moments with the rest to address you. In the subjects and items that have been presented before us, there is a great amount of important matter. I have felt, and did in the commencement of this Conference, that for one man or several men to have oil enough in their vessels to supply one thousand men was a very difficult thing, but it seems necessary when a congregation comes together for all to have oil in their lamps, and not to require one or half-a-dozen men to have oil with them for the whole congregation.

Well, brethren and sisters, we have heard a great deal since this meeting commenced, on various subjects, and we have had good teachings—principles of eternal life have been set before us by the several brethren who have spoken. The proceedings of this Conference have led my mind to reflection. I have reflected upon what I have heard, and considered the importance of those teachings we have received; and there is one thing I want to say to this congregation, when the servants of God who have been set to lead us, or to lead the people of God in all the world, when they rise up to testify, and when they stand forth to teach the Saints, and to present principles before them that are calculated to save them if adhered to, I wish the Saints to understand that those teachings, or those precepts have to be received by us as a people, for they will prove a savor of life unto life or death unto death.

I thought of the children of Israel this morning. Now, says Moses to them, I have set life and death before you, choose which you will receive, and it is just so with us, the way of life is pointed out and if we neglect to walk therein, there is nothing but death stares us in the face. Let us stop and reflect a moment—let us see whether it is best for us to receive life or death. Brethren, you have heard plain truths, and they have been dictated by the power of the Holy Ghost and by the testimony of Jesus Christ, and now is the time for you to decide whom ye will serve. When I used to hear the Prophet Joseph, and when I hear Brigham, or Heber, or Jedediah M. Grant, or the Twelve Apostles, or any other men, if they speak by the spirit and power of God, and they tell us thus saith the Lord, so and so will come to pass, for instance those who will feed and clothe these Lamanites and see to their wants, as our President has told us, they shall be blessed and prosper, while those who despise them shall go down and shall not stand in the kingdom of God, I believe that what they say will be fulfilled. I also believe that which was said here today, viz.—That we do forget what we are, and we often forget who we are; we forget, as a people in these mountains, by what hand we have been led here, and by whom we have been governed and controlled since this kingdom has been organized and the holy Priesthood committed to man upon the earth. We become so overcome by the cares of life that we neglect and forget our duties, and as the brethren have remarked with reference to our brethren and sisters in this place, they do not realize the responsibility that rests upon us. Do we realize the salvation that is to be given to this people? If we did we would prize our privileges far more than we do at the present time. How many of us who are now in this congregation realize as we ought the salvation and the privileges which are granted to us? Do you appreciate the Priesthood that is given you, and that the keys of the kingdom are given to you, and that the world of mankind are dependent upon you for salvation? No, not as you ought. We forget our God and our prayers, we forget to call upon God for his Holy Spirit to rest upon us, that we may live to his honor and glory. Truly, if the Elders in this Church and kingdom realized what is put into their possession, and that the God of heaven will actually require an account of our stewardship, an account of what we have been doing, and what use we have been making of the gifts and blessings which he has bestowed upon us, we should be more diligent in the performance of all our duties, and we should often act differently to what we do, and pursue a different course, and especially concerning our red brethren. And I will say to you brethren who reside in Provo, for God’s sake listen to counsel, and for the sake of the house of Israel, and for your own sake listen to the instructions of President Young and carry them into practice. Do not go away from this stand and let those things escape your minds, and be like water spilled upon the ground which cannot be gathered again, but receive them as the revelations of Jesus Christ to us. It has been remarked that it costs a great deal to keep the Lamanites, and who does not know that everything costs a good deal in this kingdom? Have you not tithed your whole substance, your flocks and herds and all your possessions? Have not the Gentiles robbed you and spoiled you of everything you possessed? And have you not had to make your beds in the mud upon the banks of the Mississippi River? You have experienced all this and a great deal more. Does it require the same to pay your Tithing? Does it require the same affliction, the same suffering to keep the commandments of God, as it did in those days of persecution and trial? No, it does not. Will it cost as much to farm for them, to feed and clothe them, as it cost us in those times of trouble and perplexity? All will acknowledge that it is better to give a part than to lose the whole, and have to flee to the rocks and mountains, and be driven from our homes by the Gentile world. You will find, brethren and sisters, that the trials will be heavier and more severe every time, and you will also find, that when the duties of our calling are light upon us, it will be then that we will require to be stirred up to diligence and to the performance of our duty. The people are always the best when they are busily engaged. When I have heard brother Kimball declare, that if this people did not save their wheat and the necessaries of life they would see hard times and famine in the land. I say these things sink like lead into my feelings, and they always did from the very first that I heard them. Whenever I hear things set forth by the servants of God, I always know that there is a meaning to them, and they always weigh heavily upon my mind. The Lord foreshows us through his servants what is coming to pass, and in this way we have been led by the hand of God; and it has been by his mercies that we have been guided until the present time. The blessings of God have been multiplied upon our heads year after year, and we have had more than we deserve bestowed upon us, and the counsel and instructions given us have been good. I hope that we will be wise, and not let those things pass away as idle tales, but follow them up and be on hand for everything that is required at our hands. I hope that brother Snow will lead up in these matters, respecting your meetinghouse and farming operations for the natives, and I hope that they will carry out the instructions given them, and if the brethren will attend to these things and do them in faith and in the name of the Lord, I will tell you how it will be, all you take in hand will prosper, the Lord will bless your crops, and your cattle, and all that you possess. But if you neglect your labor this year, why next year your labors will be double; and so it will be year after year until all your blessings will be taken away, and you will be left to yourselves. Then do what is required at your hands, and your yoke will be easy and your burden light, because you will do each day that which belongs to that day.

I know that what has been said here is true, and the Spirit bears record to you and to every honest heart—to every man and woman that these things are correct. These Lamanites have a right to the holy Priesthood, and it is our duty to carry the Gospel unto them that they may attain to all its privileges and blessings.

We have for the last twenty years been preaching it in the United States, in Europe, and distant nations of the earth, and thousands have embraced it; but in accomplishing this the Elders of Israel have had to make all kinds of sacrifices, and be absent from their families for several years at a time, but now the key is turned to the seed of Israel, they are right here in our midst scattered abroad among these mountains. “What,” says one, “preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these natives?” Yes, God has determined that seeing the Gentiles count themselves unworthy of eternal life, he will through the instrumentality of his servants cause salvation to go to Israel in the mountains, and fulfil the promises which were made to their fathers hundreds of years ago. When you see the servitude in which the poor of mankind are kept in the various nations, and the privations, abominations, and oppression that grind down the inhabitants of the earth, does it not make us feel for them? And to whom can they look for deliverance? They never will find it but through the instrumentality of this people, for into their hand the kingdom is given nevermore to be destroyed, but it will spread and increase until all have had an opportunity of receiving the truth in all nations. And those that will not keep the commandments of God will feel his chastening rod, for he will purify and cleanse the earth that it may be prepared for the coming of Christ.

The kingdom of God will remain upon the earth, and the holy Priesthood will rest down upon these our neighbors as well as we, and the keys of power will remain with this people forever and be used for their redemption, for this is the decree of the Almighty. If we do not do our duty as a people we shall be chastened and whipped until we learn obedience. Then, I say, that it is for us to work to build up his kingdom, whatever we are instructed to do, that we should perform at all times and listen to the counsels of his servants whatever may be the consequences. Yes, brethren, the time is at hand when we are and shall be required to put forth our hands and do a great work upon the earth, and the dead branches must be cut off in order that there may be room for the kingdom of God to grow. We see the judgments of God spreading among the nations of the earth, and what are our feelings? My feelings are, that it is according to the prophecies of those men who were inspired in days that are gone. Well, do I delight in seeing the wicked destroyed? No, I do not; but I delight in seeing the righteous get what they look for, happiness and eternal life. Is it a benefit for the wicked portion of mankind to live or to die and go down to the grave? It is better for the people to go down to the grave than to live upon the earth; when the principles of salvation are offered to the world, it is better that they should cease to live than bring thousands of posterity into the world who will like themselves do wickedly, for the wicked and the ungodly of the earth will not receive the Gospel of Christ, and the earth is bound to be cleansed that there may be room for the righteous to live, for a holy and righteous generation to be raised up and the name of God honored among men. These are my feelings upon that subject. And it will be just so with us, we will be under greater condemnation than any other people if we neglect our duties, because we have received the Priesthood of God, and have learned what is right and what is wrong. How many of our brethren now present, before the light of revelation came, felt as we do now? Would we not have given anything in the world that we possessed to have had the privilege of listening to the teachings we have had this day? We were then like the blind groping for the wall, and all we had to do was to walk by the little light we could get. We were then filled with traditions of our fathers who had inherited vanity, lies, and things in which there was no profit. Things are different now, we know for ourselves, we understand the things of God, then let us obey for ourselves that we may prosper. I feel an anxiety for the welfare of this people, and I pray that we may not neglect the blessings that are given to us, for this is an important time. While we are in this probation we should make the best possible use of our time, for this is the time to receive life and knowledge and to lay up treasures in heaven, that where our heart is, there our treasures may be also. There are many things in my mind to speak upon for the benefit of this people, but I do not feel to occupy your time longer. I do feel though that the subject before us is of all importance to the house of Israel, and I believe that the Lord does intend that we should speak to them, and bring them to understand the light of truth. They are in darkness, because their fathers had the truth and turned away and forsook the Lord their God. The Prophets among them wrote records, and in those records they promised blessings to their children who should live in the last days. They promised that after the cursing and afflictions should come the blessings, and if the Lord has taken us from the midst of the Gentiles and has enlightened our mind so that we can comprehend life and death in a great measure, and the principles of truth that are being revealed, we should feel satisfied with the blessings God has given, and we should be as ready to preach to these Lamanites as we are to the Gentiles. Are they not of the seed of Israel? Are they not all our brethren and of the house of Joseph? Then, brethren, let us take heed, and when we look upon them and see their conditions deal with them wisely, and the Lord will acknowledge our labors. I will tell you what I believe about this matter—the redemption of these natives—had this people come here under the same impressions that they had in New York, in Ohio, in Kentucky, or in Maine, or in any other State, had they come when they first received the Gospel and the Spirit of it, for then their hearts were touched with the Spirit of the Gospel of salvation, and they felt well, and had they have come here under those impressions and continued to live under those impressions which they first received in relation to these scattered tribes; I say long before this, had the people who first settled in Utah Valley lived up to the first impressions first made upon their minds, these Utes would have felt to be our brethren and sisters. They would have been one with us, and they would have been in this Church long ago, and their children would have been reading and writing, and you would have seen some of the young men busily engaged preaching to the tribes the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If the Latter-day Saints had come here when they first received the impression, and the Book of Mormon from Joseph Smith, this wild degraded race of men might have been, to a great extent, civilized and acquainted with the Gospel. What do you say brethren, is not that correct? (Loud cries of “Yes.“) I know it is. I have heard the brethren and sisters speak in tongues and give interpretations about this very people, and they would say that they would teach the Lamanites to spin and sew, and also to be clean; do they feel so now? No; I tell you they are backsliders from that faith which they then imbibed; they are lukewarm and cold to those things which God has taught us respecting this people with whom we now live. Well, now, again, if you will reflect and look back a little you will see that we have been for several years past calling for the Elders to go forth and preach the Gospel, and we have almost preached to all nations. There may be some nations that we have not preached to, but we have preached it in France, Italy, Germany, and the States of the German Confederacy; and it has been preached in the British Isles, in North and South America, and the Society and Sandwich Islands, and to China, and we have even sent them to the dark regions of Asia and Africa to preach the Gospel of Christ. There were two of our brethren past through here last night who have been to those countries. Chauncey West has been through that country and can tell how it is there. Could he get any converts there? Yes, if he could get them plenty to eat, but if he could not feed them and keep them they would not stay with him. Now Chauncey West has done as much as he could, and not only preached and traveled, but he has cleared his skirts of those people among whom he has traveled, and he has cleared this people, for they have been commanded to preach this Gospel to all the nations of the earth.

Do we want to save the Lamanites? Yes, we do, and they are here by thousands and hundreds of thousands, right upon this continent; we have them all around us and they want saving. Supposing we were to take those Elders that we have in the various nations and send them in among these Indians, these natives of the mountains, what would be the result? Our Elders go and leave their families for two, three, five and seven years, they leave all and travel by land and sea, they get shipwrecked, go almost naked, and be gone for years, preaching and laboring year after year, and what do they accomplish? Not as much as they could do at home in one month, but still they go, and positively don’t do as much good as they could do at home in one fourth the time. Now, suppose I were to call for Missionaries to go and preach the Gospel to the nations that are termed the civilized nations, I could get hundreds of volunteers. Why are you not willing to make sacrifices here? Why should not men be willing to go and spend their time and talents among these Lamanites and save time, money, and hundreds and thousands of dollars? Let a man till his garden, attend to the cows, get his living and devote the spare portion of his time to preaching to these Lamanites, and he will be right at home all the time. But men will prefer going and spending their time year after year among the Gentile nations, and accomplish a mere nothing. And I can find men in this congregation who will do this, and do it freely, but say to them set your own time and go to the canyon and get a load of wood for these Lamanite squaws and will they do it? No, they will not. Is it not strange that men will act so, go from home and spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to preach the Gospel to somebody of noted civilization, away off yonder (pointing east), but will we go to the Lamanites? No, but we try to get away off from them. We are treating them just as the Latter-day Saints have been treated by the Gentiles. If any of them come about begging, the Latter-day Saints instead of serving them and thereby kindling a good spirit within them say, “here, get out of the way, let this alone, and don’t you meddle with that, I don’t like you, go away from my house.” This is the way the Saints talk to these natives. Now, where shall we go—to the nations that have rejected the fulness of the Gospel, or shall we stay at home and preach to these natives? I tell you, if we send this people off from us and treat them with contempt we shall regret it, and mourn because of it. I am going to tell you what to do with these natives, you Bishops and Presidents of Provo and Springville, call out those teams which you have about you, all of them, and if these Indians want wood, haul it for them for you have burned theirs, and they need a little wood as well as you. Let them have feed on the range for their horses, wood to burn, and then they will let you alone. You will eat their fish too, on which they depend for a living one part of the year, and every serviceberry that you can find in the mountains, and still you grumble to let them have a little with you. You don’t want the crickets, and therefore they can have the whole of them, but you have secured the antelope and everything else that you could make any kind of use of. Before the whites came, there was plenty of fish and antelope, plenty of game of almost every description; but now the whites have killed off these things, and there is scarcely anything left for the poor natives to live upon. Brethren what are you going to do with them? Kick them out of doors when they come in and let them starve to death? If we do this, we shall most assuredly regret it. Well, what will you do brother Brigham? I will tell you what I will do; there is brother Armstrong here, and he is an agent, and I want him to set off a piece of land for the natives and make a division line, and have it clearly understood that they are not to intrude upon your ground, nor you upon theirs. In addition to this, make a road from their land, so that when they want to come to the city they can do it without breaking down fences or intruding upon anybody’s land. Then teach them to work, to fence in their land, to plough, to raise wheat and corn, and potatoes, and everything they need; teach them to be cleanly and industrious, and prevail on them to send their children to school to learn to read and write the English language, and let some of those men that used to talk of teaching the Lamanites, and of converting them, let them go down and build a nice schoolhouse in their settlement, and there teach them the principles of civilization. And instead of you wasting your hundreds and thousands worth of time, and of grain, and clothing, do as they did in Salt Lake City last year; they formed a society for the benefit of these Indians, and put their means together and made them clothing of various kinds, and distributed those articles which they were enabled to obtain among the Lamanites, and do you go and do likewise. Gather up the yarn, and the cotton yarn, and woolen yarn, and make them up into clothes to make them comfortable. But they must work for those things; teach them to work for all they have and don’t encourage the idle, those who refuse to work. In this way you will gradually bring them into civilization, and they will be convinced that you are their friends, and that you intend to do them good, and these things will lead them to give ear to the Gospel and be baptized for the remission of their sins. Now are we going to try to make them one, and encourage them to abide here in peace, or are we determined to drive them from us? I can tell you the Lamanites of these mountains will yet be a shield to this people if we do right, and if we will not do our duty, our necks are ready for the halter or the knife; yes, you will find that our necks will be ready for the knives of our enemies, if we do not look to these poor degraded natives.

I want to know now, if the brethren can really and truly realize our true position with regard to the Lamanites, or do you consider them a poor, lost, sunken race of beings that are not worth saving? Do you ever read the Book of Mormon? If you do, do you believe and realize the truth of its sayings, and also what the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph? These are things that we have in our possession; we have them in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants and in the History of Joseph Smith. Do you look them over? If you do, and if you lay them to heart as the things of God, you will feel that it is actually our duty to do all we possibly can to benefit, enlighten and save this dark and ignorant people. Do you feel like killing off the Lamanites? I tell you there is no man that will ever feel like killing them if he possesses the Spirit of the Lord. Well, says one, “Do you ever feel like chastising them brother Brigham?” Yes, I do, but I let the Spirit of the Holy Gospel direct me; but until the light of the Holy Gospel shone upon me I felt like other men. When the Priesthood was restored, and the light of truth burst in upon my mind, I knew then that if it were not for the Israelites the Gentiles might go to hell and be damned. The Lord would not take much pains with us anyhow, were it not for the promised seed. Instead of them being inferior to us in birthright, they are superior, and they stand first in many instances, with regard to the promises in particular. Well, but says one, “How will you prove this?” I will tell you, if we had been of the house of Israel and forsaken our God as much as we have, and despised his ordinances and trampled them under our feet, we would have been cursed like these Lamanites are, this is my proof. If the Gentiles had been of the house of Israel, legal heirs to the Priesthood, and had received their oracles as the house of Israel did, you would have found that the same curse would have come upon the Gentiles that you now see upon these Lamanites, but inasmuch as they were not of the promised seed, to them the blessings did not pertain, and they had no part nor lot in them, only as they were afterward granted on condition of obedience. The Son of God came through Israel, but we Gentiles being strangers, and foreigners, and aliens, in a national point, we had nothing to do with putting Christ to death, and hence the curse did not come upon the Gentiles. When they are restored, will they not stand before the Gentiles? Will they not be numbered with the Sons of God and be adorned with the gifts and graces of the Gospel, and stand before the Gentiles? Yes, they will! Now, what do the people think? I should like to know what this congregation think about it.

There are a good many brethren and sisters here from Springville, Palmyra, and Payson, what do you all think about it? Had we better drive them away out of the country? Or, had we best take hold and bring them into the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Now, if this people, male and female, feel to school them, spend time and pains to instill into their minds correct principles, to divide land with them, and clothe them, draw their wood for them until they learn to draw their own, and farm for them until they learn to farm for themselves, and if they will no more slay them, no more seclude them from their houses and hospitality, and will go to work and restore them to the knowledge of the truth the Lord God will bless them, and they have nothing to fear. If you will live up to this you will rise, while those who do not will go down. If this people will observe this covenant, and follow it one and all (and here are the leading men in these mountains belonging to several of the tribes, and they feel well), thousands and hundreds of thousands will embrace this Gospel, and for ought I know scores of thousands will become members of this Church.

Now, if you will take hold of the wheel and lift, it may be granted unto us to accomplish this great work, and I tell you that you will receive the blessings of the Gospel, such as you never received before, if you will make up your minds to be favorable and merciful unto them in their filthiness, and in their ignorance, these blessings are yours. But if you get angry and kill them, you will not obtain them. Say to them, “If you steal and destroy our property we will bear with you, and while you are ignorant we will bear with you,” and if this people will take this course from this time forth, they will feel the power of God more than they ever did in these last days before. (The congregation here united in a loud “Amen.“) And you are finding it so, too.

Just give them what they want; I tell you it is the cheapest way to fight them. You can draw them to you and make them bend to anything if you use them well. And if any man abuses them, let him be dealt with by the civil authorities, and in this way you will succeed in the work you have in view.

May God bless you all. Amen.

By President Joseph Young, made in the Bowery at Provo, July 13, 1855.

I arise, brethren and sisters, to make a very few remarks, particularly upon one point, that is the subject of the Lamanites. I am aware that in all the teaching that the brightest intelligence can receive upon any subject, that there is a balance wheel in the inside of man—the heart—that should be consulted in carrying out any or every instruction that we hear. The Lord has put into every man a portion of instruction that he is required to use, independent of any oral instruction that he may receive. This natural intelligence is given to balance things in the human mind. The Spirit of the Lord is given to men to profit thereby. It is according to good sense and reason that these natives should be looked to and sought after, for they are the seed of promise; they act according to the light they have pertaining to all matters that have come within the reach of their minds, and it is the duty of the Latter-day Saints to treat them kindly, and try to save them, and if they do not they may miss the mark; and although they may offer many good teachings which do not seem to be appreciated, yet there is a common law that is written upon every man’s heart, and the hearts of those poor natives can be penetrated, and if this power is not exercised, or if we allow it to lie dormant we miss the figure. And, I feel that we do not appreciate our privileges, we let the spirit that is in us lie dormant, and hence it is that our treatment to the Lamanites has been so different in the various parts and settlements of this Territory. There is a splitting of hairs about this important matter, and if the Latter-day Saints cannot split hairs I do not know who can, yes, this people can split hairs if anybody in the world can about anything. I am aware that we are a peculiar people, that our circumstances have been trying and vexatious all the way through; I am sensible that our treatment has been rather extravagant, and it has been a matter of serious reflection with many, to know to what extent we ought to mingle with these wild natives around us. Before I was a member of this kingdom, I believed in converting the inhabitants of these mountains. I foresaw that it could be done, or in other words I saw them in a condition and in circumstances where they were all passive and filled with the Holy Spirit. I saw that it was the spirit of truth that dwelt with them, and when I became acquainted with the Gospel in the early part of this Church, I then learnt that it was the spirit of the Saints of latter days, and that it would bring them to the knowledge of their fathers and their friends, and also to the knowledge of the covenants made with their fathers ages ago. In this thing, the Latter-day Saints were as much deceived as they ever were upon any other subject, this I am satisfied of. How was this? They were deceived in relation to these tribes, because the Holy Spirit brought many things close to their minds—they appeared right by, and hence many were deceived, and run into a mistake respecting them. They (the Saints) undertook to make calculations for to establish the kingdom and restore Israel, and many were so excited, that they wanted to take the Gospel from the Gentiles immediately. They were for taking the Gospel clear away at once, and of course for sealing them all up to destruction. Many good men made great blunders upon the subject of “redeeming Israel;” it was a great mystery, and perhaps I made as great mistakes as others in forming my opinions, but I had the caution not to utter my views to anyone. I knew that faith and the Holy Ghost brought the designs of Providence close by, and by that means we were enabled to scan them, and find out what they would produce when carried into effect, but we had not knowledge enough to digest and fully comprehend those things, and therefore it was a mark of wisdom for any man to keep his spirit and feelings to himself.

I mention this to show you how ready the Saints were to say that the Lamanites should be before them in the Church, yet they would be willing to do anything for the salvation of Israel; but our long experience has proved, together with our faith and practice, the folly of making great calculations beforehand. I have asked frequently when is that time coming, which I have heard talked about and prophesied of in tongues years ago when in the meetings of the Saints; even the sisters used to predict that their husbands would go and instruct the Lamanites in all the habits and customs of civilization that we as a people understand. These things used to be talked of years ago, and now we are here right amongst them, the Lord has thrown us into their society, and they are a dark, loathsome, and forbidding people, and they live around us in a wild uncultivated state, in these mountains and valleys, and I have proved them, some of them to have partaken of the proper spirit, and many of them begin to feel well. I have heard men prophesy in the early part of this Church, that in 25 years Jesus would come to reign upon the earth, and that in that time all would be wound up, and hence they were going to redeem Israel in the mountains and wind all up in a short time, but I have desired to have our Lamanite brethren brought to understanding, and come and be united with us in the covenant of peace and salvation—to see them learn the arts of civilization and quit their habits of blood and murder; I wish to see them learn the truth, come and be a white and delightsome people. All these ideas and feelings seemed to be given up years ago, but by-and-by the Lord threw us into a position where we could be tested and proved, and how do we feel and act? I ought to touch a few points which I consider most extravagant in the conduct of the Latter-day Saints. Some people, for instance, when the Lamanites come to their houses will call out, “here, be off, we do not want to see you, go away.” These natives come to their houses, dark, dirty, and miserable it is true, but they come like little children, but the brethren and sisters order them off, literally throw them away. And I have seen them go to other places and the people would commence their jokes upon them, and making a good deal of freedom with them. Well, both these things I have laid aside as being spurious and not good. According to our faith, there is a right way and one only, and if any people can split hairs this people can, and do most assuredly about the right way to deal with these poor loathsome creatures. Oh, says one family, “we do not want them in here, we cannot do with them in our houses, upon our beds, or on our floors which have been cleaned.” There have been times that I have had them with me in my house and have made a good fire to warm them, and I would shake hands with them and tell them that I liked them, and that the great Spirit liked them as well as I did. They will come to beg and say, “we want to get wheat to feed upon,” then I would reply that “I wanted it for my ‘papooses,’ I would be glad to do it, but I have many ‘papooses’ and cannot spare any.” Treat them courteously, and do not let any kind of remarks fall from your lips that will make them believe that you want to sauce them, and on the other hand, do not use any freedom with them, take no step to make them believe that you are their enemy, but show that you are their friend by your kindness and liberality to them. I have always treated them well, and now many of them come into my house, and they make no particular ado, neither do I with them, but I am strict, I use no freedom; I forbid my boys scuffling or joking with them, and if they ask for a thing that I have not got, I tell them kindly, and then they will walk away, but they will come again another day. By acting in this way when they ask for anything and I tell them that I have not got it, they believe me, because they have had no occasion to disbelieve me. I do not say to them that they have taken liberties in my house which I cannot submit to, for I never give them the opportunity. I cannot see, for my part that it is the privilege of people to abuse them. I believe that we have to treat them with respect and the spirit of uprightness. We will examine the law which our Father, the Great Spirit, and Great Chief, has delivered to us to obey. Teach them the law of God, do it mildly and kindly, and it will take an effect upon them, but harsh measures will not. These are my views with regard to the Lamanites, and I believe in being good-tempered with those men; I believe in teaching them to cultivate the land and raise grain for themselves, and in teaching them our language, and I tell my second son that he must learn to talk theirs. Squashead often comes to my house and he will hollow out when at a distance—“Joseph Young, Joseph Young, give me meat and bread.” I give him some, and then he will ask for some wheat, and I tell him I cannot spare it. Once when he came, he asked if I had any hay; “yes, got hay;” he wanted to lie down. “Well,” said I, “lie down on the hay.” He came to me one day and put his hand upon my shoulder, and pointed with the other, and said—“Joseph Young, got one heart, one tongue, one ear—I want something to eat,” and then his brother came, and I always respond in feeding them, and I have this faith that if treated properly they will ere long see the truth, and I tell you brethren, when brother Benson was speaking of his views and feelings I felt to say, that is by the power of God, and there is nothing that is more of the power of God to me that when men are speaking of this mean, poor, low, miserable, dejected people, for they have been in favor with God as we now are, and we should be delighted to have them brought to the light, and we shall endeavor to have them made clean. What has been the cause of their filthiness? The same as would befall us if we were to rebel and do the same things which they have done. They are a poor miserable set of people, and they have been abused and trampled upon by their enemies, and when I talk about them I think of the vision I had some time ago, when I saw them in their redeemed state, and they looked so bright, and clean, and glorious, and this people are the individuals who have to bring this about, and as I said, just because God’s ways are not as ours. The Spirit of the Lord, of the God of Israel, brings things in their time and place. God’s work is not like man’s; the Lord shows things to come, perhaps in dreams or by visions of the night, and we should learn what is mingled and connected in his designs. We should observe so as to know what is intended, so that we may not run into a snag. We have not a great many inconveniences to contend with, and hence we should feel for Israel, and I just know that there is a material change in the feelings of that people in these mountains and valleys. How do you know it says one? I know it by the spirit of their chiefs, and I know it by the spirit that rules in the breasts of a great many of them. “You must not kill the Mormons” they say, “they are our friends, and they want to do us good.” There has been a material, a radical change, and I say that it is the power of God that has done it, and only let us be of one heart and of one mind, and the thing will be brought about in the due time of the Lord.

I thought I would say so much in favor of the red men, and here let me advise you to mark your feelings from this time, and see if you do not feel better when you feed them, than when you take up the sword to fight them. Be liberal, and be just as kind as you can be, and then see if you will not feel better than when you took up the guns to shoot them. There is the touchstone and the balance wheel! Keep a good spirit within you towards that people and it will be well. I am not afraid, neither should be if I were in the wilderness. The spirit of intelligence which I carry with me, and which is in them would clear my way, and those men would never hurt a hair of my head, and why? Because I would treat them kindly and manifest a good spirit.

Brother Francis Durphy tells an anecdote about some Indians; he says, “that as he was coming from California with a few others they saw a large band of Indians, and they went right up and met them, and as they went up the old chief came as by some unseen influence, and held his hands up and seemed quite pleased to have a talk with them. The chiefs kept turning back to talk to the brethren; they were so pleased that they dismounted and conversed, and they seemed to be filled with the Spirit of God, they felt well; they could not stay, they said they must go to their squaws and papooses; the brethren gave them some fish, and they went off in the best of spirits.” This shows that there is a power that controls them, and will continue to their salvation. I know this is true; I cling to them and intend to do so through.

May God bless you. Amen.