Journal of Discourses Volume 5

DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG,

HIS TWO COUNSELLORS,
THE TWELVE APOSTLES, AND OTHERS.

REPORTED BY G. D. WATT, J. V. LONG, AND OTHERS

AND HUMBLY DEDICATED TO THE LATTER-DAY 
SAINTS IN ALL THE WORLD.

VOL. V.

LIVERPOOL:
EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY ASA 
CALKIN, 42, ISLINGTON. 

LONDON:
LATTER-DAY SAINTS' BOOK DEPOT, 
35, JEWIN STREET CITY.

1858.[p.iii]

Preface

vol. 5, p.iii
This Number completes the Fifth Volume of the Journal of Discourses.

vol. 5, p.iii
At the close of the last Volume it was not unlikely that the source
from whence the Journal is supplied would be beyond our reach at the
needful time, or that important events would hush for a season the
oracles of God. But from the number of Discourses delivered during the
latter part of last year and the early part of this, previous to the
absorbing events succeeding, we have thus been enabled to complete the
present Volume.

vol. 5, p.iii
It is unnecessary for us to dwell on the importance of the Discourses
contained herein and the value of this Volume to the Saints' library,
seeing that it represents a part of the most trying season of the
Church. We therefore commend it to its readers without further
preface, and we are confident that in years to come the value of the
Fifth Volume to its possessors will be enhanced.

THE PUBLISHER. [p.1]

Brigham Young, July 5, 1857

True Happiness—Fruits of not Following Counsel—Popular 
Prejudice Against the Mormons—The Coming Army—
Punishment of Evildoers

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

vol. 5, p.1
It rejoices my heart to hear the brethren testify of their faith and
good feelings, and of their confidence in God and in their religion.
It is a matter of rejoicing to me to see those who profess to love and
serve the Lord live up to their professions.

vol. 5, p.1
Brother Park very correctly observed that if this people will actually
do the will of those who are placed to lead them, they will be owned,
honoured, and blest of their God who dwells in the heavens. I can say,
for one, that I cannot be pleased, I cannot be satisfied, I cannot
feel to fellowship this people as I wish to do, unless they live their
religion and serve their God every day, every hour, and every minute
of their lives. There is no time allotted to us to use outside of the
limits of duty. But, in doing our duty, in, serving our God, in living
our religion, in using every possible means to send forth the Gospel
of salvation to the inhabitants of the earth, to gather Israel, and
establish Zion, and build up the kingdom of heaven upon the earth are
incorporated all blessings, air comforts that men can desire.

vol. 5, p.1
It is a mistaken idea in the inhabitants of the earth to conclude that
it will not do for them to yield obedience to the commandments of
heaven, lest it should abridge them in their comforts and in their
enjoyments; for there is no real peace, there is no real happiness in
anything in heaven or on the earth, except to those who serve the
Lord. In His service there is joy, there is happiness; but they are
not to be found anywhere else. In it there are peace and comfort; but
when the soul is filled with joy, with peace, and with glory, and is
perfectly satisfied therewith a person even then has but little idea
of that which is in store for all the faithful.

vol. 5, p.1
Thrust a man into prison and bind him with chains, and then let him be
filled with the comfort and with the [p.2] glory of eternity, and that
prison is a palace to him. Again, let a man be seated upon a throne
with power and dominion in this world, ruling his millions and
millions, and without that peace which flows from the Lord of
Hosts—without that contentment and joy that comes from heaven, his
palace is a prison; his life is a burden to him; he lives in fear, in
dread, and in sorrow. But when a person is filled with the peace and
power of God, all is right with him.

Brigham Young, vol. 5, p.2
I cannot be satisfied with myself, neither can I be satisfied with
this people, unless they live in the enjoyment of the Spirit of the
Lord Jesus Christ, having the testimony of Jesus within them. When
they live in that manner, they are prepared to judge of all matters
that come before them; they are then capable of discerning between
truth and error, light and darkness. They can then readily discover
the things that are not of God, and distinguish them from those that
are. This is the only way for you to know that your leaders are
leading you in the path that leads to heaven. Without taking this
course, a people or nation is liable to be led astray by their
leaders, and thereby be prepared to be destroyed; but when the people
understand for themselves—when they know and understand the things of
God by the Spirit of revelation, they are not only satisfied but safe.
If this people will do as they are told—will please those who preside
over them, they will do well for themselves. And if they will do this
from morning to evening and from evening to morning, all will be
right, and their acts will tend to promote the kingdom of God upon the
earth.

vol. 5, p.2
As brother Wells lately observed here, it is very little difference
what comes or goes. If the world are angry at us, that only fits and
prepares them for their destruction. If they afflict the Saints of
God, it prepares them for their reward; it prepares the righteous for
bliss and immortality, and the wicked are the sooner ripened for their
doom. It is very little difference whether men come here as soldiers
or as civilians, all will promote the interest of the kingdom of God.
It will promote the interests of the Saints, inasmuch as they are
united; and though the wicked, in their eagerness to destroy the
Saints of God, do not see this, yet God will make it all turn for the
good of His people.

vol. 5, p.2
True, this people might have done better; but, considering all
circumstances, they have done as well as could be expected. It might
be shown to them, and perhaps this congregation will acknowledge it,
that if this people had invariably been careful to observe counsel,
they would have promoted the kingdom of heaven a great deal faster
than they have. I will bring up a circumstance to illustrate this
idea—one relating to us in these Valleys of the Mountains. It was just
now observed by brother Feramorz Little that his feelings would be
perfectly satisfied if he should never see another train of goods come
in here for sale among this people. I would have been satisfied, if
that could have been the case from the beginning.

vol. 5, p.2
At a time here when a person could go with a sackful of gold and say
to a man, "Can I hire you to do some work for me? I have a sack full
of gold;" and the man would say, "No; I cannot do it;" and every man
would say, "No; I am too busy; I cannot do it;" and the person still
saying, "I have hats full of gold;" but it was so plentiful, that men
had such quantities of money that they were lugging it about; until
their backs ached;—suppose that that money had been put into the hands
of the Trustee in Trust,  [p.3] and used for the benefit of the
kingdom of God, would it not have been much better than to pay it to
the merchants to carry out of the Territory? One merchant, in a
day-and-a-half, received for sales a large kettle-full of money, and
in two days he took a great deal more. Suppose that that money had
been put into the hands of the Trustee in Trust and those associated
with him, they would have laid goods down at your doors for from
thirty to forty per cent cheaper than you got them. But could the
people see that? No; their eyes were dim, and they could not see their
own interest.

vol. 5, p.3
If the people had concentrated their means during the nine years past,
they would now have been worth millions where they have only
thousands. I know that now as well as I should have known it if the
experiment had been tried, and that result proven. But no; the people
would pay their money to others to carry out of the country.

vol. 5, p.3
I will tell an anecdote. relating to the feelings of some in those
days. I stepped into a store at the time when money was so plentiful,
and the store was crowded. Every man, woman and child, had their
pockets full of gold. A woman stepped up and said, "Mr. So and So,
have you any soap?" He replied, "I do not think there is any." She
then asked, "Have you any sugar, or coffee?" He answered, "I do not
know whether there is or not: there was some this morning: but I think
it has been sold." It was not long before a woman reached over and
touched the one enquiring, and said, "President Young has brought
everything of that kind that has been brought in." I reached over and
tapped her on the shoulder and said, "What do you tell that infernal
lie for? President Young has not bought a pound of tea, a pound of
sugar, or a pound of coffee, since these goods came in." The people
were then in such a state of mind that they would rather have given
all they had to the Gentiles than for me to have has a pound of tea or
the handling of their money.

vol. 5, p.3
They were not all possessed of that feeling; but there were enough to
influence the channel of trade and give it an unwise direction; and if
there are not now too many of that class, I shall feel thankful, and
we shall be able to hold the wheat and the cattle so that those who
are passing through and temporarily sojourning in our midst will have
to pay a fair price for those articles. But I presume, if the Gentiles
come, some of you will run and sell your wheat and your cattle to them
for a much less price than we would give you, and be perfectly
satisfied with it. If there is not an influence and practice of that
kind, I shall be glad of it; for it will prove to me that the people
believe what they say.

vol. 5, p.3
I am careful about touching anything that is the object of people's
worship—the gold, the goods, and the things of this world, which
please the eyes and entice the affections of the people. You who know
me know that I have not been under the necessity of asking you to help
me much. Instead of the Presidency's living upon the people, it is
well known that they have sustained the people. Suppose that I had not
launched forth in business, and that brother Kimball and others had
not, what would have been the result? This community would have been
living in their log huts, whereas they now have good houses and
comfortable homes.

vol. 5, p.3
I am decidedly in favour of practical religion—of every-day useful
life. And if I to-day attend to what devolves upon me to do, and then
do that which presents itself to-morrow, and so on, when eternity
comes I will be prepared to enter on the things of [p.4] eternity. But
I would not be prepared for that sphere of action, unless I could
manage the things that are now within my reach. You must all learn to
do this.

vol. 5, p.4
If the people take a wise course and let a few have the handling of
the wheat and other commodities that are for sale, and let those who
wish to buy come to them to purchase, it would be much better for this
people. By pursuing that course, our enemies would either be under the
necessity of giving us a fair price, or have to purchase their
supplies in the States, and haul them across the plains, through the
hills, and over the mountains. How do you think they would prosper in
that operation? I think they would soon become discouraged and want to
leave these regions.

vol. 5, p.4
It is an ignorant excitement which causes some people in the States to
feel and act as they do. Who is there, of all who are really
acquainted with our proceedings and will let good reason and good
sense operate, that has one word to say against us? No one. But the
priests have hallooed so much about these Latter-day Saints—the
"Mormons" as they term us, that they have become excited; and what is
the reason of their outcry? It is simply this—we have the words of
eternal life, and they have not; we serve the God of heaven and they
serve somebody, they know not whom. We have the true religion that the
Bible gives an account of, and they seem to be entirely ignorant of it
and of the God of heaven. Only let us leave God out of our, religion,
and all would be right.

vol. 5, p.4
A great many have said to you and me, "Just leave out Joe Smith, the
Book of Mormon, and modern revelations, and you will become popular."
Brother Clements said, last Sunday, that he told a priest that he
could materially abridge that leaving out by saying, "Just leave God
out of the question, and you will be 'Hail fellows well met.'" We are
not going to leave out Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, nor the
gathering, nor the building up of Zion.

vol. 5, p.4
You hear brethren talk of coming to Zion to enjoy the blessings of
this land; but do you not see that it is the shortsightedness of men
which causes their disappointment when they arrive here? They read in
the Bible, in the Book  of Mormon, and Book of Doctrine and Covenants,
about Zion, and what it is to be; but brother Park and others could
not realize, before they came here, that they were the ones to help to
build up Zion. They gather here with the spirit of Zion resting upon
them, and expecting to find Zion in its glory, whereas their own
doctrine should teach them that they are coming here to make Zion.

vol. 5, p.4
We can make Zion, or we can make Babylon, just as we please. We can
make just what we please of this place. The people can make Zion: they
can make a heaven within themselves. When people gather here, they
should come with a determination to make Zion within themselves, with
the resolution that "I will carry myself full of the Spirit of Zion
wherever I go; and this is the way in which I will control evil
spirits; for I mean that my spirit shall have control over evil:" and
do you not see that such a course will make Zion?

vol. 5, p.4
This American continent will be Zion; for it is so spoken of by the
prophets. Jerusalem will be rebuilt and will be the place of
gathering, and the tribe of Judah will gather there; but this
continent of America is the land of Zion.

vol. 5, p.4
The priests are angry because they are afraid that their religion is
nothing but a sandy foundationed  fabric; and whenever they meditate
upon the subject and humble themselves, and the [p.5] Spirit of the
Lord finds its way to their hearts and convicts them, the truth then
is made manifest before them, and they begin to learn the falsity of
their systems; and when that spirit leaves them, they become angry.
"Mormonism" is declared to be true by hosts of witnesses, and this
makes the priests angry; for this Gospel bears its own weight and
testimony, and they know not how to gainsay it. True, I have aimed to
point out their errors; but it is not you or me that they are opposed
to, although they throw their darts at us; but it is the spirit of
conviction that goes with the report of this work; for wherever it
goes it strikes conviction to the heart, and that is what disturbs the
priests and the people.

vol. 5, p.5
The foolish, and those who are controlled by the hissings of the
priests, rage against the work of God, and corrupt politicians urge
them on. There is not an honest man in the United States or in the
world but what, if he could hear this doctrine taught without knowing
that it was a "Mormon" who was teaching it, would drink down these
principles. They would swallow every word and say, "That is true; you
have more light than I have." But if you say "Mormon," that sends the
fat into the fire, and arrays their prejudices against you. Do you
know this, you Elders? [Voices, "Yes."]

vol. 5, p.5
As I have said before, I have often gone incog., and taught persons
the Gospel, and they would drink down its principles as eagerly as a
thirsty ox would drink water; but an ignorant prejudice causes all the
trouble. The excitement among the priests, and directed by
politicians, raises this erroneous prejudice and hue-and-cry. 

vol. 5, p.5
You know that I have said that, if it was now my calling to go and
preach the Gospel, I could make as many converts as I ever did; for I
would go in such a manner that the bitterly prejudiced would have to
labour hard to find out that I was a "Mormon," until I had induced
them to love the truth. Then they would say, "If that is 'Mormonism,'
I want it."

vol. 5, p.5
Persons who are as ignorant as jackasses pass through this city, and
they are so prejudiced that they cannot see and hear well enough to
report things straight. But let persons of good understanding come
here, and hear the Elders testify, and stop to investigate, and every
honest heart among them will receive the Gospel. Do you not know that
they would?

vol. 5, p.5
The "Mormons" are trying to take care of themselves. Our enemies may
come to kill us, but we know that there is a God in the heavens. I
care no more about the threats that are made than I do about the
floating of a board on the waters. They have kicked us and cuffed us
about so much that I have got used to it. I have been driven, and had
to leave my home five times on account of my faith in the Gospel of
our Saviour; but I have never until now been a conspicuous character;
and I say to my enemies and to the enemies of righteousness, you have
now got to fire long shots, unless you come much nearer to us than you
are.

vol. 5, p.5
I will say to all parties, If you come here and do not observe
wholesome  laws, we will introduce you to them. In regard to troops
coming here, as has been rumored, should 1,500 or 2,000 come, what
will you see? You will see that they will ask us to make their
soldiers behave themselves, until they can get out of this place,
which they will do as soon as possible. They are not coming here to
fight us; though, if they were to, I should pray that the Lord would
bring those here that mobbed us in days gone by, and just let us look
at them. But no; the priests, and some editors and politicians wish to
have innocent soldiers sent here to fight us. Let [p.6] them bring
those priests, editors, and politicians who have howled so long about
us, and we will attend to their cases. But I pray that I may never
witness such scenes as I have in the midst of this people. If they
will let us alone, we will preach the Gospel; and if they do not, we
will do it, and we will build up Zion, if all the devils in hell howl.
Let us know that we have to build up Zion until the Spirit of peace
shall overrule our country.

vol. 5, p.6
Do you ever reflect upon the matter? Look at St. Louis. More murders
have been committed there in almost any few days than have been
committed in this Territory since it was organized. It is customary
there to have murders committed almost daily; but we, above all other
people, ought never to have such a crime committed in our midst; and
we never have had, so far as the Latter-day Saints are concerned.

vol. 5, p.6
I will now tell you something. It is a secret; and I wish you to keep
it to yourselves. There have been men here who have had their plans
arranged for robbing; and I will take the liberty to say that, when we
find them, "judgment will be laid to the line and righteousness to the
plummet." Those are my feelings, and I express them plainly, that the
good and honest may be able to pass from the Eastern States to
California, and back and forth, in peace. And when a "Mormon"
unlawfully disturbs anybody, I say, let him be overtaken by a
"Vigilance Committee." And when mobocrats come here, they will find a
"Vigilance Committee." Now, listeners, send that to the States, if you
wish. I want the people in the States to know that there are a few
poor curses here, and also to know that we do not want a gang of
highwaymen here. And I say to all such characters, if you come here
and practice your iniquity, we will send you home quick, whenever we
can catch and convict you. I wish such characters would let the boys
have a chance to lay their hands on them.

vol. 5, p.6
If men come here and do not behave themselves, they will not only find
the Danites, whom they talk so much about, biting the horses' heels,
but the scoundrels will find something biting their heels. In my plain
remarks, I merely call things by their right names. Brother Kimball is
noted in the States for calling things by their right names, and you
will excuse me if I do the same.

vol. 5, p.6
We will build up Zion and establish the kingdom of God upon the earth,
and the wicked cannot help themselves. I have not built up this
kingdom, neither did Joseph Smith. What the Lord told brother Joseph
to do, that he did. And what the Lord tells you and me to do we will
do, by the help of God. May God bless us all. Amen. [p.7]

Heber C. Kimball, July 5, 1857

Divine Mission of Joseph Smith—Stability of Mormonism—
The Saints' Enemies Yet to Come to Them for Succour—
Home Manufacture—Distress of Nations

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

vol. 5, p.7
I can say one thing in regard to preaching before this congregation.
It is a great deal harder to speak to the people in the afternoon than
it is in the forenoon, because they generally come together after
partaking of a hearty dinner; and that, in connection with the word
they receive in the forenoon, fills them up, and they are somewhat
like a barn that is nearly full of hay; for you know it is a great
deal harder to put in the last load of hay than it is the first. I
speak of these things because the circumstances that surround us call
them forth.

vol. 5, p.7
In relation to the things we have heard to-day from brother Brigham,
and brother Feramorz, and others, I will say that I appreciate them,
and I not only believe them, but I know them to be true. This is the
work of God, and all the world cannot stay its progress. They have
given me the character in the world of calling things by their right
names. It is a good deal with them as it was with the old Dutchman,
who said, "It is not the thing itself, but it is the name of the
damned thing!" That is it exactly. They can talk and hint about every
thing, but never call them by their names. I call that hypocrisy; and
there never was a nation that lived upon the earth that was fuller of
it than this nation.

vol. 5, p.7
As to what they call "Mormonism"—properly speaking, the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I say it is true; and Joseph Smith
the Prophet, who was killed in Illinois, in Carthage Jail, is the
author of it; or, in other words, he was the instrument in the hands
of God of bringing it forth. Peter, James, and John, three of the
ancient Apostles, came and ordained him and set him apart for the work
of the ministry of this last dispensation.

vol. 5, p.7
I am bearing testimony of those things that are true—things that I
know and understand. And I also testify that Hyrum Smith was a
Patriarch of God, and just as much so as Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob ever
were. Joseph Smith the Prophet ordained his father a Patriarch, and he
ordained Hyrum. The some Gospel which was preached by Jesus and by His
Apostles has been delivered unto us through Joseph Smith, the Prophet
of the living God; and the keys and powers pertaining to that Gospel
and priesthood are now resting upon brother Brigham Young; for he is
Joseph's legal successor. All the prophets from the days of Adam and
from the creation of the world have conferred their priesthood and
keys of this dispensation, and brother Brigham hold, them in
connection with the old Prophets and Apostles, and in connection with
our Father and God pertaining to this earth.

vol. 5, p.7
I am telling you the truth, and testifying to that which God has made
manifest unto me. Well, the world want that we should lay aside that
which God has revealed, and not [p.8] speak of Joseph Smith, or of the
revelations which he gave.

vol. 5, p.8
When I was abroad preaching, some said to me, we would be popular if
we would say nothing about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, baptism
for the remission of sins, or the laying on of hands for the gift of
the Holy Ghost; they said if we would let these things alone we would
be popular. Good heavens! We are now more popular than any other
religious community upon the earth. We extend, as some would call it,
from Dan to Beersheba; we extend to every nation, continent, and
country, and almost to every island of the sea. The Gospel has been
carried to almost every people. We have offered them the principles of
life and salvation, and we shall continue to do so while there is any
hope for them.

vol. 5, p.8
I expect, like us, the inhabitants of the earth will have their ups
and downs, their troubles and afflictions. There has been a great
chill among them: they had one when we had one; and now the fever has
begun to increase with us it has begun to increase upon them; and
by-and-by there will be another chill; and it will keep doubling and
redoubling till the whole world is in motion. Will it overthrow this
work? No, never.

vol. 5, p.8
I want the gentlemen that are here to-day, and who are going East, to
tell the people of the United States that they need not trouble
themselves; for "Mormonism" will increase and triumph until every king
will be cast down from his throne, and the President of the United
States, unless he and the people repent; and what they call
"Mormonism" will continue to increase henceforth and for ever.

vol. 5, p.8
When they killed Joseph Smith, and Hyrum, David Patten, and many
others, they supposed that that was the end of "Mormonism"—that it was
annihilated. Bless your souls, instead of its being annihilated, it
has increased a hundredfold; and we have now more Elders preaching the
Gospel—yes, about ten times more than there are people in this vast
congregation this afternoon; and I presume there are some seven or
eight thousand here to-day.

vol. 5, p.8
You may think this rather extravagant, but there are more Elders in
England than there are people here to-day; and England is not as big
as the State of New York, where I lived. They will spread and increase
from this time on, and this work is bound to increase and spread
abroad, and all hell cannot pull it down.

vol. 5, p.8
Suppose the Gentiles were to try to put it down, and to kill brother
Brigham, and me, and brother Daniel, and the Twelve Apostles, still
there are some fifty or sixty Quorums of Seventies that are capable of
spreading abroad this kingdom. Why, bless you, it is like the mustard
seed: you know it is most troublesome to get out of the garden. You
get vexed with it and go and kick it about, and by that means you make
ten thousand more little mustard trees.

vol. 5, p.8
Well, you know they drove us far away into these mountains; and now
see the multitude of little mustard trees that are growing up!
(Laughter.)

vol. 5, p.8
We want you to tell this, gentlemen, when you get down to the States;
for we don't have a mail very often, and therefore we drop a word here
and there, and we want everybody to carry the tidings. It is not only
me, but the Prophet Brigham talks just so. I suppose you will think,
"What a monstrous fellow he is!"

vol. 5, p.8
I have been afflicted with colds ever since I came from the north; but
I, all the time, grow fat. I do not drink ale, whisky, rum, or any
kind of spirituous liquor, but I seek to drink largely of the
peaceable  Spirit of God, that I may be strengthening [p.9] to my
brethren and sisters. For the world and the United States, and their
opposition, which they call outside pressure, we care very, very
little. We have some big mountains between us and them, and they
cannot remove them because they have not faith.

vol. 5, p.9
Such a row as there is in the States at the present time I never
before heard of. It is "Mormonism!" Down with "Mormonism!!" Mr.
President, send up the troops and set those "Mormons" in order.

vol. 5, p.9
Gentlemen, [to the strangers] did you ever see any body out of order
here? Have you seen any body drunk? You have not, unless it was
yourselves. I have not seen any body drunk,—no, not on the fourth of
July. I have not seen a drunkenman in the streets, much less a woman.
One reason is, perhaps, that we have not got any liquor; and God grant
that we may not have much.

vol. 5, p.9
You do not see many people about our streets idling away their time.
Tomorrow morning you may see a few persons who have come from the
country to get a little counsel; but after that you won't see a man in
the street, excepting those who are going to or coming from their
work; for they are all hard at work, hoeing their corn, watering their
wheat, and getting their wood from the kanyons.

vol. 5, p.9
God Almighty bless this people, I say, and increase their faith and
their strength, that they may increase and multiply. And may God
increase the "mustard seed," and cause it soon to fill the earth. May
the Lord our God bless the bees in the hive of Deseret, and root out
the drones; for they only eat out the honey, while the bees go out and
gather it in.

vol. 5, p.9
Well, gentlemen, we are calculating that we have got the best crops
that we have ever had, and the best that are in the world; and the
Lord our God has blest the land for our sake. We had a famine last
year, but we lived through it; and we are now going to work to lay up
our grain, and we are building storehouses to store it away in; and we
shall not only store away grain but other things that will keep; and
the day will come that you (strangers) will have to come to us for
bread to eat; and we will be your saviours here upon Mount Zion. You
don't believe it now; but wait a little while, and you will see that
it will come to pass.

vol. 5, p.9
Many of the people of the United States exulted over us when we were
brought to a morsel of bread, and had to deal out one to another in
order to subsist. I put my family on short rations, in order to have
some to deal out to others, and so did brother Brigham and many
others; and at the same time our enemies and the priests in their
pulpits were praising God that we had hard times, with trouble and
perplexity. We never were more happy in our lives than we were at that
time, and we did not have the belly ache through eating too much; but
we were lively and diligent is serving God; and that is the reason we
are becoming so corpulent this year. Last year we had not enough, but
this year we have plenty, and we are going to lay it up in store—wheat
and every thing that will keep. I am telling these gentlemen what we
are going to do, so that they can carry the news to the States.

vol. 5, p.9
Ladies, we do not want you to tease your husbands for silks, and
satins, and fine bonnets, but go to work and manufacture your own
clothing; and if you will do that, you will do the best thing that you
ever did in your lives. This is as true as that the Lord ever spoke by
His prophets. The time has come for us to lay up our stores.

vol. 5, p.9
Will the world follow our example? No, they will not; and if we do our
duty, who cares whether they do or not. They will come with their
[p.10] bonnets, their fine clothing, and their jewellery, and be glad
to work for us to get their bread. You tell that in the States,
gentlemen, won't you? Whether you do or not, they will learn of it.
They publish nearly everything that we say, and this will be
published.

vol. 5, p.10
We are a people, here in the valleys of the mountains, who are hated
and have been broken up and driven for our religion till we have got
used to it. Brother Brigham told you he had been driven five times,
and so have I; and I have had everything taken from me that I had; but
yet I have got enough to eat and drink, and enough of everything, and
so have you; and my prayer is, all the while, God bless you.

vol. 5, p.10
Lay up your stores, and take your silks and fine things, and exchange
them for grain and such things as you need, and the time will come
when we will be obliged to depend upon our own resources; for the time
is not far distant when the curtain will be dropped between us and the
United States. When that time comes, brethren and sisters, you will
wish you had commenced sooner to make your own clothing. I tell you,
God requires us to go into home manufacture; and, prolong it as much
as you like, you have got to do it.

vol. 5, p.10
You will also see the day that you will wish you had laid up your
grain, if you do not do it now; for you will see the day, if you do
not take care of the blessings God has given to you, that you will
become servants, the same as the world will.

vol. 5, p.10
We have told you this before. You have been exhorted, year after year,
to prepare for hard times: you have been told of this often enough. We
have told you that when hard times come again you won't have the
privilege that you had last time of having food dealt out to you
gratuitously, but you will have to pay for all you get. This will come
to pass. I suppose there are many who don't believe it. To such it is
like a tune that strikes upon the drum of the ear, passes off, and is
forgotten.

vol. 5, p.10
I will prove to you that I will put my faith with my works and lay up
stores for my family and for my friends that are in the United States,
and I will be to them as Joseph was to the people in the land of
Egypt. Every man and woman will be a saviour if they will do as I say.
You may write this down and send it to the States; for it will be
published.

vol. 5, p.10
Let repentance take place amongst you where it is necessary, and let
confidence, diligence in the performance of duty, and humility be
manifest in your lives; keep the commandments of God; be subject to
God's authority, and save yourselves all the time; and the Lord our
God will have pleasure in making you like Joseph of old. Now, if
persons were coming from the old country, from far distant lands,
would you not feel comfortable if you had, plenty to feed them with
when they come?

vol. 5, p.10
These things bear heavily upon my mind, and they have done so for some
time. There are very few who have got any surplus grain on hand. There
is considerable in the Tithing Store, and there are a few individuals
who have some on hand; but there is not a great deal in the country,
excepting our present crop. It behoves us to be saving and to prepare
for the time to come. The day will come when the people of the United
States will come lugging their bundles under their arms, coming to us
for bread to eat. Every Prophet has spoken. of this from the early
ages of the world. Already we begin to see sickness, trouble, death,
famine, and pestilence; and more yet awaits the nations of the wicked.
Jesus  said, When you hear of these things in foreign
nations—destruction and desolation, you may [p.11] then look forth for
my coming, and know that it is nigh at hand. In relation to the world,
our enemies, their soldiery, and their governors, I do not fear them,
and I never did.

vol. 5, p.11
If you will do right—keep the commandments of God, I can say with all
the propriety that any man, prophet, or apostle ever did, you shall
never want for food, or raiment, or houses, or lands; and no power on
the earth can injure you. There is no power that shall prevent our
prosperity; for we shall increase, while every other power upon the
earth that is opposed to this work and our God will go down. I just
know it. Amen.

George A. Smith, May 31, 1857

The Sacrament—Slanderers and Lying Spirits—Monogamy
and Polygamy, Etc.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 31, 1857.

vol. 5, p.11
It appears on the present occasion that we enjoy the privilege of
partaking of the sacrament in commemoration of the death and suffering
of our Lord and Saviour, to witness to each other that we are willing
to keep his commandments, and to observe the requirements of the
fulness of the Gospel until he shall come. Under these circumstances
we assemble and call together our wandering thoughts and minds. We
review our conduct, our feelings to our Heavenly Father, our actions
and doings in relation to His laws, and also our faith towards our
brethren, and make a kind of settlement with ourselves, a balance of
accounts in our minds, repenting of our sins and follies, and we lay
the foundation in our own minds to renew our diligence and exertions
in future, that wherein we have failed to walk up to the line of our
duty we may improve, and that we may partake of those emblems under an
express influence, and with a perfect understanding of a covenant that
we wilt remember Him in all things until he come. Marvel not, says the
Saviour, if the world hate you; for remember that it hated me before
it hated you.

vol. 5, p.11
One of the first principles that we are brought to feel, perhaps, on
receiving the Gospel, is, that the world hates us. You may ascend or
descend into every department of its society, and you find that hatred
more or less manifests itself; and this causes a great many people who
receive the truth to have misgivings, and they will ask why is it that
we are under the necessity of receiving a religion that is hated of
all men? The Saviour said to his disciples, "Ye shall be hated of all
men, for my name's sake; and blessed are ye when all men shall
persecute you, and speak all manner of evil of you falsely for my
name's sake." But this is a kind of blessing that we hardly
appreciate; but at the present time I am a witness that no people upon
the face of the earth have so much reason to be thankful, neither have
Latter-day Saints seen any time when they have had greater reason to
constrict themselves blessed under this promise of our Saviour, than
at the present time.

vol. 5, p.12
[p.12] Much is said of the powerful engine  of  the press, the
powerful medium by which truth or falsehood are so quietly circulated.
And for the last year, or the last six or eight months, those engines
have been universally turned with vengeance upon the devoted heads of
this people.

vol. 5, p.12
There is nothing that excites more interest in the minds of the
reading public, nothing that creates greater anxiety, nothing that is
so readily received as statements, or information, as it is termed,
concerning the "Mormons;" and nothing that is true can be printed, but
to a very limited extent; whereas anything that is false, it matters
not how false or exaggerated, it is circulated and represented to the
uttermost extreme. It is as an old gentleman told me in Virginia: said
he, "There is nothing published that is so extravagant concerning your
people but what we believe it readily."

vol. 5, p.12
The spirit of lies has taken hold of the people; it has got possession
of their hearts. They love lies; they like to read them; they like to
print them, and they really relish them; but truth is another thing.
"Truth," says the Prophet, "has fallen in the streets; yea, truth
falleth; he that departeth from iniquity maketh himself a prey." Such
is the case in the present generation. There are lies from responsible
sources, lies over fictitious names, lies certified by responsible
editors; and lies certified and clothed with judicial authority are
current, and are the most important information that is or has been
current in the United States for the last season.

vol. 5, p.12
What does it all amount to? Men will have what they like; for the
spirit that is in men loves lies; they will read them and believe
them. At the same time, there is no man or woman upon the face of the
earth but what is more or less responsible for what they read and
receive; for there is an innate spirit in the man who desires to know
the truth that will generally dictate to him which is truth and which
is falsehood.

vol. 5, p.12
A terrible people these "Mormons!" a dreadful set of fellows! an awful
state of society! Oh, tremendous bad people! I was conversing with a
gentleman from Vermont on the subject of "Mormonism," and he expressed
himself tremendously shocked at the immorality of the "Mormons," and
was particularly anxious to regulate their morals. He was strongly in
favour of having them corrected by the power of the Federal
Government. He said it must be done, for he considered them a disgrace
to the nation. I told him that we regarded the Vermont people as a
very immoral community. Said I, "We consider their laws of a very
immoral character; and we believe that the people would be better, but
that their laws and institutions are of a character that tends to
prevent it—that their laws are calculated to encourage licentiousness,
and to cause them to live in open violation of the first commandment,
to multiply and replenish the earth." "Why how so? Vermont is the most
moral State in the Union." I replied, "It may be so, sir; but your
laws provide that no man shall have but one wife; and there is a great
proportion of females over that of males, and there is a great
proportion of males that are too wicked and corrupt to marry and raise
up families; and the consequence is that a great proportion of your
females are compelled to live single, and hence many of them become
prostitutes. We deprecate such a corrupt order of things; but as it is
in your State, it is your business and not ours; therefore we shall
not interfere with it." I never saw a man more astonished, to think
that I should question the moral tendency of the  institutions of
Vermont. "But, in [p.13] our country," I said, "we are determined that
every man shall acknowledge and sanction his own blood. We shall not
interfere with Vermont, Massachusetts, or Maryland about their
immorality; it is their own business, and they must attend to it
themselves; but we do not wish to submit to such immoral regulations
in Utah."

vol. 5, p.13
I was talking with a member of Congress, who was very pious, (he was a
minister, by the bye,) and he intimated that the doctrine of plurality
of wives was so at variance—so grossly at variance with all the
civilized world, that it was intolerable to all Christians. I told him
that I was surprised at that; "for," said I, "all our Christian
friends expect to sit down in the kingdom of God with father Abraham;
and he practised Polygamy." "Father Abraham," said he, "was guilty of
a great many eccentric tricks." I replied, "Eccentric as he might be,
it is in his bosom that. all Christians expect to rest."

vol. 5, p.13
Strange as it may appear, yet it is true that these things are not
understood or appreciated; but the corrupt, the licentious of the
world are the people who are respected, while the sayings of the
honest and truthful are not allowed to spread. Such is the corruption
of the world. They lay down, in the first place, the position that
"Mormonism" is not true. If you ask why it is not true, they begin to
bring their reasons, and they are a good deal like this—The Mormons
are deceived; and the reason why they are deceived is, because they
are deceived, sir." The people actually take such logic as this for
argument; they take it for granted and for certain, and they lay it
down as a matter of fact, that "Mormonism" is false, and so it
follows. Oh, they say it will all come to an end and fall to pieces in
a few days; and they have been saying this for the last twenty years;
they have kept crying "Mormonism" will go down; it is bound to fall in
pieces. Still the bubble rolls ahead and does not burst up; it does
not fly to pieces as they have predicted.

vol. 5, p.13
I consider that it is necessary that every man should mind his own
business and suffer his neighbours to do likewise. I do not know how
careful they may be in relation to us. So far as our being admitted
into the Union is concerned, we are on just as good and fair a footing
as Oregon, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Washington. To be sure,
they have prejudices against us because we are "Mormons;" but they
also hate each other, and they calculate to use each other up, and
then to use up the "Mormons."

vol. 5, p.13
I came up the Missouri River with some Free State men, who said, "If
ever a fuss breaks out again, we are ready for it; we have got the
"Volcanic Rifles," and we calculate to wipe the border ruffians out of
existence; and they showed that they had the tools which do up the
business. Whenever I conversed with any of the pro-slavery men on this
subject, they generally told me that if the other party should begin
again, they were prepared to wipe them out all at once, and leave them
much in the same position that Dr. Kane's ship "Advance" was, when it
came between two immense masses of ice, and they found themselves
liable to be crushed up in what the Arctic men call a "nip." After
they use each other up, we will stand a little better chance. They
need not be alarmed if they see some of the "Mormons" in the Congress
of the nations. No, they need not be surprised if they yet see some of
our Elders in the halls of Congress—men who understand national
affairs equal to any in the nation standing forth to save that
Constitution which we are now accused of opposing.

vol. 5, p.14
[p.14] I thank the Lord that I am once more in your midst, and for the
privilege of striking hands with my brethren and sisters. But when I
think that the enemies of all righteousness are raging, I feel to
thank the Lord for the fulfilment of the words of His servants. I
realize and know that the keys of exaltation rest in the midst of
Israel; and when the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain
thing, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and
against His anointed, then "He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh
at their calamity: the Lord shall have them in derision." Amen.

Orson Hyde, June 14, 1857

Storing Up Grain—Lessons of the Past—Temptation—The
Coming Distress, Etc.

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

vol. 5, p.14
Brethren and sisters,—I arise to call your attention to a subject that
has been presented to you, time after time, from this stand. I may,
perhaps, refresh your minds, and present some things to you that you
may not have fully comprehended or understood.

vol. 5, p.14
We have been told to store up our grain and to take care of it. The
history of the past forms ample ground for advice of this kind. We
have not only seen, but felt the folly of placing too low an estimate
upon the productions of the earth. When they were plentiful, they have
been thought of little value. We have found ourselves comparatively
destitute at times, in consequence, and, in the time of this scarcity,
have suffered in our feelings —have been pinched with hunger; and it
does seem that the subject of laying up our grain has been presented
under circumstances that cannot fail to impress every heart with its
importance.

vol. 5, p.14
I will tell you how things look to me. They look as though the Lord
had said—I have tried my people; I have withheld the bounties of the
earth, and in this day of want I have given them advice to store up
their grain: and if ever they could be brought into circumstances to
make them appreciate these words, it is now.

vol. 5, p.14
It is now a pretty scarce time for clothing: it is hard to get many of
the comforts of life in the shape of wearing apparel. We have no
money: many of us have no surplus of the products of the earth to
exchange; and if we had, our market is comparatively bare of many of
the articles we need.

vol. 5, p.14
Some consider that great trials await us; but I will call your
attention to one. It is a very great trim to be short of clothing,
boots, shoes, &c., (to say nothing of the silks, ribbons, laces, and
other gewgaws,) to answer our desires, and perhaps not our real wants
and comforts. But the Lord may pour out an abundant harvest of grain;
and, while we are destitute of those things, our granaries may be
groaning  with the weight of the grain that is in them. But [p.15]
by-and-by the market is richly supplied with goods, such as we need.
It is supplied with every material or fabric, and perhaps silver and
gold, and a liberal price is offered for our grain; and with this
grain we can buy those articles of clothing that we need. Now here
comes the trial. (But keep in mind "home manufacture.") We know these
circumstances pinch. We want the clothing, and we have an abundance
around us, and means in our hands to obtain those articles in exchange
for our produce and wheat. This will try us, whether we will abide the
counsel that has been given, or whether we will not. I presume to say
that just such circumstances will appear before this people: I have
not the least hesitancy upon my mind in saying that such will be the
case. Here you have grain to any amount; and here is your silver, your
gold, your goods, your groceries, and your wares of every kind, and
every thing that you can desire to make yourselves comfortable. Now,
all this is in the midst of this counsel to store up your grain, and
to hold on to it. It is the counterpart, or tempter to beguile. How
many will there be who will go and exchange one for the other? Say one
and another, I must have a little of this, a little of that, and a
little of the other; and thus, little by little, goes the grain that
we were commencing to store up, until it has leaked away and our
granaries are empty.

vol. 5, p.15
It is strange that we should do this, when we really desire bread, and
have so keenly felt its need! We had none at one time—that is,
comparatively none. Starvation, ghastly and appalling, threw its
hideous forms and frightful shadows in our face; and what was the
counsel of God then? Was it not to remain faithful over the little
that we had, and to divide out the limited supplies that we had, and
to relieve the necessities of the poor and needy? And did not the
people, in a goodly degree, comply with this counsel? Yes they did.
Well, has not our heavenly Father, by multiplying our grain in our
store-houses, like the widow's meal and oil, thwarted off impending
calamities? He certainly has.

vol. 5, p.15
Now there is a prospect of a bountiful harvest. We cannot tell what
may be; but if we are true and faithful, like the needle to the pole,
we shall have an abundance to supply not only our present wants, but
some to lay by for the future. This is the result of abiding in the
counsel of God, and the Lord says, I will give them liberally; for
they have said that they will not let it go to waste; for they design
now to keep it for the children of the kingdom and for the time of
great want, when strangers shall come to them also for bread. And now,
therefore, I will pour out a bountiful harvest, to prove their
integrity.

vol. 5, p.15
I have told them to prove me, and now I will prove them. You bring
along your tithes and offerings into my storehouse, and see if I will
not pour out a blessing—see if I will not open the windows of heaven
and pour out a blessing that you will not have room to receive. I will
prove you now, and see if you will be as faithful to me as I have been
to you.

vol. 5, p.15
If this grain be stored up and properly taken care of, we may go
destitute of many comforts that we desire; but, after the Lord has
proven us, in this respect, to see if we will resist the temptations
of the adversary —to see if we will resist the shining gold and the
fine apparel, and to see if we will abide the law, and lock up and
preserve our grain, is it not as easy for Him to provide us with those
things that we really need for clothing as it was to increase our
limited stores, or to give us now a plentiful harvest Is it not said,
"Surely, thou shalt [p.16] clothe thyself with them all, and in their
glory shall ye boast yourselves." And is it not said that the kings of
the earth shall bring their glory and riches to Zion? What shall
hinder them from bringing the treasures by which we can all be
clothed? What will induce them to come here at all with their riches,
their gold, and their silver, and fine apparel? Let the Almighty shut
down the gate of prosperity, as He will do, and a general dearth
ensue, and they know that in Zion it is fruitful, and that the good
things of the earth are produced there—let them know that there is
bread, and you will see them coming here to pour out their treasures
for a bit of bread; but if you shall not have it stored up for them,
you will not do your duty. The Lord can do this. He can bring these
things about; and, brethren, the test is right before us. It is not an
imaginary thing, but it is actually coming to test us, to see whether
we will, under these circumstances, abide the counsel that has been
given to us.

vol. 5, p.16
There is hardly ever a commandment given to any person or persons
before whom a temptation is not placed to decoy them, if possible,
from an obedience to that commandment. Our parents in the garden of
Eden had had but little experience in this world; and it seemed that
they must have a trial corresponding with the experience and knowledge
they had of things as they were. The instruction of Father Adam was,
"Of all the trees in the garden thou mayest eat, excepting one; and in
the day thou eatest of that, thou shalt surely die." The Lord said,
Adam and Eve, you may enjoy yourselves; but there is one tree I
command you that ye shall not eat of; for in the day that ye do, ye
shall surely die."

vol. 5, p.16
It seems that they were well provided for. There was an abundance of
other kinds of fruits; but there was a kind of itching desire for that
which they were forbidden to eat of; and they were led on by
temptation until they did partake of that fruit, and thus the devil
got power over them.

vol. 5, p.16
Well, if counsel has been given unto us to store up our grain, I
should not wonder if there were temptations; placed before us, to
induce us to non-compliance. High prices in silver and gold may be
offered as an inducement. Men may come and say, I will give you a high
price for your wheat: here are goods of every kind we will give for
your grain." There, you perceive, is the temptation and the counsel
before us. We should like the comforts of life, and would no doubt
like to purchase them; but the counsel of the servants of the Lord
would lead us to do differently.

vol. 5, p.16
Such scenes as these, brethren and sisters, we may see, and they may
not be far ahead of us. They may be very near; for things change very
suddenly sometimes. It is for us to abide in the counsel of God, and
never turn aside nor cast a longing look upon the riches and comforts
of this life, when we have to violate a holy precept to gain them.
Remember it, brethren and sisters; for I want to impress it upon your
minds. Keep your grain for yourselves and for strangers who, in times
of famine abroad, seek at your hands bread from heaven and earth. When
the servants of God set good counsel before you, and these temptations
follow, they will not command, perhaps, when the temptation is
present; and these things will be trying to you: they will be so, to
see if you will stand by your integrity, or fall by your instability.

vol. 5, p.16
I want to tell a little anecdote which came to my ears. I do not know
that I shall be right; but, if I am  wrong, there are those present
[p.17] who can correct me. It is said that there is a man in this
city, a natural miner, who has a peculiar gift to discover metals of
value, though hidden in the earth at any depth. He can point out the
very place where they are. He happened in a gentleman's house in this
town one day, and they were discussing his powers to discern any metal
in the earth. The lady, doubting his ability, took a piece of lead,
and slily stepped out and buried it, being careful to leave no visible
marks by which any other than herself could find it. She returned and
told him that in the garden was a piece of lead buried, and wished him
to find it if he could. He made the attempt; and, after a little
rambling, pointed to the very spot where it was; but the lady,
thinking to bluff him off and discourage him, made perfect ridicule of
him, and asked what had led him to  think it was there. She pretended
to regard him as insane, and the poor man came to the conclusion that
he might be mistaken, as the lady appeared so sanguine in hot
ridicule. He gave it up as a mistake, doubting his own gift. Since the
time that he was bluffed off from the faith in the natural gift that
God had given him —(Pres. H. C. Kimball: And that by a woman!)—yes,
and since that, it has been taken away altogether. Before this, he was
never mistaken in such matters; but since, has no more powers of
discovering than any other.

vol. 5, p.17
Now, we have the gift of God, and that is the gift of wise counsel—of
good counsel given unto us for the purpose of self-preservation. Will
we, by any reason, by any craft, by any device, by any machinations,
by any swerving from our purpose, lose that gift?  Remember that if we
are upon the enemies' ground, the gift that is given to us may be
destroyed or taken from us for ever; and probably the time may be that
you and I may not have the counsel of the servants of God from day to
day. If it is necessary, however, we may have it; and if it is not;
remember it, ye Latter-day Saints, and everybody that fears God and
serves Him with full purpose of heart! Remember the counsel that is
given, "STORE UP ALL YOUR GRAIN," and take care of it! Prize it above
gold and silver, above rich clothing and fine apparel, and above
everything else except the bread of life! And I tall you it is almost
as necessary to have bread to sustain the body as, it is to have food
for the spirit; for the one is as necessary as the other, to enable us
to carry on the work of God upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.17
Brethren and, sisters, may God bless you, and bless your fields, and
flocks, and all that you possess. Take care of your fields, your
flocks, and your herds; take care of and preserve every thing that God
has given us to take care of upon the earth. May God bless. you, and
bless us all, and give us the gift of eternal life; and may the angel
of life preserve us; and may we feel to lay shoulder to shoulder, and
prove to God and our brethren that we are ready and determined to roll
forth this great work—

vol. 5, p.17
"While life, or thought, or being lasts, 
Or immortality endures."

vol. 5, p.17
—Amen. [p.18]

Heber C. Kimball, April 6, 1857

Temple and Endowments—Raising Grain and Building
Storehouses—Dedication

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, 
delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1857.

vol. 5, p.18
I do not know that I can speak so that all of you can hear distinctly.
You will have to be very still, or it will be impossible for me to
speak to your edification. You have heard what brother Wells has said
in reference to the Temple, the canal, &c. The Temple is designed for
many purposes, and there are many things that God will reveal and many
blessings that he will confer upon this people in that building, if
they will use due diligence in forwarding its completion.

vol. 5, p.18
Some may think that the erection of the Temple more particularly
devolves upon brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Daniel, the
Twelve, and a few of the Seventies, High Priests, and Bishops; and
when it is finished they may imagine that they will receive their
blessings therein; but that work is designed to be general. There must
needs be a universal exertion, not only by the leading official
members of this Church, but by every member, male and female; for the
Temple is not for us alone; it is also for our sons, and daughters,
and succeeding generations. They will receive blessings in it, and
therefore it concerns them as well as us.

vol. 5, p.18
If I obtain all the blessings of the Priesthood, all the endowments,
all the blessings that God has to confer upon us in this probation,
and keep those things sacred while I live, I am then as pure and holy
as it is possible for a man to be while in the flesh. Then, if my
wives are one with me, my children and their posterity will partake of
those blessings which have been placed upon me. Every blessing
conferred upon me tends to benefit my posterity. Those blessings are
for every righteous man; and the blessings that are conferred upon
faithful men and women in their holy anointings and sealings will rest
upon their posterity after them for ever and for ever, through their
faithfulness; and there is no end to it.

vol. 5, p.18
It is a strong additional inducement for you to live your religion, in
view of the benefits that will be continued to your posterity. If you
can only bear this in mind, I think it will serve to keep you
steadfast in the line of your duties. Will our posterity partake of
the blessings we will receive in the Temple which we are building?
They will, for ever and for ever. Our blessings are to continue
always. If we live so as to attain to the principles and fulness of
perfection and to secure the promises of eternal lives, then those
blessings will rest upon us and our children.

vol. 5, p.18
How long will it take this people to build the Temple on this Block,
supposing that every man and woman, and every child that has arrived
at the years of accountability, will unitedly strive for its
completion? Not very many years. Were I labouring on that Temple, I
would constantly endeavour to  work upon it [p.19] with an eye single
to pushing it forward, and to the blessings I expected to receive
therein. But supposing that you do not all live, will you not be
benefitted by it? Yes, you will.

vol. 5, p.19
We are now attending to matters that will answer every purpose, until
that Temple is completed. Those who go through their endowments now
and are sealed up unto eternal lives, those blessings will stick to
them, if they will stick to the blessings and promises that are made
ever unto them, and step forward with one heart and one mind to do the
will of God as made known to them from time to time from this stand.

vol. 5, p.19
Is it requisite that every member of my family should feel the same
interest that I do in my welfare and posterity? Yes, every woman and
child, from the oldest to the youngest. They should be just like a
tree that has many branches to it. The extremity of the longest limb
is dependent upon the tree from which it grows. We should become one
tree, and be like the "tree of life, which bare twelve manner of
fruits," all connected with one stalk. I presume that those fruits
came from grafts, else the tree probably would not have borne so many
kinds.

vol. 5, p.19
We must be grafted into the true vine, and continue to partake of its
fatness, and then we shall go back to our Father and God, who is
connected with one who is still farther back; and this Father is
connected with one still further back, and so on; and just so far as
we respect our superiors and try to save our children, so shall we
receive blessings from this time forth and for ever, and shall become
as numerous as the sands upon the sea shore. What is there to hinder
us from obtaining these blessings? Nothing, except it be our own want
of faithfulness; for, by diligence, integrity, and perseverance, we
can accomplish all we desire, and help to move forward the great work
of God.

vol. 5, p.19
I have heard a whispering that some who work on the Temple at dressing
rock, and in the machine and blacksmiths' shops, have nothing but
bread to eat. It seems as though this could not be so; for I have seen
the public hands packing home carrots, parsnips, potatoes, &c.; and it
is not so very bad while there is plenty of them; and every man gets a
pound of flour a day; and I think there should not be any grunting. It
will not be a month before we shall have lettuce, radishes, &c.; and
there now is plenty of greens; and onions are plentiful in the Tithing
Office; and we shall be very glad to have you come and get them at
your leisure.

vol. 5, p.19
I have just touched upon these things in connection with brother
Wells' remarks concerning the Public Works; for I am one with him, and
he is one with me, and we are one with brother Brigham. We have not
set our feet to the race for any other purpose than to follow him and
run through; for he is our leader and will be our leader, temporally
and spiritually, from this time forth. When Joseph comes again, will
brother Brigham be removed? No, never. Brother Joseph is ahead;
brother Brigham is after him; I am after brother Brigham; and you are
after me, are you not? And we will not flinch; and and God will bless
and prosper every man that will help himself; and He will bless,
prosper, and sustain this people; and they will never fall, as a
people, though we expect that many will apostatize, pitch over the
dam, and go to wreck.

vol. 5, p.19
If we sin, and do not repent; God will chastise us until we do repent
of and forsake all sin; but He never will scourge us so long as we do
right. I have said a hundred times that we never shall want for bread,
meat, and [p.20] the comforts of life, worlds without end, if we will
only do right. That is my prophecy, and always was; and it is true. I
agree with Daniel, with Joseph, with Brigham, with Jesus, and the
Apostles, and all the holy Prophets; and I have spoken as I have to
arouse your feelings, to waken you up, and comfort your hearts, and
cheer your minds; for I have no other feeling than to do you good.

vol. 5, p.20
When the Big Cottonwood Canal is finished, aside from its being of
material benefit in our operations for building the Temple, it will be
of great worth for irrigating lots in this city, especially in the
east part of it; and you will soon be able to raise enough more than
heretofore to pay you for your labour upon that work—yes, tenfold
more. You may think that extravagant, but I say it is not. Reckon it
up yourselves, and see how much more you could raise if you had plenty
of water. You could raise as much corn fodder as would keep your cows
through the winter, and I believe more than you have cows to eat it,
besides the large extra amount of vegetables you could raise.        i

vol. 5, p.20
I will now make a few remarks in  relation to building
storehouses,—not  particularly in regard to building, tithing
storehouses here; for there are enough at present to hold all the
grain we have; though I believe that by another year this people will
fill our tithing houses until they overflow; for a great many of them
are going to continue to do right and live their religion; and if they
do that, you will see the wheat, the corn, the oats, the barley, and
all our stock and possessions increase. If we increase, it will
increase; our wealth will grow and increase with us, and there will be
no end to it. But in order to lay up grain, you must prepare
storehouses. Every man who has a farm needs a storehouse—one made of
rock and lime, that will guard your grain against the mice, rats, and
all other four-legged vermin; also against the two-legged ones. I have
more fears of the two-legged ones than I have of the four-legged ones.

vol. 5, p.20
Plan to build a good storehouse, every man who has a farm, and never
cease until you have accomplished it. And do not forget to pay your
tithing before you put the grain into the storehouse. Lay up enough
for seven years, at a calculation for from five to ten in each family;
and then calculate that there will be in your families from five to
ten persons to where you now have one, because you are on the
increase.

vol. 5, p.20
It now takes about one thousand bushels of wheat to bread my family
one year, and I want to lay up six thousand for each year of the seven
for which I calculate to store it up. Reflect upon the probable
increase of my family within seven years; they alone will be almost
numerous enough to people a small city. Where a family now requires
only a hundred bushels a year, let the head of that family lay up a
hundred bushels the first year, two hundred the next, and increase the
amount every year in proportion to their probable requirements.

vol. 5, p.20
When we have stored away our grain we are safe, independent of the
world, in case of famine, are we not? Yes, we are; for, in that case,
we will have the means for subsistence in our own hands. When the
famines begin upon the earth, we shall be very apt to feel them first.

vol. 5, p.20
If judgments must need begin at the house of God, and if the righteous
scarcely are saved, how will it be with the wicked? Am I looking for
famines? Yes, the most terrible and severe that have ever come upon
the nations of the earth. These things are right before us, and some
of this people are not thinking  anything about them; they do not
enter their [p.21] hearts. Still there is not an Elder here who has
read the revelation which says, Go forth and warn the inhabitants of
this land of the sickness, the death, and disasters that are coming
upon this nation, but what must be satisfied of the truth of what I am
saying. You have done according to the instruction given in that
revelation; and now reflect upon the things that I am declaring in
your hearing, and lift up your voices unitedly as a people to the God
of Heaven that He will be merciful unto us and favour Zion.

vol. 5, p.21
Be wise, listen to counsel, and obey the voice of the head, and you
wilt prosper and never want for bread; but, as the Lord liveth, you
will feel it, if you do not continue in the line of duty. [President
Brigham Young: That is true.] Yes, it is as true as it is that God
ever spake to this generation. I consider that carefully storing our
surplus grain against a time of need is of the greatest importance to
this people, in connection with building the Temple. You may build
that Temple, and at the same time neglect those things that I am
speaking of, and you will perish temporally.

vol. 5, p.21
Now, go to, and raise grain; for I feel satisfied that the Lord will
give us two, three, or four years of good times, and will hold the
enemies of the upright by the bit, if we will do right. I will have
that "if" in every time; for, in such case, I tell you that God will
hold our enemies, and they cannot have any power until He has a mind
to permit them; and then He will only permit them for a time, in order
to manifest His Almighty power and to qualify and prepare them for a
time to come. I mean just what I say.

vol. 5, p.21
I have talked here year after year, and told you that I was going to
work to build a good storehouse; and I now have a good one, though it
is not yet quite finished. I have five or six hundred bushels of wheat
in it, and I am going to make a tight floor of rock by grouting it
with lime and sand, and plaster the walls on both sides, so that it
will be proof against mice and all other kinds of vermin.

vol. 5, p.21
As I have said, I know that we will see those things of which I have
spoken—such famines as this world never beheld. Yes, we have got to
see those scenes; but if we will keep our vows and covenants, the Lord
will hold them off until we can prepare ourselves; and if you will
wake up and do as you are told, you will escape.

vol. 5, p.21
I will advise every man in every settlement to build a storehouse; and
if one cannot do so alone, let two or three build one between them.
Store up and preserve your grain, and then you will be safe. But if
the famine should come upon us in our present condition, what could we
do? If we do not do as we are told in this thing, the displeasure of
the Lord will be upon us, and He will not continue to bless us as He
is now doing.

vol. 5, p.21
I know that He is able to suffer famines to come upon us, and then to
rain manna down from heaven to sustain us. I also know that He could
increase our grain in the granaries and our flour in the bins, and
make one small loaf of bread suffice for many persons, by exerting His
creative power. I do not know how He does that, but I know that He can
do it just as easily as He could bring me into existence upon this
earth.

vol. 5, p.21
There are a great many things that we can save and take care of, as
well as we can wheat, barley, and oats. We can dry pumpkins, squashes,
currants, apples, peaches, &c., and save them; we can also save beans,
peas, and like articles, and keep them for seven years. And if you
will take the right care of your wheat, you can save it just as long
as you may wish [p.22] to; but, in the usual mode of storing it, you
have got to stir it, move it, remove it, and turn it over, or it will
spoil. It is just so with this people; they have had to be moved and
removed from place to place, to prevent them from getting into dotage.

vol. 5, p.22
I would not be afraid to promise a man who is sixty years of age, if
he will take the counsel of brother Brigham and his brethren, that he
will renew his age. I have noticed that a man who has but one wife,
and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up,
while a man who goes into plurality looks fresh, young, and sprightly.
Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he honours His
work and word. Some of you may not believe this; but I not only
believe it—I also know it. For a man of God to be confined to one
woman is small business; for it is as  much as we can do now to keep
up under the burdens we have to carry; and I do not know what we
should do if we had only one wife apiece.

vol. 5, p.22
Let us go to work and cultivate the earth, and go into the fields, and
bless the land, and dedicate and consecrate it to God; and then
dedicate the seed, the implements, and the horses, and oxen. Do you
suppose that that will have any effect? I know that it will. Nearly
twenty years ago, I was in a place in England in which I felt very
curious; but I did not know at the time what it meant. I went through
a town called Chadburn, beyond Clithero. Before I went there, some
persons told me that there was no use in my going, and asked me what I
wanted to go to Chadburn for, saying it was the worst place in the
country; for the sectarian priests had preached there faithfully
thirty years without making any impression. Notwithstanding that, I
went, and preached once, and baptized twenty-five persons, where the
priests had not been able to do a thing.

vol. 5, p.22
I went through the streets of that town feeling as I never before felt
in, my life. My hair would rise on my head as I walked through the
streets, and I did not then know what was the matter with me. I pulled
off my hat, and felt that I wanted to pull off my shoes, and I did not
know what to think of it.

vol. 5, p.22
When I returned, I mentioned the circumstance to brother Joseph, who
said, "Did you not understand it? That is a place where some of the
old Prophets travelled and dedicated that land, and their blessing
fell upon you." Then try it, and see if it will not leave a blessing
for us to dedicate our lands. If you think that it will not, never
bring another bottle of oil and ask us to dedicate and consecrate it
for the benefit of the sick. I know that we can bless the land, and
that through our blessing it will be filled with the Spirit and power
of God; and that, too, in great profusion, especially if we are filled
with that Spirit ourselves. Some may call me enthusiastic; but I am no
more so than the old Prophets were when they had the Spirit of God
upon them.

vol. 5, p.22
Let us bless the land we cultivate and the fountains of water, and
they will be blessed, and then men may drink of those waters, and they
will fill them with the Spirit and power of God. Let us bless and
dedicate the fountains of life that are in us, in our wives and
children, and in everything else around us. Can the Spirit of God
enter a stone, or one of those posts? Yes; and it can fill every pore
as well as it can every pore in my body. Can it enter into my pores?
Yes, even into my hair; and it can also enter my bones and quicken
every limb, joint, and fibre.

vol. 5, p.22
Let us not dispose of any grain, only what is actually necessary. When
it is actually necessary to part with any grain, let us put it into
the right hands. If I have any to part with, I [p.23] will put it into
the hands of those that will make good use of it. We have got to
become one in our financial matters in the Church and Kingdom of God.
How can you become one tree, with limbs and branches all pertaining to
the selfsame tree, when there is disunion among you?

vol. 5, p.23
Then go to work and build up this kingdom, establish righteousness,
and prepare yourselves for the famines that are coming upon the earth;
for I tell you that they are coming.

vol. 5, p.23
Do you suppose that God would give revelations and tell us to warn the
inhabitants of the earth of things which were coming speedily upon
them, if He did not intend that those things should come? He said that
they should feel them, and I know that they are bound to feel them;
for they will not repent. Let us go to work and prepare for the
thousands upon thousands who will come unto us.

vol. 5, p.23
Our Carrying Company is only in its infancy, but it will prepare the
way; and the day will come when people will gather here by hundreds
and by thousands,—yea, fifty thousand in a year; and very many will
come trudging along with their bundles under their arms. I have heard
brother Joseph, brother Brigham, and several other men say that it
will be so; and I know it will, because they have said it. Many of you
will venture to say that you believe it; but I know that it is true,
and it will surely come to pass.

vol. 5, p.23
Brethren and sisters, these are some of my feelings; and I hope and
pray that those whom we have warned will go home and warn their
neighbours, and tell them to be up and doing; and then we shall not
have to tell you these things again. It is no time for grunting; it is
no time for having the blues; it is no time for sugar-tits, qqq for
dancing, and amusing ourselves. Amusements are stopped for the
present; but when brother Brigham says dance, then dance; but when he
says stop, then stop; and when he says prophesy, then prophesy, but be
sure to prophesy right.

vol. 5, p.23
I have said nothing but what the Spirit has dictated; and all the
principles that I have touched upon are contained in the Bible. If you
don't believe it, take that book and look for yourselves; and then
take the Book of Mormon, and see what the Lord said to the Nephites.
He said, "The nation or people that will not serve me on this land I
will cut off from the face of the earth;" and I know that He will do
it. And brother Brigham, the Twelve Apostles, and Patriarchs John
Young and Isaac Morley will all declare that it is true. May God bless
you. Amen. [p.24]

John Young, July 12, 1857

Blessings of Zion—Prophets of God to Be Relied On—
Enemies of the Saints

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

vol. 5, p.24
I feel very happy, my brethren and sisters, for the opportunity I
enjoy this day in this place. I feel that the Lord is merciful unto me
and unto us all as a people, and I feel much pleasure in rising before
you to bear my testimony to the truths of the everlasting Gospel of
Jesus Christ, which have been laid before us this day by his servant
brother Kimball.

vol. 5, p.24
I am thankful to my heavenly Father not only this day, and at this
time in particular, but at all times. I am thankful that I live in the
day that I do, and that I am associated with the greatest and best men
that ever lived upon the earth, and that I have the opportunity of
sitting under the sound of their voices, even the oracles of the
Almighty, before whom the visions of eternity are passing continually,
and who are competent to administer unto the people the words of
eternal life.

vol. 5, p.24
I thank the Lord for the blessings that we as a community enjoy, and
for the good admonitions, for the truth of heaven, for the principles
of salvation theft are from time to time made known unto us by the
Prophets of the Lord. I am thankful to my God that He has gathered us
from the nations of the earth where we were scattered into these
chambers of the mountains, where the Prophets of the Most High can
speak, as they are dictated by His Holy Spirit, the things that are
necessary for them to know and understand.

vol. 5, p.24
I can well remember the day when the Prophets of the Lord stood up to
address the people, that they did not feel that liberty which they
feel and enjoy here. This was at a time when, they were surrounded by
enemies upon the right hand and upon the left, and when those enemies
were laying plans to catch and to destroy them; and when I reflect
upon this, I thank God that He has brought us to a place where we can
administer the words of eternal life without fear or dismay; for we
are here secluded and far away from our enemies.

vol. 5, p.24
I am thankful for the great and glorious principles that I have heard
from brother Kimball this morning; and I can bear my testimony before
angels and before my heavenly Father that every word he spoke has been
by the inspiration and power of the Holy Ghost. I would like to have
you tell of a time, if you can, when brother Brigham and brother Heber
did not speak by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know you cannot do it;
and yet there are men who are continually whining because the First
Presidency are so severe upon the workers of iniquity; but I don't
feel to take off the curses, but, by the authority and power that I
have and the priesthood that has been sealed upon me, I seal those
curses brother Kimball has pronounced, upon the heads of the guilty.

vol. 5, p.24
[The congregation responded, Amen.] 

vol. 5, p.24
I just know there are men here [p.25] right amongst us who thirst for
the blood of the Prophets of God; and there are those professing to be
Saints who are fostering them in their hellish designs; but I pray my
heavenly Father to purge out these cursed characters from among us.
The time has come when the ungodly and the hypocrites are to be
searched out. This is undoubtedly the time the Prophet spoke of when
he said, "The sinner in Zion shall be afraid, and fearfulness shall
surprise the hypocrite." The people are better prepared for this now
than ever they were; for there never was a time when light was
reflected upon this people as at the present; no, there never was such
a time as there is now; and I know it, if no other man does.

vol. 5, p.25
I have heard brother Brigham say that it should be better and more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for
this .people who hear the truth and do not obey it. Day after day, and
Sabbath after Sabbath, the servants of God are administering the words
of eternal life; and if the people do not walk in the light, it would
be better for them to have a millstone tied to their necks, and they
drowned in the depths of the sea, than for them to remain here and
live in sin, and add to their guilt and crimes every day of their
life.

vol. 5, p.25
Brethren, we are blest; yes, we are greatly blest: our fields are
clothed with grain; they are greatly burdened with the crops that are
upon them. Everything that I behold, as I travel abroad, exhibits
abundantly the blessings of our heavenly Father. He is pouring out
liberally of His blessings upon us; and, if we are faithful, they will
be multiplied more and more upon our heads.

vol. 5, p.25
I am thankful to find such a good spirit among the Saints in the
various parts of the Territory where I have visited. Last week I
visited Utah and Cedar Valleys, and the brethren were willing to drop
their scythes and come to meeting, notwithstanding it was a very busy
time with them. I held meetings at both settlements in Cedar Valley,
and I can say there is a good spirit prevailing there; and I feel that
there never was more of the power of the Lord, nor a greater witness
of His Spirit resting upon the people than at the present time. It
seems as if they were willing to give their very life's blood to
sustain the Prophets of God that are amongst us. It is a matter of
consolation to us all to learn that the people are becoming so united.

vol. 5, p.25
Now, my brethren, let us be faithful and work righteousness in this
the day of our visitation; for we shall not always enjoy the blessings
that we now do. Though our land is blest, and though we have peace and
plenty, I do not know that this will always be the case with us; we
may yet have to pass through severe trials. I know that there will
always be peace to those who have the peace of our heavenly Father in
their own souls. When a man has the approbation of those who are at
the head of the kingdom, he also has the approbation of our heavenly
Father; for He sanctions their doings upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.25
It is not my desire or intention to take up much time this morning;
but I was desirous to bear my testimony to the truth set forth by
President Kimball, a man filled with the Holy Ghost.

vol. 5, p.25
I wonder if some one won't go away and say that brother Kimball and
the authorities were misinformed. I can tell you they are not; for
those men who stand at the head of affairs have the light of heaven
with them all the time; they have the power of the Spirit and the
visions of the heavens with them always, and they can read men and
women from head to foot.

vol. 5, p.25
After this, I don't want anybody to go away from the meeting and say,
"I [p.26] guess they were mistaken." Don't let us hear any more of it,
brethren; never let such a thing be spoken, that a Prophet of God is
mistaken. I ask this congregation, and I adjure you in the name of the
Lord to speak, if ever you heard brother Brigham, brother Kimball,
brother Jedediah, or brother Wells say anything that was not strictly
true. I answer, you never did.

vol. 5, p.26
[President H. C. Kimball: If it were so, a man might be a Prophet one
minute and a devil another.]

vol. 5, p.26
I know there is an under-current working all the time; but I tell you,
my brethren, we have to stand up to the work in which we are engaged,
and live humbly before our heavenly Father, and keep His Spirit with
us always. This is what we have got to do, and, as brother Kimball
says, save ourselves and those that are with us, and know that we are
born of God and that we are heirs of salvation. It is our privilege,
as well as that of the Prophets of God, to have this Spirit and this
light in us; for we are the children of the light, and not of the
darkness; therefore the day of the Lord Jesus will not overtake us as
a thief in the night.

vol. 5, p.26
I feel comfortable and happy in being associated with the Saints of
the living God; and I never felt more grateful for my position among
this people than I do at the present time; for I realize that the hand
of the Lord is with us all the day long.

vol. 5, p.26
When I heard brother Kimball talking about brother Thomas Marsh, it
caused me to think of bygone days; for I was well acquainted with him;
and when I heard what I did, I felt to thank my God that He had
preserved me and my brethren from the power of the Devil; and I know
that it is the Lord's doing, and not our strength that has saved us. I
feel humble and I wish to feel so all the time. I cannot express to
you my feelings in full; but this much I can say, that I have never
had such an experience in my life as I have had for the year past. It
seems as though the vail of darkness was rolled back; and it is so to
a great extent, and we begin to know and realize that the day of our
redemption draws near.

vol. 5, p.26
Talk about fear! We have nothing to fear from our enemies. If we have
anything to fear at all, it is those of our own household—those
corrupt villains in our midst, who profess to be Saints. Our enemies
are entirely powerless. They used to think that Missouri could whip
out the "Mormons," and then they thought that a few counties in
Illinois could do it; but of late they have come to the conclusion
that it will take all the United States to whip us out; and it is true
too, and then they can't.

vol. 5, p.26
I knew last fall that the reformation would commence in the States
about the time that it did here, and I told brother Brigham so; and I
now pray that it may continue, and that they may be clothed with
darkness, and that all their schemes and plans may be frustrated, and
that they may be caught in their own snares, and fall into their own
pits. There has never been such a fuss in the United States as there
is at the present time; and I may also add, that there never has been
a time when we have commenced to build a Temple but the Devil has
called upon his servants to prevent us from doing the work, if
possible. It was so in Kirtland; it was so in Far West and in
Illinois; and I expect it will be so here; but it will all tend to
roll on the work of God.

vol. 5, p.26
I feel to bless you—all you that are honest in heart; and I say the
time has come when fearfulness will surprise the hypocrite; and I pray
that we may be able more perfectly to discern betwixt him that serveth
God  and him that serveth Him not. This is what the Prophet said
should be [p.27] with the people in the last days; and he said there
should be a book of remembrance kept, that those who are faithful
might be his in the day when he shall come to make up his jewels. My
prayer is that we may be among those jewels, which I ask in the name
of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Heber C. Kimball, July 12, 1857

The Latter-Day Kingdom—Men not to Be Governed By Their 
Wives—Love to God Manifested By Love to His Servants

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

vol. 5, p.27
I feel very much to appreciate the remarks of brothers Thomas S. Smith
and Edmund Ellsworth. Brother Edmund's remarks were very good, and
will be salvation to every man and woman that will receive and
treasure them up in their hearts.

vol. 5, p.27
Here in Great Salt Lake City is the seat of government for the Church
and Kingdom of God; pertaining to every person that has ever come into
a probation on this earth, whether they are now in tabernacles upon
this earth, or whether they are in the spirit world, or in hell. This
is the place of deposit of all those keys pertaining to the salvation
of the human family; and there never will one soul of those spirits
now in prison come out of that place, except the keys of the kingdom
of God that are now held in Great Salt Lake City open the door and let
them out. They may peep and mutter, and may have revelations until
doomsday, and may declare to all eternity that Joseph Smith is a false
prophet, and that brother Brigham is a false prophet, and that this
Church is false, and they will still remain in hell until we let them
out.

vol. 5, p.27
Brother Brigham Young holds those keys; and brother Heber C. Kimball,
and Daniel H. Wells, and others, hold those keys in connection with
brother Brigham; and not one soul of you has any keys or power of
salvation only what is in us; and that is one thing for you to learn.
Those keys and powers were on Joseph Smith when he was in the flesh;
and before he departed, he laid his hands on brother Brigham, and
brother Heber, and others, and conferred the keys of salvation upon
them; and we are here, in the last dispensation of the kingdom of God
that pertains to every man and woman on earth, in hell, and in the
spirit world; and the redemption of not one individual soul will be
obtained upon any other principle.

vol. 5, p.27
You may call that pretty snug doctrine and pretty rough; but I would
not give a dime for anything that is not rough. What do you think of
the stone to be cut out of the mountain without hands? If there are to
be no hands, how do you suppose it will ever be polished? Can you
polish a stone without hands and chisel? It is to be taken out of the
mountain without hands, and it will smash every nation and kingdom
except God's. It will never be polished until it has done that rough
work. It will knock [p.28] the bark from the trees, and will break
everything before it.

vol. 5, p.28
Let the spirit world peep, and rap, and rap, and rap again. We know
you not. Depart, ye workers of iniquity, and get out of the way, and
stop your peeping and rapping.

vol. 5, p.28
This is the kingdom of God. You talk about building up the kingdom of
God; but how can you build up the kingdom of God, except you build up
the king and his officers? We are to become kings and priests unto our
God, in accordance with the revelations given to the Apostle John. Our
lives are a preparatory work to fit us to receive that authority and
power; and when we have got that, we will raise up a kingdom. You
cannot raise up a kingdom any greater than yourselves. And if you have
not attended to these things, you cannot raise up a kingdom that will
bring about the purposes of the Almighty.

vol. 5, p.28
How can I take a course to save the children of men any further than I
am saved myself? If I have saved myself to-day, I can save you to-day;
add if I continue on and save myself to-morrow, I can save you
to-morrow, and so on from day to day, until finally we are saved in
the celestial kingdom of God.

vol. 5, p.28
Are the keys here? Yes, the very keys that our Father placed upon His
Son Jesus; and He placed that authority upon Peters and his
associates; and they have been restored again to this earth through
the ministration of the Prophet Joseph.

vol. 5, p.28
It is written that the first shall be last, and the last first. This
is the last kingdom, and the Lord will make it first; for it has got
to raise up, and establish, and confer power upon every one of those
kingdoms that have been. That is what we have got to do. Why do you
not realize this? You could,  if you lived your religion and called
upon God by day and by night.

vol. 5, p.28
What good do your prayers do, when your works do not correspond? Men
may talk about praying, and exhort the people to pray; and if you do
not live in a manner to fulfil your prayers, what do they avail you?
Faith is dead without works, just as much as my body is dead without
my spirit. When my spirit leaves my body, my body is dead; but put
them together, and they make a soul—a spirit in a tabernacle. What is
the use of our professing to be Saints, unless we live our religion?
By our faithfulness and by our good works we shall obtain knowledge.

vol. 5, p.28
How can you find out whether brother Brigham is called of God, except
you have a revelation from God? And then some are not fully satisfied,
but will doubt the revelation that God has given them.

vol. 5, p.28
You think you would not. I have known many who have. Oliver Cowdery
received revelations and wrote them; so did David Whitmer, and so did
Thomas B. Marsh. About the time he was preparing to leave this Church,
he received a revelation in the Printing Office. He retired to
himself, and prayed, and was humble, and God gave him a revelation,
and he wrote it. There were from three to five pages of it; and when
he came out, he read it to brother Brigham and me. In it God told him
what to do, and that was to sustain brother Joseph and to believe that
what brother Joseph had said was true. But no; he took a course to
sustain his wife and oppose the Prophet of God, and she led him away.

vol. 5, p.28
What!—sustain a woman, a wife, in preference to sustaining the Prophet
Joseph, brother Brigham, and his brethren! Your religion is vain when
you take that course. Well, my wife may say, "If you will Sustain
Brigham in preference to me, I will leave you." I should reply,
"Leave, and be damed!" and that very quickly. That is a part of my
[p.29] religion—" Leave quickly, you poor snoop."

vol. 5, p.29
That was the trouble with Emma Smith. Joseph stood for the truth and
maintained it; she struck against it: and where is she? She is where
she is, and she will not escape until Joseph Smith opens the door and
lets her out. She declared that she would leave him, if he would not
sustain her instead of sustaining brother Brigham, and Heber, and the
rest of the Twelve Apostles of God. That is as true as that the sun
shines. She had her choice, but Joseph would not follow her.

vol. 5, p.29
Thomas B. Marsh was once the President over the Quorum of the
Twelve—over brother Brigham, me, and others; and God saw fit to give
him a revelation to forewarn him of the course he would take; and
still he took that course. We told him that if he would listen to that
revelation he had received, he would he saved; but he listened to his
wife, and away he went. His wife is now dead and damned. She led him
some eighteen years; and as soon as she died he came to Winter
Quarters—now Florence, and has written to us, pleading for mercy. We
have extended it to him, and he will probably be here this season or
the next. He says that he has sinned before God and his brethren, and
is pleading for mercy; for he feels as though our Father and God would
have a little bread for him after all the rest have eaten all they
need.

vol. 5, p.29
I speak of these things to show men their standing. Women were never
placed to lead. Did you ever see a ship rigged for sailing to England,
or to any other port in the world, without a helm, and rudder, and a
man who knew the points of the compass and how to receive instructions
for guiding that ship. And then you will sometimes see a number of
boats lashed with cables to a large ships and they are all led by that

vol. 5, p.29
ship, and that is guided by the power and intelligence on board of it;
Women are made to be led, and counselled, and directed. If they are
not led, and do not make their cables fast to the power and authority
they are connected with, they will be damned. Instead of cutting those
little fibres that pertain to those cables which connect them with the
ship, they ought to be adding other strands to to the cables, that
they may stand when the sea becomes boisterous.

vol. 5, p.29
And it is for the Twelve to be connected, and make the cable which
binds them to the First Presidency stronger and stronger; and for the
First Presidency to make theirs stronger in relation to God and those
who are connected with Him. All the time keep adding to that big
cable. And it is for the Seventies to fasten their cable to the
Twelve, and to keep increasing its strength; and so on down to
Priests, Teachers, and Deacons. Then let every man's wife strengthen
the cable that connects her with her husband; for, if she does not do
so, she will go to hell, and you cannot help it.

vol. 5, p.29
Women are to be led. If I should undertake to drive a woman, I should
have to drive her before me; and then she becomes my leader the moment
I do that. I should lead her; and she should be led by me, if I am a
good man; and if I am not a good man, I have no just right in this
Church to a wife or wives, or to the power to propagate my species.
What, then, should. be done with me? Make a eunuch of me, and stop my
propagation.

vol. 5, p.29
I am telling you solemn truths; and I do not know of anything that
bears on my mind more to this people than for us to live our religion
and be subject to those to whom we should be subject. As brother
Brigham said, last Sunday, it. is for every man to make peace with his
neighbour and [p.30] with the man who leads him, and for a man's wives
to take a course to please their husband, and for us all to make peace
at home and abroad, when we go out and when we come in. That is the
course for you to take,—that is your duty; and when you take a
contrary course you are wrong.

vol. 5, p.30
Some of the sisters say that their husbands are contrary and stubborn,
and that they will do this and that, and they cannot control them.
Ladies, there is not one of you that has common good sense but what
would leave the man that would suffer you to lead him: you would
rightly consider that he was not following his calling, if he would
bow to your mandates. No man in this Church has a right to a wife,
except he is a good man—a man of truth. And when a man violates his
calling and priesthood, he forfeits his wife and everything that
pertains to that calling and priesthood, or to that limb, when the
limb is severed from the tree. Many have been severed from this Church
and left, their wives and children; for they clung to Gospel faith and
priesthood. Now, except those men make restitution, can they hold one
of the wives they have taken? No, not one of them. Can they retain,
and keep, and preserve their children—their posterity? No, they
cannot. Why? Because those limbs have been cut off and have never been
restored, and the fruit was taken by the Husbandman of the vineyard
and laid up in store. Then they cannot get it, can they? No, they
never can, unless they prove themselves worthy and make restitution to
satisfy the demands of justice, and that fourfold. They may then
receive it back, but not without that restitution. That is justice and
righteousness, and I am telling you of it in the name of the Lord; and
I know it to be true.

vol. 5, p.30
There are thousands of men and women among the nations of the earth
that it will be more tolerable for, in the day of judgment, than it
will for you, if you violate your calling and do not honour your
priesthood. You know that it was declared that it would be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the children of God who had
received the priesthood, and heard the voice of a prophet, and
disobeyed it. Sodom was so wicked that they could not hear the word,
because they would not admit a man of God to come into their midst.
And they would have killed Lot, if the angels had not got him out with
the few that believed on his words.

vol. 5, p.30
If you cannot believe brother Brigham, and brother Heber, and brother
Daniel, and the Twelve, whom have you to go to hearken to? Who is
there to lead you? Lay aside the men who lead you, and where is your
salvation? Have you not great reason to love these men? They are your
servants, and they serve you faithfully. They watch over you by night
and by day, and over the Saints throughout the whole world.

vol. 5, p.30
If you cannot love the leading members pertaining to this Church, how
under the heavens can you love a man you never saw? You cannot, and
never did. Tell about loving God! You do not love Him a particle when
you do not love your benefactors and the man that feeds you and
clothes you. You do not have a drawing of tea, a pound of coffee, or
anything else, but what he serves you with it. You say you love him;
but some of you lie like hell, and you deceive yourselves. Now, do not
tell me that you love my God, and at the same time not love brother
Brigham and me, whom you have seen.

vol. 5, p.30
Uncle John, (referring to Patriarch John Young,) did you ever see
anything bad in me? I never got, drunk but a few times in my life, and
then I was right, straightforward, I never got so drunk, but once,
but what I [p.31] could whip any man I ever saw, except, brother
Brigham. I know that I am a poor, weak, frail man, and dependent upon
my God as much as you are. Do I expect salvation upon any other
principle than that upon which you expect to obtain it? No, not in the
least. I cannot get salvation and disobey the man that leads me. But
whether he feeds me or not, or gets me a hat or a pair of boots or
not, what has that to do with my integrity? I am to be true to him—as
true as the sun is to this earth, even though I should be barefooted
and bareheaded, as I used to be when I was a boy; for I never thought,
of having anything to wear in the summer seasons but a tow frock and a
pair of tow breeches, and go bareheaded; though my hair was not burnt
off by the sun; it came out by the roots, through studying and
labouring in the great Latter-day Work. That is the course for me, and
brother Daniel, and the Twelve, and all the faithful to take.

vol. 5, p.31
Tell about loving God and His people! If you do not love the man that
leads you, you do not love that Being who confers all the blessings
and privileges we enjoy. Tell about loving God, and not love the men
that lead you! Get out with your nonsense. Will that apply to the
Elders? Yes, and to the Seventies, the High Priests, Bishops,
Teachers, and all men. Any further? Yes, it applies to you ladies, in
your family capacity. You have not any priesthood, only in connection
with your husbands. You suppose that you receive the priesthood when
you receive your endowments; but the priesthood is on your husbands.
Can you honour God and the Priesthood, and abuse your husbands like
the Devil? How can you honour the Priesthood, except you honour the
man you are connected with? I am talking about good men: I will not in
this connection say anything about bad men. How can you honour the
Priesthood, except you honour the one you are connected with ?

vol. 5, p.31
The Father is the root, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches.
The First Presidency is a quorum pertaining to this branch of the
house of Israel, and the Twelve are connected with us; they make part
of a branch. And then the Seventies, another large branch on the same
vine, and the High Priests, and Bishops, and so on, all belong to the
vine. Now, from whence did you come, sisters? From whence spring you
and your children? You spring from these main limbs and from that
Priesthood. If you did not spring out of the Priesthood, where did you
come from? Not many of you have legally sprung out of the Priesthood
anywhere in the world in the latter-days; but if you have a legal man,
who has a legal Priesthood, you can raise heirs to the kingdom of God,
and they become connected with it, without any of your washings,
anointings, and sealings. Go and read the Scriptures, and they will
teach you a great many things, and it will strengthen your faith in
what you hear from brother Brigham, brother Heber, and many others.

vol. 5, p.31
Do not tell me that you love God and Jesus Christ, and that angels are
around your habitation, conversing with you by night and day, and
treat the Priesthood as though it was a thing of naught. Angels who
would thus visit you are swamp angels—they are filthy. Would God
honour one of them? No; nor would one of His servants—no quicker than
they would honour the Devil in hell.

vol. 5, p.31
I am talking of things pertaining to your salvation,—not to that of my
family alone, but to that of all the families of the house of Israel.
You have got to take a course to strengthen the cable. Many cables are
chains [p.32] composed of links; and is there not room to put on more
links, to extend the chain, so as to reach to the bottom of the
deepest waters? Yes. You must become a link on that, chain and
strengthen it, or you will be lost.

vol. 5, p.32
If you prefer the figure of a cable made of flax, sea-grass, or hemp,
go to work and increase the strength of it, and tie yourselves to the
Priesthood and to the man that you are connected with, or let there be
a final conclusion to dissolve the partnership, and go somewhere else.
I do not want halfhearted characters to labour with me. Poor miserable
creatures, they are not fit for anything. Some of them have been in
the house of Israel from fifteen to twenty years, and age following
the Devil. Are there any such characters in this congregation? Yes,
several, both men and women. There are men and women ready to oppose
brother Brigham in what he said last Sunday. He told the truth of God
in every word he spoke. Do you suppose that he is so unwise to say a
thing which he does not know to be true? He understands what he
speaks, and he looks before he jumps, and God Almighty will lead him
straight, and he will never stumble—no, never, from this time forth;
nor will you, brother Hyde, if you will follow him; neither will any
other man.

vol. 5, p.32
There are poor, miserable curses in our midst; and there is not a
thing spoken of but what there are men and women who will go and tell
them every thing that is said, (thank God for that!) and tell mere
than what is true. There are men and women in this congregation of
that stamp. I wish I had some stones; I want to pelt your cursed
heads, for you lie like hell. Are you valiant to stand by the work of
God, and by your brethren? If you are not, you had better put out, you
poor curses.

vol. 5, p.32
There is a poor curse who has, written the bigger part of those lies
which have been printed in the States; and I curse him, in the name of
Israel's God, and by the Priesthood and authority of Jesus Christ; and
the disease that is in him shall sap and dry up the fountain of life
and eat him up. Some of you may think that he has not the disease I
allude to; but he is full of pox from the crown of his head to the
point of its beginning. That is the curse of that man; it shall be so,
and all Israel shall say, Amen. [The vast congregation of Saints said,
"Amen."] He is laying plans to destroy us, and is striving with his
might to stir up the Government of the United States and the President
to send troops here to bring us into collision and destroy this pure
people—man, woman, and child. May God Almighty curse such men, [Voices
all through the congregation: "Amen!"] and women, and every damned
thing there is upon the earth that opposes this people. I tell you I
feel to curse them to-day. [Voice: "And they shall be cursed."]. Yes,
they will be; and the Devil shall have full possession of every man
and woman that raised the tongue to sympathise with those poor curses,
I ask no odds of them, no more than I do of the dirt I walk on; for if
it was not chore I could not walk upon it. Now, go home and
sympathise, all of you who wish to.

vol. 5, p.32
I tell you that the most of this people are a God-blessed people, as
Amasa says; and you shall ever be blessed, with your wives and
children after you, for ever. And I bless you in the name of Israel's
God, and you shall be blessed.

vol. 5, p.32
Are there any poor, miserable devils in our midst? I cannot step into
the street but what some poor, miserable curse is ready to pounce on
me, if he dare. Tell about your religion! Shame on you! Go home and
put on sackcloth and ashes, and repent of your meannesses. Are such
kind of characters here? Yes, in this congregation. [p.33] Could I
pelt them with stones ? Yes, if I had the stones here, I could throw
them straighter than any rifle that ever was fired.

vol. 5, p.33
Let us live our religion by day and by night, when we are at home and
when we are abroad, and let us go to and gather up our grain and save
it. Save your grain, brethren; save everything that can be saved; for
we shall have need of it. The day is now on hand for this people to
lay up in store, and to leave off a few ribbons, and jewellery, and
fine satins. And where you have from seven to fifteen dresses too good
to wear every day, dispose of some of them, and do not trouble your
husbands so much. Are you serving God and keeping His commandments,
and at the same time seeking to destroy your husbands?

vol. 5, p.33
In the house of Israel there is now clothing enough to last us ten
years and make us comfortable, if it could be put into the storehouse
of God and properly distributed, to clothe men, and their wives, and
children, who may be worthy and needy. That is the Apostle's doctrine,
you know. Am I in warnest, brethren? I am telling you the truth; I am
telling you God's truth, and what the Spirit says to me. Stop, stop
this extravagance, and in the name of Israel's God go to work,
accumulate, and build up the kingdom.

vol. 5, p.33
Tell about building up the kingdom of God, while you take a course to
make slaves of your husbands through your love of finery!! Your
husbands must be observed and listened to. If you want to offend your
God, offend His servants. And how can you love God whom you have not
seen, and hate your brethren whom you have seen? Do not talk to me
such nonsense any more.

vol. 5, p.33
I am in earnest; I am anxious for your salvation—for you to put the
best foot forward and lay out your present means for the best purpose,
and in a way that they will temporally save this people universally.
Save your wheat, corn, barley, buckwheat, oats, and everything that
can be saved. You can dry potatoes for keeping as well as you can
pumpkins. What is there that you cannot dry? I could even take a great
many men and hang them up on a pole, and they will dry in a week,
because there is little or no juice in them; and the less juice there
is in them the less time it takes them to dry up, upon natural
principles. If a cow gives only a gill of milk, do you not know that
you can dry her quicker than when she gives a pailful?

vol. 5, p.33
Sisters, how can you fulfil your callings and appointments, according
to the blessings of the Patriarch and Prophet, except you lay up
stores and become saviours, like unto Joseph? Have not some of you
received the blessings and promise that you should be instrumental in
teaching the Lamanites habits of cleanliness, and how to cook, make
clothing, &c.? You have those blessings upon you; and most of you have
not taken the first step to fulfil them.

vol. 5, p.33
God Almighty bless the righteous, [Voices, "Amen,"] the meek, and
humble of the earth, and those who will do right. Your strength shalt
increase, if you will step forward and, do as you are told. It shall
increase twentyfold, while that of those who do not do so shall
decrease twenty-fold, because that branch or limb that does not bring
forth fruit will lose its strength, and it will go into those who do.
It will be so.

vol. 5, p.33
Is brother Brigham a Prophet? Yes, he is a Prophet and an Apostle, and
then he is more than that. He is a man foreordained from before the
world was to come along and follow Joseph; and so are you, every man.
Do you know brother Joseph? You could think that the Spirit of Jesus
could come in the meridian of time, [p.34] —that is, when the time was
half out, —the first child that was born to his Father on this earth,
and take a body. That all seems rational, through your traditions.
But, perhaps, many of you have never thought that Joseph was with
Jesus in the spirit-world ere the organization of this earth, and came
forth in this last dispensation..

vol. 5, p.34
If you all live your religion and are faithful to the end of your
days, that proves that you were chosen as were Jesus and John, who
were prophesied of many hundred years before they came, as were many
others. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was raised up to bear the Saviour.
Elizabeth was ordained and set apart to come along near the meridian
of time, and so we were ordained to come along near the end of time.

vol. 5, p.34
You will find out that I am telling you the truth, and that is why I
want you to live your religion and serve your God, keep His
commandments, and listen to your brethren.

vol. 5, p.34
I bless you, and I wish I could make the blessings of God cleave to
you like a plaster, that they would never leave you until you become
righteous men and women. I bless the earth that we occupy, and the
hills and mountains; and I bless every good thing there is; and I
curse the ungodly and everything that is attached to them and that
will stick to them. Amen.

Amasa Lyman, July 12, 1857

Mormonism and Its Results—Internal Light and Development—
Decrease of Evil—The Fountain of Light

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

vol. 5, p.34
It is a matter of gratification to me, my brethren and sisters, to be
here with you, because the religion that we have embraced is true.

vol. 5, p.34
Views are sometimes expressed by those who address the assembly as to
whether what they might say will be edifying and pleasing to the
people who may hear. I have no reason for believing that what I may
say will be unpleasing to those who hear. Why? Because, if it pleases
myself, it will edify those who hear, from the simple fact that what I
would delight to talk about the most is that that has edified me the
most, and continually edifies me. when I am edified, whether from what
I learn from my own study or from what I hear from those around me who
speak.

vol. 5, p.34
I feel myself as though that I was a Saint. If the Saints are called
"Mormons," then I am a "Mormon;" and I do not feel that I live any
life or have any existence but that of a Saint. Not that I suppose
that I know everything or act perfectly; but these are the feelings
that I cultivate; and the reason that I rejoice continually is, that
"Mormonism" is true —that the doctrine I have embraced and the
religion that cheers me is not a phantom.

vol. 5, p.34
My religion has become convenient [p.35] to me, from the fact that I
have found it adapted to every day use. The happiness that it
imparts—I do not care what part of man's existence or being you may
talk about, or apply it to—the happiness it imparts it can impart
every day. The bliss that can happily one hour of a man's being as a
Saint, from a knowledge of the truth, and from the influence that
truth will exert over him, will, upon the same principle, happily
every hour of his life. That light of truth that will enable him at
one time to testify of the truth of the work of God, of the
manifestation of His hand and His power in the establishment of His
kingdom, and the revelation of the Gospel to man in the last days,
will shine upon his path unceasingly, if he is constantly and
unceasingly faithful.

vol. 5, p.35
This leads me to be happy continually; for it does away with a great
many of the probabilities of a man's doing wrong, or being decoyed
from the path of rectitude and virtue, and after having preached
salvation to others, himself becoming a castaway, because the light
that would save them once will save them all the time. They have only
to be diligent, faithful, true, and obedient to the requisitions of
the truth, to secure its presence with them continually.

vol. 5, p.35
This has led me to entertain vastly different notions and ideas of
salvation from those I once entertained, whether of my own or that of
the Saints universally. It has resolved itself in my mind into very
simple truth, and yet a very extended and important one. I find that
all the notions I used to entertain, years ago, about salvation and
its greatness are comprised in knowing the right and then doing
it,—not in matters that are foreign from ourselves and from what we
have to do, but in the every day occurrences that fill up the history
of our lives here.

vol. 5, p.35
There is no way that I know of or have ever heard of, believed, or
entertained any conception of, that will enable you any better to love
God than to love man who is made in the image and likeness of God. Do
you want to honour Him? Then honour man that is made in the likeness
of God. "But," says one, "some men are not good:" then honour those
that are good, who are his ministers, in whom he is represented on the
earth. We cannot go away to his far off dwelling-place to pay our
respects and obeisance to him there—to present our offerings before
Him, or to tell how much we love Him. What can we do? We can find
here, in close proximity with ourselves, the individual in whom we can
learn His will, receive the declaration of His truth, the order of His
institutions and requirements. They are in our midst. This led one in
ancient times to say, "This is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments; and He has commanded us that we should love one
another."

vol. 5, p.35
This makes our religion wholly a practical matter. Let people who can
live by theorizing, theorize away until doomsday; and, if we will be
saved, we want practical virtue—practical truth exemplified in our
actions, in our words, and thoughts; we want to live together as a
holy people—as a people who fear and honour God. How? By getting down
on our knees and saying our prayers, by singing graciously and putting
on a long face, by going to meeting on the Sabbath, or by wearing an
amiable smile, that when contemplating it you would not think we ever
frowned in the world? Is this the way we are to honour God and live
right? No; it is something else besides this. To pray is good, to
smile is good, to be pleasant is good; but to be holy and acceptable
in the sight of God is to be good all the time, [p.36] in all places,
under all circumstances, and with all people.

vol. 5, p.36
We want to learn to get along comfortably with the little duties of
life that we meet with every day—that make up the labour of every day.
We want to learn to do those things right. You want to learn to be as
holy at home by your firesides as you are when you go to church. You
want to feel well, to enjoy the Spirit of God in every condition and
relation of life.

vol. 5, p.36
To love the truth supremely, above everything else is salvation. Do
not sacrifice it, therefore, or throw it away, for the sake of
indulging in a little petty quarrel at home or abroad.

vol. 5, p.36
How shall we honour God? We cannot administer to His wants directly,
if He has any; but His children are here, and we can feed the hungry
and clothe the naked. We can do that here. Whether there are any up
yonder to be found in those destitute circumstances, or not, I do not
know. I have not been there to see. I can see them here without going
there; and one thing which makes me think that "Mormonism" is true,
and that this view of it is true, is, because it is what I have
experienced.

vol. 5, p.36
Now, if it is not the truth, then I am frank to say I do not know
anything about it; but this is what I have learned. If I should find
myself in a time or place that the Spirit of truth is not in me, and
where I could not feel its sacred impulse to give shape and form to my
actions, and regulate them according to the revealed will of heaven
made known to me, I should be fearful and should have torment; for
fear hath torment; I should be afraid I was going to apostatize—that
some dark cloud was hanging around me, fatal to my happiness. But I
have confidence in the truth, because it is that which abides with me
all the time. In the darkest spot I ever have been called to labour or
travel in, or have had an existence in, since I embraced the truth, I
have always had it present, and enjoyed its light.

vol. 5, p.36
If I knew there was any part or portion of myself that was not under
the influence of "Mormonism," or the Spirit of truth, I would want to
get out that piece and parcel, and have it repent and be baptized for
the remission of that sin, that the whole body might finally become
perfectly holy and completely imbued with the influence of the Holy
Ghost, the Spirit of truth, and the love of truth, which would
preserve me to-day, to-morrow, and in all time from falling away.

vol. 5, p.36
Is it necessary we should all feel so? I suppose it is just as
necessary for you as for me. I do not suppose because I, through the
favour or mercy of God and the kind dispensations of His will and
providence, have been called to minister as one of the Twelve Apostles
to bear off the Gospel to the nations of the earth, that it is any
less needful for me, so far as my own soul is concerned, to enjoy the
Spirit of God always than it is that you should. I shall be nothing
more than saved when I have got all the way through, or as far along
as it may be my lot to progress.

vol. 5, p.36
"But," says one, "Won't it be good for us if we do as we are told?"
Yes. What will be the result? You will not always be under the
necessity of being so miserably poor that you have to go out in the
night to your neighbours to borrow a candle. Do people live this way?
Yes. I have lived on borrowed light. How long? Until I got a candle of
my own. Until the principles of truth became established in me, I
lived on the strength of the instructions and light of heaven that
dwelt in others, reflected by them on my path,—I  [p.37] followed
along by the light of a borrowed candle. How long? Until the Saviour's
words were fulfilled, and the promise verified in myself, and the
light of inspiration was planted in my own soul; then the blessings of
light and truth came rolling upon me like a river.

vol. 5, p.37
Would to God that all the Saints enjoyed this light. What would be the
result? There would be more practical purity, more righteous actions,
and less evil in the community,—more of the Spirit of God, as a
natural consequence, because every Saint would be possessed of a
living fountain of light and truth—that inspiration which inspires the
Apostle, enlightens the mind of the Prophet, team away the vail from
the future, and enables man to look upon and contemplate the
excellencies of our Father's kingdom.

vol. 5, p.37
It was in view of this that on a certain time, when report was made to
one of the ministers of truth that some of the congregation of Israel
were prophesying, the reply was, "Would to God that all the people
were prophets." Why? Then they would all have the light of truth in
them, and the knowledge of truth that would save them.

vol. 5, p.37
If this was the case, what would be among the results? Sinners in Zion
would be afraid, and fearfulness would surprise the hypocrite. Why?
Because they would feel uneasy, for this simple reason—they would know
they are not honest, and they would be afraid lest they should be
overtaken in their guilt.

vol. 5, p.37
This, my brethren and sisters, is the "Mormonism" I feel; it is the
"Mormonism" I preach—that I have when I pray—that I have about me
every day. It is the "Mormonism" I have when I wake up at night, and
that I keep with me all night, if I do not go to sleep. Is it good to
me? It is. Is it salvation to me? It is. Why ? Because it frees me
from evil and enables me to live without committing the amount of sin
that I would commit if it were not for its presence.

vol. 5, p.37
The best reason that I can give you for its being good is that it has
been good to me; it has done me good. I might tell you that the Gospel
is true, because the ministers of truth say so, have testified so,
lived for it, and died for it, in ages gone by; but I do not know so
well how they have felt; I do not understand so perfectly; I cannot
comprehend with the same clearness how it was that they felt, as I can
understand how I have felt myself.

vol. 5, p.37
When people tell me they have felt as I have, or, in describing their
feelings, I find they have experienced what I have, though I know what
I have experienced better than I know what anybody else has
experienced: yet, if they have the truth, I also have the truth; and
if they are saved by it, then I may hope to be saved by it. This is
what I would like to see the Saints enjoy—a knowledge of the truth,
and that knowledge to have such an influence over them that they would
cease to do any wrong whatever.

vol. 5, p.37
When there is no wrong done, how much sin would there be committed in
the length and breadth of the land of Zion among the Saints? If there
was no individual to do a wrong, I am under the impression it would
take a good or a bad mathematician to calculate the amount of sin that
would be committed.

vol. 5, p.37
Says one, "We expect to see that day." You do? When there will be no
sin? When? "Why, it is that better day that is coming by and by." What
is going to bring it about? Upon what principle do you ever expect to
see the time when there will be no sinners in the land? Will it be
when the grace of God is manifested in some strange or different way
from what it has been to you? "We [p.38] suppose so, as a matter of
course, because we see sins committed now every day." Do you know of
any good that has been done? "Yes, a good deal." What does it consist
of? "Good has been done in the condition of the people as the result
of reformation. They have spoken more truth and less falsehood than
they did; there is less hypocrisy, less tattling and evil speaking;
the people do not think of quite so many evil things to do, and
consequently, they do not do much evil: that is the way this change
has been brought about."

vol. 5, p.38
And did you ever think for a moment that this was the principle, and
the only one upon which sin would be driven away and its power
effectually broken upon the face of all the earth? Says one, "The
Devil has got to be bound." And do you know what kind of a chain he
will be bound with? What will deprive him of power? When there is no
person upon the face of the earth that will listen to his insinuations
or yield to the impulses of his influence to perpetrate evil, how much
power will the Devil have on earth?

vol. 5, p.38
I want you to look at this; I want you to remember that whenever there
is a diminution of evil in the community, it is because the people do
less wrong than they did; they are more faithful, more truthful, more
righteous, more holy, and are making greater progression and
advancement towards the consummation of the work of God. It is by the
development in them of the principles of righteousness and the
establishment of these principles in them to the exclusion of every
other principle and feeling. When this is effected, our salvation and
redemption are secure. When we do right exclusively, and no wrong, we
have nothing to fear. When this becomes the case with the people, will
the kingdom of God be built up? Yes, in the hearts of the Saints.

vol. 5, p.38
Says one, "Won't it be built up externally too? Yes; but it is a
simple matter to build up the kingdom so far as houses, palaces, and
thrones are concerned, only get the principles of the kingdom of God
built up and established within yourselves. Then you will simply have
arrived at the point that you will live your religion; that is, the
light that is in you will be the spirit of your religion operating
upon you, and in you, and through you, and over you, and round about
you, that your whole being and everything pertaining to your existence
will be under its sacred and hallowed influences. Do not settle down
and think you are living your religion because you have done a few
good things, because you are a. little more faithful than you were
last year, and because the Lord is blessing us this year with plenty.
Remember, and keep it constantly in view, that there is much
improvement to make, much to gain, and much to learn.

vol. 5, p.38
You want to have your religion established within you—a living
fountain from which the principles of eternal life and truth will flow
out and pervade your active being, regulating your actions and conduct
in such a way that everything connected with your life shall be in
perfect harmony with the truth; then you will live your religion, then
you wont need to be waked up in the night, and somebody come along
with borrowed light to place it in your habitation; you would have one
there all the time, so far as the light of truth end of your religion
is concerned: it would be in you all the time, always trimmed, always
burning.

vol. 5, p.38
If an evil spirit comes to us to tempt us to do evil—if we resist that
spirit, what will be the result? The  Devil will go away. When he
comes, again, and only meets with the same [p.39] treatment, with the
same success, and finds that he cannot get us to say an evil thing or
do an evil deed, how long will he tempt us? He would soon come to the
rational conclusion not to go there again; he would find it a
speculation that would be of no profit to him, while his defeat is our
victory.

vol. 5, p.39
Whenever evil things, evil thoughts have possession of our bosoms, and
we have not spoken a word—not given the thought shape, form, and
signification to those around us, who knows of it? Nobody. Who is
injured? Nobody. There is no harm done, no stealing, no murder
committed, no slander perpetrated, no falsehood told. What has been
done? The spirit that would instigate evil has been subdued within us,
and we have died a death unto sin, and have individually become alive
unto righteousness. One of the best things I ever heard in my life was
a simple thing that President Young taught here some time past, which
was, that it is not always right to speak the things we think. It is
just as necessary that you should be able to think and not speak as to
think and speak; the one is just as necessary as the other to your
salvation. "But," says one, "is it not just as bad to think it as to
speak it?" Why, thinking never killed anybody. Suppose a man had a
thought in his mind that he would kill me, if he did not do it, you
know, as far as I am concerned, I would live. But suppose, acting on
the old adage, that it is no worse to do it than to think it, and he
had laid wait for me by the road side and taken away my life, what
would have been the consequence?    Then the sin of murder would have
been on his soul.

vol. 5, p.39
It is the same with every wrong thought and evil suggestion that may
occur to your minds. What will be done if you act on this principle?
The Father at home, if he thinks a wrong thing, won't say it. The wife
and mother will do the same; and what will be the result? Harmony in
the domestic circle will never be destroyed by evil speaking. What
then? If harmony be there, the Spirit of God will be there. Why?
Because it delights to dwell in a quiet place; it does not love
contention; it is no friend. to strife; it is not fond of bickering or
saying hard things. The Spirit of God will come and take his abode
with us, if we prepare our minds for its reception, and make it
welcome, and study to cultivate a feeling that is congenial with its
own nature.

vol. 5, p.39
It is with the Holy Spirit as it is. with us. When we seek to gratify
ourselves in the associations around us, for whom do we seek in such a
time? We seek individuals whose tastes and feelings are congenial to
our own, whose "Mormonism" is like ours, whose regard for truth is
like our own. Then what do we enjoy? A free, frank, unrestrained
feeling. and sentiment: we pour out the feelings of our souls; there
is a principle of reciprocity existing between the parties.

vol. 5, p.39
So it is with the Holy Spirit of truth. Where it finds a mind so
regulated that there is an affinity and congeniality between that mind
and itself, there is the place where it will dwell; and when that mind
becomes so trained in the truth as to be completely and perfectly
subject to its influence, it will remain there constantly and
unceasingly; it will not pay a casual visit, but take up its constant
abode with that individual, and then its light is there, revelation is
there, inspiration is there; it is there to increase in intensity,
extent, and in power; it is there to continually pour out upon that
soul the unceasing, unbroken tide of life. Then the fountain of life
becomes established [p.40] in the soul; that fountain is flowing
continually and unceasingly. Even as the blood passes through the
heart to the extremities of our physical system at every pulsation, so
also the Spirit of truth pervades our being.

vol. 5, p.40
Do I believe "Mormonism" to be true? Do I know it to be true? Yes, I
do? Why? Because it has saved me. It has saved me in the first place
from ignorance, and then it has saved me from its consequences —that
is, to the extent to which it has imparted to me knowledge; and it has
imparted to me knowledge according to my faith and devotion to the
truth, and the extent to which I have laboured to subject myself to
the influence of its sacred principles.

vol. 5, p.40
People suppose, perhaps, that myself and those similarly situated in
this work have a great deal to do for others; but my work is for
myself. It is for myself that I preach, that I go abroad, that I come
home again; it is for myself that I do all I do.

vol. 5, p.40
You may say I am selfish. Why? Because I promised my Father, when I
went into the waters of baptism, that I would obey His commandments as
they were made known to me. I made Him that brief promise, and it has
cost me all that "Mormonism" has cost me. It has cost me all the toil
and labour that has been crowded into my history during the past
twenty-five years of my life, to keep that little covenant.

vol. 5, p.40
My Father promised me, if I would keep His commandments, I should be
saved. Then whom am I working for? For brother Amasa. My interest, my
life, money, if I have any, my honour, my salvation, my all is in the
kingdom of God. I have not any thing anywhere else; and, as I said,
before, if I knew there was a shred of my whole being that was not
baptized into the spirit of "Mormonism," and into this universal love
and devotion to it, I would want to hunt it out before I slept, and
.have it baptized with the same feeling.

vol. 5, p.40
I imagine to myself I have the spirit of a Saint—the spirit of
"Mormonism." Why? Because I have laboured to be obedient, faithful,
and true, to maintain my integrity; and the result is manifested in
the spirit I have felt and still feel. If this is not "Mormonism," I
am in a good place to be told wherein it falls short; and when I learn
what "Mormonism" is, if I have not learned it, I shall begin to learn
it: I have made up my mind for that.

vol. 5, p.40
I feel the Spirit of God just as pure a source of comfort to me when I
am away as when I am here. "Do you feel as well when you are away?"
No; for I lack the comfort and the genial influence that hovers here
like a deathless flame over the congregations of the Saints.

vol. 5, p.40
This is my testimony of "Mormonism," as I have felt it, realized it,
experienced it, and lived in it;—not as I lived in it last year, but
to-day. To-day is the best day I ever saw; to-day is the most blessed
of any day I ever passed since I lived on the earth, because to-day
shows me the greatest increase of those things that constitute the
greatness, glory, happiness, and blessedness of the Saints; and
to-morrow will be the same, in respect to these matters, and more
abundantly.

vol. 5, p.40
That this may be the case with us is my humble prayer, in the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen. [p.41]

Daniel H. Wells, March 22, 1857

Life-Giving Influence of Mormonism—The Binding of Satan—The 
Basis of His Claims—Cleanliness—Preparation

Remarks by President D. H. Wells, made at the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, March 22, 1857.

vol. 5, p.41
Brethren and sisters,—I feel it a privilege to have a part in the work
of the latter days, and I feel thankful that I have been brought upon
the stage of existence in this period of time. It is a privilege which
you all enjoy as well as myself, and one which we should appreciate
more than we do. When we reflect upon the misery and degradation that
prevail in the world, we ought to highly prize the privilege we enjoy.

vol. 5, p.41
I heard one remark in the forenoon that he looked younger than he did
twenty years ago. This brought to my mind what I had heretofore
observed among what we term the world's people. Men and women plod
along in the "even tenour of their way" for fifteen, twenty, or more
years, and become perfectly rusty—as rusty as iron that has been long
exposed to the action of the elements. But let the Spirit of truth
come upon persons and their minds expand, and you at once see a
difference in their countenances. Who among us has not noticed this? I
know that the Spirit of the Lord gives life, and that men grow younger
when they come into this kingdom and live their religion. This is
true, although unbelievers may make sport of it. I know that the
feelings of the righteous are enlivened, their flesh and blood are
quickened, and they become a glorious people; they receive and enjoy
the Spirit of the Lord.

vol. 5, p.41
Look at the nations of the earth, and see them plodding along without
improvement in the knowledge of the things of God—without being
touched in their spirits with the life giving power, and they rust
out; they do not enjoy themselves near so much as do the "Mormons,"
who enjoy themselves a great deal better than any people within my
knowledge; for it is a peculiarity of "Mormonism" that its followers
enjoy themselves. Upon the Plains you can see them dancing and kicking
up their heels. There is not much formal sanctity about them; and in
this particular they are also right; for the Lord loves a cheerful
heart and a buoyant spirit; and those who receive the Spirit of the
Lord are full of life and animation. They are not apt to have the
"blues;" or if at times they do, they do not go into their graves with
that complaint. They are ready to do anything that will subserve the
interests of the kingdom of God and their religion, even though it may
be contrary to their natural feelings. This is one principle that
makes us so different from the world; the "Mormons" know that all is
right, if they carry out the instructions given them.

vol. 5, p.41
It is a fact, whether you believe it or not, that this people were
getting into their old sectarian traditions: they were getting so that
they had not time to do scarcely anything to the cause of God, and
they had begun to be very dull and sleepy. It has been with them as
the Lord said in [p.42] the parable, when the men slept the enemy came
and sowed tares among the wheat.

vol. 5, p.42
Now we are livened up again, we feel the lively emotions of the Spirit
of God, and we are ready to do anything that may be counselled by
whoever has the right to counsel. We are ready to walk in the path of
strict obedience. Let us keep right from this time forth, and not go
to sleep again, nor let the enemy sow tares as he did before.

vol. 5, p.42
We have no need of being roused from a state of lethargy, if we will
let the Spirit lead us; and the Lord will prosper us; for the man and
the woman that keeps His Spirit is right: with it the people can bring
as much again to pass as they can otherwise. They are stronger in
their minds and in their judgments, and are more capable of gathering
around them the comforts of life for their subsistence. Instead of
"Mormonism" disqualifying us, it qualifies us for all things that
ought to be done. Let us be careful not to allow the enemy to come and
sow tares, but keep alive to the duties enjoined upon us.

vol. 5, p.42
I have a few words to say to the Bishops. Much has been said to them,
and I attribute a large share of the improved condition of the people
to their faithful instructions. They have done much; but still there
is one thing more to which I wish to direct their attention. There are
many people who do not know how to set themselves advantageously to
work. We call the Bishops the Fathers of the Wards; and, by the
exercise of a little care and judgment, they can do much towards
putting many of the people in a better way for obtaining a living, and
thereby strengthen their feeble knees. A man lately came to me from
the north who bad land and team, but no seed, and wanted to be put in
the way to get a living. I gave him a note to his Bishop. What should
be the duty of that Bishop? He should say, I will find you seed this
spring, and you can pay it back after harvest. In this manner such
individuals may easily be placed in the way for obtaining their own
support.

vol. 5, p.42
This Gospel brings the silk weavers, potters, and many other tradesmen
from the old country; and many could form a vessel who have only
learned a single branch of a trade. It often happens, in the
manufacture of earthenware, that one turns the clay, another bakes it,
and another burns it; but neither can operate in the department of
another. Until there are openings here for such mechanics, they labour
under many disadvantages. There are hundreds of such persons in your
Wards; and what does it become you to do in such cases? To take pains
and plan to make their services of some use and profit. The Bishops
and their counsellors and assistants should have a wise oversight of
such persons, and devise ways and means for them to raise vegetables
and grain. They should plan some kind of employment that will make
them and their families useful. Put them in a position that will
enable them to procure a subsistence and do good for themselves and
the great cause in which we are engaged. It is a duty that we owe
society to use our influence to build each other up, that we may be
united and become strong and able, and by assisting the poor and
strengthening the feeble, become a people in whom the Lord will have
delight, and assist in bringing to pass His purposes.

vol. 5, p.42
Do we realize what these purposes. are? Saints who have received the
Gospel and live their religion know, by the vibrations of the heart
and the operations of the Spirit, what they are. The Lord's people
will become exceedingly numerous; they are rising fast; and the
responsibilities of this [p.43] kingdom will rest upon the sons of
Zion, and He will hasten His work in its time. The day will come in
which the earth will tremble and the nations quake with fear because
of the wickedness of her inhabitants.

vol. 5, p.43
We read that Satan shall be bound a thousand years. How is this to be
accomplished? By our becoming so impregnated with the principles of
the Gospel—with the Holy Ghost—that the enemy will have no place in us
or in our families, and shedding forth that influence in our
neighbourhoods. The adversary is first to be driven from ourselves,
then from our families, then from our neighbours, next from our
Territory, and eventually from the nations, until he shall find no,
place upon the face of the whole earth: then will he not be bound?
Yes, so far as this earth is concerned; and that is the way in which
it is to be done, in my humble opinion. He will be chained to all
intents and purposes when he can have no influence—no power—no
tabernacles into which he can enter: he will then have no place of
entertainment. When he finds that he is cornered that close will he
not consider himself bound? I think he will, whether he thinks so or
not.

vol. 5, p.43
This is a work at which we can all labour; for it is by our united
efforts that Zion will be produced in our own bosoms, in this city, in
our Territory, or anywhere else. If we will do this, and be united as
the heart of one man, we shall banish Satan from our presence, and
eventually from this earth; and this we have to do. If we resist him,
he will flee from us; and you know that the Lord is quick to answer,
if we rightly call upon Him for assistance. We shall be made
exceedingly numerous and strong, and shall be able to build up a
temple to the name of our God.

vol. 5, p.43
We are a good people; the Lord loves us, and it will be His delight to
bless us more and more. And the more we are capable of receiving, the
more He will give; for the heavens are ready to drop with blessings:
but we also have a work to perform. We can preach and do much, but we
must do still more than we have done.

vol. 5, p.43
If we can banish Satan from our presence, we shall do a good work; for
he it is who steps in and causes bickerings and strife. But if we will
be wide awake, and not let the enemy come in, there will be no
bickerings or strife; and we will be able to move the heavens and the
earth if necessary; we will be able to drive Satan from our midst,
with all the kindred spirits that are seeking our destruction.

vol. 5, p.43
Shall we take this course? Or shall we be like the sectarian world,
and suffer ourselves to wither and dry up, and have no strength?
Before us are light and joy, and an entrance into the celestial
kingdom of our God; on the other hand are degradation, poverty, and
misery, such as we know nothing about. Let us be dive to our business;
for it is our business and interest to look to the upbuilding of the
kingdom of God, not only in spiritual, but in temporal matters.

vol. 5, p.43
We are constituted to need food and the necessary facilities and
appliances for operating successfully, such as the cattle, horses, and
the various conveniences for carrying on business. They are all the
Lord's, and He will bless us with those things that are for our good
and comfort. If we are faithful we shall increase in the things of
God. The Devil can claim no right to the blessings of the Lord; for
those things belong to the Saints: therefore let us do all we can for
the building up of the kingdom of God, and He will furnish us all we
need; for all belongs to Him. No part of the human family belongs to
the Devil, unless they sell themselves to him. But the Lord cannot
consistently [p.44] bless us, unless He knows that we will serve Him
and make a good use of what He bestows.

vol. 5, p.44
Let us be faithful, alive to our duties, and perform our mission upon
the earth we inhabit, no matter what it is that we have been sent to
do. Let us seek unto the Lord Almighty, and ask for His Spirit to be
with us; and if we are faithful He will give it, for He regardeth
those who are faithful. We read that He giveth liberally to those who
ask of Him, and upbraideth not. Let us not be lazy, but let us ever be
alive to the interests of the kingdom of God, and expend our time and
strength for the interest and benefit of that kingdom; for the Devil
has had the use and benefit of this world nearly long enough.

vol. 5, p.44
I feel as though we were all going to do better in future. I feel that
this is the intention of this people; for I see them feel alive to
each other's interests. I saw this manifested last fall; and every
call that is made upon them they feel anxious to comply with to the
utmost. And they feel richer with half the means than they did before,
and they will have means doubled and trebled upon them. I am not
guessing at this, for I know that it is, if we will only use those
means and blessings in the service of our God. If we will entirely
cease serving the Devil, we will be still more obviously better and
richer than any people upon the face of the earth.

vol. 5, p.44
Treasure up the words of wisdom that we hear from time to time, and be
cleanly in our persons and in our habitations; for the Holy Ghost will
not dwell in unholy temples. It is an insult to the Holy Spirit for us
to be filthy, and it may be grieved away if we do not observe
cleanliness. Be careful to treasure these things up in your minds.
Keep the commandments of God; do not take His name in vain; do not be
seen loafing about at the corners of the streets, and spending your
time in idleness. When you go to plough and plant, ask God to bless
the ground and the seed, and let us have His blessing on all that we
do, and have our faith centred upon the things that we are called upon
to perform, and we shall be blessed and prospered, and will see the
work of the Almighty roll forth with might and power, even until we
shall redeem Zion and build a temple upon the consecrated spot, where
it is said that the glory of God shall rest upon it as a cloud by day,
and a pillar of fire by night.

vol. 5, p.44
Are we now prepared for the coming of the Son of Man and for the
resurrection? Do we ever think of this? Brethren and sisters, let us
be faithful, keep our covenants, and press onward until that time
shall come. Important events and duties transpire quite as fast as we
are prepared for them; therefore let us round up our shoulders—gird up
our loins; and if we can bear greater burdens, there is more coming,
and we shall have all that we can do.

vol. 5, p.44
If we will not do this, the Lord can raise up a people that will. The
hearts of all men are in His hands; and if we do not appreciate the
blessings given, He will give them to somebody else. Ancient Israel
transgressed, and would not keep the covenants and obey the Lord;
consequently, they could not enter into the promised land. But was it
much trouble to raise up a people that would? No.

vol. 5, p.44
May the Lord bless us, and enable us to keep our covenants and be
faithful continually, is my prayer, through Christ our Redeemer. Amen.
[p.45]

Franklin D. Richards, March 22, 1857

Israel to Be Exalted By Righteousness—The Elders Should
At All Times Rebuke Iniquity

Remarks by Elder F. D. Richards, made in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, March 22, 1857.

vol. 5, p.45
In these times, when Israel as a people in these mountains are
reviewing their past lives, and are taking into consideration so
carefully as they now are doing the course of life which they shall
hereafter pursue, it should be the diligent study of the Elders, when
they rise up to speak to the people, to address them by the dictation
of the Holy Ghost upon such subjects and such matters as shall
strengthen them in their faith, increase the energy and power of the
people, and lead them to do good and that which is well-pleasing in
the sight of God. For it is with the people of Israel in the latter
days, as it was in former days, that righteousness has got to exalt
this nation,—I mean the nation of Israel; therefore the more diligent
and faithful we are in sustaining the Priesthood and practising
righteousness, the more rapidly shall we acquire strength from God,
become sanctified from our sins and weaknesses, and become a pure and
strong people in the earth, such as the Lord wishes us to be, that by
us His will may be done on the earth as in heaven.

vol. 5, p.45
This people that were not a people have become a people, even the
people of God. They must have the bread of life continually as well as
those who administer unto them in the word of life. We not only need
it who rise up to preach, but every man and woman needs it; they need
it in their families; they need fresh supplies from heaven by the
ministrations of the Holy Ghost daily, hourly, and every moment, to
qualify them for their duties.

vol. 5, p.45
Now, in what way can we best promote the favour of God, so that he
will give us the bread of life, so that he will give us strength and
energy, and so that he will empower us, that we may adopt and live by
every word which we hear from our beloved Prophet, and thereby
increase confidence in each other, as he taught us last Sunday. This
should be the design of every man and woman,—at least, so it appears
to me.

vol. 5, p.45
We have had a most blessed winter in which to acquire knowledge of
ourselves. Indeed, I think that this people can say they never had
such a winter before. The Prophet and Apostles had taught us the
things of the kingdom so fully that we could not seek for more
revelation; but we have been reviewing ourselves and our conduct to
discover wherein we have not lived up to what has been revealed; and
so great have been the apparent deficiences, that the people have
nearly all realized, when they examined themselves, that there was a
great cause for lack of confidence in themselves and in each other.
This has been a general feeling; and it becomes us to bestir ourselves
and obtain strength by the power of the Holy Ghost, so that we may
overcome every evil propensity, resist the adversary of our souls in
whatever shape he may present himself, and live our religion.

vol. 5, p.46
[p.46] This is not a work that belongs only to the First Presidency,
or to the Twelve, or to any of the Presidents of the Quorums only, but
it belongs to every man and to every woman. If we could feel this and
realize it individually, we certainly should prevail against and
escape from those influences that do tend to impair our confidence in
God and each other: there is no doubt of it. It had become so that
iniquity could be found dwelling among us, passing in our streets, and
stalking forth rampant in our midst, almost without a frown, and
unrebuked. So extensive had this become, that those who had not
committed sins had become partakers of the influence and of the spirit
of those who had, and this because they had not been swift to rebuke
and disfellowship sin and sinners. The righteous had become partakers
of other men's crimes; hence this sleepy, deadening, and damning
influence among us, because we have not put sin away from us as
diligently and faithfully as we should have done.

vol. 5, p.46
This winter the people have been looking at this, and they have got to
see themselves in a different light to what they ever have before.
Shall it be so in the future? Let the Saints determine it shall not;
and when men and women see in themselves or in their neighbours the
workings of sin and iniquity, let them rebuke it at once, and thereby
put an end to transgression.

vol. 5, p.46
We have got to purge out all ungodliness from our own souls, and we
have to help others to do it also; and especially, if I may be allowed
to make any distinction, it should be the business of the Bishops,
because they have the oversight of the people in a Ward capacity, and
they can have an eye through the Church which many of the Presidents
of Quorums cannot have. When a man rises in the morning and calls upon
God to qualify and strengthen him for the duties and warfare of the
day, he should go out with a determination to carry that feeling of
hostility to sin with him, and not only war the good warfare himself,
but be able to help his neighbour to do battle also.

vol. 5, p.46
Some people deal honestly because they are watched and are obliged to;
but a truly honest man will do right because he loves righteousness
and honesty the best. These things indicate greater things. It is said
a straw will show the way the wind blows. If a man is willing to be
dishonest, or to do anything or permit anything that will bring
mischief upon you in your absence, your interests would not be safe in
his hands. That spirit will lead him to persuade your wives and
children away from you, when you are dead, if he can, or to let some
one else do it unrebuked; and upon the same principle the spread of
good and great things are made to depend and to bring their
consequences.

vol. 5, p.46
We do see and hear occasionally instances of the kind where men take
measures and endeavour to rob the dead. This awful dishonesty in
eternal things is the fruit of dishonesty in smaller matters. If men
will do honestly in small things, and perform their duties as servants
of God to each other, they will by-and-by be honoured for their acts,
and vast responsibilities will be laid upon them with safety; but if
men in this Church will be dishonest in the smaller matters of every
day life, they will soon be overthrown thereby; and so it is with
every species of unrighteousness. Then let all be diligent to cleanse
themselves of all that is evil upon its first appearance.

vol. 5, p.46
When men go to the kanyon for wood or lumber, those that have this
difficult labour to perform should  take with them a rich portion of
the Holy Spirit; and they should realize that they [p.47] have it to
enable them to live their I religion there,—that God protects them in
the kanyons as well as any other place: and let them take all their
religion with them that they carry to or from this Tabernacle. If
they find that the elements are changed from what they are in the city
or in this Tabernacle, let them know that they require more of the
Gospel. Do not leave your religion at the mouth of the kanyon, or with
the gatekeeper; do not leave it with your waggon; but take your
religion and the Spirit of your God with you clear up to where you get
your wood. It will help you to keep your axe sharp: you will not be so
likely to get hurt yourself, or to lose your bowpins, chains, or axe.
Your cattle will be more kindly; for you will not beat them so much,
and they will do more work for you. You will not be so likely to break
down your waggon; but you will be able to do a better day's work,
bring home a better load, and to feel more thankful for it.

vol. 5, p.47
If you find a man there that is swearing and profaning the name of the
Lord, remember that you are an Elder in Israel, and that you are
authorized to call him to an account. If you find a man that will
blaspheme the name of the Lord, do not forget to remind him that the
Lord whose name he blasphemes gave him strength to go there, and that
He caused the trees to grow, and has permitted him to go and help
himself to the timber; and inform him that he should do it decently
and without blaspheming the name of the Giver. If you cannot influence
him with these importunities, and if you cannot prevail upon him to do
right, as an Elder in Israel  day hands upon him, and do it as one
having authority; and if you will do this, you will cause the name of
God to be honoured in the kanyons. I mean that you should lay hands on
as ministers of God—as those who have authority to talk to men in the
kanyon, and thereby give them to understand that they shall not
blaspheme the name of God in your presence. If you will do this, I
tell you the Holy Ghost will rest upon you and enable you to ferret
out iniquity—to honour the truth and the priesthood which you hold.

vol. 5, p.47
I talk to you Elders who want to perfect holiness in the fear of the
Lord. If you will do this you will soon have more confidence in
yourselves; your neighbours will have confidence in you, and will find
out that you are preachers of righteousness. The man whom you rebuke
will also learn that he must stop blaspheming and swearing in your
presence. This is one of the subjects that the Elders of Israel should
feel themselves called upon to act in. It is not only so in relation
to the brethren who hold the Priesthood, but it so with every right,
good-meaning man; and it is that man whom the Lord will love; for
while you are doing this you are honouring God. If you will talk to
and labour with them in this manner, you will bring about much
salvation; and should you have to administer the whole ordinance, they
will bless you for it, and God will bless you.

vol. 5, p.47
We have to rebuke iniquity whenever it is presented before us; and if
we have not already commenced, we should begin, one and all, to
sanctify the name of the Lord our God in these valleys. How are we
going to do this while we allow blaspheming, and swearing, and all
manner of wickedness to go on in our midst?Let no man of God suppose
that he has not authority to oppose sin. Suppose Phinehas had said "I
am not Moses, nor Aaron, nor Caleb, nor Joshua, and I am not called to
rebuke sin in Israel," he would not have secured to himself the
"covenant of peace;" but because he rose up and slew the adulterer,
God sealed the [p.48] priesthood upon him and his seed for ever. The
Lord will seal blessings upon you if you are jealous for the honour of
His name and are valiant for righteousness and truth. His Spirit will
strengthen you in body and in spirit. This is life.

vol. 5, p.48
I tell you, brethren, we have been too careless in these matters, and
because of this we have been partakers of other men's sins. All are
called upon to divest themselves of sin, and then to aid their
neighbours, if need be.

vol. 5, p.48
It is not only in going to the kanyons, in going to the fields to plow
and to sow, that the Lord desires this people to rise up and put
iniquity away from them, but in everything with which we have to do.

vol. 5, p.48
It is by works of righteousness that we shall become a holy and happy
people whose God is the Lord, while sinners will find our society too
uncomfortable to dwell in. If we thus live our religion, we shall have
confidence in ourselves, in each other, and in our God.

vol. 5, p.48
I do not wish to talk much or long: but I feel like calling upon the
men in the Priesthood, and upon men that have not received any
ordination, and also the women, and requesting them not to hear the
name of God, or of his servants, or the doctrines of the Gospel
blasphemed with impunity, but to sanctify the name of the Lord in this
city, in this Territory, and in all Israel; for this is the way that
this people will become sanctified.

vol. 5, p.48
Brethren, may the Lord enlighten our minds, that we may see our duty
and do it, and that we may also assist others to walk in the way of
life, become ministers of righteousness and saviours in his kingdom.
This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Wilford Woodruff, March 22, 1857

Inspiration and Teachings of the Spirit

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, made in the 
Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday 
Morning, March 22, 1857.

vol. 5, p.48
When any of the Presidency of this Church, or of the Quorum of the
Twelve, or any of the Elders rise in this stand to speak, this people
look unto them, and expect they will enjoy the Holy Spirit
sufficiently to say something that will edify them. The people almost
unanimously look for this. I will say, on the other hand, that the
Presidency, the Twelve, and the Elders who preach in this house expect
that the people will have the Spirit of the Lord, that they may come
to understanding; and this is just as much required that they may
comprehend what is said unto them, as it is required of the brethren
who speak, to teach doctrine, principle, truth, and the revelations of
Jesus Christ. When the minds of the people are quickened and
enlightened by the power of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost, that
they can appreciate and prize the principles of [p.49] eternal truth
and the revelations which God has given through his servant Joseph, or
the things which he has revealed during the past winter through the
mouth of his servants unto the inhabitants of this city, or those
which he has revealed unto the inhabitants of the earth, then they are
prepared to be benefitted by those blessings which are poured out upon
them. Any of you that have experienced this blessing—and I presume
that all have at times—have been astonished at certain periods of
their lives that there has been such a difference in their minds. I
know this is the case with myself, and I presume it is with others.
There have been times that the vision of my mind has been opened to
comprehend the word of God and the teachings of his servants. The
vision of my mind has been opened and quickened by the power of God
and the gift of the Holy Ghost, so that when I have sat here and heard
the Presidency and the servants of God teach the principle of
righteousness and the word of God unto us, I have felt the force, the
power, and the importance of these eternal truths which they have
presented unto our minds, while at other times the same truths may
have been taught, but they have passed off without making the same
impression upon my mind.

vol. 5, p.49
We have, as brother Franklin says, spent an interesting time the past
winter. Much truth has been spoken: men have been inspired by the gift
and power of the Holy Ghost to teach us the things of God; and this I
consider to be a matter of great importance to the people. I consider
it important that we labour to obtain that Spirit, to have it
increased upon us, and carry it with us, that when we hear teaching
our minds may be prepared to receive it. Why is it that this Gospel of
the kingdom has been preached to the world for twenty-five years, and
that there are but so small a number of the children of men who have
received those truths, been. governed by them, and suffered them to
govern one single act of their lives? It is because their minds have
been darkened and have not valued the Gospel, or considered the
consequences of rejecting it. It is true we have a large congregation
here to-day, and that there are a few thousands in these valleys and
throughout this Territory. Yet compare them with the masses of
mankind, and how few they are. I am not capable of making a
calculation to say whether there is one to five or ten thousand who
have embraced the Gospel. One of the old Prophets said that there
would be one of a city and two of a family. This has been fulfilled in
many instances. When the Elders proclaimed the Gospel unto you; those
of you who are here received that word, meditated upon it, so much so
that you have been willing to forsake all that you possessed and come
to Zion. The seed has produced good fruit; it has caused you to come
to Zion; but there are millions of the masses who heard the Gospel,
but they have hardened their hearts and darkness has taken hold of
their minds, and hence they have rejected the Spirit of God which has
striven with them: they, in acting upon their agency, have given way
to seducing spirits and rejected the Gospel of Christ, and
consequently the Spirit of God has been withdrawn from them;  and
because of this the Lord has been taking his Spirit from the nations
of the earth. We see the fruits of it. It needs no argument to prove a
truth so visible.

vol. 5, p.49
I will now say that inasmuch as many of us have received the Gospel
and gathered with the Saints of God, it is important that we labour
to-day—that we live under the influence of that Spirit, that it may
continue to [p.50] increase and to govern us in our acts among the
children of men. Now, when a man has the Holy Spirit and hears the
plain, simple truths of salvation, they appear more valuable than all
else besides, and he is ready to sacrifice everything of a temporal
nature to secure himself salvation; but when people's minds become
darkened, they lose the Holy Spirit and the value of that Gospel, and
they do not realize the privilege and the honour of being associated
with the Saints of God in these valleys of the mountains, neither do
they maintain their allegiance to their Heavenly Father, and honour
his name upon the earth, or prize their association with those that
bear the holy Priesthood, and therefore they go into darkness. Why has
the word reformation ever been named in Zion? It has been because we
did not labour to keep within us that holy principle of life, that our
minds might be quickened day by day, and receive and prize those
truths delivered unto us. Now we marvel and wonder when we are
enlightened by the Spirit of God and the revelations which he has
given unto us; and when we are aroused to a sense of the importance of
these things, we then see the effect and the bearing they will have
upon us,—not only the fitting of our minds to go into the world of
spirits, but to prepare us to meet with our Father in heaven. Now, we
should live in that way and manner that the Holy Spirit will dwell
with us, and so that we may be prepared to receive those truths which
are daily delivered unto us by Presidents Young, Kimball, Wells, or
any other man who rises up here to speak unto us the words of life. We
should give attention to what is said. As brother Kimball says, the
man who speaks to you from this stand is the centre, and we should
give him our attention, prayers, and faith; and if we do this we shall
receive out of the abundance of his heart those things which will
benefit us. It should be our chief study to treasure up the words of
life, that we may grow in grace, and advance in the knowledge of God,
and become perfected in Christ Jesus, that we may receive a fulness,
and become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

vol. 5, p.50
The revelations of Jesus Christ each us that the Saviour was born in
the flesh; and the Father said that He did not give him a fulness at
first, but continued from grace to grace until he had received a
fulness, and was called the Son of God because he did not receive a
fulness at first. We in like manner should seek with all our souls to
grow in grace, light, and truth, that in due time we may receive a
fulness. The Lord has a great many principles in store for us; and the
greatest principles which he has for us are the most simple and plain.
The first principles of the Gospel which lead us unto eternal life are
the simplest, and yet none are more glorious or important unto us. Men
may labour to make a great display of talent, learning, and knowledge,
either in printing or preaching. They may try to preach the mysteries
and to present something strange, great, and wonderful, and they may
labour for this with all their might, in the spirit and strength of
man without the aid of the Holy Spirit of God, and yet the people are
not edified, and their preaching will not give much satisfaction. It
is the plainest and the most simple things that edify us the most, if
taught by the Spirit of God; and there is nothing more important or
beneficial unto us. If we have that Spirit dwelling with us—if it
abides with us continually, enlightening our minds by day and by
night, we are in the safe path; and when we have finished the work of
the day, we reflect  upon it and are satisfied with it, feeling that
it is approbated of the Lord. It is our [p.51] privilege to live in
this way, that all our time may be spent so that we have a conscience
void of offence towards both God and man. When we reflect on the day
that is past and see wherein we have done evil, we should labour to
improve and to advance in the things of the kingdom of God. I feel
that in order for us to prize the gifts of God, the blessings of the
Gospel, the privilege that we have of building tabernacles, and of
living here in peace, and kneeling down in our family circles in
peace, having in our society the Prophets of God, men filled with
wisdom, who are capable of leading us to salvation, and of leading us
into the paths of life, who do teach us the principles of truth, which
will lead us back to our Father and our God,—I say, when we consider
these things we ought to prize our privileges as Saints of the Most
High. Brethren, we must invariably have the Spirit of God with us,
that we may ever be kept in the line of our duty.

vol. 5, p.51
I feel to exhort you in regard to these things, that we may prize
those blessings which God has given unto us, and pursue a course
wherein we may be justified of the Lord. Now, it we attempt to do
anything that is not right, the Spirit of the Lord will not approbate
us, but we shall feel condemned. The Lord has blessed us during the
past winter; He has poured out upon us a great amount of knowledge,
wisdom, and treasures, that we ought to prize. Now, as the spring is
coming upon us, and as we turn our attention to the plough and to
cultivating the earth, if we forget our prayers, the Devil will take
double the advantage of us. We have renewed our covenants by baptism,
and we have received great blessings from the Lord, and much of the
Holy Spirit has been shed abroad among this people. And, as brother
Richards has said—and I consider the counsel right—we should not only
reprove ourselves when wrong, but we should reprove sin wherever we
see it, whether in ourselves, in our streets, or in our quorums. We
should always show our disapprobation of those that are wrong—that are
sinful and wicked.

vol. 5, p.51
I do not feel, this morning, like occupying a great portion of your
time, but I do feel that the Lord is gracious unto us, and that we
should prize above all things upon the earth the words of eternal life
that are given unto us. As long as we are governed by the Holy Spirit,
our minds are strengthened, and our faith is and will be increased,
and we shall labour for the building up of the kingdom of God. And I
pray that our hearts may be inspired to magnify our calling and the
holy Priesthood, and honour God, keep his commandments, and live our
religion, which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. [p.52]

Brigham Young, July 19, 1857

True Liberty—Organization and Disorganization—Fallen
Spirits—Satanic Opposition—Futile Efforts of the Enemy

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

vol. 5, p.52
I am heartily delighted with what has been said here this morning, so
far as I have heard—for I did not come in time to hear all the
remarks.

vol. 5, p.52
It is my greatest joy to see this people engaged in their religion,
faithful to their calling, true to their trust, and fervent in spirit.
And when I see the brethren and sisters striving to add faith to
faith, and good works to good works, and feeling to renew their
obligations, and covenants, and labours day by day, it is satisfying
to me,—it is joy and peace.

vol. 5, p.52
This is a marvellous work and a wonder. Do not the people think it is?
What a stir this people make in the world! The sound thereof has gone
forth almost, if not entirely, to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Our Elders have been round the world and round the world again. They
have been to the most noted nations, and to a great many isolated
tribes and islands. I do not know but what the sound of "Mormonism"
has gone forth into all the earth, and it makes a great stir wherever
it goes.

vol. 5, p.52
Brother Truman O. Angel said that it appeared as though this people
and the work we are engaged in are of the greatest importance. I can
say that this work is of the greatest importance to you, and me, and
the people of the earth; for no person can get salvation without it.
And the remark of brother Carrington, that the unbridled passions of
people forge their fetters, is true. There is no freedom anywhere
outside the Gospel of salvation. The inhabitants of the earth imagine
that they are enjoying great freedom. It is not so. If they would stop
and reflect, they would find that they only place each other in
bondage. This is the case with all the nations of the earth. Do you
see that equality among them that you see here? Where is there a
people or nation that does not oppress each other? When our Elders go
forth and preach the Gospel, if it was in their power to cast from the
people the yoke of bondage, instead of our gathering into the Church,
from the British Isles, for instance, two or three thousand or ten
thousand a year, we would gain our million a year.

vol. 5, p.52
That is a free nation: in the common acceptation of the term they are
a free people: they are very liberal. But how many can embrace the
work there with impunity? But a few; for people have not moral courage
enough to break through their iron fetters. The people are bound down
and cannot embrace this work. Thousands and millions have heard this
Gospel preached who would have been glad to receive the blessings of
it, if they could have done so without endangering their own existence
on the earth. Life is sweet, and the majority of men will do anything
to preserve it. Jesus said that a man would give all that he had for
his life; and in our day there are a great many who will do almost
anything to  preserve their natural lives. To accomplish this, they
will bow down to the whims [p.53] and sayings of designing men, of
.the priests of the day, and to the laws and customs of individuals.
Were it not for this, you would find that there would be millions
embracing this work where there are now but hundreds; for there is no
freedom only in the Gospel of salvation.

vol. 5, p.53
There is not an individual upon the earth but what has within himself
ability to save or to destroy himself; and such is the case with
nations. Is there liberty or freedom in destruction? No. When you look
at things naturally, which is as far as the natural man sees, a person
who takes a course to destroy himself temporally would be considered
very unwise. And to the natural man we are taking an unwise, an
unnatural course, wherein our religion is obnoxious to the Christian
world. Did not your friends say to many of you, before you left your
homes, that you were foolish —that the world would despise you and
hate you? Did they not ask you if you could not see that troubles were
coming upon the Saints, and say that you were very unwise in going
with them—that you had better stay where there was safety? They can
see nothing more than natural things; they do not understand the ways
of God; they are unacquainted with His doings, with His kingdom, and
with the principles of eternity.

vol. 5, p.53
So far as the natural man is concerned, it appears that the Latter-day
Saints are very unwise to embrace in their faith those obnoxious
principles that render them so odious in the eyes Of the political and
Christian world—the popular world. The Latter-day Saints see further;
they understand more than what pertains to this world. The Gospel of
life and salvation reveals to each individual who receives it that
this world is only a place of temporary duration, existence, trials,
&c. Its present fashion and uses are but for a few days, while we were
created to exist eternally, The wicked can see no further than this
world is concerned. We understand that when we are unclothed in this;
present state, then we are prepared to be clothed upon with
immortality—that when we put off these bodies we put on immortality.
These bodies will return to dust, but our hope and faith are that we
will receive these bodies again from the elements—that we will receive
the very organization that we have here, and that, if we are faithful
to the principles of freedom, we shall then be prepared to endure
eternally.

vol. 5, p.53
Can the wicked be brought forth to. endure? No; they will be
destroyed. Which, then, are the wise, and which are the foolish? We
all naturally know—we can naturally understand that man cannot stay
here always. The inhabitants of the earth are continually coming and
going. This is not our abiding place. All can see naturally, if they
would but observe the facts before them, that this world is but of
short duration to them. They appear here infants, pass through
childhood and youth to middle age, and if they live to a good old age,
it is but a short time, and then they must go. But where do they go
to, and what will become of them? Will this intelligence cease to be?
There are but very few, if any, who really believe this. And the
thought of being annihilated—of being blotted out of existence—is most
horrid, even to that class called infidels.

vol. 5, p.53
The intelligence that is in me to cease to exist is a horrid thought;
it is past enduring. This intelligence must exist; it must dwell
somewhere. If I take the right course and preserve it in its
organization, I will preserve to myself eternal life. This is the
greatest gift that ever was bestowed on mankind, to know how to
preserve their identity. Shall we forge our own fetters through our
ignorance? Shall we lay the foundation to build [p.54] the bulwarks
for our own destruction through our wickedness? No; the Latter-day
Saints know better. We will lay the foundation to dwell eternally, and
that, too, in the heavens, with beings superior to those with whom we
associate in our present situation and circumstances.

vol. 5, p.54
We have the principle within us, and so has every being on this earth,
to increase and to continue to increase, to enlarge, and receive and
treasure up truth, until we become perfect. It is wisdom for us to be
the friends of God; and unless we are filled with integrity and
preserve ourselves in our integrity before our God, we actually lay
the foundation for our destruction. The world think that we are going
to be temporally destroyed. That is nonsense. All things are temporal,
and all things are spiritual with the Lord; there is no difference
with Him, neither is there with any person who has eyes to see things
as they exist. To those who have their minds open to eternal things,
spiritual and temporal things are all one.

vol. 5, p.54
This is only our place of temporary existence. We cannot live here
always with our bodies full of pain and subject to decay. Deprive us
of food and we die; deprive us of water, and after a short time we
die; deprive us of air, and we live but a few moments. We all know
that this is not the state for us to live in and endure to eternity.
Our eyes are looking beyond this sphere of action, and I trust that we
are laying the foundation to endure eternally. If we do, we must be
the friends of God—the friends of the principles of life and
salvation; and we must adhere to those principles and shape our lives
according to thorn, or else we lay the foundation for our own
destruction.

vol. 5, p.54
Talk about liberty anywhere else! What liberty is there in anything
that will be dissolved and return to its native element? What liberty
can any intelligence enjoy that is calculated to be destroyed? There
is no, liberty, no freedom there.

vol. 5, p.54
The principles of life and salvation, are the only principles of
freedom; for every principle that is opposed to God—that is opposed to
the principles of eternal life, whether it is in heaven, on the earth,
or in hell, the time will be when it will cease to, exist, cease to
preserve, manifest, and exhibit its identity; for it will be returned
to its native element. I say, let us live our religion, serve our God,
trust in Him; and when we are called to contend against the enemy
within ourselves, contend against him manfully, just as we would
against an open enemy,—contend against those passions that rise in the
heart, and overcome every one of them.

vol. 5, p.54
You will hear some of the brethren say, as brother Carrington as just
said, that there are times when the blood courses like lightning, upon
seeing men who are opposed to us—who are striving with all their
powers to destroy this people. Can they destroy us? No, they cannot.
There are a great many in this congregation. who are witnesses that
the Devil has been warring, with all his imps arrayed against this
work, ever since the organization of this Church, and trying to
obliterate it from the earth. Have they gained any ground? No; they
have lost ground all the time. This people, with brother Joseph at
their head, and with all the powers of Satan, earth, and hell for him
to contend against, have built up the kingdom of God and spread the
principles of the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.

vol. 5, p.54
In regard to the battle in heaven, that brother Truman O. Angel
referred to, how much of a battle it was  I have forgotten. I cannot
relate the principal circumstances, it is so long [p.55] since it
happened: but I do not think it lasted very long; for when Lucifer,
the Son of the Morning, claimed the privilege of having the control of
this earth and redeeming it, a contention rose; but I do not think it
took long to cast down one-third of the hosts of heaven, as it is
written in the Bible. But let me tell you that it was one-third part
of the spirits who were prepared to take tabernacles upon this earth,
and who rebelled against the other two thirds of the heavenly host;
and they were cast down to this world. It is written that they were
cast down to the earth. They were cast down to this globe—to this
terra firma that you and I walk upon, and whose atmosphere we breathe.
One-third part of the spirits that were prepared for this earth
rebelled against Jesus Christ, and were cast down to the earth, and
they have been opposed to him from that day to this, with Lucifer at
their head. He is their great General—Lucifer, the Son of the Morning.
He was once a brilliant and influential character in heaven, and we
will know more about him hereafter.

vol. 5, p.55
Do you not think that those spirits knew when Joseph Smith got the
plates? Yes, just as well as you know that I am talking to you now.
They were there at the time, and millions and millions of them opposed
Joseph in getting the plates; and not only they opposed him, but also
men in the flesh. I never heard such oaths fall from the lips of any
man as I heard uttered by a man who was called a fortune-teller, and
who knew where those plates were hid. He went three times in one
summer to get them,—the same summer in which Joseph did get them.
Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist priests and deacons sent for him
to tell where those plates were, and to get them out of the hill where
they were deposited; and he had not returned to his home from the last
trip he made for them more than a week or ten days before Joseph got
them. Joseph was what we call an ignorant boy; but this
fortune-teller, whose name I do not remember, was a man of profound
learning.

vol. 5, p.55
He had put himself in possession of all the learning in the
States,—had been to France, Germany, Italy, and through the world,—had
been educated for a priest, and turned out to be a devil. I do not
know but that he would have been a devil if he had followed the
profession of a priest among what are termed the Christian
denominations. He could preach as well as the best of them, and I
never heard a man swear as he did. He could tell that those plates
were there, and that they were a treasure whose value to the people
could not be told; for that I myself heard him say. Those spirits
driven from heaven were with him and with others who tried to prevent
Joseph's getting the plates; but he did get and secrete them, though
he had to knock down two or three men, as he was going home, who were
waylaying him to kill him. From that day to this, a part of the hosts
of heaven made mention of in the Bible, with the cursed corrupt
priests and the cursed scoundrelly Gentiles with them, have been
trying to put down this work. But what have they gained? I should
suppose that they would have stopped their operations long ere this,
after uniformly meeting with such bad success.

vol. 5, p.55
When I commenced preaching, I told the people that if they would let
us alone, and not raise any persecution, we would go peaceably along
among the people and preach to them; but that just as sure as they
fought us and opposed this work we would actually revolutionize the
world a great deal quicker than if they let us alone. I have stuck to
that faith ever since; for every time that there has been an [p.56]
opposition raised against this work, God has caused it to swell like
seed in the ground; He has caused the seed to sprout and bring forth
the little mustard-trees, as brother Kimball has said.

vol. 5, p.56
The Gospel is certainly bringing forth a multitude of Saints. Has it
not been so all the time? Yes, it has. A great deal could be said on
this subject, but I have not time to say it now; for there are some
other matters I wish to speak about.

vol. 5, p.56
We have issued almost 2,000 tickets inviting our brethren and sisters
to pass the 24th of July at the Lake in Big Cottonwood Kanyon; and no
doubt a great many more would also like to receive tickets. Hence, I
want to tell you my feelings on the subject. If I call upon my friends
to join me in a short excursion, to form a social party at my
residence, or to unite upon any festive or memorable occasion, I never
know where to stop in my feelings until every Latter-day Saint is
invited. I wish those who do not receive invitations to go into the
kanyon to understand that it is not because we have any feelings
against your going there, nor is it because we wish you to tarry at
home, nor because we not desire your society. But is it consistent for
all the people to go? It is not. We will therefore gather up some that
ought to go—some who can conveniently go, and leave the rest, with
precisely the same good feelings, towards those who tarry at home as
those who go into the kanyon.

vol. 5, p.56
Last season it was observed, "I would like to have gone into the
mountains to celebrate the 24th; but I did not want to go without an
invitation." I did not want you to, and I will tell you why. If we had
permitted such a course, a great many would have gone that were not
wanted there, as there are persons who would like to put fire into the
kanyon and destroy the timber, or create a disturbance, if they could
get a chance. We expect those who go to observe the instructions on
the tickets they receive, and to go, tarry, and return in harmony and
peace. Let all who go observe good order and try to make themselves
happy. If I were to satisfy my feelings, I would invite the whole of
you. I will do so by-and-by, and we will have a party right here in
this Bowery on some Sabbath-day, where we can all be together and
enjoy each other's society.

vol. 5, p.56
There is another item that I will touch upon. Two weeks ago to-day, I
mentioned the course of some individuals in this place who are writing
slanders concerning us, stating that a man cannot live here unless he
is a "Mormon," when at the same time they come here to meeting with
perfect impunity. Some of them are in the meeting to. day, and are now
preparing lies for their letters. A parcel of them clan together and
fix up letters, and they write to the East how desperately wicked the
"Mormons" are—how they are killing each other, killing the gentiles,
stealing and robbing, and what wicked, miserable creatures the
"Mormons" are. And when any of them go from here, they report, "We
have barely escaped with our lives: Oh! it was a very narrow escape
that we made; but we did manage to get out of the place with our
lives; yes, we did get away without being killed." They all safely
escape to tell their lies.

vol. 5, p.56
They say that it is with great difficulty that they can live with the
Saints, when at the same time no one has molested them during all the
time they have been writing lies to stir up the wicked to destroy us.
They pass and repass in our streets with the same privileges that
other citizens enjoy; and there are  professedly of our faith those
who sympathise for them. May God Almighty let His [p.57] curse rest on
all such sympathizers. [Many voices, "Amen."]

vol. 5, p.57
Will troops coupe here and inquire into my just rebukes of such
characters and conduct? "Oh!" says one, "I am afraid they will come;
and what shall I do?" They have been with us many a time. We have been
accustomed to seeing a hundred to our one, with their guns to shoot
us, and their knives to cut our throats. Do people imagine that they
can kill "Mormonism?" I may die for my religion, and who cares for
that? Brother Carrington has told you that God can carry on his own
work, and the spirit of Joseph which fell upon me is ready to fall
upon somebody else when I am removed.

vol. 5, p.57
There are a few apostates here, and I have understood the whining and
sympathy they manifested for our enemies. It makes me think of what I
heard from a High Priest's house, that he did not know a Saint's face
from the Devil's. It is just so with a great many. They would not know
the angel Gabriel, if he were to stand here to preach to them, from
Lucifer, the Son of the Morning. If Lucifer were to hand out a
dollar—" You are a gentleman; won't you call at my house? .... Here is
another dollar." "Call over at my house; I have some daughters:
perhaps you would like to be introduced to them. I have a fine family;
call in, and get acquainted with my family."

vol. 5, p.57
Do you know that there is no fellowship between Christ and Baal? Do
you think that a union has taken place between them? Can you
fellowship those who will serve the Devil? If you do, you are like
them; and we wish you to go with them; for we do not want you. We wish
that all such men and women would apostatize and come out boldly and
say, "We are going to hell upon our own road;" and I will say, "Go
ahead, and may the Devil speed you on your journey! Here is sixpence
for you." But do not be snooping round, pretending to be Saints, at
the same time be receiving such men into your houses and such spirits
into your hearts, as many do. Well, all that is necessary, and it will
be so; but the time will come when "judgment will be laid to the line,
and righteousness to the plummet;" and if it is not hailstones, it
will be some other kind that wilt sweep away those who make lies and
love them.

vol. 5, p.57
Brother Truman said that we are here, are we not? We are in the tops
of the mountains, and all hell cannot remove us. What do you suppose
Joseph and Hyrum would have said, if they could have been here with
only one hundred such boys as they could have chosen? Their enemies
might have hunted them to this day, and they would have wasted them
away as fast as they could have come.

vol. 5, p.57
Brother Truman said that there are as many for us as against us. Yes;
there are ten to one for us more than those against us; but the
difficulty is that all have not eyes to see. The soldiers of the Lord
are in the mountains, in the kanyons, upon the plains, on the hills,
along the mighty streams, and by the rivulets. Thousands and thousands
more are for us than those who are against us, and you need not have
any fears. They may be permitted to kill our bodies, but that is yet
to be determined. They try to fire a pistol; the cap snaps, and they
are in the lurch; for some would have a dagger into them before they
would know it. Or, if they tried to shoot with a rifle, perhaps the
person aimed at would be standing a little one side of the range of
the bullet.

vol. 5, p.57
Brother Carrington's testimony proves to you that men's eyes are
liable to be deceived. It may appear strange to some that he could not
tell me from Joseph Smith, when I was [p.58] speaking in the stand in
Nauvoo during the October Conference of 1844. Somebody came along and
passed a finger over his eyes and he could not see any one but Joseph
speaking, until I got through addressing the congregation.

vol. 5, p.58
They may shoot, and they will see Brigham a little to one side, and
Heber in another place, and fire away —at what? At shadows. We shall
live as long as the Lord wants us to. They may lie and write lies, and
they may stay here, if they behave themselves; but if they do not stop
their devilish conduct they will be overtaken; for we will make their
words true in regard to their being in danger, if they persist in
their efforts to bring destruction upon us. We do not ask any odds of
them, nor of hell, nor of the world. We only ask layouts of our God;
and He is the Being we serve: to Him we go; and we do not pray to a
God without body, parts, passions, or principles; for we do not serve
such a personage. We serve the living and true God, who has body, and
parts, and passions, and feelings for His children; and the wicked may
help themselves the best they can. Amen.

Amasa Lyman, July 19, 1857

A Vision

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

vol. 5, p.58
I have not got up to preach a long sermon; but, as President Young
said, if anybody wanted to talk, to talk away, I have a matter in my
mind, and I have felt disposed to mention it to the brethren and
sisters. I was reminded of it by an expression that was dropped by the
President in his remarks this morning, where he said, if we could have
our eyes opened, as were those of the servant of Elijah, to see the
innumerable hosts that are in our favour, we would not have to wait
and, to wonder when the help of Israel will be sufficiently numerous;
for we should know there are more for us now than can be against us.

vol. 5, p.58
When we were in Nauvoo, at the beginning of the last winter we spent
in Illinois, about the time the clouds were gathering so thick, and
the last storm began to break upon us, we heard the thunders and
threatenings of our enemies wherein they stated that we were to be
driven away.

vol. 5, p.58
At that time I was confined to my bed with sickness, but I heard the
report of the proceedings day after day; but I could not come out to
see the face of the heavens, to judge what the issues would be. To get
away was impossible with me at that time, and we knew that the longer
we stayed the more we should be oppressed by our enemies.

vol. 5, p.58
After I had commenced to recover my health, one morning, while lying
in my bed in open day, as wakeful as I am at this moment, the
surrounding objects which I could see when in my natural condition all
in an instant disappeared, and, instead of appearing [p.59] to keep my
bed, I found myself standing in a place where those acquainted with
Nauvoo and the location of the Printing Office, subsequent to the
death of the Prophets, will remember. There was a vacant lot in front
of the Printing Office; I stood there, and I heard a rumbling noise
something like that which attends the moving of a mass of people. I
turned round to look in the direction of Main Street, and behold! the
whole country was filled with one moving mass of people that seemed to
be travelling directly to the point where I stood. As they approached
somewhat nearer, they seemed not to be travelling on the ground, but
somewhat near the altitude of the tops of the buildings.

vol. 5, p.59
At the head of the company were three personages clothed with robes of
white, something like those which many of us are acquainted with.
Around their waist was a girdle of gold, and from this was suspended
the scabbard of a sword,—the sword being in the hand of the wearer.

vol. 5, p.59
They took their places with their faces directly west; and as they
stopped, the individual in advance turned and looked over his shoulder
to me with a smile of recognition. It was Joseph; and the others were
his two brothers, Hyrum and Carlos.

vol. 5, p.59
I contemplated them for a few moments; but to tell my feelings would
be impossible. I leave you to guess them; for it would be futile to
attempt a description.

vol. 5, p.59
After contemplating the scene a few moments, I was again in my bed as
before, and the vision had disappeared. This was my assurance, in the
commencement of our troubles there, that I received of the
guardianship that was around us and the protection that we were
receiving from the hosts of heaven.

vol. 5, p.59
The sequel of our history proves that it was no idle tale. Our safety
was pledged and guaranteed; but what does our history prove? That the
heavens have laboured for us—that those who have gone behind the vail
laboured for us; and they still labour for us. If it were only
ourselves that guaranteed the success of "Mormonism" on the earth, it
would be but a poor guarantee; but that help that has sustained us
will not be taken or withdrawn from us.

vol. 5, p.59
While we seek to sustain the truth we shall be sustained. As the
President observed, we shall be preserved just so long as our Father
in heaven requires us. All the interests which we have upon the earth
ought to be pledged to sustain the truth; and when our interests
require us to go from here, why should we dread it, any more than we
dread to go to England or to any other place.

vol. 5, p.59
We serve our interests when we serve our God; and it is all that we
have to do. It is so with me, and it has been so, and it should be so
with all of us. It is not choice with me whether I stay or go. I have
friends there, and I have friends here; and if I were to calculate
which I love best, I could not tell.

vol. 5, p.59
Well, brethren and sisters, may the Lord Almighty bless you is my
prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. [p.60]

George A. Smith, July 26, 1857

A Visit to the House of Congress—Corruption 
of the United States, Etc.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, July 26, 1857.

vol. 5, p.60
I arise this morning, my brethren and sisters, feeling considerable
dependence upon your faith to give me ability to address you. The
prayer of faiths of the righteous, availeth much; and if the Saints
desire to be instructed by me this morning. to any considerable
extent, I am certainly satisfied that faith must be exercised in my
behalf, as my lungs are not in a suitable condition to enable me to
say much.

vol. 5, p.60
In entering into a congregation of the Saints, a man who feels the
Spirit of the Lord, and has this ruling principle in him, must, under
all circumstances of the kind, rejoice with exceeding great joy for
the privilege of beholding the faces and of addressing the Saints of
the Most High, and of bearing testimony of the truths of the
everlasting Gospel in their presence.

vol. 5, p.60
Last year at this time I was in the city of Washington, surrounded by
those who are struggling by any and every process that can be imagined
to get their hands into Uncle Sam's pockets. It was the principle and
almost the only business of every man there to invent some scheme, or
find some means or contrivance to make a draw on the Treasury. It was
necessary that all their motives and their policy be guarded, and that
they be careful of their acquaintances and cautious in their
conversation, lest something they might say might endanger the object
they were endeavouring to obtain Praying, thanksgiving to God, and
acknowledging His hand in all things was the last thing thought of, if
thought of at all; but that is exceedingly doubtful. I looked upon the
confusion, the struggling for power and place, the thirst for gold,
the contention and strife that were attracting together so many
thousands from the different parts of the United States, and all by
the glittering of the United States' Treasury; and I wondered. I
cannot say that it produced in my mind the first pleasant feeling. The
spirit of wrangling—the spirit of contention seemed to be determined
to rend in pieces and utterly destroy the Union. There is a trampling
under foot of the principles upon which the Union was founded, and
this caused me to be sorrowful.

vol. 5, p.60
I frequently went into the Capitol to take a look at the boiling foam
of political strife that was amongst them; and I saw a spirit that
seemed to be determined to demolish the fabric reared by our fathers,
or to disable it by anarchy and misrule.

vol. 5, p.60
Brother Heywood and I roomed together, we prayed together, we
conversed together, and we visited brother Bernhisel, and talked to
him, counselled with him, and comforted him all we could. I believe
that we three were the only men in the city of Washington that had any
idea that it was of any use asking God for anything, except they did
it as a form. To be sure there are meeting-houses and temples  of
worship for the [p.61] Catholics, for the Presbyterians, for the
Methodists, for the Episcopalians, and for the various sects of
Protestants; and there were chaplains who prayed a few minutes in the
Senate Chamber and in the Hall of Representatives.

vol. 5, p.61
I heard the old gentleman pray several times who was the Chaplain in
the House of Representatives. I used to go into the Representatives
Hall with brother Bernhisel in the morning, and he would introduce me
to the members and to the chaplain; and I could stay there until the
praying was over: then all had to leave but members and officers.

vol. 5, p.61
They had a very fine man for Chaplain in the House. He was ninety-six
years old. He had served in the revolutionary war. He was a sober,
fine man; but his mind was set down to what he had learned forty-five
years ago. I conversed with him, and told him what an excellent man
Governor Young was—how kind he was to the Indians; and he replied that
he was glad to hear it. The last session we discovered that his step
began to falter, and that from one session to another he was
considerably altered; but he made out to continue his duties through
the session. The old man made it his business to preach in the Capitol
on Sundays: he exhorted the people to do right. What they were to do
to be saved had never, I suppose, entered into his brain. I must to
the last of my days have respect for the old Chaplain; for I
considered him a fair specimen of the old school soldiery.

vol. 5, p.61
As I became acquainted with the gentlemen of the House, the subject of
"Mormonism" was soon introduced; and most generally the first question
would indicate prejudice and the want of knowledge of our feelings and
views here in the mountains.

vol. 5, p.61
It was said by some of the old Prophets that "The people had made lies
their refuge, and under falsehood hid themselves." It is an old adage
that falsehood will go round the world while truth is getting on its
boots. In talking with strangers, I found very few who, from all they
had heard and read, had formed any correct notions of this people, and
of this Territory, and the circumstances which surround us: but tales
of falsehood, tales of folly, tales of wickedness, and stories
imaginary of various kinds,—these could be found anywhere; but very
little of the truth seems to have rested in anybody's brain.

vol. 5, p.61
The Old Book talks about a city called the New Jerusalem. The passage
I refer to is in the Revelations of John, 21st chapter, and from the
8th to the 11th verses:—"But the fearful and unbelieving, and the
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
[President H. C. Kimball: "They have got to die a second time."] "And
there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials
full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come
hither, I will shaw thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me
away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that
great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God; and her light was like unto a stone most
precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." John goes on
and describes the city to a great length, and then in the following
chapter and 15th verse, speaking of the same city, he says—"For
without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and
idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."

vol. 5, p.61
Just let me tell the truth—the naked facts as they exist in open day,
[p.62] to any person I would visit or meet and they would look at me
with distrust; and it would be plainly manifest in their countenances
that the truth had no resting-place there. No matter if I conversed
with the great and wise men of the nation, they seemed not inclined to
receive the truth; but let them read a falsehood or an exaggerated
statement, and it would strike their attention in a moment. They loved
lies, they loved falsehood, they loved corruption, they loved
whoremongers, they loved wickedness.

vol. 5, p.62
I used to suppose that all that was necessary was to convince the
children of men that anything that was presented was right, and I
thought that all men naturally had a disposition to receive anything,
and to accede to anything that was right; but I learned from the
observations I made that the right of the case was about the last
thing to be considered, and that justice, truth, or the righteousness
of a subject is the last thing to be brought under consideration.

vol. 5, p.62
The question to be considered is, Is there any money in it, or is
there a chance to make any? Is there a chance to get any political
influence? Is there a chance to elevate ourselves in the eyes of our
constituents? It makes no difference whether it murders an innocent
person or not, if it is only popular, and money can be made at it.
This appears to be the ruling power with the children of men in their
present wicked and degenerate state.

vol. 5, p.62
We are here in the Valleys of the Mountains, and we profess a religion
that has a form; and we are very technical in regard to the form, and
in regard to our prayers, in regard to our baptism, in regard to our
confirmation, in regard to our administrations to the sick, and in
regard to all those things that pertain to our religious faith. We are
very particular, the most of us, in our feelings, and quite strenuous
to observe strictly those outside ordinances,—but no more so than we
should be.

vol. 5, p.62
But the question arises, and we all ask ourselves the question, Is it
the form only, or are we suffering ourselves to carry out the form
without the inward work and the power of the Holy Spirit?
Notwithstanding all this, we should realize that the Lord looks on the
heart.

vol. 5, p.62
My desires and my feelings are that, if I can observe the forms of
religion, I must also use my utmost exertions not to suffer the spirit
to be lacking; for all these things must be done heartily and as unto
the Lord. Now, I have some knowledge in relation to this work; I have
been in the Church from my boyhood, and I have grown grey and bald in
the midst of Israel. I have been in the Church when there were but few
comparatively,—when one such city as we now count by numbers in these
valleys would have embraced all that were in the Church.

vol. 5, p.62
I was baptized in the year 1832, and I have grown and seen its
windings and changings, and I can now bear testimony that every evil
and distress that has come upon the Saints has been in consequence of
not listening to the counsel of their Prophet and President; and this
has been by misunderstanding, and in adhering to our old prejudices,
and by not listening to the testimony and warning of the Prophet
Joseph. For these causes our enemies have fallen upon our leading men,
and operated among us like a mighty sieve to separate the chaff from
the wheat.

vol. 5, p.62
The supposition is that the smut machine is ahead, and that by-and-by
every man and every woman who feel disposed to serve the Lord with all
their hearts will have a chance to be tried whether they love the
Lord or the things of this world the best,—[p.63] whether they love
the things of the Most High God, or whether their religion is a mere
form carried out to please their Bishop, to satisfy their Teachers, or
whether they do give their hearts to the Lord, and all their might,
mind, and strength.

vol. 5, p.63
Now, I feel, my brethren, to thank my Heavenly Father for the spirit
of reformation that I have witnessed since I returned; and I feel to
pray that it may continue, and feel to exhort the people to fear God,
who can destroy both the soul and body in hell; and also for them not
to suffer doubt to trouble them, to make them wayward in their hearts
or thoughts; for I have seen the effect of this to a great extent in
times past.

vol. 5, p.63
I do know that the world is full of wickedness, and that it is bound
in bundles, and is fast preparing for the day of burning; and I do
know there is no chance of deliverance or of safety but in being
tried, that they may be screened and sifted, and that all
unrighteousness may be cleansed from their midst.

vol. 5, p.63
This is my testimony of these truths, brethren and sisters; and I pray
that we may live up to them, and be prepared to inherit the glory of
God in the worlds to come, through Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

Lorenzo Snow, April 9, 1857

Filial Duty—Consecration, Etc.

Remarks by Elder Lorenzo Snow, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Thursday Morning, April 9, 1857.

vol. 5, p.63
While those young boys have been speaking, a few thoughts occurred to
my mind, which I thought I would speak for their comfort; for I desire
to do them good.

vol. 5, p.63
If a father, for instance, had a large, extensive family, his object
would be to do them good, to promote their interest and happiness, to
put into their hands power, knowing that they could not accomplish
much alone, and that they would have to take or obtain assistance from
that family. The son that would take the deepest interest—that would
devote himself the most faithfully to promote the designs of the
father and head of that family, for the happiness and prosperity of
the whole, would increase in power and influence faster than any other
one; for the father would be disposed to put as much power and
influence into his hands as it would be possible for him to receive,
and as would be for the benefit of the family.

vol. 5, p.63
That would be the principle upon which all the members of that family
would increase in knowledge, influence, and power above others. It
would be by. having the faculty, the feeling, and the disposition and
desire to carry out the mind of the father, and that, too, for the
benefit and exaltation of the whole family.

vol. 5, p.63
In order to do this, every particle of power, influence, and ability
that a son holds, he should hold in subjection to the will of his
father, be ever ready to carry out his commands; and his object and
aim should be to obtain influence with his father; and then he [p.64]
would feel like holding everything that he obtained subject to the
control of the father. No matter if he had obtained great temporal
influence,—no matter whether his influence be of an intellectual or
spiritual character,—no matter whether he obtained his influence by
his knowledge of books the study of science,—whether he had obtained
farms, or lands, or riches, or whether he had his influence by
obedience to his father's will he would hold all at the control of his
father, for the general good of the family. Just so far as he had this
in him would he gain influence with his father and get the power upon
him which it is absolutely necessary for him to possess.

vol. 5, p.64
If men would search deep into their own hearts, they would discover
that their desires and feelings, and in fact many things which they do
and say, are not in accordance with the mind and will or the Lord.

vol. 5, p.64
These boys do not profess to have received much—not a great deal of
knowledge; but yet they are willing to do that which they are set to
do: they place all upon the altar to be used as the master pleases;
and herein lies their strength to carry out those great and glorious
designs for the salvation of this people and the rolling forth of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. It matters not how little they are, or how
little they have received, inasmuch as they keep faithful and
discharge the duties devolving upon them, the Lord will make them
powerful for the rebuking of iniquity, and for the establishment of
the kingdom of God, and to minister to those that dwell upon all the
face of the land.

vol. 5, p.64
Now, when a person receives intelligence from the Lord, and is willing
to communicate that for the benefit of the people, he will receive
continual additions to that intelligence; and there is no end to his
increase so long as he will hold fast to the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ; and so long as he will hold himself in readiness to operate
here, go there, and work for the Lord, travel abroad to the nations of
the earth, or to travel among the mountains of Israel, that individual
is bound to become strong and. mighty in the power of God and in the
intelligence of eternity.

vol. 5, p.64
You, brethren, that are here in these valleys have a certain privilege
which you ought to appreciate,—namely, that of consecrating your
property to the Lord. If you want to know the secret and principle
upon which you may become rich, it lies in contributing your means and
in putting your property into the hands of the leaders of this Church.
When a man has much property, he is very apt to fix his heart upon it.
Some have one thousand dollars' worth of property, some five thousand
dollars, and some more; and I fear that many are using their means in
a way that will prove a curse instead of a blessing; and when the Lord
says, Give me your property, we are not unanimously ready to answer
the call.

vol. 5, p.64
In this respect, however, we are beginning to learn, and in some
degree answering the call. We are beginning to learn that it all
belongs to the Lord, and that he has given us a little power by which
we have acquired some knowledge of his will and his designs concerning
us. Take the man who has a large share of this world's goods, and
examine what kind of a man he is,—try his spirit, and you will
generally find that it is often one of the greatest trials that can
come upon him, to be called upon to part with any of his property.

vol. 5, p.64
If you please, you may contrast such a person with these boys who have
been addressing you, and you will find them ready and on hand to do
anything that may be required at their hands. Those youths are  more
[p.65] willing and pliable in the hands of the servants of God than
many men who have been in the Church from the beginning.

vol. 5, p.65
Latterly, however, you have learned the principle to some extent, and
the power of God has been manifested, so that you are now ready to
give a little of your means for the building up of the kingdom of God;
and by-and-by I presume you will progress like some others have done,
and be ready to put all upon the altar.

vol. 5, p.65
Take this people at the present time,—consider what they possess,—then
inquire how many of them have consecrated their property, and you
will find that the amount consecrated is a mere nothing compared with
that which the people actually possess.

vol. 5, p.65
I tell you, brethren, that although this may seem a small matter, yet,
if we cling to the property that we possess as the wicked do to
theirs, we shall never obtain that which we are trying for. We must
learn to obey the word of the Lord. Why is it that we do not talk more
about consecration? It is because brother Brigham does not care
anything about it, only that he wishes the people to take a course to
secure themselves against the powers of the Evil One, that he may not
gain any control over them or their families.

vol. 5, p.65
If this people who live in these valleys of the mountains are willing
to put their property into the hands of the Trustee-in-Trust, that it
may be preserved for the benefit of the kingdom, and will continue to
live their religion as they have done the past few months, they and
their property will become sanctified to the Lord; and thus we will
show to all nations and people that we have learned a principle that
they know nothing of and that they have nothing to do with,—show them
that when we can get a little property, we put it where the Lord can
use it just as He pleases.

vol. 5, p.65
This is a practice and a principle the world knows nothing of; but
when this people deed over their property, they understand what they
are about; they know that they will eventually be exalted to possess
all that is desirable—the land, the houses, the vineyards, the cattle,
the gold, the silver, and all the riches of the heavens and of the
earth. The Lord says, All these things are mine; and because of the
willingness of my people, all will be restored back to me; and then I
will put them in possession of all the riches of eternity.

vol. 5, p.65
This is the only principle upon which we can secure the promised
blessings. "Then," says one, "why is it not talked about more than it
is?" If the people do not see it now, and cannot act upon it with the
light and knowledge they have already received, if they cannot see the
principle by which they can be established, it follows, as a matter of
course, that they cannot be established in our Father's kingdom.

vol. 5, p.65
It is the design of the Almighty to work into the hearts of the people
the principles to operate upon, in order to obtain an eternal
exaltation and glory; and if we do not see them now, with the
instruction already given unto us, we shall have to learn them by
experience more severe.

vol. 5, p.65
We have not the power to do any. thing without the assistance of the
Spirit of the Lord; but do we all know that the Gospel we preach is
true? Do we know as well as those little boys know, who have been
speaking to you? They do actually know that this is the work of God;
but some of them do not really comprehend that they understand as much
truth as they do. But the truths of of the Gospel of Christ are in
them, and through them; for they were born in the Gospel, and hence
they are born Latter-day Saints. The root of the matter is in them,
and they are [p.66] preserved by the good hand of the Lord; for He has
His eye upon them, and designs to use them in a future day. What they
possess of influence, means, or knowledge, they are ready to put to
their Father's use.

vol. 5, p.66
Let these boys go into a High Council, and, by the Spirit that is in
them, they will give better judgment than those old men do; and I can
safely say this, and that, too, on brother Brigham's responsibility;
for I have heard him say it a number of times.

vol. 5, p.66
Do I feel sure of this? Yes, I do; for the fact of the matter is, they
do not know anything about error: they know nothing but truth, while
we old logics, who are so filled up with tradition ought to think
twice before we dare to speak once.

vol. 5, p.66
In this way I look upon the movements of those young men in contrast
with the actions of the old fogies. They are lively, energetic, always
on hand, by night or by day, to carry expresses or to do anything
required of them.

vol. 5, p.66
Brethren, I feel first-rate to-day, and I know that you do, by the
light that beams forth from your countenances. There is one thing upon
my mind, which I will speak upon before I conclude. I want my brethren
to understand it, because that and the things we have heard pertain to
our exaltation and glory. They lie deep, but still they are important.

vol. 5, p.66
Let us go forth and do precisely as we are told; and just as fast as
we increase, so will we have to use that spiritual knowledge which is
given unto us in a way that will aid in building up the kingdom of
God: and it is just so with what little property and means you have
got; it must all be upon the altar. You must get rid of this little,
mean, nasty spirit, and walk in the light of God. Let your minds
expand, and be on hand for every duty that is placed upon you.

vol. 5, p.66
There are men right before me who have done but little for the kingdom
of God, and who, if they knew what would be for their good, would go
within twenty-four hours and say to President Young, There is a
thousand, or five or ten thousand dollars, which I will donate for the
benefit of the kingdom.

vol. 5, p.66
But, then, I realize that we are children yet, and we have not
learned, our duties fully. It is true that once in a great while there
is a man who can break out from the common track of doing things, and
such a man will increase in influence, in the knowledge of God, and in
the riches of eternity. There are men who will do this at the present
time; but by and by all the Saints of God will more generally learn
the principle and obey it.

vol. 5, p.66
May the Lord bless you, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen. [p.67]

Orson Hyde, March 8, 1857

The Way to Eternal Life—Practical Religion—All Are Not
Saints Who Profess to Be—Prison-House of Disobedient Spirits

A Discourse by Elder Orson Hyde, delivered in 
the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 8, 1857.

vol. 5, p.67
Brethren and sisters,—I arise this I morning to make a few remarks to
you; and I crave your prayerful and watchful attention. I must
necessarily be careful and guarded in my speech and communication, in
order to preserve my lungs, having used them pretty freely of
late—often in the open air, and sometimes in the storm, in the midst
of large assemblies of the Saints; and, consequently, I feel the
effects of constant labour and exposure; but if I now begin on a low
key, and guard and restrain my voice, I may be able to make you all
hear and understand me, at least before I shall come to a close.

vol. 5, p.67
While sitting here and reflecting upon our condition, this morning,
the words of our Saviour came to my mind with peculiar force, which
say, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for I say unto you, that
many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. These words, in
and of themselves, cannot fail to awaken and alarm every reflecting
mind—that many will seek to enter in and not be able? Is this thy
state and condition? Let each one answer the question. It is like the
awakening peals of Mount Sinai's thunders. It is a summon of itself—a
volume. It should serve to us all as the warning cry to be up and
doing, and to seek in the right way to enter in. If we were to seek
for a lost treasure in places where it was not, we might seek as
diligently, and even more so than the person who sought where it was
and found it. How necessary, then, that truth and wisdom guide our
steps! To this point I wish to call your attention to-day.

vol. 5, p.67
We have had a good season during the past winter, and a precious
opportunity to improve our minds and to gain knowledge and information
preparatory to our assuming those responsibilities, and to act that
part in the great drama of God's eternal kingdom, which our
profession, office, and calling imperatively demand at our hand. But
if the season had been open and mild, as it sometimes is in this
country, we might, perhaps, through a great desire to accumulate
comforts around us, have been led away by our worldly interests to the
great neglect of the "one thing needful." If, therefore, an overruling
Providence has mercifully laid an embargo upon our temporal pursuits
by the pitiless storms of a long and dreary winter, and poured out His
Holy Spirit upon us to awaken us to reformation, we have double reason
to acknowledge His hand and to praise Him for ever for the good and
benevolent designs He has manifested towards us.

vol. 5, p.67
It now behoves us, in this time of prosperity, when Zion shines under
smiling face of her God, to lay by in store a good foundation against
the time to come. To the faithful Saints, it matters not whether the
seasons are mild and pacific, or boisterous and severe. If we do
right, we shall all [p.68] have abundant reason to say," True and
righteous are Thy ways, Thou King of Saints."

vol. 5, p.68
You were taught, brethren and sisters, before my arrival from Carson,
(which was on the 9th of December last,) to awake from your sleep—to
repent of your sins, and then to restore to the injured according to
the wrongs you may have done them. Next, you were taught in doctrine
and in principle—reproved, admonished, comforted, and guided in the
path wherein you might seek, and seek not in vain.

vol. 5, p.68
Truths of almost every character and kind have been declared and dealt
out to you with a profuse and a liberal hand. Day after day, and night
after night, the voice of inspiration has been heard in your midst.
Truths adapted to every character, every state, and every condition in
life, have been faithfully portrayed unto you in letters of living
light, and in words of most burning and soul-stirring eloquence,—even
such as the Holy Ghost inspired,—from the simple to the sublime, and
from the tone of the harp to the voice of thunder.

vol. 5, p.68
Have you performed the tasks given you? Have you done the work and
kept abreast with your instructions? Or have you indulged a wish to
get some new thing—something far-fetched, which can have no effect
other than to allure your minds from the truths that worthily demand
your sincere attention and observance? It sometimes happens that a
scholar at school, anxious to advance, takes a lesson to-day in one
branch of science, and to-morrow in another, and the third day in
another, and so on, until, in his own estimation, he comes out a
polished and refined student, a professor and a sage,—when, in fact,
he understands nothing that he has read, and is only cherishing a
deception that he has practised upon himself. 

vol. 5, p.68
Is this the case with us? Have we thoroughly learned the lessons that
have been given us, and reduced them to practice? There is nothing
better calculated to imprint upon the mind any science or theory than
to reduce it to practice and really act upon it. Then we see its force
and bearing; and while engaged in the practical part, it stamps
indelibly upon our minds, never to be forgotten, the principles we
have imbibed.

vol. 5, p.68
If we have practised upon the lessons and teachings we have received,
we know that they will stand by us; but if we have merely heard them,
and not entered into the practical duties thereof, they will die in
our memory, never having been incorporated in our organization, and we
became like the man beholding his natural face in the glass, and
straightway goeth away and forgetteth what manner of man he is.

vol. 5, p.68
I might explain to you all about the art of printing; yet, with all
the knowledge that my explanation could give you respecting this
important art, who of you that is not a compositor can take my sermon
and go into an office and set it up? "Practice makes perfect." If we
learn righteous principles and practise them, they have power to
change our natures in conformity with themselves. They become a part
and parcel of ourselves, bringing us into an alliance with them that
knows no separation. Hence we become a righteous people; and, if we
continue, we not only strive, but; shall be able to enter in.

vol. 5, p.68
Each of you can recollect acting upon certain things taught you in the
days of your childhood. They are as fresh in your recollection now as
they were in the day you acted upon them. Therefore, let us ever act
upon true and righteous principles, and they will remain with us, and
we shall became righteous in our natures; and if we never act upon an
evil principle, we shall forget all the evil we ever know, [p.69] and
God will forget it also; and our natures will never be evil inclined.

vol. 5, p.69
If we have reduced to practice all the teachings and instructions
given us from this stand and from other places, we are a blessed and
happy people. If we have not, we have not done justice to ourselves.
Let us honour the teachings we have received, and we shall find ample
ground to occupy without anything far-fetched and dear bought.

vol. 5, p.69
We are a congregation of Latter-day Saints (so called), assembled here
this morning to hear the words of life or edification concerning the
kingdom of God. This question arises in my mind—Are we all Saints of
the Most High God? Or, are we composed of individuals bearing that
name, when, indeed, we all may not merit it?

vol. 5, p.69
I will present to you a figure to illustrate my idea; for I wish to
make plain to your understanding the thoughts of my own heart; and if
I can transmit them to you as they exist in my bosom, they may operate
on your minds as they do upon mine. It is now the time of seeding. Our
farmers are sowing at the north and in the south—a matter of great
satisfaction to me. And here allow me to express a wish, that while
they sow in faith, they may reap with joy! By-and-by, when this wheat
grows up, you may see it waving in the wind, and you will say, Here is
a beautiful field of wheat. It is fine, healthy, and presages a
bountiful harvest. It gradually matures in the sun's scorching rays;
and you see the field white already to harvest. You call it all wheat.
Now, the question is, Is it all wheat? Is not the greater portion of
it straw? Though you call it all wheat, even as you call this
congregation all Saints, may not a portion of the products of that
field be chaff likewise? Certainly. Then, again, is there not often
considerable smut in that which you call wheat? Yes, and a great many
shrunken kernels that will yield no flour, but will be blown away. In
bulk you call it all wheat; yet, come to analyse and separate its
different properties and qualities, you find from the bulk of the
growth of that field which you called all wheat but a small portion
that is really genuine wheat. Then, after the plump berry is separated
from the straw, chaff, smut, &c., there remains yet a finer quality of
chaff, which you call bran. Then there are different qualities of
flour—No. 1, or superfine, No. 2 and 3, or shorts. But a small portion
of the produce of that field, we discover, is really fit for the
Master's table!

vol. 5, p.69
Now, then, here is a thing which I wish you to consider, which is
this: The chaff, straw, &c., produced in that, field draw their
nourishment from the very same source that the berry does from the
moisture and fatness of the soil! They all feed upon the very same
food! Not only so, but we perceive that, by ligaments and fibres, the
chaff, the straw, and the berry are all, connected together; and in
view of a similar principle, our Saviour said, "Root not up the tares
until the time of harvest, lest, by rooting up the tares, ye root up
the wheat also."

vol. 5, p.69
It is necessary that the straw exist to sustain the wheat, the chaff
to protect the berry, by serving as an overcoat and shield from the
various and varied influences of the weather, from insects, and to
keep it warm. The same nourishment that supports; the berry and keeps
it alive also sustains and keeps alive the chaff as its cloak or
mantle. There is not a sparrow that flies in the air that partakes not
of the goodness of our God. He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. All the
tribes of men, the swarms of insects, the herds of animals, the flocks
of the feathered millions that [p.70] fly over our heads, are all
sustained by by the same liberal hand of our Heavenly Father. His
providence provides for all, even for the wolf and the poisonous
rattlesnake.

vol. 5, p.70
Now, in the midst of all this, who among us are prepared to say
whether we are straw, chaff, smut, or wheat—bran, shorts, or flour?
"Many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able."

vol. 5, p.70
Perhaps I shall be able, ere I close my remarks, to give you some key
to this matter, which, if it shall enable you fully to determine, may
at least materially aid you in your inferences in relation to
yourselves. But of this one thing rest perfectly assured, that the way
to life is straight and very narrow. The straw and the chaff are
growing up and striving to enter the granary; but they will be hardly
able.

vol. 5, p.70
As I look about upon this congregation, and as I mingle with the
Saints at large, I discover that there are different spirits. Every
organization has a spirit peculiar to itself. I do not say that there
is any fatality in this. Do not understand me to convey that idea. But
I do say this, that every spirit connected with an earthly
organization may be tempered by the Spirit of God according to its
fidelity, intelligence, and faith, so that there is no excuse. If I
point you to the horse, you find a peculiar spirit attending the
organization of that animal. When he is fine and in good condition,
there is something stately and grand about him.

vol. 5, p.70
When we see the beautiful dove flying through the air, a pleasing
sensation is produced in us by its graceful movements, because the
Holy Spirit was once sent in that form. Again, we look at the serpent,
and another feeling is produced—a fear—a chill—a horror. So every
creature, beast and bird, man and woman, has a spirit peculiar to its
own organization; and no organization is entirely, independent of the
Spirit of God; for all have some intelligence. Were the spirits and
temperaments all alike, the same instructions would serve for all. But
as it is, every man must receive his portion of meat in due season.
And the word must be rightly divided —giving to every man his portion
that is adapted to his organization and temperament, that he may
thereby be saved.

vol. 5, p.70
Man is composed of matter and spirit; and the Spirit of God operates
upon and tempers man's organization according to his faith and good
works. Some are tempered very highly. Such not only carry a keen edge,
but are susceptible of a high polish. Others are of low temper,
because of a low, dull, and sluggish disposition and character, which
they have indulged, and consequently formed. They are not a very
smooth or sweet cutting tool. They have not sought to cultivate their
temperament by seeking and courting the Spirit of God as they should.

vol. 5, p.70
Yet these may be guilty of no out-breaking sin. They keep within the
pale of the law, pay their tithing, and keep along, and are considered
good, peaceable, and honourable citizens. They despise to steal, are
willing to labour, and pursue an even, straightforward course. Still,
we cannot look upon them as being tempered by the Holy Spirit to the
extent of their privilege. Yet they work righteousness as far as they
work at all. These persons are fond of going to meeting, and are often
heard to say, "What a good sermon we have had!"

vol. 5, p.70
This is all right, if you did have a good sermon. They will ask you a
thousand and one questions in order to draw out something to satisfy
their eager desire for knowledge and understanding, not hardly
recollecting their privilege to ask of God and receive for themselves.
But there is no crime [p.71] in this. Still, one can hardly refrain
from thinking, when he sees his neighbour begging and borrowing bread,
how much more commendable it would be in him to apply himself to
labour and produce thereby bread from the soil by his own exertion.

vol. 5, p.71
And inasmuch as our Heavenly Father is accessable to all, it is far
better to store our minds with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
by our own spiritual labours and toil, direct from the great Fountain
of celestial light and love, than to trust wholly to the testimony and
teachings of others. Obtain the testimony of Jesus, which is the
spirit of prophecy. Startle not at the idea of prophecy and prophets;
for I would to God that all the Lord's people were prophets. There is
no professing Christian in the world, who does not possess the spirit
of prophecy, that can tell whether he is wheat, straw, chaff, smut, or
tares. And no person can have the spirit of prophecy who declares that
the days of the prophets are gone by and are not needed now, unless
that spirit should be given to seal condemnation upon the
narrow-minded bigot who will not confess it and give God the glory,
after it may have fallen upon him; for he loves the praise of men more
than the praise of God.

vol. 5, p.71
The sun, moon, and stars are the representatives of the final homes of
the departed dead, if not their real homes. The sun is said to shine
by its own light inherent in itself. I might not admit this under some
circumstances; but the popular thing will here answer my purpose. The
noon and stars shine by borrowed light. These stars or planets vary in
their size, motion, distance from the earth, and intensity of heat,
cold, &c. Some of them may revolve in eternal day, while others roll
in endless night; and still others, like our earth, may have alternate
day and night.

vol. 5, p.71
Here are homes for all grades of spirits, from the faithful martyr to
Christ's kingdom and Gospel, whose glory is represented by the sun in
the firmament, to the wicked tare, who will be sent away into outer
darkness, upon some planet destined to roll in endless night. "In my
Father's house are many mansions." There is one glory of the sun,
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. One star
differs from another star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the
dead.

vol. 5, p.71
The children of this world who love darkness rather than light, will
find themselves, finally, to be inhabitants of those planets that move
in outer darkness; having a home adapted to their disposition and
character.

vol. 5, p.71
The inspired Apostles and Prophets, together with the martyrs of
Jesus, and all the pure and sanctified ones, will inherit a glory like
the sun; while the hypocritical professor, the liar, the adulterer,
the profane swearer, with all who hold to a religion without Prophets
and Apostles, without inspiration and miracles, without revelation,
prophecy, keys, and powers to bind on earth and in heaven, after the
call is made upon them by the messengers of the true religion, will be
damned and sent away into outer darkness, even into prison, where they
will gnaw their tongues for pain.

vol. 5, p.71
In this prison they must remain until they have paid the utmost
farthing. The antediluvians were in this prison for a long time, until
at length Christ preached the Gospel to their spirits, that they might
be judged according to men in the flesh. He opened the prison-doors to
them that were bound, and proclaimed a release to the captive sons and
daughters of earth, enslaved by sin in the days of Noah.

vol. 5, p.71
While the Saviour's body lay entombed in the sepulchre, his spirit was
not inactive. He was preaching [p.72] the Gospel to the spirits in
prison. But after they have suffered in prison and are finally
released, after many a thousand years' servitude in pain and darkness,
their glory cannot be like that of the sun, neither like that of the
moon, nor yet like the stars of the first magnitude; but, perhaps,
like the faint glimmer of a distant star—so distant from the sun, that
a ray from that brilliant orb can hardly reach it.

vol. 5, p.72
The foolish virgins, not having the means of light in themselves,
could never enter a mansion or world that shines by its own light; but
as they had no oil in their vessels, they were compelled to borrow;
and hence, they must go to a world or mansion that shines by borrowed
light. Have light in yourselves! You may borrow all you can of me, and
I will cheerfully lend all in my power; but have, at least, some light
in yourselves, and salt likewise.

vol. 5, p.72
Oh that the testimony of Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy, were
freely shed upon all this people! It would be, if we were all pure and
worthy. Then one need no longer say to another, Know ye the Lord; for
they would all know Him, from the least unto the greatest. Then we
should know that we were neither straw, chaff, smut, bran, nor tares,
but pure and genuine, superfine No. 1, and labelled for the celestial
kingdom—"Right side up, with care."

vol. 5, p.72
With the light and knowledge which we, through the grace of God, have
obtained, let us press forward with boldness and a laudable ambition
to secure the prize bought by a Saviour's blood, and freely offered
unto us in the full blaze of inspiration, which light is despised by
the world, scoffed at by the religionists, and hated of all nations.
God grant to establish this light in the earth, and us in this light,
and this light in us, and the love thereof, for ever and ever. Amen.

Brigham Young, July 26, 1857

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream—Opposition of Men and Devils to
The Latter-Day Kingdom—Governmental Breach of the 
Utah Mail Contract

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

vol. 5, p.72
I will read a portion of the writings of the prophet Daniel,
commencing at the 27th verse of the 2nd chapter of the book of Daniel.
[The speaker read the verses alluded to, from verse 27 to verse 49
inclusive.]

vol. 5, p.72
These verses are of themselves a text and texts, a sermon and sermons.

vol. 5, p.72
We have a great deal of talking, preaching, exhorting, counselling,
giving advice, &c., from this stand and in many other places where the
Saints assemble; but perhaps it may be the case with many, as it is
somewhat with me, that they in a measure neglect to read the Bible,
and forget many things which are written therein. Perhaps there are
many who have not read much in the Bible since they came into this
Church, not having had much time to do so.

vol. 5, p.72
I was a Bible reader before I came into this Church; and, so far as
the [p.73] letter of the book was concerned, I understood it. I
professed to be a believer in the Bible so far as I knew how; but as
for understanding by the Spirit of the Lord, I never did until I
became a Latter-day Saint. I had many a time read Daniel's
interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, but it was always a dark
subject to me. I was well acquainted with many of the priests of the
day, and I would frequently think to myself that I would get some
knowledge from them. And as I became acquainted with smart,
intelligent, literary priests and professors of religion, I thought,
Now I can obtain some intelligence from this or from that man; and I
would begin to ask questions on certain texts of Scripture; but they
would always leave me as they found me, in the dark. They were there
themselves; and I knew of a surety, before I heard the Gospel, that
the priests were blind guides leading the blind, and that here was
nothing left for them only to stumble here and there, and perhaps fall
into a ditch. That much knowledge I had previous to my becoming
acquainted with what is called "Mormonism."

vol. 5, p.73
It would be very profitable to the inhabitants of the earth to learn
one fact, which a very few in the world have learned, that they are
ignorant—that they have not the wisdom, the knowledge, and the
intelligence outside the circle of what is called the wisdom of man.
For persons to know and understand their own talent, their own
strength, their own ability, their own influence, would be very
profitable to the inhabitants of the earth, though but very few learn
it.

vol. 5, p.73
I do not know that I feel particularly thankful that I learned what I
did with regard to the lack of intelligence and knowledge professed by
Christians to be in their possession; but I have been thankful that my
lot and fortune were such that my God gave me good, sound sense. I am
thankful for that. When the Gospel came to me, surely within me and
all around me I could see very plainly what the Apostle meant in the
words, "When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."

vol. 5, p.73
I could see clearly where the inhabitants of the earth were, in their
position before their God. The whole world—everything upon this
globe—was vailed in darkness. There was a mist, a fog, a vail, or
covering over the minds of the whole of the people on this earth: and
what they understood was nothing more than a faint glimmering of light
that would dazzle before their eyes for a minute, and they would see
it no more. They were like a ship befogged on the ocean and depending
for guidance upon a lighthouse whose glimmering rays could only be
discerned at long intervals, when the ship could again be put upon a
safe course. But the wind has shifted; and, without light or compass,
they do not know whether it is blowing east, west, north, or south;
and then how could they tell whether they were directing their course
aright? The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and
crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro
whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me,
I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in
darkness.

vol. 5, p.73
We profess to have the light, intelligence, and knowledge with which
to understand the things of God. The dream of King Nebuchadnezzar and
its interpretation by David are as plain to the man and woman filled
with the power of the Holy Ghost, as are the most common lessons to
the school-children: they most clearly understand the interpretation.
Daniel saw that in the latter days the God of heaven was going to set
up his kingdom upon this his earth. He has set [p.74] that kingdom up,
as you who are here this day are witnesses.

vol. 5, p.74
What brought you from the States and other regions to these mountains?
What caused the men and women before me to leave their good farms,
their good houses, their merchandize, and all the luxuries and
comforts of life so dear to the natural man? What caused many women to
leave their husbands, their children, their parents? What caused all
this? What is the reason of such conduct? Can any man tell? The world
are trying to; but they are even more ignorant about it than they are
of the present movements and designs of the President of the United
States. They know not the reason why the people are assembled here;
for they cannot and will not see and understand anything only as they
discern it by the powers of the natural man.

vol. 5, p.74
I have told them many times, and I can now tell them again, if the
whole world could hear my voice, they are to be pitied; and I pray for
them. We have traversed the earth to preach the Gospel to them. We
have often started upon our missions almost destitute, without hats,
nearly without shoes and any of the comforts of life, to travel
thousands and thousands of miles to preach the Gospel to the people.
If they will not be benefited, our skirts are clear of their blood,
and they must bear the blame.

vol. 5, p.74
Can they tell the cause of this people's being here to-day? Can they
give the cause for the influence I have over the Latter-day Saints?
They cannot. If this was not the kingdom of God upon the earth, do you
suppose that the world would be arrayed against it? No. There is not a
sound, well-informed mind in the world but what would decide at once
that there is no cause of enmity against this people, and that all
hostility towards us arises from the fact that we have the eternal
Priesthood and the influence thereof. The kingdom of heaven is here,
and we are in it, and they are angry at us solely for that.

vol. 5, p.74
There is not a king, governor, or ruler, but what desires, and is
endeavouring to obtain the influence that I and my brethren possess
and are lawfully striving to obtain. Do you suppose that there was
ever a President of the United States but what desired the confidence
of his constituents? No, never. Was there ever a senator, a
representative, a governor of a state, a politician, or a priest, but
what desired the same power in his sphere that I have in mine? They
cannot get it, because they do not know how. What is the reason? They
have not got the kingdom of God, which binds the people together. They
are ignorant of it, though we have travelled, barefooted and almost
naked, to preach it to them; and I say that they are to be pitied.

vol. 5, p.74
How many times I have gone to preach to them, and, with all the
kindness and calmness I was capable of, told them that I had something
to cheer and comfort them, if they would hear it with good honest
hearts. How often I have asked, "Can I have your meeting-house or your
school-house to preach in? Can I have the privilege of preaching to
the people?" "No, you cannot, if I can prevent it." That is the spirit
of the priests.

vol. 5, p.74
It is the priests and elders of Christendom who have the power of hell
in them which causes the trouble that you see, and that you have seen
and borne for many years. They are like that unruly member, the
tongue, which sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of
hell.

vol. 5, p.74
The priests have this fire, and who fans the flame? Brother Smoot has
told you who blows the bellows.  It is the politician, the drunkard,
and the filth and offscouring of the earth, [p.75] who run at the beck
and call of those who have a dollar or sixpence for them,—of those who
will treat them and give them an oyster supper and a good lodging.

vol. 5, p.75
There is another class, the speculators, who endeavour to get up some
plan or other by which to make money. Brother Smoot has given you a
few items concerning their prevent movements in the east. Through
their whining, bickering, howling, grovelling, squalling, and
scratching, and in a political and speculative point of view, many are
striving to most egregiously befool our Government and squander its
revenue. And the priests are also at the bottom of this movement; for
they have the power that is of hell, and others blow the flame and
furnish the fuel to persecute the Latter-day Saints, because they are
in the kingdom that the God of heaven has set up in the last days, and
that shall never be destroyed.

vol. 5, p.75
It is a little more than twenty-seven years since I commenced reading
the Book of Mormon and defending the cause we are engaged in. My mind
was open to conviction, and I knew that the Christian world had not
the religion that Jesus and his Apostles taught. I knew that there was
not a Bible Christian on the earth within my knowledge. A few years
previous to that time Joseph had obtained the plates and began
translating the Book of Mormon; and from the time he found those
plates in the hill Cumorah, there has been just that tirade of abuse,
lying, slandering, defaming the name and character of the Prophet and
his associates, that there is at this day. It is no hotter a time now
than it was then; there is no more persecution now than there was
then.

vol. 5, p.75
God has commenced to set up his kingdom on the earth, and all hell and
its devils are moving against it. Hell is yawning and sending forth
its devils and their imps. What for? To destroy the kingdom of God
from the earth. But they cannot do it. 

vol. 5, p.75
The God of heaven showed Nebuchadnezzar that this kingdom would never
be destroyed; and that is my testimony. This is the kingdom of
heaven—the kingdom of God which Daniel saw—the kingdom that was
revealed to King Nebuchadnezzar and interpreted to him by the Prophet
Daniel. This is the kingdom that was to be set up in the last days. It
is like a stone taken from the mountain without hands, with all its
roughness, with all its disfigured appearance—uncomely—even a
stumbling-block and a stone of offence to the nations of the earth.
This is the kingdom that is set up; and the history of the kingdoms of
this world all understand, or can read and understand it.

vol. 5, p.75
Some may cry out, "Your saying that this is the kingdom of God does
that make it so?" No, not by any means. "Your testimony," Mr. Young,
"is, that this is the kingdom of God on the earth—that which was shown
to Daniel the Prophet centuries ago." Yes, that is my testimony. "Does
this make it so?" No it does not; but let me tell you that it is
true;. consequently, I bear my testimony of its truth, though my
testimony does not alter that truth in the least, one way or the
other; neither does any other man's. That is my testimony, and has
been all the time.

vol. 5, p.75
Why I testify of these things is because they are revealed to me, and
not to another for me. They were not revealed to Joseph Smith for me.
He had the keys to get visions and revelations, dreams and
manifestations, and the Holy Ghost for the people. Those keys were
committed to him; and through that administration, blessed be the name
of God, I have [p.76] received the spirit of Christ Jesus which is the
spirit of prophecy. Our testimony does not make this true and the
testimony of our enemies that it is not the kingdom of God does not
make that true or false. The fact stands upon its own basis, and will
continue so to stand, without any of the efforts of the children of
men.

vol. 5, p.76
I have told you the cause of all the bustle and stir against us. The
blind are leading the blind; and if their hearts were honest—if they
would throw off the mask of prejudice and erroneous parental
education, they could receive the truth as well as you and I. Once in
a while one says good bye to the traditions of the fathers. A few will
cast off those prejudices that surround the people, and say, "We will
read, pray, think, and meditate, and we will ask God for ourselves.
That is the reason why you and I are here to-day. We asked God for a
testimony, and he witnesses to us from the heavens that this is the
kingdom which Daniel saw, and we have embraced it, and it is dearer
than everything else upon the face of this earth.

vol. 5, p.76
Do we expect that the devils will howl? Yes. When has this Church had
the peace that we have had since we have been in the mountains? Never.
Where is there peace now upon the face of the earth like the peace we
enjoy here? Nowhere. Brother Smoot said that he had been in the lower
regions. He could say that with propriety; for, in fact, we are all in
the lower regions. Where do you think the devils live?

vol. 5, p.76
Do you suppose that there is any such thing as a devil? Yes, a great
many believe that there is. Where does he live? The answer comes very
readily. He lives in hell, of course. Then, if there are devils here,
we must also be in hell. Do you not think that the devil is in pain? I
should think he was, by the groanings that are uttered from the east.
You see that with propriety brother Smoot could say that he has been
to the lower regions; but when he arrives here, although the altitude
is much greater, he still is in the same world. We are all here, and
we are surrounded by the devils.

vol. 5, p.76
Men rage and boil with wrath and indignation, and they do not know the
cause of it. If they think, "What injury have the 'Mormons' done to
me?" the response from their own minds will be, "Not any." What can
the men truthfully say, who have civilly passed through here to the
west to make their fortunes? That here is a place of peace and
contentment; and, though a thousand miles from civilization and from
all the luxuries and many of the comforts of life, yet here is a
people satisfied, contented, and happy. Did they injure you? "No." Did
they treat you kindly? "Yes." Ask the people in the east what is the
matter? "We cannot tell you,—only somebody has said something." What
have they said? "We do not know; we only heard a rumour,—that is all."

vol. 5, p.76
The people abroad are just as foolish, unwise, and short-sighted as
they can possibly be represented by the best learned men in the world.
What are they doing? What they have done all the time. Have they been
trying to destroy "Mormonism?" Yes. Did they destroy it when they took
the life of Joseph? No. "Mormonism" is here, the priesthood is here,
the keys of the kingdom are here on the earth; and when Joseph went,
they did not go. And if the wicked should succeed in taking my life,
the keys of the kingdom will remain with the Church. But my faith is
that they will not succeed in taking my life just yet. They have not
as good a man to deal with as they had when they had Joseph Smith. I
do not  profess to be very good. I will try to [p.77] take care of
number one, and if it is wicked for me to try to preserve myself, I
shall persist in it; for I am intending to take care of myself.

vol. 5, p.77
When they killed Joseph, they were talking about killing a great many
others. Would you believe that the apostates say that I was the
instigator of the death of Joseph and Hyrum? And William Smith has
asserted that I was the cause of the death of his brother Samuel, when
brother Woodruff, who is here to day, knows that we were waiting at
the depôt in Boston to take passage east at the very time when Joseph
and Hyrum were killed. Brother Taylor was nearly killed at the time,
and Doctor Richards had his whiskers nearly singed off by the blaze
from the guns. In a few weeks after, Samuel Smith died, and I am
blamed as the cause of his death. We did not hear of the death of
Joseph until some three or four weeks after he was basely martyred.

vol. 5, p.77
What is now the news circulated throughout the United States? That
Captain Gunnison was killed by Brigham Young, and that Babbitt was
killed on the Plains by Brigham Young and his Danite band. What more?
That Brigham Young has killed all the men who have died between the
Missouri river and California. I do not say that President Buchanan
has any such idea, or the officers of the troops who are reported to
be on their way here; but such are the newspaper stories. Such reports
are in the bellows, and editors and politicians are blowing them out.

vol. 5, p.77
According to their version, I am guilty of the death of every man,
woman, and child that has died between the Missouri river and the
California gold mines; and they are coming here to chastise me. The
idea makes me laugh; and when do you think they will get a chance?
Catching is always before hanging. They understand, you know, that I
had gone north and intended to leave this place with such as would
follow me; and they are coming to declare a jubilee. It is their
desire to say to the people, "You are free; you are not under the
bondage of Brigham Young; you need wear his yoke no longer; now let us
get drunk, fight, play at cards, and race horses; and every one of you
women turn to be whores and become associated with the civilization of
Christendom." That is the freedom they are endeavouring to declare
here.

vol. 5, p.77
I will make this preposition to Uncle Sam. I will furnish carriages,
horses, the best of drivers, and the best food I have, to transport to
the States every man, woman, and child that wishes to leave this
place, if he will send on at his own expense all those who want to
come to Utah; and we will gain a thousand to their one, as all who
understand the matter very well know. It would have been much better
to have loaded the waggons reported to be on the way here, with men,
women, and children, than with provisions to sustain soldiers; for
they will never get here without we help them; neither do I think that
it is the design of President Buchanan that they should come here.

vol. 5, p.77
I am not going to interpret dreams; for I don't profess to be such a
Prophet as were Joseph Smith and Daniel; but I am a Yankee guesser;
and I guess that James Buchanan has ordered this Expedition to appease
the wrath of the angry hounds who are howling around him. He did not
design to start men on the 15th of July to cross these Plains to this
point on foot. Russell and Co. will probably make from eight to ten
hundred thousand dollars by freighting the baggage of the Expedition.
What would induce the Government to expend that amount of money for
[p.78] this Territory? Three years ago they appropriated $45,000 for
the purpose of making treaties with the Utah Indians. Has even that
diminutively small sum ever been sent here? It is in the coffers of
the Government to this day, unless they have stolen it out, or
improperly paid it out for some other purpose.

vol. 5, p.78
Have they ever paid their debts due to Utah? No. And now they have
capped their meanness by taking the mail out of the hands of Hiram
Kimball, simply because they knew that he was a member of this Church.
If he had only have apostatized in season and written lies about us,
it is not probable that his mail contract would have been taken from
him without the least shadow of right, as has now been done. He was to
have $23,000 for carrying the mail from Independence to this city once
a month, which was the lowest bid; hut because he is a "Mormon," the
contract must be disannulled, and that, too, after he had put by far
the most faithful and and efficient service on the route that there
ever has been, as is most well known at Washington. if I thought that
my prayer might be answered, I would pray that not another United
States' mail may come to this city; for until Mr. Kimball began his
service it has been a constant source of annoyance, disappointment,
and to us loss. We can carry our own mails, raise our own dust, and
sustain ourselves.

vol. 5, p.78
But woe, woe to that man who comes here to unlawfully interfere with
my affairs. Woe, woe to those men who come here to unlawfully meddle
with me and this people. I swore in Nauvoo, when my enemies were
looking me in the face, that I would send them to hell across lots, if
they meddled with me; and I ask no more odds of all hell to-day. If
they kill me, it is all right; but they will not until the time comes;
and I think that I shall die a natural death; at least I expect to.

vol. 5, p.78
Would it not make any man or community angry to endure and reflect
upon the abuse our enemies have heaped upon us, and are still striving
to pour out upon God's people? Brother Bernhisel says that McGraw's
mail contract was out in August last; but they demanded at his hands
and would pay him to carry it two or three months longer. The Post
Office Department knew, or should have known, that it had forwarded
the acceptance of Mr. Kimball's bid for the new contract in that mail
which McGraw was not carrying; and then it took advantage of the
failure of that mail and trumped up a false allegation of the
unsettled state of Utah, and on those grounds disannulled the contract
with Mr. Kimball. Our mail rights and other rights and privileges are
most unjustly trampled under foot; but they can spend millions to
raise a hubbub and make out that something wrong is being done in
Utah.

vol. 5, p.78
Let me be the President of the United States a little while, and I
would say to the Senators, Representatives, and other officers of
Government, Gentlemen, you must act the part of men and statesmen, or
I will reprove you. What are they angry at me for? Because I will
reprove men for their iniquity, and because I have such influence
here,—the very thing they are all after. They think that they are
going to obtain it with money; but they cannot do it.

vol. 5, p.78
There is no influence, truth, or righteousness in the world only what
flows from God our Father in the heavens. We have that power, that
influence; we also have such love and submission that we submit
ourselves to our Father and God, as a child does to a kind parent.

vol. 5, p.78
May God bless you, brethren and sisters. Amen. [p.79]

Amasa Lyman, June 7, 1857

Report of Journey From San Bernardino 
to Great Salt Lake City

Remarks by Elder Amasa Lyman, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, June 7, 1857.

vol. 5, p.79
Brethren and sisters,—I am happy, this morning, to enjoy the
opportunity of meeting with you again. The reasons why can be
appreciated by most of you. I do not feel, this morning, much disposed
to preach; but I have been told that the people would like to hear me.
Well, I am glad to see you, brethren and sisters, as I have already
said I am happy to be here. I am happy to see you, and also to see the
continuance of unmistakeable evidences around me of the progress of
the work of God.

vol. 5, p.79
I do not know that there is much that I might say in relation to my
coming here that would be interesting, though there were some things
connected with my visit to the settlements south of here—some of the
most recent that have been made, that might be interesting to many who
are before me this morning.

vol. 5, p.79
From the commencement of our journey, which was on the 18th of April
that we left San Bernardino, we encountered nothing but those
vicissitudes that are common in journeying. When we came within twelve
miles of where the road that we travel leaves the Rio Virgin, I there
left the company that I was travelling with; and, in company with
Elder David Savage and an Indian guide, I crossed over the mountain
between the California road and Santa Clara; and in this we found a
great deal of labour. We were assured by our guide that there was a
good road, and that we could take our mules along. To be sure, they
told us that we could not take our waggons. We were desirous to visit
those brethren; for the Presidency had expressed their wish for us to
do so as we came along. Brother Rich was confined to the train with
his family, which accounts for my going with but one man and a guide.
When we had performed a part of the day's journey, and had passed over
a ridge which we had to cross, we concluded that we were getting along
finely, and that the words of our Indian friend were true in relation
to its being a very good way to travel. But when we came to enquire
the course we had next to take, we learned that, instead of passing up
a "gravel wash," our road, as indicated by our guide, wound into the
face of the most forbidding of the hills that were in the way. Our
guide indicated by his stick that we commenced at the wash, and then
wound up the mountain until his stick rested against the highest
points on the mountain in front of us! I did not think much of backing
out; but I was well satisfied that, if I had seen the mountains before
I had started, I should not have undertaken the trip.

vol. 5, p.79
We went along, and, by hard labour, succeeded in climbing up the
mountain. My mule helped herself along, and I got up the best way I
could. I would climb 50 or 60 yards on my hands and feet, and then I
would have to stop and rest. We made the toilsome trip over the high
mountain [p.80] which I before alluded to, and then we were gratified
by the assurance that there was nothing to do but to climb over
another about as had as the one we had just succeded in surmounting;
and night was upon us. This surmounted, we found ourselves travelling
down the gentle wash leading, as we subsequently learned, to Santa
Clara. And after feeding to our guide some bread and water—the last we
had, we asked which was the way to Jacob's "Wickyup." Our guide
pointed to the left, and our attention was called to a huge frill of
rooks extending upwards as far as the eye could reach in the doubtful
light of the evening. There was a moon, but it was hid from us by the
clouds; and hence we had to have torch-light, which our guide
provided. He then commenced winding his way up amongst the rocks, and
we followed along until brother Savage's mule refused to go up any
further; and she would have fallen to the bottom, had not brother
Savage prevented it by his timely exertion.

vol. 5, p.80
We went to the foot of the hill and concluded that we would wait there
for daylight; and we lay down; but we had no blankets—no food; but the
accommodations of the place were very good. We lay down and slept,
from our excessive weariness, until morning.

vol. 5, p.80
The next morning we succeeded in climbing the hill; and you may judge
of our gratification when, as we reached the summit, we could see
that, had we travelled a few rods down the wash, we could have reached
the summit by a gentle ascent; and that, had we travelled down the
wash, we should have come to the Santa Clara below brother Hamlin's
Fort one mile. I do not allude to this because it is particularly
interesting; but still there was a truth in it that was not without
its profit to me,—and that was, that a guide without understanding was
almost worse than no guide at all.

vol. 5, p.80
But, after all, when we reached brother Hamlin's, where we arrived
just as they were getting up, we were kindly received and well
treated, and made to feel happy. We refreshed ourselves and rested
through the day. We found an excellent feeling existing among the
Indians, and brother Hamlin has great influence amongst them. The
brethren have built themselves a small stone fort, in which they are
pretty safe, much more so than in one made of adobies. Their homes are
rough, excepting their fort, which is a good one.

vol. 5, p.80
We found a marked difference between the Indians at this point and
those we had encountered before reaching there. The first we met were
in the region of Los Vegas; they were all hungry and nearly starved;
but this was not the case with those at the Santa Clara. They were all
fed and clothed, and consequently felt well.

vol. 5, p.80
The field crops planted there look well. Brother Hamlin had planted
some cotton, which was not looking very well,—perhaps in consequence
of the rude manner which they had adopted in their planting; for they
had adopted the Indian manner of planting, which the cotton-growers
told me was not a good one.

vol. 5, p.80
From the Fort on Santa Clara we passed over ten miles to the Rio
Virgin. We found the company of cotton-growers in good health and
excellent spirits. They were engaged in getting out the water and
making ditches for the cotton. They succeeded, about the same time we
arrived, in finding a good pasture, plenty of water, and an
inexhaustible amount of cedar. The men with whom I conversed about the
soil expressed their opinion that from the appearance and resemblance
of the soil to that in Texas, it will produce good cotton. I gave them
what good advice was suggested to my mind, told them as many good
things as I [p.81] could think of, bade them farewell, and came away.

vol. 5, p.81
I will here mention one thing that brother Knight told me. He said
that he had made an exploration from thereto the point on the old
California Road called the Beaver Dam, to find a way for a road, and
had found a good chance for one. To make a road in the direction
explored would only require the labour of ten men with teams for two
days, and then this road will pass the Cotton Farm and intersect the
present California Road at Coal Creek, by way of Harmony from Cotton
Creek.

vol. 5, p.81
I came to Harmony and preached there, and then came on to Coal Creek
and preached there, as has been my custom whenever I have travelled
that way for several years past. At the last named place we waited on
our train, which came in some two or three days subsequent to our
arrival. I found the brethren there labouring to make iron. They were
putting up the engine, and they confidently asserted that there would
be iron made there, and that, too, of a quality that will meet the
wants of the people.

vol. 5, p.81
From Coal Creek I passed over to Parowan and preached to the people
there, and found the good Spirit among and with them.

vol. 5, p.81
We had no particular bad luck, that I know of, on the way, except that
brother Rich's family were afflicted, and one of his children died.
This was all the ill luck that befel us up to the time I left camp a
week ago yesterday. When the mail overtook us, I got into the waggon
and rode with the mail, which I supposed would he a slight relief from
the mode of travelling which I had practised while with the train. I
travelled with the mail until I arrived in this city, which was on
last Wednesday evening; since which time I have been resting.

vol. 5, p.81
As I said when I arose, I do not feel like preaching; but I would
simply ask you, as a part of Father's family, Does our courage
increase? Does our valour increase, so that we can live for the
truth—for our religion? It is a common thing with the world for them
to be complimented for their bravery. And this matter of dying for the
truth —dying for a man's opinions—is a common thing. Men have died for
their opinions when those opinions were erroneous; but if it is truth
that men die for, it is all the better. But it occurs to me that it is
better for us to live our religion, and let the dying take care of
itself; for I find that it is a very easy matter for an individual to
die. Men can with much less faith and less trouble of life place
themselves in a position to get killed than to so purify themselves,
their actions, and by regulating themselves by the truth and actually
to live their religion in the legitimate spirit of the Gospel.

vol. 5, p.81
This is what I consider to be the greatest, the noblest thing for the
Saints to do. It is this that has brought all the joy to my mind—that
has fixed the principles of the Gospel upon my mind; it is this that
has brought all the blessings that I have realized since I embraced
the Gospel; and it is this that enables me to enjoy the Spirit as I
get along through the world: and I feel that it is good for me to
continue to enjoy this Spirit. And that we may all be so happy and  so
blest as to keep this constantly and unceasingly in view, that we may
be saved eternally in our Father's kingdom, is my prayer. Amen. [p.82]

Wilford Woodruff, April 9, 1857

Necessity of Adhering to the Priesthood in 
Preference to Science and Art

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Thursday, April 9, 1857.

vol. 5, p.82
It is a pleasure to me, and I presume it is to all the brethren who
have lived in the midst of this people during the rise and progress of
this Church and kingdom, to see the sons of the Prophets stand before
the people as they have this day and hear their words while bearing
testimony of the work of God.

vol. 5, p.82
I well remember the time that our young brethren who have addressed us
were called on their missions, and they, in connection with brother
Grant, brother Ellsworth, and others, met at my house one evening to
receive their blessings under the hands of the Twelve Apostles. When
they had received their blessings, they were called upon to speak
their feelings,—most of them, I suppose, for the first time in their
lives. True, they had sat under the teachings of the servants of God
from their infancy. When most of them had expressed their feelings
relative to going on a mission to England, brother Joseph A. Young
said, "Brethren, I will tell you my feelings when I come home." We
have heard from him since he came home. His feelings have been
expressed much to our edification. That remark sounded well to me, and
truly it has been very edifying and interesting to me to hear the
speeches which have been made by all the young brethren since they
have returned. The spirit they manifest shows to me that the blessing
and spirit of their fathers are with them; and I realize that the
Spirit of the Most High is in them, and that ere long they will become
mighty men in Israel, and will have to bear off this kingdom and
shoulder the care and responsibility of it, when their fathers are
resting in the grave or leaning on their staffs for very age.

vol. 5, p.82
There is Parley Pratt, jun., who has just spoken. I remember the day
of his birth very well; for his mother died the day he was born, and I
attended her funeral. Now he has grown to be a man, and I rejoice to
hear him bear testimony of the work of God in connection with the
other young brethren. It does my soul good to see them coming on to
the stage of action. I realize that the kingdom of our God, of which
we are members, is only in its infancy, although we look upon it as
being great, compared with what it has been.

vol. 5, p.82
It commenced like a small mustard seed, but it has gradually increased
until the birds begin to lodge in its branches; and yet it is but
small, compared with what it is to be. We have had many symbols and
figures presented to our minds to illustrate the growth and increase
of the kingdom of God; and I will here say, in respect to its being
like the comparison made by Daniel, it answers the figure very
well,—only, instead of its rolling down hill, it has come up hill into
the tops of the mountains; and I do hope and pray that it may continue
to grow and increase in strength and in power, that when it rolls down
hill it may go with mighty power and accelerated speed, that it may
not require so much toil, labour, and fatigue to carry the kingdom
from the mountains as it did to bring it up.

vol. 5, p.83
[p.83] I have no fears in regard to the increase of this kingdom, and
I may also add that I never had any, only so far as concerned the
weaknesses and frailties of mortality. I hope we may all pursue the
course laid down for us by the servants of the Lord; for, if we do
this, I know that we shall be safe in this world, and secure happiness
and exaltation in the world to come.

vol. 5, p.83
There are a few thoughts that I wish to present to the congregation
touching one principle that has been alluded to by the
brethren,—namely, in regard to following the instructions and counsels
of those who lead us. I have reflected much upon this subject, and I
contend that there is one principle by which the Lord leads his
servants, and if we are faithful, they will lead us in the way of
life; and inasmuch as we have faith to believe in their
instructions—in the teachings of the Holy Spirit through them, we are
always in the safe path, and shall be sure of our reward.

vol. 5, p.83
You take a shepherd, for instance; and, according to the ancient
practice, we learn that they always went forward and prepared the way,
so that there could be no danger in advance but what the shepherd
would learn of in time to save the sheep. If they are allowed to run
by the shepherd, the wolves are apt to catch them and destroy them;
and the very moment that men in this kingdom attempt to run a-head or
cross the path of their leaders, no matter in what respect, the moment
they do this they are in danger of being injured by the wolves.

vol. 5, p.83
This is a subject upon which I have thought a great deal; and I have
gained a little useful knowledge, during my experience, by watching
the conduct of men; and I have never in my life known it to fail, that
when men went contrary to the counsel of their leaders, either in the
days of Joseph or brother Brigham, they always became entangled and
suffered a loss by so doing.

vol. 5, p.83
Now, whatever I might have obtained in the shape of learning, by
searching and study respecting the arts and sciences of men,—whatever
principles I may have imbibed during my scientific researches, yet, if
the Prophet of God should tell me that a certain principle or theory
which I might have learned was not true, I do not care what my ideas
might have been, I should consider it my duty, at the suggestion of my
file leader, to abandon that principle or theme. Supposing he were to
say the principles by which you are governed are not right —that they
were incorrect, what would be my duty? I answer that it would be my
duty to lay those principles aside, and to take up those that might be
laid down by the servants of God.

vol. 5, p.83
I have seen men in the days of Joseph bring up principles, and read,
and teach, and advocate theories, when the Prophet would say, "It is
not right to do so: they are not true." Those men would still argue,
maintain their position, and they would write in defence of their
theories when the Prophet condemned them, and they would say, "We have
no faith in your theory, nor in the system you present." The very
moment a man does that, he crosses the path of the servant of God who
is set to lead the way to life and salvation. This is one thing that
the Elders should carefully avoid. The fact is, there are a great many
things taught in the building up of this kingdom which seem strange to
us, being contrary to our traditions, and are calculated to try men.
Brother Joseph used a great many methods of testing the integrity of
men; and he taught, a great many things which, in consequence of
tradition, required prayer, faith, and a testimony from the Lord,
before they could be believed by many of the Saints. His mind was
opened by the visions of the Almighty, and [p.84] the Lord taught him
many things by vision and revelation that were never taught publicly
in his days; for the people could not bear the flood of intelligence
which God poured into his mind.

vol. 5, p.84
How was it in that day in reference to many things that were taught
and practised? All was not revealed at once, but the Lord showed the
Prophet a principle, and the people acted upon it according to the
light which they had. All the perfection and glory of it was not
revealed at first; but, as fast as it was revealed, the people
endeavoured to obey.

vol. 5, p.84
I will bring up one thing which will show that the position I take is
correct,—viz., baptism for the dead. When that was first revealed, we
rejoiced in it; and, as soon as we had an opportunity, we began to be
baptized for our dead. A man would be baptized for both male and
female. The moment I heard of it, my soul leaped with joy; for it was
a subject in which I felt deeply interested. I went forward and was
baptized for all my dead relatives I could think of, both male and
female, as did others; but, afterwards, we obtained more light upon
the subject, and President Young taught the people that men should
attend to those ordinances for the male portion of their dead friends,
and females for females. This showed the order in which those
ordinances should be administered, which ordinances had before been
revealed, and shows us that we are in a school where we shall be
constantly learning.

vol. 5, p.84
This revelation, in connection with the revelation and vision
concerning the three glories, gave me more joy and consolation than
any revelation I ever read, and I had a great desire to obey it.

vol. 5, p.84
I was taught from my childhood that there was one heaven and one hell,
and was told that the wicked all had one punishment, and the righteous
one glory,—that the grey-headed sinner, who had spent his days in
wicked—ness, debauchery, and murder, would go to hell to suffer
everlasting torments, and that the youth but sixteen years of age, who
had not been religious, would go to the same hell, suffer the same
kind of torment and for the same length of time, and that Jesus, and
the Apostles, and all men who had suffered death for the testimony
which they bore for the kingdom of God and the works of righteousness
would have the same glory and no more than the Presbyterian deacon in
Kentucky with his hundred negroes, who had never made a sacrifice in
his life, but had been full of this world's goods, but he was a
professor of religion.

vol. 5, p.84
I never did believe a word of this doctrine a day since I was born,
and I am sure that I never did before; and when I read the vision and
was taught the principle of the baptism for the dead, it enlightened
my mind and gave me great joy. It appeared to me that the God who
revealed that principle unto man was wise, just, and true—possessed
both the best of attributes, and good sense, and knowledge. I felt He
was consistent with both love, mercy, justice, and judgment; and I
felt to love the Lord more than ever before in my life. I never was
satisfied with the doctrine taught by the sectarian world upon this
subject in my life, and hence I felt to say hallelujah when the
revelation came forth revealing to up baptism for the dead. I felt
that we had a right to rejoice in the blessings of Heaven. I felt,
when I first learned of the justice of God in relation to his
rewarding all men according to their deeds, that such a God was
reasonable; and I felt I could worship such aged; and I was just so
when I heard of baptism for the dead.

vol. 5, p.84
There are thousands and millions who never had the privilege of being
baptized for themselves, and  hence never ought to be punished for not
[p.85] obeying a law which they never heard. How did we feel when we
first heard the living could be baptized for the dead? We all went to
work at it as fast as we had an opportunity, and were baptized for
everybody we could think of, without respect to sex. I went and was
baptized for all my friends, grandmothers, and aunts, as those of the
male sex; but how was it? Why, by-and-by, it was revealed, through the
servants of the Lord, that females should be baptised for females, and
males for males; but the full particulars of this order was not
revealed till after the days of Joseph: therefore this shows an
advance in the building up of the kingdom, the gathering of Israel,
and the warning of the nations of the earth.

vol. 5, p.85
You will see an advance in a great many things; for the Lord will open
the mind of brother Brigham and lead him into many principles that
pertain to the salvation of this people; and we cannot close up our
minds and say that we will go so far and no farther. This we cannot do
without jeopardising our standing before God.

vol. 5, p.85
With regard to crossing the path of any man who may be appointed to
lead us, I will say we never should do it; and I do not care what our
feelings and views may be upon the subject as far as our traditions
and education are concerned. If God has anything to reveal, he will
reveal it to that man who stands at the head. Now, here is the quorum
of the Twelve Apostles: we cannot bring forth a new revelation for the
guidance of this people while the First Presidency are here; for there
is no other plan, no other system by which to guide and govern men in
this kingdom, only that which has been established by the revelations
of God in the order of His church and kingdom; and that is, for the
head to lead, counsel, and govern in all dispensations in which the
will of God is revealed to man.

vol. 5, p.85
I wish to say a few words to the missionaries—to those who are going
abroad to preach the Gospel of Christ. I want to give you a word of
exhortation and counsel, brethren: that is, whenever you are in doubt
about any duty or work which you have to perform, never proceed to do
anything until you go and labour in prayer and get the Holy Spirit.
Wherever the Spirit dictates you to go or to do, that will be right;
and, by following its dictates, you will come out right.

vol. 5, p.85
We shall be brought to many places during our career in the ministry
among the nations of the earth, where we may consider a certain course
of procedure to be right; but, if we do not know, it will be better
for us to go before the Lord, and ask in faith that we may be
instructed in the way of life.

vol. 5, p.85
I will take the liberty of saying that it is your privilege, brethren,
to get the mind and will of the Lord in relation to your duties while
abroad among the people; and it is also the privilege of the whole
people who are called Israel to obtain the revelations of the Holy
Spirit to guide them in every duty in life. Whatever position a man
may stand in, it is his privilege, as a Saint of God, to enjoy this
blessing; and a man who understands himself will not move without the
operations of that Spirit to lead him.

vol. 5, p.85
Brethren, as the order of the day is short sermons, I will not detain
you longer; but I will say that I am happy to be with you, and my soul
does rejoice in the things of God; for I feel that I have been fed in
my mind, not only to-day, but yesterday, and all through the
Conference; and I do feel that we of all men have the greatest reason
to rejoice; for the Lord has committed into our hands the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, the way of life and salvation. We can walk into this
Tabernacle and our places of worship, and sing, and pray, and [p.86]
preach, and praise the Lord, with none to molest us. We can plant, and
build, and eat, and inherit those things which God has given us, in
peace and quietness. For these things we should feel thankful, and
feel in our hearts to acknowledge the hand of God therein.

vol. 5, p.86
The truths and revelations which have been made known unto this
people, for their salvation, and exaltation, and glory, and for the
salvation of all men, beth the living and the dead, are of great value
and worth unto us, —and unto all men, if they would receive them. We
are the only people to whom this holy Gospel, Priesthood, and
covenants have been committed in our day; and we shall be held
responsible for the use we make of them. Then we should be diligent
and faithful in offering this great salvation unto the children of
men, and in building up Zion and the kingdom of our God. We should
also be careful to strictly obey the voice of our Heavenly Father and
the voice and counsel of His servants who are set to lead us; which
may the Lord enable us to do,—which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Heber C. Kimball, July 26, 1857

Oneness of the Priesthood—Impossibility of Obliterating
Mormonism—Gospel Ordinances—Depopulation of the
Human Species—The Coming Famine, Etc.

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

vol. 5, p.86
If the brethren and sisters would like to hear me talk a little in my
rough way, I will try.

vol. 5, p.86
My feelings are like this, that I may have no will but that which is
extract from the will of God, that my will may be the will of God,
just as much as there are three drops of water, the first, the second,
and the third drop, and the second and the third drops run into the
first, and they are combined in one. Now, inasmuch as they are
combined and have become one with the Father and the Son, it is a
pretty hard thing for any person on earth to extract those three
drops; they cannot be extracted or divided, for they are one, and they
are one with the Father and the Son.

vol. 5, p.86
We receive the Spirit of Jesus as he receives it from the Father, and
we receive it from the Son, or down through the channel of the Holy
Priesthood from the Father; then we are like one vine or one tree, the
Father being the root, and the Son of God the tree or vine that sprung
from the Father, and we are the branches, or this Church is the main
branch sprung out of that vine. Then, inasmuch as we abide in Joseph
or in Brigham, and then Brigham abides in Joseph, and Joseph in Peter,
and Peter in Jesus, and then Jesus in the Father, don't you see we are
one? And then we will extend it to the Twelve in these last days; they
are one with the First Presidency, and then the Seventies with the
Twelve, and then the High Priests and other officers. Ain't we one?

vol. 5, p.86
That is the way we have got to be [p.87] one; we have got to come to
that; and when we do, the Spirit of God will rest upon us, and the
Spirit of Jesus, and of all the Prophets, and Apostles, and holy men
of God that ever did live or ever will. Then the same Spirit and power
will rest upon our sisters as it did upon Mary, and Elizabeth, and
Anna, and thousands of others.

vol. 5, p.87
I wonder if the brethren understand me? If you do not, I shall have to
get some more simple figure; for a tree in its nature is like a grape
vine, or a cucumber vine, or a water; melon vine. You plant a cucumber
seed, and it brings forth a cucumber vine. You may take this vine, and
there is a main vine, and then there are other vines that break out of
that main vine; you take away one of these vines from the main true
vine, and it would cease to exist, because it is disconnected from the
vine to which it was connected; therefore it cannot bring forth fruit.
Don't you understand this, you men and women that are farmers?

vol. 5, p.87
Brother Brigham was speaking this forenoon, showing what an influence
he has over this people. I want to know if he has any over a man or
woman that is not in this vine, he being the head now? When Joseph was
here, he was the head of the vine in the flesh; but since he stepped
away, brother Brigham is head of the vine, and we are connected to it;
all you men and women, and then all the Saints throughout the world
are connected to that vine to which he is connected; and he has power
and influence over them, because they partake of his nature and his
element, and he partakes of the element that that came through Joseph,
and Joseph from Peter, and Peter from Jesus, and Jesus from the
Father, and then it extends through all the Quorums that pertain to
the house of Israel.

vol. 5, p.87
I was speaking the other day how you should make your connections very
strong; and, instead of breaking these fibres pertaining to that
cable, you should keep adding strength to strength. If you do that,
there never will be a separation between us and those that hold the
Priesthood before us,—no, never.

vol. 5, p.87
What an almighty influence our Father and our God will have when He
has gathered all His children! Will they control the remaining portion
of the human family? They will. As I said that day, and as brother
Joseph has said to-day, we hold the keys—that is, brother Brigham and
his brethren—they hold the keys of the living and the dead.

vol. 5, p.87
What! of those that do not belong to this Church? Yes, just as much as
those that do; and they cannot get salvation upon any other principle.
Well, now, you need not think that is a tight jacket; for I will tell
you it is a jacket you have all to wear. You may grunt, and you may
take a course to kill this people and destroy the Prophet. Good God!
there will a hundred come up where you kill one. Bless your souls, if
a man is a Prophet, and that Prophet has a posterity, his whole
posterity are prophets. Tell about raising up kings, and priests, and
prophets unto the Most High God! You may kill brother Brigham: kill
him, if you can; but I tell you, you will never do it, nor his brother
Heber, until the time comes.

vol. 5, p.87
I never killed anybody, and I have a pretty good assurance to live a
good while. You may kill brother Brigham, if you can, and what will be
the effect of it? There will be a thousand Brighams that will rise
through him, just as much as it would if you went into your field and
you found an almighty big mustard stalk, and it was ripe, and you had
no more sense but hit it a crack and break it down; [p.88] there will
be a thousand, and perhaps a million of mustards come from the old
stalk. It will be just so if you kill brother Brigham or Heber, and it
was so when they killed brother Joseph; there is a thousand now living
where there was but one when he was killed.

vol. 5, p.88
Prophets! There is not a man or woman in this congregation, if they
live their religion and have the Holy Ghost upon them, but what are
prophets, every one of them. I feel as Moses said to a certain class
that had the sweeny; they were superstitious, and could not bear to
hear any men and women prophecy but themselves: they complained to
Moses of a certain person prophesying; and said he, "I wish to God
they were all prophets." I wish to God you, brethren and sisters, were
all prophets and prophetesses; you may be, if you live your religion;
you cannot help yourselves. We shall be like so many drops of water
all run into the first drop; then the first drop and all the drops
become amalgamated together, and they are like one drop. Bless your
souls, our little children will prophesy, that come out of us, because
we are one.

vol. 5, p.88
It is living in the vine of the last dispensation that makes us one,
and we should be one, for Jesus says, "Except ye are one, ye are not
mine." As brother Brigham, brother Smoot and others have said, can the
world do anything against this work? No. Jesus says that they can do
nothing against the truth, but for it; and it will increase it, just
the same as it would to destroy the old mustard stalk that has got ten
thousand little seeds; you only increase it ten thousand times.

vol. 5, p.88
Can the world obliterate "Mormonism"—this Church and kingdom of God?
Gentlemen, you might just as well go into the heavens and undertake to
obliterate the worlds and the stars that you see on some of these
beautiful nights when it is so clear. You can see the stars; they are
as thick as the hairs on my head. What are they? They are worlds like
this, and redeemed worlds, as this will be some time; and we are the
boys that will help to redeem it. We look a good deal like other
folks.

vol. 5, p.88
I speak of these things, brethren, by way of encouragement. They may
just as well try to obliterate those worlds that are redeemed, and
perhaps ten times larger than this world, as to undertake to
obliterate "Mormonism."

vol. 5, p.88
You call us fools: but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether
you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother Joseph
Smith as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a God,
and also upon Brigham Young, our Governor in the Territory of Deseret.

vol. 5, p.88
Well, I will say there is no other man, except it is his successor in
the Priesthood, that will ever rule over me as a Governor. [Voices,
all over the congregation: "Amen."] A man not holding the Priesthood
may come here in the capacity of a Governor, if he pleases, and will
act properly in the line of his office; but if he does not magnify
wholesome laws, we will teach him his duty.

vol. 5, p.88
Sending a man here with 2,5000 troops! They have no design in God
Almighty's world only to raise a rookery with this people and bring us
into collision with the United States; and when they come here, the
first dab will be to take brother Brigham Young, and Heber C. Kimball,
and others, and they will slay us. That is their design; and if we
will not yield to their meanness, they will say we have mutinized
against the President of the United States, and then they will put us
under martial law and massacre this  people. That has been the design
of the men that have [p.89] been here. [Voice in the stand: "They
can't come it."] "No, they c-a-n't come it."

vol. 5, p.89
Drummond, and those miserable scoundrels, and some that are now in our
midst—how do I feel towards them? Pray for them? Yes, I pray that God
Almighty would send them to hell. Some say across lots; but I would
like to have them take a round about road, and be as long as they can
be in going there. How do you suppose I feel?

vol. 5, p.89
I have been driven five times—been broken up and my goods robbed from
me, and I have been afflicted almost to death. I am here with wives
and children, and as good women as can be found in the United States.
You may search the States through, and you cannot find as good ones.
Have others here got as good? I do not know that I will talk about
others; but I will say what I have a mind to about my own. I have got
women that were brought up decently and respectably; and they are
virtuous women; and you may send all the men from hell, and they
cannot come around my women and brother Brigham's, notwithstanding
some have told in Carson Valley that our women are all prostitutes,
and that they could use any one of them they pleased, as I have been
informed.

vol. 5, p.89
That is the story they have told about you, sisters, as I have heard.
How do you like that statement? Still there are some here who sustain
such characters in their wickedness, as they did Drummond and others.
I think just as much of the persons who sustain those miserable
characters as I do of them, and no more. And I think just as much of
those who sympathize with them. Whether they are men or women, I do
not care one whit. I know the virtue of my women, and the virtue of
brother Brigham's women, and of those of our brethren who are
connected with us.

vol. 5, p.89
The world say that we have things in common stock. There is no such
thing. We throw our interest together, but my wives are wives that are
given to me by the Almighty God through the proper source; and it is
so with every other man. There is no man in this Valley that is a
Saint that meddles with my wives, nor I with his. Those things are not
carried on here. Every man has his house by himself and his concerns;
but, if we have a mind to throw in our property into the general
reservoir and hold it in common, then every man has a stewardship; I
want to know what business it is to anybody? I have a right to throw
in my property in connection with brother Brigham's, and he with me,
and then occupy it for ever, and let the avails thereof increase our
riches; and if every other man would take the same course, it would be
far better for us. If we cannot be one in temporal things, how can we
be one in spiritual things?

vol. 5, p.89
We do not believe in whoredoms here; we do not admit of any such thing
as women to whore it, or of men to come here to do any such thing. We
have none of this. [Voice: "That is civilization."]

vol. 5, p.89
Yes, such as they have in New York at the Five Points there. Some of
you have, perhaps, been there, and in Philadelphia, and in every other
city in the United States. There is the city of Rochester, about as
small a city as there is in the United States. I have been there when
there was but two little log cabins, when there was not such a thing
known as a prostitute; and now, at this day, there are thousands of
persons of ill fame, and the authorities license such things.

vol. 5, p.89
Christians—those poor, miserable priests brother Brigham was speaking
about—some of them are the biggest whoremasters there are on the
earth, [p.90] and at the same time preaching righteousness to the
children of men. The poor devils, they could not get up here and
preach an oral discourse, to save themselves from hell; they are
preaching their fathers' sermons —preaching sermons that were written
a hundred years before they were born.

vol. 5, p.90
We are very tenacious, as brother George A. said, pertaining to the
law of God and the institutions of heaven. We know there is no other
way for men to be saved—there is no person on the earth can be saved
upon any other principle than the one that saves me. Says one, "What
is that?" The first step is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of the living God; and widen you have, and laid your sins aside,
and think you will quit sinning, then be baptized in water, that your
sins may be washed away, or blotted out, that you may receive the
remission of them; and have a man that has got authority to do it lay
hands. upon you, that you may receive the Holy Ghost.

vol. 5, p.90
Can you change these ordinances? No. They are eternal; they always
were and always will be; and no man or woman upon earth can be saved
without them. You may get a Methodist priest to pour water on you, or
sprinkle it on you, and baptize you face foremost, or lay you down the
other way, and whatever mode you please, and you will be damned with
your priest. There is but one way, and that is to be buried in water,
buried with Christ by baptizing in water, that your sins may be
blotted out by one having authority, or else it will do you no good.

vol. 5, p.90
Every man that is alive can act for himself under the hands of a man
having authority. How will you manage for the dead? You will have to
do it by proxy. For instance, I have got a father who died before
"Mormonism" came; I go to brother Brigham when we have a place for it:
 says I, "brother Brigham, I want to be baptized for my father;" he
takes me and baptizes me for my father, I acting as proxy, or for and
in behalf of my father, and it is done upon the same principle that we
do it for ourselves; and that is recorded.

vol. 5, p.90
Can I go and be baptized for my mother? Yes, I can be, though that is
not the strict order of the law of the kingdom; but let a man act for
a man, and a woman for a woman, that each may bear their share. I will
let my wife go and attend to that, she acting as proxy for my mother,
and I for my father. Well now, I have got to attend to all the
ordinances faithfully that I attend to for myself, and then, when the
time comes, I can take my father and mother, and act for my father,
and my wife act for my mother; and then they can be connected in
marriage, and then their father and their mother, and so keep going on
until we get back where we came from, and connect the Priesthood
together, and have the chain perfect from these days to the days of
Jesus, and then back to Adam.

vol. 5, p.90
Perhaps my father may not receive the Gospel. If he don't, my baptism
will not do him any good. He is in the spirit-world; he has to believe
and embrace the Gospel in his heart and affections, and then I receive
knowledge from him through a proper authority, and I am administered
to for him. You might as well go and be baptized for a devil as for a
man who will not receive the Gospel in the spirit-world.

vol. 5, p.90
I expect I shall have to go and preach to the spirits in prison where
they live, in London, in Germany, and other places. What! after I am
dead? Yes. You may call us wild for believing such things. Go and read
the Bible—the book your mother taught to you when you were sitting on
her knees and nursing at  her [p.91] breast. This good old Bible, you
think we do not believe it: we believe every word of it, and practice
it. If we do not, we are determined we will, by the help of God, that
portion of it that alludes to us.

vol. 5, p.91
Plurality of wives! I have a good many wives. How much would you give
to know how many? If I were to tell you, you would not believe it. I
suppose many of you have not believed a word we have said to-day. We
do not care whether you do or not. I am speaking to the unbelievers,
and not to the Saints. If I spoke lies, you would believe quicker.
Suffice it to say I have a good many wives and lots of young mustards
that are growing, and they are a kind of fruitful seed.

vol. 5, p.91
You know my comparison was, when Dr. Bernhisel was at Washington, we
did not know what the Dr. would think when we let the old cat out of
the bag. I told him that the old cat would have kittens, and the
kittens would have cats. It is so with "Mormonism;" it will flourish
and increase, and it will multiply in young "Mormons." "To be plain
about it, Mr. Kimball, what did you get these wives for?" The Lord
told me to get them. "What for?" To raise up young "Mormons,"—not to
have women to commit whoredoms with, to gratify the lusts of the
flesh, but to raise up children.

vol. 5, p.91
The priests of the day in the whole world keep women, just the same as
the gentlemen of the Legislatures do. The great men of the earth keep
from two to three, and perhaps half-a-dozen private women. They are
not acknowledged openly, but are kept merely to gratify their lusts;
and if they get in the family way, they call for the doctors, and also
upon females who practise under the garb of midwives, to kill the
children, and thus they are depopulating their own species. [Voice:
"And their names shall come to an end."] Yes, because they shed
innocent blood.

vol. 5, p.91
I knew that before I received "Mormonism." I have known of lots of
women calling for a doctor to destroy their children; and there are
many of the women in this enlightened age and in the most popular
towns. and cities in the Union that take a course to get rid of their
children. The whole nation is guilty of it. I am telling the truth. I
won't call it infanticide. You know I am famous for calling things by
their names.

vol. 5, p.91
I have been taught it, and my wife was taught it in our young days,
when she got into the family way, to send for a doctor and get rid of
the child, so as to live with me to gratify lust. It is God's truth,
and I know the person that did it. This is depopulating the human
species; and the curse of God will come upon that man, and upon that
woman, and upon those cursed doctors. There is scarcely one of them
that is free from the sin. It is just as common as it is for wheat to
grow.

vol. 5, p.91
Do we take that course here? No. I have buried several children; I
have buried them in York State, too, in Monroe county, where I lived
all my young days, and where I became acquainted with brother Brigham,
which is rising of thirty years that we have been together, about
twelve miles from where Joseph Smith lived and found the Book of
Mormon. I buried two children there, lawful children, born to me by my
first wife; and then I have buried some ten children here, born to me
by my lawful wives; and I have had altogether about fifty children;
and one hundred years won't pass away before my posterity will
out-number the present inhabitants of the State of New York, because I
do not destroy my offspring, I am doing the works of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob; and if I live and be a good man, and my wives are as [p.92]
good as they should be, I will raise up men yet, that will come
through my loins, that will be as great men as ever came to this
earth; and so will you.

vol. 5, p.92
I will tell you that some of the most noble spirits are waiting with
the Father to this day to come forth through the right channel and the
right kind of men and women. That is what has to be yet; for there are
thousands and millions of spirits waiting to obtain bodies upon this
earth.

vol. 5, p.92
I thought a good deal about one verse of brother Poulter's song that
he sang here to-day,—one verse in particular, speaking of the ladies.
A man is a man, if he is connected with the Priesthood and is a good
man of God—a holy man. That man can produce wonders, although he may
be inferior in stature.

vol. 5, p.92
A great many women are more nice than wise. If they can get a man with
a pretty face, they think it is all there is about it. Some men think
if they can get a woman that has a handsome face, that is all there is
of it. But it is that woman that has a head and sensibility,—I do not
care if her head is three feet long,—it has nothing to do with the
character that lives in the body. It is the character that is in the
man's house, the spirit that is in the man; it is the spirit that is
in the woman and in the house that makes the woman and that makes the
mall.

vol. 5, p.92
Talk about going into the spirit-world. The whole nation will go
there. Are they going to know Jesus Christ? Are they going to know
Joseph, and Brigham, and Heber? No, they won't know us there, because
other men will go and preach to them; and then they have got to
believe on those men, or else they cannot pass them and go by those
authorities.

vol. 5, p.92
Then let us live to be men and women of God, and cultivate that Spirit
that dwells in us; for I have told you many a time that if you receive
a bad spirit in you here to-day in this Bowery, you may get up and go
out of door; but will you not have the same spirit as you had received
when you started to go out? If you retain that wicked spirit, going
out of door will not make you better.

vol. 5, p.92
When a man becomes a devil, and has killed the Prophets and Apostles,
while he is in this house, or tabernacle of his spirit, will it change
his feelings to go out of door, or to lay down that tabernacle? There
will then be the same spirit and disposition that is in the spirit
while it is in the body. When it leaves the body, does that change the
spirit?

vol. 5, p.92
It is the spirit in man which affects the conduct; it ain't the body.
I can stand here and let you go to work and defile this house. I have
to answer for that sin. If my spirit is guilty in letting my body do a
thing that is contrary to the will of God, it is my spirit that has
got to pay the debt. It is my spirit that is to be judged in the day
of eternity and is answerable for the sins that I suffer my body to
do.

vol. 5, p.92
I want you to think of these things, live your religion, keep the
commandments of God, do as you are told, lay up your grain.

vol. 5, p.92
Brother Joseph made me think of one thing this morning When he was
talking, that we are the very characters that will have to save the
poor curses that are trying to kill us. They are trying to destroy
that Priesthood that pertains to them as much as it does to me. We
have got to save them and they have got to come to us. It is degrading
to their feelings; but, as degrading as it is, they will come bending
to us. What! to brother H. C. Kimball? Yes, as true as the sun shines,
if I live my religion; and you will have to bow to me, brother
Brigham, and Joseph [p.93] Smith, and the Twelve Apostles, and
thousands and millions of others; for I will tell you, if you make war
while you are in the flesh with the servants of God, you never can be
redeemed until you make an atonement to satisfy us, and then Joseph,
and Peter, and Jesus, and to satisfy the Father: you have offended the
whole of them.

vol. 5, p.93
The day will be, and it will not be many years either: it will be
about the time the United States want to send a sufficient force here.
About the time they will get unto the hottest times will be about that
time. They will persecute us all the time the same as Joseph's
brethren did Joseph in Egypt. They whipped him and threw him into a
pit, and then they thought of killing him; but Judah prevailed and
saved him, and then they took him and sold him as a slave, and he
obtained favour in the eyes of the King, and finally held dominion
over that whole kingdom, and reared the kingdom, and raised grain
previous to the famine, and saved and redeemed his whole father's
house and millions of others; and everything had to bow down to the
power of Joseph.

vol. 5, p.93
As true as that thing is true, so true it will be that our enemies
will have to bow down to us; and we may do the best we can to store up
stores; and it is all we can do before they will come bending unto us.
And the President of the United States will bow to us and come to
consult the authorities of this Church to know what he had best to do
for his people.

vol. 5, p.93
You don't believe this. Wait and see; and just about the time they
think they have got us, the Lord has got them fast. Now mark it,
George; you may write every word of it.

vol. 5, p.93
I will tell you that brother Brigham and his brethren can tell the
difference between the wheat and the chaff. [Voice: "The Lord gives
wheat and the Devil gives chaff.] Retain all the wheat; and if there
is any chaff there, give it to the Devil; and the wheat, and the oats,
and the barley you shall have; and the day is at hand for you to go to
work to raise sheep and raise flax, and there shall be a coat on it
four times thicker than any flax you ever saw, and everything else
shall increase.

vol. 5, p.93
Why do you ask God to give you these things until you go to work and
raise them? I sowed wheat three years before I got a bit. The Devil or
somebody tried to prove me; but I would have stuck to it until this
day. I would not give a dime for a man or woman that is not of that
character.

vol. 5, p.93
Am I going to be a Joseph? I will be a Heber, and Brigham will be a
Brigham, and he will lay up stores for the inhabitants of the earth,
and we will redeem the earth and the inhabitants thereof,—I care not
whether they are dead or alive; and I would rather have a lot of dead
creatures than many that profess to be Saints here. If they were dead
and out of the way, their absence would be a help to us; for they try
to hinder the progress of the work of God; but we will be the saviours
of the children of men in the lust days.

vol. 5, p.93
Mark my words, and see if these things do not come to pass quicker
than you can prepare yourselves for them.

vol. 5, p.93
Will this land be a land of milk and honey? Yes. Missouri is cracked
up to be the greatest honey country that there is on the earth; but it
will not be many years before they cannot raise a spoonful in that
land, nor in Illinois, nor in any other land where they fight against
God. Mildew shall come upon their honey, their bees, and their crops;
and famine and. desolation shall come upon the nation, like a
whirlwind.

vol. 5, p.94
[p.94] Go and read the Prophets: they all say so. You never saw a
Prophet in your life but what would say so. Don't be frightened: I
tell you it will come. I am willing that my friends that have come
through here from California should tell them of it; and it would be
better for you to believe it yourselves, and go and make calculations
accordingly.

vol. 5, p.94
Shall we ever be brought to want? I tell you, if we live our religion,
we never shall. Cannot God Almighty send manna here, honey, and
everything else, just as well as he could in the days of Moses? This
is the last dispensation, and it has got all the power, the interest,
the miracles that were in all of them, and tenfold more.

vol. 5, p.94
Last year or the year before they made some thousands of pounds of
sugar at Provo and other places from the honey-dew. Where did they
find it? On the leaves of the cottonwood, the quaking asp, and the
milk-weed. They are now making honey from milk-weed.

vol. 5, p.94
What does all this mean? And then don't you believe God can rain
sweetening as well as running water? This I can prove by thousands of
witnesses—good sugar, as handsome as I ever made in the United States;
and I have made hundreds of tons of it. The maple-trees in the States
will be blasted; yes, and they might as well try to make sugar from an
oak tree: and everything else will be mildewed and go to destruction,
when we shall have thousands.

vol. 5, p.94
Have not we felt the rod? Yes; and God says judgment shall come, and
it shall commence at the house of God first, and then it will come
upon those that have rebelled in the house of God; and of all the
suffering that ever fell upon men and women will fall upon the
apostates. They have got to pay all the debt of the trouble that they
have brought upon the innocent from the days of Joseph to this day,
and they cannot get rid of it.

vol. 5, p.94
Will we have manna? Yes. The United States have 700 waggons loaded
with about 2 tons to each waggon with all kinds of things, and then
7,000 head of cattle; and there are said to be 2,500 troops, with
this, and that, and the other. That is all right. Suppose the troops
don't get here, but all these goods and cattle come. Well, that would
be a mighty help to us; that would clothe up the boys and the girls,
and make them comfortable; and then, remember, there are 15 months'
provisions besides. I am only talking about this. Suppose it extends
on for four or five years, and they send 100,000 troops, and
provisions, and goods in proportion, and everything else got here, and
they did not.

vol. 5, p.94
I am talking by comparison to the Saints, and you that are without do
not understand it. I am a kind of funny fellow; I always was. I will
tell you what kind of a chap I am, and brother Brigham, and brother
Joseph, and Hyrum, and David, and Charles, and all those boys. I will
tell you now, as true as you live, I am one of the sons of the old
veterans that won the liberties of this land, and so is brother
Brigham, because he knew his father, and I knew my own father; and it
is not every man that does.

vol. 5, p.94
You may write that—there is one man on the earth that knows his daddy.
We are the boys, with thousands of others that their fathers. their
grandfathers, and great grandfathers redeemed this land; and God
Almighty inspired those men. They were naturally heirs to the Holy
Priesthood, every one of them, pretty much; and we are their sons, and
we will redeem this land, and we will save the children of this land,
and the Constitution of the United States; [p.95] and we will bring
about the restitution of the house of Israel.

vol. 5, p.95
I do not care if we die in twenty minutes,—as true as there is a
resurrection, or ever was, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and
Joseph, and thousands of others will be redeemed and get their
resurrection; and I will see you as I see you to-day, and we will save
all that we can, and the rest will have to go to hell.

vol. 5, p.95
I believe in annihilation in one degree. Men will sin so that they
will be damned spiritually and temporally. There will be a dissolution
of the natural body and of the spirit, and they will go back into
their native element, the same as the chemist can go to work and
dissolve a five-dollar gold piece, and throw it into a liquid. Does
not that show there can be a dissolution of the natural body and of
the spirit? This is what is called the second death.

vol. 5, p.95
May the Almighty bless you! May the peace of God be with you, and upon
your children, and your children's children, for ever and ever! And
may God Almighty curse our enemies. [Voices: "Amen."] I feel to curse
my enemies: and when God won't bless them, I do not think he will ask
me to bless them. If I did, it would be to put the poor curses to
death who have brought death and destruction on me and my
brethren—upon my wives and my children that I buried on the road
between the States and this place.

vol. 5, p.95
Did I ever wrong them, a man or woman of them, out of a dime? No; but
I have fed thousands where I never received a dime. Poor rotten
curses! And the President of the United States, inasmuch as he has
turned against us and will take a course to persist in pleasing the
ungodly curses that are howling around him for the destruction of this
people, he shall be cursed, in the name of Israel's God, and he shall
not rule over this nation, because they are my brethren; but they have
cast me out and cast you out; and I curse him and all his coadjutors
in his cursed deeds, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the authority
of the Holy Priesthood; and all Israel shall say amen.

vol. 5, p.95
Send 2,500 troops here, our brethren, to make a desolation of this
people! God Almighty helping me, I will fight until there is not a
drop of blood in my veins. Good God! I have wives enough to whip out
the United States; for they will whip themselves. Amen. [p.96]

Brigham Young, August 2, 1857

Joseph Smith's Family—Bashfulness in Public 
Speaking—The Coming Crisis—Counsel.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 2, 1857.

vol. 5, p.96
I rejoice in the privilege of hearing the servants of the Lord speak
to the Saints. It is a feast to me, and to hear men speak by the Holy
Ghost. I very much rejoice in seeing brother Elias Smith upon the
stand this morning. I have been acquainted with him for many years,
and yet I have never until now heard him address an assembly, except
in the capacity of a Judge. I am thankful to hear his voice in public.
He is a cousin of the Prophet Joseph and of George A. Smith.

vol. 5, p.96
I have reflected much concerning the family of the grandfather and
father of Joseph the Prophet. Their family connections were very
extensive; and it has been a subject of deep regret to me that there
were so few in that large circle who have been valiant for the truth
since the death of the Prophet. Still I do not know but that Joseph
had quite as many of his connections valiant for the truth, in
proportion to their number, as Jesus had; for Jesus had many brothers
and sisters, and the most of them were opposed to him, and continued
so during the greater part of their lives. I used to think, while
Joseph was living, that his life compared well with the history of the
Saviour; though the most of father Joseph Smith's family have believed
and obeyed the Gospel, and have lived their religion in a good degree.
Many of them are not here. Some of them I have known in the Eastern
States that never have gathered with us. But the old stock are pretty
much dead, and I do not know but what all of them are. Father John
Smith was the last one, in this Church, of the brothers of father
Joseph Smith; and he died, and is buried here. Grandmother Smith lived
in Kirtland a short time after she gathered.

vol. 5, p.96
I trust in the good feelings and in the confidence that brother Elias
has gained this morning in speaking as he has from this stand; for
many times I have thought of it, and regretted that he was not on the
stand a preacher with the rest. Some men rise here to tell about their
feelings, and are so diffident, so bashful, and it is so hard for them
to speak,—men, too, who have had such privileges in their former lives
as brother Elias has had, who is well schooled, and has had an
opportunity of becoming acquainted with the best of society—with men
of influence. When he arrived to years of discretion, as he has told
you, he marked out his own path. His advantages in his youth were far
greater than were those of most of our public speakers.

vol. 5, p.96
And there is brother Carrington, when he rises here to address a
congregation—though it is seldom that we can get him on this
stand—will tell how he shrinks from speaking to the people, how
bashful and delicate his feelings are in this matter. Men who
understand language, who were taught it in their youth, who have had
the [p.97] privilege of schools and good education, to get up and tell
how they shrink from addressing this people.

vol. 5, p.97
When I think of myself, I think just this—I have the grit in me, and I
will do my duty any how. When I began to speak in public, I was about
as destitute of language as a man could well be. But tell about being
bashful, when a man has all the learning and words he can ask for!
With scores and hundreds of thousands of words with which to convey
one's ideas, and then tell about being bashful before a people! How I
have had the headache, when I had ideas to lay before the people, and
not words to express them; but I was so gritty that I always tried my
best.

vol. 5, p.97
I do not like to hear men make excuses, although it is natural, and I
put up with it. I wish they could see and understand that they have
had advantages above many of their brethren—that they have been
greatly blessed, and should never complain, but should stand up here
and exercise themselves according to the best of their ability, and do
all the good possible for them to do.

vol. 5, p.97
Brother Elias Smith, I can say, is a man possessed of as much judgment
and discretion in his feelings as any man I know. He is filled with
wisdom. He is filled with judgment and with counsel, if he would dare
to let it out. I would like to hear his voice and the voices of
others, and I would like to have them not complain much about getting
up to speak before the public.

vol. 5, p.97
Often, when I stand up here, I have the feelings of a person that is
unable to convey his ideas, because I have not the advantage of
language. However, I do not very frequently complain of that, but I
rise to do the best I can and to give the people the best I have for
them at the time; and if it don't suit them they can go without it,
for I am not responsible whether it suits them or not.

vol. 5, p.97
I rejoice in the words of brother Heber this day. He has spoken by the
power of the Holy Ghost, and you are his witnesses. You may all
witness to this; and his ideas are as rich, I may say, as the flowers
of eternity, and his ideas and his words are congenial to my feelings
and spirit. He told you here to-day that we never differ—that I say,
"Go ahead, say what you please."

vol. 5, p.97
I look at the spirits and the principles of men, and try to behold
what is in them; and if I can discover that they are right, I do not
care one particle how they express their ideas, so that I can but
understand them. I can say furthermore that you cannot, the best of
you, beat brother Kimball's language. You may call up the college-bred
man, and he cannot beat it.

vol. 5, p.97
Brother Heber and I never went to school until we got into
"Mormonism:" that was the first of our schooling. We never had the
opportunity of letters in our youth, but we had the privilege of
picking up brush, chopping down trees, rolling logs, and working
amongst the roots, and of getting our shins, feet, and toes bruised.
The uncle of brother Merrell, who now sits in the congregation, made
me the first hat that my father ever bought for me: and I was then
about eleven years of age. I did not go bareheaded previous to that
time, neither did I call on my father to buy me a five-dollar hat
every few months, as some of my boys do. My sisters would make me what
was called a Jo-Johnson cap for winter, and in summer I wore a straw
hat which I frequently braided for myself. I learned to make bread,
wash the dishes, milk the cows, and make butter; and can make butter,
and can beat the most of the women in this community at housekeeping.
Those are about all the advantages I gained in my youth. I know how to
economise, for my father had to do it.

vol. 5, p.98
[p.98] There are a great many little items pertaining to life that I
do not very often speak about. Still they have to be borne with. They
arise from traits in our characters, and we have to meet with them
right in this community. The imported goods that we purchase are
brought over a thousand miles in waggons, and yet probably I have not
a young child that is three years old but what has cost me more to
furnish with shoes than I ever cost my father to furnish me with shoes
in my whole life. Brother Heber has been teaching you a little
economy. I tell you that you have been warned and forewarned again,
that the time would come when, if you had hats, you would have to make
them; and if the ladies had bonnets, they would have to make them
here.

vol. 5, p.98
Whether it is to your sorrow or joy, I will tell you what I discover;
and I have been much surprised, and sometimes I have been overjoyed
with the discovery. Sometimes my heart quakes a little, my nerves
tremble in consequence of the great things that God is bringing forth.
Do we realize that they are coming on us, I may say, faster than we
are preparing ourselves to meet them? There is one sign after another,
revelation after revelation. The Lord is hastening his work. He is
bringing to pass the sayings of the Prophets faster than the people
are prepared to receive them. You know that we have often exhorted you
to be wide awake to your duties, to be watchful and prayerful, and to
be full of the Holy Spirit, lest the Lord should roll on his work
faster than you could understand it.

vol. 5, p.98
It would be hard for the people to explain away the idea that the
Government of the United States is shutting down the gate upon us, for
it is too visible; and this is what hastens the work of the Lord,
which you are praying for every day. I do not believe that there is a
man or woman here, who prays at all, but, what prays every day for the
Lord to hasten his work. Now take care, for if he does, may be you
will not be prepared to meet it.

vol. 5, p.98
The time must come when there will be a separation between this
kingdom and the kingdoms of this world, even in every point of view.
The time must come when this kingdom must be free and independent from
all other kingdoms. Are you prepared to have the thread cut to-day?

vol. 5, p.98
I know the feelings of a great many, and I need not go out of my own
family to hear, "O dear, are there no ribbons coming? I want that
artificial quick; I want you to go and buy me that nice bonnet, for I
am afraid there never will another one be brought here." If I am tried
in any point in this world, it is with regard to the bearings of my
own conduct to my own family. I have told them, and tell them, and
talk to them, and talk about it, and ask them, Am I in the line of my
duty while I can feed women and children who do nothing but sit and
fold their hands, and wear out their clothing, and dress them in
finery, and pamper them, and they get so that good beef, pork, bread,
butter, cheese, tea, coffee, and sugar, with fruit, and all kinds of
garden sauce, are no rarity to them at all, and their appetites are
poor and they cannot eat? This is the case with me in my family. If
there is any trial upon me, it is to know whether I am in the line of
my duty in this matter.

vol. 5, p.98
Should not I take my tea and coffee, my beef and pork, and every other
good thing, and put it into the hands of the men who sweat over the
rock for the Temple, instead of feeding men, women, and children, who
do not strive to do all they are capable of doing? I am tried on that
point, and I must say  that if there is anything in the world that
[p.99] bothers me, it is the whining of women and children to prevent
me from doing that which I know that I ought to do.

vol. 5, p.99
I will acknowledge with brother Kimball, and I know it is the case
with him, that I am a great lover of women. In what particular? I love
to see them happy, to see them well fed and well clothed, and I love
to see them cheerful. I love to see their faces and talk with them,
when they talk in righteousness; but as for anything more, I do not
care. There are probably but few men in the world who care about the
private society of women less than I do. I also love children, and I
delight to make them happy.

vol. 5, p.99
I accumulate a large amount of means, but I would just as soon feed my
neighbour as myself. And every one who knows me knows whether or not a
piece of johnnycake and butter and a potatoe satisfies Brigham. I can
live on as cheap and as plain food as can any man in Israel. I have
said to my family, a great many times, I want you to make me home-made
clothing; but I would meet such a whizzing about my ears, if I were to
have even a pair of home-made pantaloons made. I do not know that I
have a wife in the world but what would say, "You are not going to
wear them; you ought to wear something more respectable, for you
deserve to as much as any man does."

vol. 5, p.99
It is the man who works hard, who sweats over the rock, and goes to
the kanyons for lumber, that I count more worthy of good food and
dress than I am. But do not I labour? Yes, with my mind. Can any man
tell what labour there is upon me? No, not a man can begin to tell
what I feel for the Latter-day Saints in this Territory, throughout
the mountains and the world,—what I feel for their salvation and
preservation. They have to be looked after and cared for; and all this
more particularly rests upon me. My brethren love to share with me all
that the Lord puts upon them; but in the day of trouble they look to
me to secure them and point out a way for their escape.

vol. 5, p.99
Now, let me tell you one thing—I shall take it as a witness that God
designs to cut the thread between us and the world, when an army
undertakes to make their appearance in this Territory to chastise me
or to destroy my life from the earth. I lay it down that right is or
at least should be might with Heaven, with its servants, and with all
its people on the earth. As for the rest, we will wait a little while
to see; but I shall take a hostile movement by our enemies as an
evidence that it is time for the thread to be cut. I think we will
find three hundred who will lap water, and we can whip out the
Midianites. Brother Heber said that he could turn out his women, and
they would whip them. I ask no odds of the wicked, the best way they
can fix it.

vol. 5, p.99
Brother Heber says that the music is taken out of his sermons when
brother Carrington clips out words here and there; and I have taken
out the music from mine, for I know the traditions and false notions
of the people. Our sermons are read by tens of thousands outside of
Utah. Members of the British Parliament have those Journals of
Discourses, published by brother Watt; they have them locked up, they
secrete them, and go to their rooms to study them, and they know all
about us. They may, perhaps, keep them from the Queen, for fear that
she would believe and be converted.

vol. 5, p.99
I know that I have seen the day when, let men use language like
brother Heber has today, and many would apostatize from the true
faith. In printing my remarks, I often omit the sharp words, though
they are perfectly understood and applicable [p.100] here;for I do not
wish to spoil the good I desire to do. Let my remarks go to the world
in a way the prejudices of the people can bear, that they may read
them, and ponder them, and ask God whether they are true.

vol. 5, p.100
I am thankful to hear the servants of God speak; and, as I have
frequently said, I do not care what you say when you rise to speak
here; for I want to know whether a man seeks with all his heart to
know the mind of God concerning him. If he does, all is right with
him.

vol. 5, p.100
Brother Heber alluded to counseling men and women who come to him
after they had been to me, and said that they always received the same
counsel I had given them. I never have known it to fail, that if they
come to me and then go to brother Heber, they will get the same
counsel all the time. And so they would from every one of the Twelve,
from the High Council, from the Seventies, and High Priests and every
officer in the Church, if every officer in the Church would take the
course that brother Heber, and I, and a few others do. What is that?
Never to give counsel, unless you have it to give. If you have
counsel, give it, because you can have no correct counsel except by
the Spirit of revelation: that is my standard. I have no counsel for a
man, unless I have the testimony of Jesus on the subject. Then, when
the same man asks counsel of me, and goes to brother Heber, do you not
see that if he acts on the same principle and gives counsel, it must
be by the Spirit of revelation; or he has no counsel to give, if it is
not by that Spirit. Then let the same man go to brother Wells and ask
his counsel on the same subject, without letting him know that he has
been to Brigham or to Heber, and brother Daniel will give the same
counsel by the same Spirit.

vol. 5, p.100
The difficulty with regard to giving counsel that conflicts consists
in men's giving counsel from their own judgment, without the Spirit of
God. Every man in the kingdom of God would give the same counsel upon
each subject, if he would wait until he had the mind of Christ upon
it. Then all would have one word and mind, and each man would see eye
to eye.

vol. 5, p.100
But there is a weakness in the brethren, and it is in mankind in
general. You ask almost any person in the world a question, and he
thinks it a disgrace to be unable to answer it. He feels chagrined,
his mind flags, when he finds that he is not quite as knowing as his
neighbours think him to be; and, to avoid this, he will often venture
an answer without knowing the facts in the case, or the effects of his
answer.

vol. 5, p.100
If you would always pause and say, I have no counsel for you, I have
no answer for you on this subject, because I have no manifestation of
the Spirit, and be willing to let everybody in the world know that you
are ignorant when you are, you would become wise a great deal quicker
than to give counsel on your own judgment, without the Spirit of
revelation. If the Elders of Israel would observe this rule, never to
give counsel unless they give it by the testimony of the truth, by the
Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, if they cannot give counsel in
that manner, not to give any, there would be no conflicting counsel in
the kingdom. All would be one; counsel would be one: we would soon
come to understanding and be of one heart and mind, and our blessings
would be increased upon us faster than in taking any other course.

vol. 5, p.100
May God bless you and preserve us in the truth. Amen. [p.101]

George A. Smith, August 2, 1857

Joseph Smith's Family—Details of George A. 
Smith's Own Experience, Etc.

A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in 
the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday 
Afternoon, August 2, 1857.

vol. 5, p.101
I suppose that my brethren and sisters are acquainted with George A.;
and whenever he presents himself in the presence of the Saints, and
attempts to entertain them or amuse them with his chin-music, they
expect that he will say something funny.

vol. 5, p.101
I have been interested to-day very much in listening to the
instructions of brother Elias, and brother Kimball, and the President.
I have been interested, amused, and instructed, and I may say
chastened and reproved, perhaps, all at the same time; and I hope that
the instructions of the forenoon will be of lasting benefit to me. In
every part of the Territory, and in every other place where I have
been, I have taken a good deal of pleasure in endeavouring to talk to
the people, to preach to them; but whenever I have been in Great Salt
Lake City, I have felt disposed to listen and to take counsel from my
brethren; and I have felt that there were many others whose appearance
in addressing the Saints would be much more acceptable; and hence I
have felt to hold my tongue.

vol. 5, p.101
My father, late Patriarch John Smith, was the sixth son of Asahel
Smith, and was born in New Hampshire. Joseph Smith, the father of the
Prophet, and second son of Asahel, was born in Topsfield,
Massachusetts. The second Asahel Smith, the father of Elias who
addressed you this forenoon, was the third son of my grandfather.

vol. 5, p.101
I merely name this fact because, as brother Kimball and brother Young
remarked, so very few of that family have been valiant for the truth.
There are but few comparatively of their numerous posterity that have
been valiant for the truth.

vol. 5, p.101
After the family of Joseph Smith, senior, was destroyed, there were
but few left to stand up for the truth of the Gospel, of all that
numerous family. My father's elder brother was the father of a
numerous posterity, and was a bitter enemy to the truth, and his
descendants remain so to the present time. The only remaining brother
of the Prophet, William, has done all that he could do—all that was in
his power, I may say, from the time of the Prophet's death, to
annihilate and destroy the principles which the Prophet taught to the
nations of the earth.

vol. 5, p.101
My uncle Silas Smith, the fourth son of Asahel, died on his way to
Missouri, or rather on his return from there, being driven from that
State in 1839, in Pike County, Illinois. He had been in the Church
some years, and had been faithful.

vol. 5, p.101
Asahel Smith, the father of Elias, was a man of an extraordinary
retentive memory, and possessed a great knowledge of the Bible, so
much so that he could read it as well without the book as with it; and
after he embraced "Mormonism," nobody could oppose him successfully,
for all their objections were answered from the Bible [p.102]
immediately, giving chapter and verse. He died on his way to the
Valley, in the State of Iowa, in 1848. He was a Patriarch in the
Church, and bore a faithful testimony to the truth.

vol. 5, p.102
Of my grandfather's family there is but one living—an old lady by the
name of Waller, residing in the city of New York, and she is 90 years
of age, and remembers all that has transpired during the last eighty
years just as well as if it had all just occurred. I visited her when
I was last back there, and in talking with me she would talk of things
that had transpired many years back, as though they had occurred
within a year. She is sanguine in relation to the truth of
"Mormonism," although she has never embraced it; and, to use the
language of her son, she preaches it all the time.

vol. 5, p.102
My grandfather, Asahel Smith, heard of the coming forth of the Book of
Mormon, and he said it was true, for he knew that something would turn
up in his family that would revolutionize the world. The news came to
us in 1828: we then lived in New York. The four brothers were there,
Asahel, Silas, Jesse, and John; the old man, my grandfather, living
with them.

vol. 5, p.102
We received the news that some place had been discovered containing
plates of gold. The old man, as I remarked, said that it was true,
although his oldest son felt disposed to ridicule it. He lived till
the Book of Mormon was brought to him, and died when he had read it,
about half through, being 87 years of age.

vol. 5, p.102
The congregation will excuse me for naming this; but I was so
disgusted with the conduct of William, that, when I was in the Eastern
States, I almost took pains to obliterate the fact from the earth that
my name was Smith; for I considered it was the worst thing a man could
do to endeavour to build himself up on the merits of others, and I
feel so yet; and for cousin William to go and endeavour to pull down
the work of his brother, I feel that he has disgraced the family and
the name.

vol. 5, p.102
I have never suffered one single exertion to be omitted on my part
that would in any way tend to sustain the. principles and doctrines of
the Holy Gospel, and aid in the development of the Holy Priesthood
which God has revealed. I have endeavoured all the time to preserve as
perfect a history of the Prophet and those connected with him, from
the organization of the Church to the present time, as I possibly
could.

vol. 5, p.102
The Saints could have carried William upon their shoulders; they could
have carried him in their arms, and have done anything for him, if he
would have laid aside his follies and wickedness, and would have done
right. It is like the Latin figure—but I beg your pardon, I never
studied Latin; but suffice it to say, the husbandman found a
rattlesnake cold and frozen, and he took it, and he put it in his
bosom, and kept it there till it was warm; and then the snake coiled
about the husbandman and destroyed his life.

vol. 5, p.102
This was the conduct of William Smith in the days of Joseph and
afterwards, up to the present time. The principle that a man should
stand upon in this world is simply this—He should do right himself,
and thereby set an example to others. But for a man to have good blood
in his veins, and then to go and disgrace that blood, is perhaps a
double responsibility.

vol. 5, p.102
If we descended from Abraham, or from Joseph, or from any other
virtuous, good, upright man, and we do not emulate his deeds and
follow his example, the greater will be our shame.

vol. 5, p.102
When I was about eleven years old, my grandfather received letters
containing the news that Joseph, the son [p.103] of uncle Joseph, had
discovered, by the revelations of the Almighty, some gold plates, and
that these gold plates contained a record of great worth.

vol. 5, p.103
It was generally ridiculed and laughed at. A short time after this,
another letter came, written by Joseph himself, and this letter bore
testimony of the wickedness and the fallen condition of the Christian
world. My father read the letter, and I well remember the remark he
made about it. "Why," said he, "he writes like a prophet."

vol. 5, p.103
Some time in August 1830, my uncle Joseph Smith and Don Carlos Smith
came some two hundred and fifty miles from where the Prophet was
residing in Ontario County, New York, and they brought a Book of
Mormon with them. I had never seen them before, and I felt astonished
at their sayings.

vol. 5, p.103
Uncle Joseph and Don Carlos were anxious to get to Stockholm to see
grandfather. Accordingly they started, and my father went to carry
them. I and my mother spent the whole of Saturday, all day Sunday, and
Sunday night in reading the Book of Mormon; and I believe I read and
studied it more then than I have done ever since. I studied it
attentively and penned down what I considered to be serious
objections. Although I was but thirteen years of age, yet I considered
the objections I had discovered to be sufficient to overthrow it.

vol. 5, p.103
About five o'clock in the evening the neighbours came in and wanted to
see the book. They took hold of the book, and some of them were
professors of religion, and they began to raise their objections, to
find fault with and ridicule the book, and there was no one to defend
it; so I thought I would try. I commenced to argue in favour of the
book, and answered one objection after another, until I came off
victoriously and got the compliment of being a very smart boy. No one
brought the objections to the book that I had: mine were geographical
objections. I had studied geography a few weeks, but that few weeks'
study made me think that I knew a good deal about it.

vol. 5, p.103
It is like a man that studies the Hebrew language; he has to drink
deep before he can do much with it, and I thought I could confound
them. In a few days I saw my uncle and talked with him, and in about
half-an-hour all my learned objections to the Book of Mormon were
dispensed with, and I found myself in the same position as my
neighbours; and from that day to this I have been an advocate of the
Book of Mormon, and have never suffered it to be slandered nor spoken
against without saying something in its layout, with one exception,
and then I said something.

vol. 5, p.103
I had been the favourite of my uncle Jesse, and he was a religious
man—a "Covenanter;" and I thought what he did not know was not worth
knowing. He came out with all his strength against it, and exerted the
most cruel tyranny over his family, prohibited my uncle Joseph from
talking in his house, and threatened to hew down with his broad axe
any who dared to preach such nonsense in his presence.

vol. 5, p.103
I went to visit him, and he abused me because I had become favourable,
and because uncle Joseph had a private conversation with me. I had
always treated him with the greatest respect, and entertained a very
high opinion of him. He was a man of good education, and had
considerable display; and, being the elder of the family, he naturally
elicited from us more or less respect.

vol. 5, p.103
Finally, in conversation upon various subjects, he turned and talked
about that private conversation, and he said, "Joe dare not talk in my
presence." Then says he, "the Devil never shut my mouth." I replied,
"Perhaps he opened it, uncle." I thought I should have lost my [p.104]
identity: he gave me to the Devil instanter. I went and told uncle
Asahel what had transpired, and the old gentleman laughed; and I then
went to see uncle Silas and told him; and he said, "If old men begin
to talk with boys, they must take boys' play." And from that day to
the present, if I have said anything, I have said what I have thought.

vol. 5, p.104
During the fall of 1830, a gentleman who lived in our neighbourhood
went to Western New York and saw the Prophet, got baptized and
ordained an Elder; and that was Elder Solomon Humphrey. Very few knew
the old gentleman: he died in Missouri in 1835. He was a very faithful
man. Previous to joining the Church he was a Baptist exhorter. He came
back to our place of residence in company with a man named Wakefield,
who is named in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. They came and
preached and baptized for the remission of sins.

vol. 5, p.104
I had been raised a Presbyterian, and my mother was a very pious
woman. The Reverend Elijah Lyman, her uncle, who lived in Brookfield,
Vermont, was the standard of religion in that country, and he had
bestowed upon her the greatest care, that her religion might be of the
best kind; and of course I had a great deal of this religion in me,
which I had learned from her.

vol. 5, p.104
I wanted to know what I should do to be saved; so I went to a
Presbyterian revival meeting to get religion, that I might be prepared
to join the Latter-day Saints, or "Mormons," as they are termed.

vol. 5, p.104
At the time, my father was sick with the consumption and given up to
die. I had a herd of cattle to take care of; but, notwithstanding my
numerous duties, I went to the protracted meeting, and took a load of
persons with me; I carried them there and brought them back every day.
They had a fashion of religion that I had never heard of, and it was
one that was not known in the days of the Apostles; and even John
Wesley, nor any of the old reformers had got such a thing into their
heads,—that of converting souls by machinery.

vol. 5, p.104
The process was like this: All who desired to be prayed for were to
take certain seats, and then one of the ministers preached to them and
depicted the miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. Then those
people were taken to a praying establishment, where praying was
carried on night and day. Then, after a certain time, they were
brought back and preached to again, the ministers keeping before their
eyes the untold miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. When
the ministers got them to feel anxious, they would sing with them, and
then pray again. When a man by this process was declared to be
converted, then he was required to get up and formally renounce the
world, the flesh, and the Devil, and to tell his experience. This was
about the process as near as I can recollect. I did not go to the
anxious seat myself, for I was not yet under conviction.

vol. 5, p.104
During this time of going to the protracted meeting, I had firewood to
cut, my sick father to attend to, and to take care of our stock; but
still I endeavoured to attend meetings, partly to accommodate my
friends, and partly because I desired to be present myself. Subject to
these circumstances I was under the necessity of returning home every
evening, and hence I could not stay as late as many of them.

vol. 5, p.104
While at the protracted meeting, however, I had the satisfaction of
hearing some of my own comrades who had got converted formally
renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and promise henceforth
to be Christians.

vol. 5, p.104
In the midst of all this, you may depend upon it that, if ever a poor
soul [p.105] asked God to show him the way of life, I did,—and that,
too, with all my might, mind, and strength. I could not be a
hypocrite; and to say I was afraid of damnation, when I had no fear of
it at all, that was what I could not do.

vol. 5, p.105
I always had the credit of being the greatest coward in the family,
and hence the others used to take pleasure in ridiculing what they
termed my cowardice. It is also well known that whenever there has
been anything the matter in the shape of Indian difficulties, I have
had the character of being the greatest coward in the country,
especially in the southern part of this Territory; and yet I was not
afraid of hell, when all its miseries were painted before my eyes,
neither would I say that I was under conviction when I was not.

vol. 5, p.105
This meeting was a great one, and the progress made in converting
souls was also great; and they made hell look so terrible to nearly
all present, that they burnt out and frightened about all the sinners
in the place, except myself. At one time they had two hundred sinners
under conviction; and such crying, groaning, sighing, and lamentation
for sins I never heard either before or since: they were so forcible
and terrific, that they are indelibly written on my memory.

vol. 5, p.105
I soon found myself alone; not a soul except myself but was either
converted or awfully on the way. Mr. Cannon, our minister, pointed his
finger at me as I sat alone; for there was not a sinner in the gallery
except myself; and he said, "O sinner, I seal you up to eternal
damnation, in the name of Jesus Christ." He repeated it three times
over, and concluded by saying, "O sinner, may your blood be upon your
own head."

vol. 5, p.105
I went home that evening and scattered my friends about, leaving the
girls at their respective homes; for I, like my brethren, am very fond
of the ladies; therefore I carried a goodly proportion of them to
meeting every day. I thought a good deal upon what I had heard, and
scarcely knew whether to go again or not, but finally concluded that I
would go; therefore the next morning I gathered up my load of
passengers, and carried them to meeting again.

vol. 5, p.105
When on the way to meeting, a young man by the name of Cary asked mo
where I was going to sit that day. I told him I was not very
particular. "Well," said he, "suppose you sit with me." I said,
"Agreed." I had heard this same young man in a previous meeting
formally renounce this world, the flesh, and the Devil.

vol. 5, p.105
When we arrived at the place of meeting, according to agreement, I
followed him with the intention of sitting with him. I had a decided
objection against being driven to heaven, but I found he was actually
leading me to the anxious bench; and I considered that if the priest
the day before, who had sealed me up to eternal damnation, had any
authority, it was very little use in my going to the anxious bench.

vol. 5, p.105
I did not discover where friend Cary was leading me to, till I got
near by the minister. He looked at me, when I turned away from the
anxious bench, and he again walked into the pulpit, and pronounced the
solemn sealing of eternal damnation upon me, and again appended to it
that my blood was to be upon my own head.

vol. 5, p.105
On that day, the Reverend Mr. Williams delivered an address on the
untold miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. Whether my mind
was then agitated in consequence of the solemn woes pronounced upon me
by the other minister, or whether the address was such a very eloquent
one, I cannot now say; but, of all the discourses describing hell,
eternal damnation, and the complication of miseries to which damned
souls were subjected, it seemed to me that his [p.106] address was the
most terrific. I admired it for its sublimity and the beautiful
descriptive powers that were exhibited throughout the whole discourse;
and where he got it from I did not know, and of course could not tell.

vol. 5, p.106
At the conclusion of the meeting, I gathered up my passengers, took
them home, and distributed them about, and told them that I had no
idea of going any more to the protracted meeting for, said I, I have
been sealed up nine times to eternal damnation, and hence, if the
priest had any authority, it is no use in my going any more; but, said
I, if he indeed had any, he would not act the infernal fool.

vol. 5, p.106
[Elder O. Hyde blessed the sacramental cup.]

vol. 5, p.106
I have, no doubt, wearied you with so minute a detail of my
experience; but it is at least a gratification to me to relate it; and
hence, I trust, you will excuse my being so minute in detail.

vol. 5, p.106
A short time after this, the Elders of Israel preached in our
neighbourhood the doctrines of repentance and baptism for the
remission of sins, precisely as preached by the Apostle Peter and by
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. These doctrines I was pleased to
hear. I believed them and received them in my heart.

vol. 5, p.106
Now, you are all aware how I was formerly sealed up to eternal
damnation. Notwithstanding this, I was waited upon by the agent of the
"Presbyterian Young Man's Society," and told that if I would abandon
my father, and pledge myself never to become a "Mormon," they would
give me seven years' education; and then, at the expiration of that
time, I might study divinity, and become a minister of the
Presbyterian order.

vol. 5, p.106
But, said I, Mr. Cannon sealed me up to eternal damnation, and hence
it would not do for me to become a minister. He replied," Oh, that
don't make any difference." Well, then, said I, if that is all the
force your religion and your ministers have, I will not have anything
to do with them. Then he concluded they would not require me to
preach, but he said they would give me seven years' education, and
then I might choose what profession I liked.

vol. 5, p.106
I told him I was required to honour my father, and as he was sick, I
should attend to him at present, however much I might desire an
education.

vol. 5, p.106
As soon as I had got baptised, all the folks in the neighbourhood
commenced imposing upon me. The idea that they had of a religious man
was this—If he would stand still to be spit upon, to be mocked, and
abused, then he was religious; but if he resented any of these
insults, then they considered that he had no religion.

vol. 5, p.106
I was very large of my age, but I had not strength in proportion to my
size, and I was always very clumsy; but finally I told the boys who
were imposing upon me, that it was part of my religion to fight, and I
pulled off my coat and flogged the whole school, and from that day I
was respected so long as I stayed in the neighbourhood.

vol. 5, p.106
It was with a good deal of reluctance, however, that many of the boys
who had previously been able to handle me would yield; for some of
them were four or five years older than I was: but in two days it was
all finished up, and I had peace.

vol. 5, p.106
That winter I commenced to study arithmetic. I had previously studied
geography, as you have already learned and during that winter I worked
at arithmetic until I got to "Vulger Fractions," but I could not find
out what vulgar fractions were, and I don't know yet, and hence I do
not think I am entitled to much credit for the proficiency attained in
my education.

vol. 5, p.107
[p.107] I always took great pleasure in reading history, both
religious and profane; but as to getting an education such as is
requisite for a professional man in the world, I did not have the
chance, excepting the one before alluded to, and that I did not choose
to accept of.

vol. 5, p.107
In 1833 I moved to Kirtland with my father, and went to work on the
Temple, doing whatever I was able to do.

vol. 5, p.107
I will here digress from the subject of my experience, and remark that
I have asked a great many if they could tell who those twenty-four
Elders were who laid the foundation of that Temple; but I have never
yet got the information: and if there are any who can give it, they
are smarter than me, and I was there and looked on. If there are any
of the brethren who have this information, they should hand it in to
the Historian's Office, where it can be preserved in the archives of
the Church.

vol. 5, p.107
It is proper here to say that I went to work at the first principles,
and that you know is necessary for every one to do. I went to work at
quarrying rock, then hauling rock, tending mason, and performing such
other work as I was considered capable of doing in my bungling way.

vol. 5, p.107
We were a pious people in those days; but, notwithstanding our piety,
our neighbours soon talked of mobbing us. They had already tarred and
feathered the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon, and they threatened us
with mobbing and expulsion. As I remarked, we were then very pious,
and we prayed the Lord to kill the mob.

vol. 5, p.107
It was but a little time before the Saints were driven out of Jackson
county, Missouri, the printing press destroyed, men tarred and
leathered women ravished, and men, women, and children scattered to
the four winds of heaven, all in consequence of our religion.

vol. 5, p.107
Now, I am never afraid when I do not think anything is going to hurt
me. When I am certain that there is no danger, then I am not the least
afraid. The reason I have been called a coward has been from the fact
that, whenever I believed there was any danger, I have always gone in
for providing for it, and used my ingenuity to thwart that danger; and
hence I have been called a coward by some.

vol. 5, p.107
With my brethren who have addressed you, I have lain by the side of
the Prophet, in Kirtland, to guard him half of each night for a whole
winter, so that, if anything occurred, I could give notice to all the
brethren in a very short time.

vol. 5, p.107
I have been by those cross roads that some of the brethren remember,
and have seen our enemies pass by so near that I could have knocked
them down with a stick. Things were so arranged that, if a
considerable number came along, I was prepared to communicate it to
the brethren. I have had considerable experience, and I have learned
that, curious as it may appear, whenever a man becomes a Latter-day
Saint, the Devil wants to kill him.

vol. 5, p.107
As I have told you, I was raised in the northern part of New York, a
rough country, where, instead of going to get poles to fence with, we
used to cut down hemlock trees, and split them up into rails.

vol. 5, p.107
East is said to be the quarter for light: hence it may be admitted
that I have acquired a little. I once strayed as far as Massachusetts,
and in a town where there were several Baptist priests. I endeavoured
to preach the Gospel; but they sent their sons into the meeting-house,
who smoked out the congregation with brimstone; and that is a specimen
of what would be poured out upon the Saints by the whole Christian
world, if they had the opportunity.

vol. 5, p.108
[p.108] In an address delivered some years ago, I spoke of Maryland as
a State of liberty; but our reporters made me say
Massachusetts,—though they are not to blame, for they are raw
Englishmen, and therefore the fault must have been with the Editor.

vol. 5, p.108
I said that Massachusetts was the hotbed of superstition and religious
intolerance, and that Maryland was the first State that by her laws
and institutions allowed men to worship God as they pleased. Whether
this mistake was accidental or not, I cannot say, but I wish now to
correct it for I do believe Massachusetts to be the very hotbed of
superstition and religious intolerance.

vol. 5, p.108
In the progress of this Church mobs gathered around us, and continued
to grow thicker till our history brought us to Far West, where the
Governor ordered out seventeen thousand troops to exterminate the
"Mormons," and a great many were marched on to the ground preparatory
to being shot by the order of Major Clark.

vol. 5, p.108
There are a great many men alive that were there, and, lived through
the operation, and who were finally driven from Missouri, not to say
anything of the hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thousands who are
dead, whose deaths were more or less caused by the sufferings and
distress that were brought upon them by their extermination.

vol. 5, p.108
It was a free State; it was a free country: it had a Constitution that
guaranteed liberty, at least to every white man. All religions were
tolerated by their laws; but we must be exterminated from the State,
because we were that kingdom which had been spoken of.

vol. 5, p.108
The result was that Prophets and High Priests were arrested and put in
prison, numbers of them were murdered, women were ravished, goods and
property stolen, houses burnt, and children butchered, and every
possible cruelty was invented to cure men of their religion.

vol. 5, p.108
I told Mr. Morril, of Vermont, last winter, that it was utterly
impossible by law to change men's opinions. If a man believes a thing,
you may whip him, and he will believe it still.

vol. 5, p.108
Men and women are as apt to be tenacious as the old lady was down in
the country, where men have but one wife. She got quarrelling with her
husband, and called him "crack-louse." He told her that if she called
him that any more, he would drown her. She repeated it again, and he
took and put her in the river, then took her out, and she said,
"Crack-louse!" So he put her in again, and held her down awhile, till
she was almost gone. Then he took her out again, and she could hardly
speak, but finally she made out to say, "C-r-a-c-k-l-o-u-s-e!" He was
determined to use her up; so he put her down, and held her under till
she was dead; but she came up with her finger nails clenched, or
rather in the position required for cracking a louse. So, you see, she
stuck to it to the last moment.

vol. 5, p.108
So it is with our Uncle Sam—our dear, infirm, old uncle; although he
has got very rich, and has got several millions of money in the
Treasury that he scarcely knows what to do with, he wants to expend
some of it in bringing us to the standard of virtue and righteousness
according to their notions. To this end he is sending out 2,500
troops, with ministers and schoolmasters to regulate things in Utah.
Notwithstanding all this, he may possibly find some instances where
people may be as determined and stern in their notions as the old lady
was of whom I have been speaking.

vol. 5, p.108
Now, a religion that is not worth living for is not worth having. If
religion is not worth living for, I am  sure it is not worth dying
for; and of course, if we are not willing to stand [p.109] the test,
our religion is of very little use. Our enemies judge us by
themselves, for they know that the best of them will renounce their
religion for the sake of self interest. They treat it as a mere work
of time.

vol. 5, p.109
A gentleman once asked another why he turned from the reformed
Methodists to the Episcopalians; and he said, in reply, "A good fat
living will change any of us." If we can be changed in our religious
views by a few soldiers or a few threats, we certainly made a great
blunder in coming out here, that we may have the privilege of turning
a little, and of giving a little change into the bargain. Our dear old
Uncle has had a desire to give us a little of the change from the time
we came here. Soon after we arrived, we began to turn this desert into
a garden. There came a captain with troops into this city: they were a
specimen of the virtue and morality of the United States. They came
here and began to insult the people, and then tried to cover up their
wickedness by the dignity of Uncle Samdom. Passing along, they came to
a lone house, and there undertook to ravish a woman in open daylight;
and the brother who interfered to prevent this villanous outrage was
most shamefully maltreated by them, and got some of his bones broken.
After this outrage, the officers of the company were soon told that if
they did not take their troops out of the city, the "Mormons" would
cut all their damned throats; and that was the last we had of them
here.

vol. 5, p.109
I may be a little mistaken as to the precise language made use of; but
this subject follows up so close to what I had in my mind, that I
wanted to ask myself what I was now going to do in case the soldiers
come here.

vol. 5, p.109
From year to year we have had companies of these gentry visiting us,
and remaining for a season, and then going away. The Government have
tried, year after year, to establish garrisons, and get troops into
these valleys. They have had troops at Laramie, at Fort Hall, and
several other points; but circumstances so turned that they soon
marched into Oregon.

vol. 5, p.109
The talk now is that they are going to bring 2,500 soldiers into this
Territory. That is not a peace establishment; for twenty-five hundred
men are not enough to obtain peace in an Indian country. These troops,
we are informed, are to be furnished with fifteen months' provisions,
to be delivered in this city this fall, and twelve months' provisions
to be lodged on the other side of the mountain. They are to have four
hundred mule teams for hauling their extra baggage, and they are to be
provided with judges. and a full corps of territorial officers; and
these soldiers are sent along to enforce their rule. This is what we
understand from those channels which have been opened to us.

vol. 5, p.109
Whether it is done with the intention of making a disturbance here and
taking the lives of our leaders, the facts in the case being known to
the Government of the United States is not for me at present to say.
The mail is stopped, and no more permitted to run, because, they say,
of the unsettled state of affairs in Utah.

vol. 5, p.109
Now, I am a "Mormon," and a descendant of the old Puritanical stock
that descended from the old Anglo-Saxon reformers, and hence I feel
all the sentiments of resentment that any man could feel during the
rise against the mother country, when our forefathers were determined
to break off the yoke of bondage and be free. When I see men, the
descendants of those worthy sires who were the first to stand forth
and create the resolution of the colonies, and to break loose from the
King of Great Britain, —I say, when I realize that my own country and
nation are disposed to hold the sword over my head and to threaten me
with extermination, I [p.110] feel to say, Let them send who they
please. They are determined to send who they please for Governor, who
they please for Judges, and who they please for our Territorial
Officers, and to permit those men whom they send to place their
interpretation upon the acts of our Territorial Legislature, and upon
the condition of things as they surround us; and I care but little
what comes next.

vol. 5, p.110
They will send men here who are ignorant of the circumstances that
surround us,—men who are totally ignorant of the irrigation of the
land by mountain streams; they will permit them to interfere with the
rights of the people of this Territory, with fifteen hundred or two
thousand bayonets to back them up.

vol. 5, p.110
Under these circumstances, as big a coward as I am, I would say what I
pleased; and for one thing I would say that every man that had
anything to do with such a filthy, unconstitutional affair was a
damned scoundrel. There is not a man, from the President of the United
States to the Editors of their sanctorums, clear down to the low-bred
letter-writers in this Territory, but would rob the coppers from a
dead nigger's eyes, if they had a good opportunity. If I had the
command of thunder and lightning, I would never let one of the damned
scoundrels get here alive.

vol. 5, p.110
I have heretofore said but very little about the Gentiles; but I have
heard all that Drummond has said, and I have read all his lying,
infamous letters; and although I have said but little, I think a heap.
You must know that I love my friends, and God Almighty knows that I do
hate my enemies. There have been men, and women, and children enough
who have died through the oppression and tyranny of our enemies to
damn any nation under heaven; and now a nation of 25,000,000 of people
must exercise its wealth in violation of its own principles and the
rights guaranteed by the blood of their fathers—blood that is more
sacred than their own heart springs; and this they are doing to crush
down a little handful who dwell in the midst of these mountains, and
who dare to worship God as they please, and who dare to sing, pray,
preach, think, and act as they please.

vol. 5, p.110
All I have to say is, Just go ahead and burst your boiler. [Voice:
They will.] This is the way the thing shapes itself in my mind; and if
I were not afraid to die, I would fight as long as there was a finger
left. Yes, if I were not afraid to die, I would fight till there was
not as much left of me as there was of the Kilkenny cats. Just look at
him—view his conduct towards this people: besides his being my uncle,
he has acted most shamefully mean. When I told my uncle I was afraid,
he only laughed at me; but I now tell you that if I were not such a
well-known coward, I would die like a man of war. The very idea that a
man has been awed down by the bayonet is something that I cannot
stand. It will do very well for the Emperor of France, and it may do
for the Autocrat of Russia, but it don't do for freeborn men; and if
asked which we will prefer slavery or death, we should be very apt to
answer in the language of a Roman senator, if we had any voice in this
matter, who, when this question was once put in the days of Julius
Cæsar and Pompey, promptly answered, We prefer death to slavery. But
you know we are Latter-day Saints—we are "Mormons," and hence we
cannot be treated as free men.

vol. 5, p.110
Report says that the plan is deep, and it is laid with the intention
of murdering every man that will stand up for "Mormonism." But the
evil which they design towards us will fait upon their own heads, and
it  will grind them to powder. The men that have been living in these
valleys, [p.111] living their religion, and serving their God. They
will laugh at their calamities, and mock when their fear cometh.

vol. 5, p.111
We must die like the Irishman, and then we shall do well enough. An
old parson was riding along one day, and met with an Irishman, and
said, "Sir, have you made your peace with God?" Pat replied, "Faith,
an I've never had a falling out." The parson seemed very much
surprised at the answer, and very piously said, "You are lost, you are
lost!" The Irishman very quaintly answered, "Faith, and how can I be
lost right in the middle of a great big turnpike?" The moral which I
wish to deduce from this is, that, if we have not had a falling out
with our God, we are in the middle of the great turnpike. They may cut
off our supplies of tobacco and tea. [Voice: What a pity!] Why, bless
you, there are young men in Israel who would suffer far more, if
deprived of their tobacco, than the ladies would if their ribbons had
to be stripped off right in the public meeting; and therefore I advise
them to go to work and plant tobacco, for if they were deprived of it,
it would take away their peace and happiness, and they could not nasty
and besmear everything within a mile of them; and when they wanted to
come and get counsel, they would not be able to let out of their
months a stench that would drive away a skunk.

vol. 5, p.111
I feel great pity for those young men, and I would like to discipline
them as a certain lieutenant did the cabin boy on a steam packet. He
said, "Boy, there is something the matter with your mouth," whereupon
he ordered one of the sailors to bring him a pair of tongs, and
ordered the boy to open his mouth, and with the tongs took out a large
quid of tobacco. He then called for some canvass and sand and scoured
the boy's mouth out, and told him that when he got sick and needed
that again, he was to call on him and he would give him another dose.

vol. 5, p.111
I consider it a disgrace to any young man under thirty-five years of
age to use tobacco. [Voice: Forty is the age.] That is my age: I was
thinking I was thirty-five.

vol. 5, p.111
Brethren and sisters, I am a Latter-day Saint, and I know that this is
the people of God; I know that this people have the Priesthood, and
that Brigham Young is as much an inspired man as was Moses or any
other man that ever lived upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.111
This is my testimony, and I believe that if I were cut in pieces,
though I never was killed, and of course don't know how it feels; but
I do not believe that it would alter my testimony.

vol. 5, p.111
I am a good deal like the man in the old world, where they have but
one wife. He was shaving, and at the same time having some unpleasant
words with his wife: finally, he said he would cut his throat if she
did not hold her noise. She replied, "Cut away; I am young and
handsome." "I would, if I did not think it would hurt so damned bad."
And I don't know but it would feel so very bad to be killed, that I am
really afraid where there is any danger. But just so long as I think
there is no danger, I shall go ahead.

vol. 5, p.111
Brethren and sisters, pardon me for detaining you so long; and may the
Lord God of Israel bless you, and may He curse and damn every
scoundrel that would bring misery and injury upon this innocent
people. Amen. [p.112]

John Taylor, August 9, 1857

Difference Between The Spirit of Zion and the Spirit of
The World—Doings in The States, Etc.

Remarks by Elder John Taylor, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, August 9, 1857.

vol. 5, p.112
Beloved brethren and friends,—Being called upon this morning to
address you in a few words, I do so with very great pleasure. The sea
of upturned faces that present themselves to my view at the present
time is indeed something new, although I have been in what may be
called the metropolis of the United States for some length of time.

vol. 5, p.112
Gazing round upon my brethren and sisters with smiling countenances
and happy, contented feelings, imparts peculiar sensations to my mind;
and it is difficult for me at the present time to concentrate my
thoughts so as to express the feelings that are in my bosom, if in
fact I could express them. Suffice it to say that I am glad to be
here; I am happy to meet with my brethren of the Priesthood, and my
sisters, and all those who are friends to the cause of God; I rejoice
to see you, and am glad of the opportunity of standing before you once
more to speak of the things pertaining to the interests of Zion, and
the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.112
There are many here who, like me have been absent from home for some
time, who, when they come to meet with former associations and
friends, particularly those with whom they have battled for years in
the cause and kingdom of God, feel as I feel on the present occasion.
Those alone, and there are many of them, can enter into the sympathies
and emotions which I experience at the present time.

vol. 5, p.112
There is a very material difference between associating with those
that have the fear of God before their eyes, whose first object is
their own salvation, the salvation of their progenitors and posterity,
and the building up of the kingdom of God, and associating with those
who "have not God in all their thoughts," who regard him not in all
their transactions, but who are living "without God and without hope
in the world," whose hearts—and I am sorry to say it, but yet it is
true—whose hearts are "full of cursing and bitterness," who roll sin
under their tongues as a sweet morsel, "whose feet are swift to shed
blood," and "the way of of peace," as the Prophet hath said, "they
have not known."

vol. 5, p.112
There is a very material difference between associating with men and
women who are the sons and daughters of Zion, and characters such as I
have last named. The contrast is so striking, the spirit is so
different, the atmosphere varies so much, that any man possessing one
spark or particle of the Spirit of the Most High must experience it
the moment he breathes the atmosphere and comes in contact with the
two contending parties. The one is engaged in the acquisition of
wealth: gold is their god, and, associated with that, lust, pollution,
and corruption of every kind.

vol. 5, p.112
While we are aiming to fulfil our [p.113] destiny on the earth, to
accomplish the object for which we were created, to magnify our
calling, to honour our God, to build up His kingdom, to redeem the
earth from the curse under which it groans, to roll back the tide of
corruption that seems to have overspread the universe, our opponents
are engaged in pursuits directly tending to dissolution and
destruction. Their lives, their views, their objects are short,
transient, and evanescent. Ours are wide as the universe, extended as
eternity, deep as the foundations of the earth, and elevated as the
throne of God; receiving and imparting blessings that are rich,
glorious, and eternal,—blessings which effect us and our posterity
through endless ages that are yet to come.

vol. 5, p.113
The contrast so striking, so vivid, so manifest, is it to be wondered
at, when a person reflects upon these matters, that ten thousand
thoughts should crowd upon the mind and produce sensations that is
impossible to fully express with human language. Such, then, are my
sentiments, and such my feelings.

vol. 5, p.113
I have been for some length of time past associated with the Gentiles.
I have been engaged in battling corruption, iniquity, and the foul
spirits that seem to fill the atmosphere of what you may term the
lower regions, if you please; and the Lord has been with me, His
Spirit has dwelt in my bosom, and I have felt to shout, Hallelujah!
and to praise the name of the God of Israel, that He has been pleased
to make me a messenger of salvation to the nations of the earth, to
communicate the rich blessings flowing from the throne of God, and put
me in possession of truth that no power on this or on the other side
of hell can controvert successfully.

vol. 5, p.113
In regard to the world, the Elders who have been out, as I have, and
as others have around me, know something of its nature and spirit, and
the feelings by which the people are governed and actuated. Our young
men and women, who have not come in contact with it, can scarcely
conceive of the amount of iniquity, depravity, corruption, lying,
deception, and abomination of every kind that prevails in the Gentile
world.

vol. 5, p.113
Talk of honesty! It is a thing in theory; and they will preach about
it as loud and as long as anybody. As a a matter of theory, it is
honourable to be honest—to be men of truth theoretically; but when you
come to put your finger upon it, you cannot find it, it is like a
shadow—it vanishes from your grasp.

vol. 5, p.113
Where are the men of truth—nationally, socially, religiously, morally,
politically, or in any other way? Where are the patriots? Where are
the men of God? I declare before you and high heaven, I have not found
them. Sometimes I have thought I had got my hand upon them, but they
slipped out of my fingers.

vol. 5, p.113
I bless the God of Israel that I am permitted to mingle with the
Saints of the Most High—to associate with men who, when I meet them
and ask them concerning anything, I may expect to have an honest and
truthful answer—men in whom there is some truth, some integrity,
something to to catch hold of, something you can rely upon.

vol. 5, p.113
To speak of men whom I have seen dissatisfied, and who have gone back
to Babylon, I must say that I do not very much admire their taste. If
people understood things as I do, and as I have seen and experienced
them, they would thank God from the bottom of their hearts that they
are permitted to have a name and a place among the people of God in
these valleys of the mountains.

vol. 5, p.113
We have been engaged in publishing a paper, which is generally known,
because it has been circulated here. About my proceedings and acts, I
[p.114] have got very little to say, only that I have done as well as
I could, the Lord being my helper; and I believe my brethren here have
prayed for me, and that I have been sustained by their prayers and
faith.

vol. 5, p.114
I have not, been in that place, because it was my desire to be there
for I have had a hard struggle and a good deal to pass through: but
that is common with us all; and if there wore no struggle, there would
be no honour in a victory.

vol. 5, p.114
I have conversed with some of the Twelve since I came home, and they
all feel about the same; and when have read about your affairs here,
and the position in which you have been placed, I have said, "My
brethren have had to struggle."

vol. 5, p.114
There is one thing that I have noticed: wherever I have come across a
Saint, they differ very materially from others. I have met with those
in different places who have been sent opt on missions to the various
stations, and missionaries going off to preach in Canada and other
places; and I found, wherever I came in contact with one of them, I
came in contact with a man; and wherever I came in contact with those
who had not seen up here, I came in contact with children —babies, if
you please, hardly knowing their right hand from their left, I mean in
the practical sense of the word.

vol. 5, p.114
There are a great many theorists in the world. They can talk and
splutter, and make a noise, and have a great many theories; but they
cannot reduce them to practice. There is no energy, vitality, or
power. But come in contact with our own brethren, and they are all
quick, full of animation, life, and energy; and there is a spirit
infused into them that I do not see anywhere else. This is my
experience.

vol. 5, p.114
You may pick up men from any part of the world you please, and bring
them to this place, and what are they fit for? They are poor,
miserable, croaking old grannies. But there is something in the
atmosphere of the place—something in the scenery we have passed
through. There is something in the difficulties we have spoken about,
and something in our joys and prospects, that has a tendency to
strengthen the mind and brace up the nerves. There is something, too,
in the hope that is implanted in the bosom, that is different from
that in the possession of other men.

vol. 5, p.114
Every true man among us feels he is a Saint of the living God, and
that he has an interest in the kingdom of God; every man feels that he
is a king and a priest of the Most High God. He is a saviour, and he
stands forth and acts with energy and power, with influence, and he is
full of the Spirit of the Lord. Hence the difference between them and
others, and hence the necessity of the experience we are passing
through, the various trials we have to combat with, and the
difficulties we have to overcome.

vol. 5, p.114
All these things seem to me to be so many lessons, which it is
absolutely necessary for the young, the middle-aged, and the aged to
learn, to prepare them and their posterity for more active scenes in
the rolling forth of the great work of God in the last days.
Consequently, if we have to pass through a few trials, a few
difficulties, a few afflictions, and to meet with a few privations,
they have a tendency to purify the metal, purge it from the dross, and
prepare it for the Master's use.

vol. 5, p.114
So far as I am concerned, I say, let everything come as God has
ordained it. I do not desire trials; I do not desire affliction: I
would pray to God to "leave me not in temptation, and deliver me from
evil; for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory." But if the
earthquake bellows, the lightnings flash, the  thunders roll, [p.115]
and the powers of darkness are let loose, and the spirit of evil is
permitted to rage, and an evil influence is brought to bear on the
Saints, and my life, with theirs, is put to the test; let it come, for
we are the Saints of the most High God, and all is well, all is peace,
all is right, and will be, both in time and in eternity.

vol. 5, p.115
But I do not want trials; I do not want to put a straw in anybody's
way; and, if I know my own feelings, I do not want to hurt any man
under the heavens, nor injure the hair of any person's head. I would
like to do every man good. These are the feelings, the spirit which
the Gospel has implanted in my bosom, and that the Spirit of God
implants in the bosoms of my brethren. And if men will pursue an
improper course, the evil, of course, must be on their own heads. 

vol. 5, p.115
I used to think, if I were the Lord, I would not suffer people to be
tried as they are; but I have changed my mind on that subject. Now I
think I would if I were the Lord, because it purges out the meanness
and corruption that stick around the Saints, like flies around
molasses.

vol. 5, p.115
We have met on the road a great many apostates. I do not want to say
much about them. If they can be happy, all right; but hey do not
exhibit it. When a man deserts from the Gospel, from the ordinances,
from the Priesthood and its authority, from the revelations of the
Spirit of God, from the spirit of prophecy, from that sweet, calm
influence that broods over the upright man in alt his acts, he loses
the blessing of God, and falls back into error; and, as the Scripture
says, "The evil spirit that went out of him, returns again, bringing
with him seven spirits more wicked than himself; and the last state of
that man is worse than the first."

vol. 5, p.115
It has become proverbial, where apostate "Mormons" live, to say, "Oh,
he is only an apostate Mormon." They look upon them as ten times
meaner than a "Mormon."

vol. 5, p.115
I happened to go into a barber's shop, one day, to get shaved. A man
came in, and when he went out again, the enquiry was made, "Who is
that man?" "Oh, he is only an apostate Mormon." Their mouths are full
of cursing; and you will find them chewing tobacco and getting drunk,
thinking that, by so doing, they will recommend themselves to the
people; but they have not learned the art very well; they can't swear
and degrade themselves so naturally as others, and the people find
them out and repudiate them.

vol. 5, p.115
You that don't know him, have heard of Thomas B. Marsh, who was
formerly the President of the Twelve Apostles, but who apostatized
some years ago, in Missouri. He is on his way here, a poor, decrepid,
broken down, old man. He has had a paralytic stroke—one of, his arms
hangs down. He is coming out here as an object of charity, destitute,
without wife, child, or anything else. He has been an apostate some
eighteen years. Most of you know his history. He has been all the time
since then afraid of his life—afraid the "Mormons" would kill him; and
he durst not let them know where he was.

vol. 5, p.115
In meeting with some of the apostates, he said to them, "You don't
know what you are about; if you want to see the fruits of apostacy,
look on me." I thought they could not look on a better example.

vol. 5, p.115
In relation to some of those other folks that left here—the
Gladdenites and others—where are they?  Some of them that contended
most strenuously for Gladden have cast him off, and now have nothing
to tie to. Where is their hope of salvation?

vol. 5, p.115
In regard to the spirit of the time, I do not know but that I have
published my feelings. I would observe, [p.116] however, that there is
a material difference between the people of the East and the people of
the West. A great majority of the people of the West, on the borders,
may be emphatically termed "Border ruffians." The Eastern people call
them by that name, and by that name they are known. There is a species
of ruffianism among them, of rowdyism, groggeryism, of bantering,
bullying, fighting, and killing, that is a disgrace to humanity.

vol. 5, p.116
The most of you who have read the news must be familiar with the
scenes that have transpired in Kansas between the two parties that
have existed there—one party in favour of slavery, and the other
opposed to it. There has been a great struggle between them, and
mobocracy has abounded to a great extent. Who are the best and who are
the worst, would be very difficult for me to tell.

vol. 5, p.116
The Eastern people, of whom I have been speaking, as quick as they go
to the borders, partake of the spirit that reigns there, and turn
"border ruffians" too. It is not difficult for them to enter into it;
for the spirit of deep seated hatred which prevails among many in the
East towards the South soon breaks out, and their feelings are
manifested in acts of violence, and they generally maintain their
points by the bowie knife and pistol, by mob violence, vigilance
committees, &c.

vol. 5, p.116
This disorder of things extends all along the frontiers. If a man does
not do right, they get up a vigilance committee, and it takes up a
man, judges him, whips him, banishes him, or puts him to death, as
they please; and it has become popular to act in this way in all those
border places.

vol. 5, p.116
They are called "border ruffians," and I think the name is as
appropriate as anything you could give them. I do not know that I
could pick out a better title. In the East, they do it with their
tongues; they do not use the bowie knives, pistols, and rifles so much
as in the West and in the South; but a spirit of rancour, animosity,
and hatred seems to be engendered in the bosoms of the people, one
against another. They have their most deadly enemies in their very
midst. Every man's hand is against his neighbour.

vol. 5, p.116
The feelings of the North and South have run very high, each party
seeking to support their own peculiar views alone, and truth is out of
the question. If they tell the truth, it is by accident. The object is
not to tell the truth, but to sustain parties and party interests; for
to tell the truth is not generally considered very politic.

vol. 5, p.116
True, there is a great profession of truth, and a great deal of
apparent abhorrence of lies and falsehood, because falsehood is not
popular, although it is practised all the time.

vol. 5, p.116
The ministers say it is right to tell the truth, and then go to work
and lie. One politician banters another, on account of the
hypocritical course he has taken: and as quick as he has done that, he
goes to work and lies, and deceives as much as he possibly can to
sustain his party; and it is not whether a thing is true or not, but
whether it is policy or not; and if a thing becomes policy, every
influence, every kind of chicanery, falsehood, and deception is
brought to bear upon it; and when a little truth wilt tell better,
they mix that up along with it, but it is generally the least
ingredient in the whole mass.

vol. 5, p.116
Talk to them about the Gospel and the Scriptures! They seem to think,
even the ministers among them, that it is old fogyism. Talk about
Abraham and his institutions! Say they, "You are taking us back to the
dark ages. Such things would do eighteen hundred years ago; but we are
more [p.117] enlightened now; we have got more philosophy, more
intelligence, and comprehend the nature of human existence better; we
are men of greater renown than they. Those things might do for our
grandfathers and great-grandfathers, but they will not do for us."

vol. 5, p.117
If a little Scripture will suit them, they put it in; but if it won't,
they keep it out, and talk about expediency. Expediency is the great
principle by which men are governed.

vol. 5, p.117
Talk about politics! What is it? It is this or that man's policy. "If
it is policy to tell the truth, we will tell it; if not, we will tell
a lie." A man cannot obtain a cause because it is just, but because it
is policy, and because he can bring certain influences to bear on that
thing. This is about the position of things as I find them, so far as
my experience goes.

vol. 5, p.117
But, as is the case in Congress, bullyism seems to be one of the most
prominent arguments in the West, where they seem to imitate their
honourable example. These are the two prominent places—Kansas and
Congress. Brother Bernhisel here has been among them there; he knows
something about it and something about their proceedings. If a man
dare get up there and speak his sentiments, another stands over with a
cane, and goes to work at coning him, and lays him in a sick bed for
several months, so that he cannot speak; and for this dignified act,
he is presented with numerous canes by his constituents, to show how
they appreciate this Congressional argument, and to prove to others
that if they speak the truth, they may lookout for a coning. These
things take place in this land of liberty and in the Congress of the
United States. We have had a good deal of trouble sometimes in getting
our appropriations; in fact, not sometimes, but always. And I will
tell you how they do in the West and in California. A fellow goes up
and seizes another by the collar, and says,"Damn you, if you stand in
my way, I will put this into you,"—showing him a deadly weapon. The
official says, "I am afraid that fellow will kill me; I will give him
what he wants. But if an honest man goes and asks for his rights, he
cannot get them, simply because he his honest, particularly if he
happens to be a "Mormon."

vol. 5, p.117
I have vowed in my own mind, over and over again, if I was in Utah,
the United States might stand over me until doomsday, before I would
do anything for them, unless I was paid for it beforehand. Excuse me,
Governor Young, if I am not very patriotic. No men need call upon me
to do anything in Utah for the United States, unless they pay me the
money down. I won't trust them.

vol. 5, p.117
I speak from experience—from things I have seen and known—from
circumstances that have come under my own notice. I have seen the
difficulties my brethren have laboured under, when they have had to do
with Congress or the Departments at Washington.

vol. 5, p.117
Any unprincipled scoundrel, no matter how mean, if he comes with a
bowie knife or revolver in his hand, can get what he wants. People
back East used to blame me for speaking and writing plain. I talk the
same now. I feel that I can be sustained by the truth; and if I cannot
live by truth, I will die by it and I am not afraid of telling it
before any people. I met a gentleman on the road, on his way to the
States from California. I asked him how things were getting on in
Utah. He said, "Very well; all is peace there; they seem to do very
well. Are you going there?" "Yes, sir, I am going to Utah." "Did you
live there?" "Yes." "I think it is not prudent, the policy upon which
they [p.118] act. I would recommend your people to pursue a quiet
policy. I saw everything peaceable and quiet there as could possibly
be in any community; but I heard Governor Young talk about General
Harney. He said he was the squaw-killing General. I did not think that
was courteous to be said of a United States' officer." I replied, Are
we the only people that must not talk about the United States'
officers? What do you do in California, in the East, and everywhere we
go? Are we going to be imposed on from time to time, and not have the
privilege of saying our souls are our own? "Oh, I merely recommend it
as the best policy to be peaceable and quiet until you get to be a
State, and for the present put up with these things." I said, We have
been outrageously imposed upon by United States' officials. They send
out every rag-tag and bobtail, and every mean nincompoop they can
scrape up from the filth and scum of society, and dub him a United
States' officer; and are we expected to receive all manner of insults
from such men without one word of complaint? They will assuredly find
themselves mistaken. "What! you don't mean to say you will fight
against the United States?" We don't want to; but we feel that we have
as much right to talk as anybody. We have rights, as American
citizens, and we cannot be eternally trampled on; but we shall
assuredly maintain our constitutional rights, speak fearlessly our
opinions, and take just the course that we think proper. That is our
policy, and we shall pursue a course of that kind. He replied, "My
idea is, that quietness and peace is better." I told him, it is,
sometimes; but a little bristle sometimes does good in keeping off the
dogs. That is about how I feel.

vol. 5, p.118
In relation to the general condition of things in the East at this
time, there has been a great hue-and-cry, and almost every editor,
priest, and dog that could howl, has been yelping. They joined
heartily with Drummond, one of our amiable, pure, virtuous United
States' officers. You know him. I never saw him; but I have heard
about him as one of those spotless, immaculate, holy kind of men that
they sent from the United States to teach us good morals, correct
procedure, virtue, &c., &c.

vol. 5, p.118
This pure man commenced a tirade against us, then other dogs began to
bark. We soon told the truth about it; then, by-and-bye, somebody else
would tell it; and he now stinks so bad, that they actually repudiate
him. He is too mean even for them, and they had to cast him off. They
supported him as long as they could, and finally had to let him drop.

vol. 5, p.118
The people are raging, and they do not know what for. The editor of
the New York Herald, after summing up the whole matter, the only thing
he could bring against us, after trying and trying for several weeks,
was that we have burned some nine hundred volumes of United States'
law books. Of course I do not know anything about it; but if you did
so, it is true, and if you did not, why it is a lie, and it all
fizzles out. And, finally, he says, "The 'Mormons' have got the
advantage of us, and they know it." [Voices: That is true.] That was
one truth, but it was told accidentally; one of those accidental
things that slip out once in a while,—"they have the advantage of us,
and they know know it."

vol. 5, p.118
The majority of the people think you are a most corrupt people,
following a doctrine something like those Free Love societies in the
East. Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, was associated with
one of those societies, and was its principal supporter.

vol. 5, p.118
That is what is called a virtuous kind of an abomination, used under a
[p.119] cloak of philosophy, a species of philosophy imported from
France. Hence they call Greeley a philosopher; and, in writing about
him, I have called him the same. I believe him to be as dishonest a
man as is in existence.

vol. 5, p.119
These are my sentiments and feelings. I have examined his articles,
watched his course, read his paper daily, and have formerly conversed
with him a little; but latterly I would not be seen in his company. I
was thrown in his society in travelling from Boston, and occasionally
met him afterwards; but I would not talk to him: I felt myself
superior to such a mean, contemptible cur. I knew he was not after
truth, but falsehood.

vol. 5, p.119
This Greeley is one of their popular characters in the East, and one
that supports the stealing of niggers and the underground railroad. I
do not know that the editor of the Herald is any more honest; but, as
a journalist, he tells more truth. He publishes many things as they
are, because it is creditable to do so. But Greeley will not; he will
tell what suits his clandestine plans, and leave the rest untold. I
speak of him, because he is one of the prominent newspaper editors in
the Eastern country, and he is a poor, miserable curse.

vol. 5, p.119
I do not consider that many of them are much better. They are in a
state of vassalage; they cannot tell the truth if they felt so
disposed. People talk very loudly about liberty; but there are very
few who comprehend its true principles. There is a species of bondage
that is associated with every grade of society. It is with the
mercantile community, the editorial fraternity, the political world,
and with every body of men you can associate with, up to members of
Congress and the President of the United States. There are yokes made
for men of every grade to put their necks into; and every one bows
down to them willingly, and they are driven in their turn according to
circumstances.

vol. 5, p.119
In the mercantile world there is what is called the credit system,
which I consider one of the greatest curses that was ever introduced
among men. Some will set up a small groggery or grocery; they go into
debt to those who have a bigger groggery; or to a man who can,
perhaps, buy a barrel of whisky at a time, or a few pieces of calico.
These little merchants are in debt to some larger ones in St. Louis;
those to merchants in Cincinatti, New York, and New Orleans; and they
are in debt to larger houses in England, France, Germany, and other
places.

vol. 5, p.119
They all bow the neck: they are all trammeled and bowed down with the
same chain. People talk about our credit not being good lately. I hope
to God nobody will credit a "Mormon." We don't want anything on
credit. I want us to live as we can live; and if we cannot live
without going in to debt to our enemies, let us die—never put our
heads under the yoke.

vol. 5, p.119
The same thing exists in other branches. You may take a constable; he
has got to pledge his honour to support such a man, no matter whether
he keeps a doggery, a groggery, or whether he is an honest man or a
rogue. Then a number of those support some other man that is more
elevated, if there is any elevation in such doings. Then those other
"elevated" ones form combinations and clubs, and sustain others; and
so on, until you get up to the President of the United States, All are
pinioned, and their tongues are tied.

vol. 5, p.119
There is Fremont, that great man, who could not lead a few men over
these mountains without starving them to death. A few men,
understanding his position, got him cooped up in New York, so that he
could not be [p.120] seen without coming at him through committees and
cheeks, bars and bolts, lest he should speak and people find him out;
and after all their great care, he came out at the little end of the
horn: he was not elected.

vol. 5, p.120
When a President is elected, a crowd of men press around him, like so
many hungry dogs, for a division of the spoils, saying, "Mr.
President, what are you going to do for our town? Remember, here is
Mr. So-and-so, who took a prominent position. We want such a one in
such an office. And, finally, after worryings and teasings, and
whining and begging, some. of those little men, mean, contemptible
pups, doggery men, broken-down lawyers; or common, dirty, political
hacks, bring up the rear, swelled up like swill barrels; they come to
the table for the fragments, and, with a hungry maw and not very
delicate stomach, whine out, "Won't you give me a place, if it is only
in Utah?" In order to stop the howling, the President says, "Throw a
bone to that dog, and let him go out;" and he comes out a great big
"United States' officer," dressed in a lion's garb, it is true, but
with the bray of an ass. He comes here, carrying out his groggery and
whoring operations, and seeking to introduce among us eastern
civilization.

vol. 5, p.120
The people here, however, feel a little astonished, some of them,
although they are not very much astonished at anything that
transpires; and when they look at him, they say in their simplicity,
"Why, that man is acting like a beast." His majesty, however, swells
up, struts and puffs, and blows, and says, "You must not insult me: I
am a United States' officer; you are disloyal. I am a United States'
officer; don't speak to me." Of course you are, and a glorious
representative you are.

vol. 5, p.120
I did start once to write a history of the judges sent to Utah; but I
did not get through with it. You know we have the history of the
judges in former days. If I had only had time, I would have liked to
have written a history of the judges of Israel that came out from the
Ammonites and Moabites down yonder.

vol. 5, p.120
There was one man here whom you considered one of the most honourable
men among your judges. I refer to Judge Shaver. I do not know much
about the man; he was spoken highly of, and a great deal of ceremony
made at his funeral. I was on board of a steamer coming up to
Florence, when some gentlemen got to talking about the "Mormons." One
man said, "I was there a year and a half, and I know them to be as
good, peaceable, and quiet a society as I ever was among; but there is
a pack of infernal scoundrels sent among them by the Government, that
are not fit to go anywhere. A man, by the name of Shaver, was sent
there, and he lay drunk around our town six months before he went
there!" Thinks I, if that is one of the best, then the Lord have mercy
on the rest.

vol. 5, p.120
With regard to offce-hunters, they are in bondage to each other; and
even the President of the United States is trammelled, bound down, and
no man has the manliness to say, I dare do as I please.

vol. 5, p.120
These things are so in a monetary point of view, in a religions point
of view, and they are so in a political point of view, and in every
way you can view it. Every man bows down his neck to his fellow, and
they have their parties of every kind in the United States; and every
man must be true to his party, no matter what it is. Politicians are
bound by their parties, editors by their employers, ministers by their
congregations, merchants by their creditors and Governors and
President by political cliques. Divisions,  strife, contention, and
evil are everywhere increasing, [p.121] and there is little room for
truth in the hearts of the people.

vol. 5, p.121
I believe, notwithstanding, there are thousands of honest people in
the United States; but so much evil prevails, and so much corruption,
that it is next to impossible for them to discover the difference
between truth and error.

vol. 5, p.121
Our preaching does not seem to have any value or effect on the minds
of men at all, scarcely. You can revise, renovate, regenerate the
Saints; but come to take hold of the world, and preach to them, it is
like idle tales to them. As I have said, talk to them about the Bible,
and they will tell you it is an old-fashioned, old fogy affair, with
very little exception.

vol. 5, p.121
I have laboured myself, as the rest of the Elders have, and the
general result, wherever we have preached the Gospel, has been the
same. I remember, in old Connecticut, the land of steady habits, some
few embraced the Gospel, and one or two we had to cut off from the
Church in a week or two after. There was one old lady, a farmer's
wife; she believed, and her husband treated us kindly, and they got a
place for us to preach in, &c., and after listening for some time,
said she would give anybody five hundred dollars to prove "Mormonism"
untrue. I said I would do it for half of that sum: if she wanted a
lie, she should have it.

vol. 5, p.121
In the neighbourhood of Tom's River, a number came into the Church;
some have stood, and some have not: they are doing pretty well there.
There was as good a Church when I first went there as I found in the
East. There was also another in Philadelphia. In New York, when we
went there, we found a people that called themselves "Mormons." I
called a meeting, and there was only two that I would acknowledge as
such. I told the rest to go their own way; told them what I
acknowledged to be "Mormonism," and, if they would not walk up to
that, they might take their own course,

vol. 5, p.121
Since then, a great many emigrants have come from the, old
countries—from England, France, Germany, Denmark, and other places.
They form quite a body: there are now five or six hundred. At
Philadelphia and around there, there have been some few brought in;
but most of the Saints there are those who have come in from England
and other places.

vol. 5, p.121
It is almost impossible to produce any effect on the feelings of the
people. In New Jersey, I held several days' meeting, to see if
something could be done. They turned out in great numbers: "Mormonism"
was popular; as many as 200 carriages were present. We were treated
well, and preached faithfully. Somebody came and set up a little
groggery, and it was removed forthwith. Was anybody converted? No.
They turned their ears like a deaf adder to the cause, and that is the
general feeling, so far as I have discovered.

vol. 5, p.121
They do not love the truth. In most of these places they have rejected
the Gospel, and they listen not to the voice of the charmer, charm he
never so wisely. Many asked about their friends, and if their was any
speculation on foot. I could get thousands to immigrate to this
Territory for speculative purposes; and committees waited on me to
learn what inducements are held out to settlers. I could get thousands
to come here, if we would give them good farms, and furnish them
cattle, and work their farms for them until they got started, and let
them carouse around, and have all the lager beer they could drink.

vol. 5, p.121
Those who love the truth are scarce. There are, however, a great many
scattered all over the United States, who believe "Mormonism" is
truth, and have not moral courage to [p.122] embrace it; but if it is
policy, they dare once in awhile say a few words, but in a kind of
milk-and-water way: they dare not say much, because it is unpopular;
and many dare not read a "Mormon" paper; it is unpopular.

vol. 5, p.122
I have met men in the world as much my friends, apparently, as those
that are in the Church; and they have handed out means to me when I
was in need. One man wrote to me that he would be glad to see me; but
if I would not let the people know who I was, he would be obliged to
me. I told him I did not go to such places, for I was a "Mormon,"
outside and in, and I could get along in the world by holding my head
up, and I despise men who will go crawling and cringing around.

vol. 5, p.122
In relation to things that are now transpiring in the United States, I
suppose you have later news than I have. The mail team passed me on
the road, but it had no mail. In relation to any policy that may be
pursued here, I feel it is just right. I know that President Young and
his brethren associated with him are full of the spirit of revelation,
and they know what they are doing. I feel to acquiesce and put my
shoulder to the work, whatever it is. If it is for peace, let it be
peace; if it is for war, let it be to the hill. It has got to come
some time, and I would just as lief jump into it to-day as any other
time.

vol. 5, p.122
We are engaged in the work of God in rolling on His purposes; and if
we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to Him. The Lord
has put His hand to the work, and all the potentates of the earth and
their power cannot hinder its progress. The work is onward, and in the
name of Israel's God it will roll on, until the kingdoms of this world
shall become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ.

vol. 5, p.122
We are gathering a nucleus for a kingdom here that is bound to stand
for ever—

"While time and thought, and being last; 
And immortality endures."

vol. 5, p.122
All is peace,—and I feel like shouting, Hallelujah, hallelujah; for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and all nations shall be subject to
His sway.

vol. 5, p.122
I have talked longer than I thought I should.

vol. 5, p.122
There is one thing further I would like to say a few words upon.
Brother George A. Smith, Dr. Bernhisel, and myself were appointed as
delegates to go to Washington. I have never yet inquired what the
First Presidency thought about our proceedings there. I was in
Washington several times, and counselled with my brethren on the
subject of our admission. We counselled with some of the most
prominent men in the United States in relation to this matter; and
those that dare say anything at all, dare not, if you can understand
that.

vol. 5, p.122
That was about the feeling. We need not say much on this matter; but I
believe that brother George A. Smith and brother Bernhisel laboured
with indefatigable zeal to the best of their knowledge and
intelligence to accomplish the thing they set about; and I did, while
I was with them. But it was not necessary for me to remain there; and
I told the brethren, if I was wanted, by sending me a telegraphic
despatch, I would be there in a little time. I believe these brethren
did all that lay in their power.

vol. 5, p.122
While speaking of the acts of the Elders, I remember remarking to
brother Bernhisel that a set of men could not be found on the face of
the earth that would go with the same talent and ability, and act with
the same disinterestedness and zeal in the performance of whatever is
required of them.

vol. 5, p.122
I have counselled with them, and that is the feeling and testimony I
[p.123] have to bear concerning them. When they get together, their
feeling is. How can we best promote the cause in which we are engaged?
Can a cause sustained by such men sink? Can the cause sustained by the
power that sustains them sink? No. The truth will triumph, and shall
roll forth until all nations shall bow to its sceptre.

vol. 5, p.123
I pray God, in the name of Jesus, to bless you and guide you, that we
may be saved in His kingdom. Even so. Amen.

Brigham Young, August 9, 1857

Approval of the Proceedings of the Delegation to
Congress—Condition of the People of the World, Etc.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made at the Bowery 
Great Salt Lake City, August 9, 1857.

vol. 5, p.123
So far as I am concerned, with regard to the performance of duties by
the Elders of Israel—the duties which have been placed upon them and
required at their hands upon their missions—for the gratification of
the brethren just referred to by Elder Taylor, I will say, If there
has been nothing hitherto expressed here manifesting the feelings of
the First Presidency of the Church and the members in general on this
point, I can answer for the people, by asking and answering a
question.

vol. 5, p.123
Brother Taylor brother George A. Smith, and brother Bernhisel, did you
do your duty in Congress in reference to presenting our petition for a
State? I think that I can answer for this Committee, as well as for
the people, and say that they discharged their duty manfully and
satisfactorily to their God and to their brethren. I can answer for
the people, and say that they are most perfectly satisfied with the
labours of our Committee. When a man can say of a truth, "I have done
the very best that I could in my mission," the heart of every Saint on
earth acquainted with the circumstances, the angels in heaven,. and
our heavenly Father are all satisfied. There is no more required of us
than we are capable of performing. The First Presidency are satisfied,
and I can say that the people are satisfied.

vol. 5, p.123
With regard to the labours of brother Taylor in editing the paper
called The Mormon, published in the city of New York, I have heard
many remarks concerning the editorials in that paper, not only from
Saints, but from those who do not profess to believe the religion we
have embraced; and it is probably one of the strongest edited papers
that is now published. I can say, as to its editorials, that it is one
of the strongest papers ever published, so far as my information
extends; and I have never read one sentence in them but what my heart
could bid success to it and beat a happy response to every sentence
that I have read or heard read. Brother Taylor, that is for you; and I
believe that these are the feelings and the sentiments of all in this
community who have perused that paper.

vol. 5, p.123
We are satisfied with the labours of [p.124] the Elders generally.
True, it is not every one that knows and understands all things; it is
also true that men are liable to falter and fail in their judgment;
but that is nothing against the real character of the man, if he is
doing the best he knows how. It is true that at times Elders need
correcting, and they receive correction in this place. It is also true
that, when you correct an individual in his errors and try to place
him in better circumstances pertaining to judgment and discretion, it
is annoying, it is grievous, it is painful to trio sensation of that
individual. It is very true that chastisements are grievous when they
are received; but if they are received in patience, they will work out
salvation for those who cheerfully submit to them.

vol. 5, p.124
If the time was that the Elders of Israel could not be chastened and
corrected for their wrongs, and be set right, you may know that they
have proved recreant to the faith. And if those who are appointed to
lead this people dare not rise up and tell them of their iniquity and
chastise them therefor, and teach them the way of life and salvation,
you may know that your leaders have fallen from their station.

vol. 5, p.124
The Lord has bestowed the everlasting Priesthood upon the children of
men for their salvation. It is not believed for a moment, by any
person who believes in the Bible, that a man or woman can be saved in
their sins. They have to be separated from their sins and iniquity;
they have to put off the old man, with all his deeds, and put on the
new man Christ Jesus. If ever we see the time that we dare not tell
men of their evils, and correct them when in fault, you may despair of
salvation in this kingdom.

vol. 5, p.124
One grand cause of the enmity entertained towards us by officials sent
here by the General Government has simply been, that I take the
liberty of telling men where they do wrong and wherein they do
wrong,—both those who are in the Church and those who are out of it;
and my brethren take the same liberty. If men do evil, we tell them of
their meanness; whereas, in the other portion of our Government, men
dare not speak their minds. They are tied up, bound up; they are in
fetters and chains in every particular—as much so as brother Taylor
has told you, and a great deal more. He said that if a man was found
in Congress who dare speak in favour of innocence, justice, truth, and
mercy, he dare not speak. If there were any there, when our petition
was expected to be presented, who felt in their hearts to favour it,
they dared not open their months in favour of its being granted; for
if they spoke at all, they must speak according to the popular notions
of the people; they must go with the tide of popularity.

vol. 5, p.124
This is the case with the whole world; but we are chosen out of the
world. And if we accept salvation on the terms it is offered to us, we
have got to be honest in every thought, in our reflections, in our
meditations, in our private circles, in our deal, in our declarations,
and in every act of our lives, fearless and regardless of every
principle of error, of every principle of falsehood that may be
presented. We have no difficulties with our Government: we never have
had any difficulties with any government under which we have lived.
But there has been a difficulty, and what is it? The "Mormons" have
got something that the rest, of course, have not, "and we will kill
them out of the way; we will not have them."

vol. 5, p.124
As brother Taylor has said, speaking of the wisdom and power exhibited
by the people of the world, there are men of talent, of thought, of
reflection, and knowledge in all cunning mechanism: they are  expert
in that, though they do not know from whence [p.125] they receive
their intelligence. The Spirit of the Lord has not yet entirely done
striving with the people, offering them knowledge and intelligence
consequently it reveals unto them, instructs them, teaches them, and
guides them even in the way they like to travel. Men know how to
construct railroads and all manner of machinery; they understand
cunning workmanship, &c.; but that is all revealed to them by the
Spirit of the Lord, though they know it not.

vol. 5, p.125
You can find in the minds of the people most admirable intelligence in
things pertaining to the world; but when you touch the intelligence
that pertains to other worlds, to the kingdom of heaven and heavenly
things, they are dark as midnight darkness—so dark as this, that, let
ever so good a thing be revealed to them, no matter how good for a
nation, a people, a community, or an individual—let a man have it
revealed to him how he can benefit the whole nation, they turn around
and deny God in it. They are so dark as that, when they never received
a particle of intelligence but what came from God. They are filled
with darkness.

vol. 5, p.125
Instead of wishing injuries to come on them, my heart is pained for
them when I behold their situation. They are drunk, not with strong
drink, but with their own anger, and rage, and the spirit of the enemy
which they have received. They are as wild as California horses. When
a lasso is thrown on them, they will run madly against a knee, or a
stone wall, or over a person, or anything; they are frantic, and would
break their own necks. It is just so with the inhabitants of the
earth, and especially so with our Government; and they are hastening
with all possible speed, with the larriet around their necks, to jump
the precipice and destroy themselves.

vol. 5, p.125
I can tell you one thing that I know concerning the inhabitants of the
United States. It has come to this, that the honest among them—men,
women, and children, have dreams foreboding evil. The visions of their
minds are troubled; they are in sorrow; they feel melancholy, and have
a presentiment that something evil is going to befall the people. And
if you could discern the thoughts of their hearts this day, you would
probably find millions of such persons in our Government. When they
reflect upon the maddened zeal of the leaders, they know that they can
endure but a little while, and query, "What will come?" What will the
Lord bring on the people—upon this happy government? What evil
catastrophe is about to befall us? Will there be war? Will we fight
the "Mormons," and will the Lord give the "Mormons" power to fight
against us?  Will the North make war upon the South? Will they take
the sword one against the other? What will become of us? These
forebodings are upon the people. They have dreams in the night which
frighten them, and reflections in the day-time which give them sorrow;
and they are harrassed from day to day. They are to be pitied; for
sorrow, woe, destruction, shame, and misery await them. I am sorry for
them: they are to be pitied—to be prayed for.

vol. 5, p.125
Almost every man that has come from the East of late is telling you
the political feelings and desires of the Government towards this
people. Brother Taylor has just related that a gentleman he met on the
road remarked, "What! can you 'Mormons' fight the United States? Can
you contend with them? You had better take a more specific policy than
you have. Do not speak about the President, nor about any of the
officials." We shall talk as we please about them; for this is the
right and privilege granted to us by the Constitution of the United
States: and, as [p.126] ministers of salvation, we shall take the
liberty of telling men of their sins.

vol. 5, p.126
I shall take the liberty of talking as I please about the President of
the United States, and I expect that I know his character better than
he knows it himself. I will tell you in a few words a little of it.
James Buchanan, who is now sitting in the chair of state, and
presiding over this great Republic, is naturally a passive, docile,
kind, benevolent, and good man,—that is his natural disposition, I
will venture. Arouse him, and he has been a man who could make flaming
speeches. He is now bound up; they have the fetters upon his feet; he
is handcuffed; his elbows are pinioned; he is bound on every side, and
they make him do as they please. Is he obliged to do go? No.

vol. 5, p.126
Is a man fit to be President of the United States, who will bow and
succumb to the whims of the people? No. A President should learn the
true situation of his constituents, and deal out even-handed justice
to all, utterly regardless of the clamour of party. Suppose the
President to be under the clamour and dictation of several parties, he
would order out a company to-day, and to-morrow call them back; he
would make a decree to-day, and next week revoke it and make another
to suit another party. He ought not to pay attention to any party, but
consider the nation as a family, and deal out justice and mercy to
them equally and independently.

vol. 5, p.126
I wish that Hickory Jackson was now our President; for be would kick
some of those rotten-hearted sneaks out, or rather order his negroes
to do it. If we had a man in the chair who really was a man, and
capable of magnifying his office, he would call upon his servants, and
order him to kick those mean, miserable sneaks out of the presidential
mansion, off from its grounds, and into the streets. But the President
hearkens to the clamour around him; and, as did Pontius Pilate, in the
case of Jesus Christ, has washed his hands, saying, "I am clear of the
blood of those Latter-day Saints. Gentlemen, you have dictated, and I
will order a soldiery and officials to Utah." It is said in the Bible,
that whosoever ye yield yourselves to obey, his servants ye are. The
President has yielded himself a servant to cliques and parties, and
their servants he shall be. And all that has been spoken of him by
brother Kimball, in the name of Jesus Christ, shall come upon him.

vol. 5, p.126
Do you think that we shall be called treasoners, for rebuking him in
his sinful course? Yes. Talk of loyalty to Government! Hardly a man
among them cares for the Government of the United States, any more
than he does for the useless card that lies on the table while he is
playing out his hand. They disregard the Constitution as they would
any old fable in any old school book. Scarcely a member on the floor
of Congress cares anything about it.

vol. 5, p.126
While brother Taylor was referring to the conduct of officers of the
Government, to the pistols, bowie-knives, the oyster suppers, the
pleasant little knick-knacks, and this, that, and the other, I was
reminded of a circumstance that transpired in the region of the Salt
Works in the State of New York. In that section there was a place
called Salt Point, one of the roughest in the world for drunkenness,
gaming, fighting, and cursing; and within a few miles from Salt Point
was a place called Onadaga Hollow, and the people in those places used
to be in a constant strife to see which should act the worst. As a man
named Thaddeus Woods. who had become considerably wealthy by making
and selling salt, was going  from Onadaga Hollow to Salt Point, he
stopped at a tavern, half way [p.127] between the two places; and when
he and his travelling companions had rested themselves and fed their
horses, Woods told one of his teamsters, who was one of the wickedest
men to be found in those two places, that he would treat him if he
would say three of the wickedest words that he could think of. The man
agreed that he would; and when he had the attention and eyes of the
company fixed upon him, he shouted out "Onadaga Hollow, Thad. Woods,
and Salt Point," remarking that those were three of the worst words
that he could think of.

vol. 5, p.127
Brother Taylor says that language cannot express the conduct, the
feelings, and the spirit that are upon the people in the States. Well,
suppose you take up a labour and swear about them, what are the worst
words that can be spoken? 'Nigger stealing,' Mobs or Vigilance
Committees, and Rotten-hearted Administrators of a Government are
three of the meanest and wickedest words that can be spoken. I expect
that somebody will write that back to the States, as being
treasonable, because spoken by a Latter-day Saint.

vol. 5, p.127
With regard to the present contention and strife, and to our position
and situation, there are few things to be Considered, and there is
much labour to be performed. Let the Saints live their religion; let
them have faith in God, do all the good they can to the household of
faith and to everybody else, and trust in God for the result; for the
world will not believe one truth about us. I tell you that the
Government of the United States, and other governments that are
acquainted with us, will not believe a single truth about us. What
will they believe? Every lie that every poor, miserable,
rotten-hearted curse can tell. What are we to do, under these
circumstances? Live our religion. Are you going to contend against the
United States? No. But when they come here to take our. lives solely
for our religion, be ye also ready.

vol. 5, p.127
Do I expect to stand still, sit still, or lie still, and tamely let
them take away my life? I have told you a great many times what I have
to say about that. I do not profess to be so good a man as Joseph
Smith was. I do not walk under their protection nor into their
prisons, as he did. And though officers should pledge me their
protection, as Governor Ford pledged protection to Joseph, I would not
trust them any sooner than I would a wolf with my dinner; neither do I
trust in a wicked judge, nor in any evil person. I trust in my God,
and in honest men and women who have the power of the Almighty upon
them. What will we do? Keep the wicked off as long as we can, preach
righteousness to them. and teach them the way of salvation.

vol. 5, p.127
Some speak of the nations now on the earth forgetting God, they have
not forgotten Him, for they have never remembered Him. They have not
departed from His ways, for they never found them; they have not lost
faith in Him, for they never had any. There are men sitting here who
were brought up Christians, who were trained to believe in the sacred
words of truth contained in the Old and New Testament. What were you
taught by your priests, your fathers, mothers, and associates, with
regard to God? How many anxious hours I have experienced in my youth,
to know, see, and understand things as they were and as they are. Did
I ever see a man who could instruct me in those matters, until I saw
Joseph Smith? I never did. And after I had made a profession of
religion, I would ask the most powerful preachers whether they knew
anything about God—where He is located, where Heaven is, and, where
Hell is, who is the Father, who the Son, and what the distinction is
between them, who is Michael the archangel, who is Gabriel, and so on.
[p.128] Could they tell a thing about it ? No: and I am a witness that
no man in Christendom knew anything about it, unless it was revealed
by the Spirit to him.

vol. 5, p.128
I may say that many had revelations from God, but they had not the
keys, and rights, and knowledge, and system of the religion of God.
John Wesley was a good man, and so were thousands of others. Will they
be saved? They are saved. You know what my doctrine is with. regard to
this matter. Every man will be judged according to the deeds done in
the body. Did they know anything about heaven, or God? No, they did
not. Could they even explain one of the first simple lessons in the
religion we believe, with regard to mortal man? Could any of them
explain what the soul of man is, when it is written in the Bible, and
they have read it thousands of times? No.

vol. 5, p.128
I have heard men preach hours upon the soul of man; and one of the
smartest men that I ever heard preach, wound up a long discource by
saying, "Finally, brethren, I must come to the conclusion that the
soul of man is an immaterial substance." I have sat days and weeks,
and months, and years to hear men explain the things of God; and what
did they know about them? Nothing.

vol. 5, p.128
We have the keys of the priesthood and the words of eternal life, and
understand them, and what manner of persons ought we to be? We ought
to live our religion, believe in our God, love and serve Him, he
faithful to Him, to one another, to all our covenants, and keep the
devils from killing us as long as we can, and that is just as long as
we have a mind to. 

vol. 5, p.128
I recollect saying to a certain official here—one who wanted a few
Indians for killing Gunnison, If you want them, I will put them into
your hands. They were presented to him, but he dared not take them. I
told him at the time of the conversation, that there might be some
thirty of those Indians; but, if the United States should send 50,000
of their troops here they could not get one of them, if they had a
mind to keep out of the way; and he believed it. I suppose you would
like to know upon what principle? Like some of brother Taylor's honest
men that he thought he had found in the States, who, when he thought
that he had found them, and went to put his hand upon them, were like
the Paddy's flea—they were not there, they were somewhere else. That
is the reason why they could not get the Indians. There is the same
reason why they cannot get us, until we have a mind to go them.

vol. 5, p.128
Do you wonder that the world is angry at us? No; for the time must
come when your faith must be tried. Can the Lord take this kingdom and
separate if from the kingdom of darkness? Can He bring it forth to
establish His work upon the earth as extensively as the Prophets have
prophesied, without separating us from the kingdoms of this word? You
say, No. How is he going to do it? You have seen how, so far. In the
days of Joseph, a string of guards was set around him on every side,
lest he should have communion with the remnants of Israel who are
wandering on the plains and in the kanyons of this country. Those
guards fought us, whipped us, killed our Prophets, and abused our
community, until we are now driven by them into the very midst of the
Lamanites. Oh, what a pity they could not foresee the evil they were
bringing upon themselves, by driving this people into the midst of the
savages of the plains. And here am I, yet, Governor of Utah.

vol. 5, p.128
Do you wonder that they are angry? Five years ago I told them that I
should be Governor as long as the Lord wanted me to be, and that all
hell could not remove me. They [p.129] have tried during those five
years to remove me, and I have had to appoint a Secretary. for this
Territory three times in that period; for the ones appointed by the
President absconded from the Territory. And the prospect now is, that
I shall still have to be the Governor—that I shall again have to
preside over the Legislature, and that Captain Hooper, whom I
appointed Secretary, will have to continue in that office.

vol. 5, p.129
God bless you. Amen.

Heber C. Kimball, August 2, 1857

Organization—Destruction of Zion's Enemies—Oneness of
Spirit in the Priesthood, Etc.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 2, 1857.

vol. 5, p.129
I have appreciated brother Elias Smith's remarks. He has stated things
as they are, according to my knowledge. I have been acquainted with
him some twenty-three or twenty-four years. He is our Judge in this
county, and I can say to his praise that he is one of the best Judges
we have in the Territory; and my prayer and wish to God is that we may
not have a swore Judge from this time henceforth and for ever, and
that we may never have any Judges in this Territory but men of our own
choice, and that we may never have any person to preside over us in
the capacity of a Governor of this Territory but the man of our own
choice. [Voices: "Amen."] And I can say further, we never will.
[Voices: "Amen."] I have my reasons for this.

vol. 5, p.129
This people here are the people of God. Here, in the Territory of
Deseret, is the kingdom of God, and here are all the officers
pertaining to that kingdom; and here is an organization that is
organized after the order of God, and it is organized after the order
of the Church of the First Born.

vol. 5, p.129
Let me explain what the Church of the First Born is. It is the first
Church that ever was raised up upon this earth; that is, the first
born Church. That is what I mean; and when God our Father organized
that Church, He organized it just as His Father organized the Church
on the earth where He dwelt; and that same order is organized here in
the City of Great Salt Lake; and it is that order that Joseph Smith
the Prophet of God organized in the beginning in Kirtland, Ohio.
Brother Brigham Young, myself, and others were present when that was
done; and when those officers received their endowments, they were
together in one place. They were organized, and received their
endowments and blessings, and those keys were placed upon them, and
that kingdom will stand for ever.

vol. 5, p.129
Now mark it—that kingdom will never be overthrown; although they may
kill, that is, if they can, brother Brigham and me, and brother Daniel
H. Wells, and they may kill the Apostles, if they can, and so they may
keep on from this time to all eternity, and they never can obliterate
this [p.130] work. I know it. They may kill, and destroy, and waste a
great many limbs that are upon this Church; but let me tell you, they
never can kill the tree nor destroy the root from whence we have
sprung; for our Father and our God is that root, and Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, is the tree or vine, and we spring out of that vine; and
if we keep His commandments and receive the Spirit of God, the Holy
Ghost, it is that nourishment that comes down directly from the
Father, from Jesus Christ, the true vine.

vol. 5, p.130
And as President Buchanan, the President of the United States of
America, holds the keys of the government of this whole nation, so
Brigham Young holds the keys pertaining to this Church and people.

vol. 5, p.130
Well, do I suppose, when I reflect, that troops are being sent here
without President Buchanan's permission? No, not for a moment: he has
permitted it. We are a poor, isolated people, driven over one thousand
miles from our native land, and many of us have been driven and broken
up five times; and he and his coadjutors have acknowledged it and have
said pointedly there could nothing be done for us as a community: and
here we are; after sending forth our men, the Elders of Israel, and
redeeming this land from Mexico. They are now designing to come with
troops to break us up and to kill our Prophets, and our Apostles, and
our Elders.

vol. 5, p.130
Brethren, I will tell you one thing, and you may be sure of it, as the
Lord God lives, and as my soul lives, that nations that raise the
weapons of war against this people shall perish by those weapons.
[Voices: "Amen."] Every nation, every tongue, and every  people shall
perish, and every man and woman that gives consent to it. [Voices:
"Amen."] You may "Amen" to the whole of it, for it is true. Go and
read the Book of Mormon, the Prophets, and the revelations given to
Joseph the Prophet; and you will learn that God has said that every
nation and every people on this earth that will not serve Him shall be
destroyed.

vol. 5, p.130
This is the kingdom of God. When they fight us, they fight God, and
Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and they fight all the Prophets that
have been from the creation down to the present time. Why? Because
Joseph was the last Prophet; God spoke to him, placed the keys upon
him, by Peter, James, and John. Do you suppose they did it without
having authority from Jesus? No; Jesus told them when to do it, and
told them who the man was; and Joseph, the Prophet of the living God,
placed those keys on brother Brigham.

vol. 5, p.130
The Father told Jesus when to go and again commit these keys to men on
the earth; Jesus told the Twelve when to do it; Joseph told Brigham
when to do it. Now, look at it naturally, and you will see that every
man and woman that raise their hands against this people will be
destroyed, and that without remedy.

vol. 5, p.130
Set your heart at rest, then: you need not be troubled, nor frightened
at all; for as the Lord liveth, and we live, we will prosper, and we
will come off victorious. [Voices: "Amen."] You know we have to stick
in an if —if you live your religion, and will do as you are told, and
become like the clay in the hands of the potter.

vol. 5, p.130
Who are you to be subject to? You say you are willing to be subject to
God—to Jesus Christ. You are willing, if Peter came along, to listen
to him. Well, Peter is here, John is here, Elias is here, Elijah is
here, Jesus is here, and the Father is here. What! in person? If not
in person, their authority is here, with all the power that ever was
or ever will be to seal men and women up to everlasting have—seal them
 on earth and in [p.131] heaven, by the power of Elijah, which is upon
brother Brigham; and it is on every man he authorizes.

vol. 5, p.131
Joseph had those keys and powers directly from those men, and we
received them from Joseph; so you see we are legal heirs to the
kingdom of heaven. You have got to be subject to these powers that be;
for there is no power only that which is ordained of God. You have to
listen to that.

vol. 5, p.131
Can we be Saints by having our own will, our own way? Brother Elias
has been talking about that this morning, how he has felt that will
that was in him. Gentlemen, he has not been easy to handle and place
upon the wheel; if he had been, he would have been filled with
almighty power, even the power that was upon Joseph and Brigham, and
upon every other good man in this Church; but he is going to walk up
henceforth; he aint going to stand back any more. He is akin to
brother Joseph, and Joseph is ashamed of his own kindred that will not
step forth and be valiant, and God is ashamed of them.

vol. 5, p.131
Be passive in the hands of God, in the hands of His servants, as clay
in the hands of the potter. How is that? How can the servants of God
mould you, fashion you, and prepare you to become moulded and
fashioned after the likeness of God, unless you are passive?

vol. 5, p.131
If you go into the adobie yard, you may see men engaged in the
business of adobie making, and you can see them moulding adobies out
of the elements. Suppose that clay would not be passive, but would
have its own will, and not be subject to the moulder of the adobies,
he could not mould them, because the adobie would not let him mould
it.

vol. 5, p.131
When I carried on the pottery business; I used to take a good deal of
pains to get good clay, and hauled it a long distance, and then I
always immersed it before I put it into the mill to grind it. Why? To
make it passive; and I mould, grind, and grind it again, until it
becomes passive; then I took it out of the mill, and carried it into
the shop, where it was kneaded as you would a cake, and then put on to
the. wheel and turned into a vessel unto honour. Did I ever design to
turn a vessel unto dishonour? No. If I did, I did not get any reward
for it: I only got reward for those I moulded and fashioned according
to the dictation of my master; and I presented them to him that he
might receive them, as Jesus says—"Father, I have lost none of those
thou gavest me, except the son of perdition."

vol. 5, p.131
Go into the blacksmith's shop, on this block, and you will find
brother Jonathan Pugmire, the foreman. I go to him and say, "Brother
Jonathan, make me an axe." He goes to work with a piece of iron that,
the moment he tries to shape it, flies into a thousand pieces. "I can
do nothing with that," says he; "I must get a piece of iron that will
be passive, and then I will make you an axe that will be as keen as a
razor." He gets another piece, and that begins to fly. It is not the
fault of the blacksmith. "But," says the iron, "don't you handle me in
this manner." He throws that aside: that has got to go back to the
furnace again, to be melted and made into a loop, and that turned out
into iron again, because it was not passive; and then it becomes
passive by getting the snappish stuff out of it: it runs out with, the
dross. The dross, you know, is very brittle and snappish.

vol. 5, p.131
When you find a man or woman snappish and fretful, and not willing to
be subject, you may know there is. a good deal of dross in that
character, because dross is brittle. That dross has got to come out.

vol. 5, p.131
Talking about trials, brother Elias says he did not come here with the
[p.132] pioneers. It was pretty hard and laborious, I admit; but it
was one of the pleasantest journeys I ever performed. Still there was
a great deal of care and anxiety, especially on brother Brigham and
those that helped him. Did we persevere? We did. We came here to the
Valleys of the Mountains, and you have followed us:

vol. 5, p.132
Let me tell you, gentlemen, you have got to learn to be passive and be
like clay in the hands of the potter, or be like a tallowed rag or
wick before a hot fire: it becomes limber and passive, and you can tie
it into a thousand knots, and it will not break.

vol. 5, p.132
Are you of that nature that you will not break and fly as though there
were a hundred convulsions in you? You have got to come to that
standard, as true as you ever become the true subjects and heirs of
the kingdom of God. And let brother Brigham take a hundred men of that
character, and I would give more for them than ten thousand people who
are stiff in their own way; and he would take that hundred men and go
into the mountains and whip out the world.

vol. 5, p.132
We read that one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten
thousand to flight. We read that in the Bible. You have always heard
it from the days of your youth to the present time. Do you appreciate
it?

vol. 5, p.132
We will refer to Gideon, the Prophet of God, when his host was so
numerous that he went and made a selection of three hundred men to put
all his enemies to flight. That is in the Bible. For heaven's sake,
believe that, if you won't believe me.

vol. 5, p.132
There was Daniel, a servant of God, one who kept His commandments; he
was valiant, and his friends said to him, "Daniel, put down the
window, or they will see you praying." "I will pray with it open," he
replied; and he opened his window and prayed, and told them all that
he asked no odds of them. "I will pray to my Father and God, who can
preserve me in a den of lions, or in boiling hot oil, or in anything
else, and He will sustain me while He will send you to hell, you poor
devils." He had such confidence in his God.

vol. 5, p.132
Should not you have as much confidence in Goal as brother Brigham,
Heber, or the Twelve Apostles have? —as much confidence in this vine
as any branch that pertains to it? You should.

vol. 5, p.132
To gratify some who cry, "Oh, don't say anything, brother Heber,—don't
say anything, brother Brigham, to bring down the United States upon
us," we have at times omitted printing some of the remarks that might
offend the weak-stomached world, and we have made buttermilk and
catnip tea to accommodate the tastes of our enemies; but the poor
devils are not pleased after all. Would they come any quicker if we
told them that they were poor, miserable, priest-ridden curses, who
want a President in the chair that dare not speak for fear those
hell-hounds be on him?

vol. 5, p.132
God knew that Zachary Taylor would strike against us, and He sent him
to hell. President Fillmore was the next man who came on the platform,
and he did us good. God bless him! Then came President Pierce, and he
did not strive to injure us. We hoped that the next after him would do
us justice; but he has issued orders to send troops to kill brother
Brigham and me, and to take the young women to the States.

vol. 5, p.132
The woman will be damned that; will go: she shall dry up in the
fountain of life, and be as though she never was. But there aint any
a-going —[Voices: "There are none that want to go!"]—unless they are
whores. If the soldiers come here, those creatures will have the
privilege of showing themselves and of becoming debauched.

vol. 5, p.133
[p.133] I tell you there is not a purer set of women on God's earth
than there is here; and they shall live and bear the souls of men, and
bear tabernacles for those righteous spirits that are kept back for
the last time, for the winding-up scenery.

vol. 5, p.133
Will the President that sits in the chair of state be tipped from his
seat? Yes, he will die an untimely death, and God Almighty will curse
him; and lie will also curse his successor, if he takes the same
stand;and he will curse all those that are his coadjutors, and all who
sustain him. What for? For coming here to destroy the kingdom of God,
and the Prophets, and Apostles, and inspired men and women; and God
Almighty will curse them, and I curse them in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, according to my calling; and if there is any virtue in
my calling, they shall be cursed, every man that lifts his heel
against us from this day forth. [Voices: "Amen."]

vol. 5, p.133
Am I afraid? No; but I am afraid to do wrong. I feel joy in my heart
to be valiant and tell you the truth; and I pray that God my Father
and his Son Jesus Christ may bring the evil upon them that they desire
for this people.

vol. 5, p.133
Our enemies are crying out that we are confused, that we have
rebelled, and that the Devil is to pay. I pray that God Almighty may
bring that thing upon them that they have imagined upon us. But we are
at peace and in harmony; we are worshipping and serving God. Will they
overcome us? Never; no, never; no, never, while the earth stands, if
we will stand up and be valiant.

vol. 5, p.133
I know that you never heard brother Brigham rebuke me for being
valiant before this people. He says, "Let her go, Heber; let her
slide." You never saw any other spirit in him in your life; and every
other good man there is will say so and has said so; and they are the
elect of God, and they will be saved.

vol. 5, p.133
But be wise, be wise, be still, as I told a man this morning. Said I,
You are always talking, you talk to everybody, and think everybody our
friends; but they are not. I have lots and scores of friends here, and
so has brother Brigham, who, by their ignorance would destroy us from
the earth.

vol. 5, p.133
You have received your endowments. What is it for? To learn you to
hold your tongues, and keep what you get, and increase upon it. If you
do not keep the word of life you receive—that which proceeds from God,
your minds never will expand, and you will always be barren, like unto
a barren woman.

vol. 5, p.133
Now, receive the seed, as Jesus says; and if that seed takes root, it
will grow, and swell, and sprout, and bring forth. What will it bring
forth? Something like the character that produced the seed. If you
plant corn in the field, and that corn is rooted out of the ground, it
perishes, and don't produce anything. Receive the word and treasure it
up in your hearts, and then you shall continue to receive the word of
life, here a little and there a little; and you shall grow, and
increase, and multiply, and no good thing shall be withheld from you.

vol. 5, p.133
Learn, above all things, brethren and sisters, to have a passive
spirit, and be subject where you should he subject. I hear a great
many say, "I am willing to be subject to brother Brigham, but I don't
want to be subject to this one and to that one." Let me tell you,
gentlemen and ladies, if you won't be subject to my words, and listen
to them, and receive them, you will not be subject to and receive
brother Brigham's words. How can it be possible for you to receive his
words and reject mine? 

vol. 5, p.133
Now, we will say brother Brigham is the head of this vine that has
sprung [p.134] out in the latter days,—that is, the head of the vine
that is upon the earth, that you naturally see; but Joseph was the
head of the vine when he was here, and he is now, only you cannot see
him: then I am connected to that vine, as one of brother Brigham's
Counsellors; and then the Twelve, the Seventies, High Priests, and
other officers. Now, just look at it. Why should you not listen to one
man as much as to another connected to that vine; in case he produces
the fruit of that vine? And they should know whether that branch is
connected to the vine: they should know whether the fruit is the same
as that produced by the head of the vine.

vol. 5, p.134
When I speak the truth, is it not the same as though brother Brigham
spoke it? When I tell it as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ, what is
the difference? I can go into my garden and show you apple-trees there
with perhaps a hundred limbs which have apples on them. You may taste
an apple from the first or head limb, then of the second, and the
third, and the hundredth; and the fruit tastes just alike, because it
all came from one tree, and the tree came from the root, and it is all
one thing.

vol. 5, p.134
This is the principle; we should be connected one with the other,
every Quorum in its place, and keep organized, and keep in our places,
according to the order of the Church of the First Born.

vol. 5, p.134
Are we going to he preserved? Bless your souls! I have no more fears,
if this people will live their religion, and learn to be passive like
clay in the hands of the potter, than as though I was in heaven; for
if I was there and rebelled, as Lucifer did, I should expect to be
chastised and cast out with all those connected with me.

vol. 5, p.134
A great many suppose that when they get there they will be perfectly
safe. You will, if you keep the commandments of God; but if you cannot
learn to keep the commandments of God in Great Salt Lake City, how can
you learn to keep them when you have to flee to the mountains? And if
you cannot keep them here, how do you expect to keep them in Jackson
County?—for we are as sure to go back there as we exist.

vol. 5, p.134
This Church and kingdom will reign triumphant; and when the United
States take a course to bring us into collision, they will strive to
take away everything from us that they have given us. What of it? We
will make them the aggressors: they shall be the first men that shall
rebel against God and against this people; and if we are not the
aggressors, and we stand on the defensive, and they come upon us, and
they fall into our hands, the Lord says, if they repent and we forgive
them, our blessings shall be doubled unto us; so also for the second
time: but if he comes upon you the third time, thine enemy is in thine
hands; thou mayest do with him as seemeth thee good: but if he repent,
and you forgive him the third time, then I will reward unto you a
hundred-fold. But don't yea, forgive, unless brother Brigham does. If
he says, Give them justice and righteousness, then it will be right.

vol. 5, p.134
Now, you need not sit here as judges, and judge brother Brigham. Good
heaven! how does any one without any priesthood look when judging, him
and his brethren? He is capable of judging all things pertaining to
this kingdom; for he has the keys of light and revelation, and God is
with him. I cannot comprehend him, only in proportion to the measure
of the Spirit bestowed upon me. Can brother Wells comprehend me? No,
he cannot, nor never can, only as he has the same measure of the
Spirit; and no man can comprehend his file-leader, except he has the
same measure of the Spirit.

vol. 5, p.135
[p.135] But let me walk in my place, and the sap that is in brother
Brigham is in me; and the sap that is in me is in him: but can I
measure any further than my capacity? No. Then what do you judge me
for? God will lead brother Brigham; don't you be scared He will give
him revelation upon revelation; and when he says, Do this or that, God
will sanction it, and he will bless all men and women that walk up to
it, and curse every one that backs out.

vol. 5, p.135
Suppose I am partaking of the same spirit and nourishment that brother
Brigham partakes of, and he is resting himself while brother Heber
speaks, don't you see he speaks the mind of brother Brigham? You may
see it has been so all the time, and it will be so for ever.

vol. 5, p.135
You have come to me, and I have given you counsel, and then you have
gone to brother Brigham, and he has given you the same counsel; and
when you have asked counsel of him, and then come to me, you say,
"That is just as brother Brigham said to me." Do you suppose I could
give any counsel contrary to his mind?

vol. 5, p.135
Well, then, let that Spirit and power be in our families, and I want
to know what difference there will be? Brother Hyde, don't you never
give counsel from this time henceforth but what would be the counsel
of brother Brigham. Just so with the Seventies.

vol. 5, p.135
There is brother Pratt, in England, and the brethren that preside
there: let those men do as the Spirit of God dictates them, without
being carried off by some other spirit, and they will never go
astray—no, never, although they are nine thousand miles from here. By
taking this course, would you ever see a wife trying to pervert the
way of her husband? I am talking about good men and good women. Would
she do it? No: she would be one with him, even as I am one with
brother Brigham.

vol. 5, p.135
Listen to the counsel of God and those men that are placed here; and
if you will do that, I can promise you,  in the name of Israel's God,
and by virtue of my calling, that you never shall be swerved aside,
and our enemies shall be overcome every time before they cross that
Big Mountain,  if we have to do it ourselves.

vol. 5, p.135
If I did not say that, you would be calculating that we were going to
make a perfect servant and drudge of of our God, just as a great many
of you wish to make of us. If you want a pound of coffee, or tea, or a
pair of shoes, it is, "Come, brother Heber, go quick, and get me what
I want; if you don't, I will go and tell brother Brigham." Go, and be
damned.

vol. 5, p.135
I wish that all such characters were in hell, where they belong.
[Voice: "They are there."] I know it; and it is that which makes them
wiggle so—the poor, miserable devils. They would make our Father and
God a drudge—make him do the dirty work, kill those poor devils, and
every poor, rotten-hearted curse in our midst. With them it is, "O
Lord, kill them, kill them, damn them, kill them, Lord." It is just
like that, and their course has just as much nonsense in it. We intend
to kill the poor curses ourselves, before they get to the Big
Mountain. And we are going to dig a cache, or take some natural one,
and put all the whining men and women into it, and let them whine. We
want to be released from such poor hellyons, and we will be; we won't
have a murmurer or complainer in the House of Israel. If we go out to
war, let them stay here, and let the Devil handle them.

vol. 5, p.135
How long is it, brother Brigham, since we first went to Kirtland?
[Brother Brigham: Twenty-four years, this fall.] In September, 1833,
we went to Kirtland and gathered with Joseph and the Saints. We had to
go and buy guns, and stand in his defence, [p.136] in that early day;
and we did it for months and months, to keep the hellyons from him in
Kirtland, twenty-four years ago; and so it continued from that day to
the day of his death; and it is just so now. They are trying to take
the lives of brother Brigham and your leaders. It is their design, and
the design of the President of the United States, with his cabinet,
and of Congress; and all the priests there are in the world back them
up. That is the truth.

vol. 5, p.136
Get the Spirit of the Lord, and stop your whining, every one of you.
"Oh," says one, "I will leave you, if you don't wait on me as you have
hitherto, and get me all the things I ask for." I wish you would: you
could not please me better. Does that show such whiners have got
integrity in them? A man or woman that has got integrity should have
it, if there is nothing but a potatoe to eat. And if you have not a
stocking to your feet, nor a gown, nor a petticoat, nor a short gown,
you should be as true as the sun to the servants of the living God;
and if you are not so under such circumstances, you would not be if
you were loaded down with treasures.

vol. 5, p.136
It is true, I will tell you, the day of your being petted is past; and
you have got to come to the crisis when the gate will be shut down
between us and the United States, and that very soon, ladies and
gentlemen; and if you don't get your test, you may say I am false.
[President Young, in a crying tone, said, "There are no more ribbons
coming here: what shall I do ?"]

vol. 5, p.136
O dear, I want to know if we aint going to have any more ribbons? A
great many of your hearts are on nothing else but ribbons, and fine
dresses, and bustles, and fineries: you don't think of anything else.
What is your religion good for, or your integrity? Did brother Brigham
and Heber turn away from Joseph, because the Kirtland Bank broke, and
the stores all run out, until there was nothing but an old dried-up
johnny-cake?

vol. 5, p.136
Did we forsake him? No, never; and we never had anything except we
worked for it and go it by the hardest licks; and our wives would
think that they were very extravagant to get a piece of calico of six
yards for a dress pattern; and they thought that there were too many
puckers then: and now you have got to have six or eight breadths
puckered up. Why don't you take some of those breadths out and make
aprons, and not call on your husbands for new calico, &c., every week.

vol. 5, p.136
No man on the earth loves women better than I do. I love a good woman,
one that has a good spirit; I love that woman that will strive to make
me happy, and I love that son that seeks to please his father and
mother; for he will make a good husband. I love that daughter that
seeks to please her father and mother, because she will make a good
wife. 

vol. 5, p.136
You cannot help yourselves; the gate will be shut down directly,
ladies. I am talking to you because it is customary in the States to
address the ladies first; so, if you get it first, you must not be
jealous of me. I respect our ladies; and there should not be a lady in
the house of Israel but what should be like an angel to administer to
her husband, and to pray for him, and to nourish him by night and by
day, and watch his house and hid pillow, and see that he is preserved
in the last days.

vol. 5, p.136
We have got to go to work and manufacture our own clothing, our shoes,
our stockings, our bonnets, our dresses, and everything we need.

vol. 5, p.136
I will refer you to brother Brigham's words. How many times has he
said to you, Ladies, make your  own bonnets at home, out of the
elements that grow in the valley of Great Salt [p.137] Lake and in the
regions round about.  Why do you not do it? Tell about listening to
brother Brigham! You  look to-day as though you were listening to his
counsel.

vol. 5, p.137
Many of the sisters presume to judge us. Say they, There is brother
Kimball; his women have all got store bonnets, and ribbons, and laces,
and this, that, and the other thing, brooches, jewellery, and feather
beds sowed under their arms. Aint we just as good as they? Yes, if you
do as well as they do.

vol. 5, p.137
I won't say anything about anybody else's family, only my own. Are you
listening to brother Brigham's counsel? Some of you say, I am willing
to listen to him. Well, listen to him, and listen to him for ever. I
am under the necessity of laying out of my substance, and every dime I
have got, and that I can get, that I would lay up for a little sugar,
a little of this, and a little of that, that we actually need, a
little butter and lard, that we grow in our midst; but instead of
that, I have to pay every dime I can get for morocco shoes, for my
women to wear to meeting; and they will wear out a pair while once
going to meeting. [Voice: "Don't you wish they earned them
themselves?"] Yes, I pray that you may have to earn them with your own
fingers, or go without them. I pray that prayer, and I know it will
come to pass.

vol. 5, p.137
I am defending brother Brigham here, and that by the Holy Ghost and
the dictation of the counsel he received from the Father, and the Son,
and the old Patriarchs, and Prophets. You may go home, and say,
Brother Kimball is hard. Go and say it as quick as you please. I ask
no odds of any such people. I am independent of you; I know his
feelings, I will preach his word, and the word of God that came
through him; and that is all that will save you.

vol. 5, p.137
Do you want such things to cease? I just know it aint right. We ought
to make our own leather, and we can make as good as can be made in the
States: but no, we must have some States leather. We can make as good
things here as can be made by any other people; but you want foreign
fixings.

vol. 5, p.137
We have our Spanish fixings—a pair of spurs that will weigh seven
pounds, ringing and gingling as though all hell was coming. Why don't
you put them away? I want you to make an ox goad with a spike in the
end of it, and ram that into your horse, and get this instead of
spurs, and destroy a horse at once. I cannot keep a decent horse,
neither can brother Brigham, or any other man; for the boys will kill
them. Let them rest: they are as good as we are in their sphere of
action; they honour their calling, and we do not, when we abuse them:
they have the same life in them that you have, and we should not hurt
them. It hurts them to whip them, as bad as it does you; and when they
are drawing as though their daylights would fly out of them, you must
whip, whip, whip. Is there religion in that? No; it is an abuse of
God's creation that he has created for us.

vol. 5, p.137
I do not think that many ever suppose that animals are going to be
resurrected.    When God touched Elijah's eyes, and he looked on the
mountain, he saw chariots and horses, and men by thousands and
millions. Where did they come from? There is nothing on this earth but
what came from heaven, and it grew and was created before it grew on
this earth: the Bible says so.

vol. 5, p.137
We grow peaches here, and they are created, and we send them to
Sanpete. Don't they grow before they are sent? Yes, and everything
that is upon this earth grew before it came here; it was transported
from heaven to earth.

vol. 5, p.138
[p.138] Let as us be merciful to the brute creation.

vol. 5, p.138
God bless you, brethren and sisters, and multiply you. Peace be with
you, and upon this people, and upon your children, and upon every
being on the Lord's footstool that wishes peace to Israel.    [Voices:
"Amen."]

vol. 5, p.138
The world is going to seek to destroy us from the earth. [Voice: "They
will destroy themselves."] They will destroy themselves, as the Lord
liveth, and the day of their destruction has come. [Voices:
"Amen."]The Lord God will bring mildew on the nation that has
afflicted us; for that nation shall take it first, and thence it shall
go forth to every nation, kingdom, government, and state, and upon
every town that shall lift their heels against God and this people.
Amen.

Orson Hyde

Persecution of the Saints—Redemption of Zion, and the
Downfall of Her Enemies—A Vision, Etc.

Discourse by Orson Hyde.

vol. 5, p.138
It is with much pleasure that I arise, this morning, to address you,
my brethren and sisters; and I hope to have your undivided attention,
and to share liberally the benefits of your prayers.

vol. 5, p.138
My object is to enlighten your understandings, and to strengthen your
faith, so far as I may be able. The responsibility of a public speaker
in this Church is truly great, especially when his official standing
and character are of such a nature as to give to his words a weight
and an importance commensurate with the high position  which he may be
called to occupy.

vol. 5, p.138
The husbandman is ever desirous to procure the very best qualities and
kinds of seeds to plant and sow in the earth. One principal reason is,
he must himself eat of the products of the seeds that he plants and
sows. So, also, the speaker that plants certain principles in the
hearts of his audience must himself eat the fruits thereof sooner or
later; and it should be our aim to avoid planting any principle in the
hearts of our hearers, the fruits of which would set our teeth on
edge, or shed upon us an inglorious reputation. Therefore, the fruits
of any principle, true or false, inculcated by me, will as naturally
and as necessarily fall to my lot, as the seeds of any grain or plant,
when ripe, will fall back into the earth, from whence it sprung.

vol. 5, p.138
Truth, therefore, is my delight: and if I know and understand myself,
I have no delight in anything else. Truth came from God as a precious
magnet. It is a part of himself, and he who possesses it possesses a
property  that may be attracted, with us possessor, to the great
source and fountain of truth—even to God himself.

vol. 5, p.138
True it is that we are here in the valleys of the mountains for the
word of God and for the testimony of  Jesus Christ; and it is also
true that, after [p.139] being robbed and plundered of our worldly
fortunes because of the hatred of an unbelieving world, excited
against us because of our religion, we are exiles here to-day, having
been denied citizenship in the States from which we came. Our Prophets
have been cruelly martyred in cold blood, under the plighted faith of
a great State for their protection from all unlawful molestation. We
have seen how much such promised protection was worth in the days of
Joseph and Hyrum; and would it be worth any more now? Rather trust in
the God of Heaven, in these mountains, than in any such rotten
promises that may he made only to beguile us and deliver us up to
ignominious death.

vol. 5, p.139
The woman spoken of by John the Revelator as being driven or fleeing
into the wilderness, after having brought forth the man-child, is said
to be the Church by our wise orthodox commentators upon holy writ. Be
it so. The Latter-Day Saints fled from the face of the serpent monster
into this vast wilderness and desert, and it appears the serpent cast
out a flood of water from his mouth to destroy the woman. This is
highly figurative language; yet is there any one present who can
favour us with a better solution of the matter than the waters or
troops which the United States are now sending here to destroy us? God
grant that the earth and the heavens also may help the woman!

vol. 5, p.139
Plausible may be the pretences of these troops; yet if their real
object is not to persecute every man and woman that will stand by the
Prophets and servants of God, and uphold them, then I do not read
correctly the manifestations to me. How far they may be able to carry
out their plans, time will determine.

vol. 5, p.139
Once, however, a man put forth his hand to steady the ark of God. It
reeled to and fro. It was in a cart, drawn by oxen. Probably it might
have pleased Uzzah better if it had been put into a stately carriage,
drawn by two or four fine steeds; but he ventured to put forth his
hand to steady the ark of God, and was smitten of God at once for his
presumptuous interference with the affairs of the great I AM. I
suppose there are seeming irregularities in the affairs of Utah that
Uncle Sam does not like, and he puts forth his hand in the shape of an
army to right up and steady the ark of God.

vol. 5, p.139
As the Book of Mormon has been brought to the notice of Congress, by a
quotation from its pages, respecting a man having but one wife, unless
commanded of God to have more; and though such command has been given
to the Latter-day Saints, yet I omit comment thereon at this time, and
proceed to give another quotation from the same book, which appears to
have a bearing upon the present aspect of affairs. (Third European
edition, page 28.) The Prophet Nephi, in vision, saw the vast
multitudes of men upon the face of this land, America, and said that
there were saved two churches only. The one is the Church of the Lamb
of God, and the other is the church of the Devil; and whose belongeth
not to the Church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church
which is the mother of abominations and the whore of all the earth.

vol. 5, p.139
"And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the
earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the
earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.

vol. 5, p.139
"And it came to pass that I beheld the Church of the Lamb of God; and
its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of
the whore who sat upon many waters: nevertheless I beheld that the
Church of the Lamb, who were the Saints of God, were also upon all the
face of the [p.140] earth; and their dominions upon the face of the
earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I
saw.

vol. 5, p.140
"And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of
abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all the
earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the
Lamb of God.

vol. 5, p.140
"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of
God, that it descended upon the Saints of the Church of the Lamb, and
upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the
face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the
power of God in great glory.

vol. 5, p.140
"And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured
out upon the great and abominable church, insomuch as there were wars
and rumours of wars among all the nations and kindreds of the earth;
and as there began to be wars and rumours of wars among all the
nations which belonged to the mother of abominations, the angel spoke
unto me, saying, Behold the wrath of God is upon the mother of
harlots; and behold thou seest all these things; and when the day
cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots,
which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose
foundation is the Devil, then, at that day, the work of the Father
shall commence in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his
covenants which he hath made to his people, who are of the house of
Israel."

vol. 5, p.140
In view of the sentiment contained in the foregoing quotation, I am
led to believe that whatever branch of the great and abominable church
shall lead the way to fight against the Lamb of God, will have a
greater task to perform than they are aware of. It is not merely a
little handful of Latter-day Saints that they have to contend with;
but, it is with all the celestial powers. This, however, they do not
believe; and, consequently, like the unthinking horse, they rush to
the onset.

vol. 5, p.140
What a direct bearing the foregoing quotation has upon the present
signs of the times! It is as correct as as though he was writing the
history of the past. Is not this an evidence of of its truth? The
scenes are rolling on in the very track of the prophecy; and while our
eyes see, let us fear God, and be grateful to his name; while our
enemies, having eyes, see not, but boldly rush on to destruction.

vol. 5, p.140
I feel disposed to bring to your notice other sayings of ancient and
also of modern times, touching the events of these days.

vol. 5, p.140
The Book of Mormon, in a dozen places, tells the fate of the Gentile
nations, if they shall harden their hearts against this work when it
shall be brought to their knowledge; and also the fate of every one
that shall fight against it or its followers: so I will not detain you
with quotations upon this subject. You all know them, or ought to.
Read the Book of Mormon.

vol. 5, p.140
In the month of December, 1833, soon after the Saints' troubles began,
in Jackson County, Missouri, the Prophet Joseph had a revelation from
the Lord respecting the Saints there, in which he says:—"Let them
importune at the feet of the Judge (for protection and redress); and
if he heed them not, let them importune at the feet of the Governor;
and if the Governor heed them not, let them importune at the feet of
the President; and if the President heed them not, then will the Lord
arise and come forth out of his hiding-place, and in his fury vex the
nation, and in his hot displeasure and his fierce anger, in his time,
will cut off those wicked, unfaithful, and unjust stewards, and
appoint them their portion among hypocrites and unbelievers—even in
outer darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of
teeth,

vol. 5, p.141
[p.141] "Pray ye, therefore, that their ears may be open to your
cries, that I maybe merciful unto them, that these things may not come
upon them. What I have said unto you must needs be, that all men may
be left without excuse; that wise men and rulers may hear and know
that which they have never considered; that I may proceed to bring to
pass my act—my strange act, and perform my work—my strange work; that
men may discern between the righteous and the wicked, saith your God."

vol. 5, p.141
Did the Saints importune at the feet of the Judge and of the Governor?
Yes, they did, in all humility and sincerity. What was the result?
About the same as if you were to importune with the thief and robber
to protect you from abuse and restore to you the stolen treasure. They
heeded not the petition. Then importunity was made at the feet of the
President, not only in writing, but also by the Prophet Joseph in
person; and what did this avail? It elicited this answer:—"Your cause
is just, but we can do nothing for you." Sovereignties must manage
their own affairs. Congress nor the Executive can interfere. So the
President heeded them not.

vol. 5, p.141
Now, when will the Lord's time come to vex the nations, &c.? It is not
for me to say; yet it would be a time very opportune, when the nation
shall begin to dictate to an organized State or Territory in matters
of their own internal policy and municipal regulations. When we were
in distress and trouble, the nation had no power to help us; but when
we attempt to help ourselves and to rid our community of lying and
corrupt men, then the nation can send her armies against us. Well, be
it so. It is all right, and will hasten the downfall, of the mighty
image of Nebuchadnezzar; and the power that falls upon "this stone"
will be broken, and the stone rejected by the builders will become the
head of the corner.

vol. 5, p.141
As Joseph Smith has sealed his testimony with his blood, his testament
is now of force; and I will quote again from a revelation given
through him, on Fishing River, Missouri, June 22, 1884:—"Therefore it
is expedient in me that mine Elders should wait for a little season
for the redemption of Zion; for I do not require at their hands to
fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment,
even so will I fulfil—I will fight your battles."

vol. 5, p.141
Although, here is a great and precious promise; yet do not suppose
that we are to sit down in idleness or indifference and share this
promise; but remember this common-sense, home-made scripture," God
helps those who help themselves." Therefore, let us neglect no duty on
our part, but be ready, not only for the powers of this world and the
powers of darkness, but for the day of judgment and eternal glory in
the mansions of our God.

vol. 5, p.141
If armies from the East and from the West are approaching our
Territory, to offer protection and removal to all who wish it, and to
deal out death and ruin to all the balance, the hand of the Lord is in
it. He will send forth his angels, and gather out of his kingdom all
things that offend and that do iniquity. He may use any beings that he
has made, or that he pleases, and call them his angels or messengers.
The Devil himself is an angel of God, but a fallen one.

vol. 5, p.141
Again, the presence of an armed force will prove to ourselves, to God,
and angels, which we possess the most of—the fear of God or the fear
of man. We are commanded to fear not them that can kill the body, and
after that have no more that they can do; but we are required to fear
Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. But there is
one Scripture which says—"When the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." He will
make the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder [p.142] of
wrath he will restrain. We have all got to die at some time, and why
should we object to the time or the manner? If we are right before the
Lord, and in the discharge of our duty, it matters not when or how we
go hence.

vol. 5, p.142
I will venture here to relate an open vision had by brother Stephen M.
Farnsworth, of Pleasant Grove, Utah County, while he was residing in
Nauvoo, previous to the death of the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum. Some
may possibly think and say, it was manufactured for this occasion. But
there are many here under the sound of my voice who heard brother
Farnsworth relate the vision years ago. I will tell it as correctly as
my memory will allow me.

vol. 5, p.142
In the spring of 1844, brother Farnsworth started out after dinner, to
go to work on the Temple as usual. The sun shone brightly as he walked
down Parley-street towards the place of his labour, when suddenly the
sky became overcast, and a dizzling rain set in. He stood amazed, and
saw a tumult and excitement among the people about the Temple, and a
great excitement in the lower part of the town. He wondered what it
could mean. Presently he was told that the Saints had to leave Nauvoo
and take a great journey to the west. So great was the journey that it
seemed almost impossible for him to perform it. Now he could see
numerous trains of covered waggons and teams crossing the Mississippi
River, and bending their course westward as far as the eye could
reach. He also hitched up and joined the trains, and the journey did
not seem so arduous as he first anticipated. He saw the Twelve
Apostles in the crowd but saw neither Joseph nor Hyrum.

vol. 5, p.142
They journeyed westward a great distance, and finally came to a place
where they intended to locate. They stopped, and began to make
improvements: but distress and starvation stared them in the face, and
it really seemed to him that they must perish; but soon there began to
be plenty of everything to eat, &c. This lasted quite a time: then
there began to be scarcity again, and famine seemed to prevail; yet he
saw none die of starvation, yet great distress among the people. Then
there began to be plenty again—enough to eat of everything desirable.
The people all appeared in one place, with large, strong hoops around
them in a body. The Twelve followed brother Brigham with mallets and
fierce countenances, and vigorously drove those hoops upon the people
until it did seem that they would be pinched or squeezed to death.
Still they resolutely continued to drive the hoops. Dark clouds now
began to arise, and a general gloom prevailed. The hoops were all the
time being driven tighter and tighter.

vol. 5, p.142
About this time, an army or levee of the enemy came into the
neighbourhood and offered protection to all who wished it. The
darkness of the clouds, and their awfully-threatening aspect are now
past description. The people burst those hoops and sallied out like a
flock of sheep, and more than one-half of them went to the enemy for
protection. The scene was so awfully frightful that he was just on the
eve of flying himself; but a thought ocurred to him to hold on a
little longer. He did so. Dark, angry, and frightful were the clouds,
indeed! Now is your hour and the power of darkness! Presently the
cloud over the Saints burst, and light beamed upon them.
.

vol. 5, p.142
This cloud rolled off upon the enemy and those who had fled to them
for protection: and oh! the scenes of death, lamentation, and mourning
that occurred in the enemies' camp beggar all description. The burning
wrath of earth, heaven, and hell, in fiery streams of molten lava
seemed to leave not one alive to tell the tale. [p.143] It did not
stop here, but rolled throughout the United States, carrying the same
desolation in its track. The faithful band of brethren left, then
followed Brother Brigham up into a large open cave, where there was
everything good to eat and drink that heart could desire. The shouts
of hosannahs! —the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God for the
deliverance wrought for them rent the air and made the mountains echo
the praises of our God. From this cave they journeyed, I need not say
where; but, suffice it to say, no opposition had any effect upon them.
The power of God was with them, and His voice was in their camp.

vol. 5, p.143
There is much more to this vision which I deem unnecessary to write.
But after it was all over, brother Farnsworth came to himself,
standing in Parley-street on a beautiful sunshiny day. No covered
waggons or excitement in town or about the temple. When he came to
himself, he concluded that his exercises were of the Devil, from the
fact that he saw neither Joseph nor Hyrum in all the scenes; but it
was Brigham, brother Kimball, and the Twelve. Before these scenes
began to really take place, Joseph and Hyrum were killed at Carthage,
and consequently were not seen by brother Farnsworth.

vol. 5, p.143
I relate this from memory, being some months since I heard brother
Farnsworth tell it at his residence in Pleasant Grove; but, in the
main, it is as he told me, so far as I have related it. There are
those here to whom brother Farnsworth told it more than twelve years
ago, and they know whether I tell it as he did.

vol. 5, p.143
I have considerable confidence in this vision, for two reasons. First,
brother Farnsworth is a correct man: his character is without spot or
blemish. Secondly, this vision corresponds with a hundred and one
other sacred things written in ancient and modern times. And I may add
a third reason, —it has all been fulfilled to the very letter, so far
as time would allow.

vol. 5, p.143
I am fully inclined to believe that all these sayings, both ancient
and modern, must mean something; and God will defend a people who
trust in him—a people whose prayers are ascending up into His ears day
and night for protection and redress. He will steady His own ark
without the aid of voluntary service, and will signify the fact in
unmistakeable terms to such as volunteer a crusade against him or his
cause. Did not God create the heavens and the earth? Has he no rights?
Must he have no voice in the affairs of this world, without being
indicted, arraigned, and tried for treason?

vol. 5, p.143
If we cannot live by trusting in God, do we wish to live at all? What
enlightened Latter-day Saint can see any charm in this world to chain
or bind him here, when his hope and his trust are in Christ his
Saviour? To talk about a religion to a Latter-day Saint that has no
living Prophet or Apostle in it—that has no living God in it, who can
and will speak to his creature, man, in this day, is to talk to him of
an egg without meat, a body without spirit, an eye without sight, or
an ear without hearing. To make a Latter-day Saint, or even a Mormon,
if his heart were ever touched with the fire of truth, into any kind
of orthodox Christian, would require as much faith and skill as it
ever did to turn water into wine, or to feed five thousand men, women,
and children with five loaves and two fishes.

vol. 5, p.143
After apostatizing from this Church, some may join some of the sects
for popularity's sake, or for the sake of making money or a living,
and profess to believe all about the God without body, parts, or
passions: but secretly they say, You are fools—you are in the dark—you
worship, you know not what. Scores of apostates, [p.144] that have
left this Church and returned to it again, have confessed these very
things. While they outwardly affect to believe the dogmas of the
religious world, they secretly pity and despise. I mean such as are
not past feeling.

vol. 5, p.144
Do our enemies object to some being frightened away from here by the
glass of truth being held before them to enable them to see themselves
as God sees them, and have become frightened at their own moral
deformities and left? Will the time not come when none of the
uncircumcised in heart or the unclean can enter the abodes of the
Saints? If the old Prophets have told us the truth, such times must
come; and if they now begin to be foreshadowed, think it not strange!
"Zion will be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with
righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the
sinners shall be together; and they that forsake the Lord shall be
consumed." (Isaiah.)

vol. 5, p.144
I feel and know that I am a poor, weak, unprofitable servant, at best.
My life is of no great value, when compared with the value and
importance of this kingdom; and I have lately thought that it would be
about the height of my ambition to lose my life to save that of some
better man. I know not what I will do; but I pray God my heavenly
Father that I may do my duty and honour His name and cause with my
every and latest breath. I have tried to do right and to live my
religion. I have sought the Lord day and night, and still seek Him,
and by His grace shall continue to seek Him until I can fall upon His
neck and embrace Him, and say, "Thou art my Father;" and He will say
to me, "Thou art my son!" I have no righteousness to boast of. I have
no oil to spare.

vol. 5, p.144
But if sore trials must come, even to the laying down of our lives, I
do not know that I can ask for the time to be prolonged with any hope
of being much better. I mean to be about as good as the light and
knowledge I have will allow me. Full of imperfections as I am, my
heart, soul, and spirit feel to bless the Saints with all who wish
them well; and the enemies that would persecute the Saints—that would
try to overthrow the kingdom of God on the earth, and ensnare the feet
and shed the blood of the Prophets of God, let their blessings be
turned into cursings, their prayers become sin, and the stain of
innocent blood blast their hopes for ever, if they repent not.

vol. 5, p.144
Mormonism is true. The Priesthood of God is on the earth, and is
destined to bear rule not only in heaven, but in the earth also; and
likewise in every part of God's dominions. This makes the Devil and
all his subjects angry at the Saints, and they wish to kill us off.
Kill just as many and just as soon as God will let you. In this
respect, I ask no favours of any man in this lower world. I ask God to
be my friend, and to give me grace and strength to be His friend so
long as I live in this world.

vol. 5, p.144
Ye Saints of latter day be humble, meek, and child-like. Be fearless
and resolute. God grant unto you and me hearts of iron and nerves of
steel, abounding with faith, hope, and charity, full of every good
work, and no evil work. Pray in faith that God may guide our leaders
aright, and that wise and profitable counsels may be given them for
us, and we possess hearts to appreciate and obey. The Lord dictate the
policy of his kingdom, and shield his faithful ministers from the
snares of this world, and of death, until we shall have completed our
earthly mission; and then may our exit shed a lustre upon the cause
which our lives have been devoted to sustain. [p.145]

John Taylor, August 23, 1857

Ignorance and Low Condition of the World—Past
Experience, Present Position, and Future Prospects of the Saints

A Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 23, 1857.

vol. 5, p.145
In listening to the remarks made by President Kimball this morning, I
felt myself very much edified, very much instructed, and very much
blessed. In fact, where the Spirit of the Lord is, and the oracles of
God dwell, there must of necessity be truth, intelligence, and
certainty. Many of those things, as he justly remarked, that seem
light and trivial, and of little importance to many, are pregnant with
meaning, are full of interest, and are of the utmost importance to the
Saints that dwell in these valleys, and to the world of mankind, if
they would only pay attention to and be governed by them.

vol. 5, p.145
Mankind are, more or less, fond of paraphernalia, show, pomp, and
parade; but the kingdom of God does not always come with
"observation," as the Scripture says. The great and precious
principles of eternal truth, like pearls and precious gems, are often
hid from the view of the human family.

vol. 5, p.145
What is the reason that the world of mankind do not appreciate the
principles that are so plain and so manifest to us? How is it that all
of our friends, relatives, and associations, and the neighbourhoods
where we have resided have not fallen in with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ? Why is it that all these things have not been received and
appreciated by the millions of the human family who have had precisely
the same opportunities that we have had? It is because they do not
appreciate them—because they cannot see and understand. The light
shone in darkness and it comprehended it not; but to those who
received it, it was life and salvation.

vol. 5, p.145
Why is it that a swine cannot discern the value of pearls, and
tramples them under its feet? Because it does not understand,—it has
not the intelligence, and does not comprehend the difference between
the filth that surrounds it and precious gems. You might cast a
precious jewel at a hog, and it would turn and rend you; but throw
that to a man of understanding and intelligence, and he would ask for
more. That is the difference. God has so ordained that strait shall be
the gate, and narrow the way that leads to life; and but few there are
that find it."

vol. 5, p.145
If the men of the world, if the princes and potentates of the earth,
if the statesmen and great men among the nations could comprehend
things as we comprehend them, could understand the Gospel as it has
been revealed to us,—if they could know anything of our high calling's
glorious hope, and of the principles that animate our bosoms, they
would, many of them, lay down their honours and their thrones, and
come down and ask for admission into this kingdom. But they have got
to receive the kingdom of God like a little child, just the same as
you and I, or they cannot enter it; they have got to enter by the door
into the sheepfold; and [p.146] hence there is a test for every man to
try him by; and hence the difference between us and them, and
therefore a  difference in regard to our views and position, which
necessarily produce a difference in our feelings. They think
differently, they speak differently, they look upon things in a
different point of view to what we do. They look upon us as being
enthusiastic, foolish, wild, and visionary, and among the rest as
being polluted; and they would, forsooth, sympathize with us, some of
them, and think we are in the most dreadful position of any people
under the face of the heavens—that we are degraded and fallen. But
they know not the spirit that animates our bosoms; they know not the
hope that God has inspired in our hearts; they know not the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God; they are as ignorant of them and of
their own destiny as the brute beast which is "made to be taken and
destroyed."

vol. 5, p.146
It was a very correct figure that the Apostle made. use of formerly,
when he spoke of men being as ignorant as brute beasts, which were
made to be taken and destroyed. Man, holding a relationship with
things that have been, with things that are, and with things that are
to come, being an eternal being, having existed before, existing now,
and destined to exist while endless ages shall endure,—when he
understands his relationship to God, how he is associated with his
progenitors, the position in which he stands to the Church and kingdom
of God on the earth, the blessing he is able to seal on his posterity,
worlds without end, and the great things he is destined to enjoy, if
faithful,—there is as much difference between his views and the world
of mankind in general as there is between midnight darkness and the
light of the sun in its meridian glory.

vol. 5, p.146
Men that are in darkness do not understand why it is that we think as
we do, that we act as we do, that we endure as we do, that men can be
united as we are, that people will leave their homes and traverse
seas, oceans, deserts, mountains, plains, and sterile wastes, in order
to meet with a people so much despised by a great majority of mankind.
They do not know why it is, because they do not understand the
counsels of God. How is it in relation to them? They have no
revelation, no knowledge of God; and hence they are like the brute
beasts, and know nothing but what they know naturally, as beasts
obtain their knowledge, &c. They know nothing of their own position,
or of their relationship to God; they know nothing about their
progenitors, of their own destiny in the future, of what is within
their reach while here on the earth, or how to secure blessings on
their posterity; in fact, they are ignorant of all the great and vital
principles which have a tendency to animate, enliven, and give
vitality and power to all the acts of the sons of God; and hence they
are like the brute beasts.

vol. 5, p.146
You can take an ox, or a hog, and put it into a stable, and feed it,
and it will get fat there. What for? For the knife. If you could only
give it a little revelation—if you could only make that ox or hog
understand that it was being prepared to be killed and eaten, I wonder
how fat you could make it? It is just so with the world; they are
ignorant of their position, and they glory in their own shame, just as
much as a hog does in wallowing in the mire; and they are just as
ignorant of their destiny. This is the position of the world, and that
is the reason why you see things as they are—why there is so much
darkness; and I only wonder there is so much light among them as there
is.

vol. 5, p.146
You wonder why men act so much like fools. I wonder they have as much
intelligence as they have: and the [p.147] only reason why they have
so much is, that the Spirit of God is not entirely withdrawn from
them.

vol. 5, p.147
In regard to principles of science, mechanism, &c., they possess a
great deal of information; but they do not know that "every good and
perfect gift" proceeds from God, and they won't acknowledge it or him;
and hence the little light they enjoy relative to religious matters,
in relation to eternity, to their present real position and destiny,
and to the things which God has communicated to us.

vol. 5, p.147
Is it to be wondered at, then, that men acting in that way should feel
strange and act strangely? You cannot expect the conduct of a
gentleman to proceed from a brute beast; you cannot expect anything
but a grunt from a hog: it is their nature; and it is the nature of
the wicked to act as they have done and as they are doing; and if you
see animosity, hatred, evil, strife, vicious feelings, bad practices,
lasciviousness, corruption of every grade, and every kind of
abomination prevailing, it is because of their nature. One of those
little hymns composed by Watts for children describes it right:—

vol. 5, p.147
"Let dogs delight to bark and bite, for God
	hath made them so:

Let bears and lions growl and fight; it is
	their nature too."

vol. 5, p.147
Not desirous to retain God in their knowledge; they have given
themselves up to every kind of evil, and are led captive by the Devil;
and the Scriptures say, "His servants ye are whom ye list to obey."

vol. 5, p.147
Now, what is it that enlightens our minds? We were like them
precisely. Is there any man here who knew anything about God until it
was revealed to him? Is there a man or woman here who understood even
the first principles of the Gospel of Christ until they were revealed
to them? 

vol. 5, p.147
I have travelled a great deal, and been in different nations, and I
have never yet met with a man that did. To what are we indebted for
that knowledge? To the administration of an angel, which made manifest
the order of God to Joseph Smith, and he revealed it unto others to
that we are indebted for the first principles of the Gospel.

vol. 5, p.147
Can you find anybody, anywhere, in any part of the earth, who
professes to teach religion, that will tell the people to repent of
their sins, be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of them, and receive the imposition of hands for the gift of the Holy
Ghost? And who dare promise them that they shall receive it in its
power, as the Apostles did formerly? I cannot. I have not met with
such a people, nor have you.

vol. 5, p.147
I was well versed in the Scriptures myself when this Gospel came
along, but I was as ignorant as a brute about these things, and so is
everybody else. I have not come in contact with a man who understood
correct principles in relation to the principles of the Gospel, or who
knew the way to enter into the kingdom of God. Who could know it
without God revealing it? And it is to that revelation that we are
indebted for the intelligence we have received concerning these
matters, and to the spirit of prophecy and revelation that has been
communicated with it.

vol. 5, p.147
Brother Kimball said he did not profess to be a Prophet of God. I bear
testimony that he is a Prophet of God; and why do I do that? Because I
have known many things that I could relate here, that I heard him
prophesy years ago, that have been fulfilled to the very letter. And I
hear testimony of it on another ground: any man that has the testimony
of Jesus has the spirit of prophecy; or "the testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy" so says  the old Bible; and consequently, such a
man is a prophet.

vol. 5, p.148
[p.148] Concerning the first principles of the Gospel, at first they
came by revelation; they were communicated to a young man who did not
possess what is termed worldly wisdom, education, or intelligence; but
he came and told it out just as God told it to him.

vol. 5, p.148
Was there anybody that could controvert it? No. It was not because it
was in the Bible that he taught it, but because God had communicated
it to him; and he went and told the things which he had received. Did
you ever meet with a man anywhere that could controvert the principles
Joseph Smith taught? Did you ever find a theologian, or priest, of any
description, that could contradict these things successfully? Did I? I
never did. I have never met with a man under the heavens that could
successfully contradict one principle of it—never; NO NEVER; and I do
not expect ever to be able to.

vol. 5, p.148
Why is it that people cannot contradict it? Because it is the eternal
truth of heaven, and emanated from the great Eloheim, and is one of
those eternal principles of truth which God has communicated to the
human family; and truth, like God, is unchangeable, and cannot he
controverted. Darkness flees before it, and error hides its head
wherever it appears.

vol. 5, p.148
It was so in regard to the first principles of the Gospel, and it has
been so in regard to principles that have been revealed and
communicated from time to time, both by Joseph Smith, by President
Young, by brother Kimball, and by all the authorities of this Church
who have been inspired by the Holy Ghost.

vol. 5, p.148
In relation to the position we now occupy, the things that were spoken
this morning are as correct, as true, and as incontrovertible as
anything that could be adduced by any man—I do act care where he comes
from, nor what may be his intelligence,—I do not care whether he is
king, president, potentate, or statesman, of any description, or what
his intellectual qualifications: it matters not.

vol. 5, p.148
The principles that were spoken here are, in and of themselves,
correct; and I want to speak a little in relation to some of these
things, in order that men who have not examined them may understand
them more minutely. You believe the principles because you heard them,
of course; and so do I; so do we all; and every truth recommends
itself to the minds of the human family; yet, at the same time, we are
not all of us at all times prepared to judge of the correctness of all
these matters.

vol. 5, p.148
The things we have heard this morning might sound to some croakers and
ignoramuses, who have never examined the subject, and do not
understand principle, like treason, as though we were in open
rebellion against the United States and opposed to the Government we
are associated with—as though we were going to trample down all law,
rule, and order. No such thing. We are the only people in these United
States, at the present time, who are sustaining them. I can prove
this, and that it is others who are trampling them under foot, and not
us. Whilst they are committing acts, themselves, that are treasonable
in their nature, and pursuing a course opposed to the Constitution and
the very genius of the institutions of the United States, they want to
lay the sin at our doors that they themselves are guilty of.

vol. 5, p.148
Would I, as a citizen of the United States, come out in rebellion
against the United States, and act contrary to my conscience? Verily
no. Would brother Young? Verily no. Would brother Kimball, or brother
Wells? Verily no.

vol. 5, p.148
Are they not true patriots—true Americans? Do they not feel the
[p.149] fire of '76 burning in their bosoms? Assuredly they do. Would
they do a thing that is wrong? No; and they will also see that others
do not do it. That is the feeling, the spirit, and principle that
actuate them.

vol. 5, p.149
There are thousands of you who are Americans, who have been born in
this land, whose fathers fought for the liberties we used to enjoy,
but have not enjoyed for some years past. There are thousands of such
men here who feel the same spirit that used to burn in their fathers'
bosoms—the spirit of liberty and equal rights—the spirit of according
to every man that which belongs to him, and of robbing no man of his
rights.

vol. 5, p.149
Your fathers and grandfathers have met the tyrant when he sought to
put a yoke on your necks; as men and true patriots, they came forward
and fought for their rights and in defence of that liberty which we,
their children, ought to enjoy. You feel the same spirit that inspired
them; the same blood that coursed in their veins flows in yours; you
feel true patriotism and a strong attachment to the Constitution and
institutions bought by the blood of your fathers, and bequeathed to
you by. them as your richest patrimony.

vol. 5, p.149
There are others of you that have taken the oath of allegiance to the
United States; and some of you, not understanding correct principles,
may, perhaps, feel qualms of conscience, and think, probably, that if
we undertake to resist the powers that are seeking to make aggression
upon us, we are doing wrong. No such thing. You let your conscience
sleep at ease; let it be quiet: it is not us who are doing wrong; it
is others who are committing a wrong upon us.

vol. 5, p.149
What was the case in Missouri? Let me draw your attention briefly to
some of the circumstances that have transpired in our history as a
people. Whom did we interfere with in the State of Missouri? Did we
rebel against the United States, or against the State in which we
lived? Verily no; and I am at the defiance of that State and Congress,
with all the world at their backs, to prove that we did rebel in one
iota. Did they give unto us the protection of American citizens? They
did not; and they perjured themselves in not doing it. They perjured
themselves before God and all honest men.

vol. 5, p.149
Whom did we rebel against in Illinois?

vol. 5, p.149
Let me mention one circumstance in the State of Missouri. How much
land did we purchase there from the United States, and pay for, which
they promised to warrant and defend us in the possession of? Did they
protect us in the right they guaranteed unto us? No; they allowed us
to be robbed and plundered with impunity. And how many suffered death
in consequence of their recklessness, carelessness, and barefaced
iniquity? Thousands. I have seen their condition when many thousands
were driven from their lands and homes, were persecuted, harassed, and
driven like felons without redress, robbed, plundered, imprisoned, and
put to death; and thousands of men, women, and children wandered
houseless and homeless exiles in their own land, and fugitives flying
from the rage of a lawless rabble, infuriated banditti, and
bloodthirsty miscreants and murderers. I saw then a whole people
robbed and disfranchised, and this too in the middle of winter. Did
the State authorities yield us any redress? No. They were foremost in
the mob. Did the United States? No.

vol. 5, p.149
Many of my brethren around me also, witnessed these things, and know
the misery, destitution, and death caused by those bloodhounds, when
they first fled to Nauvoo, resting where the mud was knee deep—the
only position they could get—with three or [p.150] four little sticks
put up, and a counterpane thrown over them, and there left to die.

vol. 5, p.150
Brother Wells was in Nauvoo at the time. After the excitement was
over, there was not enough of well folks to wait on the sick.

vol. 5, p.150
I was off on a mission to England at this time, and all my family were
sick; and my son George, who has been away and returned with me, being
quite a little boy, not able to draw water, and nobody in the house
able to get it, had to go and wait at the well, with a little bucket,
for somebody to come and draw him a little water to carry home to the
sick, to quench the parching tongue and allay the raging fever
occasioned by these Missouri demons.

vol. 5, p.150
Brother Brigham, brother Kimball, George A. Smith, and the Twelve
here, and everybody, almost, was down sick; and in this condition,
feeble, faint, and half dead, they started off on a mission, because
we were commanded to go. We went to fulfil the word of the Lord. Did
the United States step forward and yield us any redress? No; but they
stood there, and were willing to see us imposed upon and robbed of our
property and rights; and we have obtained no redress for it to the
present day.

vol. 5, p.150
Who are the transgressors? Are we? Martin Van Buren, the then
President of the United States, acknowledged the injustice done to us
when he said, "Your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you." And
we endured it.

vol. 5, p.150
We staid in Illinois, lived there as peaceable citizens, and had a
city charter, and under its protection improved our city, and bad in a
short time, by our energy, industry, and enterprize, built one of the
best cities in the western country, and had one of the most peaceable
societies that existed anywhere, without exception. 

vol. 5, p.150
The first thing they did to aggravate us was to rob us of our city
charter; and this very Judge Douglas, of whom we have heard so much as
being our friend, was one of the first movers for its repeal. The
first time I ever met with him was in an hotel in Springfield,
Illinois, the time they were trying Joseph Smith before Judge Pope. He
told me then that they had a right to do it, and that the Judges had
decided so. I said, I did not know anything about the Judges.

vol. 5, p.150
I did not know who he was at the time, and it would not have made much
difference if I had. I told him, It is no matter to me what the judges
decided about charters; the Legislature had given us our charter for
perpetual succession; and for them to take away a charter with these
provisions proved them either to be knaves or fools.

vol. 5, p.150
They were knaves if they did it knowingly, to give what they knew they
had not power to do; and if they did not know it, they were fools for
giving us a thing they had not power to give. Did they do it? Yes. And
that State robbed us of the rights of freemen; and the only chance we
had then, when they sent their scamps and rogues among as, was to have
a whittling society and whittle them out. We could not get them out
according to law, and we had to do it according to justice; and there
was no law against whittling,—so we whittled the scoundrels out.

vol. 5, p.150
I remember that one of the legislators who had annulled our charter,
named Dr. Charles, went to President Young, and says he, "Mr. Young, I
am very much imposed upon by the people around here; there are a lot
of boys following me with long knives, and they are whittling after me
wherever I go; my life is in danger."

vol. 5, p.150
Brother Young replied, "I am very sorry you are imposed upon by the
people: we used to have laws  here, [p.151] but you have taken them
away from us: we have no law to protect you. "YOUR CAUSE IS JUST, BUT
WE CAN DO NOTHING FOR YOU." Boys, don't frighten him, don't."

vol. 5, p.151
They deprived us of the rights of law to protect ourselves, and in
doing it, they deprived us of the power of protecting them; and we
could not help them when they wanted help.

vol. 5, p.151
[Voice: "We still have whittling societies."]

vol. 5, p.151
Yes, we still have whittling societies, as brother Kimball Says.

vol. 5, p.151
Why did we leave Nauvoo? Had we killed anybody? Had we broken any law?
Had we trampled upon the rights of any people? Had we done anything
that the laws of the United States or of that State could interfere
with us for? If we had, they would pretty soon have dragged us up.

vol. 5, p.151
The people wanted us to leave; and because the .people were
dissatisfied —because there were a lot of religious enthusiasts,
political aspirants, black-legs, and scoundrels, who wanted to possess
our property, all bound together to rob us of our rights, we must go
away, of course.

vol. 5, p.151
Judge Douglas, General Harding, Major Warren, and some of the
prominent men from Springfield met together in my house in Nauvoo, and
these men could go to work and talk deliberately (and there was no
less than two United States' Senators among them at the time,) about
removing thousands of people, and letting them be disfranchised and
despoiled, as coolly as they would cut, up a leg of mutton.

vol. 5, p.151
[Voice:" And you told them of it."]

vol. 5, p.151
Yes. I did.

vol. 5, p.151
Now, then, whom did we injure? What law did we break? Whose rights did
we trample upon? Did we dispossess anybody of his land, rob anybody,
interfere with anybody's rights? Did we transgress any State's law,
national law, or any other law? We did not; and they never have been
able to prove one item against us, and we stand clear. We maintained
the law and tried to make it honourable.

vol. 5, p.151
What must we go away for? Why, they had murdered our Prophet and
Patriarch under the sacred pledge of the Governor of the State and of
his officers, all combined, and we could obtain no redress; and
because they had done one injury, they must heap a thousand on the
back of it.

vol. 5, p.151
That is the only reason I know of. They were murderers, and sanctioned
the practice, and those men have got to atone for these wrongs yet.
[Voices: "Amen."] The debt has got to be paid.

vol. 5, p.151
[Voice: "Douglas is not a bit better than the rest of them."]

vol. 5, p.151
Not a particle.

vol. 5, p.151
What is our position at the present time? Why are we here, gentlemen
and ladies? Answer me, ye sons of the ancient patriots—ye sons of
those fathers who fought for the rights and liberties this nation
boasts so much of. Answer me—Why are you here? Because you could not
go anywhere else—because you could not be protected in those rights
that your fathers bled and died for. That is the reason you are here,
gentlemen.

vol. 5, p.151
We are here, because we are exiled and disfranchised, because we are
robbed of our rights, because we could not possess equal rights with
other American citizens—rights that the Constitution guaranteed to
every citizen of the Union.

vol. 5, p.151
We had to fly from the face of civilization, and found a refuge among
the red men of the forest; we had to seek that mercy from the hands of
the savage that Christian civilization denied us.

vol. 5, p.151
We are talking now about rights, laying aside religion. If we come to
talk about the kingdom of God, that is another matter. We are talking
[p.152] now about our rights as American citizens, or rather our
wrongs,—the rights we have been robbed of.

vol. 5, p.152
We are here, then, under these circumstances. Have we broken any law
here? No. I defied the whole Eastern country, when I was there, to
prove that we have broken any law, and have not found a man that dare
take up the gauntlet—not one, because they could not do it. Why could
they not? Because we have done no wrong.

vol. 5, p.152
What did we do on the road here? Right in the midst of difficulties,
in the midst of exile, when we were journeying to this place, this
Government called upon us for 500 soldiers to go and fight their
battles, when they were literally allowing us to be driven from our
homes and to be robbed of millions of property without redress.

vol. 5, p.152
Did we send the soldiers? We did. Was it our duty to comply with such
a requisition at such a time, and under such circumstances? I don't
know. I think it was one of those works of supererogation which the
Roman Catholics talk about. I do not think any law of God or man would
have required it at our hands; but we did it; and I suppose it was
wisdom and prudent, under the circumstances, that we should take that
course, because our enemies were seeking to entangle and destroy us
from the earth. They laid that as a trap, thinking to catch us in it;
but it did not stick.

vol. 5, p.152
What did we do when we came here? We framed a Constitution and a
Provisional Government, and reported our doings to the United States
again, right on the back of all the insults; robbery, and fraud which
we had endured. We still went constitutionally to work:

vol. 5, p.152
Afterwards, we petitioned for a Territorial Government. Did they give
it to us? They did. Is there any step that we have taken that is
contrary to law? There is not? They have appointed our Governor, our
Secretaries, our Judges, our Marshals; they have done to us the same
in this matter as they have done with other Territories.

vol. 5, p.152
I do not believe in their right constitutionally to appoint our
officers. Still they have done it, and we have submitted to it. And
they have sent some of the most cursed scoundrels here that ever
existed on the earth. Instead of being fathers, they have tried every
influence they could bring to bear in order to destroy us.

vol. 5, p.152
Such have been our protectors. These have been the men who have been
sworn to fulfil their public duties; but they have foresworn
themselves in the face of high heaven.

vol. 5, p.152
What law have we transgressed? None. They trump up every kind of story
that it is possible to conceive of, but have always been and are now
unable to substantiate any of their barefaced assertions; and I
declare it before you and the world, that this people are the most
peaceable, law-abiding, and patriotic people that can be found in the
United States.

vol. 5, p.152
What have they been doing in Kansas, in California, in Oregon? What in
Cuba, in Nicaragua, and at present in New York, if you please? They
have been filibustering in Cuba and in Nicaragua; and officers of
every grade and condition, both civil and military, have winked at it
and suffered those things to go on, right under their noses.

vol. 5, p.152
The position of affairs in Kansas has been anything but flattering; it
has been North against South, and South against North, and Kansas has
been the battle-ground.

vol. 5, p.152
The people there are not, perhaps, much worse than the rest of the
people; they are principally  emigrants from the North and South, who
are arrayed against each other, whilst [p.153] Kansas is the greatest
Sebastopol, where the battle is fought. The inhabitants there are the
representatives of Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern
civilization and Christianity, all combined.

vol. 5, p.153
Are they traitors? O, no! They are only a little excited. We must try
and get a Governor who will try and compromise matters between the
parties, and we will get things straightened out by-and-by. They send
one Governor—he fails; and another, and he fails; and they have sent
another; but whether he will fail or not, time must determine.

vol. 5, p.153
What are they doing in New York? The Legislature of New York passed
laws interfering with the city of New York, and the city is in
rebellion against the State of New York, and it was raging at the time
I left. The State says, "I won't submit," and the city says, "I won't
submit." And they had two different classes of officers there to
regulate matters in the emporium of the United States: it is the
mercantile emporium at least.

vol. 5, p.153
They are very peaceable; they are good citizens; there is no harm in
that; it is only a little family trouble that we have to settle; and
in doing so, we must use any pacific measure we can.

vol. 5, p.153
What is the matter with us? Have we broken any law? James Gordon
Bennett, a man who is quarrelling with everybody, comes out at last,
and says, "The Mormons" have the advantage of us, and they know it."
And out of all he could hatch up and scrape together against the
"Mormons," there is only one thing that seems even in his eyes to
supply any pretext for hostilities against them, and that is, the
charge of burning some 900 volumes of United States' laws; and this
charge is also false. Bennett is one of the most rabid "Mormon"-eaters
you can find, with the exception of Greeley.

vol. 5, p.153
What are they sending an army here for? I had thought things were a
little different until I got here; but I have found, in conversing
with President Young, that he knows more about things as they exist in
the Eastern country than I did, who had just come from there. I had
read all the newspapers, examined the spirit of the times, and tried
to get at all the information I could; and I find, from the
information I have received since then, that he understood things more
correctly than I did.

vol. 5, p.153
I thought it was a kind of a pacific course which the Administration
was taking, in order, to pacify the Republicans, that they might have
a reasonable pretext to have fulfilled their duties; for I do know
that they were apprised of the unreliable character of some of their
informants. When I heard that the troops now on their way here had
sealed orders, were coming with cannon, and had stopped the mail, it
argued that there was the Devil behind somewhere.

vol. 5, p.153
I will give you my opinion about their present course. The Republicans
were determined to make the "Mormon" question tell in their favour. At
the time they were trying to elect Fremont, they put two questions
into their platform—viz., opposition to the domestic institutions of
the South and to polygamy. The Democrats have professed to be our
friends, and they go to work to sustain the domestic institutions of
the South and the rights of the people; but when they do that, the
Republicans throw polygamy at them, and are determined to make them
swallow that with the other. This makes the Democrats gag, and they
have felt a strong desire to get rid of the "Mormon" question.

vol. 5, p.153
Some of them, I know, for some time past, have been concocting plans
to divide up Utah among the several Territories around; and I believe
a bill, having this object in view, was [p.154] prepared once or
twice, and came pretty near being presented to Congress; but that was
not done.

vol. 5, p.154
Now, they go to work and send out an army with sealed orders, and, if
necessary, are prepared to commit anything that the Devil may suggest
to them; for they are under his influence. They wish now to steal the
Republicans' thunder, to take the wind out of: their sails, and to
out-Herod Herod.

vol. 5, p.154
Say they, "We, who profess to be the friends of the 'Mormons,' and
support free institutions, squatter sovereignty, and equal rights,
will do more to the 'Mormons' than you dare do; and we will procure
offices by that means, and save our parties;" and, as Pilate and Herod
could be made friends over the death of Jesus, so they go to work and
plan our sacrifice and destruction, and make up friends on the back of
it. They would crucify Jesus Christ, if he were here, as quick as the
Scribes and Pharisees did in his day, and the priests would, help,
them.

vol. 5, p.154
President Young says they shall not come here and destroy us; and I
say, Amen. [The congregation shouted, "Amen."]

vol. 5, p.154
I have not quoted a great deal of Scripture to-day, but I will quote
some. It says there was the opening of the "first seal;" so we will
open this seal for them. We will declare their orders—a thing they
have not manhood to do. They are too sneaking and underhanded, and
have not .manliness enough to declare their mind to a handful of
people—the poor, pusillanimous curses. We dare do it; and, I thank
God, that I live among a people that dare; for I do despise this
sneaking, miserable, Cowardly tribe, that are obliged to act
underhanded in all their ways. Why? For fear of something to come. We
dare declare our intentions, and risk the consequences.

vol. 5, p.154
Now, I want to touch upon a principle which I spoke about awhile ago.
We have submitted to their sending officers here; that is all right
enough, if we have a mind to. We are citizens of the United States,
and profess to support the Constitution of the United States; and
wherein that binds us, we are bound; wherein it does not, we are not
bound.

vol. 5, p.154
They have sent Judge after Judge, and many times we have been without
them: their loss, however, was not felt. They have sent their
officers, and we have treated them well; and for the good treatment we
have received curses, bitterness, wrath, lying, and destruction in
return. They have sought to destroy our reputation—to rob us of our
rights. They have sought to injure us in every possible way that men
could be injured, as patriots, Christians, and moral men. They have
lied about us in every conceivable way.

vol. 5, p.154
We have borne it and borne it over and over again. Are we bound to
bear it for ever? That is the question that necessarily arises. Are we
bound to suffer their abuse and oppression continually? And if we are,
upon what principle? If there is any man in this congregation, or
anywhere else, that will show me one principle or one piece of
instruction or authority in the Constitution of the United States that
authorises the President of the United States to send out Governors
and Judges to this Territory, I would like to see it.

vol. 5, p.154
I cannot find such authority. I will admit that a usage of that kind
has obtained—that it is quite customary for the President of the
United States, by and with the consent of the Senate, to appoint
Governors, Judges, Marshals, Secretaries of State, and all of those
officers that you have had here. But it is a thing that is not
authorized by the Constitution,—much less to force them upon us by an
armed  [p.155] soldiery. There is no such authority existing.

vol. 5, p.155
I wish to quote to you one little thing. If I had the Constitution
here, I would read it to you. It is to the effect, "That the powers
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people."

vol. 5, p.155
No matter, therefore, whether the people live in States or
Territories, they possess constitutional privileges alike. The most
that is said in regard to Territories and the authority of the
President and Congress is, that "The Congress shall have power to
dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the
territory or other property of the United States." That is speaking of
it as land; and some of the most prominent statesmen of the United
States have so construed it. It is property as land—territory as land
they have a right to interfere with, not territory as regards the
people.

vol. 5, p.155
I published this in the "Mormon" long ago, and said the Missouri
compromise was unconstitutional. By-and-by, the United States' Judges
gave the same decision. I gave mine, however, before they gave theirs.

vol. 5, p.155
It is a true principle, they have not the authority. If they have it
at all, it is in the people ceding it to them, and not what they
possess by the Constitution of the United States. They have sent
scoundrels amongst us from time to time. If they had sent decent men,
would we have opposed them? No: we would have respected them. But will
we submit to such infernal scoundrels? Never; no, never!!

vol. 5, p.155
So far as right is concerned, then, they have no right to appoint
officers for this or any other Territory; and I will defy any man to
prove that there is any such right in the Constitution.

vol. 5, p.155
I conversed with a Judge Black, who was coming up to Nebraska
Territory on a steam-boat,—an intelligent man, a Democrat, of course.
When talking about these principles to him, which he acceded to, I put
my hand on his shoulder, and said, "Judge, what are  you doing here?"
"I am here," said he, "according to the usage that has obtained; but
if the people do not want me, all they have to do is to express it,
and I will go away again." I wish we had only half such decent men as
that sent here.

vol. 5, p.155
He tried to take another tack, which is this: He pointed out in the
Constitution where the Supreme Court of the United States was made one
of the branches of the Government, and the President has the
appointment of its Judges. That is true—he possesses the power to
appoint the greater, but not the less .How do you make that appear?
Simply because one is mentioned in the Constitution, and the other is
not. The United States' Supreme Court is a co-ordinate branch of the
Government, and there is provision made by the Constitution for the
election and appointment of its officers.

vol. 5, p.155
This is not the case in regard to the officers of a Territory. Out of
courtesy we, as citizens of the United States, may say, "Mr.
President, if you have a mind to appoint discreet persons to fill
those offices, all well and good; but if you don't, you had better
take them back; for we won't have them: we stand on our reserved
rights as citizens of the United States."

vol. 5, p.155
We are not lacking for men in the United States, at the present time,
who want to make it appear that the United States have a right to lord
it over the Territories, the same as the British Government used to do
over their colonies.

vol. 5, p.155
Thousands of you before me were citizens of the United States, where
you came from. You had the right of franchise—had a right to say who
should be your Governor, and who [p.156] should be your Municipal and
State officers. You came out here by thousands or by tens of
thousands. By what right or upon what principle are you disfranchised?
Can anybody tell me  Say some, "You need not have come out here unless
you had a mind to." Of course not. But we had a mind to; we were
American citizens before we came out, and we have transgressed no law
in coming; and by what rule are we deprived of our citizenship? If we
had a right then to vote for anything, we have a right now; and nobody
has a right to cram this or that man upon us without our consent,—much
less have they a right to dragoon us into servility to their
unconstitutional exactions.

vol. 5, p.156
What was the great cause of complaint at the time the Constitution was
framed? In the Declaration of Independence, it was stated that the
people had rulers placed over them, and they had no voice in their
election. Read that instrument. It describes our wrongs as plainly as
it did the wrongs the people then laboured under and discarded.

vol. 5, p.156
Our Government are doing the very things against us that our fathers
complained of. "They send armed mercenaries among us, to subjugate
us," &c. What is our Government doing? The same thing.

vol. 5, p.156
As American citizens and patriots, and as sons of those venerable
sires, can we, without disgracing ourselves, our fathers, and our
nation, submit to these insults, and tamely bow to such tyranny? We
cannot do it, and we will not do it. We will rally round the
Constitution, and declare our rights as American citizens; and we will
sustain them in the face of High Heaven and the world.

vol. 5, p.156
No man need have any qualms of conscience that he is doing wrong. You
are patriots, standing by your rights and opposing the wrong which
affects all lovers of freedom as well as you; for those acts of
aggression have a withering, deadly effect, and are gnawing, like a
canker-worm, at the very vitals of religious and civil liberty. You
are standing by the Declaration of Independence, and sustaining the
the Constitution which was given by the inspiration of God; and you
are the only people in the United States this time that are doing
it—that have the manhood to do it. You dare do it, and you feel right
about the matter as the vox populi.

vol. 5, p.156
According to the genius and spirit of the Constitution of the United
States, we are pursuing the course that would be approved of by all
high-minded, honourable men; and no man but a poor, miserable sneak
would have any other feeling.

vol. 5, p.156
I lay these things before you for your information, that you may feel
and act understandingly. I have carefully criticised these matters,
and examined the views of many of those who are said to be our
greatest statesmen on this subject; for I have desired to comprehend
the powers of the Government and the rights of the people; and I have
watched with no little anxiety the encroachments of Government and the
manifest desire to trample upon your rights. It is for you, however,
to maintain them; and if those men that are traitors to the spirit and
genius of the Constitution of the United States have a mind to trample
underfoot those principles that ought to guarantee protection to every
American citizen, we will rally around the standard, and bid them
defiance in the name of the Lord God of Israel.

vol. 5, p.156
In doing this, we neither forget our duties as citizens of the United
States, nor as subjects of the kingdom and cause of God; but, as the
Lord has said, if we will keep His commandments, we need not
transgress the laws of the land. We have not done it; we have
maintained them all the time.

vol. 5, p.157
[p.157] When we talk about the Constitution of the United States, we
are sometimes apt to quote—"Vox populi, vox Dei;" that is, The voice
of the people is the voice of God. But in some places they ought to
say, VOX POPULI, VOX DIABOLI; that is, the voice of the people is the
voice of the Devil.

vol. 5, p.157
We are moved by a higher law. They talk sometimes about a higher law
in the States. Greeley is a great man to talk about a higher law,
which means, with him, stealing niggers. We do not care anything about
that. We want to do something better—something higher and more noble.
That is rather too low for us; consequently, they need not be afraid
of our stealing their niggers: we will let them have all the benefits
of them as one of the grand institutions of Christians, together with
the amalgamating process as another of the institutions of
Christianity. And another grand institution they have among them is
prostitution.

vol. 5, p.157
Well, thank God, we do not know anything about such things. A very
respectable gentleman in Philadelphia said to me a while go, in
talking over some of these matters—" Suppose a Mahommedan should come
into the city of Philadelphia"—that is one of the puritanical cities,
where they profess to be so good, the city of brotherly love—and walk
through our streets in the evening, and see a number of ladies walking
alone, being informed that it was usual for respectable ladies to be
protected, he would necessarily enquire what was the meaning of this.
Being informed that these were prostitutes, he would very naturally
say," Then I suppose this is one of the institutions of Christianity?"
This is the conclusion he would come to at once. Well, so it is; and
this niggerism in the South is about the same kind of thing, only a
change of colour.

vol. 5, p.157
These are all moral, all legal, all truly Christian. Men East may have
one or a dozen misses, keep part of their children, and turn the other
out as paupers. In the South, they buy them body and soul, prostitute
them at pleasure, and sell their own children. Yet these men talk of
our morals, and send out armies to chastise us for our corruptions,
when God knows, and they know, that they are a thousand times more
corrupt than we are.

vol. 5, p.157
We are not taking any steps contrary to the laws and the Constitution
of the United States, but in everything we are upholding and
sustaining them. Gentlemen, hands off: we are free men; we possess
equal rights with other men; and if you send your sealed orders here,
we may break the seal, and it shall be the opening of the first seal.

vol. 5, p.157
In relation to the kingdom of God, that is another matter. You before
me understand about it—its laws, priesthood, principles, and
influences, and the things that are about to transpire. God has set
His hand to accomplish His purposes, to roll on His great designs, and
bring to pass the things spoken of by all the holy Prophets since the
world began, that should take place in the latter days, to establish
His kingdom on the earth, that shall become mighty and prevail over
all other kingdoms. Yea know all about this.

vol. 5, p.157
We are established here, and have the oracles of God in our midst, and
the principles of truth revealed. This is the kingdom of God. The
stone cut out of the mountain without hands has got to roll forth and
become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth.

vol. 5, p.157
Satan has held dominion, and rule, and power, over the human family,
for generations and generations; and God is gathering together a
little nucleus here—a band of brethren [p.158] clothed upon with the
Holy Priesthood and the spirit of God, by which they will be able to
roll hack the cloud of darkness that has overwhelmed the inhabitants
of the earth, and plant the principles of truth, and establish the
kingdom of God. That is what we are engaged in, and what we mean to
accomplish by the help of the Lord; and in regard to any little thing
that may be transpiring around us, in regard to their little armies
they are sending here, great conscience! it is comparatively nothing;
there will be thunder and lightning and the bellowing of earthquakes,
in comparison with that, before we get through. Thrones will be cast
down, and desolation, war, and bloodshed will spread abroad in the
earth, and desolate nations and empires, and God will turn and
overturn until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of
our God and  His Christ, and he will reign for ever; and we are going
to have part in it, and our children and our children's children.

vol. 5, p.158
It is for us to act as the sons of the  living God, magnify our
calling, honour our God and His Priesthood, and live as men and as
God's true children on the earth, accomplish His purposes here, and
then join with the redeemed that have gone before to help to roll on
weightier matters in the upper world.

vol. 5, p.158
I do not know but I have been talking long enough. I feel well. I am
happy. All is right; and if it thunders, let it thunder; let the
lightnings flash and the earthquakes bellow; let them rage: there is a
God in heaven that can hold the children of men, and He will do it,
and His work will spread, His kingdom increase, and His power be made
manifest among us and among all nations, and Zion will spread and go
forth, and every creature in the heavens, and on the earth, and under
the earth will be heard to say, "Blessing and power, might and majesty
be ascribed to Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for
ever and ever."

vol. 5, p.158
Brethren. God bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Heber C. Kimball, August 30, 1857

Correction—Appointment of Governor—"Our Own 
Name"—The Coming Test, Etc.

Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, August 30, 1857.

vol. 5, p.158
You must expect, when you see brother Heber stand before you to speak,
that you will hear what is called the rough etchel to this generation.
I am pretty well satisfied brethren, that there are only four or five
persons in this congregation that dislike to hear me talk; and when
you take out those four or five, I know that this people would rather
hear me speak than any other man who speaks from this stand, except
brother Brigham: It is not that those four or five have anything
particular against me, but it is because I do at many times give vent
to my feelings, and, by so doing, I hit them a crack where they
deserve it. Well, this is all right.

vol. 5, p.159
[p.159] I wonder if there is a man or woman here that really wants to
be a Saint —I mean those that want to live their religion—but what
desire in their hearts and seek in their prayers to the Father that
they may be corrected when they are wrong—that they may be admonished?
Is there a person in this congregation but what has that desire and
that feeling? If there is, I am greatly mistaken; for I hear them when
I go into meetings and when I go into family circles; they will say,
if I have a wrong thing about me, I want to be corrected. Have you not
heard it so this morning? Every man that speaks before this community
has those feelings. Have not I those feelings? Brethren, if I have a
fault, or have anything about me which is not right, I want to get rid
of that; and so do you, if you are Saints.

vol. 5, p.159
Well, there is not a mother in this congregation but feels in that
way; else, when they see one of their children in fault, why do they
correct these children? Why do you correct them, when you are not
willing to be corrected yourselves? Neither a father nor a mother,
from this time forth, should correct a child, except they are willing
to be corrected in their faults.

vol. 5, p.159
Do you see it? You will see mothers who will correct their children
when they get angry, and that is almost the only time they will
correct a child. Am I angry to-day? Just look at me, and see if you
think I am angry. I tell you I am just as good-natured as I can be,
according to the nature of the case that I am now dwelling upon. Well,
this is for you to reflect upon.

vol. 5, p.159
Is this a good people? You may take the Elders of Israel throughout
these valleys, and those at the stations, between here and the United
States, and those that we have sent to the nations of the earth, and
then thousands, who never were here, and there never was a more
amenable set of men upon the earth, with the experience that we have
got; and there never was that day that this people were one as they
are one to-day; no, never.

vol. 5, p.159
Well, I feel to, praise the Elders of Israel for their faithfulness.
Is there a chance for improvement, brethren, ye Elders of Israel? If
you think there is a chance for improvement, notwithstanding all of my
praising you, just raise your right hands. [A forest of hands was
raised.] Those that think there cannot be any improvement, but that
you are stereo-typed, raise your hands. I cannot see any hands raised
upon that side.

vol. 5, p.159
When I went to chop, I was always taught to pull off my coat, and spit
on my hands. I pull off my coat because I am too warm. If I don't talk
here more than twenty minutes, I want my coat off.

vol. 5, p.159
May I tell you some of my feelings, and not have any of you angry with
me? [Voices: "Yes."] I hate to have the ladies angry with red, above
all things; and I will tell you one thing, and that is, all you that
are ladies will not find fault; but the woman that finds fault with
me, I can analyze her, and show you she is not a lady. I am a
physician. Well, you can hardly mention a thing that is good but what
I am.

vol. 5, p.159
I want to tell some of my feelings here to-day, in a few words,
relative to brother Brigham. I call him brother, because he says if I
call him President, he shall call me president; and just as sure as he
does, I am as flat as a pancake. I shall only call him President
before the Saints, in his calling—I was going to say before our
enemies; but, damn them, they shall never come here. Excuse me, I
never use rough words, only when I come in contact with rough things;
and I use smooth words when I talk [p.160] upon smooth subjects, and
so on, according to the nature of the case that comes before me.

vol. 5, p.160
You all acknowledge brother Brigham as the President of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; then you acknowledge him as our
Leader, Prophet, Seer, and Revelator; and then you acknowledge him in
every capacity that pertains to his calling, both in Church and State,
do you not? [Voices: "Yes."] Well, he is our Governor. What is
Governor? One who presides or governs. Well, now, we have declared, in
a legislative capacity, that we will not have poor, rotten-hearted
curses come and rule over us, such as some they have been accustomed
to send. We drafted a memorial, and the Council and the House of
Representatives signed it, and we sent to them the names of men of our
own choice—as many as from five to eight men for each office—men from
our own midst, out of whom to appoint officers for this Territory. We
sent that number for the President of the. United States to make a
selection from, and asked  him to give us men of our own choice, in
accordance with the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all American
citizens. We just told them right up and down, that if they sent any
more such miserable curses as some they had sent were, we would send
them home; and that is one reason why an army, or rather a mob, is on
the way here, as reported. You did not know the reason before, did
you?

vol. 5, p.160
Well, we did that in a legislative capacity; we did it as members of
the Legislature—as your representatives; and now you have got to back
us up. You sent us, just as we sent brother Bernhisel to seek for our
rights and to stand in our defence at Washington.

vol. 5, p.160
Well, here is brother Brigham: he is the man of our own choice; he is
our Governor, in the capacity of a Territory, and also as Saints of
the Most High.

vol. 5, p.160
Well, it is reported that they have another Governor on the way now,
three Judges, a District Attorney, a Marshal, a Postmaster, and
Secretary, and that they are coming here with twenty-five hundred men.
The United States design to force those officers upon us by the point
of the bayonet.

vol. 5, p.160
Is not that a funny thing? You may think that I am cross, but I am
laughing at their calamity, and I will "mock when their fear cometh."

vol. 5, p.160
Now, gentlemen and ladies, you look at these things, and then right in
this book, the Bible. It says, our nobles shall be of ourselves; that
is, our Lords, our Judges, our Governors, our Marshals, and our
everything shall be of ourselves. Won't you read the 30th chapter of
Jeremiah?

vol. 5, p.160
18. Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will bring again the captivity of
Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city
shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after
the manner thereof.

vol. 5, p.160
19. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them
that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few;
I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

vol. 5, p.160
20. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation
shall be established before me, and I will punish all them that
oppress them.

vol. 5, p.160
21. And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their Governor shall
proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and
he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to
approach unto me? saith the Lord.

vol. 5, p.160
22. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

vol. 5, p.160
23. Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a [p.161]
continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the
wicked.

vol. 5, p.161
24. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done
it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the
latter days ye shall consider it.

vol. 5, p.161
Well, the day has come when our Governor has come out of our midst and
he is in the tops of the mountains just where the Prophets said these
things should come to pass; and now the United States are reported to
be trying to force a Governor upon us, when the Lord has raised one up
right out of our midst.

vol. 5, p.161
Now, I am going to talk about these things, and I feel as though I had
a perfect right to do so, because I am one of the people.

vol. 5, p.161
If this people should consent to dispossess brother Brigham Young as
our Governor, they are just as sure to go to hell as they live, and I
know it; for God would forsake them and leave them to themselves, and
they would be in worse bondage than the children of Israel ever were.

vol. 5, p.161
Supposing this thing all blows over, and they don't come up here, but
they begin to flatter us and be friendly, what will he the result?
They may flatter as long as the earth stands, but I never will be
subject to one of their damned pusillanimous curses. They may court
and flatter as much as they please, but I never will be subject to
them again,—no, never. Do you hear it? [Voices: "Yes."] Do you think
we will submit to them?  No, never. They have cut the thread
themselves.

vol. 5, p.161
You are the people who have the privilege to acknowledge brother
Brigham as our Governor and continue him in his office; and you also
have the privilege, through your agency, to reject him, if you please;
but it will be to your condemnation if you do, because he has got the
keys of the kingdom; and the very moment you reject him, you cut
yourselves off from the right of the Priesthood.

vol. 5, p.161
I will now bring up a comparison. I live in the City of Great Salt
Lake. I am a father, a husband, a benefactor to between sixty and
seventy subjects: I feed them; I clothe them; and they  do not have a
pin, a drink of tea, nor anything but what I provide: I provide them
houses to live in and beds to sleep on. But suppose that, by-and-by,
some stranger comes along, and my family say to him, "We will have you
to preside over us," and they reject me, when at the same time they
say, "Brother Heber is a good man," but the other man comes with a
smiling face, and my family take him and reject me—what have they
done? If they reject me, they reject their head; and, by so doing,
they destroy their heirship to the head or limb to which they are
lawfully connected. Is not that so?

vol. 5, p.161
Suppose you acknowledge the man reported to be coming, what do you do?
You reject your head, and if so, where is the body, and what will
become of it? I will compare it to my body. Supposing the head is cast
away, the body will die, won't it? Yes; and you will die just as quick
as that, if you reject brother Brigham, your head.

vol. 5, p.161
We are the people of Deseret. She shall be Deseret; she shall be no
more Utah: we will have our own name. Do you hear it?

vol. 5, p.161
Brethren and sisters, these ideas are comforting to all of you: they
are most gloriously comforting to me. I tell you, the feelings within
me are glorious.

vol. 5, p.161
We are the people of Deseret, and it is for us to say whether we will
have brother Brigham for our Governor, or those poor, miserable devils
they are reported to be trying to bring here. You must know they are
miserable devils to have to come here under arms; but they shall not
rule [p.162] over us nor come into this Territory.  What do you say
about it? Are you willing, as a people, that they should come in here?
You that say they shall not, raise your right hands. [All hands
raised.]

vol. 5, p.162
Mr. Gentile, won't you tell of this to your co-workers for the Devil's
kingdom?

vol. 5, p.162
The reason that I talk as I do is because I don't hold any office in
the United States; but this people, some time ago, appointed me
Chief-Justice of the State of Deseret, and brother John Taylor and
Bishop N. K. Whitney as my associates. You also appointed me
Lieutenant-Governor; I always told you I was going to be
Lieutenant-Governor. This is a stump speech!

vol. 5, p.162
We are going to have our own Governor from henceforth. Brigham Young
was then our Governor, Heber C. Kimball was Chief-Justice and
Lieutenant-Governor. I was a big man then; I felt as big as brother
Morley does in the Legislature. The fact is, he does not understand
their gabble: if he does, he understands more than I do.

vol. 5, p.162
It is for us to say, according to our rights under the Constitution,
whether we will have those cursed Gentiles to rule over us, or not.

vol. 5, p.162
I want you to publish this, Mr. Editor.

vol. 5, p.162
I am giving you a little of my feelings; for I want you to know that
you are under no more obligation to receive those men than brother
Brigham's family is to receive another man and to reject him as their
husband, their father, their friend, and benefactor.

vol. 5, p.162
I know that what I have said has informed many of your minds, and I
choose to present my ideas by comparison. I have, a right to say the
Gentiles shall never rule over me, although this people might admit of
their coming here. I have a right to say, also, that we shall never be
ruled over by them from this day forth, while grass grows or water
runs; never, no, never.

vol. 5, p.162
[Voices: "Amen."]

vol. 5, p.162
Well, we have got to sustain these amens, and we have got to sustain
these vows. You ladies, too, will certainly have to do your part, or
back out. I told you last Sunday to arm yourselves; and if you cannot
do it any other way, sell some of your fine bonnets, fine dresses, and
buy yourselves a good dirk, a pistol, or some other instrument of war.
Arm your boys and arm yourselves universally, and that, too, with the
weapons of war; for we may be brought to the test, to see if we will
stand up to the line. I never knew it to fail, when men made
covenants, but they were brought to the test, to see if they would
live up to them.

vol. 5, p.162
This people have made covenants, they have made vows, and they have
been instructed by brother Brigham; and he has told them that those
covenants and penalties are true and faithful; and I say they are as
true as the Lord God liveth; and the day will come that you will have
to fulfil those vows and covenants that you have made; and not one
word shall fail.

vol. 5, p.162
I have told you of it, and I have backed it up when others have said
it. Now, mark it; for God will drive us to it. These instructions,
given to us from time to time, will have to be carried out and
fulfilled; for I just know that you have got to reap that which is
sown. If you sow to the spirit, you will reap life everlasting; but if
you sow to the flesh, we shall reap corruption; and the bed that we
make, we have got to lie in. Now, I will tell you another thing that
bears heavily on my mind, as much so as any other thing, and that is,
for this people to live their religion, and do as they are told.

vol. 5, p.162
I will ask you this question, [p.163] gentlemen and ladies—Can you
live your religion, except you do as you are told? I have said, again
and again, that if we live our religion, and do as we are. told, those
men will never come over those mountains; for we shall slay the poor
devils before they get there.

vol. 5, p.163
I do not know of any religion, except doing as I am told; and if you
do, you have learned something that I have never learned. You have a
Governor here to dictate you and to tell you what to do; and if we
will live our religion, we are always safe, are we not?

vol. 5, p.163
There are a great many that will not live their religion, for they
think they belong to the aristocracy; but understand, gentlemen and
ladies, that I withdraw from that society. I told you last Sunday,
that of all the corrupt beings upon the face of the earth, the present
aristocracy are the worst.

vol. 5, p.163
I am a pretty rugged fellow, and valiant for the truth; and may the
Lord make everybody like me, that we may stand against our enemies;
for the corruptest devils on the earth are the present aristocracy.

vol. 5, p.163
Let us go to work and lay up our grain, lay up wheat, and everything
that will and can be preserved; and in so doing, we will save
ourselves from sorrow, pain, and anguish; and the Lord will give us a
law and a word for us to abide, and he will cut off our enemies; and
if every man and woman will go to work, lay up their grain, and do as
they are told, the Lord will hold off our enemies from us, until we
can lay up sufficient store for ourselves. This is a part of our
religion—to lay up stores and provide for ourselves and for the
surrounding country; for the day is near when they will come by
thousands and by millions, with their fineries, to get a little bread.
That time is right by our door.

vol. 5, p.163
Brother Stewart says he has discovered that this work is five years
a-head of what he had supposed. Let me tell you that this people are
more than ten years a-head of what they supposed. They were all
asleep; but the Lord has waked them up, to prepare them for a time of
trial and famine. If you do not see it, and feel it, and taste it, and
smell it, it will be because God will have mercy upon you; and he
will, if you will do as you are told from this time forth.

vol. 5, p.163
Do I feel comfortable? Gentlemen and ladies, I never saw the day that
I felt any better. I become weary with toil, but I feel well in regard
to this work. But there is a spirit of calmness, of peace, that I am
jealous of.

vol. 5, p.163
I never have seen the day for twenty-five years, but before there was
a storm there was always a calm. In Kirtland, before the trouble
commenced, there was this calm. Joseph and Hyrum were men that would
stand the test, but finally they had to flee from Kirtland to
Missouri. Well, previous to that, we had received. our endowments, and
a more calm, heavenly, and prosperous time I never saw.

vol. 5, p.163
Was it so in Missouri? Yes, it was: after they became settled, they
became composed; and the year of the trouble we never had such crops
in the world as we had then.

vol. 5, p.163
Was it not so in Nauvoo? Yes; and the spirit of composure rested upon
the people; and it is more or less so now; and such crops as we have
this year never were produced.

vol. 5, p.163
What does this mean? And the spirit of composure seems to be upon the
people more than ever. And what does this mean? I am rather inclined
to be jealous of it. Say I, wake up, ye Saints of Zion, while it is
called to-day, lest trouble and sorrow come upon you, as a thief in
the night.

vol. 5, p.163
Suppose it is not coming, will it built you to lay up the products of
the earth for seven years? Will it hurt [p.164] you, if you have your
guns, swords and spears in good condition, according to the law of the
United States? Some of the States give a man his clearance at forty
years of age; others, at forty-five: they call men to train when they
are eighteen years of age; but we call upon all from six to six
hundred years old: we do not except any; and I want the world to know
that we are ready for anything that comes along. If it is good, we are
ready for that; and if it is evil, we are ready to stand against it.

vol. 5, p.164
We are calculating to sow our wheat early this fall, in case of
emergency. I throw out these things for you to think upon; and if they
are not right, they will not hurt anybody.

vol. 5, p.164
But wake up, ye Saints of the Most High, and prepare for any emergency
that the Lord our God may have pleasure in bringing forth. We never
shall leave these valleys—till we get ready; no, never; no, never. We
will live here till we go back to Jackson County, Missouri. I prophesy
that, in the name of Israel's God.

vol. 5, p.164
[The congregation shouted "Amen," and President B. Young said, "It is
true."]

vol. 5, p.164
If our enemies force us to destroy our orchards and our property, to
destroy and lay waste our houses, fields, and everything else, we
shall never build and plant again, till we do it in Jackson County.
But our enemies are not here yet, and we have not yet thrown down our
houses. Let me tell you, if God designs that Israel should now become
free, they will come and strike the blow; and if he does not, they
will not come: That is as true as that book (pointing to the Bible).

vol. 5, p.164
Go to work, and lay up your grain, and do not lay it out for fine
clothes, nor any other kind of fine thing, but make homespun trowsers
and petticoats. What would please me more than for my family, instead
of wanting me to go to the store for petticoats. and short gowns, to
see them go to work and make some good homespun? What would be
prettier that some of the English striped linsey, and a bonnet made of
our own straw? Those are the women I would choose for wives. If you
want virtue, go into the farming country, for there it is homespun.
Farming districts contain the essence and the virtue of old England.

vol. 5, p.164
I do not know that you know what homespun is; but it is that which is
spun at home; and it is for your welfare, both men, women, and
children, to make your own clothing. It is also for your salvation to
equip yourselves according to law.

vol. 5, p.164
Now, I will tell you, I have about a hundred shots on hand all the
time, —three or four fifteen-shooters, and. three or four revolvers,
right in the room where I sleep; and the Devil does not like to sleep
there, for he is afraid they will go off half-cocked.

vol. 5, p.164
If you will lay a bowie knife or a loaded revolver under your pillow
every night, you will not have many unpleasant dreams, nor be troubled
with the nightmare; for there is nothing that the Devil is so much
afraid of as a weapon of death.

vol. 5, p.164
You may take this as some of Heber's wild visions, if you please. I
have acknowledged myself as one of the people; and now I say, we will
take our own name, and we will not be false-named any more. We are the
Kingdom of God; we are STATE or DESERET; and we will have you, brother
Brigham, as our Governor just so long as you live. We will not have
any other Governor.

vol. 5, p.164
I mean just what I say, and this people say they will not have any
other Governor, and especially any one that has to come here under
arms; for we consider that any man is a poor, damned curse that has to
 come here under arms to rule over us. These [p.165] are my feelings;
and if anybody votes against it, they are not of us: but there are but
four or five but what vote for us; and they are apostates, and will go
overboard. There is not a child but what goes with us in these things.

vol. 5, p.165
When we reject brother Brigham Young, we reject the head; but we will
not do it, for the body shall dwell together, and we are members of
that body, and he shall be our Governor just as long as God Almighty
will have him to be. Those who are in favour of it, raise your hands.

vol. 5, p.165
[The vote was unanimous.]

vol. 5, p.165
You may try it just as long as you like, and it will be just so every
time, except those four or five, and they never will vote. Can I point
them out? Yes, I can. I have had my eye on them ever since they came
into the congregation.

vol. 5, p.165
Let us do our duty, be humble, prayerful, honest, virtuous, and
punctual in all our engagements. Let us have no lying, no deception;
but let us be honest, and let the labouring men the; labour on the
public works be honest, and let them be punctual to their work.

vol. 5, p.165
Why do I speak to the public hands? Because they are on the most
important work there is in the world. And how would a man feel to go
into that house (pointing to the endowment house), that had stolen the
nails out of the carpenter's shop or out of the machine shop, or the
boards out of the lumber yard?

vol. 5, p.165
Let us be faithful, and the Lord will be on our side, and I doubt
whether we shall be under the necessity of shedding much blood
ourselves; but let us be ready, guns cocked; none of your half-cocked.

vol. 5, p.165
This is my exhortation to Israel; and may the Lord God bless the
righteous, the humble, those that tell the truth, and those that are
honest and punctual.

vol. 5, p.165
Can I bless any that are not humble and amenable to their superiors?
Can I bless those that are always finding fault? I wish to God I
could; but blessings would not stick to them; but if you will do as
you are told, you shall be blessed in everything that you put your
hands to, from this time forth and for ever. You shall have health and
strength, and you shalt multiply and increase in everything you
undertake to do: and that is not all: you will have faith, that, when
a man or woman that is sick sends for you to bless them, you will say,
"Be thou made whole; and that will be the case from this time
henceforth and for ever.

vol. 5, p.165
There is one man whom we saw up north when we went to eat watermelons,
who had thought of having an artesian well bored. He said, "If I knew
that we were going to stop here three years, I would have one very
soon." Says I to that gentleman—You put out peach trees, apple trees,
apricots, and currants; and if we have to go into the mountains, we
shall cut off the trees, and the roots will be there still; but we
shall not go into the mountains.

vol. 5, p.165
We were told that we were going into the woods before we came here;
and then, when we got here, there were no woods. But you need not be
afraid; you go and graft and innoculate your trees, and build houses,
that you may know how to build when you get to Jackson County.

vol. 5, p.165
All that we built in Kirtland, in Far West, in Missouri, in Nauvoo,
and in Winter Quarters—for every one of those places, gentlemen, we
are to have our pay. Who are to pay us? Those that took our property
away from us, we will make servants of them: the day will come that we
will have them for our vine-dressers, and we will set them to digging
holes to, put the rest of the damned scoundrels in who have rebelled
against God and His servants. Amen. [p.166]

Brigham Young, August 30, 1857

Tradition—Duty of the Saints to Live Their Religion—
Safety of Zion—Preparation for the Future, Etc.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 30, 1857.

vol. 5, p.166
I can truly say that I am happy for the privilege of meeting with the
Saints.

vol. 5, p.166
When I am alone, and look by the vision of the Spirit upon this
people, my heart says within me, God bless the people, God bless the
people; and I bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus. I feel to bless
the people continually, from day to day. Their interest is my
interest; their welfare is my welfare; their hope is mine. We are of
one faith; and to see the people drawings near unto the Lord and
becoming more of one heart and of one mind is the most cheering
thought and reflection that can pass upon my mind: there is nothing
else that compares with, it. As for the riches of the world or the
good things of the world—as for gold or silver, houses and lands, they
are nothing in comparison to the. purity of the faith of the people.

vol. 5, p.166
This people are increasing in their faith, they are increasing in
their good works, and. they are really becoming the Saints of the Most
High. Any person possessing the Spirit of the holy Gospel, and who has
been acquainted with this people during years that are past, can
readily discover that they are merging to the period when they will
become the disciples of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps we think that we are
perfectly so now; but it is not the case—we are engaged in a
preparatory work.

vol. 5, p.166
When the Gospel came to us, it found us in the depths of ignorance; it
found us in darkness; it found us possessed of all the prejudices,
feelings, and views that now exist in the world. There is no man—there
is no woman, but what was more or less clothed upon with the
traditions of their fathers. There cannot a person be found at the
present day—one who has arrived at the years to think, to act, and to
judge for himself, but what is more or less clothed and enveloped in
the traditions of their fathers.

vol. 5, p.166
On the other hand, there is no person possessing the Spirit of
revelation but what can very readily discern that the ways of the Lord
are not like the ways of man, and that the children of men have gone
out of the way. Take all nations—all people—by communities, by
societies, by families, and by individuals,—take the whole mass of the
inhabitants of the earth, and they have each taken to their own way,
as any person possessing the Spirit of revelation can discern to be
the case in the whole world. At the same time, they imagine that they
are right—that they have light—that they have intelligence—that they
are possessed of true knowledge pertaining. to God and the things of
eternity.

vol. 5, p.166
Take the inhabitants of Japan—islands situated between here and
China,—and if you are acquainted with the people, with their feelings
and true sentiments, you know that they actually believe that they are
the  only [p.167] people that are enlightened, and that all the rest
of mankind are heathen. Go to China, whish is called by its
inhabitants the celestial empire because of their supposed purity, and
they actually believe that they are the only nation under heaven that
has the true knowledge of eternity.

vol. 5, p.167
Turn to the Christian nations on the eastern and western
continents—take enlightened Christendom as the whole —and they believe
that they are the only people who have the knowledge of God. It is
true that they far exceed all other nations in many of the arts and
sciences, and they also believe that they are the only people who
understand the true religion of heaven.

vol. 5, p.167
They are sending their missionaries to the east and to the west, to
the north and to the south, and they are penetrating every nook and
corner, to enlighten what they call the heathen nations. Is not that
the case? That arises from the traditions of their fathers which are
handed down to the children, and they are enveloped in them.

vol. 5, p.167
When we look at this people, could we expect them to become prepared
to be the disciples of the Lord Jesus in one, in five, in ten, in
twenty, or in thirty years? No. And it will be just as much as we can
do to be worthy to be the brothers and sisters of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ when he makes his appearance. Let us strive with all our
might, be as watchful as it is possible for us to be, apply ourselves
by faith and diligence to the keeping of his commandments, and
continue so doing until Jesus sets his feet upon this continent, and
we will then find that we are only just prepared to receive him. This
is the preparatory work, and it will prepare the people, if they will
live for it.

vol. 5, p.167
How can we live our religion, except we do as we are told? I will
reversethe question and enquire, How can this people do as they are
told, except they live their religion? They cannot. Every family—every
neighbourhood is taught to glorify God. They are instructed from day
to day, they are taught the way of life and salvation, they are
counselled continually to seek unto the Lord their God, to obtain the
faith of the ancients, to obtain the light of the heavens, to walk in
the light of His countenance day by day; but how can you do these
things, except you do as you are told? You cannot. Neither can you
live your religion, except you do as you are told; for the people are
taught to live their religion, —they are taught to cease from every
evil thought and every evil action, to cease having a murmuring
spirit, to cease having a doubtful feeling; and they are taught to
cease being neglectful in regard to any known duty We are taught to
double our diligence where we have been slack, to seek unto the Lord
day by day, that we may have the light of his countenance. upon us.

vol. 5, p.167
Brother Heber has been prophesying. You know that I call him my
Prophet, and he prophesies for me. And now I prophesy that, if this
people will live their religion, the God of heaven will fight their
battles, bring them off victorious over all their enemies, and give to
them the kingdom. That is my prophecy. I said amen to all that brother
Heber prophesied, for it is true; and he may say amen to all that I
prophesy, for it is also true.

vol. 5, p.167
I have no fears in regard to the kingdom of God upon the earth; but I
have fears lest this people be not prepared to receive glory,
immortality, and eternal lives, when those principles are presented to
them. This is all the fear that I have—that we will not walk up to our
privileges and be prepared for them.

vol. 5, p.167
I thank my Father in heaven,—yes, my soul says, Glory, hallelujah,
praise the name of Israel's God, for the  blessings I enjoy at the
present time! [p.168] One year ago this very day, and previous to that
time, my soul was pained within me. No tongue could tell—it could not
be portrayed before the people, the feelings that I had: I could not
tell them; and I did not know but that, if I should come out in the
presence of the people and try to speak my feelings, they would call
me crazy. However, I tried to make the people understand my feelings,
but no tongue could tell them; and I actually believe that I would
have lived but a little time in this existence, had not God waked up
the people. I wanted to take up my valise and go throughout the
Territory crying, Is there a man in this Territory for God?

vol. 5, p.168
If you want to know how I felt, I cannot tell you better than by
describing my feelings in the way that I am now doing. One day, I told
a number of the brethren how I felt, as well as I could; and brother
Jedediah M. Grant partook of the Spirit that was in me and walked out
like a man, like a giant, and like an angel, and he scattered the fire
of the Almighty among the people. But what was the result so far as he
was concerned? He went beyond his strength, and it cost him his life.

vol. 5, p.168
There is now scarcely a man but wants to do as God would have him do
among those who claim to be Latter-day Saints, except those four or
five that brother Heber speaks of; hence we hold a very large majority
of that class of men and women who desire to do precisely as God would
have them, and my heart says, God bless the people. God bless you,
brethren and sisters. I bless you all the time. You are near my heart,
and it is all my business to look after the welfare of the Saints.
Remember that it will be just as much as you and I can do to prepare
to meet the Saviour when he comes, no matter whether we previously go
into the grave or not.

vol. 5, p.168
There has been a great deal said in the lower world about this little
handful of people; for you terrify the whole world! Not alone in the
United States, but in England, in France, in Italy, in Germany, and in
every State upon the eastern continent, the people are looking to see
the result of the present movements of our Government towards this
people. They are looking at the Gospel we preach, the course that we
take, the influence we are gaining, and the numbers we are gathering
to us; and they look at the subject not only in a religious point of
view, but also in a national capacity.

vol. 5, p.168
Brother Heber said to you, if the time has come, designed by the Lord
Almighty, for the thread to be cut between this people and the residue
of the world, then the Lord will suffer our enemies to clip the
thread; and I am with him in that sentiment. But if the time is not
come, the Lord will not suffer them to come. If He designs that
traffic should continue between us and them, that we shall have the
privilege of bringing our immigration, of preaching the Gospel and
saving the people, let me tell you that they will not come; God will
stop them.

vol. 5, p.168
As for myself, I would just as soon this was the time as any other. If
it is the time for the thread, in a national capacity, to be severed,
let it be severed. Amen to it. But I will tell you what I have
concluded: when we talk of gold, of silver, of riches, of the comforts
of this world, with me it is the kingdom of God, or nothing; with us
it must be the kingdom of God, or nothing. I shall not go in for
anything half-way. We must have the kingdom of God, or nothing. We are
not to be overthrown.

vol. 5, p.168
Cannot this kingdom be overthrown? No. They might as well try to
obliterate the sun. And I should  suppose that an experience of
twenty-six years would have proven [p.169] to the wicked that it could
not be overthrown; but it only wakes them up to anger and stirs them
up to be more diligent in their opposition to the righteous. They have
been trying to break up this people and destroy their organization,
ever since we became a church; and every time they try, their
oppression forces us into greater note; they increase our numbers and
strengthen us in faith and in the knowledge and power of God. And how
long must they live before they can learn that such has been and
invariably will be the result? They will learn it when they get into
hell, and never before,—never till they get into the spirit world; and
then they will see that they have all the time been fighting against
God; and never till then will they learn it. You cannot teach them
anything.

vol. 5, p.169
Here are men who have been with us for six or seven years, and if they
had any good, common philosophical power, they would know that ours is
something different from any other authority and organization in the
world. The union and peace that are here are in no other place on the
face of the earth. Here are power and influence that are nowhere else
on earth. Among this people there is an intelligence that is nowhere
else to be found. Can darkness discover light? No; and even when it
reflects itself, they turn it away as a trifling affair, and that
light which was in them becomes darkness; and then greater is their
darkness in the second instance than in the first.

vol. 5, p.169
Some of this people apostatize. But do you think that any would
apostatize from the kingdom of God, if they knew that it was the
kingdom of God? No. Why do they apostatize? Because, through
disobedience, that little light they were in possession of is taken
away, and they are left to believe a lie that they may be damned. That
is the reason why they go away.

vol. 5, p.169
I say to this people, Do as you are told; and if you live by every
righteous principle that you can learn and forsake every evil
principle and act through your whole lives as becometh Saints of the
Most High, all will be well. Can men live so that they can have the
serene, blessed, calm, soft, soothing Spirit of the Lord always to
abide with them? Yes, they can. And if they are tempted, they can
resist temptation. Can women? They can. If they have temptation, they
can resist it, and it will flee from them, and they will gain a
victory.

vol. 5, p.169
So live, day by day, that your lives will be like an even spun thread.
Let there be no lying, no backbiting, no evil; but let the whole life
of every man and woman tend to good. Then, when they have their
failings, they will forgive each other, and will find the words of the
Saviour to be true, that his Spirit will be in them as a well of
living water springing up into everlasting life. Will they become
prophets? Yes, and prophetesses. Let them honour their religion until
they pass the ordeal, and they will reach the time when the Lord will
never suffer them to fall. There. will be a time when the fountain of
life is within them; then they are prophets and prophetesses, and tell
the truth all the time. They walk no more in darkness, but in the
light; and that is the privilege of every man and woman.

vol. 5, p.169
Thank heaven that bickerings and contentions are lessening every year
among this people. Suppose that we all most strictly lived our
religion, would there be a hard word in this community? There would
not. Do you understand that? Never accuse a man or a woman of evil,
until you find out the cause. Never judge by the outward appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. And if persons who are striving to do
good should happen to commit an overt act, and [p.170] are ready to
restore to the uttermost, then that would be the occasion of a feeling
of kindness and affection towards them. There is no reason for the
people to do wrong, but there is everything to encourage them to do
right.

vol. 5, p.170
The brethren have had a good deal said to them this morning, but I
feel to bless the people; and I wish you to live nearer and nearer to
the Lord. Seek unto the Lord our God continually; seek to possess more
of his Spirit; throw off the power of erroneous traditions and of the
evil influences that were around us in our youthful days and before we
came to a knowledge of the truth. Learn the things of God, and you
will find that they are very different from the things of the world;
you will find all the plans and schemes of the world to be so
different that you would hardly suppose that they ever knew anything
about the plan of salvation.

vol. 5, p.170
Also remember to lay up your grain. Brother Heber has been preaching
to you about that; therefore remember to lay up sufficient for your
families. Sow your grain early this fall. Many wish to know whether I
think we shall reap. I do not care whether we do or not. I intend to
sow early this fall, so that it will ripen next season. How bad we
should feel, if we did not sow, and all should be peace and safety
next season, to know that we could have harvested if we had sown. I
reckon that I should feel bad, if I were placed in such a condition;
but I will prepare for the people to live so long as they dwell upon
the earth.

vol. 5, p.170
What more will I prepare for? I will prepare for a fight, I will
prepare for peace, and I will also prepare for everything that comes
along; then I am ready for anything. Build? Yes, build, and make your
homes as comfortable as you can.

vol. 5, p.170
If I knew that I was going to burn all my buildings next season, it
would not hinder me for one hour from making improvements. The more I
do, the more I shall be prepared to do. And I am determined to prepare
to lay up the walls of Zion and to learn all I can, so that, if I
should happen to be one of the men to engage in that work, I shall
know how to commence and dictate the foundation of the walls of Zion
and those of the Temple.

vol. 5, p.170
A great many think that we have been extravagant in laying so broad
and deep a foundation for this Temple; but I would rather have that
foundation, though it should lay as it is till the Millennium, than to
have the most splendid superstructure built upon a sandy foundation.
What do you say, you men and women of judgment? [Voices, "You are
correct."] Is there not more honour in that foundation; though it lay
there till we go back to Jackson County, than there would be in such a
building as I have named?

vol. 5, p.170
About two weeks ago, Elder Hyde began to say, "There is no knowing
where;" and I took the words from his mouth and continued, "The
Latter-day Saints will land in Jackson County, Missouri."

vol. 5, p.170
The Lord has suffered the wicked to drive us about, that we might
accomplish his designs the sooner. Some of you sisters are afraid of
cousin Lemuel; and some say that our enemies are bringing presents to
bribe cousin Lemuel. Let them bring and let them bribe, and then, if
the time has come, when they have got through bribing, cousin Lemuel
will turn round and take the rest.

vol. 5, p.170
God is at the helm. This is the mighty ship Zion. You stick to the
ship, and honour it, and see that you are in favour with the ship
Zion, and you need not worry about anything else. God has the hearts
of the  children of men in his hands; he puts [p.171] hooks in their
jaws and turns them about at His pleasure. God is here; the Holy Ghost
is here and rests upon this people, and I am a witness to it. I know
that the Holy Ghost dwells in the hearts of this people; and the world
are afraid of the union that exists upon this people. They were afraid
of that in the days of Joseph, and it has been their fear all the
time. You might take a Democrat, a Republican, a ranting Methodist,
and old, stiff-necked, ranting Presbyterian; and when they dame to
consider Joseph Smith and the Saints, they saw that they were one in
faith, and it scared them all. They would say, "We are Methodists,
Baptists, and Presbyterians, but we are of different politics; in our
churches may be found all kinds of politics, but you, Joseph Smith,
alter men's politics; you change them and make them all one.

vol. 5, p.171
Brethren and sisters, do not be angry with them, for they are in the
hands of God. Instead of feeling a spirit to punish them, or anything
like wrath, you live your religion; and you will see the day when you
will pray God to turn away from your eyes the sight of their
afflictions.

vol. 5, p.171
There are thousands and millions in the United States, and in the
world, whose hearts are like an aspen leaf because of this little
handful of people in Utah. Pity them; for they know not whom they are
fighting against; they know not their destiny.

vol. 5, p.171
This army that is reported to be coming to this place know no more
about you and me than you know about the interior of China: they go
because they are sent. If they knew our real character, the soldiers
themselves would turn round and tell their officers to go to hell;
they would take a stampede, and if their officers urged them to come
and fight this people, they would turn round upon them or tell them to
do it themselves.

vol. 5, p.171
Now, do not feel angry. Are not they to be pitied? Yes. Are you to be
pitied? Yes, if you forsake God, or your religion. The Saints need to
be pitied for nothing but for forsaking their religion. Be careful
that you do not get darkness into your minds. 

vol. 5, p.171
May God bless you. Amen.

Heber C. Kimball, August 23, 1857

Faith in the Priesthood—Fruits of Faith—Laying Up Grain—
Gleaning—The Holy Ghost—Tree of Life, Etc.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, August 23, 1857.

vol. 5, p.171
I feel very much pleased at the arrival of our brethren that take
missions. I know how to sympathise with them. There are a great many
young Elders that are taking missions now. Twenty years ago; I was
labouring in England; I baptized brother G. D. Watt, twenty years ago
last month, (July,) in 1837. That was the first foreign mission that
was taken by the Elders of this Church.

vol. 5, p.171
At that time it was almost impossible to realize what we now see
[p.172] and understand. I went over to England at the time the Church
was broken up in Kirtland. There were very few persons then who could
stand by "Mormonism" faithfully and uphold our Prophet Joseph Smith:
where one would stand valiantly and uphold him, there were twenty who
did not.

vol. 5, p.172
That day was a day wherein the Saints were tested; their integrity was
proved; they were put to the test whether they would stand by
"Mormonism" and by the Prophet, or not.

vol. 5, p.172
Many people now pretend that they stand by what they call ancient
"Mormonism," or "Mormonism" in their own way, but in brother Brigham
they do not believe particularly.

vol. 5, p.172
No man can believe in "Mormonism," except he believes in the man that
leads the Church of God—in the man that holds the keys of life and
salvation pertaining to this people.

vol. 5, p.172
How is it possible for a limb to be attached to a tree, and at the
same time manifest its disapprobation of the tree? That limb will die
and wither away, except it manifests its approbation, faith, and
favour to the tree to which it is connected.

vol. 5, p.172
So it is impossible that a man or a woman who disbelieves that brother
Brigham is a Prophet—that hods God's representative and holds the keys
of his kingdom pertaining to this people, can retain the Holy Ghost
and partake of the life and sap of the true vine. Such persons have no
faith of the genuine bearing kind, and consequently there are no works
to correspond.

vol. 5, p.172
Will good works produce faith? Yes; there is very little faith without
works; and then again, there never was but very little works without
faith.

vol. 5, p.172
How can my body exist when my spirit leaves it? It cannot. Can my
spirit exist without this tabernacle? It can; but the body cannot
exist without the spirit, because the spirit that dwells in my body is
the life of my body, and there is no life without it.

vol. 5, p.172
Some say the earth exists without spirit; I do not believe any such
thing; it has a spirit as much as any body has a spirit. How can
anything live, except it has a living spirit? How can the earth
produce vegetation, fruits, trees, and every kind of production, if
there is no life in it? It could not, any more than a woman could
produce children when she is dead: she must be alive to produce life,
to manifest it, and show it to the world. It is so with "Mormonism."
We must manifest our faith by our works.

vol. 5, p.172
I speak these things because they come to my mind. When I arise to
speak, I have never a premeditated subject; I let God, by the Holy
Ghost, dictate me and control me, just as a musician would his violin.
It is the player on the instrument that plays the tune; the instrument
does not dictate the player. So I should be in the hands of God, to be
dictated by him; for we are told that the Holy Ghost, the Comforter,
will teach us all things past, present, and to come.

vol. 5, p.172
The Holy Ghost knows the minds of this people, and what is necessary
to deal out to every man and every woman in due season—their portion.
If I am not dictated by the Holy Ghost, I cannot communicate to you
that which is necessary.

vol. 5, p.172
Supposing you are all pure, except a very few,—say there are twenty or
thirty men in the assembly that are impure, and then there are a dozen
or fifty women that do not keep the commandments of God,—when I am
speaking to the disobedient, the Spirit in me alludes to those persons
only. 

vol. 5, p.172
Why do men or  women condemn [p.173] me when the Word of God is sharp,
and say I am harsh and hard? It is because they are not right; and
that is the way I prove them. You never would complain of the
sharpness of the word of God, if you were not under transgression.

vol. 5, p.173
You say I allude to you: so I do; or, it is the Spirit of God alludes
to you through me. You are the persons who are under censure—you are
the birds that flutter, because it hits you. Why should a person find
fault who is not under condemnation? That proves they are.

vol. 5, p.173
How shall we manifest our faith by our works? I will speak of that a
little further; and I cannot speak the truth as it is in Christ Jesus,
without I censure many of you. I will ask those who have been here for
four, seven, and eight years past, and from the day that we came into
these valleys, if they have proved by their works their faith in the
words of the Prophet Brigham?

vol. 5, p.173
Here are brother Amasa Lyman, brother Woodruff, and other brethren,
who recollect Brigham testifying most strenuously in the Bowery—then
occupied by the pioneers, when we first entered the Valley—of the
propriety of this people laying up grain and other stores for seven
years,—because, said he, "The time has come when the words of the
Prophets should be fulfilled, that the earth should rest every seventh
year."

vol. 5, p.173
He said it was our duty to lay up grain for seven years, because he
foresaw what would be; he foresaw what we came here for,—viz., to be
the saviours of men. I have spoken also of these things constantly.
How oft have you heard these things proclaimed for four years past?
And, after all we have said, who is there that has laid up grain to
last them one year, much less two, previous to, the late scarcity we
have passed through? 

vol. 5, p.173
Those that did lay up a little had to feed that out, or be called
scoundrels constantly. Some of the people considered a man a scoundrel
that would not hand out the last kernel he had, or the last lead of
wood he heel at his door.

vol. 5, p.173
Brother Brigham, myself, and Jedediah have blazed away on this matter
for the last four years; and how many have manifested their faith by
their works? Have one of you got wheat laid up to last you seven
years? No; not one of you have got enough laid up to last three years.

vol. 5, p.173
Uncle Sam—I won't call him uncle —he is a likely man, but his children
have degenerated most awfully; and one of his sons who sits in the
chair of state, Mr. Buchanan, is most awfully adulterated and sunk in
degradation, that he would permit an army of 2,500 or 3,000 men to
come here to enforce officers upon us contrary to the Constitution,
and to enforce a Governor upon us, when we have got one of our own
choosing.

vol. 5, p.173
The Prophet said that our Governor should rise up among ourselves.
That you will find in the 30th chapter of Jeremiah:—"And their nobles
shall be of themselves, and their Governor shall proceed from the
midst of them, and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall
approach unto me, for who who this that engaged his heart to approach
unto me? saith the, Lord."

vol. 5, p.173
Now that day has come, as true as you live; our nobles will proceed
from ourselves, and our Governor, and our judges, and all of our
officials shall come out of ourselves, from this day forth. [Voices:
"Amen."]

vol. 5, p.173
Now mark it, gentlemen and ladies; the day has come for this people to
take care of themselves. The President of the United States has taken
a course,—that is, the Lord has let him do it, knowing that no man can
do anything against the truth, but for it; He has organized His work
in [p.174] that way. The Lord has permitted him to pursue a course
that has brought you to your senses, to know whether or not it is
necessary that you should lay up wheat, because you did not believe
what brother Brigham said; and if you had believed what he said, you
would believe what brothers Heber, Jedediah, and Daniel said, and the
Twelve.

vol. 5, p.174
You have never believed .me, nor brother Brigham, nor one of the
Prophets, ancient or modern. You say you did believe it, but you did
not think it was so near to us. You should always be the judges,
should you not?

vol. 5, p.174
Have I any fears about them coming here? No. If the day has come for
there to be a collision between us and the United States and the
world, they will come, you may depend upon it, because God will stir
them up; but if the time has not come, they do not come here; so you
may set your hearts at rest.

vol. 5, p.174
You now see there is a time coming for every man to go to with his
might, and lay up his wheat and his oats, his barley, his peas, and
his beans, and dry your fruit, and lay it up; and then, when you have
done it this year, do it next year, and then prize it as the most
precious thing upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.174
The Bible says a man will give all he has got for his life. If you had
a million of dollars in gold or in silver you would give the whole of
it for food to save your life. Well, then, why do you not take a
course to lay up that very thing that will save your lives and the
lives of others, as Joseph did the lives of the people of Egypt and
his father's house?

vol. 5, p.174
Joseph warned the people of s famine that was coming on the land, and
laid up corn; so Brigham and Heber have taught you that we are going
to see a day similar to that, but more terrible—more awful.

vol. 5, p.174
How strange it is, brethren, that you are so dilatory in those things
that pertain to your salvation and the salvation of millions besides
us? Am I taking that course? I am. And before I built my store-house,
I saw these things, and I went to work and set an example that was
worthy of imitation, although it was small; and the Deseret
Agricultural and Manufacturing Society gave me a diploma, but did not
give me any money, although I had done the best, in their thoughts, of
the kind. And I am going to continue.

vol. 5, p.174
I have got somewhere between eleven and twelve hundred bushels of old
wheat now in my store-house, and it will stay there until Brigham
says, "I want it." And I have room for another twelve hundred—yes, for
twelve times twelve; and when that is filled, I will fill another one,
and so I will keep it going. The Lord will put means in my hands that
I will continue to do so, and he will bless every man and woman that
will take that course and continue it; they will increase in their
stores, while those who take the opposite course will decrease and
they will wither away.

vol. 5, p.174
Do you not see that the man who will store up knowledge, virtue,
wisdom, and understanding, will increase in those principles? It will
be just so with the fruits of the earth.

vol. 5, p.174
I shall continue to teach you these things and arouse your minds.

vol. 5, p.174
I have referred to you ladies. I told you, a week or two ago, to take
some of your fine clothes and buy wheat. Let me bring up a
circumstance of a certain woman that came to me and wanted an
every-day dress. She said she had seven dresses too good for every
day. I said," Why do you not make an every-day dress of some of them;
for one of them will out-wear three dresses made of twenty-five cent
calico?"

vol. 5, p.174
I would advise you to take [p.175] everything that is unnecessary, and
buy wheat and barley, and such things as you need with it, and lay up
your stores for the time that is to come, that you can feed your own
kindred and friends, who will actually come to you. Lots of my kindred
will come to me, and brother Brigham's will come to him, as Joseph's
father, and mother, and brethren came to him in Egypt. As that is
true, this is, as the Lord liveth.

vol. 5, p.175
The Lord says that saviours shall come upon Mount Zion in the latter
days. Mount Zion is here in the tops of the mountains; and has not our
Governor come out of us? He has come out of this Church—out of a
branch of the house of Israel; yes, our Governor and our
Lieutenant-Governor, and our Judges and Marshals, &c.

vol. 5, p.175
Now, sisters, I am going to bring before you a circumstance of one
man: he is our barber down here—brother Squires. Although he is
shaving to good advantage, if he had subjects enough, he could make
ten dollars a day, —that is, if he could get enough for it. He went
down here close to a piece of land I am keeping, and he worked four or
five days; he took his wife and two children with him, and he averaged
two-and-a-half bushels every day at gleaning the heads of wheat that
were scattered.

vol. 5, p.175
Now, supposing those that have got no wheat would take the same
course. Is the wheat there? I presume there could be fifty bushels
gleaned from ten acres with all the ease in the world. Go to brother
Brigham's ten acres, and fifty bushels could be gleaned there; a man
would make his bushel a day. I am telling you how to get your wheat.

vol. 5, p.175
Would it not be better for you to leave your mechanic shops, every one
of you, and spend a week in the wheat-field, and see what you could
do? Will we discharge you? Yes; go in peace, and God Almighty bless
you, and make you glean double all the time. Do we want that wheat
saved? We do.

vol. 5, p.175
Hundreds of this people have not raised a kernel, and brother Squires
can go with his wife and two children and glean two-and-a-half bushels
a day. It is a pretty good example, ladies. How much better are you
than they,—that is, if they do right and keep the commandments of God?
I want to know why one person is better than another, without they
surpass another by their good works?

vol. 5, p.175
Says one, "I used to belong to the aristocracy in the States, and I
belonged to that class in the old country." But, gentlemen and ladies,
I belong to the aristocracy, and that is all the difference there is
between you and me.

vol. 5, p.175
Supposing you have been brought up in "high life," what made you well
off? Because, in the providence of God, you had a rich father or a
rich uncle, and they made you comfortable; but I had the misfortune to
be a poor boy, and had to go from house to house to beg my bread.

vol. 5, p.175
I want to know if I am any the worse for that? Joseph of old was a
shepherd, and was considered one of the most inferior boys in his
father's house; but God made him a king and a Prophet, and a saviour
of his father's house and millions of the human family; and so He will
you, and so He will me, so sure as I am faithful, honour my calling,
and be obedient to my superiors, and honour the Priesthood, and God
will honour me; but He will not honour me except I honour myself.

vol. 5, p.175
If I had time, I would go into the wheat-field myself, and esteem it a
privilege, in preference of doing what I have to do here.

vol. 5, p.175
Need you take the straw and stubble and bring it to your homes? No. Be
like the honey bee; she carries [p.176] away the honey and leaves the
rest; she goes and gathers the bee bread, and leaves the flowers
behind her, and of this she makes pots or bins to store away the
honey: that is all the bee bread is for. We use it for many purposes.
Brother Squires, instead of taking the straw, broke off the heads of
wheat, and put them in a bag; he took the wheat and left the straw.

vol. 5, p.176
Are these things interesting to you? There is not one of you has got
an article of clothing on your back, but what has been obtained
through the industry of men and women.

vol. 5, p.176
We talk about smart women: we have the smartest women on the earth,
and the smartest men and smartest boys; and we have also got some of
the meanest men and women there is on God Almighty's footstool; they
are the taglocks, and will be sheared off.

vol. 5, p.176
The farmer never takes a sheep into the water to wash him until the
taglocks are first cut off, because they have taglocks so quickly
again, they besmear the wool. They did that where I lived; still there
were a great many things done where I lived that was not done where
you lived.

vol. 5, p.176
I merely speak of brother Squires to show you what advantages there
are to be gained by gleaning. Then I will go to the field where men
and women have been and gathered up a few scattering straws, and make
a better sweep of it than they, and then another will follow me up,
and gather a good pile. What is the cause of this? They cannot see
much—only now and then a few stalks.

vol. 5, p.176
I will be bound to say, in this county of Salt Lake, that if people
will go to work, they may gather four thousand bushels of wheat from
the gleaning; and I am not straining it one particle; and it is the
best of the wheat that falls to the ground.

vol. 5, p.176
Just so with the Saints: the best Saints lay at the feet of Jesus,
serving him and doing the will of God. These things are not only for
you who are present to-day, but they will go to every city and place
throughout the mountains, to arouse the people, and they will think
more of them than you do that are continually under the droppings of
the sanctuary.

vol. 5, p.176
The world and many of the Saints abroad and at home are asleep, and
that day will overtake them as a thief in the night, and it will come
upon them like a whirlwind; and so it will you, if you do not wake up
and listen to our words.

vol. 5, p.176
How many times I have heard it—"We believe what brother Brigham says,
and we believe this, and we believe that; but here is brother Heber,
—he is a kind of wild, kind of enthusiastic; he is full of visions and
wild notions." Tell me one notion I have had that is not correct. Say
you, "Some things you have prophesied have come to pass, but we do not
know whether the rest will or not."

vol. 5, p.176
I do not profess to be a Prophet. I never called myself so; but I
actually believe I am, because people are all the time telling me that
I am. I do not boast of that. I say that every man and woman who will
live their religion, be humble, and be dictated by the Holy Ghost, the
spirit of prophecy will be upon them.

vol. 5, p.176
Some of you, ladies, that go abroad from house to house, blessing the
sick, having your little circles of women come together, why are you
troubling yourselves to bless and lay your hands on women, and
prophesy on them, if you do not believe the principle? You make
yourselves fools to say that that same power should not be on the man
that has got the Priesthood, and with sisters that have not got any,
only what they hold in connection will their husbands.

vol. 5, p.176
We can tell what will come to pass; and one of you can talk in tongues
and pour out your souls to God,  and [p.177] then one interpret; that
is the course you take, and it is all right: go ahead, and God bless
you and multiply blessings on you; but do not go round tattling about
your husbands and talking against the Priesthood you are connected to.
I do not say many of you do it; but you that do it are poor, miserable
skunks.

vol. 5, p.177
Brethren and sisters, let us go to work now, every man and woman,
where you have it in your power, and lay up our grain—lay up our oats
barley, and everything else that will keep, and go to work and raise
flax and make clothing.

vol. 5, p.177
Now, you said you did not believe a word I said here a few Sundays
ago, that if we would go to work and raise flax, and cultivate it, and
pray for it, and keep the commandments of God it should have a coat on
it fourfold more. I said that, ladies and gentlemen. You go to, and do
as I told you, and see if it does not come to pass.

vol. 5, p.177
Did not the Lord rain down the honey-dew upon the trees and upon the
vegetation in Utah? Yes. I can go down on Cottonwood here, and show it
to you, lots of it. If he can do that here, what will he not do, if we
keep the commandments of God? And, gentlemen and ladies, if you will
do just as you are told, without any deviation, you need never trouble
yourselves about mobs—never, no, never.

vol. 5, p.177
The Lord said to Joseph, If you will do my will, and listen to my
counsel and the counsel of my servants, it is my business in the last
days to fight your battles and provide for my Saints.

vol. 5, p.177
I have no more fears, nor never shall have, if you will do just as you
are told, every one of you, and stop your contentions, your lying,
your deceptions, and your dishonesty; and let every man do right—let
him do justice, and we will never be troubled with troops, and we will
have one, two, three just as good years of peace as we ever had since
we were born, beginning now; and I know it. Gentlemen, it depends on
your doing right.

vol. 5, p.177
Could the Lord stir you up, through the testimony of brother Brigham
or his brethren, to believe it was necessary to lay up your stores,
until the Devil kicked up a fuss to show you that death and
destruction would come on this people? That is true. Do not tell me
that you listen to his counsel, when you do not practise his words.

vol. 5, p.177
And, ladies, do not tell me that you take his counsel, when I do not
see you here with bonnets manufactured out of the elements of this
valley: It is a lie before God when you say you listen to his counsel,
and come here before him and sit under his eyes in open disobedience
to it.

vol. 5, p.177
Where did you get your bonnets? Were they made here? No; they were
made in the States; they came by succouring those poor curses who
would send us all to destruction, by nourishing these Gentile
merchants here. The best of them would sell this whole people for ten
dollars, and permit my life and Brigham's life to be taken in a
minute. I know this.

vol. 5, p.177
What do they care for us? There is not one of them that is in any
degree friendly towards us, and feels to believe and sustain
"Mormonism." There is not one of them but what would be perfectly
willing that the troops should come here and massacre this whole
people, for the sake of a few dollars.

vol. 5, p.177
Have we any confidence in them? Yes, as far as deal is concerned; but
when it comes to "Mormonism," I have not a particle. I never saw that
man that had not an inclination in his heart to embrace "Mormonism"
that I ever had one particle of confidence in.

vol. 5, p.178
[p.178] Many of you have sustained Judge Douglas as being a true
friend to this people; and he is just as big a damned rascal as ever
walked, and always has been. He has taken a course to get into the
chair of State, and that is what he is after: he will try to
accomplish that, if he goes to hell the next day; but he will not go
into the chair of State; he will go to hell.

vol. 5, p.178
Now, do not be scared; I am going to talk what I feel, and I ask no
odds of anybody, except my leader: I will be subject to him. I will be
amenable to any branch belonging to the true vine of Jesus Christ, and
I will nourish it, and cherish it; but those poor curses, I have not
one particle of confidence in them.

vol. 5, p.178
I never knew an instance in the days of Joseph, when he confided in
those poor devils, but what they turned traitor to him, and were the
very men that took his. life, aided by the apostates that left this
Church; and I know it, and so do you.

vol. 5, p.178
How many times have I been through the mill? Lots of times; and I
expect to go through it again, and then through the bolt, and the
screen, &c.

vol. 5, p.178
Joseph never trusted in one of them but what they betrayed him; and I
wish to God I had taken some of their lives when I had a chance: they
were blacklegs, whoremongers, murderers, liars, sorcerers, and
rascals; and you may take many of the leading men of the United States
Government, and they are not one whit better.

vol. 5, p.178
These merchants here have collected their millions of dollars from us.
Are they your friends, ladies? There are not many of them, if they
dared do it, but what would seduce you in a minute, if you would yield
to them.

vol. 5, p.178
In Kirtland, when we were broken up, which was a serious time, and in
Far West, in Missouri, and Illinois, the priests of the day, the
bigger portion of them, and those they call the best men, were
combined against us.

vol. 5, p.178
But let me tell you that the best men in the United States are not
among the rulers; they do not scramble and gamble for office. They
have got the meanest curses for politicians, and the poorest curses
for priests.

vol. 5, p.178
What did they say in Missouri, in Kirtland, in Illinois,—the Methodist
priest, the Baptist priest, the lawyer, the judge, and the governor,
with all their religion? They positively considered it no crime to
seduce a "Mormon" sister, nor do they now; and that is what they are
after.

vol. 5, p.178
Sisters, let us take a course that you may not be brought into these
straits—that you may not have to take your children, and your budgets
under your arms, and flee to the mountains. But if you do not listen
to counsel, and begin to-day, you will have to do that; but if you
obey counsel, you never will have to go into these mountains—no,
never, while the earth stands.

vol. 5, p.178
We will stand on our own dunghill and crow, and the hens will crow,
and the chickens will crow, and they will all crow long and loud, and
you will not be able to tell the difference between a hen and a
rooster, nor between a rooster and a hen, for they will all crow the
same tune. We will stand on our own dunghill and crow, and say what we
please from this day, and they never will prevail against us—no,
never; and I will prophecy it in the name of Israel's God. [Voices:
"Amen."]

vol. 5, p.178
Do as you are told, and Brigham Young never will leave the
Governorship of this Territory from this time henceforth and for
ever—no, never; and there shall no wicked judge with his whore ever
sit in our courts again; for all who are against Israel are an
abomination to me and to our God.

vol. 5, p.178
When you look upon it, you shall [p.179] know that Heber told the
truth, as wild as he is; but there is no wildness in this boy.

vol. 5, p.179
Will we go into these mountains? Will these troops come here? No, no,
no, not yet. We do not want them to come till we are brought to the
test and have not anything to help ourselves with: then we want them
to come and bring the honey and the good things; then we will show
them how it is done. We do not want armies of men to go out of here;
we have got boys here, ten thousand of them, enough to take everything
they have got.

vol. 5, p.179
The Lord said there should be no time in the last days; the time is
only measured to the ungodly, but to the Saints there shall be no more
time; it is all time. Go ahead, and we do not care if you let your
beard grow sixteen feet long.

vol. 5, p.179
You need not ever trouble yourselves, gentlemen and ladies, about the
army coming here to this land, whether you have your endowments or
not: those that have not got their endowments are just as safe as
those who have, and they will live just as long. Do not trouble
yourselves at all; let these things sleep and you be awake, and watch,
and pray, and be humble, and serve your God, and go and glean wheat.

vol. 5, p.179
Bless your soul!—if the daughters of Israel go and glean wheat, they
may be like the woman anciently, increase all around: she had been a
barren woman formerly, but gleaning wheat put her in the notion of
getting—— I can't say it.

vol. 5, p.179
The Spirit that is on me this morning is the Spirit of the Lord; it is
the Holy Ghost, although some of you may not think that the Holy Ghost
is ever cheerful. Well, let me tell you, the Holy Ghost is a man; he
is  one of the sons of our Father and our  God; and he is that man
that stood next to Jesus Christ, just as I stand by brother Brigham.
If brother Brigham goes ahead, and I stand by him, and Daniel stands
by me, and the Twelve by us, we never shall be separated—never, no,
never.

vol. 5, p.179
Men that are engaged in this work and kingdom, if they are one, they
will be tied together, that they never will be separated, no more than
two drops of water.

vol. 5, p.179
There is a great curiosity here. Some say they are of Judah, some say
they are of Jacob, some of John, and some of Peter. When we are
restored back to our Father, we shall find that every one of us is in
the tree of life: and what is the difference, as long as we are all in
one tree.

vol. 5, p.179
You say there are twelve limbs in the tree of life, and we have all
got to be connected to those twelve limbs or branches. Go and read the
Bible, and see what is said about the tree of life, and those that
partake of the fruit of it. It is all on natural principles. We are
all one family: God the Father is the tree of life; he is the root of
it, and we spring out of it, or else we spring into it by grafting, by
inoculating, and by doing the things of the kingdom of heaven.

vol. 5, p.179
Now, there have several left since we proclaimed last Sunday: they
have put right out; some went that very day. Am I not glad? If they
had been here, and waited till to-day, and heard what I have said,
they would not have gone. We wanted them to go; so they could not hear
what has been said to-day. They think troops are coming here, and that
we are going to fight. What the devil can we right, when there is
nothing to fight?

vol. 5, p.179
I want you to go and get your butcher-knives, your bowie-knives, and
jack-knives, and sharpen them. There is nothing to fight, and there
will not be this year; we shall have a year of peace. They may try to
come here, and then they will not come here. If they do not undertake
to [p.180] come here, then there will not be any trouble; but they
never will force a Governor on us again—no, never,—nor their poor,
rotten-hearted judges and marshals, &c., if you will do right.

vol. 5, p.180
If these words fail, it is on your backs. I am pretty careful there,
and not careful either. I am going to let it out, and let God speak
and tell. you words of consolation, if you will receive them.

vol. 5, p.180
Let me tell you, gentlemen and ladies, Brigham's words, and Heber's
words, and Jedediah's words, and Daniel's words have been to many of
you like the sound of a bell: it is a pretty sound in your ears, but
as soon as the sound is gone, it has lost its charms.

vol. 5, p.180
You have come here and heard the sound, and you know no more about the
sound when you have gone away, than though you had never heard it, as
good as the people are.

vol. 5, p.180
If you would have listened, there would have been this day millions
and millions of bushels of wheat in store. Instead of that, we have
not any, with a very few exceptions, except that which has come in
this year.

vol. 5, p.180
We are more choice of it than we would be of gold or of silver. I
would part with money quickly for it. I mean to part with every rag of
clothes that I have to spare for wheat; and if you have got it, I will
sell everything I have got, except a change. and you shall have it
forthwith. I will set you an example.

vol. 5, p.180
Will the United States send troops here? Yes. And when they have done,
the other inhabitants of the earth will send them. But, remember,: the
Prophets have said that the riches of the Gentile world shall be
consecrated to God and to his people. I think we will have a little of
it along occasionally.

vol. 5, p.180
Do not be sad; our God rules in the heavens and in the earth beneath,
and he has almighty power.

vol. 5, p.180
Will you go to work now, and lay up your grain? There are a great many
boxes making at the Public Works that will hold from fifteen to twenty
bushels each; but the boxes cost more than the wheat. That I do not
like; still we are willing to make them for you. Some of our Bishops
have been to me, and wanted to know if the design is to cache the
wheat now. No, sir, not till we get it; I am not going to cache
anything I have not got.

vol. 5, p.180
Go and build your store-houses, and get your wheat together, and when
the time to cache the wheat comes, we will cache it.

vol. 5, p.180
Bless your souls, Uncle Sam is not coming here yet awhile; we shall
not let them. And when they do come, we shall take their cabbage,
stock, and all.

vol. 5, p.180
I have told you the truth, every word I have spoken. You think our
Father and our God is not a lively, sociable, and cheerful man. He is
one of the most lively men that ever lived; and when we have that
sociability and cheerfulness, it is the Spirit of the Lord.

vol. 5, p.180
God delights in a glad heart and cheerful countenance. Some people
carry faces as long as my leg, and that is about three feet long; and
they are just the biggest hypocrites we have got in this city.

vol. 5, p.180
Confidence in them? Yes, I have confidence to believe they are the
meanest hypocrites that ever walked. You may go to their houses, or
wherever they are, and speak about Brigham, Heber, and Daniel, and
they are ready to give them a dab and hoe them down. How do you
suppose I feel about them? Such persons feel about me as they do about
my brethren, all the time. I will not speak a blessing for them, for
they are damned.

vol. 5, p.180
What!—speak against the man who holds the keys of life and salvation
for [p.181] you, and the Priesthood of God that has been handed down
directly from him? You poor, miserable creatures—you are not fit to
live. There are not many such characters; but they are those poor,
miserable, sanctimonious ones you find around.

vol. 5, p.181
"Oh; Brigham, don't! Don't, Heber! don't, for God's sake! All the
world will be on us!" Damn the world. Now, that is just as they feel.
I wish there was a magazine in you, and we could touch you off. You
are not lit to live in hell, nor anywhere else; and you ought to be
touched off before you get anywhere.

vol. 5, p.181
Now, I do not mean any of you good folks.

vol. 5, p.181
Brethren, be honest; and when you are to work for the Public Works,
work; and when you are to work for me, work; when you are to work for
brother Hyde, work, and earn your wages, and not carry it all off when
you go home at night, in your bags, as some do at the Public Works.
You have quit it now yourselves; but some of you have set your
children at it. Stop it! You have no business to touch a nail, nor a
pin, nor a block two inches long, for they are not your property. What
is it but stealing?

vol. 5, p.181
When people come to visit the works, you sit down and spend your time
with an acquaintance. That time  is not yours. If I was brother Mabin,
I would not let a man go about those works without he had permission,
and then not to hinder the men from their labours.

vol. 5, p.181
I have no fault to find with good men.

vol. 5, p.181
You men that come from England, were you idle there? You never were
permitted to be idle in your own land. They have to go to work at such
a time, and work until the time to stop, and go to dinner, and so on.
This is the way the people work ha the old country, except those who
belong to the aristocracy. There are not many of them here.

vol. 5, p.181
I belong to the humble and meek, and they will inherit the earth. I am
an heir to it with them. God help me to be faithful, good, kind, and
benevolent; that is my prayer.

vol. 5, p.181
Let us remember that we will not be rewarded for that we do not do;
but you will be rewarded for that you do, and nothing more.

vol. 5, p.181
There are a great many things I might talk about. God bless you,
brethren and sisters. I bless the pure and good; and I bless that man
and woman that will go to and do as they are told; and you shall be
blessed, with your children after you, for ever; and those that do not
do it shall go the other way. Amen. [p.182]

John Taylor, August 30, 1857

The Rights of Mormonism

A Discourse by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 30, 1857.

vol. 5, p.182
I did not expect to be called upon to address you this afternoon; but
I always feel ready to speak of the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God, whenever I am called upon.

vol. 5, p.182
Brother Kimball said he would like to hear me say something about the
RIGHTS of "Mormonism." The rights of "Mormonism" are so varied and
extensive, that it would be very difficult to speak of them all in one
discourse. We have the right to live. That is "Mormonism." We have the
right to eat and drink, and to pursue that course that we may think
proper, so long as we do not interfere with other persons' rights. We
have a right to live free and unmolested; and there is no law, human
or divine, that rightfully has a right, if you please, to interfere
with us. We have a right to think, and we have a right, after we have
thought, to express our thoughts, and to write them, and to publish
them. We possess as many rights and as much liberty in relation to
this as any other persons; and there is no law, human or divine, that
can rightfuly rob us of those liberties or trample upon our rights. We
have a right to worship God according to the dictates of our own
conscience; and no man, legally, in this land, has a right to
interfere with us for so doing. We have a right to believe in and
practise as we please in relation to matrimony. We have a right to
choose whether we will have one wife or twenty; and there is no law of
the land that can legally interfere with us neither is there a man
that I have met with, that professed to be a man at all, that can say
that we are acting illegally. We have a right to secure the favour of
God, and we have rights as the citizens of the kingdom of God. We have
rights upon earth, and we have rights in heaven; we have rights that
affect us and our posterity and progenitors, worlds without end; and
they are rights that no man can interfere with. We have a right to our
own Governor, as brother Kimball says; we have a right to our own
Judges; we have a right to make our own laws and to regulate our own
affairs.

vol. 5, p.182
These are some of the rights that belong to us; but when you come to
talk about rights, they are so various, complicated, and extensive,
that it is difficult, without reflection, to enumerate them. They
exist with us here and all around us, and they are rights that affect
us, our progenitors, and posterity, worlds without end. But in regard
to some of the things with which we are more intimately connected, we
have our individual, our social, and political rights, so far as
existing here as a people is concerned. I do not know but that you
will think that I am for sticking to my text pretty well: however, I
will try, as well as I can, to do justice to it.

vol. 5, p.182
If we look at the very foundation of government, we may enquire, How
were governments formed? Who organized them? and whence did they
obtain their power? It is a subject for deep thought and  reflection,
and [p.183] one that very few have understood; nor is it very easy to
define, definitely, the rights of man politically, socially, and
nationally.

vol. 5, p.183
Now, I will suppose there was no government in the world, but that we
were thrown right back into the primitive state, and that we had to
form a government to regulate ourselves; what would be the position?
Why, the strong man would intrude upon the weak, even as a strong
animal intrudes upon a weaker, taking from it its rights; for that is
a natural animal propensity that exists in all the creatures, as well
as in man.

vol. 5, p.183
How was society organized? Upon natural principles. I am not now
speaking about God and his government, but upon the rights of man. If
there were a few bullies in the land, and we had to organize the
government anew, the people would combine to protect themselves
against them to protect themselves against those who had injured them,
that would rob them of their labour, of their cattle, of their grain,
or of anything they might have.

vol. 5, p.183
What would be the result of this course? It would be that a
combination would exist that would organize to protect themselves,
that the weak might be protected in his rights, that the feeble might
not be trampled under foot. This would be the natural construction and
organization of society.

vol. 5, p.183
Very well; when society became large and extensive, and could not
convene in a general assembly to represent themselves, they would send
their representatives, who would combine to represent their interests
by delegation, or proxy.

vol. 5, p.183
Who would those individuals represent? They would represent the
parties of that neighbourhood, of that state, of that country or
district of country that sent them; would they not? And what would you
think of those men that were sent, if they attempted to rule over
those who sent them? Why, you would say, "Come back here, you rascals,
and we wilt send others; we sent you to represent us, and now you are
combining to put your feet upon our necks.

vol. 5, p.183
This has been the case ever since governments were organized; and
hence have arisen governors, kings, and emperors. They have generally
contrived to get the reins of power into their own hands; and, through
the cunning of priestcraft and king-craft, they have generally managed
to bring the people under their feet and to trample upon their rights.
Such has been the case in the nations of Europe and Asia. It is, in
fact, the history of the world.

vol. 5, p.183
By what right have any kings obtained their dominions? Has it been
from God? No. Has it been from the people? No. How did they get in
possession of their kingdoms? How was France organized? How England?
How Germany? And how were other states and nations organized? They
have been organized because men usurped power, brought into subjection
other men, trampled under foot their rights, and made slaves of them,
and made them carry out their laws, and do their pleasure without any
peculiar interest in the things that were done. And those men, instead
of governing the people according to the principles of righteousness
and truth, have generally made yokes and put them on their necks, and
trampled them in the dust—so much so, that in many of the countries of
Europe you cannot travel but you must have a passport; and every
little upstart has a right to examine it and to stop you, if he likes.

vol. 5, p.183
You have to ask a right to stop in cities, and they will prevent you
when they please, and not only strangers, but their own citizens; and
there are many European cities now, where, if a father was to receive
his own son into [p.184] his house, if he had been absent without the
permission of the police, he would be subject to a heavy fine.

vol. 5, p.184
It is the governors of the people that bring them into subjection in
this manner, until the people think that kings and priests have
rights—and they have no rights—until they think that presidents,
governors, and kings are the persons who possess certain inalienable
rights, and that no one has a right to interfere with them.

vol. 5, p.184
Kings, presidents, and priests combined govern men, body and soul. The
first fetter them in their bodies and liberties, and the latter in
their minds and consciences; and the human family, instead of being
free, are literally and almost universally in a state of vassalage.

vol. 5, p.184
At the time of the Reformation, men began to break off their political
fetters and to claim their rights, both politically and religiously.
Many people talk of that event as a church concern alone: it was as
much a political matter as anything else. The causes that prompted
them to take the steps they did were both religious and political, the
benefits accruing only very limited and partial; still it was a
resistance to tyranny and oppression. The kings that sustained the
Reformers did so merely upon political grounds, and not that they
cared for their religion.

vol. 5, p.184
What made people come from the old countries to this land? It was
because they were oppressed in England, in Germany, and in other
states, and they fled from that power which sought to bind chains upon
their necks. And why were they deter. mined to flee from that
government into this country? Because the mother country tried to make
them subject to institutions and laws that they were unwilling to
submit to, and be. cause she wanted to put yokes upon their necks.
Then the mother country sent armed men over here, and sought to
enforce their armed minions upon the people; but they would not submit
to it; for it was on that very account that they had fled from their
mother country.

vol. 5, p.184
Such were the feelings of your fathers, and these were the things they
talked about, a few years ago; and on account of the encroachments of
the parent government, they took up the sword, and declared that they
would live or die free men.

vol. 5, p.184
What was that freedom for which they contended? Just what I said a few
minutes ago; it was the right to think, the right to speak, the right
to act, the right to legislate, and the right to worship God according
to the dictates of their own consciences, and the right to do their
own business without being interfered with.

vol. 5, p.184
We have come here to this land as citizens of the United States; and
why have we come? Because there were men who sought to rob of us our
rights, and because there was not sufficient purity and justice in the
Government to protect us in our rights—because magistrates,
constables, judges, governors, presidents, and officers of state,
either directly or indirectly drove us, or suffered us to be
driven—suffered us to be dispossessed of that which legally belonged
to us.

vol. 5, p.184
Who are we? We are men made in the image of God, possessing the rights
of other men. We have turned this desert into a flourishing field, and
the desert has blossomed as the rose, and God has blessed our labours.
And whom have we interfered with? Have we gone over to the States and
interfered with them? Have we gone over to California and interfered
with them? Have we gone to Oregon? Have we gone to New Mexico? Have we
gone to any State and interfered with their rights, their laws, their
immunities, or their privileges? I say we have not.

vol. 5, p.184
Well, then, what right has anybody [p.185] to interfere with us? Oh,
because they have got the power! That is, there is no right to it;
there is no legal authority to it; there is no more right to it than
there is in a bully and a blackguard insulting a little, weak man,
because he has the power to do so. They have just the same authority
that a large ox has to goad a small one, because he has the power.

vol. 5, p.185
They dare not interfere with some nations as they are doing with us:
they dare not interfere with England or France, for fear of the
consequences; and it is nothing but a principle of nasty little
meanness that would try to interfere with us, and try to make you
believe that they are the lords of creation. Great God! who are they?
Poor, pusillanimous curses, that have not manhood nor gentility enough
about them to be gentlemen. They have just the same right that the
highwayman has to put his hands into your pockets and take out your
money.

vol. 5, p.185
Who led us here? Not the Christians of the United States, nor their
governors, legislators, nor president. Who provided for us? Did the
Government of the United States? Verily, no. Who built the houses in
this city? Who made the improvements around it and through this
Territory? Did the inhabitants of the United States? No. But they have
done all that lay in their power to discourage us in every possible
way. Who have fed you and clothed you? Your own right hands—your own
energy and industry, by the blessing of the Almighty.

vol. 5, p.185
Then by what right, and by what authority, in the name of God, and in
the name of every principle of right, honour, and integrity, have they
a right to interfere with us?

vol. 5, p.185
"Oh," say they, "the land belongs to us." Ah! indeed; and I wonder
where you got it from? "Oh, we got it by right of treaty with Mexico."
And whence did the Mexicans obtain it? Who treated with those Indians?
Did they pay them for it? No: but they are good Christians, and the
Indians are poor savages; and what right have savages to land?" Where
are their deeds and their right of possession? Will anybody tell me?
"Oh, we took it because we had the power, and the United States took
it from Mexico, because they had power."

vol. 5, p.185
It is just like a lot of boys playing together, and one of them steals
the other's marbles because he has the power; and then another steals
them, and calls them his, because he is a little more powerful than
the other: or, when one man meets another and robs him of what he has,
then two more go and take from him what he has stolen from the first
one.

vol. 5, p.185
The simple fact in the case is, they say, "You are left upon our land,
and therefore you must be in subjection to us, and we must rule over
you. But even on this principle they are at fault; for we, if there is
any glory in the conquest, sent five hundred men, and possess equal
rights with them as American citizens.

vol. 5, p.185
In speaking upon this subject once before, I showed you that, by the
Constitution and the very genius of our Government, they had no right
to interfere with us

vol. 5, p.185
Again, on the common principle of justice, where did they get their
rights to interfere with us? They did not bring us here, nor cultivate
our farms; they did not send us either schoolmasters or priests to
teach us; and we are not indebted to them for anything else. I would
like to know what right they had to interfere with us? They have not
aright upon religious grounds; for they kicked us out because of our
religion; and, consequently, they have nothing to do with that. It is
not because we have learned any morals of them: for we got our morals
from a superior [p.186] source. We have not learned either our
religion or morality from them. We have not had them to cultivate our
farms nor to build our houses. They have not done anything for us.

vol. 5, p.186
In relation to the land, I will suppose they did steal it, which they
did. They obtained it because they had the power, and Mexico obtained
it upon the same principle: the United States made a quarrel with the
latter nation, because they knew they could bring them into
subjection, and they intended to capitulate for California before they
began the quarrel, and they took it upon those grounds. But that is
righteousness—that is purity, truth and holiness, in the eyes of a
corrupt and mighty nation.

vol. 5, p.186
We have got a little place that nobody else would live upon; and I
will warrant that if any other people had been here, half of them
would have died, the last two years, of starvation. But they cannot
let us alone. This is their greatness—this their magnanimity, and this
is the compassion manifested by the fathers of our great country. Of
course we must feel patriotic; we cannot but feel strongly attached to
such a kind, such a benevolent, such a merciful Government as we have
got! How can we feel otherwise?  They would take from us the right to
live, and then it would be in their hearts to sweep us from the face
of the earth; but they cannot do it.

vol. 5, p.186
There is no right associated with this matter; there is no justice
about it. There are old rights and privileges the people used to have,
and we have our rights. In the first place, we have a God that lives,
and He will help us to take care of them, to maintain and preserve
them. Then look at this in whichever light you please, you cannot
change it: we are citizens of the United States, and have a right to
the soil, if they did steal it.

vol. 5, p.186
I am ashamed of being associated with such things, but we cannot help,
ourselves; we are a part of the people, and we had to partake of their
evil deeds.

vol. 5, p.186
When we came here, we came as American citizens; and we had just as
much right to be here as any other American citizens in the United
States.

vol. 5, p.186
They have made a religious pretext to rob us of the right of
preemption,—that is because we have more wives than one. This is the
course they have pursued towards us.

vol. 5, p.186
Have they a right to force upon us judges and send officers under a
military escort? The very act says they are afraid of something. Have
they a right to send those men to ruin over us, without our having a
voice in the matter? I say they have not, according to the laws which
exist among men; they have not according to the principles of justice
and truth; they have not according to the principles upon which this
Government is established: but they want to rule over us contrary to
the principles of the Government; and, as you have expressed it, you
have a right to withstand it.

vol. 5, p.186
God be thanked, there are not as many sneaks here as there are in the
old country: men here dare think and speak.

vol. 5, p.186
Well, these are our feelings and some of our rights; but I will speak
to you of other rights; for we have greater rights, that I have not
yet touched upon.

vol. 5, p.186
[Blessed the sacramental cup.]

vol. 5, p.186
I speak of those other things because they are inalienable rights that
belong to men—to us as American citizens—to us as citizens of the
world: but there are other rights, other grounds upon which we claim
these rights.

vol. 5, p.186
The Lord God has spoken in these last days; he has revealed the
fairness of the everlasting Gospel: he  has restored that Gospel in
all its fulness, [p.187] blessings, richness, power, and glory; he has
put us in possession of the principles of eternal life; and he has
established his kingdom upon the earth, and we are the legitimate
heirs and inheritors of this kingdom. He has established his
Priesthood, revealed his authority, his government, and his laws; and
the grand reason why there is union and power here, and nowhere else,
is because it emanated from God.

vol. 5, p.187
When we talk over those other things, we are under a lesser law, that
we can any of us keep and that we have kept. We are not rebelling
against the United States, neither are we resisting the Constitution
of the United States; but it is wicked and corrupt usurpers that are
oppressing us and that would take our rights from us.

vol. 5, p.187
To speak of our .rights as citizens of the kingdom of God, we then
speak of another law, we then move in a more exalted sphere; and it is
of these things we have a right to speak.

vol. 5, p.187
God has established his kingdom; he has rolled back that cloud that
has overspread the moral horizon of the world; he has opened the
heavens revealed the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel, organized his
kingdom according to the pattern that exists in the heavens; and he
has placed certain keys, powers, and oracles in our midst; and we are
the people of God; we are his government. The Priesthood upon the
earth is the legitimate government of God, whether in the heavens or
on the earth.

vol. 5, p.187
Some people ask, "What is Priesthood?" I answer, "It is the legitimate
rule of God, whether in the heavens or on the earth;" and it is the
only legitimate power that has a right to rule upon the earth; and
when the will of God is done on earth as it is in the heavens, no
other power will bear rule.

vol. 5, p.187
Then, if we look at it in this point of view, we are standing in a
peculiar position; we are standing here as the representatives of God,
and the only true representatives he has upon the earth; for there is
not another power or government upon the earth that acknowledges God
for their ruler, or head, but this: there is not another.

vol. 5, p.187
Why did we come here? We came here because the people drove us, and
because the Lord would have us come here; for it was necessary we
should come into our secret places, and hide ourselves till the
indignation of the Lord be overpast—until the Lord has shaken our
enemies by the nape of the neck, as it were, until nations and empires
are overthrown. We came to serve our God to a place where we could
more fully keep his commandments—where we could fulfil his behests
upon the earth. This is the reason why we came here.

vol. 5, p.187
Well, then, if we are the only people that God acknowledges as a
nation, have not we a right to the privileges which we enjoy? Who owns
the gold, the silver, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? God. Who,
then, has a right to appoint rulers? None but him, or the man that he
appoints.

vol. 5, p.187
Who has ruled the earth? Who has borne sway? Man, who, by the  power
of the sword, has got possession of thrones, powers, and dominions,
and has waded through seas of blood.

vol. 5, p.187
You read history, and what is it? A history of the depopulation of the
nations, brought on by the overthrow of empires, and through the
tyranny and ambition of wicked men, who have waded through seas of
blood in order to possess themselves of that power which they now
enjoy.

vol. 5, p.187
If we go to the United States and enquire into their rights, we may
ask, have they a right to drive back the Indians, from time to time,
and dispossess them of their rights? So long as they purchased of them
it was [p.188] well enough; but when they forced them into a swap,
just as the Indians did with some of the traders back here, and made
them trade on their own terms, that is something which they have no
right to do; and, to use the language of one of the Indian Chiefs,
"They have not left room for us to spread our blanket." Have they
purchased this Territory of them? No,—nor made any arrangements to do
so; but they have taken possession of it.

vol. 5, p.188
What authority has the President of the United States, or the
Representatives of the several States? They have no authority but what
the people give them, according to the institutions of the United
States.

vol. 5, p.188
What authority had England over this land before they came here and
took possession? None.

vol. 5, p.188
By what right, then, do nations and governments rule generally? Do
they rule by the grace of God? I will tell you. They rule by the power
of the sword.

vol. 5, p.188
Read the history of England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and
other nations, and you will find they obtain their authority by their
swords; and then, when they have obtained, they go to work and
sanctify it; they appoint and anoint kings by the grace of God and
through, the agency of their priests. That is the way they get their
authority, and that is all the authority they have.

vol. 5, p.188
When the Pope was going to put the crown upon the head of Napoleon, he
said, "Here, let me put that on; I won it myself." But they generally
want the priests to put it on.

vol. 5, p.188
You may go into any court in the world and say, "Thus saith the Lord,"
and they will kick you out. Try it and see.

vol. 5, p.188
[Voices: "You have tried it."]

vol. 5, p.188
No man can go and say, "Thus saith the Lord" amongst them; for they
would put a strait jacket on him, if he was a respectable man; if he
was not, they would kick him out. Such is the feeling of the people
and the condition of the world, and yet they profess to worship God
that rules on high.

vol. 5, p.188
Where does God rule on earth? Is he listened to in any nation? Is
there any that will acknowledge him and his authority? I will tell you
the nearest that I ever saw of it. It was Nicholas of Russia: he was
an autocrat, you know. Some years ago, when they had the cholera very
bad there, a feeling prevailed among the inhabitants that the wells
had been poisoned: a mob arose, and they were going to kill many; but
Nicholas went in amongst them and said, "My children, this is not so;
this is the hand of God. Let us fall on our knees, and acknowledge our
sins, and ask him to forgive us."

vol. 5, p.188
That is the nearest to acknowledging God that I have heard of among
the nations; but as to their authority, it is not there. Their
emperors and rulers have been the most beastly in their conduct and
oppressive in their acts of any other nations that rule under heaven.

vol. 5, p.188
Now, where can you find a nation that acknowledges God? They are very
religious. Why, the Queen of England is said to be "Defender of the
Faith." Then it is not the faith of the Church of America—it is not
the faith of the Church of France, nor of Germany, nor anywhere else,
except the Church of England. Where did she get her right from? She is
the descendant of a line of kings.

vol. 5, p.188
Henry the Eighth, some time since, wrote a book against the
Protestants, and the Pope gave him the title of "Defender of the
Faith," which faith he afterwards sought to destroy, rebelled against
the Pope, and started the Reformation, because the Pope would not
allow him to divorce his wife. Hence the  Protestant kings [p.189] and
queens of England have stolen the Roman Catholic title, to rule or
defend the faith of the Protestants by kings and queens, whom they now
anoint.

vol. 5, p.189
How do they anoint them? They anoint them by their Bishops, who
declare them to be kings and queens by the grace of God. Go back,
however, to their origin, and you will find that their kingdoms were
first obtained by the sword; they stole their kingdoms and power, and
then got priests to sanctify the theft.

vol. 5, p.189
Go back in England to the time of William the Conqueror, and you will
find that he was a usurper; he was a Norman and a wholesale robber;
and then, when he had subdued the Anglo-Saxons, the priests turned
round and anointed him king by the grace of God. That is a fair
example of the other European nations, and is all the authority that
any of them had.

vol. 5, p.189
What is the Government of the United States? It does not profess any
religion. There is no religion nor priesthood connected with it
nationally, only they allow, or profess to allow, everybody to worship
God according to the dictates of their own consciences; but nationally
they are a nation of infidels. They have no national creed, no
national religious institutions; and hence the absurdity of
interfering with us, when forsooth they have none themselves, and they
do not want that we should have any.

vol. 5, p.189
Do they seek to acknowledge God in their acts? Or, is there any other
nation that profess to acknowledge God? There are the Mahomedans, they
had a Prophet, and professed to be governed by him. There is some talk
about his being a false one: he might have been, or he might have been
a true one, for aught I know; I leave them in the hands of God.

vol. 5, p.189
The Mahomedans have a certain faith or profession, which is spoken of
in the Koran, or Alkoran. They, however, like the rest, obtained their
nationality by the sword. We cannot find a nation upon the earth that
has obtained its dominion or power to rule from God. If there is any
people, except this people, I know them not.

vol. 5, p.189
The Lord has said, "If ye observe my law, ye have no need to break the
law of the land." We have not broken the law of the land, and we do
not mean to, although he has revealed to us his will and given us
certain privileges and immunities that he never gave to any other
people. Still, we have not broken the law, and there is not another
people who maintain the laws of the United States as faithfully as
this people do.

vol. 5, p.189
Why, they are in storm and trouble every way in the United States, and
here is the most perfect peace and the best morality that can be found
in the world by a thousand-fold: yes, it is a thousand-fold better
than I have seen in any part of the earth where I have been. There is
not a place that can compare with it; and nothing but the very Devil
himself could inspire the hearts of the children of men to make war
against such a people as this.

vol. 5, p.189
What are we engaged in? We are engaged in building up the kingdom of
God, and many of you have been ordained by the revelations of the
Almighty to hold the power and authority of the Holy Priesthood.
Besides this, you have been ordained kings and queens, and priests and
priestesses to your Lord; you have been put in possession of
principles that all the kings, potentates, and powers upon the earth
are entirely ignorant of: they do not understand it; but you have
received this from the hands of God.

vol. 5, p.189
The kingdom is put upon the shoulders of President Young and this
people to carry it out, and by whom? By the Lord God—by him [p.190]
who holds dominion throughout the universe; by him who created all by
the word of his power; by him who said, "Let there be light, and there
was light;" by him who spake, and the worlds rolled into existence. By
him you received rights that are not of this world—rights that flow
from the great Eloheim.

vol. 5, p.190
What are we going to do, then? We are going to establish the kingdom
of God upon the earth. This is our privilege—our right, if you please.
But I consider it a high privilege—the greatest boon that can be
bestowed upon mortals on the earth, to be the representatives of God.
Let me say another thing. The people of the earth, their legislators,
their princes, their kings, and their emperors, if they ever get
salvation, have got to have it through us: if they obtain a celestial
kingdom, they have got to go through the door that God has appointed,
and there is no other way for it.

vol. 5, p.190
What are we doing here? We are here to stand up in defence of our
individual rights—to stand up for our farms, our families, and our
property, if it be necessary. Property! Why great conscience! it is
just like the chaff and straw; and I was glad to see when the vote was
taken, that if it was necessary to burn every house and all our
property, every hand went right up for it. I was glad to see you
appreciate these things. 

vol. 5, p.190
Would we fight for these things? Just so far as I am concerned, they
might take what I have got, and go to Gibraltar with it, or to
Halifax; and I would say, You poor, miserable, corrupt creatures, take
it.

vol. 5, p.190
But this is not all. The Lord has put us into a place where we cannot
dodge, if we wish. We have asked for the blessing of his kingdom, and
he has poured out blessings upon us, and there is no backing out. God
has rolled his kingdom upon our shoulders; and now I ask, as a poet
did some years ago,

vol. 5, p.190
"Shall we, for fear of feeble man,
The Spirit's course in us restrain?"

vol. 5, p.190
Shall we, for fear of the so miserable curses, barter away eternal
lives? Shall we set at naught those principles that God has imparted
to us? Shall we exchange the pearl of great price, the riches of
eternity, for the dirt and filth that the Gentiles wallow in? I know
we do not feel like it.

vol. 5, p.190
Brother Kimball says we have to stand up to what we say, and the Lord
will bring us to it; and I will tell you what I heard Joseph say years
ago. He said, if God had known any other way that he could have tried
Abraham better than he did, he would have put it upon him. And he will
try us to see whether we will be faithful to the great and high
calling that he has put upon us.

vol. 5, p.190
What are we doing? God has seen proper to establish his kingdom upon
the earth, and here is that kingdom—that stone which has been cut out
of the mountain without hands, and it is rolling forth to fill the
whole earth.

vol. 5, p.190
A great charge is committed to us as a people: it is for us to walk up
to the rack, resist the powers of darkness, and bear off the kingdom
of God, that the powers of darkness may be rolled back with all their
forces.

vol. 5, p.190
We are placed in this position to see if we will let the kingdom of
God be trampled under foot of men. It is not a little thing, but it is
one that is associated with our progenitors and posterity, as eternal
beings, having to do with the past, the present, and the future.

vol. 5, p.190
The little stone was to smite the image on the toes; and I would not
be surprised if there was to be a monstrous kicking—particularly, as
brother Kimball says, if there should be any corns on the toes.

vol. 5, p.190
It is not whether we can stop here, [p.191] and eat and drink, and
say, poor pussy, and put off the evil day. It is not an evil day; it
is a day of rejoicing—a day of bursting off the fetters from us; it is
a day when every son and daughter of God ought to sing, Hosannah to
the God of Israel! We know we used to sing sometimes,

vol. 5, p.191
"We'll burst off all our fetters, and break
	the Gentile yoke,

vol. 5, p.191
For long it has beset us, but now it shall
	be broke:

vol. 5, p.191
No more shall Jacob bow his neck; hence-
	forth he shall be free,
In Upper California:

vol. 5, p.191
O! that's the land for me," &c.

vol. 5, p.191
We used to sing that years ago, and we can sing it now; but we have
got to do it. Yes, it is "Yankee doodle do it."

vol. 5, p.191
Well, what are we doing? We are laying the foundation for salvation
for ourselves, for our progenitors, for our children, and our
posterity after us, from generation to generation. The foundation of
liberty, whereby the bond that has been on the neck of the nations,
shall be burst asunder; for it is here that liberty shall spring from.

vol. 5, p.191
Here is a nucleus—a hand of brethren inspired from on high, having the
oracles of God in their midst,—the only people that are taught by the
revelations of God. Here is the place where the standard is to be
erected to all nations.

vol. 5, p.191
We were talking, some time ago, about our rights: these are our
duties; we have got through with our rights. There is an old motto
that they have got very conspicuously in England; it is this—"England
expects every man to do his duty."

vol. 5, p.191
What is a man's duty here? It is obedience to the oracles of God that
are in our midst; and so long as we keep the commandments of God, we
need not fear any evil; for the Lord will be with us in time and in
eternity.

vol. 5, p.191
"But," says one, "I have got a son, who has gone out upon the Plains,
and perhaps the soldiers will kill him." Let them kill him. [President
Kimball, "There can be more made."] I suppose there can.

vol. 5, p.191
Did you ever know your sons were in possession of eternal life, and
that this is only a probation or a space between time and eternity? We
existed before, in eternity that was, and we shall exist in eternity
that is to come; and the question only is, whether it is better to die
with the harness on, or to be found a poor, miserable coward.

vol. 5, p.191
All that I said to my son Joseph, after blessing him, before he went
out, was, "Joseph, do not be found with a hole in your back." I do not
want any cowardice—any tremblings or feelings of that kind.

vol. 5, p.191
What of our friends that have gone behind the vail—are they dead? No;
they live, and they move, in a more exalted sphere. Did they fight for
the kingdom of God when here? Yes, they did. Are they battling for it
now? Yes; and the time is approaching when the wicked nations have to
be destroyed; and the time is near when every creature is to be heard
saying, "Honour, and power, and might, and majesty, and dominion be
ascribed to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever
and ever."

vol. 5, p.191
We have got to bring this about, whether we do it in this world or
that which is to come. I have seen the time I could have died as
easily as to have turned my hand over; but I did not feel like it.

vol. 5, p.191
[President H. C. Kimball: "You did not have time."]

vol. 5, p.191
Supposing I live, I have got a work to do; and if I die, I shall still
be engaged in the cause of Zion. Why, great conscience! what
difference does it make? They can only kill the body. And do not we
know that we have an interest beyond the grave?—that we have drunk of
that fountain [p.192] which springs up into eternal lives? Then what
difference does it make?

vol. 5, p.192
These are my feelings. If it is for life, let it be for life; and if
it is for death, let it be for death, that the spirit may move in a
more exalted sphere; and then all is well with us. If we live, we live
to God: and if we die, we die to God; and we are God's, any way.

vol. 5, p.192
We have friends gone behind the vail. There are Joseph, Hyrum,
Willard, Jedediah, and many of our friends that are there, and they
have been moving and acting there for years; and if any of us are
called to go, it is all right: there is a Priesthood there to regulate
things, as well as here; and if we have to go there, we might as well
go by a ball as by a fever, or any other distressing disease. I want
to go with the harness on; and if others go a little before us, does
it make any difference? Do not you know the old Apostle said, "They
without us cannot be made perfect?" Could they attend to these
ordinances that are being attended to here on earth while they are
there? No, they cannot. Can you do what they are doing? No, you
cannot; but when you get there you can.

vol. 5, p.192
When in the old country you were striving to get here, many of you had
friends here; and when you came, they would say, "I am glad to see
you, brother William, and sister Jane, or Mary, or Elizabeth." Now,
when a person dies, you say. "I am glad to see you go, but still I am
sorry that you are going."

vol. 5, p.192
I remember saying so to uncle John Smith. When I went to see him, I
felt that his time was come, and I said. "I am glad you are going, but
still I am sorry to part with you;" and said, "I hope you will carry
my respects to our friends behind the vail." He said, "I will."

vol. 5, p.192
We have angels that are ministers of salvation; we have Joseph, Hyrum,
Willard, Jedediah, and lots of others that are engaged in rolling on
the work of the Lord in the upper worlds. What if they want any of us?
Why, let us go, old men or young men. What if we are called by a ball,
or die by a fever, what difference does it make?

vol. 5, p.192
What! are we all going to die together? God has designed and said he
would establish his kingdom upon the earth, and that the Devil shall
not reign for ever; but he whose right it is shall come and take the
kingdom, and possess it for ever and ever.

vol. 5, p.192
Now, brother Brigham has said all is right, and he is the
representative of the Almighty upon the earth, and it is for us to
stand by him and obey him: and he says, "Rejoice, and live your
religion, and all shall be well." Is not that the voice of God? It is.
Shall we not listen to it? Yes; and we will maintain our rights as
citizens of the United States.

vol. 5, p.192
I pray that God may bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
[p.193]

Parley P. Pratt, September 7, 1857

Reminiscences and Testimony of Parley P. Pratt

A Discourse by Elder Parley P. Pratt, delivered in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday, September 7, 1856.

vol. 5, p.193
Beloved brethren and sisters,—Being about to depart from this
Territory and from the "home mission" to which I was appointed among
you, and to journey to the States on a mission, I rise to express my
feelings and my faith, and to leave my testimony with you.

vol. 5, p.193
There are some, I presume, in this congregation, who personally have
been strangers to me, and who have not heard my testimony. I have been
acquainted in this Church and connected with it from the first year of
its organization in the wilderness of western New York. It was
organized on the 6th day of April, 1830, and I was baptised into it
about the 1st of the September following.

vol. 5, p.193
When I first became a member of this Church, one small room could have
contained all the members there then were in the world, and that, too,
without being crowded; for at times, I presume, there were not fifty.

vol. 5, p.193
The first thing that attracted my attention towards this work was the
Book of Mormon. I happened to see a copy of it. Some man, nearly a
stranger to it, and not particularly a believer in it, happened to get
hold of a copy: he made mention of it to me, and gave me the privilege
of coming to his house and reading it. This was at a place about a
day's journey from the residence of Joseph Smith the Prophet and his
father, and while I was returning to the work of my ministry; for I
was then travelling and preaching, being connected with a society of
people sometimes called Campbellites or Reformed Baptists.

vol. 5, p.193
I had diligently searched the Scriptures, and prayed to God to open my
mind that I might understand them; and he had poured his Spirit and
understanding into my heart, so that I did understand the Scriptures
in a good degree, the letter of the Gospel, its forms and first
principles in their truth, as they are written in the Bible. These
things were opened to my mind; but the power, the gifts, and the
authority of the Gospel I knew were lacking, and did really expect
that they would be restored, because I knew that the things that were
predicted could never be fulfilled until that power and that authority
were restored. I also had an understanding of the literal fulfilment
of the prophecies in the Bible, so that I really did believe in and
hope for the literal restoration of Israel, the cutting off of
wickedness, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
triumph of his kingdom on the earth. All this I was looking for; and
the Spirit seemed to whisper to my mind that I should see it in my
day.

vol. 5, p.193
Under these circumstances, I was travelling to impart the light which
I had to others; and while doing this, I found, as I before stated,
the Book of Mormon. I read it carefully and diligently, a great share
of it, without knowing that the Priesthood had been restored—without
ever having heard of anything called [p.194] "Mormonism," or having
any idea of such a Church and people.

vol. 5, p.194
There were the witnesses and their testimony to the book, to its
translation, and to the ministration of angels; and there was the
testimony of the translator; but I had not seen them, I had not heard
of them, and hence I had no idea of their organization or of their
Priesthood. All I knew about the matter was what, as a stranger, I
could gather from the book: but as I read, I was convinced that it was
true; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, while I read, and
enlightened my mind, convinced my judgment, and rivetted the truth
upon my understanding, so that I knew that the book was true, just as
well as a man knows the daylight from the dark night, or any other
thing that can be implanted in his understanding. I did not know it by
any audible voice from heaven, by any ministration of an angel, by any
open vision; but I knew it by the spirit of understanding in my
heart—by the light that was in me. I knew it was true, because it was
light, and had come in fulfilment of the Scriptures; and I here
testimony of its truth to the neighbours that came in during the first
day that I sat reading it, at the house of an old Baptist deacon,
named Hamblin.

vol. 5, p.194
This same spirit led me to enquire after and search out the
translator, Joseph Smith; and I travelled on foot during the whole of
a very hot day in August, blistering my feet, in order to go where I
heard he lived; and at night I arrived in the neighbourhood of the
little village of Manchester, then in Ontario County, New York. On the
way, I overtook a man driving some cows, and enquired for Joseph
Smith, the finder and translator of the Book of Mormon. He told me
that he lived away off, something more than an hundred miles from
there, in the State of Pennsylvania.  I then enquired for the father
of the Prophet, and he pointed to the house, but said that the old
gentleman had gone a journey to some distant place. After awhile, in
conversation, the man told me that his name was Hyrum Smith, and that
he was a brother to the Prophet Joseph. This was the first Latter-day
Saint that I had ever seen.

vol. 5, p.194
He invited me to his home, where I saw mother Smith and Hyrum Smith's
wife, and sister Rockwell, the mother of Orin Porter Rockwell. We sat
up talking nearly all night; for I had not much spare time, having two
appointments out, and a long day's journey for a man to walk. I had to
return the next morning, and we conversed during most of the night
without being either sleep or weary.

vol. 5, p.194
During that conversation, I learned something of the rights of the
Church, its organization, the restoration of the Priesthood, and many
important truths. I felt to go hack and fill the two appointments
given out, and that closed my ministry, as I felt that I had no
authority, and that I would go back and obey the Priesthood which was
again upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.194
I attended to my appointments, and was back again the next morning to
brother Hyrum's. He made me a present of the Book of Mormon, and I
felt richer in the possession of that book, or the knowledge contained
in it, than I would, could I have had a warantee deed of all the farms
and buildings in that country, and it was one of the finest regions in
the world. I walked awhile, and then sat down and read awhile; for it
was not my mind to read the book through at once. I would read, and
then read the same portion over again, and then walk on. I was filled
with joy and gladness, my spirit was made rich, and I was made to
realize, almost as vividly as if I had seen it myself, that the Lord
Jesus Christ did appear in  [p.195] his own proper person, in his
resurrected body, and minister to the people in America in ancient
times. He had surely risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, and
did come down on the American continent, in the land Bountiful, on the
northern part of South America, and did minister to the remnants of
Joseph, called the Nephites, and did show his resurrected body unto
them.

vol. 5, p.195
They did handle him, see him, and examine the wounds that were pierced
in his hands, his side, and his feet; and they bathed them with their
tears and kissed them, and thousands of them did bear record of these
facts. He did deliver to them his Gospel in its fulness and plainness,
in the presence of thousands, and did command them to write it in a
book; and he promised that that book should come to light in latter
days, in time for the great restoration of all Israel, and the
fulfilment of the prophecies relating to the great work of the last
days.

vol. 5, p.195
I was made to realize this and to bring it home to my faith, my
senses, and my knowledge, with a warmth, love, and assurance that I
could scarcely contain for I had either studied and seen him in my
reflections, or I had heard his voice whispering to me. Do you not
think that I rejoice?

vol. 5, p.195
As before stated, I fulfilled my two appointments; crowds heard me and
were interested, and solicited me to make more appointments. I told
them that I would not—that I had a duty to perform for myself. I bid
them farewell, and returned to Hyrum Smith, who took me to a place,
about twenty-five miles off, in Seneca county, New York. He there
introduced me to the three witnesses whose names appear at the
beginning of the Book of Mormon, also to the eight witnesses. I
conversed with Oliver Cowdery, one of the three witnesses, and on the
next day we repaired to Seneca lake, there I was baptised by Oliver
Cowdery, then the second Apostle in this Church, and a man who had
received the ministration of an angel, as you can learn by reading his
testimony.

vol. 5, p.195
After being baptised, I was confirmed in a little meeting during the
same day, was full of the Holy Ghost, and was ordained an Elder. This
transpired on the 1st day of September, 1830; and from that day to
this, I have endeavoured to magnify my calling and to honour the
Priesthood which God has given me, by testifying to both small and
great of the things that he has revealed in these last days.

vol. 5, p.195
I have testified and do still testify of the truth of the Book of
Mormon—that it is an inspired record, the history of a branch of the
house of Israel that live in America; that it does contain the fulness
of the Gospel as revealed to them by a crucified and risen Redeemer;
and that wherever it goes and its light is permitted to shine, the
Spirit of the Lord will bear testimony of its truth to every honest
heart in all the world. Wherever that book is candidly perused, the
Spirit will bear record of its truth: and I bear this testimony this
day, that Joseph Smith was and is a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator—an
Apostle holding the keys of this last dispensation and of the kingdom
of God, under Peter, James, and John. And not only that he was a
Prophet and Apostle of Jesus Christ, and lived and died one, but that
he now lives in the spirit world, and holds those same keys to usward
and to this whole generation. Also that he will hold those keys to all
eternity; and no power in heaven or on the earth will ever take them
from him; for he will continue holding those keys through all
eternity, and will stand—yes, again in the flesh upon this earth, as
the head of the Latter-day Saints under Jesus Christ. and under Peter,
James, and John. He will hold the keys to [p.196] judge the generation
to whom he was sent, and will judge my brethren that preside over me;
and will judge me, together with the Apostles ordained by the word of
the Lord through him and under his administration.

vol. 5, p.196
When this is done, those Apostles will judge this generation and the
Latter. day. Saints; and they will judge them with that judgment
which. Jesus Christ will give unto them; and they will have the same
spirit and the same mind as Jesus Christ, and their judgment will be
his judgment, for they will be one.

vol. 5, p.196
Some of my brethren feel, once in awhile, as though we were but men,
which is true; and at times we are forgetful, and especially myself.
Sometimes men will come up and say, "Why, do you not remember me,
brother Pratt?" No, I do not, particularly, though your countenance
looks familiar. "What, do you not remember me? I was along with you at
such a place: it is strange that you cannot remember me." At such
times you may think, how will brother Parley, with his brethren, sit
in judgment upon us when he forgets some things, and cannot remember
what we have done to him? I expect, by the power of the resurrection
and the quickening power of the celestial glory, that my memory will
be perfected, and that I will be able to remember all the acts,
duties, and doings of my own life. I will also remember, most
correctly and perfectly, every act of benevolence that has ever been
done to me in the name of the Lord and because of my calling; and I
will remember, most perfectly, every neglect and slighting by those to
whom I have been sent.

vol. 5, p.196
I will be able to say to a just person, "Well done, good and faithful
servant; for you did do good so-and-so to me or my brethren:
therefore, enter into the joy of your Lord." I will also be able to
say to others, "Depart from me; for I was an hungered, and ye did not
feed me; I was naked, and ye clothed me not; I was sick, or in prison,
or in a strait, and ye helped me not; I had a mission to perform, and
ye took no interest in it."

vol. 5, p.196
So it will be with brother Joseph, or brother Brigham, or any of the
Apostles or Elders that hold a portion of the keys of the Priesthood
to this generation; if they hold them faithfully. They will be able to
remember and understand all their own doings and all the acts of this
generation to whom they are sent; and they will judge them in the name
of Jesus Christ. We will be judged by brother Joseph; and he will be
judged by Peter, James, and John, and their associates. Brother
Brigham, who now presides over us, will hold the keys under brother
Joseph; and he and his brethren, who hold the keys with him, or under
his direction, will judge the people; for they will hold those keys to
all eternity, worlds without end. By those keys they will have to
judge this generation;. and Peter, James, and John, will hold the keys
to preside over, and judge, and direct brother Joseph to all eternity;
and Jesus Christ will hold the keys over them and over us, under his
Father, to whom be all the glory. This is my testimony; and in
obedience to these keys, if God will open my way and spare my life, I
will continue to act.

vol. 5, p.196
I am now about to start to the States, to preach the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and bear testimony of those things which I most assuredly do
know; for this is my calling. I have desired, after travelling for
twenty-five or twenty-six years, mostly abroad, to stay at home and
minister among the people of God, and take care of my family; but
God's will be done, and not mine. If it is the will of God that I
should spend  my days in [p.197] proclaiming this Gospel and hearing
testimony of these things, I shall think myself highly privileged and
honoured. And when the Spirit of God is upon me, I think it matters
but very little what I suffer, what I sacrifice—whether I secure the
honour or dishonour of men, or where I die, if it so be that I can
keep the faith, fight the good fight, and finish my course with joy.

vol. 5, p.197
I have all eternity before me, in which to enjoy myself; and though I
am a stranger and a pilgrim on this earth, and whether I be rich or
poor, or live long or short, I shall yet plant gardens and eat the
fruit of them, plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof, build
houses and inhabit them, and, as one of the elect of God, shall long
enjoy the works of my hands. All this shall I do; though worms eat the
body that I now have.

vol. 5, p.197
There are many who consider the times to be hard, and the sufferings
to be endured so great that they feel to withdraw from this people.
Some say they have no faith in the Book of Mormon. A word for those. I
do not believe that they have read that book; or, if they have, I do
not believe that they have read it humbly, attentively, prayerfully,
and under a good influence. I do not think they were counted honest,
or that they had a heart that had place for the Spirit of God. If they
were at all acquainted with that influence, or had it in them, they
would not only believe it, but they would know that it was true. They
would not only know and acknowledge it by the Holy Ghost, but they
would know it naturally, just as we know that a man is a Prophet, when
the thing which he predicts comes to pass.

vol. 5, p.197
Twenty-six years ago, that book was published in English, and within
those years have been progressively fulfilled many plain and definite
predictions that are therein recorded, insomuch that a professed
infidel, one who had not before believed in Jesus Christ nor in the
Bible, may easily comprehend that the things predicted in the Book of
Mormon, many of them, have demonstrated themselves by their plain,
literal, simple fulfilment. I will mention one thing among a thousand.
When that book was printed in English, an ancient prophecy in it
stated that it should come to the knowledge of the Gentiles in the
latter day, at a time when the blood of the Saints would cry from the
ground because of secret murders, and the works of darkness, and
wicked combinations. And not only the blood of Saints, but the blood
of husbands and fathers should cry from the ground for vengeance on
the workers of iniquity, and the cries of widows and orphans would
come up before God, against those that committed those crimes.

vol. 5, p.197
When that book was translated by Joseph Smith, and published in
English, we were living in a constitutional Government, the laws of
which guaranteed liberty of conscience to every man in his religious
belief. It was at a time when no man had been seriously injured
because of his belief; and it was as incredible and unlooked for that
a Saint would be slain for his religion as that the Government would
be broken up; and nobody believed that it would be broken up; for the
principles of truth had ruled, guaranteeing liberty and protection to
all parties. No man had been persecuted to death for his religion,
under the effectual working of that Constitution. Hence, I want those
persons who have not faith in the Book of Mormon to tell how Joseph
Smith could think of such things; and if the ancient Prophet did not
foretell those things, Joseph Smith did.

vol. 5, p.197
How came he to tell that the people of his father's house would
suffer? [p.198] or that husbands and fathers, widows and orphans would
send up their cry for vengeance on the wicked of our day? You that do
not believe in the Book of Mormon, I want you should account for that
prediction. It is plain and simple. I read it in 1830, and no man had
then suffered a violent death for his religion in this generation in
our nation.

vol. 5, p.198
Now, then, imagine yourselves living in the United States twenty-eight
years ago, and causing to be printed such a production as the Book of
Mormon, and I want to know how you would know of any such thing as is
there predicted? I say there was no probability that it would be
fulfilled, but yet I say that it has been very remarkably fulfilled,
so that every public minister and officer knows that it has been
fulfilled, and that the Union is trembling and being threatened, and
our right to law and protection being questioned.

vol. 5, p.198
The blood of innocence cries for vengeance, because its enemies have
not administered justice. They have not carried out the constitutional
guarantees, but have suffered innocent blood to flow. They have not
administered justice nor law in the case, but have allowed wholesale
murderers to run at large in Missouri and Illinois. And many of the
people and of their rulers have consented to the shedding of that
innocent blood, and the result is that the cries of widows and orphans
ascend to God. I wish those who do not believe the Book of Mormon to
tell me by what power or foreknowledge that prediction was published
in 1830.

vol. 5, p.198
I used to read an epistle which stated that if the Gentiles should
reject the fulness of the Gospel contained in the Book of Mormon, and
become filled with all manner of iniquity and murders, priestcraft,
whoredoms, and lying, the Lord would take the fulness of his Gospel
from among them, and send it into the, midst of the remnant of Israel.
What have we been doing these ten years past? Ten years ago, a good
portion of this people lived in the old settled States, and they were
in so many places that a man had to dodge or hide up somewhere, to
keep from hearing the fulness of the Gospel. It was preached in their
cities, at their capital, in their villages, in town and in country,
in the groves and in their court-houses; and thousands upon thousands
in the United States flocked to hear the fulness of the Gospel, which
was preached everywhere.

vol. 5, p.198
How is it now? With the exception of a few, who are on missions or
business there, a man might travel from Maine to Louisiana, and
scarcely have a chance to hear the fulness of the Gospel; and if he
wished. to hear the Gospel, he would have to come here. Thus we see
the literal fulfilment of that prediction. I read it in 1830, and used
to wonder how it would be fulfilled. But notwithstanding the jealousy
that existed in the United States in regard to this people, the Book
of Mormon was so common and preached so extensively, that some of
them, right in their wickedness, Herod-like, happened to discover the
prediction in regard to the fulness of the Gospel's coming to the
remnants of Joseph, and happened to understand it in part.

vol. 5, p.198
So Herod, in his wickedness, when he heard of the rejoicing of the
Jews and that their Messiah was born, when the wise men read the
prophecies to him, believed those prophecies and tried to hinder their
fulfilment. For that purpose he issued an order to murder all the
young children of Bethlehem of two years old and under. He must have
believed the prophecy, or he would never have undertaken to hinder its
fulfilment.

vol. 5, p.198
In like manner, the people in the [p.199] United States were afraid
that "Mormonism" was true, and in their sins they partly believed it;
wherefore the proclamations for murders and for banishment, for
mobbings and plunderings, with a view to hinder its accomplishing what
was predicted it would, and to prevent the fulfilment of prophecy.
Were you to ask them the reason for all this, their truthful reply
must be, "We were afraid that the 'Mormons' would fulfil a prediction
of the Prophets, and carry the Gospel to the remnants of Joseph." They
considered that, Herod-like, to be treasonable. Some have wondered
that a king's being born in Bethlehem should be treason, not
understanding that the kingdom of God meant an eternal kingdom. And in
speaking of the United States and "Mormonism," they said, "If the
fulness of the Gospel should be preached to the remnants of Joseph, it
would be awful," and tried to prevent its being so, but failed in the
attempt.

vol. 5, p.199
Myself, Elder Oliver Cowdery, and others crossed the Missouri line,
into what is now called Kansas, and preached the Gospel to the
Delaware Indians. We presented them with the Book of Mormon, and left
a copy or two with those that could read it and interpret to others.
At that time "Mormonism" had not been heard of any further west of
Ohio than we carried the news, and lyings and misrepresentations
concerning it had not preceded us. But there were sectarian
missionaries on the frontiers, Methodists, Baptists, &c., striving to
gain a foothold among Indians; and they all joined against us. Such
was the envy and jealousy of the spirit in them, they knew not why,
that we were ordered out of the indian country, on penalty of having
the Militia take us out.

vol. 5, p.199
In Missouri the Saints were watched like thieves, and, when we became
more and more known among the people, were mobbed and plundered again
and again, till eventually we were driven into Illinois.

vol. 5, p.199
At those times, I used to wonder how that prophecy would be fulfilled,
contained in the Book of Mormon, which reads, "If the Gentiles reject
the fulness of my Gospel, and are full of all manner of evil and
wickedness, I will bring the fulness of my Gospel out from among them,
and will establish it in the midst of the remnants of Joseph." I
watched it for years, looking for it to be fulfilled, and marvelled.
But we were again mobbed, and they continued to mob us for eight or
ten years, thus helping us to fulfil that very prophecy. They were
made the instruments to annoy us, till we could have no peace without
leaving them and coming out here into the wilderness.

vol. 5, p.199
We loved home so well, and our houses, and temples, and farms, that we
would not willingly leave and accomplish the work laid upon us;
therefore we were made to be willing—made to do what we were pleaded
with to do before. You know that an ancient Prophet said, "My people
shall be willing in the day of my power." Here we are; and just as
sure as the things in the Book of Mormon have been progressively
fulfilling until now, and as sure as all the powers of the Saints and
of their enemies have tended to that point, just so sure will every
remaining item be fulfilled in its time and in its place.

vol. 5, p.199
Again, the man that believes "Mormonism," believes in the gathering of
the people of God and in the keys of the Priesthood and Apostleship,
and that through those keys the people are to be built up, preserved,
sanctified, and prepared for the coming of the Lord. Let me ask many
that have been gathered through the instrumentality of those keys, do
you believe that to scatter again is disobeying them? No, many of you
do not.

vol. 5, p.200
[p.200] Some folks think that "Mormonism" is a certain set of
doctrines found in the books, together with certain ordinances, and
think that one is a Saint if he credits those doctrines and those
ordinances. Suppose an island peopled by persons who by some
providence had the Book of Mormon and the Bible, or either of those
books, but no Priesthood. They are not members of the Church, even
though they be most strictly honest. They may have read the sacred
records and believed them, all the principles contained therein, and
desired to serve God; but the question is, could they obey the Gospel
of which they read in those books, organize themselves into the Church
of Christ, and be governed by the principles of the kingdom of God,
and be accepted of God as his Church? I say, they could not.

vol. 5, p.200
What could they do? They could believe in Jesus Christ, and pray to
the Father in his name, and observe his moral precepts. But to obey
the ordinances of God—to become his Church and kingdom, is something
which they could not do, unless their prayers of faith prevailed upon
the Almighty to in some manner bless them with the Priesthood.
Otherwise, all they could do would be to rejoice in the truth, worship
God, obey his moral precepts, and wait for some messenger to come and
organize them; and if they were obliged to live without the
Priesthood, they would have to receive its ministrations in the next
world.

vol. 5, p.200
In what manner was the Priesthood restored to this earth in our day?
Angels ministered from heaven—men who had died holding the Priesthood
of the Son of God, and revealed the Book of Mormon, and conferred the
Priesthood upon our first Apostles, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
When they were baptised by the command of the angel, had received the
Holy Ghost by the laying-on of hands, and been ordained according to
the command, they continued to receive commandments, from time to
time, to ordain other Apostles and other Elders.

vol. 5, p.200
In the year 1885, in Kirtland, Ohio, they ordained our President,
Brigham Young, also Heber C. Kimball, your servant that is now
addressing you, and many others, by the word of the Lord. Thus our
President and others received the keys of the Apostleship, and we
magnified it until Joseph's death, when two of his Quorum of Three
went behind the veil, and the third, Sidney Rigdon, who had got in the
background, became an apostate. The First Presidency was re-organized,
under the authority proceeding from the Almighty through Joseph Smith,
in the persons of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard
Richards; and they, by virtue of the keys lawfully in their
possession, filled up the vacancies occasioned in the Quorum of the
Twelve, and also the vacancy made in their Quorum by the death of our
beloved brother, Willard Richards.

vol. 5, p.200
Had we undertaken President, making in this Church simply by our
uninspired notions, Brigham Young held more keys than all our votes
put together; and had we voted against him, we would have voted
ourselves out of the kingdom of God. He and those that stood by him
would have held the keys of the Priesthood, as they have and do, and
would have built up the kingdom, while those who opposed them would
have been like salt that had lost its savour. It was not in our power
to manufacture this Presidency, but only to uphold and cleave to it;
and blessed  are we, inasmuch as we have done this thing.

vol. 5, p.200
These keys came from Joseph Smith, who received them from Peter,
James, and John, who received  them [p.201] from the risen Jesus, the
Redeemer of men. If we hearken to these keys, we shall be saved, and
inherit celestial glory and exaltation; if we do not, we shall be
damned, and fall short of all the blessings promised to the saved.

vol. 5, p.201
Such is my faith; this is my knowledge, this is my testimony, and
these are my feelings and real sentiments. God being my helper, giving
me his Spirit, and counting me worthy to abide in his kingdom, I mean
to continue to the end in upholding those keys, and, by my prayers and
works, to stand by them and live in obedience to them as long as I
live on the earth. If I abide in the vine, I will have strength, by
the power of the Holy Ghost, to magnify my calling and to inherit a
crown of celestial glory: if I do not, then I will fall, and, I had
almost said, become like another man: but not so; for then I will only
be fit to be cast out and trodden under foot, like salt that has lost
its advent.

vol. 5, p.201
I crave the privilege of remaining within this kingdom; and I ask for
your prayers, your blessings, your faith, and your assistance, as a
people, and for the assistance and watchcare of the angels of God, and
for the blessings of my brethren that preside over me. I crave these
things, and the privilege of serving God unto the end.

vol. 5, p.201
If I go forth and testify of the truth of the Book of Mormon and of
Joseph Smith as a Prophet, a Revelator, and an Apostle of the living
God; also of Brigham Young, Heber C Kimball, Jedediah M. Grant, and
the rest of my brethren that hold the keys of this kingdom; and call
upon the people to repent and forsake their follies, their
priestcraft, their adulteries, and their errors, and to obey the
Gospel under the hands of the Elders sent out by these men; and tell
them to gather together and obey those ministers of Christ as long as
they live, and then obey their successors in office:—if I do all this,
and live faithful, and set a good example, it will be the Gospel of
Jesus Christ and the power of God unto all that receive it. If I do
not do this, it will not be the Gospel, but it will be something else.
It is appointed unto all men, whenever this Priesthood is on the earth
and comes within their reach, to repent and be baptised under the
hands of this Priesthood, in the name of Jesus Christ, and to receive
the Holy Spirit by the laying-on of hands by the servants of God, and
to break off from their sins and bring forth fruits of righteousness.
If they do this, and endure to the end, they will be saved; but if
they do not, they will be damned.

vol. 5, p.201
May God bless you all, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. [p.202]

Heber C. Kimball, October 12, 1856

Reformation—Satisfaction Should Be Made to Parties
Aggrieved—Practical Religion, &c.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the 
Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, October 12, 1856.

vol. 5, p.202
I can say amen to what was said this forenoon by brothers Spencer and
Grant, and also by brother Brigham; for it is true: and I presume
there was not a Saint in the congregation but what realized the truth
of their sayings.

vol. 5, p.202
I am satisfied that it is the good pleasure of our God that a
reformation should take place in the hearts of all Israel. I do not
believe that there is any man or woman here so good but what they can
be a little better. There are good people; there are those that we
call the best. My feelings and exertions for this people and for all
the house of Israel are, and have been to the end, that we may be all
of that class which we denominate the best.

vol. 5, p.202
The spirit of reformation has been upon me all the while; but for the
last six months that spirit has in a more particular manner moved upon
the Presidency of this Church, and they have cried unto you as with
the voice of an earthquake, and commanded you to repent and forsake
your follies. Their voice has been like the voice of thunder unto this
people, calling upon them to repent and turn unto the Lord their God.

vol. 5, p.202
But what is the use of persons being baptised until they first confess
and forsake their sins, and make restitution where they have injured
any one? If persons have lied, it is their duty to repent and retract
their false statements, and confess their lies. If any have stolen, it
is for them to repent and steal no more; also to restore fourfold,
where it is required. I have my doubts whether a man or woman can be
saved upon any other principle; for this was the doctrine of Jesus,
the Son of God, and it is the doctrine taught in these latter days.

vol. 5, p.202
Where sins have been committed, there must be an atonement made to
satisfy the demands of justice: and when justice is satisfied, mercy
claims the subject. Have these requirements been complied with by this
people? Many of you have broken your covenants and lost that spirit to
a great extent, that you might and ought to enjoy; for you ought to be
in favour with God continually, that you might have the power of his
Spirit to be with you.

vol. 5, p.202
Brother Brigham is not responsible for this people any further than
they will follow his counsel. When they observe his counsel, doing
just as he says in all things, then he is responsible. The only way
that you can make him responsible is by observing his sayings in the
most strict manner possible. Am I responsible for the acts of my wife
or wives? Only on condition that they are subject to my counsels. You
can readily understand that their disobedience releases me from
responsibility for their conduct.

vol. 5, p.202
When brother Brigham predicts that certain things will happen if the
people persist in a certain course, that prediction will be fulfilled,
except the people make a retraction and an atonement sufficient to
satisfy the demands of justice; for that is what [p.203] God requires.
When that is done, the sins of the people will be remitted. I speak of
this, that you may understand that your re-baptisms must be agreeable
to the order laid down. It is not simply a man's saying, "Having been
commissioned by Jesus Christ, I baptise you for the renewal of your
covenant and remission of your sins," but you must be subject to your
brethren and fulfil the law of God.

vol. 5, p.203
Supposing you have sinned against your brethren, or in some way
offended them, will your sins be remitted, unless you go and make the
proper acknowledgments? No, they will not. You have got to pay the
debt; and sin cannot be remitted until you confess it and make
satisfaction to the party aggrieved. You may try another course as
much as you please, but you will find it to be just as I have told
you.

vol. 5, p.203
If I have offended brother Brigham in any way whatever—rebelled
against him, lied about him, or sought to abuse him, what is the use
of my going to the water to renew my covenant, until I have made
satisfaction to him? The proper way would be to go to him and say,
"Brother Brigham, I lied against you wilfully, under the influence of
an evil spirit;" or, "I have ill-treated and wronged you, and know
that I must make satisfaction, and I am ready to do anything that you
say." Satisfaction must be made to the one injured, or baptism will be
of no benefit: the Holy Ghost will not ratify that act until I have
paid the debt. Then brother Brigham would say, "I forgive you, and
pray my Father, in the name of Jesus, to forgive you also." Then our
Father in heaven would forgive you, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost
would forgive you. And if you get pardon of those you have injured,
and of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, you are free and ready to
begin a new life.

vol. 5, p.203
You have heard brother Brigham say that if we sin against the Father,
we must confess our sins to him, and get pardon from him: and if we
sin against the Son, we must ask pardon of him, for he will not pardon
you without you do ask him; and if you sin against the Holy Ghost you
cannot get pardon, for that is a sin which cannot be forgiven. You
must do that which is right, and get the forgiveness of the Father and
the Son; then they and the Holy Ghost will take up their abode with
you. That is my faith, and that is a part of "Mormonism,"as I
understand it.

vol. 5, p.203
If men and women make a practice of lying, stealing, and doing of the
things forbidden in the law of God, they need not go into the water
until they have sincerely repented and will covenant and promise that
they will not do those things again. Some of you make a practice of
telling little lies, of deceiving and be rating each other, of
disputing with each other, and with the servants of God. Is that
right? You all know that it is not, and that God will punish you for
it. Does the Son know when you do these things? Does the Holy Ghost
know? Do the angels know? I answer, they do know, and they are
displeased with such acts, and will not associate with you in
consequence of them.

vol. 5, p.203
Some quietly listen to those who speak against the Lord's servants,
against his anointed, against the plurality of wives, and against
almost every principle that God has revealed. Such persons have
half-a-dozen devils with them all the time. You might as well deny
"Mormonism," and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of
wives. Let the Presidency of this Church, and the Twelve Apostles, and
all the authorities unite and say with one voice that they will oppose
that doctrine, and the whole of them would be damned. What are you
opposing [p.204] it for? It is a principle that God has revealed for
the salvation of the human family. He revealed it to Joseph the
Prophet in this our dispensation; and that which he revealed he
designs to have carried out by his people.

vol. 5, p.204
What a joy it would be to me if my family were in such a state of mind
that an angel would come and tell me, "On such a day I will meet with
you, and your wives, and your children, if you will sanctify
yourselves." Would not that be a joy and a consolation to me? Do I
disbelieve such visitations? No, no more than I disbelieve that an
angel came to Joseph and Oliver, to Abraham of old, and to many
others.

vol. 5, p.204
Let us take a course that will be pleasing to our Father, and lay
aside our follies and our sins, and obtain favour with our God, that
his angels may come and associate with us. They would do so now, if
you would believe and practice that which is laid before you day by
day. And if you will strictly follow the leaders of this people, you
never would want for clothing, nor for any of the comforts of life;
for if it must needs be that we be protected and delivered from our
enemies, God would cause a famine to scourge them, and would rain
manna down from heaven to sustain us, as he did to the children of
Israel. But he never will do that, until it is necessary to our
salvation and deliverance.

vol. 5, p.204
Now, there is no necessity for such a display of his power, neither
will there be, until we are brought into the midst of certain trials,
as Joseph Smith and his brethren were, about twenty-two years ago. I
refer to the time when he and some of his brethren went up to
Missouri; and those who went up then believed "Mormonism" in their
hearts. There were two hundred and five who volunteered to go and
redeem their brethren. And how was it in those days, when we were in
that strait? Hosts of the people in Missouri were up in arms against
us, both behind and before us, on our right and on our left. How did
God defend us then? He sent a hailstorm fierce enough to stop their
progress. The hailstones were so large that they cut their horses
bridles, broke their gun-stocks, and cut holes in their hats: the
storm had such an effect upon them that they would not any longer
pursue us. The waters of the river rose forty feet in one night, and
the whole region was flooded. In that way the Lord defended us, when
we were a small company, and when he knew that we should be overcome,
if he did not stretch forth his hand for our benefit.

vol. 5, p.204
Let us arise, every man and every woman, and lay off our sins; and
wherein you know that you have sinned, repent and ask forgiveness, and
then cease sinning from this time henceforth and for ever. Many murmur
and are disaffected, after being privileged with the great blessing of
deliverance from the oppression of the world. Many who have been
gathered by the P. E. Fund murmur against those who have gathered
them. When you become disaffected with brother Brigham and brother
Heber, what is your course? You will associate with those poor
murmuring devils whose hearts are as corrupt as hell itself, and
thereby partake of their spirit; and it is a spirit that suits you: it
is one of your own kind and your own class. Now, you know that your
are more apt to sympathize with the ungodly than you ought to be, and
that you are too apt to think that brother Brigham, brother Heber, and
brother Jedediah are rather hard upon such characters. We are only
hard upon sin and ungodliness.

vol. 5, p.204
Do not be baptised and then take an unrighteous course, but repent of
and forsake all sin. I have nothing [p.205] in my heart to preach to
this people but faith and repentance, and to teach them to have
confidence in God, in brother Brigham, and in each other, and to
cultivate, nourish, and cherish that confidence; also to cherish,
comfort, and to sustain brother Brigham from this time henceforth and
for ever.

vol. 5, p.205
The more I do for this cause, the more God will love me—the more he
will bless me, and he will give me power over the Devil and over all
his imps. Can I do too much for God and his cause? Can I do too much
for brother Brigham? No; for the more I respect him as the delegate of
God, the more God will honour me and my acts. I know that these things
are true; also that some of you are afraid that you will love him too
well. I will tell you how much you should love him: you should love
him enough to strictly observe his counsels. Jesus said, "If you love
me, keep my commandments." This was a test;  for whose loved him would
keep his commandments

vol. 5, p.205
I have thought a great many times  upon the condition of this people,
and  I would that they all should turn unto  the Lord; but I have
fears that many will not reform; and I am inclined to think that they
will feel the rod of the Almighty, unless they do repent.

vol. 5, p.205
Go to work and build up and establish each other; wives establish your
husbands, husbands establish your wives, and wives and husbands
establish your children in righteousness, and God will be with us for
ever; he never will forsake us in times of trouble. Cast in your
Tithes and offerings into the storehouse of the Lord, and you shall
have a blessing that you have not room to contain.

vol. 5, p.205
The Father, and the Son, and all the servants of God of every
dispensation that ever was on the earth, are engaged in inspiring
those brethren who now faithfully hold the Priesthood in the flesh.
You are aware that the Lord said that in the last days he would have
labourers who would labour with their might to gather up the wheat for
the last time; and this is the last time. You need not ask who
administer to brother Brigham; for I will tell you: They are Moses and
Aaron, Elijah, Jesus, Peter, James, and John, brother Joseph, Michael
the Archangel, and the hosts of the righteous behind the vail: they
are all engaged in this great work.

vol. 5, p.205
God have mercy upon you, and give you his Spirit to understand all
things aright, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. [p.206]

Thomas B. Marsh and Brigham Young, September 6, 1857

Return of Thomas B. Marsh to the Church

Remarks by President Brigham Young, introducing Brother 
Thomas B. Marsh, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt 
Lake City, on Sunday, September 6th, 1857.

vol. 5, p.206
Brother Thomas B. Marsh, formerly the President of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, has now come to us, after an absence of nearly
nineteen years. He is on the stand to-day, and wishes to make a few
remarks to the congregation.

vol. 5, p.206
You will comprehend the purport of the remarks he wishes to make, by
my relating a part of his conversation with me yesterday. He came into
my office and wished to know whether I could be reconciled to him, and
whether there could be a reconciliation between himself and the Church
of the living God. He reflected for a moment and said, I am reconciled
to the Church, but I want to know whether the Church can be reconciled
to me.

vol. 5, p.206
He is here, and I want him to say that he may wish to. [Brother Marsh
then arose, and the President continued.] Brethren and sisters, I now
introduce to you brother Thomas B. Marsh. When the Quorum of the
Twelve was first organized, he was appointed to be their President.

REMARKS BY THOMAS B. MARSH

vol. 5, p.206
I do not know that I can make all this vast congregation hear and
understand me. My voice never was very strong, but it has been very
much weakened of late years by the afflicting rod of Jehovah. He loved
me too much to let me go without whipping. I have seen the hand of the
Lord in the chastisement which I have received. I have seen and known
that it has proved he loved me; for if he had not cared anything about
me, he would not have taken me by the arm and given me such a shaking.

vol. 5, p.206
If there are any among this people who should ever apostatize and do
as I have done, prepare your backs for a good whipping, if you are
such as the Lord loves. But if you will take my advice, you will stand
by the authorities; but if you go away and the Lord loves you as much
as he did me, he will whip you back again.

vol. 5, p.206
Many have said to me, "How is it that a man like you, who understood
so much of the revelations of God as recorded in the Book of Doctrine
and Covenants, should fall away?" I told them not to feel too secure,
but to take heed lest they also should fall: for I had no scruples in
my mind as to the possibility of men falling away.

vol. 5, p.206
I can say, in reference to the Quorum of the Twelve, to which I
belonged, that I did not consider myself a whit behind any of them,
and I suppose that others had the same opinion; but, let no one feel
too secure: for, before you think of it, your steps will slide. You
will not then think nor feel for a moment as you did before you lost
the Spirit of Christ; for when men apostatize, they are left to grovel
in the dark.

vol. 5, p.206
I have sought diligently to know the Spirit of Christ since I turned
my face Zionward, and I believe I have obtained it. I have frequently
wanted to know how my apostacy began, and I have come to the
conclusion that I [p.207] must have lost the Spirit of the Lord out of
my heart.

vol. 5, p.207
The next question is, "How and when did you lose the Spirit?" I became
jealous of the Prophet, and then I saw double, and overlooked
everything that was right, and spent all my time in looking for the
evil; and then, when the Devil began to lead me, it  was easy for the
carnal mind to rise up, which is anger, jealousy, and wrath. I could
feel it within me; I felt angry and wrathful; and the Spirit of the
Lord being gone, as the Scriptures say, I was blinded, and I thought I
saw a beam in brother Joseph's eye, but it was nothing but a mote, and
my own eye was filled with the beam; but I thought I saw a beam in
his, and I wanted to get it out; and, as brother Heber says, I got
mad, and I wanted everybody else to be mad. I talked with Brother
Brigham and Brother Heber, and I wanted them to be mad like myself;
and I saw they were not mad, and I got madder still because they were
not. Brother Brigham, with a cautious look, said, "Are you the leader
of the Church, brother Thomas?" I answered, "No." "Well then," said
he, "Why do you not let that alone?"

vol. 5, p.207
Well, this is about the amount of my hypocrisy—I meddled with that
which was not my business. But let me tell you, my brethren and
friends, if you do not want to suffer in body and mind, as I have
done,—if there are any of you that have the seeds of apostacy in you,
do not let them make their appearance, but nip that spirit in the bud;
for it is misery and affliction in this world, and destruction in the
world to come. I know that I was a very stiff-necked man, and I felt,
for the first four or five years especially, that I would never return
to the Church; but towards the latter part of the time, I began to
wake up  and to be sensible that I was being chastised by the
Almighty; and I felt to realize the language of Jeremiah concerning
Ephraim in the last days, where he says, "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is
he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly
remember him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will
surely have mercy on him, saith the Lord."

vol. 5, p.207
Thinks I, this language suits my condition. I then thought, I will go
back and see if the Lord will heal me, for I am of the seed, of
Ephraim, and I felt troubled from that day, and my soul was vexed with
the filthy conversation of those Sodomites.

vol. 5, p.207
After forming this resolution, I tried to get an outfit, and I kept
trying for two or three years; for I did not want to come hear sick,
lame, decrepid, and dependent; and therefore I kept on trying; but
instead of gaining, I was like the man that undertook to climb the
tree—I slipt down farther than I got up. I then thought to myself, I
am getting old, and every year makes me older and weaker; and if I do
not start, I shall soon die, and then whose fault will it be? I
concluded it, would be my own fault if I stayed. I therefore said, "I
will go now." That was last January. I looked round a few days to see
what I could raise, and I raised five dollars and ten cents, and I
said. "Lord, if you wilt help me, I will go." I felt that he would:
therefore I started with but five dollars and ten cents, from Harrison
County, Missouri, to come all the way to this Valley. I knew that I
could not come here with that small sum, and I did not see how I was
to get any more; but before I got out of the State, the Lord had
changed my fortune, and I had $55.05. I then concluded within myself
that the Lord was with me; but still I had some hardships; for I
travelled on foot in some severely cold weather, and I found that my
chastisement was not over, notwithstanding the favour of [p.208] the
Lord in helping me to some means. I remarked that I had fifty-five
dollars when I left the States, and that, too, obtained honestly,
without any speculation, trading, swapping, or stealing; but I earned
what I got, and left a good name behind me.

vol. 5, p.208
I have given you some items of my apostacy. I will now relate some of
my recent experience.

vol. 5, p.208
When I got to Florence, or Winter Quarters, where I had to stay,
waiting for an opportunity to cross the Plains, I read many of the
publications and works of the Church, and became strengthened and
informed in regard to the Priesthood of the Son of God. Although I
knew something about the Priesthood before, so far as the theory was
concerned, yet I discovered that I had never properly understood it;
and hence I feel that my faith is greatly strengthened. I wanted to
get posted up and see what the "Mormons" had learned since I left
them; and I learned very much by reading the discourses that had been
preached here.

vol. 5, p.208
The doctrine of plurality was a great bugbear to me, till I got to
Florence and read the works of brother Orson Pratt; and now I see that
it is heaven's own doctrine, and the Church of Jesus Christ can never
be perfect without it. Had I known as much of the Church of Jesus
Christ and its doctrines before I apostatized as I now know, I think I
could not have back-slidden.

vol. 5, p.208
I have come here to get good society —to get your fellowship. I want
your fellowship; I want your God to be my God, and I want to live with
you for ever, in time and eternity. I never want to forsake the people
of God any more. I want to have your confidence, and I want to be one
in the house of God. I have learned to understand what David said when
he exclaimed, "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than
to dwell in the tents of wickedness." I have not come here to seek for
any office, except it be to be a door-keeper or a deacon; no, I am
neither worthy nor fit; but I want a place among you as a humble
servant of the Lord.

vol. 5, p.208
I did say once, when coming along, inadvertently. They may think that
I am coming to get office, but if they offer it to me I will not have
it, and that will show them I do not want any; but I took a second
thought and said, I will say, The will of the Lord be done.

vol. 5, p.208
I have now got a better understanding of the Presidency of the Church
than I formerly had. I used to ask myself, What is the difference
between the President of our Church and a Pope? True, he is not called
a Pope. but names do not alter realities, and therefore he is a Pope.

vol. 5, p.208
God is at the head of this kingdom, and he has sustained it. I was
along in the start of it, and then Joseph was the little one; but, as
the Scriptures say, "The little one shall become a thousand, and the
small one a strong nation;" and Joseph lived to become a thousand, and
this people are fast becoming a strong nation.

vol. 5, p.208
I am just as confident as I can be in the truth of those things that
brother Heber has spoken of; for I see in my meditations how the
Priesthood has been restored, when the Lord had taken it from the
earth by the death of the Apostles, and how the authority to
administer in the name of Jesus Christ was also taken, and that, when
the authority went, miracles were taken away and the power of God
ceased to be manifested through men during the long period of the rule
of antichrist and anarchy.

vol. 5, p.208
I see the propriety of God's vesting the authority in one man, and in
having a head, or something tangible to see, hear, and understand the
mind and will of God. When I saw this, I said, It is consistent:
Christ is the [p.209] great head of the Church. Christ is the head of
his Church in the same relationship as every head is to the body to
which it belongs; for every head must have eyes to see, a mouth to
speak, and ears to hear. Well, Jesus Christ is the head of the Church,
and he has got a man to represent him on the earth—viz., President
Brigham Young. Jesus Christ is still the head of the Church; and his
will to man on the earth is known by means of the mouthpiece of God,
the Prophet, and Seer.

vol. 5, p.209
When I came to these conclusions, I said, Now I will go there among
them; for I have found out how I may learn wisdom from God. I want to
learn wisdom, and not to be ruled by my own imaginations.

vol. 5, p.209
God has given me reasoning powers, and I will use them, so far as I am
capable, in the acquirement of knowledge. But how will I get wisdom
from God? The answer is plain. He speaks through his mouthpiece;
therefore I will go and place my ears close to his mouth,—for I am not
good of hearing,—and I will pray to God in secret; and to such he has
said he will answer them openly. I will pray for the thing that I
want; and the chief desire of my heart before God is, that I may know
that he accepts me.

vol. 5, p.209
Well, Where shall I go, was the next question, to get a response to
this desire? The answer was, Go to the President of the Church—to the
mouthpiece of God, and then you can be taught, and there will be no
difficulty in learning the mind and will of God.

vol. 5, p.209
I thank God that he has brought me back here, where I can receive such
instructions, and with a prospect of seeing, notwithstanding my
advanced age, the glory of God. Many of you that are young will live,
as has been said, to see the glory of God manifested on the earth.
Amen.

FURTHER REMARKS BY PRESIDENT 
BRIGHAM YOUNG.

vol. 5, p.209
A portion of the congregation have heard what brother Marsh has said;
but he spoke so low that you could not all hear. He wants to know
whether this people are willing to receive him into full fellowship.
When he came to Florence, he applied to brother Cunningham, who was
then presiding there, for baptism. Brother Cunningham at first refused
to baptise him, probably thinking that it would be better for him to
wait till he came to this place; but he afterwards gave his consent to
brother Marsh's being baptised. Brother Marsh now wishes to be
received into full fellowship, and to be again baptised here.

vol. 5, p.209
There are many here who have formerly been acquainted with him—with
his moral character, and they can judge as well as myself. Those who
are not acquainted with him will be willing to coincide with the
judgment of those who once knew him.

vol. 5, p.209
I shall call a vote, to ascertain whether the people are willing that
he should be baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, and be acknowledged a member in full fellowship. I wish those
who are willing to receive brother Marsh into full fellowship as a
member in this Church and kingdom to, manifest it by the uplifted
hand. [All hands appeared to be raised.] If there are any who are not
willing, they now have the privilege of manifesting it by the uplifted
hand. [Not a hand was raised.]

vol. 5, p.209
Brother Marsh, I think that will be satisfactory to you.

vol. 5, p.209
[T. B. Marsh: "It is, and I thank God for it."]

vol. 5, p.209
I presume that brother Marsh will take no offence if I talk a little
about him. We have manifested our feelings towards him, and we know
his situation. With regard to this Church's being reconciled to him, I
can say [p.210] that this Church and people were never dissatisfied
with him; for when men and women apostatize and go from us, we have
nothing to do with them. If they do that which is evil, they will
suffer for it. Brother Marsh has suffered. He told me, yesterday, that
the Christians might hang up their fiddle in regard to there being no
Catholic Tophet or Purgatory.

vol. 5, p.210
You are aware that the children of the Mother Church have dissented
from the idea of there being such a place as Purgatory; but brother
Marsh says that there is such a place, and that he has been in it
during the past eighteen years and upwards. I asked him whether he did
not have to pray him: self out. He answered, "Yes." I then remarked—If
you prayed yourself out, I suppose you saved the priests' fees. "Yes,
he said; "It did not cost me a cent of money." However, it cost him a
great deal of labour, trouble, and pain.

vol. 5, p.210
In conversing with brother Marsh, I find that he is about the same
Thomas that he always was—full of anecdotes and chit-chat. He could
hardly converse for ten minutes without telling an anecdote. His voice
and style of conversation are familiar to me.

vol. 5, p.210
He has told you that he is an old man. Do you think that I am an old
man? I could prove to this congregation that I am young; for I could
find more girls who would choose me for a husband than can any of the
young men.

vol. 5, p.210
Brother Thomas considers himself very aged and infirm, and you can see
that he is, brethren and sisters. What is the cause of it? He left the
Gospel of salvation. What do you think the difference is between his
age and mine? One year and seven months to a day; and he is one year,
seven months, and fourteen days older than brother Heber C. Kimball.

vol. 5, p.210
"Mormonism" keeps men and women young and handsome; and when they are
full of the Spirit of God, there are none of them but what will have a
glow upon their countenances; and that is what makes yea and me young;
for the Spirit of God is with us and within us.

vol. 5, p.210
When brother Thomas thought of returning to the Church, the plurality
of wives troubled him a good deal. Look at him. Do you think it need
to? I do not; for I doubt whether he could get one wife. Why it should
have troubled an infirm old man like him is not for me to say. He read
brother Orson Pratt's work upon that subject, and discovered that the
doctrine was beautiful, consistent, and exalting, and that the kingdom
could not be perfect without it. Neither can it be perfect without a
great many things that the people do not yet understand, though they
will come in the own due time of the Lord.

vol. 5, p.210
As I have but a few minutes for speaking, I will relate a little of
the current news of the day.

vol. 5, p.210
On Friday evening, the 11th inst., two of the brethren who accompanied
brothers Samuel W. Richards and George Snider from Deer Creek to 118
miles below Laramie, came in, and reported that soldiers and a heavy
freight train were there encamped opposite to them and on the south
side of the Platte. They could tell that they were soldiers, from the
appearance of their carriages, waggons, tents, and mode of encampment.
We did not learn anything very definite from these two brethren lately
arrived.

vol. 5, p.210
Messrs. Russel and Waddle are freighting for Government, and some of
their trains were scattered along to the Sweetwater. They have
twenty-six waggons in each train, with a teamster and six yoke of oxen
to a waggon. Some of those trains were on the Sweetwater when brother
Samuel passed down,  and quite a number of them are in advance of the
soldiers. The brethren learned that [p.211] Captain Van Vliet,
Assistant Quartermaster, was coming on to purchase lumber and such
things as might be needed for the army.

vol. 5, p.211
Last evening, brother John R. Murdock arrived direct from St. Louis.
He left here with the mail on the 2nd day of July, and reached
Independence in sixteen days, making by far the shortest trip on
record, and in eighteen days-and-a-half from here landed in St. Louis.
He tarried there till brother Horace S. Eldredge and brother Groesbeck
had transacted some business, and then started up the river with a
small train. On the 9th of August, brother Murdock left Atchison, K.T.
Troubles were daily expected to break out in Kansas between the
Republican, or Free State, and the pro-slavery parties; for which
reason General Harney, with the cavalry, a portion of the infantry,
and, I think, one or two companies of the Artillery, were detained
there by orders from Washington, and Colonel Johnson ordered to assume
the command of the army for Utah.

vol. 5, p.211
Some fifteen or sixteen hundred infantry started from Leavenworth; and
when brother Murdock passed them, one hundred miles below Laramie,
about five hundred had deserted, leaving, as he was told, about one
thousand men on their way to this. place. He passed a few freight
trains, which were entirely deserted by the teamsters, and Russel and
Waddle were not able to hire teamsters to bring those trains forward.

vol. 5, p.211
Brother Murdock did not think that they could get here this fall,
unless we helped them in. Their teams are pretty good, but they are
very much jaded. Their mule teams are in better condition, because
they regularly feed them on grain.

vol. 5, p.211
From the time that I heard that the President of the United States had
issued orders for soldiers to come here, they have had my best faith
that the Lord would not let them get here. I have seen this people,
when palsied with agues, fevers, and with various other diseases,
hurled out of doors, driven away from their cellars full of potatoes,
from their meal chests, from their cows, houses, barns, orchards,
fields, and finally from their happy homes and all the comforts of
life. I have seen that a good many times, and I pray that I may never
see it again, unless it is absolutely necessary for the welfare and
advancement of God's purposes on the earth. I want to see no more
suffering. I will not use the word suffering, for I call it joy
instead of sorrow, affliction, and suffering. If we live our religion
and exercise faith, it is our firm belief that it is our right to so
exercise our united faith that our enemies never can come here, unless
the Lord in his providence sees that it will be for our good.

vol. 5, p.211
It is my faith and feelings that, if we live as we should live, they
cannot come here; but I am decided in my opinion that, if worse comes
to worst, and the Lord permits them to come upon us, I will desolate
this whole Territory before I will again submit to the hellish
corruption and bondage the wicked are striving to thrust upon us
solely for our exercising our right of freedom of conscience.

vol. 5, p.211
I will say, in reference to President Buchanan, that, for his
outrageous wickedness in this movement, he shall wear the yoke as long
as he lives; he shall be led about by his party with the yoke on his
neck, until they have accomplished their ends, and he can do no more
for them; and his name shall be forgotten; and "Old Bright," as
brother Kimball calls him, shall be free. I am persuaded that for
their horrible, wicked treatment to this people—the only loyal people
in the United States—the only people who know the worth of the
Constitution—they will be sorely punished.

vol. 5, p.211
After doing what they already have [p.212] done to this people—after
sending among us the filth and scum of all creation (as some of the
officers were) as officers of the Government, contrary to the genius
of our institutions, I want to tell them that, though they continue to
send poor pusillanimous curses here to be Government officers, we will
not submit to it, troops or no troops. I shall tell them this in
plainness and simplicity; and they shall find that in my simplicity I
will try to sustain so righteous a position. And I believe that the
point is yielded, both in Europe and America; and I believe they
acknowledge that Brigham is a man of his word; and I have come to the
conclusion that we will not again have officers thrust upon us
contrary to our consent, the Lord helping us.

vol. 5, p.212
When brother Murdock left St. Louis, Mr. Cummings, the person who bad
received the appointment of Governor of Utah, was going to Washington,
and he could not learn that there was one of the Territorial officers
with the soldiers: hence I do not see but that I shall have to again
preside over our Legislative Assembly this winter. I do not see that
it can be otherwise; and William H. Hooper will be Secretary, just as
he was last winter. They have refused to pay the expenses of the last
Assembly and other just debts due to this Territory; but God will
overrule those things for our good and the advancement of his kingdom,
if we live our religion.

vol. 5, p.212
Our enemies will yet be glad to come to us for safety and salvation;
and we will do as brother Kimball has said—we will save the old
veteran fathers; and the time will come when we will be baptised for
them, while those who trample upon the rights of their fellow men will
be weltering in hell. Yes, we will bring up those old revolutionary
sires and save them; for God loves men who are true to each other and
are true to him.

vol. 5, p.212
If any want to apostatize, I want them to look at brother Marsh. I
wish you could all see and understand what he has suffered. He has
suffered a little; and I could tell you a good deal of the suffering
induced by the weaknesses of men.

vol. 5, p.212
When the Quorum of the Twelve was first chosen, Lyman Johnson's name
was called first, Brigham Young's second, Heber C. Kimball's third,
and so on. I had seen brother Marsh and others who were nominated for
the Quorum of the Twelve, and I looked upon them as men of great
powers of mind—as men of ability—men who understood the things of
heaven. I looked upon them as angels, and I looked up to them just as
my children look up to me.

vol. 5, p.212
I considered brother Marsh a great man; but as soon as I became
acquainted with him, I saw that the weakness of the flesh was visibly
manifest in him. I saw that he was ignorant and shattered in his
understanding, if ever he had good understanding. He manifests the
same weakness to-day. Has he the stability of a sound mind? No, and
never had. And if he had good sense and judgment, he would not have
spoken as he has. He has just said, "I will be faithful, and I will be
true to you." He has not wisdom enough to see that he has betrayed us
once, and don't know but what he will again. He has told me that he
would be faithful, and that he would do this and the other; but he
don't know what he will do next week or next year.

vol. 5, p.212
I do not know what I shall do next year; I always speak for the
present. But a man that will be once fooled by the Devil—a man that
has not sense to discern between steel grey mixed and iron grey mixed,
when one is dyed with logwood and the other with indigo, may be
deceived again. You never heard me  say that I was going [p.213] to he
true to my God; for I know too much of human weakness: but I pray God
to preserve me from falling away—to preserve me in the truth. I depend
not upon myself; for I know too much of human weakness and of myself,
to indulge in such remarks.

vol. 5, p.213
I derive strength from a superior source. I have been drinking from
that source for many years; and, as I told you last sabbath, I have
been trying to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And, if we are faithful,
we will all be counted worthy to be his disciples, God bless you!
Amen.

Heber C. Kimball, September 6, 1856

Union of the Priesthood—Salvation of the American 
Nation—Punishment of the Saints' Enemies, Etc.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered 
in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 6, 1856.

vol. 5, p.213
I can say, brethren, as far as I am concerned, that I have no
particular anxiety about the final issue of "Mormonism." But if I have
any trouble about the matter, it is about a great many limbs or vines
connected to that vine. Probably you understand what I mean when I am
talking about vines and trees. I speak about these things because I
most humbly desire to touch upon simple principles—that is, the most
simple figures, that the most simple person in this congregation may
understand me.

vol. 5, p.213
I am not troubled about the learned few—those that have learned right,
and are taught of the Lord: I have no trouble about their
understanding; for children may understand the things that I present,
and any man that is taught directly from God will understand; he will
understand the most simple things, and he will understand the greatest
things; for the greatest things are the simplest things. Do you not
know it?

vol. 5, p.213
There are thousands of men in the house of Israel, and among the
Elders of Israel, that are now considered to be small men, and not of
much account, that will supersede, eventually, thousands of men who
may now think that they are the smartest. That may be queer to you; it
may be singular to many; but I have knows of a great many instances of
that kind.

vol. 5, p.213
When we go into a fruit orchard or vineyard, we find the husbandman,
as he is called, who has charge of it; and I have myself seen very
inferior trees that never brought forth any fruit. A great many men
would come along and say to the husbandman, "Why don't you take up
that tree? It never will be of any account." Those men do not
understand, as the husbandman does, or they never would make such a
speech.

vol. 5, p.213
Is there a way to restore that tree, and to make it one of the most
thrifty trees in all the vineyard? Yes, there is. Well, what course
will you take to do that? Take the old stock away and put a thrifty
graft into the root, and then it becomes one of the most thrifty trees
in the vineyard, because the young stock renews the old, and the old
becomes a good tree.

vol. 5, p.213
So it is with you, many of you: yes, thousands of you will become
mighty [p.214] men, inasmuch as you honour your calling and receive
nourishment from the Father, or from the root; for it comes from the
root, and then spreads itself all through the vine, and every vine
that is attached to that partakes of the same nourishment, and to the
same extent, and in the same degree as the others.

vol. 5, p.214
Now, can you realize that? Bless your souls! go into the gardens. I am
going to talk to you as I would to little children; for there are a
great many of you that need to be taught. Go into your gardens and
take a cucumber vine, and do you not know that in the latter part of
the season you will find the largest and longest at the most extended
part of the vine? Do you know that? [Voices: "Yes."] There is one
woman that knows it; "but she would not if she did not work in her
garden; and those that do not work there do not know anything about
it. I am talking to you that go into your gardens to work.

vol. 5, p.214
You may take water-melons, and you will find the largest at the
extreme part of the vine. Can it be possible that the most extended
part of the vine can bring forth as much as the most extended limb on
a tree? Yes, it can. Where does it come from? From the root, and from
thence into the main limb or vine, and then into every branch and twig
that is connected to that vine.

vol. 5, p.214
Does not that prove, that you who seem to be small now, can become
great and mighty men in the kingdom of God,—yes, even Prophets? Does
it not prove that you can become great and mighty men, as well as
those that are now more intimately connected to the vine? Of course it
does.

vol. 5, p.214
Now, you may take an apple tree, a grape vine, a plum tree, and you
may take a cucumber vine, and all these trees and vines are one in
their organization: they are all alike, only one is called a tree, and
another a vine. They are also a little different in the fruit they
bear: one is a peach, or a plum, another a grape, &c.; and these
fruits are different in appearance, yet they are one in relation to
the principle that governs them.

vol. 5, p.214
One man is called upon to be a Prophet, another to be an Apostle,
another to be a Seventy, another a High Priest, another a Patriarch,
and so on; and don't you see they are all, in general features, alike?
There is not one of them that is not attached to a root. How could I
grow, if I were not attached to a tree or to a vine? I could not
produce fruit.

vol. 5, p.214
Well, the nearer I approach to my Father and to Jesus in my conduct,
the more I become like Joseph and the servants of God; and the more I
become like those characters, the more perfect a pattern I become for
others; and of course my fruit will be just like the characters I
pattern after; and then, of course, my fruit will be just like the
characters I am connected to. Will it have the same effect upon you?
Why, of course it will. Will it have the same effect upon you,
ladies,—you, sisters? Yes; and it will have the same effect upon your
children.

vol. 5, p.214
I do not know whether you understand me or not, but I wish you would
have your gardens trimmed and kept clean; and if you do not have any,
go into the mountains and to the timber countries.

vol. 5, p.214
I merely touch upon these things to refresh your minds, though I did
not think anything about them when I got up; but if you will go and
look at them,—I mean every Elder, High Priest, Apostle, and Prophet in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,—you will be
benefited; for you ought to be exactly like one tree. What! bring
forth the same fruit? Yes, all be one in your works for the benefit of
Israel.

vol. 5, p.214
Some time ago I brought up a comparison about an apple tree, and
[p.215] although I did not know it then, I have got one tree that has
probably got fifty limbs on it, and there is not one but is so full
that I have had to pick apples off it twice, and every limb is weighed
down with fruit. Well, I have tried it since then, and there is not
one particle of difference in the fruit of all those limbs. Is it good
fruit? No; the first limb is not worth a dime, and all the rest are
just like it.

vol. 5, p.215
Can a pure tree bring forth impure fruit? The tree of which I have
spoken is not impure in its appearance, but it is very smooth
externally, and likely to look upon; but there is not a particle of
goodness in it, or, at least, there is not in the fruit it produces.
That is the case with many of you.

vol. 5, p.215
Well, then, we say that, if the root is good, the tree is good, and
the limbs, because they are attached to the tree and receive
nourishment from the tree.

vol. 5, p.215
Well, if the root is not very good, the limbs, the tree, and the
apples will not be very good, because the root is not very good.

vol. 5, p.215
You take a man that is not very good, and that has a wife that is not
very good, and they cannot produce very good fruit, because the root
is not good. Do you understand that, brother Hunter? ["Yes, Sir."] Is
it as plain as cattle? You understand how to originate good stock, and
so do I. You go into England and into the New England States, and
every man that is raising stock is taking a course to take away the
ringed, and the streaked, and the little, dried-up fixings, and to
produce a more noble stock. It is upon the same principle that this
people should become regenerated.

vol. 5, p.215
Well, supposing that a man is a long way beneath his fellows, and is a
little, dried-up, knotty, inferior man; can that man be cultivated?
Yes, sir, he can; he can take a course in the principles of
righteousness, by treasuring up truth; and truth is light, and light
is life. Every word of truth that you gather into your bosoms is light
and life; and the most inferior man or woman can be regenerated
through the word of the living God; for that word will be in you
springing up unto everlasting life. That is the principle.

vol. 5, p.215
I throw out these few ideas to cause you to reflect. They may seem
eccentric, but they are true.

vol. 5, p.215
Sometimes I am at work at an apple tree, and sometimes at a cucumber
vine; but what is the difference? They have all roots, and they have
all cores, and they are all produced for a noble purpose.

vol. 5, p.215
The aristocracy—that is, those that are called the aristocracy, came
out of the old country: they came as far as Lehi came from Jerusalem,
and so on, till they came into this country; but still those that
remained behind considered themselves the aristocracy. But let me tell
you those men that came here were the true aristocracy; they were the
original stock; they were produced by the aristocracy, and they are
the original stock. Those men were choice characters, and God spoke to
them, and they came over here.

vol. 5, p.215
That is what they call aristocracy; that is as it is; though I never
studied grammar; but I have looked into the Bible and into the Book of
Mormon, and I have looked into the visions of eternity, and I know
that I am true, and that I am of the true vine. I am one of the sons
of those old veterans, and so is brother Brigham.

vol. 5, p.215
Will you let me talk just as I please to-day, ladies and gentlemen? 

vol. 5, p.215
[Voices: "Yes."]

vol. 5, p.215
Now, I will refer to brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Joseph
Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Bishop N. K. Whitney, and lots of other men.
Brother Joseph actually saw those [p.216] men in vision; he saw us in
a day when we were all together. We have been separated by marriage
and thrown apart; but he saw the day when we all came out of one
stock, and that was out of the aristocracy. Yes, we came directly down
through the Prophets, and not only us, but lots of others—the whole
Smith race. I could remember probably twenty or thirty that Joseph
mentioned came down through that channel.

vol. 5, p.216
My father's father and his brothers intermixed by marriage with the
Smiths, and uncle John Smith was baptised in Nauvoo for upwards of
twenty of my kindred. They mixed up in marriage, and in that way the
names became changed; for they were the old veterans.

vol. 5, p.216
There is another thing that brother Joseph said—viz., that we were
positively heirs of the Priesthood; for he had seen us as such in his
vision; yes, just as much so as my children are that have been born
since I received nay endowment. Our fathers were heirs to that
Priesthood, which was handed down from father to son, and we came
through that lineage.

vol. 5, p.216
Never mind, brethren and sisters, give me your attention a little
while. The gentleman that came to the stand with brother Brigham is
Thomas B. Marsh. I tell you this, that you need not be over-anxious.

vol. 5, p.216
Joseph told us these things, and I know them to be true. I know them
by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and so do a great many men. We are
and we were heirs when we were called and ordained to the Apostleship:
we were of that class; yes, we were the sons and daughters of those
that came down through that lineage.

vol. 5, p.216
We will yet save the Constitution of the United States. We will do it,
as the Lord liveth, and we will save this nation, everyone of them
that will be saved. Brother Brigham Young and brother Joseph Smith
stand at our head, and will do that thing, as the Lord liveth. Yes,
we, as their children, with our children to assist us, will do it. We
have got that power, and so have they, and will bear the kingdom off
victoriously to every nation that is upon God's footstool; and I know
it.

vol. 5, p.216
Let your hearts be comforted; for just as sure as that is true, so
sure will we have good peace for three years from last winter. And
why? Because we will make peace, and we will sustain it and support
it, and we will bear off the kingdom and establish it. We will bring
forth every one of those old veterans, and we will place them upon
this land that they fought for. Now, mark it; for we will do it, and
all the devils in hell cannot hinder it, if this people will only live
their religion and do as they are told; and you cannot do as you are
told without living your religion; and if you will do that, we never
shall be troubled.

vol. 5, p.216
I tell you, if we now live our religion every day, inasmuch as the
President of the United States, or the Senators or Legislators make
laws to afflict us, the thing they design to bring upon us shall come
upon themselves; and the affliction, the snares, the traps, and the
gins which they lay for us, they themselves shall suffer with and be
caught in. These words never shall fail.

vol. 5, p.216
Brethren and sisters, can you do as you are told? It is the easiest
thing in the world.

vol. 5, p.216
[President Brigham Young: "Tell them something to do."]

vol. 5, p.216
We want some thirty or forty yoke of oxen to go out and meet James A.
Little's company. Do you all say yes?

vol. 5, p.216
[The congregation responded, "Yes."]

vol. 5, p.216
To-morrow morning, at seven o'clock, we want forty yokel of cattle to
help in our trains. You, Bishops, see to that, will you?

vol. 5, p.217
[p.217] [" Yes, Sir."]

vol. 5, p.217
I tell you we have got enough for you to do: we will call on you for
another hitch by-and-by. Take care of your grain, and have all the
sisters help to take care of it, and do not let the children waste it;
for we do not want you to have enough scattered round to fat three
hogs on the crumbs and pieces of bread that are around your door
yards. Will you do that?

vol. 5, p.217
[President Young: "I guess they will."]

vol. 5, p.217
My discourse is rather eccentric. It is in detachments. [Voice: "That
is the way they are building the big ship in London."] That is right,
is it not, brother Carrington?

vol. 5, p.217
[" Yes, Sir."]

vol. 5, p.217
But let us be attached together, and then we are one; let us yield up
our will, and let it run into the tree or branch to which we are
connected. Yield up your wills.

vol. 5, p.217
I will compare you to a drop of water; inasmuch as you are not willing
to yield up, you cannot be one. Now, just let us all run into one
drop, and let all the branches be connected to that one tree; and then
will we not increase? We will.

vol. 5, p.217
Now, as to those enemies down here below, they are not going to
trouble us: the brethren will have to go and help them in. Some of
those baggage waggons are nearly to Bridger now, and they cannot get
back. Their teams are failing fast, and the supposition is, they will
have to hire our teams to help them in, but the soldiers will not
come. There is nobody to molest them, but their minds are not quiet:
they are scared almost to death; and the nearer those baggage waggons
get here, the more they are afraid.

vol. 5, p.217
As to the army, one-fifth of them have deserted, and the others are
making preparations to do so likewise. And as to old Harney, the old
squaw-killer, they have made him stop to aid the Governor of Kansas,
and, it is likely, to kick up jack. But we do not care anything about
it or them. Let us lay up our grain and prepare for the siege, for it
will come.

vol. 5, p.217
We commenced last Sunday to declare that we are a free people, and we
will be free from this day henceforth and for ever; and we never will
come under that yoke again. I tell you, as my soul lives, the bow-pin
has dropped out of old Bright's bow, and the bow has dropped out, and
the yoke is now on old Buck-anan's neck.

vol. 5, p.217
Did you ever see a yoke of cattle, and see one get loose, and the
off-ox swinging round the yoke and knocking everybody's shins? If you
have, that is just the way with old Buchanan: he cannot do anything,
but he will bruise somebody's shins, and they will be after him, and
he never shall rest again—no, never, until the time comes for us to
redeem him. And that is not all. All his coadjutors, his cabinet, and
all his governors—yes, I will say from here, or from Dan to
Jerusalem—they shall go over the dam: they never shall rest in peace
till the Lord Almighty has scourged them until they are fully
satisfied.

vol. 5, p.217
The Lord God is going to play with them, as he did with Pharaoh in
Egypt; and let me tell you, there will not be much fighting for us to
do, if we live our religion; but God will use them to accomplish his
own works, as the monkey did the cat, when he took the cat's paw to
pull the nut out of the fire. We will make monkeys of them, and we
will make them crawl on all-fours, and they never will rest.

vol. 5, p.217
They have afflicted us ever since the day that Joseph got the plates.
They have driven us five times and broken us up, and here we are. Have
they ever repented? No, they have not. Have they afflicted us as many
as seventy times seven? They have, speaking of it individually. Well,
they are not yet punished as they will [p.218] be; but they are in
punishment, are they not, Thomas? They are. Our government is God's
government on the earth, and he will see to the interests of his
kingdom. He will know the designs of our enemies, and he will know at
all times to take them when they do not think of it.

vol. 5, p.218
The President of this nation and his brethren in office, with all the
rulers and all, the priests, have sanctioned the destruction of this
people. Yes, the President and all his coadjutors have sanctioned our
death as much as if they had taken our lives, and they are a
bloodthirsty nation. They have killed our Prophets, Patriarchs and
Apostles, and they have slain, or caused to fall, thousands—yea,
thousands of our brethren and sisters, our wives, our fathers, and our
mothers; and they shall see the same fulfilled upon themselves, and it
shall be measured to them double for all they have dealt out unto us.

vol. 5, p.218
When we consider all things, are they not to be pitied? They are. If
you will live your religion, you never will have anything to do but to
live your religion and lay up stores and prepare for the scenerios
that are to come; for, as true as the Lord lives, the people of the
nations will come by hundreds and by thousands for food, and for
raiment, and for protection; and that time is right at our door.

vol. 5, p.218
This is one thing to rouse our feelings; for God saw that you would
not listen to the words of his servants, but you listen to your own
words, and you did not have confidence to lay up stores. There is not
one man to a hundred that ever did it; and that is proof sufficient
that you did not believe what was said. This is but a shadow of what
is coming: it is in embryo. You will see such a time as you never saw.
But bless you we won't be troubled. We will live as in the presence of
God and of angels. And will we ever have to go into the mountains? No,
never. If you will live your religion, you never will. 

vol. 5, p.218
[Voice: "That is true."]

vol. 5, p.218
Do just as brother Brigham tells. you; for he always tells you what is
right, and he generally tells you what I say is right; and if there is
anything wrong, he will correct it and give you. the truth. But do I
wish to teach you an error? No; I have not such a desire in my heart.

vol. 5, p.218
Had I a desire before I was a "Mormon" to propagate an error? No. Why,
bless you, I always was a "Mormon." My father and grandfather were
"Mormons;" and it is "Mormonism" right away back.

vol. 5, p.218
You know brother Brigham and I know our daddies; and if no other men
on the face of the earth do, you may feel perfectly satisfied that all
is right with us.

vol. 5, p.218
Now, let us be faithful, let us be humble, let us lay aside our pride
and, everything that is calculated to distress us or to distress our
wives; and then let wives lay aside everything that is calculated to
distress their husbands.

vol. 5, p.218
Wives, lay aside your vanity, and go to work and make everything that
we need, until the time comes when the Lord will consecrate the whole
earth unto this people. But that time is not now.

vol. 5, p.218
I do not do as many do; for many have looked at these troops that are
coming with a degree of fear. But what are they? [Voice: "Scarcely
worth picking up."]

vol. 5, p.218
I wish there would never a pin's worth of their property come in here,
because there are those who think more of a pound of tea than they do
of their religion.

vol. 5, p.218
[President B. Young: "There are not many of that class."]

vol. 5, p.218
But there are a few. If there were not, I should feel discouraged; I
should feel to give counsel for you to go to work and accumulate as
fast as [p.219] you could. Bless your souls! there is nothing but what
we could make here.

vol. 5, p.219
Need we send to the States for anything? No; we need not send even for
sugar; and we can make, almost everything under heaven, and all the
rest is in heaven; and they can be sent down here to us; for heaven
and earth are connected by this Priesthood as much as my body and
spirit are connected. All these things are in heaven—sugar, flocks and
herds, wool and silks, and everything else; and they are not only in
the heavens, but in the earth, just as much as that pitcher was taken
out of the earth. It was in the earth, and the same kinds are also in
the heavens.

vol. 5, p.219
We can make all these things ourselves; and all we have to do is to
organize the elements that God has created or that he organized; for
he did not create this earth any more than the potter created this
pitcher. The potter took the rough material and ground it, and put it
on his wheel, and made it just into the shape you see it now.

vol. 5, p.219
It was so with our God. The elements were already created, and he took
them and shaped them into an earth; and this is the way that all
things are organized.

vol. 5, p.219
Can we make silk? I have told you that if you go to work and raise
flax, you should have the privilege, in my lifetime, of reaping four
times as much flax as you ever reaped in the States; that is, you
shall have a fourfold crop.

vol. 5, p.219
Do I believe that such can be the case with sheep? I know it can; for
we have sheared more wool from the sheep here than we ever did in the
States, and have we not done the same by wheat?

vol. 5, p.219
I heard brother Brigham and brother Wells speaking of a person that
took from an acre and thirty rods ninety-six bushels and a half of
wheat, and there are others who have taken their fifty-seven bushels
an acre. Why, Thomas, you never saw such things in the States! God
bless you, Thomas! you shall become a sound man, and be a comfort to
us in our old age.

vol. 5, p.219
Well, I have no feelings in me against any one—not against brother
Marsh; but I feel to bless him with the blessings of God, with the
blessings of the earth, from the crown of your head to the soles of
your feet; for this is my calling, and I do not feel to curse. But as
for our enemies, they have cursed themselves with all the curses they
can bear; and the cursings that are on them they never can get off,
neither can those who sustain them. The Church and kingdom to which we
belong will become the kingdom of our God and his Christ, and brother
Brigham Young will become President of the United States.

vol. 5, p.219
[Voices responded, "Amen."]

vol. 5, p.219
And I tell you he will be something more; but we do not now want to
give him the name: but he is called and ordained to a far greater
station than that, and he is foreordained to take that station, and he
has got it; and I am Vice-President, and brother Wells is the
Secretary of the Interior—yes, and of all the armies in the flesh.

vol. 5, p.219
You don't believe that; but I can tell you it is one of the smallest
things that I can think of. You may think that I am joking; but I am
perfectly willing that brother Long should write every word of it; for
I can see it, just as naturally as I see the earth and the productions
thereof.

vol. 5, p.219
Let us live our religion, serve our God, be good and kind one to
another, cease all those contentions in your houses, and live in
peace.

vol. 5, p.219
Sisters, if you have got husbands, nourish them and cherish them; for
they have got an almighty work to do; they have enough to do to lay up
the comforts of life; and you wives are the women to nourish them that
[p.220] nourish you; for they feed you, and clothe you, and give you
every mouthful that you eat and drink, and they have brought you to
these valleys of the mountains, that you might see the sons of Jacob
become a mighty host. Good heavens! you may yet see the day when the
sons of Jacob will be ten times thicker than they now are; and I know
it will be so.

vol. 5, p.220
We will build up Jackson County, and I am going to tell them of it,
with your consent, brother Brigham; and if you do not find any fault
with it, I do not know that anybody else has a right to.

vol. 5, p.220
Sisters, love your husbands, and encourage them to listen to their
file leaders and to their officers pertaining to this Church; for this
is their calling, and not to sit down and cry, snuffle, and find fault
with their leaders and the other authorities in the Church; for there
is where so many go over the dam.

vol. 5, p.220
Brother Thomas has learned that this won't do. He has said he got mad
with brother Joseph, and then he got mad with brother Brigham and me,
because we did not get mad also, like him. The truth was, we were so
busy, we had no time to get mad. It was nothing to us what brother
Joseph did, and it is just so with you: it is none of your business
what brother Brigham does, though you all know that he would not do
anything wrong. Why, bless you, brother Brigham would die ten thousand
deaths rather than walk one hair to the right or to the left from that
which is right.

vol. 5, p.220
Well, we are not jealous of you. Do your duty, and you will make every
house and every place a palace, and your homes will be as the gate of
heaven, and a source of joy to your husbands. Of course you must have
a heaven of that which you have made.

vol. 5, p.220
Why, I would go to work and make an altar and a heaven, and I never
would take any other course than that which is honorable before God;
and how can you live your religion without this?

vol. 5, p.220
You poor, miserable, disaffected beings, if there are any such here,
learn to do right.

vol. 5, p.220
Sisters, sustain and comfort your husbands; for they have got plenty
to do in these last days. After we have laid up stores and got seven
years' provisions, there will be seven years for us to be on guard,
but never can our enemies touch us if we do right.

vol. 5, p.220
We are up in the tops of the mountains, and our Governor is here. What
do you say to that? And his God is here, and his associates are
listening.

vol. 5, p.220
Well, if it is time for the Government of the United States to cut the
thread, we are perfectly competent to take care of ourselves. We would
not give a dime for this people to be one more in number than they
are. There are enough of us; for the Lord is going to manifest his
power and to play with our enemies as he did with Pharaoh and all his
host. Now, mark it, and see if it does not come so, or something
similar. All these things are in this dispensation, and why? Because
this is the fulness of times: it is the time fixed for all to make a
sacrifice before God.

vol. 5, p.220
God bless you, and may you receive the blessings of brother Brigham,
brother Heber, brother Daniel, the Twelve Apostles, and the blessings
of the Patriarchs of the living God.

vol. 5, p.220
Peace be unto this people. Peace be in these valleys and upon the
mountains around us! and peace be upon everything that we possess! But
peace shall not rest upon those who will grumble and find fault with
the servants of God. No; and he or she that will do it shall be as a
barren tree.

vol. 5, p.220
God bless you and make your minds fruitful, and fill you with
revelation, with dreams, and with the visions of eternity, which is my
prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. [p.221]

George A. Smith, September 13, 1857

Report of a Visit to the Southern Country

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 13, 1857.

vol. 5, p.221
The last time, I believe, brethren and sisters, that I had the
privilege of speaking from this stand, was the day previous to my
starting for the southern country. We were then expecting a visit from
a very formidable force, directly from the State of Missouri. It waked
up in my mind the feelings that I used to have—say from ten to twenty
years ago, in hearing the constant annoyance of an approaching enemy.
And according to the report which has been published of my remarks, I
talked rather strong. But one thing is evident—if I did not talk
strong, it was not because I did not feel strong on the occasion.

vol. 5, p.221
I left the next morning and wended my way southward. I visited the
different settlements hurriedly, until I reached Parowan, in the
county of Iron, the place of the first settlement in the southern part
of the Territory. When I arrived there, it appeared that some rumour
or spirit of surprise had reached them; for there were active
operations going on, seemingly preparing for something that was near
at hand. As I drove in at the gate, I beheld the military on the
square exercising, and was immediately surrounded by the "Iron
Battalion," which seemed to have held its own very well since it was
organized in that place.

vol. 5, p.221
They had assembled together under the impression that their country
was about to be invaded by an army from the United States, and that it
was necessary to make preparation by examining each other's arms, and
to make everything ready by preparing to strike in any direction and
march to such places as might be necessary in the defence of their
homes.

vol. 5, p.221
As it will be well recollected, I was the President of the company
that first made the settlement there. I was received with every
feeling of enthusiasm, and I never found them in better spirits. They
were willing any moment to touch fire to their homes, and hide
themselves in the mountains, and to defend their country to the very
last extremity.

vol. 5, p.221
Now, there had been no such preaching as that when I went away; but
the Spirit seemed to burn in my bones to visit all these settlements
in that southern region. Colonel Dame was about organizing the
military of that district under the law of last winter. As the Colonel
was going along to organize the military, I got into the carriage and
went on a mission of peace, to preach to the people. When I got to
Cedar, I found the Battalions on parade, and the Colonel talked to
them and completed the new organization.

vol. 5, p.221
On the following day, I addressed the Saints at their meeting-house. I
never had greater liberty of speech to proclaim to the people my
feelings and views; and in spite of all I could do, I found myself
preaching a military discourse; and I told them, in case of invasion,
it might be necessary to set fire to our property, and hide in the
mountains, and leave our enemies to do the best they could. It seemed
to be hailed with the same enthusiasm, [p.222] that it was at Parowan.
That was the same Sabbath that brother Young was preaching the same
kind of doctrine; and I am perfectly satisfied that all the districts
in the southern country would have given him their unanimous vote.

vol. 5, p.222
I then went to Harmony. Brother Dame preached to the military, and I
to the civil powers; and I must say that my discourse partook of the
military more than the religious. But it seemed that I was perfectly
running over with it, and hence I had to say something about it.

vol. 5, p.222
I then went over a lovely country, and passed over "Peter's Leap," and
some other such lovely places. It is rather rough; but I could not but
admire its extreme beauty; and I think, if the Lord had got up all the
rough, rocky, and the broken fragments of the earth in one, he might
have dropped it down there.

vol. 5, p.222
When I reached the cotton country, I had previously learned that they
were failing in their attempts to raise cotton, and that the waters of
the Rio Virgin were poisoning the cotton. But I learned that the seed
had not come up: but what had come up, perhaps one-third of it was
exceedingly fine. The difficulty was, that their cotton was planted
very late, and the sun heated the sand; for the soil is nothing but
the red sand of Sahara. They planted in the sand, as there was nowhere
else to plant it, and the sun was scorching it; but they found that
all that was necessary was to keep the sand wet; and when they poured
on the water, the cotton grew. And old cotton-growers told me that
they had never seen a better prospect for cotton, for the time it had
been planted, in the world; and this is the condition of things in
that country, and the prospect is, that they will have pretty good
cotton and about the third of a crop, and the next year they will be
able to raise lots of cotton; for they will be there early enough, and
have seed that can be depended upon.

vol. 5, p.222
The corn in Tutse-gabbot's field, which was planted early, was
eighteen feet high. If the sand was not wet, it would all blow away.
The country seemed very hot to me; otherwise, I enjoyed the visit very
well. But the brethren insisted that it was a very cool spell while I
was there.

vol. 5, p.222
I preached to them in Washington City, and I thank the Lord for the
desert holes that we live in, and for all the land that can be
watered,—in all, amounting to but a few hundred acres. There are but a
few rods wide that can be watered in a place; but I tell you, when the
day comes that the Saints need these hills to be covered with
vegetation, they have only to exercise faith, and God will turn them
into fruitful fields.

vol. 5, p.222
We started from Washington in the night, and the brethren told me, if
I had seen the roads, I would not travel them. But I told them I did
not want to see the roads; for I was determined to go ahead.

vol. 5, p.222
We travelled ten miles, and camped by a small spring, called "Allen's
Spring." Some Indians took our horses. We told them we were afraid
they would get into some corn-fields. They told us they would put them
where they would get plenty to eat and do no mischief. The Indians
brought our horses early in the morning, and we arrived at "Jacob's
Wikeup," as the Indians call Fort Clara, about nine o'clock, and found
their crops suffering for want of water. I saw beautiful indigo,
cotton, and corn; and the stalks of the corn were perfectly dry, while
the ears were green and fit to boil.

vol. 5, p.222
We also had a glorious interview in this, as in other places, with the
natives of the desert. We remained there through the heat of the day.
and then proceeded down "Jacob's Twist," (a magnificent kanyon,) to
[p.223] where the California road joins the Santa Clara, and then
followed up the Santa Clara in the dark of the night—a river upon
whose banks many scenes of desperation have been enacted.

vol. 5, p.223
About ten o'clock at night, we were surrounded by some hundreds of the
natives that were anxious we should stop over night. They took care of
our horses, built us camp-fires, and roasted us corn, and made us as
comfortable as they could; and I never ate better corn or better
melons in my life. We stopped over night with them, and not one of
them asked me for a thing; which is remarkable, as the Indians are
intolerable beggars. But I was treated as well as if I had been among
the Saints, and I never enjoyed a treat better.
.

vol. 5, p.223
We pursued our visit to the Mountain Meadows, and there were kindly
treated by the families of the missionaries, who lived at this place
on account of the abundant grass for their stock. I then went to
Penter, and there addressed a houseful of people in the evening, and
then proceeded to Cedar the next day. They had heard they were going
to have an army of 600 dragoons come down from the East on to the
town. The Major seemed very sanguine about the matter. I asked him, if
this rumour should prove true, if he was not going to wait for
instructions. He replied, There was no time to wait for any
instruction; and he was going to take his battalion and use them up
before they could get down through the kanyons; for, said he, if they
are coming here, they are coming for no good.

vol. 5, p.223
I admired his grit, but I thought he would not have the privilege of
using them up, for want of an opportunity. I also visited the Saints
at Paragoonah and preached to them, and in every place felt the same
spirit. I then came over to Beaver which is a new settlement; and the
day previous, an Indian came in and told them there were shod horses'
tracks at a spring over the big mountains about twenty miles to the
east.

vol. 5, p.223
Major Farnsworth, supposing that there was a body of men in the
neighbourhood, and that these were the tracks of the scouts, they
immediately went over the mountains and traced the horses' tracks,
until they ascertained they came from Parowan. I do not know whether
the inhabitants of Parowan intended to whip a regiment of dragoons, or
not; but it is certain they are wide awake, and are not going to be
taken by surprise. There was only one thing that I dreaded, and that
was a spirit in the breasts of some to wish that their enemies might
come and give them a chance to fight and take vengeance for the
cruelties that heel, been inflicted upon us in the States. They did
feel that they hated to owe a debt and not be able to pay it, and they
felt like an bid man that lives in Provo, brother Jameson, who has
carried a few ounces of lead in his body ever since the Haun's Mill
massacre in Missouri; and he wants to pay it back with usury; and he
undertook to preach at Provo, and prayed that God would send them
along; for he wanted to have a chance at them.

vol. 5, p.223
Now, I never felt so; but I do not know but it is on account of my
extreme timidity; for I would a great deal rather the Lord would fight
the battles than me; and I feel to pray that he will punish them with
that hell which is to want to and can't; and it is my prayer and wish
all the time that this may be their doom. This is what I want to
inculcate all the time; and at the same time, if the Lord brings us in
collision with them, and it is his will, let us take hold—not in the
spirit of revenge or anger, but simply to avenge God of his enemies
and to protect our homes [p.224] and fire-sides. But I am perfectly
aware that all the settlements I visited in the south, Fillmore
included, one single sentence is enough to put every man in motion. In
fact, a word is enough to set in motion every man, or set a torch to
every building, where the safety of this people is jeopardized.

vol. 5, p.224
I have understood that there are half-a-dozen fellows in Provo that
have but one wife each, and that they are not for fighting, because
they say this trouble has come on account of plurality. Well, I pity
them, because I know the women will leave them, and that it would not
be but a few days before there would be so many brokenhearted,
disconsolate men; for the women among the Latter-day Saints will not
live with such men.

vol. 5, p.224
I have rejoiced and enjoyed myself on this visit to the south as much
as at any time; for I perceive a hearty willingness to do and
sacrifice anything that was required for the preservation of Zion: and
whenever I got up to preach, I was full, and it seemed as if I could
not stop; and before I got through, I would be tired.

vol. 5, p.224
I will say to the brethren and sisters, that I feel to return to my
heavenly Father my thanks that he has thus far frustrated the designs
of our enemies: and I know that he has got the power to wield and
frustrate them at his will; and I know, if we are humble and united,
and moved upon by the right Spirit, God will fight our battles. And if
any of us are called to lay down our lives in the defence of our
religion, God will save us in celestial glory, and he will preserve
us, though all the world be against us.

vol. 5, p.224
[President B. Young: "That is true."]

vol. 5, p.224
These are my feelings, and this is my faith. No matter what day or
hour we are called to go into the presence of our Father in heaven;
for every man and woman that has not got a religion that is worth more
than their mortal lives, and unless we are willing to sacrifice all
that pertains to these temporal feelings, we are not worthy of
salvation.

vol. 5, p.224
Why, there was an honest Dutchman came to me this morning, and he had
just heard that the President had concluded to let the soldiers in
here. His heart had sunk within him at the thought, and "Oh!" says he,
"can I live to see those troops come in here?" He can live through a
great many things besides that. God will protect his people, and he
will fight their battles; and if he wants a little help, I presume
that he will find us ready.

vol. 5, p.224
I have preached to the brethren to live their religion, and "trust in
God and keep their powder dry." I borrowed it from Cromwell. Be ready
to defend Israel; and when we have done all we can, the Lord will do
the balance. Why, say the world, it is presumption for you to talk so.
Uncle Sam has twenty-five millions of people, and 100,000,000 of
surplus money in the treasury, and thousands of men in the country
that are aching to be killed. We used to talk to them in this way when
we lived down in their midst; and then, when it came to the sticking
point, we would bow to them; and what did we get by it? Brother Taylor
told you that thousands had suffered in consequence.

vol. 5, p.224
I tell you, we have suffered more waste of life and property than we
will to face the music; and let them do their cursedest, and then
every honest Dutchman and every man will get all he wants; and many of
us Yankees will get many of our dirty tricks purged and pruned out of
us: and our picayunary will vanish; it will all fail; for everything
that we have in our hearts that is not right will be purged out; for
our  interest will be centred in the kingdom of God. 

vol. 5, p.224
When I was hack in Washington [p.225] last season, I had a long
conversation with Senator Douglas; and he is a kind of personification
of modern democracy—very thick, but not very long. He asked a great
many questions about our Temple, and I gave him a description of the
foundation, and he asked me if I expected we would ever be able to
accomplish it? The manner he communicated it was to show that he had
his eye upon another thing than that which he alluded to; but I
realised then just as well as I did when I read his proposition to
"cut out the loathsome ulcer." I said to him, "O Judge, we are not a
little handful, as we were in Nauvoo: we can now do anything we have a
mind to."

vol. 5, p.225
Some of our national statesmen profess to be Christians and
wonderfully pious. Mr. Morill, of Vermont, said to me, "Your domestic
relations are so at variance with sacred books!" Why, said I, the
Father of the faithful, our father Abraham, seemed to have the same
view of the matter that we do. "Oh," says he, "Abraham was guilty of a
great many eccentric tricks." "Eccentric as he might be," I replied,
"it is in his bosom that all Christians expect to rest; and we do not
expect that he is going to kick his wives out to please anybody."

vol. 5, p.225
Many people do not know why it is that they feel so enraged against
us. I found in talking with hundreds and thousands of persons, in the
course of our travels, that there was a deep-rooted spirit of hatred;
and in talking of this I found that my reasons were superior to
theirs; and they felt it and realized it, and my conversation seemed
to suit and carry a good influence.

vol. 5, p.225
Our Elders have preached the Gospel freely throughout the world, and
they have tarred and feathered them and put them to death. If they
could have defeated them by arguments, all well enough: but no,—these
weapons proved ineffectual, and they tried mobs and violence; and now
they array the armies of the United States against us, that under
their wings they may send missionaries among us to convert our souls.
Poor cursed slinks! Do not they know that we were raised among them in
the very hot-bed of sectarian bigotry, and that we know all that the
priests know about their religion, and ten thousand times more?
[p.226]

Brigham Young, September 13, 1857

The United States' Administration and Utah Army

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, September 13, 1857.

vol. 5, p.226
Before the meeting closes, I want to make a few remarks. My feelings
are so complicated that I want to say a few words, and I do not want
to; I want to talk; and I do not want to talk. You recollect hearing
one of the Elders state upon the stand, not long since, that he came
into the Church mad, and had been mad ever since. And I am too angry
this morning to preach.

vol. 5, p.226
I have been in this kingdom a good while—twenty-five years and
upwards, and I have been driven from place to place; my brethren have
been driven, my sisters have been driven; we have been scattered and
peeled, and every time without any provocation upon our part, only
that we were united, obedient to the laws of the land, and striving to
worship God. Mobs repeatedly gathered against this people, but they
never had any power to prevail until Governors issued their orders and
called out a force under the letter of the law, but breaking the
spirit, to hold the "Mormons" still while infernal scamps cut their
throats. I have had all that before me through the night past, and it
makes me too angry to preach. Also to see that we are in a Government
whose administrators are always trying to injure us, while we are
constantly at the defiance of all hell to prove any just grounds for
their hostility against us; and yet they are organizing their forces
to come here, and protect infernal scamps who are anxious to come and
kill whom they please, destroy whom they please, and finally
exterminate the "Mormons."

vol. 5, p.226
I did not arrive till late; and brother Taylor was then preaching upon
this subject, and I was glad of it. He has taught you good principles.
This people are free; they are not in bondage to any government on
God's footstool. We hare transgressed no law, and we have no occasion
to do so, neither do we intend to; but as for any nation's coming to
destroy this people, God Almighty being my helper, they cannot come
here. [The congregation responded by a loud Amen.] That is my feeling
upon that point.

vol. 5, p.226
On the 24th of July last, a number of us went to Big Cottonwood
Kanyon, to pass the anniversary of our arrival into this Valley. Ten
years ago the 24th of July last, a few of the Elders arrived here, and
began to plough and to plant seeds, to raise food to sustain
themselves. Whilst speaking to the brethren on that day, I said,
inadvertently. If the people of the United States will let us alone
for ten years, we will ask no odds of them; and ten years from that
very day, we had a message by brothers Smoot, Stoddard, and Rockwell,
that the Government had stopped the mail, and that they had ordered
2,500 troops to come here and hold the "Mormons" still, while priests,
politicians, speculators, whore-mongers, and every mean, filthy
character that could be raked up should come here and kill off the
"Mormons." I did not think about what I had said ten years ago, till I
[p.227] heard that the President of the United States had so unjustly
ordered troops here; and then I said, when my former expression came
to my mind, In the name of Israel's God, we ask no odds of them.

vol. 5, p.227
I do not often get angry; but when I do, I am righteously angry; and
the bosom of the Almighty burns with anger towards those scoundrels;
and they shall be consumed, in the name of Israel's God. We have borne
enough of their oppression and hellish abuse, and we will not bear any
more of it; for there is no just law requiring further forbearance on
our part. And I am not going to have troops here to protect the
priests and a hellish rabble in efforts to drive us from the land we
possess; for the Lord does not want us to be driven, and has said, "If
you will assert your rights, and keep my commandments, you shall never
again be brought into bondage by your enemies."

vol. 5, p.227
The officer in command of the United States' army, on its way to Utah,
detailed one of his staff, Captain Van Vliet, who is now on the stand,
to come here and learn whether he could procure the necessary supplies
for the army. Many of you are already aware of this, and some of you
have been previously acquainted with the Captain. Captain Van Vliet
visited us in Winter Quarters (now Florence); and, if I remember
correctly, he was then officiating as Assistant-Quartermaster. He is
again in our midst in the capacity of Assistant-Quartermaster. From
the day of his visit to Winter Quarters, many of this people have
become personally acquainted with him, both through casual intercourse
with and working for him. He has invariably treated them kindly, as he
would a Baptist, a Methodist, or any other person; for that is his
character. He has always been found to be free and frank, and to be a
man that wishes to do right; and no doubt he would deal out justice to
all, if he had the power. Many of you have laboured for him, and found
him to be a kind, good man; and I understand that he has much
influence in the army, through his kind treatment to the soldiers. He
treats them as human beings, while them are those who treat them worse
than brute beasts.

vol. 5, p.227
Well, the enquiry is, "What is the news? What is the conclusion?" It
is this—We have to trust in God. I am not in the least concerned as to
the result, if we put our trust in God. The administrators of our
Government have issued orders for marching troops and expending much
treasure, and all predicated upon falsehoods, while every honourable
man would have first made an economical and peaceful enquiry into the
circumstances. And even now, every honourable man would use all his
influence to avert the present unjust and entirely groundless.
movement against; us; but Captains, Majors, Colonels, and other
subordinate officers have not the power. Wicked persons, solely for
the accomplishment of their unhallowed schemes, have had the power to
array the Government against us, through their lying and
misrepresentation; but citizens, unorganized into cliques and parties,
no matter how good their intentions and wishes, have not the power to
avert the blow when the Administration of our Government; is arrayed
against us, unless they will also unite against the few well-organized
scoundrels who are plundering our treasury and fast urging our country
to dissolution. We have got to protect ourselves by the strength of
our God. Do not be concerned in the least with regard to all the
affairs that are before you; for we shall live and grow finely, as
said a certain woman, who weighed but two pounds when an infant, and
was put in a quart cup. Upon being asked whether [p.228] she lived, "O
yes," she said, "I lived and grew finely." It will also be said of the
Latter-day Saints, "They lived and grew finely."

vol. 5, p.228
You are taught from Sabbath to Sabbath what to do; and if you do that,
all will be well. There is only one thing to fear, and that is, that
you will not be faithful to the kingdom of God. We have that kingdom;
and it will spread its balmy wings over thousands and millions who
have not yet heard the Gospel, and they will find Israel to be "the
head, and not the tail."

vol. 5, p.228
What is the cause of the hostile feeling against this people? Brother
Taylor has been telling you. God has restored the Gospel of salvation
to earth again. That unites the hearts of the people, brings together
those of different nations, notwithstanding their various traditions
and their different manners and customs, and makes them of. One heart
and of one mind. And what follows? All hell is moved against them,
because the kingdoms of this world—the kingdoms of darkness—are in
danger. All hell is moved against this people, because we are of one
heart and of one mind.

vol. 5, p.228
The faith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is calculated to unite the
people in one, and to bring them back to the unity and faith of those
who obeyed the Gospel anciently, and finally to bring them back to
glory. Then do you wonder that all the sects of the day are enraged
against us? I have told you that I do not wonder; neither do I wonder
that governors and rulers are enraged at our success. Are there any
Democrats, any Whigs, any Methodists, any Baptists, or anything like
the parties and sects of the day among us? No. What is there? Those
who want to do the will of their Father in heaven; and when they can
know his will, their faith is one, their hope is one, and they are one
in all things.

vol. 5, p.228
It is not alone the United States that is in fear because of the union
that exists with this people, but all Europe trembles this day in
consequence of the faith there is here. Some may think that it is not
so; but I know more about the United States than men do who come here
direct from Washington. I read their history and their feelings every
day. You heed not think that the world are not opposed to us—you need
not think that politicians are not opposed to us, for they are.

vol. 5, p.228
We have sent a delegate to Congress during the past six years, and has
there ever been an opposing vote in his election? No. The people only
want to know who the right man is, and then they will support him. Dr.
Bernhisel is our delegate; and has it cost him thousands of dollars to
gain his election ? No; it has not cost him a single dollar; no, not
so much as a red cent. We think that he is the most suitable man for
us to send to Washington, and we say, "Let us send him," and he is
unanimously elected. And if we had a thousand officers to elect—if we
had to elect the President of the United States, you would never see a
dissenting vote.

vol. 5, p.228
Parties in our Government have no better idea than to think the
republic stands all the firmer upon opposition; but I say that it is
not so. A republican Government consists in letting the people rule by
their united voice, without a dissension,—in learning what is for the
best, and unitedly doing it. That is true republicanism.

vol. 5, p.228
Do not be angry. I will permit you to be as angry as I am. Do not get
so angry that you cannot pray: do not allow yourselves to become so
angry that you cannot feed an enemy —even your worst enemy, if an
opportunity should present itself. There is a wicked anger, and there
is a [p.229] righteous anger. The Lord does not suffer wicked anger to
be in his heart; but there is anger in his bosom, and he will hold a
controversy with the nations, and will sift them, and no power can
stay his hand.

vol. 5, p.229
The Government of our country will go by the board through its own
corruptions, and no power can save it. If we can avert the blow for
another season, it is probable that our enemies will have enough to
attend to at home, without worrying the Latter-day Saints. Have faith,
and all will be well with us. I would like this people to have faith
enough to turn away their enemies. I have prayed fervently about this
matter; for it has been said that the troops would come: but I have
said that, if my faith will prevent it, they shall not come. If God
will turn them whithersoever he will, so that they do not come here, I
shall be perfectly satisfied. But another man steps up, and says to
the one that prays for our enemies to be turned away, "Brother, you
are a coward; damn them, let them come, for I want fight to them."
Herein you perceive a conflict in our faith; and that should not be.
If there was a perfect union of our faith, our enemies could never
cross the Rocky Mountains; or, if they undertook to come some other
way, they never could cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains, nor the Basin
Rim, on our north, nor the deserts at the south. But, says one, "I
want to fight." Do all such persons know that they are not right? If
they will examine their hearts, they will find a wicked anger and a
malice there; and they cannot get into the kingdom of God with those
feelings.

vol. 5, p.229
Learn to control yourselves; learn to be in the hands of God as clay
in the hands of the potter; and if he will turn our enemies away,
praised be his name. But if it should become a duty to take the sword,
let us do it manfully and in the strength of Israel's God. Then one
will chase a thousand, and two will put ten thousand to flight." The
day will be in which a man will go out and say to an army of a hundred
thousand men, "Do thus, and so, or we are upon you;" and they will
hear the rumbling of chariots and the rushing of troops, as in the
days of Elijah.

vol. 5, p.229
You recollect of a Prophet's telling what bread and meal should be
sold for in a straitened city the following day. The enemy thought
that there were millions of the Israelites after them, for they heard
the rolling of chariot-wheels, the clashing of armour, and the
trampling of horses, and they fled. The Prophet had told the king that
he would be trodden to death in the gate, and he was; and a measure of
meal was sold in the city for a penny, in fulfilment of the word of
the Lord. The doctrines of salvation are the same now as they were in
the days of Adam, or Elijah, or Jesus, when he was upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.229
While brother Taylor was speaking of the sectarian world, it occurred
to my mind that the wicked do not know any more than the dumb brutes,
comparatively speaking; but it is our business to hunt up and gather
out all the honest portion of the nations of the earth, and give them
salvation. We may very properly say that the sectarian world do not
know anything correctly, so far as pertains to salvation. Ask them
where heaven is?—where they are going to when they die? —where
Paradise is?—and there is not a priest in the world that can answer
your questions. Ask them what kind of a being our Heavenly Father is,
and they cannot tell you so much as Balaam's ass told him. They are
more ignorant than children.

vol. 5, p.229
We have the knowledge of those things; and we have the greatest reason
to be thankful of any people upon the face of the earth. If others
[p.230] ought to do right, we more. Be full of love and compassion to
your fellow-beings, full of kindness, such as human beings can
possess, for that is our business. The only business that we have on
hand is to build up the kingdom of God and prepare the way of the Son
of Man.

vol. 5, p.230
If you do your duty in this respect, you need not be afraid of mobs,
nor of forces sent out in violation of the very genius of our free
institutions, holding you till mobs kill you. Mobs? Yes; for where is
there the least particle of authority, either in our Constitution or
laws, for sending troops here, or even for appointing civil officers
contrary to the voluntary consent of the governed? We came here
without any help from our enemies, and we intend to stay as long as we
please.

vol. 5, p.230
They say that their army is legal, and I say that such a statement is
as false as hell, and that they are as rotten as an old pumpkin that
has been frozen seven times and then melted in a harvest sun. Come on
with your thousands of illegally-ordered troops, and I will promise
you, in the name of Israel's God, that you shall melt away as the snow
before a July sun.

vol. 5, p.230
There is one thing that I want, for the satisfaction of Captain Van
Vliet. One of our old senators, Stephen A. Douglas, recently said
before his constituents in Illinois, that nine-tenths of our people
were aliens. We have a larger proportion of foreigners in this city
than in any other part of the Territory, and there are a good many
here to-day who have just come in from the Plains. I want those who
are native born and naturalized American citizens to raise their right
hands. [Over two-thirds of the congregation raised their hands.] You
who have not yet received your naturalization papers will please
manifest it in the same way. [Less than a third of the congregation
raised their hands.] Now, Captain, you can see for yourself that over
two-thirds of this congregation are either native born or naturalized
American citizens.

vol. 5, p.230
I have called this vote that Captain Van Vliet may be able to do as he
always does—speak the truth boldly, and tell them of it next winter in
Washington; and that he can, if he sees Senator Douglas in Washington,
tell him that his statement was false, for he has seen for himself.

vol. 5, p.230
If it were any use, I would ask whether there is ONE person in this
congregation who wants to go to the United States; but I know that I
should not find any. But I will pledge myself that if there is a man,
woman, or child that wants to go back to the States, if they will pay
their debts, and not steal anything, they can go; and if they are poor
and honest, we will help them to go. That has been my well-known
position all the time.

vol. 5, p.230
Brother Taylor has said that he bantered the United States for a
trade, and promised them that if they would send all to Utah that
wanted to come, we would send all to the States that wanted to go. We
would get our thousands to their one, if they would make that trade.
But no—they must keep on lying, howling, and trying to oppress and
kill the innocent.

vol. 5, p.230
When some went away last spring, I told them to go in peace, and they
did so. What are they doing now? Many of them are struggling to get
back, and the rest are wishing that they had never left here. It is a
kind of dear business to apostatize every year. I would rather stick
to the old ship Zion.

vol. 5, p.230
When I was written to in Nauvoo by the President of the United States,
through another person, enquiring, "Where are you going, Mr. Young?" I
replied that I did not know where we should land. We  had men in
[p.231] England trying to negotiate for Vancouver's Island, and we
sent a shipload of Saints round Cape Horn to California. Men in
authority asked, "Where are you going to?" "We may go to California,
or to Vancouver's Island." When the Pioneer company reached Green
River, we met Samuel Brannan and a few others from California, and
they wanted us to go there. I remarked, "Let us go to California, and
we cannot stay there over five years; but let us stay in the
mountains, and we can raise our own potatoes, and eat them; and I
calculate to stay here." We are still on the backbone of the animal,
where the bone and the sinew are, and we intend to stay here, and all
hell cannot help themselves.

vol. 5, p.231
We are not to be persecuted as we have been. We can say, "Come as a
mob, and we can sweeten you up right suddenly." They never did
anything against Joseph till they had ostensibly legalized a mob; and
I shall treat every army and every armed company that attempts to come
here as a mob. [The congregation responded, "Amen."] You might as well
tell me that you can make hell into a powder-house as to tell me that
you could let an army in here and have peace; and I intend to tell
them and show them this, if they do not keep away. By taking this
course, you will find that every man and woman feels happy, and they
say, "All is right, all is well;" and I say that our enemies shall not
slip the bow on "Old Bright's neck" again.

vol. 5, p.231
God bless you. Amen.

Brigham Young, September 13, 1857

Movements of the Saints' Enemies—The Crisis

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 13, 1857.

vol. 5, p.231
I would like very well to hear some of the rest of the brethren speak,
if I had entirely got over being angry and had patience to sit and
hear. I think, however, that I shall be able to calm and control my
feelings, though I do not expect to become entirely settled until the
affairs around me are settled.

vol. 5, p.231
It is a pretty bold stand for this people to take, to say that they
will not be controlled by the corrupt administrators of our General
Government. We will be controlled by them, if they will be controlled
by the Constitution and laws; but they will not. Many of them do not
care any more about the Constitution and the laws that they make than
they do about the laws of another nation, That class trample the
rights of the people under their feet, while there are also many who
would like to honour them. All we have ever asked for is our
constitutional rights. We wish the laws of our Government honoured,
and we have ever honoured them; but they are trampled under foot by
administrators.

vol. 5, p.231
There cannot be a more damnable, dastardly order issued than was
issued by the Administration to this people while they were in an
Indian country, in 1846. Before we left Nauvoo, not [p.232] less than
two United States' senators came to receive a pledge from us that we
would leave the United States; and then, while we were doing our best
to leave their borders, the poor, low, degraded curses sent a
requisition for five hundred of our men to go and fight their battles!
That was President Polk; and he is now weltering in hell with old
Zachary Taylor, where the present administrators will seen be, if they
do not repent.

vol. 5, p.232
Liars have reported that this people have committed treason; and upon
their lies, the President has ordered out troops to aid in offering
this Territory: and if those officers are like many who have
previously been sent here, (and we have reason to believe that they
are, or they would not come when they know they are not wanted,) they
are poor, miserable blacklegs, broken-down political hacks, robbers,
and whoremongers—men that are not fit for civilized society; so they
must dragoon them upon us for officers. I feel that I won't bear such
cursed treatment, and that is enough to say; for we are just as free
as the mountain air.

vol. 5, p.232
I do not lift my voice against the great and glorious Government
guaranteed to every citizen by our Constitution, but against those
corrupt administrators who trample the Constitution and just laws
under their feet. They care no more about them than they do about the
Government of France; but they walk them under their feet with
impunity. And the most of the characters they have sent here as
officers cared no more about the laws of our country and of this
Territory than they did about the laws of China, but walked them under
their feet with all the recklessness of despots.

vol. 5, p.232
I do not want to be angry, nor to have my feelings wrought up; but I
cannot keep quiet under the continued outrageous tyranny of the
wicked.

vol. 5, p.232
I have said that if the brethren will have faith, the Lord will fight
our battles, and we will have the privilege of living here in peace. I
have counted the cost to this people of a collision with our enemies;
but I cannot begin to count the cost it will be to them.

vol. 5, p.232
I have told you that if this people will live their religion, all will
be well; and I have told you that if there is any man or woman that is
not willing to destroy anything and everything of their property that
would be of use to an enemy, if left, I wanted them to go out of the
Territory; and I again say so to-day; for when the time comes to burn
and lay waste our improvements, if any man undertakes to shield his,
he will be sheared down; for "judgment will be laid to the line and
righteousness to the plummet." Now the faint-hearted can go in peace;
but should that time come, they must not interfere. Before I will
suffer what I have in times gone by, there shall not be one building,
nor one foot of lumber, nor a stick, nor a tree, nor a particle of
grass and hay, that will burn, left in reach of our enemies. I am
sworn, if driven to extremity, to utterly lay waste, in the name of
Israel's God.

vol. 5, p.232
I know that the Saints, both the brethren and sisters, pray that our
enemies may not come here; for their entrance is designed by our
Government to be the prelude to the introduction of abominations and
death. And you cannot talk to a brother, or even to a sister, but that
she will tell you that, if she consents in her feelings to have our
enemies come here, she feels uncomfortable, and her heart sinks within
her. If I consent in my feelings to have them come here, my heart
sinks within too, my buoyant spirits are gone, and I have no comfort;
for I know the hellish designs concealed under the present  movement.
But we are free, and every [p.233] man says, "Stand by the kingdom."
When this is the case, every man is like a troop; they are like lions.

vol. 5, p.233
Admit of corrupt administrators sending troops here, and what would he
the result? All hell would follow after. I naturally dislike to have
any trouble, and would not, were I not obliged to; but we are obliged
to defend ourselves against the persecution of our oppressors, or have
our constitutional rights rent from us, and have ourselves destroyed.
We must either suffer that, or stand up and maintain the kingdom of
God on the earth.

vol. 5, p.233
We have known all the time that the kingdoms of darkness were opposed
to the kingdom of God—that the powers of earth and hell were combined
against it. Christ and Baal cannot make friends with each other: you
cannot mix oil and water, righteousness and wickedness. This is the
kingdom of God; all others are of Devil. They never can be united in
this world, nor in any other: there is no possibility of the two
kingdoms becoming one. Those who believe and obey the Gospel of the
Son of God, and forsake all for its interests, belong to the kingdom
of God, and all the rest belong to the other kingdom. There is a
distinction, and the line must be drawn; and you and I have to stand
up to it, even though it may take from us our right eyes and right
hands. We must stand up to the line and maintain the kingdom of God,
or we will all go to destruction together.

vol. 5, p.233
I am perfectly willing that the brethren should stop all improvements,
if they choose, and spend a few years in seeing what our enemies will
do; though their efforts against us will only tend to use them up the
faster. If the people prefer it, they may stop their improvements and
take care of their wheat, and cache a supply of grain, flour, &c.,
where no other persons can find it; though we can raise grain here all
the time,—yes, all the time.

vol. 5, p.233
Suppose that our enemies send 50,000 troops here, they will have to
transport all that will be requisite to sustain them over one winter;
for I will promise them, before they come, that there shall not be one
particle of forage, nor one mouthful of food for them, should they
come. They will have to bring all their provisions and forage; and
though they start their teams with as heavy loads as they can draw,
there is no team that can bring enough to sustain itself, to say
nothing of the men. If there were no more men here than there are in
the Seminole nation, our enemies never could use us up; but they could
use up themselves, which they will do. The Seminoles—a little tribe of
a few hundred in Florida—have cost our government, I suppose, in the
neighbourhood of 100,000,000 dollars; and they are no nearer being
conquered than when the war commenced. And what few have removed have
been induced to do so by compromise; and it would be far cheapest for
the Government to pay the debts they honestly owe us, and leave us
unmolested in the peaceful enjoyment of our rights.

vol. 5, p.233
Would not our enemies feel well in going to the kanyons for wood the
first night to cook their suppers with? The idea puts me in mind of an
anecdote told by one Brown about the man who took the first barrel of
whisky up the Missouri river on a log-raft.

vol. 5, p.233
They might stay amid blackened desolation till they had ate up what
they had brought, and then they would have to go back.

vol. 5, p.233
It has been asked, "Have you counted the cost?" Yes, for ourselves;
but I cannot begin to count it for our enemies. It will cost them all
they have in this world, and will land them in hell in the world to
come, while [p.234] the only trouble with us is that we have two or
three times more men than we need for using up all who can come here
to deprive us of our rights.

vol. 5, p.234
As I said this morning, ten years ago on this ground I stated that we
would not ask any odds of our enemies in ten years from that date; and
the next time that I though; of it was ten years afterwards to a day.
"They are now sending their troops" was the news; and it directly
occurred to me, "Will you ask any odds of them?" No; in the name of
Israel's God we will not; for as soon as we ask odds, we get ends—of
bayonets. When we have asked them for bread, they have given us
stones; and when we have asked them for meat, they have given us
scorpions; and what is the use in asking any more? I do not ask any
odds of those who are striving to deprive us of every vestige of
freedom and to destroy us from the earth.

vol. 5, p.234
Suppose that we should now bow down, and they should order their
troops back, and then send a Governor and other officers here, how
long would it be before some miserable scamp would get into a fuss
with the Indians in Utah County, or in some other county, and get
killed? Then the Governor would order out the Militia—probably two or
three hundred men—to kill off those Indians. Well, the brethren,
knowing that the aggressor is a white man, do not want to turn out
and, like Gen. Harney, kill the squaws; and they say, "We shall not
go." Then the Governor would say, "They have committed treason;" and
it would be, "Send an army here, and shoot and hang them." Our enemies
are determined to bring us into collision with the Government, so that
they can kill us; but they shall not come here.

vol. 5, p.234
If the troops are now this side of Laramie, remember that the
Sweetwater is this side of that place. They must have some place to
winter, for they cannot come through here this season. We could go out
and use them up, and it would not require fifty men to do it. But
probably we shall not have occasion to take that course, for we do not
want to kill men. They may winter in peace at some place east of us;
but when spring comes, they must go back to the States, or, at any
rate, they must leave the mountains.

vol. 5, p.234
We have no desire to kill men, but we wish to keep the devils from
killing us. If you hear that they are near the upper crossing of the
Platte, they will probably stay there till they can collect 50,000
troops. We will say that 9 and 3 equal 17; and if that is so, how long
will it take to get those troops here? Let an arithmetician figure out
how long it will be before 9 and 3 will make 17; for that will just be
as soon as our enemies will get 50,000 troops here.

vol. 5, p.234
We have got to be called treasoners by our enemies. Joseph was taken
up six times, if I remember rightly, on the charge of treason. Once he
was brought into court by some enemies who thought they could prove
that he had committed adultery, and that they termed treason. At
another time our brethren wanted to vote in Davies County, Missouri,
and said they would cast their votes and have their rights with other
citizens; whereupon Joseph was taken up for treason. Another time, he
was taken up on a charge of high treason; and when he came before the
grand jury, his enemies wanted to prove that he had more than one
wife, asserting that that was high treason.

vol. 5, p.234
Our enemies are constantly yelling "Rebellion! treason!" no matter how
peaceful, orderly, and loyal we may be. And now to come out in open
opposition to their cursed, corrupt practices, will of course be
counted treason. But let me tell you that the [p.235] real, actual
treason is committed in Washington, by the administrators of our
Government sending an army to take the lives of innocent citizens.
Every man is allowed by the Constitution to have what religion he
pleases and to profess what religion he pleases. What liberty is
guaranteed by the Constitution; "but you, 'Mormons,' an army must be
sent against you, because you are Latter-day Saints." Yes, an army
must be sent to drive us from the earth.

vol. 5, p.235
There is high treason in Washington; and if the law was carried out,
it would hang up many of them. And the very act of James K. Polk in
taking five hundred of our men, while we were making our way out of
the country under an agreement forced upon us, would have hung him
between the heavens and the earth, if the laws had been faithfully
executed. And now, if they can send a force, against this people, we
have every constitutional and legal right to send them to hell, and we
calculate to send them there.

vol. 5, p.235
When I get over being angry, I may preach something else; but the past
travels and sufferings of this people through mobocracy are before me.

vol. 5, p.235
I am not speaking of the Government, but of the corrupt administrators
of the Government. They make me think of a sign in New York, upon
which was lettered, "All manner of twisting and turning done here." It
is just so in Washington city; they can twist and turn in any and
every way, to suit their hellish appetites.

vol. 5, p.235
Were I an officer sent to Utah for the purpose of aiding the
unhallowed oppression of the innocent, (and in this connection I
disclaim all personalities,) I would know the facts in the case before
I would make any hostile move; and sooner than side with tyranny and
murder, I would resign my commission, and say, "Take it and

vol. 5, p.235
stick it in your boot, and go to hell, and I will go my way." And I
would rather go and raise my own potatoes for my wives and children
than to hold office under such a set of administrators and bow down to
their wicked designs; though, if I were of the world, I should
probably do as the rest do.

vol. 5, p.235
I have already told you that the main cause of an army being now sent
here is a political scheme for the purpose of getting money out of the
United States' treasury. Politicians and traders combine to lay plans,
no matter how devilish, for getting their hands into the treasury of
the United States, that they may have money with which to sow
corruption and gratify their debauched natures.

vol. 5, p.235
Some men do not realize what they are doing. I said, a few weeks ago,
that the deeds of some men are out of sight. Our merchants here have
fanned the flame, and what for? To peddle off my blood and yours for
gold and silver. Although that design may have been out of their
sight, yet such is the case; but they will not make money by the
operation. Should the crisis come, they will find themselves in poor
pasture, with nothing but greasewood and sage to feed upon. It will
not do for them to sell us for money; for we are worth more than the
Methodist society was sold for in Canada, where they were sold at
three cents a head.

vol. 5, p.235
I am aware that you will want to know what will be the result of the
present movement against us. "Mormonism" will take an almighty stride
into influence and power, while our enemies will sink and become
weaker and weaker, and be no more; and I know it just as well now as I
shall five years hence. The Lord Almighty wants a name and a
character; and he will show our enemies that he is God, and that he
has set to his hand again to gather Israel, and to [p.236] try our
faith and integrity. And he is saying, "Now, you, my children, dare
you take a step to promote righteousness, in direct and open
opposition to the popular feelings of all the wicked in your
Government? If you do, I will fight your battles."

vol. 5, p.236
Our enemies had better count the cost; for if they continue to job,
they will want to let it out to sub-contractors, before they get half
through with it. If they persist in sending troops here, I want the
people in the west and in the east to understand that it will not be
safe for them to cross the Plains.

vol. 5, p.236
It has cost the Government hundreds of thousands of dollars more for
the Indians in other territories than it has in this: and I have saved
the Government hundreds of thousands of dollars, by keeping the
Indians peaceable in Utah. Hundreds of miles have the Indians
travelled to see me, to know whether they might use up the emigrants,
saying—"They have killed many of us; and they damn you and damn us,
and shall we stand it?" I have always told them to hold on, to stop
shedding blood, and to live in peace. But I have been told that the
first company of packers that went through here this .season, on their
way from California to the States shot at every Indian they saw
between Carson Valley and Box Elder; and what has been the result?
Probably scores of persons have been killed; animals have been taken
from nearly all the emigrants that have passed on that road; and the
Indians in that region have now more stock than they know how to take
care of; and they come into settlements with their pockets full of
gold. The whites first commenced on the Indians; and now, if they do
not quit such conduct, they must stop travelling through this country;
for it is more than I can do to keep the Indians still under such
outrageous treatment.

vol. 5, p.236
The people do not realize what they have done by driving us into the
midst of the Lamanites. They prevented Joseph from associating with
the Indians; but they, through their ignorance, thought that we were
going to Vancouver's Island, or on the borders of the Pacific; but lo
they have driven us into the midst of the Lamanites. These Lamanites
begin to have a knowledge of their forefathers, and they are
cultivating the earth. Here were the most degraded classes of Indians
to be found; but now there is not a tribe so enlightened, nor one that
has so good a knowledge of its real position and standing before the
Lord as have some of these Utah Indians. It is now very different with
them to what it was when we first came here. It is now becoming a
universal practice with them to punish the guilty, and not the
innocent: they have been taught that from the time we first came here.
Talk with them, and you will learn that they have a good deal of
knowledge. They must be saved, for they are the children of Abraham.

vol. 5, p.236
The Lord in his mercy has suffered our enemies to do that which we
could not have accomplished for many years; and, let a war commence,
and there is no knowing where we shall next land in Jackson County,
Missouri. They will learn that "Mormonism" is a living creature.

vol. 5, p.236
All the world have to learn that the Lord is God, and that he is the
God of his children. He will protect his anointed; he will defend his
own family: and all we have to do is to do his will; and every man,
woman, and child ought to seek to learn the will of God and do it.
When that is the case, we need not fear all earth and hell. Do not
offend God by not doing as he wants you to.

vol. 5, p.236
May the Lord God bless you, brethren and sisters. Amen. [p.237]

John Taylor, September 13, 1857

Communism—Sectarianism—The Gospel and Its Effects, Etc.

Remarks by Elder John Taylor, delivered in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, on Sunday Morning, September 13, 1857.

vol. 5, p.237
It is rather a strange anomaly, particularly in the estimation of the
world, that a people so numerous as the Latter-day Saints should be
gathered together in one place, having the one faith, and believing in
the same doctrines. It is the more strange because there have been
various social and political movements, aided by philosophy,
established among men in various ages of the world; and almost if not
all of these have signally failed.

vol. 5, p.237
Among the number of social movements in our day, there is that of
Robert Dale Owen, who thought he could ameliorate the condition of
mankind by a sort of communism, having a fellowship of goods among
them—a sort of common stock principle. Everything pertaining to this
speculation, however, has flatted out; and in all his schemes and
movements, whether in England or in this country, they have signally
failed.

vol. 5, p.237
It is so also with Fourierism—a species of French philosophy,
established by one Fourier, a Frenchman, and advocated by Greeley of
the New York Tribune. They had tried it in France, and then came over
to this country; and not far from New York a society of this kind was
established. They had a good deal of property, and I am informed they
established something of the nature of what is called the free love
principle; but within twelve months back, while I was residing in New
York, everything they had was sold under the hammer.

vol. 5, p.237
Mr. Cabet commenced lecturing in France, and had very extensive
societies there. About the time we left Nauvoo to come to this land,
Mr. Cabet, with a company of his men, came there. This is a species of
communism; they are called "Communists," believing, with Mr. Owen, in
a community of goods. They published a newspaper in Nauvoo, and one or
more in France. I baptized one of their editors while in Paris on my
mission—a man who is now in this valley, by the name of Bertrand.

vol. 5, p.237
Mr. Krolokoski, who was also an editor of the same paper with Mr.
Bertrand, came to me to have a conversation about the first principles
of the Gospel. After a long conversation, he said, "Mr. Taylor, do you
propose no other plan to ameliorate the condition of mankind than that
of baptism for the remission of sins?"

vol. 5, p.237
I replied—"This is all I propose about the matter."

vol. 5, p.237
"Well," he said, "I wish you every success; but I am afraid you will
not succeed."

vol. 5, p.237
Said I, "Mr. Krolokoski, you sent, some time ago, Mr. Cabet to Nauvoo.
He was considered your leader—the most talented man you had. He went
to Nauvoo when it was deserted—when houses and lands were at a mere
nominal value: he went there with his community at the tithe we left.
Rich farms were deserted, and thousands of us had left our houses and
furniture in them, and there was everything that was calculated to
promote the happiness of human [p.238] beings there. Never could a
person go to a place under more happy circumstances. Mr. Cabet, to try
his experiment, had also the selection in France of whom he pleased.
He and his company went to Nauvoo, and what is the result? You have
seen the published account in the papers. We were banished front
civilized society into the valleys of the Rocky Mountains to seek for
that protection among savages which Christian civilization denied
us—among the peau rouges, or red skins, as they call them. There our
people have built houses, enclosed lands, cultivated gardens, built
school-houses, opened farms, and have organized a government and are
prospering in all the blessings and immunities of civilized life. Not
only this, but they have sent thousands and thousands of dollars over
to Europe to assist the suffering poor to go to America, where they
might find an asylum. You, on the other hand, that went to our empty
houses and farms—you, I say, went there under most favourable
circumstances. Now, what is the result? I read in all of your reports
from there, published in your own paper in Paris, a continued cry for
help. The cry is to yea for money, money: 'We want money to help us to
carry out our designs.' The society that I represent comes with the
fear of God—the worship of the great Eloheim: they offer the simple
plan ordained of God—viz., repentance, baptism for the remission of
sins, and the laying-on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Our
people have not been seeking the influence of the world, nor the power
of government, but they have obtained both; whilst you, with your
philosophy independent of God, have been seeking to build up a system
of communism and a government which is, according to your own
accounts, the way to introduce the millennial reign. Now, which is the
best—our religion, or your philosophy?"

vol. 5, p.238
"Well," said he, "I cannot say anything."

vol. 5, p.238
He could not, because these were facts that he was familiar with.

vol. 5, p.238
What has become of that society? There are very few of them left. They
have had dissensions, bickerings, trouble, and desertions, until they
are nearly dwindled to nothing.

vol. 5, p.238
I might enumerate many societies of a similar nature, commenced in
different parts of the world and at various times. The results,
however, would be proved to be the same: they commenced in the wisdom
of man, and ended as speculative bubbles. Truth, based on eternal
principles, alone can stand the test.

vol. 5, p.238
If Owen, Fourier, Cabot, and other philosophers have failed,—if all
the varied schemes of communism have failed,—if human philosophy is
found to be at fault, and all its plans incompetent, and we have not
failed, it it shows there is something associated with this people and
with "Mormonism" that there is not with them.

vol. 5, p.238
Now the question is, What is this principle?—why is there a
difference?

vol. 5, p.238
The first account I ever heard of this Gospel was simply preaching
what are termed the first principles of the Gospel of Christ. There
was nothing very ostentatious about it—nothing very grand—no great
pomp or parade. The Elders were in many instances uneducated: they had
no particular advantages among men; but they had received certain
principles, certain doctrines, that were plain and easy to
comprehend—things that were childlike and simple, and that recommended
themselves to every intelligent, unblessed mind.

vol. 5, p.238
What was it we first learned in relation to this Gospel? Was it
something very profound and  philosophical, that some sage either in
this or some other country had [p.239] discovered—the plan of some
politician or statesman?

vol. 5, p.239
Verily no; it was no such thing. What was it? It was a proclamation
made, declaring that a holy angel from heaven had appeared—that he had
revealed himself unto a young man that was born in the backwoods of
America—a farmer's son, without any particular educational advantages;
that this angel, having appeared unto him, had revealed unto him an
ancient record that gave an account of the aboriginal inhabitants of
this country; that in this record there was an account of Prophets
having existed on this continent in former days, of Jesus having
appeared, and of angels having administered unto them,—an account of
their having been in possession of the Gospel, having the same
doctrines, the same blessings, the same privileges and powers that
were associated with the Gospel on the Asiatic continent; and that
this record agreed with the Bible in doctrines, ordinances, teachings,
and blessings.

vol. 5, p.239
And furthermore, these men referred us to the Bible, and showed us
that this book was spoken of—that it was to come forth—that it was the
"stick of Joseph," and that it was to be one with the "stick of
Judah,"—one in prophecy, one in revelation, one in unfolding the
purposes of God, and one in bringing to pass the great events that
were to transpire in the last days.

vol. 5, p.239
We heard of these things, and to many of us they seemed foolish. We
heard the cry of "False prophet and deceiver!" The first thing that I
heard from a priest, after hearing this Gospel preached by Parley P.
Pratt, some twenty years ago, was the cry of "Delusion!" I was
immediately informed that "Joe Smith was a money-digger," that he
tried to deceive people by walking on planks laid under the water, and
that he was a wicked and corrupt man, a deceiver, and one of the
biggest fools in creation, and so forth. I heard every kind of story;
and the priests have kept up the same things, pretty much, to the
present day.

vol. 5, p.239
I remember, when I first had an Elder introduced to me, I said to him,
"I do not know what to think about you 'Mormons.' I do not believe any
kind of fanaticism: I profess to be acquainted with the Bible; and,
sir," said I, "in any conversation we may have, I wish you to confine
yourself to the Bible; for I tell you I shall not listen to anything
in opposition to that word."

vol. 5, p.239
From the report which I had heard of "Mormonism." I thought it was
anything but a religious system. I was told about the French
prophets—I was told about Matthias, Johanna Southcote, and of all the
follies that had existed for centuries; and then they put "Mormonism"
at the end of them all.

vol. 5, p.239
In my researches, I examined things very carefully and critically. I
wrote down six of the first sermons I heard preached by Parley P.
Pratt, in order that I might compare them with the Bible, and I could
not find any difference. I could easily controvert any other doctrine,
but I could not overturn one principle of "Mormonism."

vol. 5, p.239
I have travelled to preach these doctrines in most of the United
States and in the Canadas; I have preached them in England, in
Scotland, in Wales, in the Isles of Man and the Jerseys, in France,
Germany, in the principal cities of America and Europe, and to many
prominent men in the world; and I have not yet found a man that could
controvert one principle of "Mormonism" upon scriptural grounds. If
there is a man, I have yet to find him.

vol. 5, p.239
The first proclamation by the Elders was, that the ancient Gospel had
been restored. We had had [p.240] Methodism, Presbyterianism,
Dunkerism, Shakerism, Catholicism, Quakerism, and every other ism that
you could think of; but there was none that had the ancient
Gospel,—no, not one.

vol. 5, p.240
I was, however, well acquainted with theology. I consider that if ever
I lost any time in my life, it was while studying the Christian
theology. Sectarian theology is the greatest tomfoolery in the world.

vol. 5, p.240
There are certain principles in reason which are unalterable. Two and
two made four 1,800 years ago, and they still make the same. Two
parallel lines never would meet: they will not now. A Gospel that was
true 1,800 years ago could not be false now. If they, then, have the
same Bible, and profess to have the same Spirit, and to be educated
men, why do they not see alike? If there are any of whom we have
spoken possessed of good common sense, it would lead them to union,
and not to discord; for the scriptures tell us, there is "one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, and one God, who is above all, in you all, and
through you all."

vol. 5, p.240
We used to quarrel with one another, when we were among the
sectarians, about our peculiar doctrines. One was a brother Methodist,
and another was a brother Presbyterian; and we used to tall out about
which was right—whether the doctrine of freewill or of fate was right;
for we did not know which was right,—though both were right, if we had
understood them. There was also much wrangling as to whether infants
that died went to hell or not. Some sent them to heaven, and some to
hell, where they were to be pitched up with pitchforks, and stung with
scorpions, and wasted there everlastingly.

vol. 5, p.240
This is the doctrine of the Catholic Church. I have got a book at home
that I obtained in France, which represents sinners falling into a
tremendous fire; and there are dragons, scorpions, serpents, and every
kind of reptile searching like fiends for their prey. Naked sinners
are depicted falling into devouring flames, and a great dragon with
open mouth, forked tongue, and horrid teeth, ready to receive them. If
they should miss it, there are scorpions, and serpents, and devils,
with three-pronged pitchforks, waiting a little below, that they may
get the sinners and give them a good roasting.

vol. 5, p.240
You are here, a conglomeration from all the different churches. The
day when you came into this Church was the time when you showed your
honesty. What! are there honest-hearted Methodists and Presbyterians?
Yes. And honest Baptists? Yes. Persons have been brought into this
Church of all those different kinds of faith, and you are actually all
one.

vol. 5, p.240
[President B. Young: "That scares the world."]

vol. 5, p.240
Yes, as President Young says, that scares the world. Why are they not
one? Because they have not the Gospel as it existed in its purity.

vol. 5, p.240
Peter preached it, Jesus, and James,. John, and Paul preached it, and
the Apostles and Elders preached it on this continent; for the Gospel
in the Book of Mormon and the Gospel in the Bible both agree: the
doctrines in both books are one. The historical part differs only: the
one gives the history of an Asiatic, the other of an American people.

vol. 5, p.240
Stephens and Catherwood, after examining the ruins that were found at
Guatemala, in Central America, and gazing upon magnificent ruins,
mouldering temples, stately edifices, rich sculpture, elegant
statuary, and all the traces of a highly cultivated and civilized
people, said—"Here are the works of a great and mighty people that
have inhabited these ruins; but now they are no more: history is
silent on  the subject, and no man can [p.241] unravel this profound
mystery. Nations have planted, and reaped, and built, and lived, and
died, that are now no more; and no one can tell anything about them or
reveal their history."

vol. 5, p.241
Why, there was a young man in Ontario county, New York, to whom the
angel of God appeared and gave an account of the whole. These majestic
ruins bespeak the existence of a mighty people. The Book of Mormon
unfolds their history. O yes; but his was of too humble an origin,
like Jesus of Nazareth. It was not some great professor, who had got
an education in a European or an American college, but one who
professed to have a revelation from God,—and the world don't believe
in revelation; but nevertheless it is true, and we know it.

vol. 5, p.241
Those men who profess so much intelligence that they cannot listen to
the word of the Lord, and have so much egotism and philosophy that
they cannot listen to sound reason and common sense, cannot be edified
by these things, while we, who have not such lofty pretensions, enjoy
them.

vol. 5, p.241
Now, what did Jesus teach? He said, "Go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature: he that believeth and is baptised
shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these
signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out
devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark xvi.
16—18.)

vol. 5, p.241
This is what Jesus taught: this is the Gospel that he and his
disciples taught. Who teaches this Gospel now?  Do the Methodists, the
Presbyterians, the Dunkers, the Baptists, or the Catholics? Could you
find anybody that taught the doctrines that Jesus taught his disciples
to teach? I have not found them anywhere; and yet the thing is so
plain that he that runs may read.

vol. 5, p.241
Go and preach the Gospel to every creature; and he that believeth and
is baptised shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.
"O yes, we believe that." Well, then, read on. "O no," they will say;
"stop there if you please." But it reads: "And these signs shall
follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils; they
shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they
drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on
the sick, and they shall recover."

vol. 5, p.241
"But," say they, "you must not read that." But it is in the Bible.
"True," say they; "but it is a spiritual thing: it means those that
are sick spiritually—they shall be healed. "It means," say they, "the
sin-sick soul."

vol. 5, p.241
It is like the school-ma'm who came to a difficult word, and not
understanding it herself, told the child to say "hard word," and pass
on. You must not say that which is contrary to their belief.

vol. 5, p.241
Now, if we look a little further, we shall find that the disciples
were instructed to "tarry at Jerusalem until they were endowed with
power from on high." It was necessary that they should be qualified.
Did they tarry? They did.

vol. 5, p.241
Why was it necessary for them to tarry? Had they not been with Jesus?
And had they not ate and drank with him? Yes. Had they not seen his
miracles? They had; and they were called to go and preach the Gospel.
And were they not prepared? No, not until they had received the
necessary qualification. It was not every upstart that could go and
preach the Gospel.

vol. 5, p.241
There are some, now a days that go to college; and by their learning
they think they will preach a Gospel [p.242] without God. There are
others who go because they are fools. Now, when the Lord qualified the
Apostles to go forth and preach the Gospel, he endowed them with
wisdom and inspired them from on high, and they spake as the Holy
Ghost gave them utterance; and the word that they spake was not the
word of man, but the word of God, dictated by the Spirit of God,
pointing cut to the people the way of life.

vol. 5, p.242
Why was it necessary for those Apostles to tarry at Jerusalem? They
had an important mission to perform; their testimony was going to seal
the doom of nations. Their message was, "He that believeth and is
baptised shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned."

vol. 5, p.242
Could the Methodists, Baptists, or Presbyterians say this? No. No one
professes to say that their word will seal the doom of nations, among
modern Christians.

vol. 5, p.242
Those men, however, who stayed at Jerusalem till they were endowed
with power from on high, made this profession. They assembled in an
upper room, and the Spirit of the Lord God rested upon them, and they
spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance. There were no Methodists, or
Presbyterians, or Baptists there.

vol. 5, p.242
As soon as it was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and some
said, "Why, these men are drunk: we have got a lot of drunken scamps
here—the followers of Jesus of Nazareth." But Peter said, "O no, this
is not the case; it is but the third hour of the day." The Jews never
got drunk before nine o'clock in the morning; so that was a sufficient
argument.

vol. 5, p.242
Peter said, "These men are not drunk as ye suppose; but this is what
was spoken by the Prophet Joel—"And it shall come to pass in the last
days, saith God, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and
your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on my servants
and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and
they shall prophecy." (Acts ii.) This is not drunkenness, but it is
the power of God beginning to be made manifest: these are the servants
of the living God, the Apostles of the Lord, set apart to preach the
principles of eternal truth to the nations of the earth; and they are
speaking as the Spirit gives then, utterance.

vol. 5, p.242
The Apostles began to tell them about Jesus, that he was the Son of
God, that they had rejected him, crucified, and slain him. They
testified that he was not an impostor, as the people had supposed, but
that he was the Messiah.

vol. 5, p.242
When they heard these things, they were pricked to the heart, and
cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

vol. 5, p.242
You have heard this kind of cry in those revival meetings among the
sectarians: people would get convinced and under a sort of contraction
of mind, and they would want to know what they should do to be saved.

vol. 5, p.242
Now, here was a lot of people gathered from all parts of the
surrounding country, speaking different languages; and Peter was
preaching to them to believe, repent, and be baptised: and while
reasoning upon the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, they cried out, "What
shall we do?" Did he tell them to go to the anxious seat to be prayed
for? No, he did not know anything about such a seat: the Devil had not
yet invented it. Did he tell them to go and put their names into a
class-book, and that they would receive them on probation, and then,
if they were worthy, they would be received as members? No: this is
something in advance of Peter's time; it is something of Christian
civilization.

vol. 5, p.243
[p.243] It was necessary that we should have the enlightenment of the
19th century to reveal these things. Did he tell them to pray? No, he
did not. Prayer is well enough in the season thereof; but they had
something else to do.

vol. 5, p.243
Is it not right to go into your closet and pray? Yes. But when you
have ordinances to attend to, then that is your business. What did
Peter say to them? He said, "Repent, and be baptised every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

vol. 5, p.243
You perceive that he told the people the same that Jesus told him to
teach.

vol. 5, p.243
"In the first place, you tell us to repent, and then to be baptised in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and what then?"

vol. 5, p.243
To have hands laid upon you for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

vol. 5, p.243
"What will the Holy Ghost do for us, Peter?"

vol. 5, p.243
You have seen its effects upon us. It shall bring things past to your
remembrance; it shall show you things to come; it shall make prophets
of you; your sons and daughters shall see visions; the heavens shall
be opened unto you; you shall know of your origin, comprehend who you
are, what you are, where you are going to, the relationship which
exists between you and your God; and there shall be a channel opened
between the eternal worlds and you; and the purposes of God shall be
made known unto you.

vol. 5, p.243
What did the Elders of this Church preach to you? The very same things
which Peter taught. And have not the same effects, or signs, followed
them that believe? They have, as you all know this day. (See 1st Cor.
chap. xii.)

vol. 5, p.243
I will tell you how I felt when I was investigating the doctrines of
"Mormonism." I compared them to try if they agreed with the
Scriptures; but when I tried to pick "Mormonism" to pieces, I could
not do it. And now, said I to the Elders, you promise me that if I
embrace the doctrines you teach, I shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost: what will this produce? They told me it would produce the same
as it did anciently. If I had not experienced those things and seen
them manifested around me, I would have got up and called those men
impostors. I would have said, "Sirs, you promised me and others
blessings which we have not experienced, and this people and you,
sirs, are impostors.

vol. 5, p.243
I do not call the priests of the day impostors, because they do not
profess anything of the kind that I have spoken of: they are simply
false teachers, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men," as
the Scriptures say.

vol. 5, p.243
We read the Book of Mormon, and found it contained the same doctrines
the Apostles taught on the Asiatic continent.

vol. 5, p.243
And what has this Gospel done? It has caused you to leave your
families, your connections, your homes, and your associations in life.
Many of you have left thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of
property; you have wandered over oceans, deserts, plains, and
mountains; you have been mobbed and scourged from city to city, and
from State to State, and you have endured all this. Why? Because of
that hope which is within your bosoms, which blooms with immortality
and eternal lives. You have asked this question to yourselves, "Who am
I, and what is the design of my existence?" and the Gospel has
unfolded these things to your understandings. You feel that you are
eternal beings: you feel that you are living for eternity and not for
time only.

vol. 5, p.243
I have heard it recommended, by [p.244] some poor fools in the shape
of editors in the United States, to send missionaries here to convert
the people. I told them to send them, and promised they should have a
hearing. They thought if they came here and introduced some of their
good Christian ideas and practices and some of their pure morals, that
you would see such a striking difference that you must be enamoured
with them, and that you would be broken up.

vol. 5, p.244
Why, said I, poor fools! Do you think that this people have left their
friends, associations, and everything that would render life precious
among men, and wandered off among those who are called fanatics and
fools—those who are everywhere spoken against?—and do you think that
they are going to be led astray by your poor-pussy priests?

vol. 5, p.244
Are you to be like the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and
Catholics? No; you are to have one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one
Holy Spirit.

vol. 5, p.244
You are terribly tyrannized over, according to what I hear; and many
of you want to leave.

vol. 5, p.244
I engaged, when I was hack in the States, that if they would send all
to Utah that wanted to come, we would send all back that wanted to go.
That would be a fair bargain, you know; but I think they would have
the heaviest job on hand.

vol. 5, p.244
[Voices: We know they would.] 

vol. 5, p.244
What was your object in coming here? Was it to rebel against the
General Government?

vol. 5, p.244
[President B. Young: To get away from Christians.]

vol. 5, p.244
Brother Young says it was to get away from Christians—from that
unbounded charity which you had experienced amongst them. In
consequence of their treatment; you had to come away to seek a home in
the desert wilds, and to obtain that protection among savages which
Christian philanthropy denied you.

vol. 5, p.244
We came here because we could not help it, and now we have got an idea
to stay here because we can help it: this is about the feeling.

vol. 5, p.244
What was it that implanted the idea of gathering and union in our
bosoms? It was the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and that principle is
implanted in our breasts by the power of the Holy Ghost, which earth
and hell cannot eradicate.

vol. 5, p.244
There are certain ideas of God, and futurity, and the nature and
fitness of things implanted in the human bosom, even while in the
world; for there are many things which lead to reflection.

vol. 5, p.244
Why do this people feel so comfortable when an army is approaching?
Are you not afraid of being killed? No, not a great deal. Why are you
not mourning and sorrowing, and why are you not distressed and
troubled? Because you have got a principle within you that cannot be
conquered in time nor in eternity: you possess the principles of
eternal life in your bosoms, that cannot be subdued. You know what
your relationship is with the Eternal God, and his Spirit gives joy
and consolation to your bosoms.

vol. 5, p.244
I have heard men and women rejoice in France and in Germany as much as
in any parts of the world, and in their own tongue blessing and
thanking God that ever he permitted the light of truth to beam upon
their minds. You feel the same: you have got the treasure in earthen
vessels; yea have got that within you of which Jesus spake—a well of
water "springing up unto eternal life." You are looking forward to the
time when thrones, principalities, powers, and eternal lives will be
given unto you in the kingdoms of our God.

vol. 5, p.244
Again: You know that you are in the kingdom of God; for God, among
other things, has revealed this  to you. And while the Communists,
[p.245] Fourierites, and others have sought to bring about a reign of
righteousness without revelation, God has revealed unto you a kingdom
that shall abide for ever, by the principles of eternal truth and by
the revelations of God. You know that you are associated with this
kingdom: you feel it; and no man can deprive you of this feeling, nor
rob you of that Spirit.

vol. 5, p.245
Satan has had the dominion over the world for centuries, and no nation
or people has acknowledged God or bowed to his sceptre. They have
anointed their kings, they have hewn down and trampled upon the rights
of man, and their hands reek with blood. In this condition they have
had priests to come and anoint them kings! But they are wholesale
murderers and robbers.

vol. 5, p.245
Who has reigned by the grace of God in the nations? And who has had
authority from heaven? Who has acknowledged God in all their ways? Has
any kingdom or dominion under heaven? Not one! You go into any
kingdom, or let a Prophet of God go into any cabinet, to any governor,
or potentate, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord! and they would
kick him out. [Voice: "They would kill him."] Would they do it in the
United States? They would anywhere.

vol. 5, p.245
To behold man, whose breath is in his nostrils, who flourishes, and is
cut down like the grass that exists, and withers and dies, that
expands and bursts like a bubble—poor, pusillanimous man—assume
government, authority, and power, without any authority from God, to
regulate the kingdoms of the earth, shows his littleness, weakness,
egotism, and pusillanimity, and reminds one of boys playing marbles or
building cob-houses.

vol. 5, p.245
Why was this earth made? and who made it? We are told in the
Scriptures that "all things were created by him and for him; whether
they be principalities, powers, or dominions, all things were created
by him and for him." Has he had the dominion? If so, when and where
has he had it? He did partially rule for a short time among the
ancient Patriarchs, and also among the Jews; but all the rest of the
nations have ruled without him and taken to themselves the glory. They
have assumed to themselves certain positions and powers, and, aided by
their peers, lords, governors, and immediate associates, they have
oppressed the human family, and brought them into bondage.

vol. 5, p.245
The nations have forgotten God. They have forsaken God, the fountain
of living waters, and hewn out to themselves broken cisterns, that can
hold no water; and like dogs, wolves, panthers, and beasts of prey,
they have done nothing but tear each other to pieces...

vol. 5, p.245
Read the history of nations, and examine the paintings they have in
their National Galleries, and you will find they represent, almost
exclusively, scenes of blood, deadly struggles, triumphant victories,
or sanguinary battles, and the groanings, troubles, sighs, sufferings,
and death of the human family.

vol. 5, p.245
This has been the way that things have been carried on by kings and
governors; but where and when has them been a person to save, and
bless, and act as a father and benefactor to the world? And where has
there been a servant of God listened to? Jesus came among his friends;
but they would not listen to him. He sent his servants—his Apostles,
but they put them to death. He has sent again in the last days; he has
anointed his servant Joseph Smith, and afterwards Brigham Young, to
speak as his mouthpiece to the people, for the government of his
Saints not only here, but to all that will hear and obey the Gospel
throughout the world.

vol. 5, p.246
[p.246] God has determined to have a people that will serve him. What
have you heard taught here? Nothing but the law of God and obedience
to the laws of the land. Nobody but the most blackhearted villains
that ever lived would have gone among our enemies and represented
things otherwise.

vol. 5, p.246
You comprehend liberty, and you will have this boon. Many of your
fathers have fought for this, and you are resolved to enjoy it. Will
you endeavour to disannul the Government? No; but we will rally round
the Constitution that was purchased by the blood of our fathers, and
will support it.

vol. 5, p.246
These are our views; and while we do not trample under foot the
Constitution, we will take care that others do not do it.

vol. 5, p.246
[The congregation responded, "Amen."]

vol. 5, p.246
What has been the difficulty with you for some time past? You have had
doctrines of purity revealed unto you; you have been taught principles
of righteousness, to repent of all your evils, to purify yourselves,
that, as Saints of the living God, you might come and receive
blessings at the hands of the Almighty.

vol. 5, p.246
While you have been doing this, the spirit of psychology has been
operating in the hearts of men, even the spirits and powers of
darkness; devils have been railing, and men thundering out their
anathemas; all hell has been to pay, and "no pitch hot," and why?
Because you have been adhering to the principles of truth, and been
doing better than you have before.

vol. 5, p.246
What was the reason that they crucified Jesus Christ? Because he
adhered to the truth; and those very anon that persecute us would
crucify him, if he was here to-day.

vol. 5, p.246
[Voices: "Yes, they would."] 

vol. 5, p.246
Well, what is the matter? The Lord has given to us a Prophet who
receives the word of the Lord for us. These revelations have led us
from principle to principle, from doctrine to doctrine, and from
ordinance to ordinance, until we are found as we are at the present
time.

vol. 5, p.246
We feel well, our spirits are light and buoyant, and our hopes strong
in the God of Israel. If we could not trust in God, we should indeed
be without hope. How many have gone from here to teach the principles
that God has revealed? Thousands of the Elders of Israel. They were
sent to do the people good, and have been more disinterested in it
than any other people.

vol. 5, p.246
Have you, Elders, gone because you were sent by missionary societies?
No, you have not. Have you gone because you had drafts and acceptances
on banks and merchants? No: you have gone without purse or scrip.
President Young, brother Woodruff, brother Hyde, brother Franklin,
myself, and others, have travelled thousands and thousands of miles
without purse or scrip, trusting in the living God.

vol. 5, p.246
Did we have to beg? No. I do not believe in begging: God will take
care of us. It is not so with other ministers. You tell them to trust
in God for the support of their bodies, and they are not willing to do
it. They will be quite willing to trust in God for their spirits; but
they dare not trust him for their bodies.

vol. 5, p.246
Go to the United States, and I will engage to give $50,000, if you
will find a thousand men in all the United States that will go without
purse or scrip to the nations of the earth to preach the Gospel. Come,
now, I will banter the world with this offer.

vol. 5, p.246
On the other hand, if President Young wants a thousand men, they will
be ready in one day, if it is necessary. Is it not so, brethren?

vol. 5, p.247
[p.247] [Thousands of voices responded, "Yes:"]

vol. 5, p.247
This state of things exists in the world because they are governed by
filthy lucre.

vol. 5, p.247
We have embraced the Gospel because we knew it was true. I have
travelled with brother Young thousands of miles, preaching the Gospel,
and with brother Woodruff, brother Hyde, brother Smith, brother
Franklin, and many others around me. What did we do? We went trusting
in Israel's God; and we are doing the same now. What did we go for?
Because we loved the human family, and knowing that God had revealed
principles that would exalt men and women in the kingdom of God. We
wandered forth to preach those principles voluntarily. We did it
because we loved mankind.

vol. 5, p.247
Why have this people confidence in President Young and others? Because
they have seen them leave their homes and go forth and endure every
privation to promote their welfare in time and in eternity. They could
not have confidence in a priest that would not go to preach except he
had $10,000.

vol. 5, p.247
Furthermore, this people have confidence in their leaders, because in
times of trouble and trim they have stemmed the torrents and been
foremost in the battle. It is not a kind of soft, smooth eloquence to
tickle the ears of men, but it is stern matters of fact that the
people know.

vol. 5, p.247
As Paul said, "Can anything separate us from the love of God?" No,
brethren; we are cemented together by eternal ties that the world does
not know, nor can it comprehend. Talk to us of bowing to the Gentile
yoke! Nonsense. What would be your feeling if the United States wanted
to have the honour of driving us from our homes and bringing us
subject to their depraved standard of moral and religious truth? Would
you, if necessary, brethren, put the torch to your buildings, and lay
them in ashes, and wander houseless into the mountains? I know what
you would say and what you would do.

vol. 5, p.247
[President Brigham Young: Try the vote.]

vol. 5, p.247
All you that are willing to set fire to your property and lay it in
ashes, rather than submit to their military rule and oppression,
manifest it by raising your hands.

vol. 5, p.247
[The congregation unanimously raised their hands.]

vol. 5, p.247
I know what your feelings are. We have been persecuted and robbed long
enough; and, in the name of Israel's God, we will be free! [The whole
congregation responded, "Amen." And President B. Young said, "I say
amen all the time to that."]

vol. 5, p.247
I feel to thank God that I am associated with such men, with such a
people, where honesty and truth dwell in the heart—where men have got
a religion that they are not afraid to live by, and that they are not
afraid to die by; and I would not give a straw for anything short of
that.

vol. 5, p.247
The great God has set his hand to roll forth his purposes; and the
hand that opposes it shall be palsied. The power of God shall be felt
among the nations that reject the truth. All is right in Israel, and
we do not want to hurt anybody; but we feel to bless everybody, and
our hearts are full of blessings for all who will work righteousness.

vol. 5, p.247
Shall we still bless the human family? Yes. Shall we rally around the
Constitution of the United States, and protect it in its purity? Yes;
we will save it when others forsake it.

vol. 5, p.247
In the day of our sorrow and affliction, when hunted by our enemies,
was there anybody to pour in comfort to who wounded bosom? Have there
[p.248] been any of the priests and editors to take our part? Where
are they?

vol. 5, p.248
Brethren, I feel thankful that God has revealed unto us the keys of
the kingdom of God and given us a knowledge of the things that shall
transpire in these last days.

vol. 5, p.248
I ask my heavenly Father that I may be counted worthy and faithful to
endure to the end, that I may obtain the crown that is in reversion
for me.

vol. 5, p.248
I do not care anything about shooting: I have been shot. Neither do I
care anything about dying; for I could have died many a time if I had
desired to; but I had not got ready. But I do care about those
principles of truth which I have received; and I would not exchange my
position for that of any emperor, king, or potentate in any nation
under heaven.

vol. 5, p.248
God will put a hook in the jaws of our enemies and turn them aside;
and the day is not far distant when empires will crumble to pieces and
the hand of God be against the nations; and they will know that there
is a God in heaven, and a hand that is stronger than theirs.

vol. 5, p.248
Brethren, all we have to do is to live our religion, to obey the
counsel of our President, be humble and faithful, and not exalted in
our own strength; but ask wisdom of God, and see that we have peace
with God, with our families, with one another, that peace may reign in
our bosoms and in our community.

vol. 5, p.248
I pray God to preserve you in peace unto the day of redemption, in the
name of Jesus. Amen.

Heber C. Kimball, September 20, 1857

Possession of the One Spirit—Blessings Pertaining to the 
Righteous—Trial of the Saints, Etc.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, September 20, 1857.

vol. 5, p.248
There is but one course for this people to take, in order to be
Saints; and that is to do right, to be just, to be true, and to be
honest. I will tell you, gentlemen, it is not the character of a Saint
to lie, to deceive, and to take the advantage of one another: that is
not the character of a Saint. It is to receive the truth from God,
from his Son Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Ghost.

vol. 5, p.248
Just as sure as I abide in the vine, so sure am I to partake of that
Spirit that is in the Father; and it comes down through the Son,
continuing down through that vine till it comes to me.

vol. 5, p.248
Well, I am standing very near the head of that vine; that is, the vine
that is springing out of the Father, even in the latter days. Brother
Brigham is the head of the vine, and I stand right by him, and every
man that holds the Priesthood stands right by us, and should have the
same Spirit that we have, and the same that was in Jesus Christ.

vol. 5, p.248
Now, if I have got the Holy Ghost in me, I am dictated by the Father,
and by the Son, and by the Holy  [p.249] Ghost; and everything is
clean and right between me and the Father. Then what is there to
hinder me asking the Father, in the name of Jesus, and receiving, if
all is right and there is no obstruction?

vol. 5, p.249
If there is an obstruction, that obstruction is not in the Father, it
is not in Jesus, neither is it in the Holy Ghost; but if there is an
obstruction it is in me. I caused it, did I not? Yes, I did. But if we
have the principles of this Gospel dwelling in us, that is by the
Spirit of truth; and they are life.

vol. 5, p.249
Every word. of truth you receive and treasure up in your bosoms is
light and life, for light is life; and if these principles are in us,
and we cultivate them, I tell you there is no spirit of death in us.
But we abandon the principles of death, and there is no place in us
for death; but it is light, and life, and intelligence; and if those
principles continue to dwell in us, we will be like a well of water
springing up into everlasting life.

vol. 5, p.249
How can a man lie when there is not an untruth in him? How can he take
the advantage of his brother? How can he act the hypocrite? How can he
be dishonest, when there are none of these things in him? How can he
do any of these evil things, when there is nothing but light and truth
in him?

vol. 5, p.249
I am aware that a great many people have not an idea that light is
life, and truth is light: they do not believe it nor comprehend it;
but it is so. Have I a disposition to lie to my brother? If I had said
anything, and brother Brigham was to say, "Brother Heber, how is it?
Is it so?" I would not dare to lie to him; for he fields the keys of
life, light, and intelligence to this whole nation: he holds the keys
of light and truth; and you might as well lie to God as to lie to him;
for the man that would lie to him would lie to God.

vol. 5, p.249
Now, if any man follow the practice of lying, deceiving, or working
any manner of iniquity, I do not care if he pretends to be a Saint
to-day, his corruption will surely be made manifest; and although he
may have a name to live and to dwell among this people, yet, if he
continues that course, he will go to destruction, both body and
spirit.

vol. 5, p.249
Take a person that practises evil, and you will see that person
uneasy: such individuals are never easy a minute. But you take a
person who has got the Spirit of God, who is humble, meek, and of a
child-like spirit, that is the man: I do not care if he is in a
mud-hole, neither do I care if he has forty mobocrats after him, or if
he is a-straddle of a cannon, he is happy.

vol. 5, p.249
This makes me think of brother Amasa and brother McGinn: the mob took
them and rode them on a cannon. Well, this is easier than it is to
ride on a rail.

vol. 5, p.249
They asked them to preach; so brother McGinn preached to them, showing
the reverence of the animal creation towards their God, and said, "The
hen put down her head and took a drink of water, and then lifted up
her head in thanks and adoration to her God. Well, you see, there is a
good deal of thankfulness and reverence in a hen." "Amen," says
brother Amasa: "Lord, make us all hens." That was about the winding-up
of the discourse; and by preaching these things they gained the
affections of those mobbers, so that they let them go.

vol. 5, p.249
Brethren, let us take the counsel that we received from brother
Spencer; and let us be humble and be Saints; and let every man honour
his calling and make it honourable; and by so doing, God will honour
that man, and he will honour every man who honours that man and who
honours his religion. If every man will live his religion, serve his
God, [p.250] and honour his Priesthood, we never will be troubled from
this day henceforth and for ever; no, never.

vol. 5, p.250
Will our enemies come among us? They won't come this year; they may
try as much as much as they please.

vol. 5, p.250
[President B. Young: "Except we let them in."]

vol. 5, p.250
No, never can they come here, except we let them in.

vol. 5, p.250
Well, as the evil is measurably: turned away this year, if the Saints
will be faithful, they will be foiled next year, and then more
abundantly the year after that, and so on. But they will keep sending
their troops and forces from year to year and from time to time, and
you need not lay down your watch. The day has come when the Devil is
coming with all his combined forces: he has laid a siege against the
kingdom of God, and it never will cease till this kingdom triumphs.

vol. 5, p.250
It is for you to be just as good judges of the truth as I am; and you
will be, if the truth dwells in you.

vol. 5, p.250
Brethren, let me tell you that I have no spirit in me to shed blood. I
never had it in me but once in my life, except I have it in me when I
am angry. Once I was inspired by the Almighty with that spirit, and
that was in Nauvoo; and so was brother Brigham; and I felt to say that
I was sorry that peace was declared. We had just got ready when the
gap was shut up.

vol. 5, p.250
Do I want to shed the blood of my brethren and sisters, or to see it
shed? No: and neither do you, unless the Holy Ghost dictates for us to
shed the blood of our enemies; then it is just as right as it is for
us to partake of the sacrament. But I wish they would take the hint,
and go the other way, and not attempt to come here. We do not want to
hurt them; but if they come upon us, and we have to repel them by the
force of arms, God Almighty will give us the power to do it: now, mark
it.

vol. 5, p.250
You know, I said that I had wives enough to whip the United States;
and why? Because they will whip themselves, and my wives would not
have to resist them.

vol. 5, p.250
This is a good day; and what is there for us to do? It is for us to
take a course to lay up our grain, our corn, our barley, and oats. A
great many of you have been brought up on oatmeal porridge. I have
been in the old country, and seen you live on it, and have eaten it
with you; and so has brother Hyde.

vol. 5, p.250
There are thousands of people in England that would consider they were
perfectly happy, if they could get one spoonful of oatmeal each day
for life. I have heard brother Brigham state the same thing. Why, here
are women, and men, too, who sing before us, with whom I have eaten
oatmeal porridge; and I like it, for it is digested very quickly, and
leaves people very comfortable.

vol. 5, p.250
And now, take a course to lay up your stores and prepare for the
worst. We are blest, this year, above. all the blessings that have
been since the earth was organized.

vol. 5, p.250
Here is brother James Smithies: he is working some land on shares for
me upon the Church farm. He has this year raised one-third more than
any previous year, and on less ground. And this people are blest in
proportion like that. Who has done it? God has done it, and has blest
this people, because they have repented of and forsaken their sins,
and confessed them, many of them.

vol. 5, p.250
Well, if we take this course, he will continue to bless us and to
multiply blessings upon us; but, let me tell you, brethren and
sisters, if you persist in evil, in lying, and in your deceptions, the
curse of God will be upon you, and you will be cursed.

vol. 5, p.250
I do not allude to any, only those of [p.251] that character; and if
there are any of that character present, I will say to them, If you
feel disposed to persist in your wickedness, you shall see sorrow,
while the virtuous and the honest shall increase in blessings; their
crops, their stock, and all that they have shall increase. There is no
blessing that can be withheld from a righteous man or a righteous
woman the heavens cannot withhold its blessings; but all the blessings
of the heavens and of the earth are theirs because they are heirs.

vol. 5, p.251
We are to become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What
blessings are to be withheld from Jesus Christ? There is no blessing
pertaining to this earth but what belongs to Jesus: then there is no
blessing that will be withheld from the faithful.

vol. 5, p.251
Brethren and sisters, we are heirs with him to the estate of his
Father, just as much as two sons and one daughter and their faithful
children are legal heirs to a father's estate. When a father dies and
makes his will, he wills that property to them that are faithful to
him; and so it is with us; and it is natural.

vol. 5, p.251
I feel to ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, to help my brethren to
live their religion, honour their Priesthood and calling; and I pray
you, brethren, to live your religion and serve your God, that we may
see the power and the magnitude of our God in the last days. I tell
you there never were any people, since the world was organized, that
have seen such mighty and romantic power of God as this people will
see.

vol. 5, p.251
Is there a collision between us and the United States? No; we have not
collashed: that is the word that sounds nearest to what I mean. But
now the thread is cut between them and us, and we never will gybe
again; no, never, worlds without end.

vol. 5, p.251
[Voices: "Amen."]

vol. 5, p.251
You may think that I am not correct; but I am in the habit of telling
the truth when in fun as well as in earnest; and men that cannot are
not worth much.

vol. 5, p.251
We have never been the aggressors, but they have raised the weapons of
of war to exterminate us as many as five times, and they have robbed
us of all we had. I have but three little articles in this world that
I obtained before I was a "Mormon,"—an earthen vessel, a tin
tea-canister, and a chest that brother Brigham made for me: he made me
several, but that was the first one.

vol. 5, p.251
I have been robbed, and plundered, and afflicted, if you call it
affliction; but I do not call it affliction. I have heard many tell of
what sorrowful times they have had; but they are as good times as ever
I had in this life. I leave it to brother Brigham, if I have not been
as happy in the mud as I have been anywhere. Some of you have seen
these times in Iowa: I think some of you were there. I had happy days
during those times; and I am happy and thankful that I live in the
tops of these mountains, right on the backbone, where we have got on
some good spurs. I tell you we boast that we are on the tops of the
mountains; but let us boast in the Lord and in his strength.

vol. 5, p.251
We have received the Gospel of repentance—of baptism for the remission
of sins; and we have received the Holy Ghost, and it has brought us
here. Well, a great many tell what sorrowful times they have had. "O
dear, I think I have a perfect right to lie like the Devil; for I
think what I have passed through ought to atone for all I have done."
It is a poor coot, let me tell you, that will make such excuses. Let
me tell you, that does not pay for one lie.

vol. 5, p.251
Supposing you lie, or steal, or commit adultery, and so on,—what you
have suffered is not going to pay for [p.252] this debt. Independently
of these things, what are trials for? To prove our integrity—to try
us, whether we will stand to God and to his kingdom. The Bible says
that we are to come up through great tribulation; that is, the hardest
kind of trials. You know, the harder you put on the robes to the
wash-board, the better they are washed.

vol. 5, p.252
I want to bring up a comparison. Brother Brigham is the head of the
limb: and which has the hardest work to bear—he that has to lug all
that is attached to that vine, or you that are branches of that vine?
Which is the hardest, and which has the most to entry—the tree, or the
one apple that clings to the tree? Which has the most suffering to
pass through —one individual apple, or the tree itself?

vol. 5, p.252
Your troubles, and trials, and perplexities are nothing more than one
apple, in comparison to brother Brigham's cares; and still I presume
there are lots who think that they have more trouble than brother
Brigham or brother Heber. But you do not appreciate your privileges
and blessings: you are not thankful to the giver, or to the
benefactor; and that makes you troublesome, and you feel as if you
could not endure it: you feel that you are passing through more than
all the rest of the Saints.

vol. 5, p.252
Do you suppose that I calculate to get any pay for what I pass
through? No; but I am thankful, and praise the Lord every day of my
life that I was true to Joseph, and to Hyrum, and the brethren that
have gone. What would those give that were not faithful, if they had
been as true as brother Brigham and brother Heber? They would give all
they have got; yes, they would sit down and be skinned from head to
foot, and have every nail pulled out of their toes and fingers. I am
thankful that I was faithful; but I am sorry for them: but that man
that has murmured, and complained, and tried to make brother Joseph a
dishonest and unhallowed man, has great need to mourn for himself.

vol. 5, p.252
If I were in the position of some, instead of letting a week pass
before I made an atonement to the satisfaction of those offended, I
would go right off and do it at once. Some men come upon this stand
who have acted unrighteously, and forsaken and betrayed us, and
thereby brought death and destruction upon thousands of men, women,
and children. They will get up and say, "I have sinned against God and
in his sight; and now, brethren, I want you to restore me to perfect
fellowship and friendship."

vol. 5, p.252
Do you not see that they want to be restored, every limb and joint, to
the perfect embraces of this people? Well, we have to take them at
their word and receive them into fellowship. Do I feel to say, Yes,
receive them? Yes, I do. But are they in full fellowship when they
have been out of the Church ten or twenty years? How can such a man be
restored to full fellowship without a time for making restitution to
the complete satisfaction of all the parties aggrieved—until we can
say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into our joys and
partake of our blessings?" This is my faith. If a person takes a
course to injure me, although he might not injure, yet it is the same
as though he did: the will is taken for the deed.

vol. 5, p.252
I look to my head and to my governor—the man who holds the keys of the
kingdom of heaven on the earth. I have thought, a great many times, of
what the Lord has said, through his servant Joseph the Prophet, that
not a hair falleth from the head of a righteous man without the notice
of our heavenly  Father. Do you think that God does not notice [p.253]
little lies and deceptions—little this that, and the other?

vol. 5, p.253
Do you believe, brethren and sisters that that man who does not
appreciate the kindness of his benefactor that feeds him, and clothes
him, and administers to his wants,—do you suppose that he will be
thankful to God for his layouts? No; the men or the women who do not
appreciate the kindness of their benefactor, are not thankful to God.
They are under condemnation; they are in the gall of bitterness and in
the bonds of iniquity; and I know it.

vol. 5, p.253
Did I ever receive a kindness or a blessing from a person without
being grateful for it? No, never; but, say I, "Thank you for this,
because it comes when I am in need of it." Well, supposing I mete out
to a person from year to year, and he or she does not appreciate it,
but says, "It is nothing more than your reasonable service, Mr.
Kimball, to give me a living." Well, we admit of that; and it is no
more than reasonable that you should make some kind of acknowledgement
and show kindness to me.

vol. 5, p.253
I would not give a dime for you, except your love is manifested by
your works—by your faith and works. Love or hatred is manifested in
this way. Do not I prove to that man that I return the compliment to
him by my kindness? The man or woman that will not return the
compliment is not of much account.

vol. 5, p.253
I have said for years that never—no, never again will I be subject to
such cursed scoundrels as the United States Government have sent here
as officers. I say, in the name of Israel's God, I will not.

vol. 5, p.253
[Voices: "Amen."]

vol. 5, p.253
James Buchanan now occupies the chair of state. He and his
counsellors, his coadjutors, his cabinet, and Congress have met and
planned the destruction of this people—of brother Brigham and his
associates in particular; and the priests of the day say amen to it;
and they exhort the people to say amen to it; and the whole people of
the United States are under condemnation. They consented to the death
of Joseph, Hyrum, David, Parley, and lots of men, women, and children.
The ground is planted with men, women, and children, from Nauvoo to
this place; and the world have consented to it, and they say it is
just.

vol. 5, p.253
The Government, the President, the heads of the military departments
and of all the governmental affairs have consented to these things.

vol. 5, p.253
When we were poor, and lived on cow-hides and cattle, skunks and
thistle roots, brother Brigham and his brethren paddled this way and
that way, and sought out this place.

vol. 5, p.253
While we were in Winter Quarters, 500 men were demanded. They
travelled over the Plains and gained a part of Mexico, which is this
land. Then came grasshoppers and crickets, and eat up our crops; and
our enemies have all the time been saying that it is just—they deserve
it.

vol. 5, p.253
Now, brethren, if you can comprehend what I have said, they shall
suffer all that we have, and it shall be doubled upon them, and then
it shall be pressed down.

vol. 5, p.253
I know that while you and I have no feelings of anger, we are right.
Jesus says, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again". The Scriptures say that Jesus said this; but if be did not, it
is just as true as anything that is written: it is God Almighty's
truth. Yes, they will meet it in the United States, beginning at the
head.

vol. 5, p.253
But we are free! They have laid a snare to entrap us and to kill
brother Brigham; and they want to hang him between the heavens end the
earth, and every other man that will support him: but as the Lord God
Almighty [p.254] lives, they shall meet that also; and if I had the
power, I would tell it to them so that they could hear it. Do I fear
them? I do not fear anything that is upon this earth.

vol. 5, p.254
Do I fear my God? No; but I love him, and I fear to offend him. He is
my Father, and I sprang out of his loins, just as my son William
Kimball's children sprang out of his loins; and every man and woman
that has been upon this earth was once in our Father's loins, just as
much as my children ever were in mine; and Jesus was the first born,
and we are heirs of our Father and our God, and we will gain the prize
through much tribulation.

vol. 5, p.254
Let me tell you that ten years will not pass away before God will play
with this nation as he did with Pharaoh, only worse.

vol. 5, p.254
I tell you these things, that you may know that wherein you measure
out you have got to receive back; and where you lie, you have got to
take that lie back; and where you offend your God and benefactor, as
the Lord God liveth, you have to take that back, or you will get a
scourging, —that is, where your benefactor is a man of truth and is
walking in his calling.

vol. 5, p.254
If I abuse brother Brigham, it is my business to make satisfaction to
that man. Well, I would not offend him nor any good man in this
congregation; no, I would not. If I offend him, I do it ignorantly;
and if I did, I would repent of it. I did offend him once or twice in
my life, and I repented in tears and in sorrow; and I wish to God
there had never such things existed since I was born. Well, I was
ignorant, and I was a child. Well, if I have got to make those
recantations, you have, too, when you offend or do wrong to each
other.

vol. 5, p.254
I am teaching what you call strong doctrine; but I am teaching nothing
but what is true. It was true to me, and it is equally true to you. It
is the duty of every Elder, Teacher, High Priest, and Deacon to begin
to live a new life. Why? Can you do any better than you are doing this
day? Yes.

vol. 5, p.254
This year I have built a barn 102 feet long. Well, then, the next year
I may build two such barns. This proves that the more a man does the
more he is capable of doing. But because I made ten rods of fence last
week, does that prove that I can make twenty this week? If you,
sisters, knit one stocking this week, must you knit two next week, and
kill yourselves? Or, if you have put ten yards of cloth in your skirt
this year, should you put in twenty next year? No; but put in six next
year. But I want to show you the extremes.

vol. 5, p.254
I was speaking here, last Sunday, by the permission of brother
Brigham, of brother Eddington. He is an honest man; or, if he is not,
we will prove him.

vol. 5, p.254
[President B. Young: "You will prove him to be an honest man."]

vol. 5, p.254
Well, brother Eddington seemed to fall in with the idea. We want the
ladies to bring in their surplus clothes for brother Eddington to sell
for wheat and other grain. I speak of the females, because they have
got the most clothes in their hands. If you have got five dresses,
hand two over to him, and let him buy wheat, corn, barley, pork,
mutton, tallow, &c.; and then he will. pay you in those articles for
your coats, jackets, pantaloons, and bustles! Just put in your bustles
there, and get them full of wheat instead of bran!

vol. 5, p.254
I have foreseen the necessities of these things.

vol. 5, p.254
Go and take your clothes, and do not be afraid that you will never get
any more; for, let me tell you, if  you will lay up these stores, you
will have [p.255] clothing fill it shall be a drug and a trouble to
you.

vol. 5, p.255
You do not believe that, some of you; but I tell you, if you do not
believe it, and if you do not know it, it is because you are not
living your religion. But the day will be, and it is right at our
doors, when thousands and millions in the United States and in the old
countries will come to us and render to us all the rich things that
this earth affords, in exchange for food.

vol. 5, p.255
Brother Eddington says that where them is one person that brings
clothing there are twenty that have wheat to dispose of. Go into the
country north gad south, and there is not one woman in ten that has
got as much cloth as you have on your backs to-day.

vol. 5, p.255
There are many before me that have got an abundance of as good clothes
as ever were put on, while those who live in the country have scarcely
any.

vol. 5, p.255
Do not be afraid of brother Eddington, for he is an honourable man,
and will pay you in wheat, corn, buckwheat, tallow, or anything else
that he can command. Well, you take a course to sustain him and buy
wheat; and if you do not want it, there are others that are ready to
take it; and the day will come when you will hand over your rich
clothing and jewellery for it.

vol. 5, p.255
Do you not know that brother Brigham told you he would not deal it
free again?

vol. 5, p.255
[President B. Young: "We will buy them too."]

vol. 5, p.255
Brother Brigham Young does not lie, nor his brother Heber.

vol. 5, p.255
Well, now, am I going to save men and women by lying. No; I will save
myself by telling the truth; and I will take the truth all the time,
and others may take lies, and see which get to heaven first. I tell
you, you will find us as far apart as are heaven and hell.

vol. 5, p.255
"Well," says one, "Are you going to do this?" Yes, I am going to put
one suit of clothes on and sell the rest, except a change; and see if
the day does not come when I will have so many clothes that my wives
will not have boxes to put them in.

vol. 5, p.255
I realize that I am a poor man—a worm of creation; but I just know
that when I dwell in the truth—in Jesus Christ,—when I dwell in his
light and partake of his Spirit, I am right. I would give more for one
hundred men of this character than I would give for this whole people,
if they were not of that character. Can they whip the world? Yes; men
of that character will whip everything that can be put on that road,
from this place to Dan, and from there to Beersheba. Amen. [p.256]

Brigham Young, September 20, 1857

Superiority of Pure Motives—Ascendancy of the Kingdom
of God—Obedience to Counsel

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, September 20, 1857.

vol. 5, p.256
Brother Heber wants to know whether he has said anything wrong. So far
as I am concerned, and so far as the truth is concerned, he has not.
He is very careless in the use of language; but I do not so much care
how he or any of the brethren express their ideas, when their hearts
are right before God.

vol. 5, p.256
When we have only the one desire to promote the kingdom of God on the
earth, the people will be right.

vol. 5, p.256
Brother Heber is very full of comparisons; and I will liken brother
Heber's language to the conduct of some of this people. He talks just
as ideas happen to come into his mind; and some of the people act just
as it happens at the moment, not thinking what they do. And yet their
desire is to do right; and the greatest faults that most of them see
in each other arise through weakness and ignorance, and not through an
evil design. They desire to do right, just as brother Heber desires to
talk as straight as a line; but he has so long been in the habit of
making his own dictionary and using his words out of it, that it would
be difficult for him to change his style now.

vol. 5, p.256
No matter what the outward appearance is—if I can know of a truth that
the hearts of the people are fully set to do the will of their Father
in heaven, though they may falter and do a great many things through
the weaknesses of human nature, yet, they will be saved. You will hear
among such persons observations that appear very much out of the way;
but, at the same time, they will say that "it does seem that when I
would try to do good, and to do my best, evil will come before me.

vol. 5, p.256
If there is an outward appearance. of mistakes or evils, we ought to
have the Spirit of the Lord to look at the designs of the actors, and
know whether they act from impure or sinister motives. If their
motives are pure—no matter whether their outward appearance is
particularly precise, their acts will be discerned by the Spirit of
the Lord, and will be appreciated for what they were intended. If
people act from pure motives, though their outward movements may not
always be so pleasant as our traditions would prefer, yet God will
make those acts result in the best good to the people.

vol. 5, p.256
I wish the people to know that they have to come to the position that,
in their feelings and affections, the kingdom of God must be all in
all to us. If we are not in that position, you will find that we will
be scourged and afflicted until we are. With us it must be the kingdom
of God all the time: it must be that or nothing. The time has come in
which that must be the common feeling with the Saints.

vol. 5, p.256
As to the world's being in fellowship with us, it never was and it
never can be. We cut off the Gentiles just before we left Nauvoo; and
they have cut us off from their fellowship. The thread is cut that has
 hitherto connected us; and now we [p.257] have to act for ourselves
and build up the kingdom of God on the earth, which we will do, by the
help of the Lord; for he has decreed that his kingdom shall take the
ascendancy over all other kingdoms under heaven.

vol. 5, p.257
It was observed by brother Spencer. that the time had come for this
work to be making far more rapid strides than it has hitherto done.
You will find that it has not been by any act of our own that this
thread has been cut; but we will now have to sustain ourselves, or we
will go under. We have not desired it—we have not naturally wished for
this crisis to come; but inasmuch as it has come, if the people, in
the strength of Israel's God, sustain themselves, they will be be
sustained.

vol. 5, p.257
If we are united, we are independent of the powers of hell and of the
world, which terms are synonymous with me. We are now free and easy;
and if we succumb to the wicked, our hearts sink within us and we
sicken and die; but when my feelings are decided that we will defend
ourselves against all who come here to destroy us or to oppose the
establishment of truth on the earth, I feel perfectly free and light
as the air. Does brother Spencer feel so? I presume that he does, and
also that every Saint feels as free as the mountain breezes.

vol. 5, p.257
I am free and easy, and I am not concerned about having too much rest;
though, when my feelings are at rest, and I have not an hundred tons
weight upon my shoulders, a feeling comes over me like this—"Are you
not becoming slothful? As soon as I have a good sound reflection upon
the matter, I feel to thank God that he will let me rest at times, and
not always require me to bear a burden like carrying a hundred tons.

vol. 5, p.257
Be faithful; and if you are attentive to your duties, God will take
care of the rest.

vol. 5, p.257
We talk of enjoying, multiplying, and increasing in the things of God.
All that we can do is to prepare to receive anything that God may see
fit to give. I do not know but that I am just as well prepared to
receive revelations this morning as I shall be millions of years
hence. I do not know but that I shall be prepared to do the will of
God, according to my capacity, as well to-day or to-morrow as I shall
be when I have spent millions of years in his presence.

vol. 5, p.257
You hear people in the sectarian world talk about preparing to die;
but the religion that we have embraced teaches us to prepare to live.
If we were now going to exchange this world for another, I do not know
but that we are as well prepared as we shall be in years to come. I
have felt that I never should be better prepared to receive the glory
of the spirit-world than I am now, according to my present capacity.
While brother Heber was talking about our travels in 1834, I remember
that brother Joseph said the camp should be cursed. We had some wicked
men in the company, and Joseph discerned the spirits of those men, and
said that the camp should be cursed and that they should feel the
heavy hand of the Lord. Brother Heber came to me and said, "I do not
know that I could have done any better, even though it had been to
save my natural life;" and he did do well and continued to do so. And
I will say that I do not know that I can do any better than I am
doing.

vol. 5, p.257
You and I may be ready to fight: we may be ready to plant seed, and,
if called upon, to cache grain in the mountains, and to do whatever
the Lord may require at our hands. Let us do whatever may be required.
If we are called upon to take our women and children into the
mountains, let us do that; if to burn, let us be on hand to burn; if
to build more, let us [p.258] do that; and whatever we are required to
do, let us do.

vol. 5, p.258
We called up a Bishop, the other night, to go on an express; and when
he came to my office, I said to him, "Brother Thomas, are you ready?
He replied, "Yes." Though he did not know what was wanted of him, yet
he was ready. He asked, "When do you want me?" I replied, "Early
to-morrow morning" (now, yesterday morning); and he was there at the
time—which is the way that men should feel and act.

vol. 5, p.258
The main object of my present remarks has been to have the people know
whether they are taught right—to have them know whether they are
receiving the word of the Lord from this stand—to have them know
whether they are led right.

vol. 5, p.258
As to being afflicted, never fear that: only fear that you are not
living as well as you might, and then there is no danger. You know how
you have been led, and I can say that you try to walk in the path that
leads to improvement and parity and to never do a known evil. When you
know that an evil is before you, pass it by, and do that which tends
to good, and all will be right.

vol. 5, p.258
If you are not led right, or if you are afraid that you are not going
to be led right, just find out a better way; for that is your
privilege, if you are not already led right. And if you will live so
as to know God better than any other man, or find some one that knows
God better, and of whom you can learn more of God—a man that knows
better how to dictate the affairs of the Church, all will be right.

vol. 5, p.258
I wish that every man would live so that he could have communion with
angels—so that Jesus would come to visit him. I wish I could see this
people in such a position; but there is yet too much sin in our midst:
our traditions cling to us so strongly, that we cannot yet break
through into that liberty; but we will see the day, if faithful, in
which we can converse with angels. There are persons in this
congregation that will converse with angels just as freely as we
converse with each other.

vol. 5, p.258
Be faithful, and God will not only fight for us, but he will also lead
us to victory. What has been said today is true. You know that brother
Heber almost always testifies to the truth of what he says; but I do
not care whether you think that what I say is true or not, for that
does not concern me. You may judge of the truth you hear to-day and of
that which you will hear in times to come; for we shall be judges of
ourselves as well as of our enemies, and we shall also judge angels.
God bless you! Amen. [p.259]

John Taylor, September 20, 1857

Education—Revelation, Obedience, Etc.

A Discourse delivered by Elder John Taylor, in the Bowery, Great 
Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 20, 1857.

vol. 5, p.259
I listened with very great pleasure to the remarks made this morning
both by President Young and President Kimball, and it always affords
me pleasure to listen to anything that is associated with the kingdom
of God and its interests; and, on the other hand, I feel as ready and
willing to communicate anything that the Lord may have committed unto
me.

vol. 5, p.259
[Asked a blessing on the bread.] 

vol. 5, p.259
In relation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is something that is
full of importance and information, and is associated with our present
and eternal welfare: it enters into all the ramifications of life
where we can understand it. It is not a sing-song sort of a thing,
such as we hear taught among the sectarians; but there is something
tangible about it: it consists of eternal principles, unfolding light
and intelligence, and is adapted to the nature of man as a mortal and
immortal being,—principles that affect us in time and in eternity, in
life, in health, in sickness, in death, and which lead to life
everlasting.

vol. 5, p.259
We heard some remarks made this morning upon education—about worries
and language, and so forth. In relation to the education of the world
generally, a great amount of it is of very little value, consisting
more of words than ideas; and whilst men are verbose in their speaking
or writing, you have to hunt for ideas or truth like hunting for a
grain of wheat among piles of chaff or rubbish. It is true that a
great amount of it is

vol. 5, p.259
really valuable, and it is for us to select the good from the bad.

vol. 5, p.259
The education of men ought to be adapted to their positions, both as
temporal and eternal beings. It is well to understand the arts and
sciences; it is well to understand language and history; it is well to
understand agriculture, to be acquainted with mechanics, and to be
instructed in everything that is calculated to promote the happiness,
the wellbeing, and the comfort of the human family.

vol. 5, p.259
That education which but amounts to a little outward appearance and
applies only to a few conveniences of this life is very far short of
that; education and intelligence which immortal beings ought to be in
possession of. The education of the present day is generally
misapplied; indeed, men have misapplied the education which they have
received for generations and generations.

vol. 5, p.259
The priests in Egypt had mysteries immediately associated with
themselves, and the calculation was to keep their people ignorant of
those things which they knew, that they might govern them the more
readily and that they might reign and tyrannize over them. Among the
various nations in different ages, their sages and wise men held their
intelligence as a secret mystery to be divulged almost or altogether
to their disciples, who generally conveyed it in unknown characters,
symbols, or hieroglyphics. The Egyptians had their priests, the
[p.260] Assyrians their magi and astrologers, the Greeks their
philosophers, and the Jews their wise men, and all mere or less
mysterious or cabalistic.

vol. 5, p.260
This was a misapplication of information, or that which they might
possess; although, in many instances, the information amounted to
nothing in reality.

vol. 5, p.260
The same is applicable, in a great measure, to our lawyers, doctors,
and priests: they make use of terms that nobody can understand but the
initiated. If you study medicine, law, or botany, and many of the
sciences, you must study Latin first, because the doctors and
professors make use of that language to convey their ideas in; and the
calculation is for all except men of science or linguists to be
befogged and bewildered,—yes, all except the initiated few who have
been able to bestow the same amount of time as they have in learning
some of the dead languages.

vol. 5, p.260
Whom does their learning benefit? Certainly not the multitude. I will
tell you my idea of true intelligence and true eloquence. It is not as
some people do—to take a very small idea and use a great many
grandiloquent words without meaning—something to befog and mystify it
with—something to tickle the ear and please the imagination only: that
is not true intelligence. But it is true intelligence for a man to
take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold
and simplify it so that a child can understand it. I do not care what
words you make use of, if you have the principles and are enabled to
convey those principles to the understandings of men.

vol. 5, p.260
It is true, at the same time, that a man who has a good use of
language can present his ideas to better advantage than one who has
not, in some instances, and in some he cannot; for the Lord gives some
men a natural talent and powers of description that others do not
possess and cannot acquire. But the great principle that we have to
come to is the knowledge of God, of the relationship that we sustain
to each other, and of the various duties we have to attend to in the
various spheres of life in which we are called to act as mortal and
immortal, intelligent, eternal beings, in order that we may magnify
our calling and approve ourselves before God and the holy angels: and
if we obtain knowledge of this kind, we shall do well; for this is the
greatest good of the the whole: it embraces everything that we want.

vol. 5, p.260
In relation to the principles of eternal life, we are told that these
treasures we have in earthen vessels were given of the Lord and
retained in those vessels through our faithfulness.

vol. 5, p.260
Now, then, if men, without much of the advantage of what is termed
education in this world, are filled with the Spirit of God, the
revelations of the Holy Ghost, and can comprehend the relationship of
man to God, can know their duties, and can teach a people, a nation,
or a world how they may be saved and obtain thrones, principalities,
powers, and dominions in the eternal worlds,—if men can understand
these principles by the gift of the Holy Ghost and the revelations of
the Most High, and are enabled to place them before the people so that
they can comprehend them, then, I say, these are the men of
education—the men of intellect—the men who are calculated to bless and
ennoble the human family. This is the kind of education that we want;
and the more simple those principles can be conveyed the better: they
are more adapted to the wants and intelligence of the human family.

vol. 5, p.260
Here is the difference between us at the present time and the
priestcraft and kingcraft and the craft of the various systems among
the nations. [p.261] They have tended to befog, bewilder, bind down,
and lead the masses into ignorance; but the principles of the Gospel
are calculated to expand the mind, enlarge the heart, unfold the
capacity, and make all men feel their relationship to God and to each
other, that we may be all partakers of the same blessing, that we may
all be intelligent, that we may all be learned in the things of the
kingdom of God, and all be prepared for the celestial inheritance in
the eternal worlds. This is the difference between the system that we
have embraced and the systems of the world—they are of men, this is of
God. Among the Gentiles, they tread upon one another and ride into
power and influence on the ruin of others; and they do not care who
sinks, if they swim. The kingdom of God exalts the good, blesses all,
enlightens all, expands the minds of all, and puts within the reach of
all the blessings of eternity.

vol. 5, p.261
Do you repudiate education, then? No—not at all. I appreciate all true
intelligence, whether moral, social, scientific, political, or
philosophical; but I despise the folly that they hang on to it and the
folly that they call education.

vol. 5, p.261
What did any of us know as rational, eternal beings, until we were
educated in this Church?

vol. 5, p.261
It is true that we are eternal beings; but did we know or understand
any: thing about the principles of eternal life? Nothing. Yet we have
believed that we were going to live for ever. But did we know anything
about where we came from, or what was our origin, or what was the
object of our creation? We did not know anything about where we were
going. We had a dreamy idea of heaven—of a God without body, parts,
and passions—of a heaven beyond the bounds of time and space; and the
hell we believed in was a bottomless pit. We had a dreamy idea of
these things; but what did we know? Was there any authority, religion,
or philosophy that could unravel these mysteries? No, not any.

vol. 5, p.261
Then of what practical use is their philosophy or religion to us? It
did not unfold unto us our position; if; did not show us how to obtain
eternal life: it could not do it. Of what use was our intelligence as
applied to our position?

vol. 5, p.261
How many times have you listened to preaching from a speaker who was
considered quite an eloquent man? He would study his sermons well, and
perhaps write them. They were full of words—the language was eloquent;
but, after all, it was mere verbosity, empty sound, and barren in
ideas. Then you would go away and say, "What an eloquent sermon Mr.
So-and-so preached! He preached the best to-day I ever heard him. It
was such a treat—so rich, so great, and so deep!" "What was it about?"
"Oh, it was so deep that I could not understand a word of it," as
brother Brigham says.

vol. 5, p.261
"Well, what was it about?" "I do not know; but I heard it, and it was
so deep and so profound that I could not understand it." "But how was
it that you could not understand what he was preaching about, when he
was so eloquent, so refined, and made use of such elegant language?"
Shall I tell you? The man did not know what he was preaching about
himself; and as he could not understand it himself, he could not
explain it to you. How could he lead others to comprehend that which
he did not know himself? These are facts: this is the education of the
world. If you examine the philosophy of France and Germany, and other
parts of the earth, you will find them to be on a par with the
religious world: they are going to ameliorate the condition of mankind
and to perform wonders, according to their professions. If you attempt
to reason with them about their philosophy, like the Paddy's flea,
when you attempt to [p.262] put your finger on them they are not
there.

vol. 5, p.262
[Voice: "All the difference is, there is nothing there."]

vol. 5, p.262
All their philosophy is mere chimeras of the brain. I met with so much
of it in those countries that I was sickened with it.

vol. 5, p.262
A gentleman came to me in Paris—an Englishman, and, pointing to a
species of very light cake, asked me what it was called. (It is a kind
of bread that is so light that a man can eat all the time and not fill
himself, and you could blow it away with a puff of your breath.) I
told him I did not know what they called it, but I would give it a
name; I will call it fried froth, or philosophy, just which you
please,—fried bubbles, or the bubbles of learned men; for it reminded
me of their philosophy.

vol. 5, p.262
I believe in the solid bread, and I do not care if it comes in big
chunks; for then it is better than when there is not enough to satisfy
the appetite. Truth and intelligence have a tendency to enlarge the
capacity, to expand the soul, and to show man his real position —his
relationship to himself and to his God, both in relation to the
present and the future, that he may know how to live on the earth and
be prepared to mingle with the Gods in the eternal worlds.

vol. 5, p.262
Now, if men will teach me these principles, I do not care what words
they use. If truth comes, tail or head foremost, I am not very
particular.

vol. 5, p.262
It is the principles of truth which cement us together and make us act
in union and strength: it is those principles that buoy up our
feelings, animate our souls, and make us feel joyous and jubilant
under all circumstances. It is light, it is truth, it is intelligence,
it comes from and leads to God, exaltation, and celestial glory. We
feel joyous because we have the principles of eternal life within us.
It is because we have partaken at the fountain of life, and know our
relationship to the Lord, and have a position in his Church and
kingdom.

vol. 5, p.262
Being, then, in possession of the truth—of a knowledge of those
principles which develop the revelations of God, and knowing that he
has given unto us the Holy Priesthood, restored Prophets, Apostles,
and Revelators to give revelation unto his people, therefore have we
confidence in our God and our religion.

vol. 5, p.262
And what is that revelation, this order, and this organisation for?
They are to enlighten us, to enlarge our minds, to teach us all
principles associated with our present and eternal welfare. This
revelation is the word of God, the eternal truths of heaven, the
everlasting Gospel, the word of life and salvation.

vol. 5, p.262
No matter what words are used, it is the principles we are after, and
our religion interests and affects us in all the ramifications of
life: it does not set up God as some austere being that we cannot
approach, but it tells us he is our Father, and that we are his
children, and that he cherishes in his bosom a paternal regard for us;
and we have experienced something of the feelings that exist between
father and son, mother and daughter, parents and children; but we
could not apply that unto our God and consider that he was our Father
before we embraced the Gospel.

vol. 5, p.262
We have been taught by the simple principles of the Gospel to go to
our Father who is heaven, and that he will hear us. We have also been
taught that if we, as earthly parents, will not give our children
stones when they ask for bread, and that if we will not give them
scorpions when they ask for fish, God, as our Father, will not give us
one thing when we ask another, but that he feels as much concerned
about our welfare as we possibly can do about that of our children.

vol. 5, p.262
This is the way that we now regard [p.263] our God; but this is not
the way we used to look at him: we used to be all the day long subject
to bondage, through, the fear of death. Do we feel anything of that
now? No, we do not: that feeling is taken away. Now we feel that if it
is required of us to die, it is well; if to live, it is well. We feel
that we are eternal beings and have laid hold of eternal life, and
therefore all is well. We feel altogether different to what we did
before we heard this Gospel: it teaches us our duty to each other; it
teaches us to reverence God's name, and not blaspheme it as the
Christians do.

vol. 5, p.263
I will tell you how it is in the world. In the world the masses do not
care what the devil they do, if men do not see them; and I am sorry to
say that we also are cursed with a few such scoundrels. They do not
care about God seeing them, for they have not the fear of God before
them, but they have fear of men.

vol. 5, p.263
We never ought to do a thing that we would be afraid of God seeing us
do; and if we are not afraid of God seeing us, we should not be afraid
of man seeing us.

vol. 5, p.263
Well, then, we are taught our duty to our God by our brethren. And who
are our brethren? The officers and authorities of this Church—the
servants of the living God. Who is President Young? The mouthpiece of
God to this Church and to the world. Has God any other? Yes, lots of
them appointed by him, but he is the head.

vol. 5, p.263
[Blessed the sacramental cup.] 

vol. 5, p.263
Formerly every man used to take his own way: we used to claim a great
many rights, privileges, and immunities that belonged to us
individually. Well, we enjoy many of them yet; but we did not
acknowledge the authority of God, and we could not do it, for the
simple reason that we knew nothing of it.

vol. 5, p.263
There was no one to come with "Thus saith the Lord"—no man that could
go forth and say he was commissioned of Jesus Christ; therefore there
was no authority. There was no umpire—no standard of truth to go to,
to decide any doctrine that you might have in your mind. But now we
have "Thus saith the Lord God."

vol. 5, p.263
Is there any other place under heaven where there is anybody to say
"Thus saith the Lord?" If there is, I have heard nothing about it; I
have not read nor heard of it, and I am satisfied there is no such
thing.

vol. 5, p.263
I suppose there are in the neighbourhood of from 1,000,000,000 to
1,200,000,000 of inhabitants upon the earth; and nowhere but in this
place can there be found a man to say, "Thus saith the Lord
God,"—nowhere but here, or where those are who have been sent from
here.

vol. 5, p.263
Are there men of intelligence in the nations? Yes, as to the world's
intelligence—as to the intelligence associated with the arts and
sciences, natural philosophy, and mechanism, they are as intelligent
as any that can be found, without God. There are also many learned
professional men, princes, statesmen, and potentates. The latter have
the power to govern the nations over which they rule, and yet among
the whole of them not a man can be found that can say, "Thus saith the
Lord God."

vol. 5, p.263
Well, if this is the ease in relation to them, and if this is the
position of the world, is it not time for the Almighty to interfere? I
speak of them, for many of the thousands who are now before me are
come from the different nations, and they comprehend what I say, and
they know that this is true.

vol. 5, p.263
What is our position? Are we not favoured ten thousand times more than
any other people under the heavens? Are we not put in a position to
have communication with the Lord? Have we not the principles of life
given unto [p.264] us from day to day and from week to week? Have we
not the opportunity of hearing the word of the Lord from his chosen
servant—the only mouthpiece to lead the people that he has under the
heavens?

vol. 5, p.264
Can we appreciate this and realise our position? Can we really
appreciate our blessings? Do we really feel as we ought to in relation
to these matters? Why, we begin to experience, in part, the riches of
eternity. They begin to be unfolded before we can fully appreciate
them.

vol. 5, p.264
We are favoured at the present time, but we cannot comprehend our
blessings fully: we can only see in part, comprehend in part, and
shall not fully comprehend until the fulness of the blessings of God
shall be revealed; then we shall be able to appreciate our position,
our relationship to God, and the great blessings we enjoy, as servants
of the Most High.

vol. 5, p.264
We are only little children now. This is the way I feel. I feel as a
little child, and I pray to God, O God, expand my mind that I may
understand and comprehend the things of God, and not act the feel, but
be a wise man, and be able to comprehend the blessings that are around
me.

vol. 5, p.264
Why, the kingdom of God is established, the Prophet of God and his
servants are among us, and we are now enjoying the very things that
Prophets prophesied of as they looked through the dark vista of ages
unborn and contemplated these blessings that we enjoy.

vol. 5, p.264
They told about the time when the kingdom of God would be established
upon the earth, when he would restore the ancient order of things,
when his Spirit would be poured out, when light and revelation would
be communicated, when his purposes would be developed, and when the
little stone would be cut out of the mountain without hands. They saw,
in vision, that a little nucleus here in the mountains would arise,
and that the mountain of the Lord's house would be established above
the hills, and that all nations should flock to the standard, as doves
to their windows.

vol. 5, p.264
They saw the things in visions that we are now doing; they sang and
prophesied and rejoiced at what we have now commenced—the building up
of the kingdom of God.

vol. 5, p.264
Well, now, can we really appreciate these things? Do not we often feel
as we did in the Gentile world? We used to say, "I will be damned if I
do not have my own way." I tell you that you will be damned if you do.

vol. 5, p.264
But how much of that feeling exists? I could not but think of it when
I heard the remarks of brother Kimball this morning. They led me to
reflect upon this subject. Some of us think we are smart men; some of
us think we know what is for our good as well as our leaders, and that
our judgment is quite as good as theirs; and some feel like saying,
"We will be damned if we submit to them." But you will be damned if
you do not.

vol. 5, p.264
Now, I will suppose that you were God, and that you had inspired some
men to go forth and preach the Gospel, to gather the people, to
establish a kingdom upon the earth,—that you had got a few together,
and they gathered others; finally, you issued your will and your law
to the people: what would you think if they turned round and said they
would do as they pleased? Says one, "I do not know;" and says another,
"I do not know." Supposing they should say, "We think we understand
better than you do," how would you, as God, regulate the affairs of
the earth? What could you do with a people that would not be obedient
to your law? Just the same as God did with the antediluvians, the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the Jews. If you could not do
anything with them, how could God?

vol. 5, p.264
The Presbyterians used to say that [p.265] people ought to thank God
for the privilege of being damned. But I would not thank anybody for
being damned; but I think, however, that such men as would not submit
to his authority and rule ought to be damned, whether they like it or
not. Nothing but obedience to his law, obedience in families,
obedience to Bishops and to the Priesthood in all its ramifications,
and especially to President Brigham Young as the head, to carry out
his law to the whole people, can accomplish the purposes of God or our
salvation as a people.

vol. 5, p.265
If the Lord can have a people to listen to his law, there may be a
chance to establish his kingdom upon the earth: if not, the only way
he can establish his kingdom is to remove them from the earth, or give
up his kingdom until another time; for it is impossible to establish
his kingdom without having a people obedient to him.

vol. 5, p.265
What does that obedience imply? Obedience in all things,—that the
Twelve should be obedient to the Presidency, the Seventies to the
Twelve, and so on through all the ramifications of the
Priesthood,—obedience of wives to husbands, children to parents,—and
that a general order of this kind should be established in every
neighbourhood, in every house, and in every heart.

vol. 5, p.265
Well, this is the feeling that ought to exist; and where this feeling
.does not exist the Spirit of God does not exist; and where there is
not a feeling of obedience, the Spirit of God will be withdrawn:
people cannot retain it and be in rebellion against the authorities
and counsels of the church and kingdom of God.

vol. 5, p.265
When the kingdom of God is established and his word is listened to,
the spirit of obedience extends through the ramifications of the body
of Christ, even as the sap extends through the trunk of a tree till it
reaches to the extreme branches and twigs, and to every part of it. It
is just like some of those large streams issuing from the mountains
and dividing into smaller streams until they reach to every field and
garden throughout the city.

vol. 5, p.265
Well, now, suppose some of you should say, or suppose a branch should
say, "I want to be independent, and I will not be dependent upon the
larger branches." I ask, how will you help yourselves, except you take
a course to be cut off? And then where will your sap come from? You
will wither and wilt down.

vol. 5, p.265
Suppose you undertake to water the garden, and you say that you will
not be dependent upon that larger stream. "It is true," say you, "that
I got my water from that stream; but I will not have anything to do
with it now." Will your vegetation flourish, if you discard the larger
stream from whence you get your water? It will not. So in regard to
the water of life, and so in regard to a tree. Jesus said, "A branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine;" nor can you
do anything without obedience, for the moment you, rebel you are in
this position.

vol. 5, p.265
If we, as a little company gathered together on the tops of these
mountains, in possession of the great and glorious privileges that we
enjoy,—if we cannot magnify our calling and honour the Priesthood
conferred upon us, how do we expect salvation to flow to the world?
How can we expect men to do what we do not do?—to listen to and obey
us, if we do not obey our superior officers?

vol. 5, p.265
Furthermore, as the servants of God here living in these mountains,
the Lord is determined to try to prove us in every way; and we are, as
it were, just broken loose from the old barren stalk: The old ship is
about being launched, and we are thrown upon God and our own
resources, both in a governmental  and a mental [p.266] capacity. The
Devil will be enraged—the powers of hell let loose upon us.

vol. 5, p.266
Now, let me ask how we are going to stand, except we are guided by the
revelations of God? And let me further ask how you are going to get
the revelations of God, except you live your religion and obey those
set over you? Let me further ask, What is the use professing to be the
people of God if we do not live our religion and magnify our calling?

vol. 5, p.266
I speak of these things merely for argument's sake. I believe that, so
far as I have seen, the general feeling among this people is to do
right; but I merely speak of them, for it is necessary that we should
have line upon line, precept upon precept: it is necessary that we
should understand our true relationship.

vol. 5, p.266
For instance, there is an army coming up here. Can any of you tell
what will be the result, except the proper authorities dictate? Do you
know what will be the best? But suppose we get through with this, and
I suppose that some of you may begin to guess for this year: but can
you for next? Is there a man here that can tell how and where to hide
his family and his grain? Are there any in this congregation who know
anything about it and that give counsel to this people either for
present or coming emergencies? This is bringing things to a focus.
Now, you wise men, or men of education and literary attainments, or
philosophers, speak and display your wisdom. If you cannot, and if we
have not any knowledge in this matter, what next? Why, we have got to
be dependent upon the authority that is over us; and if we cannot
submit, how can we be governed by it?

vol. 5, p.266
This principle pervades all, whether in a civil or military capacity
or in any other capacity. We used to have a difference between Church
and State, but it is all one now. Thank God, we have no more temporal
and spiritual! We have got Church and State together, and we used to
talk of baptism and repentance, and we used to whip out sectarian
priests with their own Bible, and we thought that we were tremendous
fellows.

vol. 5, p.266
But in what part of the Bible do you find what we are to do this year
or the next? This will be part of a new Bible, for when it takes place
it will be written, and then that will be a Bible, and then the world
will find that we shall have a "Mormon Bible."

vol. 5, p.266
Men have been opposed to the Book of Mormon because it was a new
Bible. The poor fools did not know that wherever there was a true
Church there was revelation, and that wherever there was revelation
there was the word of God to man and materials to make Bibles of. We
are all of us now in the harness, and the issue is fast rolling upon
us: it is therefore necessary that we understand our position. We have
all had the opportunity of going away from here; but I do not know
that you can have that opportunity now, for I see a proclamation here,
and you cannot go without permission.

vol. 5, p.266
We have no vague theories: you have now to ask leave to go. The time
has come for decisive action; and whether you are called to act in a
religious, civil, or military capacity, it is all in the kingdom of
God and the will of God is to be done upon the earth as angels do it
in heaven.

vol. 5, p.266
We are not fit to occupy our places in the kingdom, either as High
Priests, or as Seventies, or as Apostles, or as anything else, except
we are willing and obedient: and the same thing applies to our
families. Then let us seek to submit ourselves to the law of God and
do it.

vol. 5, p.266
I do not know but I have talked long enough. God bless you, in the
name of Jesus! Amen. [p.267]

Wilford Woodruff, September 27, 1857

Blessings—Trials—Obedience to Counsel, Etc.

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, September 27, 1857.

vol. 5, p.267
We are glad to see the brethren return home from their long missions
or short ones. We are glad to greet them, to hear them talk, to see
their faces, and to hear their testimony that the Lord has been with
them, These things are a pleasure to us who remain here in Zion. There
are a multiplicity of evidences that God is with this people, and that
the Lord has been with his Elders, wherever they have been, from the
beginning of this work.

vol. 5, p.267
There has been something peculiar connected with the Elders of this
Church from the beginning. You may take the rest of the world,
politically, temporally, spiritually, or any other way; and there
never has been such an example in the eyes of heaven, earth, or hell
as has been in the Elders of this Church, in preaching this Gospel to
the nations of the earth. The hand of God has been in the work from
the beginning, and it is in it yet; and the hand of the Lord has been
with them to succour them all the time. The revelations given from
heaven, through Joseph, concerning the Elders, have been fulfilled to
the very letter.

vol. 5, p.267
There are many things that are consoling; and one is, to know that the
Lord is with us—that he does reveal his mind and will in the
ordinances of the house of God, and through the administration of
blessings, whether by Patriarchs, or by the Twelve Apostles, or in the
endowments. We find those blessings are fulfilled to the very letter.

vol. 5, p.267
The brethren to-day have spoken in reference to the blessings that are
given to our brethren when they go out on their missions to the
various nations of the earth. I remember the day very well when we
blessed those missionaries that went to India and to Europe; and I
must say that I never had such a variety of feelings as I had at that
time.

vol. 5, p.267
In blessing brother Luddington, I recollect that I was mouth, and I
well remember that I could see nothing but seas, waves, and storms.
The seas appeared to be heaped up, and I knew that he was going to see
storms and be exposed to troubles and dangers. But there was one thing
that we did bless those brethren with that I rejoice in, and that is
that they should return home again.

vol. 5, p.267
Well, our words have all been fulfilled to the very letter, and this
gives us consolation. If we go forth, and have the Priesthood and
Apostleship upon us, the Holy Spirit of God, though it may not be
visible, does dictate to us; and it is so in ordaining: it is so in
going to battle against the nations of the earth, who have given their
consent to the shedding of the blood of the Prophets.

vol. 5, p.267
Brother Brigham feels calm and serene as a summer's morning; and in
his desire to save Israel he wishes to save also the byes of our
enemies, if possible. Why is he so calm and [p.268] steady? It is
because God is with him; and though armies are approaching and ready,
apparently, to swallow up this people, yet he and his brethren feel
calm, and the Lord reveals unto them, by the Holy Spirit, how to
govern and control this people. They have had a long experience in
proving the Almighty God, who holds the destiny of the Saints and the
sinner. And has he ever failed us? No, never.

vol. 5, p.268
Some of our brethren have told their trials here to-day, and they have
said that they have not done much; but the greatest work they have
done has been in saving themselves. But this is not all they have
done. They have done something else; they have accomplished the
purposes of God in India—as much so as though they had baptised every
king and queen in those islands: they have literally fulfilled the
revelations of Jesus Christ in carrying the Gospel unto them, because
those nations could not have been left without excuse and the earth
prepared for the judgments of God, if those Elders had not gone and
preached to the people of those nations. No matter if they had not
have baptised one, they are as much justified as we who first went to
Herefordshire, England, and baptised twenty or thirty priests in a
day. They have fulfilled the commandments in carrying the Gospel to
the nations.

vol. 5, p.268
It is no testimony to me that a man is not faithful, because he has
not baptised numbers of princes, lords, governors, and kings; not at
all. The Lord has sent them there: he has tried them and put them in
strait  places; but has he left them? No, he has not. Has he not
brought them forth? We have had the testimony of brother Musser, who
is here; and we see that it is the hand of God that has been over
them, and we are glad of it; and we do not expect that the Lord will
send the Elders out there again until they have other missionaries and
messengers that they cannot stone, tar, or feather, but messengers
that will come with their sharp sickles: then they will find that they
have messengers that they cannot conquer nor overcome.

vol. 5, p.268
I feel to rejoice in these things and to know that the Lord is at work
with this people. We are living in a fast age—an age fraught with
great events, and every day is bringing to pass more of the
predictions; and more revelation is being fulfilled in one year, now,
than has been fulfilled in centuries before. We are living in a day
when that flood of revelation is coming to a focus; and that focus we
stand in, and we are seeing it fulfilled day by day.

vol. 5, p.268
The wicked rage and the heathen imagine a vain thing; and they say,
"Let us go and take a prey and a spoil; let our eye be upon Zion, and
let her be defiled." But they know not the thoughts of the Lord,
neither understand they his counsel. God will work for us and defend
us, if we do our duty, and Zion will soon be free. We will not suffer
the oppressions of our enemies as we have done.

vol. 5, p.268
You need not fear: all we have to do is to be passive in the hands of
the Lord, and follow the counsel of our leaders, and not be
particularly anxious that the Lord should reveal to you or to me his
mind and will and intentions concerning our present difficulties; but
pray earnestly that the Spirit of the Lord may be upon those men who
stand at the head. All we have to do is to live our religion; and when
the Presidency say "Come here," or "Go there," let us be on hand to
obey, and all will be right.

vol. 5, p.268
Let the people be quiet and pray that God may reveal his mind and will
to those at the head. We may  have our ideas of what we should do in
this [p.269] or that case; but there is no man so well qualified to
lead, govern, and direct for the salvation of the people as that man
whom God has appointed. We have as good leaders as we need. There
never was a better leader given to Israel, nor one more capable of
leading this people to salvation, than Brigham Young: he is filled
with the Spirit of God day by day. If the United States make war upon
this people, the Lord will hold them responsible for it, and the
measure they mete will be measured unto them again; and if they are
ripe and the cup of their iniquity full, they will be shattered to
pieces—their union broken up and destroyed. They will be visited with
thunder and lightning and hail and the judgments of God; and every man
that will not draw his sword. against his neighbour will be obliged to
flee to Zion. They are sending their armies here to destroy us; but I
ask none to weep for Utah or spend their sympathy for us,—not even my
relatives or the priests, the doctors, lawyers, or editors; no, not
even one soul—from the President of the United States down through the
whole nation, who have given consent to our death; for they will have
plenty to bear themselves, and they may save their weeping for
themselves and their children. The Lord will teach them that their
proud looks and haughty feelings will be laid low. It is right to pray
and it is right to keep our powder dry. Pray for the Presidency of
this Church—pray for them to have the Spirit of revelation. We have
never seen a day when "Mormonism" was taking such a stride as it is at
the present time. They may come over the Plains singing their songs
about what they will do when they get to Utah; but many of them will
find a place in hell before they get here.

vol. 5, p.269
There have been many truths taught here to-day. Many who have been
here for years do not know or realize the great blessings we are
enjoying in these valleys of mountains. Our granaries are filled with
bread and we enjoy peace and the comforts of life. We come to the
Tabernacle of God and associate with holy men, and we should be holy
ourselves: if we are not, it is our own fault.

vol. 5, p.269
You have all the blessings which the celestial kingdom and laws of God
impart unto men on the earth, while the Gentile nations have suffered
ruin, wickedness, and abominations of every kind to increase in their
midst until they are ripe for destruction. Do they not thirst for the
blood of the Saints and every man who is righteous? Do they not
delight in wickedness? They are full of wrath and anger, and they are
ripe for the damnation of hell. Yes, the nations of the earth are ripe
to-day.

vol. 5, p.269
Then we should be faithful and diligent in all things committed to our
charge. Even though the Lord has suffered some of the brethren to go
through strait places, in days which are past and gone, and he may
still call us to go through strait places, yet he will sustain us when
we trust in him.

vol. 5, p.269
The Lord has suffered some of our Prophets and Apostles to be
martyred; and what for? That the cup of the iniquity of the nations
might be fall and that his servants might be crowned heirs of God and
joint heirs with Jesus Christ to a martyr's crown.

vol. 5, p.269
Through the persecutions of the enemies of truth, many of the Saints
have been worn out; but, as a body, the kingdom and people have been
led off as victorious conquerers. We stand now and hold the keys of
the American continent; we stand in the strong chambers of the
mountains; and can the Lord God give us the victory? He can and he
will, and he has been preparing us for this by pouring out upon us his
Holy Spirit, uniting the people who have been willing to repent and
[p.270] forsake their sins; and I hope we shall continue faithful to
the end.

vol. 5, p.270
I am glad, and my soul rejoices in these things, and I believe that
the people are ready to shoulder their guns and walk into these
kanyons and line them from here to Fort Bridger  in defence of the
Constitution of the United States and the rights which both the laws
of God and man guarantee to us.

vol. 5, p.270
We have had to stoop to our enemies heretofore and bear many things
from them worse than death; but if there is anything that gives us joy
and consolation—at least, I can speak for myself—it was when I heard
the brethren say, "You are free, brethren,—you are free; and you may
prove yourselves before God and men that you are willing to defend
yourselves against tyrants and oppressors."

vol. 5, p.270
When I heard this, I was full of joy; and who would not be? Who would
not rather die than bow down to the yoke of the enemy? It would
sweeten death to a man to know that he should lay down his life in
defence of freedom and the kingdom of God rather than to longer bow to
the cruelty of mobs, even if the mob have the name of being legalized
by the nation.

vol. 5, p.270
I thank God dud I rejoice that this people are determined to be free
from mobocracy and oppression, and that they are determined to have
peace, if they have to fight for it; and if the yoke is ever put on
again, it will be by ourselves: and I say, God bless this people and
the missionaries that have gone to the nations,—no matter whether they
have baptized one or a thousand, if they have done the will of God.

vol. 5, p.270
Nothwithstanding the lightnings may flash, thunders roll, and
earthquakes bellow, the Lord will extend his hand over his servants
and protect them as he has done those that have returned unto us. And
the Lord will remember our brethren that are on the Plains; and let,
us remember them in our prayers, that the Lord may be on our side; dud
let us be on hand and be ready at any and every call, and the kingdom
will spread abroad, and it will smite the image not only on the toes
but on the head; which may God grant for our sake. Amen. [p.271]

Heber C. Kimball, September 27, 1857

Spiritual Dissolution—Ignorance of the World.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the 
Bowery, Sunday Afternoon, September 27, 1857.

vol. 5, p.271
I was going to say I was glad that I live. Bless your souls, I expect
always to live. Most of the people are always talking about death. I
do not know anything about it, and I never wish to know anything about
what is called death, and I never shall, except I sin and turn away
from this Church and away from Jesus Christ. When I turn from him, I
follow a character that is called Death; but while I live my religion,
I never shall die,—that is, my spirit never will die.

vol. 5, p.271
My tabernacle that is now standing before you, that you see with your
eyes. I expect will decay, just like an old house. When it is done
with, it decays, and turns back to the mother earth, from whence it
was taken; and it is so with my body; it is so with yours; but it is
not so with my spirit, if I live my religion.

vol. 5, p.271
If I do not live my religion, but turn away from the principles of
light and life, my spirit will die. You have heard me speak of that a
great many times, and so you have brother Brigham. There are thousands
upon thousands whose bodies will die by the power of the second death;
and then they never will return again. Many call that annihilation.

vol. 5, p.271
It is just the same with that as it is with this pitcher: it was made
in England; it was once in its mother element, and it was taken out of
the earth, and went through a certain process. It was then modelled
and fashioned into the shape in which you now see it.

vol. 5, p.271
Now, will the day come when this pitcher will return to its mother
earth? It will; and it may be thrown into some part of the earth where
it may be thousands and millions of years before that pitcher or the
elements of which it is composed will be brought back again; and so it
will be with thousands and millions of the people: they never will be
brought back into the shape they were in once.

vol. 5, p.271
Some men enquire, "Why?" Simply because they have dishonoured the
spirit and bodies that God gave them; therefore God will make a
desolation of those bodies and spirits, and he will throw them back
into the earth; that is, that portion that belongs to the earth will
go back there. And so it will be with our spirits: they will go back
into the elements or space that they once occupied before they came
here.

vol. 5, p.271
Now, you may believe what you have a mind to about it; it is just as
easy to conceive of a dissolution as to conceive of anything else.
Chemists take elements and dissolve them and separate them, and can it
not be done with our bodies? I answer yes, and with our spirits too,
just as easy as a chemist can take a five-dollar piece and dissolve it
into an element that is like water. Can that be restored again? It
can: it can be dissolved, and it can be brought back again. And upon
the same principle can our [p.272] bodies be dissolved and restored
again.

vol. 5, p.272
You know I am always at work at something that I can make you
understand. As to eloquence, brother Taylor told you last Sunday what
it was. "What is it?" says one. Nothing but truth, and that in its
simplicity. My prayers are—and if your prayers were always right, you
would pray so also—that our leader, brother Brigham, would convey
things in a plain and simple manner. And you should also pray that I
might do it; for I know there are many things laid before this people
that hundreds of them do not understand.

vol. 5, p.272
I have often talked to this people about their ceasing from their evil
ways. You hear the same things every sabbath. Brother Case has been
teaching it, and my exhortation today is, Cease from your dissensions.

vol. 5, p.272
Well, there are scores of people in this congregation who do not know
what that means. When brother Brigham says a thing is so and so, and I
answer that I do not believe a word of it, that is justifying my
conduct. Do you not see it is? You would not believe that there are
people in this congregation who are so ignorant that they do not
understand this; but there are. Some are so ignorant that they will
make fun of this, and they are of all the most ignorant. You never saw
a learned man or a learned woman, who was a gentleman or a lady, that
would ever ridicule a man or woman for not being better educated.

vol. 5, p.272
There is a difficulty with many of the Elders who go to England, to
the United States, and to the islands of the sea: they do not explain
things in that simple manner which they ought to do; but they use
words that are above the capacity of the people.

vol. 5, p.272
Go into Philadelphia, New York, Rochester, and many other great
cities, and you will find the most ignorant people that are in the
world. In those very cities there are thousands and hundreds of
thousands that do not know as much as my old cow.

vol. 5, p.272
You may think that is extravagant; but there was a Baptist priest as
ignorant as that—a Mr. Barrett, who kept an academy called Barrett's
academy, in London. He did not know what baptism or repentance was,
and we could not teach him, he was so ignorant and stupid.

vol. 5, p.272
But let one of my wives go up to a cow of mine, and say "So," and the
cow knows what that means, and will. stand still. Then my wife says to
her, "Don't you kick one bit while I am milking you. If you do, I will
whip you;" and the old cow stands still till the last drop of milk is
drawn.

vol. 5, p.272
There are a great many men and women who do not know as much as that:
but you can teach cattle, for there is instinct in them; and you can
teach a horse, for we have seen it done in this city. Did not God
cultivate a donkey one time? He did. Yes; the Lord cultivated the ass,
and he spoke and rebuked the Prophet: and cannot he do the same now?
Did he not speak to a raven and tell it to carry food to Elijah?

vol. 5, p.272
These are a few preliminary remarks. I have said what I have said, and
you may take from it what you please. We have to learn the principle
of obedience and do as we are told.

vol. 5, p.272
As a general thing, this people will listen and do what brother
Brigham and brother Heber say; but there are some who will not do what
their Bishops say. Does that show obedience? You cannot obey him and
then disobey his brethren that are with him. If a wife cannot be
obedient to me, will she be obedient to anybody else? I don't think
she will; but I think, if you place anybody else in my situation, she
will  disobey him, and she will disobey every other one [p.273] that
she may go with, and there is no end to her disobedience.

vol. 5, p.273
I have got to be obedient to whom? To my leader. It does not make any
odds what he says. If he says, "Brother Heber, go and build a barn
thus and so," and he gives me a sketch of that barn, and I go to work
and build it, there is obedience. Well, after I built it, there is
something about the barn that he does not like, or that does not suit
him, and he says, "Brother Heber, I want you to go and take that away
and put up such and such things;" and then he tells me to take down
the barn. I go and do it. Then he tells me to build it again, and I do
it. That is obedience. You see it, do you not?

vol. 5, p.273
I, cannot honour God nor angels unless I am obedient to my leader;
neither will God honour me, except I will honour the words of those
men whom he sends. Do you know it? You know you have got to come to
that standard, every man and every, woman. "Verily, verily, I say unto
 you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that
receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." (John xiii. 20.)

vol. 5, p.273
If I could not see the spirit of obedience in you, I could not warrant
you, neither could I warrant any man or woman, nor could any Prophet
or Patriarch warrant you salvation. We must be passive in the hands of
the authorities, as this pitcher was passive in the hands of the
potter that made it.

vol. 5, p.273
Gentlemen, ye Elders of Israel, whether you are old men, young men, or
middle-aged, you have got to learn the lesson of obedience.

vol. 5, p.273
Now, brethren, do you not think it is about time that we began to
learn? Does middle age or does old age excuse a man? No, it does not.
Well, then, what will justify a man in doing wrong? Not anything. To
do as I am told is my duty. It is written in the Bible somewhere,
"Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of
rams." If I want to honour God, let me honour those whom he has sent
and whom he has placed to dictate and control the affairs of his
kingdom.

vol. 5, p.273
I frequently talk about the clay in the hands of the potter. The Lord
said to Jeremiah, "I will show you a thing that I cannot tell you. Go
down to the potter's house, and I will be there, but you shall not see
me; and I will make that potter mar a vessel." Jeremiah went down to
the potter's house, and the Lord showed him the very thing he had
promised; for the potter undertook to make a vessel, and the clay
marred in his hands, and he cut it off the wheel and threw it into the
mill; "and now," says he, "take it out again and shape it into a ball,
and turn it into a vessel of honour." He did that very thing, though
it is not written. The Scriptures say that out of the same lump he
made a vessel first unto dishonour, and then unto honour.

vol. 5, p.273
I used to preach upon that in Nauvoo, and Joseph said it was the true
interpretation. Now, Jeremiah was a man like brother Brigham, brother
Heber, Amasa, and thousands of the servants of God that were valiant.
There are thousands here that have never seen a potter's house. But if
I was in one, I could take a lump of clay and show you; and perhaps,
being out of practice, it would mar in my hands: then I would throw it
back into the mill and grind it, and afterwards I would take it up
again and make a vessel unto honour. And thus the Lord said to
Jeremiah, "As you see that clay mar in the hands of the potter, so
shall it be with the house of Israel. They shall go and be in prison
till I bring them out and make them vessels unto honour." That is to
be done in the latter days, when the Lord is to say [p.274] to the dry
bones, "Come forth," and so on. Go and read the Bible, and you will
learn about it. It will be just so with thousands and tens of
thousands who will embrace "Mormonism:" they will go back into the
mill again, through disobedience.

vol. 5, p.274
I do not believe, of all the Branches of this church that were raised
up twenty-five years ago, that there is one man out of twenty who now
stands firm and is living. Of the two thousand whom I and my brethren
baptised, when we first went to old England, I do not believe there
are five hundred now in this Church.

vol. 5, p.274
Brother Brigham and I paid from ten to fifteen thousand dollars to
emigrate Saints from that country to the States. But where are they
now? They have not all remained with us; and, in fact, it was not six
months before many of them turned round and cursed us. They would not
live their religion: they were stupid, and wanted their own way like a
mule. All such characters will go overboard, and they will have to lie
there till the Lord Almighty says, "Go and deliver the Gospel to them
again." I am talking what I know and what I realize.

vol. 5, p.274
Brethren and sisters, you have all got to be tested; but I know I
cannot force things into your minds: I can only tell you things as I
see them. There are a great many of this people that are exulting, and
they feel as though they could whip a hundred men each I but you are
not going to have very much trouble this fall.

vol. 5, p.274
Those troops seem to feel determined to come here. There are about
1,400 of them; and, with their officers and servants, altogether there
will be upwards of 2,000. Captain Van Vliet advised them to turn in
somewhere and fix up and stay for the winter; but he had no orders
about the matter: therefore all he could do was to give them good
counsel. But when he found they could not be prevailed upon to take
his advice, he told them that if they attempted to come in here we
should slay them. When they heard this they shouted with anger, and
the next day they travelled thirty miles towards this place: they made
two days' march in one.

vol. 5, p.274
While brother Jones was there, they exulted over us and sang all
manner of songs, telling how they were going to kill brother Brigham
and all those who would uphold "Mormonism;" and they seemed to be as
crazy as fools. They swore that they would use every woman in this
place at their own pleasure—that they would slay old Brigham and old
Heber; and they actually think that there are many—especially
women—that will feel glad should they enter this valley, that they may
be reprieved. Indeed they carry on in a most disgraceful and
disgusting manner.

vol. 5, p.274
How long is it since brother Brigham proffered to release all the
women in this Territory who wished to be released? At the last October
Conference. That woman is to blame who wanted to be free and did not
take the liberty that was given; and I say to all of mine that want to
go, Go, and I will give you all the writings you want; and, besides
that, I will give you the means to help you away.

vol. 5, p.274
These are my feelings in relation to those who want to go away. I say
you shall have the privilege; for we will prepare the way so that you
can go, if there are any who wish to go; and such has always been the
case. But, as it happens, there are none who want to go, that we know
of.

vol. 5, p.274
In relation to those soldiers coming here, they never can come, so
long as the Lord God Almighty gives us strength to resist them. And
that is not all. There is no man that can rule over this people but
Brigham Young. 

vol. 5, p.274
[The congregation shouted, "Amen."] 

vol. 5, p.274
And as long as we uphold him as the man  holding the keys of this
[p.275] kingdom, he shall rule as Governor of this people. What a
foolish thing it would be for us to drop brother Brigham and say that
a wicked man should have that position! Oh! the hell and the sorrow
that this people would see! But we never will have any other man so
long as he liveth; and then it shall be his successor in office—the
man whom God Almighty appoints; and no other man.

vol. 5, p.275
The brethren talk about our freedom. Why, we are just as free as the
old veterans of the revolution were before they got their
independence.

vol. 5, p.275
We have declared our independence But, gentlemen and ladies, we have
got to maintain that by the strength of Jehovah. And that man and that
woman who cannot stand up to the test, I ask you to leave as quick as
you can; for when the time of the test comes, as the Lord God Almighty
lives, if you then leave us or betray us, that is the end of you.

vol. 5, p.275
Do not exult over our enemies; but when you have an opportunity, get
down upon your knees and cry unto the Lord God till you get his
Spirit, and be as clay in the hands of the potter, and learn to do as
you are told. This is the thing to learn.  The virtue is not
altogether in taking a fiddle and playing the tune, but it is
something of a job to dance to the tune.

vol. 5, p.275
This year's trouble will not be much. It is not going to amount to a
great deal; but it will amount to this—a collision between this people
and the United States; and the gate will be shut down between us and
them. This is already done to a certain extent; but many of you do not
see it.

vol. 5, p.275
We have been telling you these things for years; but did you believe
them? Yes, and so did the devils. he devils believe and tremble; but
where is the practice, gentlemen? Where is your practice, ladies? Your
practice has been chiefly exhibited on your heads, around your necks
and shoulders, and all over you. Does this correspond with what is
about to take place with us—when there is about to be a collision with
us and the world—when we have got to maintain the kingdom of God? As
brother Brigham says, it is the kingdom of God or nothing.

vol. 5, p.275
Brother Case was talking about our being an independent people; and I
say we are independent—just as independent as we ever shall be, until
we completely gain the victory. This we have got to do by faith and by
good works. We have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling,
as God Almighty willeth us to do; for all men are subject to him, to
do his will, keep his commandments, and bring to pass his righteous
purposes.

vol. 5, p.275
I would advise my brethren from this day to attend faithfully to their
duties wherever they may be called upon to act; and I would advise my
sisters to stay at home and attend to their domestic concerns, and
prepare diligently for the approaching day of trial. Prepare for the
worst; for you need not expect any better times than you now see.

vol. 5, p.275
I have told you you have seen the best times that you would see until
the kingdom of God is established for this world has to become subject
to the kingdom of God and his Christ.

vol. 5, p.275
When the United States have done their best, then other nations will
tackle us, and so things will go on, until every nation is brought
into subjection to the kingdom of God. Go and read it in the Bible. I
could not say anything else, if I should try.

vol. 5, p.275
All the difference between ancient; and modern prophets is—we are
fulfilling what they told, only it was not all written. The scenery is
the same; and then, again, it is not. This is the fulness of all
dispensations; and it so much bigger than any of [p.276] the others,
that all the rest are embodied in it.

vol. 5, p.276
Everything spoken of that has not been fulfilled will have to be
fulfilled in this dispensation. The kingdom of God is set up in a
degree: it is in embryo, and it will continue to receive strength. The
child has proclaimed its liberty, although it has not got its full
growth. The child is free; but he has got to whip out all the wicked
and bring them into subjection to the kingdom of God, or to the
kingdom of his Father. We are the boys that are being brought to this
test. God is going to test every one of us—men, women, and children.

vol. 5, p.276
I will here say, in the name of Israel's God, that I will not be
trammelled in the purposes of God; neither should any other one. I
have said the day of petting is past with me, and it should be past
with all good men. I heard my leader say, the other day, that he could
manage the affairs of this people and of the United States and of
Europe with more ease to his mind than he can listen to the little,
peevish, trifling complaints that women bring to him. A good deal of
it is little peevishness.

vol. 5, p.276
What kind of matters do they trouble him with? Why, one woman runs
and—"Brother Brigham, my old hen has laid an egg; and I heard that if
I set it on one end it would be a hen, and if on the other it would be
a rooster; and I want a rooster." That is a simile.

vol. 5, p.276
I am speaking of this for you to let him alone. If you have
difficulties brethren and sisters, go to your Bishops, and let those
Bishops investigate the case; and if it is worthy of his notice, let
your Bishop go to brother Brigham and have his counsel upon it.

vol. 5, p.276
When our President says that these little things trouble him, I say
they should never go to him at all. It is generally women that have to
go—that class of them that seem to wish. to do all the business.

vol. 5, p.276
You will frequently see from twenty to sixty women round that Tithing
Store. If I have any business there, I go and do it, and then go about
my other business. The brethren there are weary; and I want brother
Hunter to have his days set to deal out to the people. You should be
at home gleaning wheat or knitting. Let me advise you, sisters, to be
humble and prayerful before your God. Pray for your husbands, if you
have got any; and if you have not, pray for those men who lead you and
bear off this kingdom.

vol. 5, p.276
You do not have to go out to fight; and you should think of this when
you are gadding about from one place to the other—you that have so
much visiting to do that you even visit on Sundays too. I want to know
why such ones are not serving their God and taking care of that which
is put into their hands?

vol. 5, p.276
Now, am I hard upon the sisters? No. The good woman sits here and says
it is heaven to her to listen to such teachings. I do not wish to say
anything to such persons; but it is those that are guilty that I am
after.

vol. 5, p.276
Do I want to hurt your feelings? No; I would not for my right arm. But
stop going to brother Brigham with your little family affairs. I
hardly ever go to brother Brigham's office but there are some sisters
there—sometimes from ten to twenty in a day; and some few come to me,
but not many.

vol. 5, p.276
Do I advise a woman to leave her husband? No. But, say I, Go home;
make peace, and be a comfort to your husband. Do I advise a man to
leave his wife? No. But I tell him to go home and nourish her, comfort
her, and clothe her, and then see that she does her duty. I will admit
there are some men who  are hard and [p.277] overbearing; and then
there are some women who cannot be controlled.

vol. 5, p.277
I have one or two women that I cannot control, and never did; and I
would as soon try to control a rebellious mule as to control them. I
have not given them a word of counsel for the last eight years but
what they have murmured or rebelled against and called me a hard man.
I have not told you who they are; but I know them.

vol. 5, p.277
Is it wrong to speak of these things? I have one or two women that I
cannot control, and never did. "Do you support them?" says one. Yes,
as well as the best women I have. And if you want to know why I do it,
it is because I want to get along with it as well as I can in this
life. But I can tell you that if the time comes when I am obliged to
desert and lay waste my habitation, I will then lug them no more. 

vol. 5, p.277
Let us do a good work and be a good people. Do I give you the credit
of being the best people on the face of God's earth? I do. There is
not a better people on the face of God's footstool; and they are
generally doing just as well as they know how to do.

vol. 5, p.277
I see the evil that is coming next year, except God frustrates their
designs,—which he will do, if we are faithful. Our enemies may
undertake to send from fifty to a hundred thousand troops next year;
and if we are faithful, God will frustrate their designs. We can plead
with the Father, and then it will depend upon our faithfulness as a
people.

vol. 5, p.277
If there is a good woman that has not got a good man, she can be a
good woman as she is; and if there is a good man that has not got a
good woman, he can be a good man without one. Before I would live in a
quarrel, I would take my johnny-cake and go into the woods! And if I
was a man that worked on the public works, and I could not live in
peace, I would take my victuals with me, and I would stick to God and
to his kingdom, and I would not quarrel. You know I am not a
quarrelsome man. This is what I call disputation.

vol. 5, p.277
Let us do right, keep the commandments of God, and live in peace and
quietude. Is there a man in this congregation that has any difficulty
with me? No, there is not; or if there is, I do not know it. If I have
any difficulty with any one, I tell them of it; and then if I am in
the fault; I repent and make satisfaction, if any is needed; and if
they are in fault, I expect them to do the same. That is the Spirit of
God, is it not? It is the Spirit that should exist with every man.

vol. 5, p.277
Mr. Buchanan and his coadjutors are striving to oppress Utah and
deprive us of our constitutional rights: They have taken the Eastern
mail from us, and they will endeavor to take away everything they have
given us, and will make their heaviest efforts to destroy this people.
But if this community will entirely cease to do any evil and will
unitedly live their religion, God Almighty will so confound their
enemies that they cannot bring an army into this country. He will do
that, if you will do as you are told.

vol. 5, p.277
When I think of those things that exist among some of this people, I
am grieved. "Do you not quarrel, brother Heber?" says one. No, I do
not. But; when a woman begins to dispute me, about nine times outer
ten I get up and say, "Go it," and then go off about my business; and
if ever I am so foolish as to quarrel with a woman, I ought to be
whipped; for you may always calculate that they will have the last
word. I know that there are some quarrelsome individuals, but I do not
want any such spirits about me.

vol. 5, p.278
[p.278] When I sleep, I have fifteen shooters, six shooters, and all
other kind of shooters; and the devils do not come there: and if they
succeed in troubling me, they have to get into some other person's
body. I have left the Devil's kingdom and have enlisted in the kingdom
of Jesus, and I never intend to turn away from it.

vol. 5, p.278
As for our enemies, they never can injure us; but they will make their
heaviest strides against us. And it will not be long before the world
will turn over the riches of the world to us, and I know it. If you
will only live faithful, you will never be driven to the necessity of
burning up your houses, your lumber, or your fruit trees.

vol. 5, p.278
Our peach and apple trees are beginning to bear fruit, and we may just
as well eat the fruit from them as not. But if we do not live our
religion, we may have to go into the mountains and take it Indian
fashion.

vol. 5, p.278
The United States have robbed the Indians, and now they are trying to
afflict us; and they will go to hell with all the nations that forget
God.

vol. 5, p.278
Brethren and sisters, God bless you! May the Lord God Almighty bless
you, every one; and you may consider the blessing just the same as
though I had my hands upon your heads; for every one of you shall be
blessed who will do right and uphold his servants.

vol. 5, p.278
Now, let brother Brigham alone, will you not? I do not suppose there
are any who want to annoy him. But let me say to all of you, if you
have any difficulties that you cannot settle, go to your Bishops; and
then, if the case is worthy of further notice, your Bishops can go to
brother Brigham and get the proper information and settle the
difficulty accordingly. You have no idea how he is troubled; for of
all the trouble and perplexing things on the earth, the little
complaints and murmurings of women are the most tedious.

vol. 5, p.278
God Almighty bless you, brethren and sisters! and I bless you, and I
bless the air, the earth, the mountains, and everything that is in
these regions. I bless the elements in these mountains; and my prayer
is that the fathers of these Lamanites—the old prophets and old
patriarchs—will visit them by night and by day; and they will do it
when the proper time comes, and they will visit this people when they
are worthy and when it is necessary. God Almighty will arouse every
tribe and every nation that exists in the East, West, North, and
South, and they will be on hand for our relief. Now, mark it; for the
day is nigh at hand, and it will be here sooner than you can lay up
your corn, your barley, your wheat, and the comforts of life: yes,
they will be here for our relief.

vol. 5, p.278
I feel that I am pleading with this people to stop all bickerings and
to be Saints in very deed. We give you the name of being the best
people upon the earth. Brother Brigham says that this people are doing
the best they can. I will admit that. But when a man steals, that man
is not living righteously. When a woman steals, I do not believe that
she is doing the best she knows.

vol. 5, p.278
This people, as a community, with but here and there a solitary
exception, are doing about as well as any other people could do upon
the face of the earth. I believe and know that I do the best I can to
please God and my brethren: I leave it to them if I do not. I did last
week: I laboured till I thought I should faint; and I would rather die
than be in rebellion. Do I take a course to hurt brother Brigham,
brother Spencer, brother Woodruff, brother Amasa, or any other Saint?
No, I do not.

vol. 5, p.278
God bless you! I want my brethren to live near me, so that I can see
[p.279] them. God bless you, brother Phineas, and brother Case, and
the old Patriarch! and God bless you, John and William, and Betsy and
Sally! Is not that manifesting good feelings? That is the way to be
happy. Now let us go home and take a course to be industrious and
happy and to secure a livelihood."

vol. 5, p.279
There is considerable sickness from colds in our city: it is a kind of
epidemic. It has been in the horses and mules, and now it is turned
upon us; and let us fast and pray that the sickness may erase, and it
shall not continue upon the house of Israel; for I rebuke it in the
name of Israel's God, and you shall rebuke it, and it shall be turned
away from us, and it shall go to our enemies, and they shall see
sorrow. They cannot come here. But if they will be peaceable and
behave themselves, they shall live, and we will have compassion upon
them, though they are in our hands as much as any people ever were in
the hands of another upon the face of the earth; but in the mercy of
God they have been spared because they are ignorant. But would to God
that they were composed of the priests of the day and the thousands
that have caused Joseph and Hyrum and many others to lie down in the
dust! Would not we have joy, if they were along here? [Voices: "We
would."] Yes, and so would I. But these troops are all
foreigners—almost all of them: they are what we call the low Dutch,
the Irish, the English, and of almost all nations. They are ignorant
of the wicked course and object of this movement against us; and so
are many, if not all of the officers who lead them. But they must go
where they are ordered by their superiors, or resign. However, they
cannot get here to work their abominations, destruction, and death.
Amen.

Orson Hyde, October 4, 1857

Murmuring Against Divine Authority—
Faith in Prayer—Unity of Spirit

A Discourse by Elder Orson Hyde, delivered in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, October 4, 1857.

vol. 5, p.279
Brethren and Sisters,—I feel to occupy a portion of the time allotted
to us this morning, in calling your attention to some matters which I
hope and trust may be for our benefit, for our security, and for our
prosperity.

vol. 5, p.279
We are all aware, or should be, of the condition that we are in and
the circumstances by which we are surrounded. We have duly considered
them, for we have, had time for reflection: we have had time to weigh
the matter in our own minds; and it is now for us to be fixed and firm
in our purpose, that we deviate not in our actions, neither in our
feelings from the path that is marked out for us, but cheerfully,
resolutely, and patiently pursue that track. There is no doubt at all
but that we shall have trials to pass through—all, perhaps, that we
are able to bear; for all strength that is given to us will be tested,
and will be tried, and will be proven.

vol. 5, p.280
[p.280] It is now for us to avoid one fatal rock, I may say, upon
which the Israelites of old wrecked to a certain extent; and that is,
that when they were gloriously delivered by the hand of our God and
brought into the wilderness by a mighty hand and by an outstretched
arm, they murmured against Moses and they murmured against God because
they could not enjoy the luxuries—the good things of Egypt, such as
they were wont to enjoy while in bondage.

vol. 5, p.280
How soon did they forget the mighty miracles that were wrought for
their deliverance! There was a time that the Israelites could do
nothing. They had come to the shores of the Red Sea: they could not
advance; their enemies were in their rear, and they could not advance.
When they looked forward, it seemed impossible for them to pass
onward; and when they looked back, destruction awaited them; and in
the midst of this they exclaimed, perhaps, "What shall we do?"

vol. 5, p.280
It appears that there was nothing to be done, and hence the word was
to them to stand still and see the salvation of God. In due time Moses
was directed to smite the waters of the Red Sea: the waters were
divided and Israel bade to go forward.

vol. 5, p.280
It appears that the Lord will open the way wherever he requires his
Saints to go, however dark and hedged up it may seem. Yet, when the
time comes for us to take one step, the way will open; and it is not
likely that we can see the final issue or the result of our journey at
first. If we could see the end, there would be no trial of our faith;
but all the time we must walk by faith, and not by sight.

vol. 5, p.280
It is a good deal in this respect as it was with the disciples of old:
it was required that they should take no thought what they should eat,
what they should drink, or wherewithal they should be clothed.

vol. 5, p.280
It was also required that they should take no thought what they should
say, for they were told it should be given unto them in the very hour
what they should speak; and so it will be given to the faithful and
pure before the Lord in this age of the world in the very hour that it
is required and in the very time that it is needed.

vol. 5, p.280
They will see how to take one step and where to place one feel; and if
they cannot see where to put the second, they must wait till they can
see where to put it.

vol. 5, p.280
This was the case with the children of Israel when they were bade to
go through the Red Sea; for whether they could see the track open all
the way across is very questionable with me; but as they saw where to
take one step, so they were required to advance all the way through
that mighty deep, and they went through dryshod; and the very means
ordained for theft salvation were the very means for the destruction
of their enemies.

vol. 5, p.280
But after the children of Israel had such a glorious triumph and sang
the songs of deliverance, how soon they murmured against the authority
of God and the Holy One who was appointed to lead them. They wanted
the flesh, the leeks, and onions of Egypt; and the Lord was forced to
come out of his hiding-place and cut them off from the face of the
earth; and there fell in one day three-and-twenty thousand. This is
written for our example, that we through faith and patience of the
Scriptures might have comfort.

vol. 5, p.280
It is written, "A prophet shall the Lord our God raise up like unto
me:" that is Moses speaking: "And it shall come to pass that whosoever
shall not hear that prophet shall be cut off from among the people." I
am not going to say who that Prophet is; but I am going to present
some few things for your consideration, and you may draw your own
conclusions.

vol. 5, p.281
[p.281] Did Jesus Christ ever lead forth the people of God like unto
Moses? Did he not say, "How often would I have gathered you as a hen
gathereth her chickens, and ye would not?" Did he lead them with an
outstretched arm? He wrought miracles and did all the good he could;
but I cannot see that Jesus ever led the people as did Moses. He
performed his work and fulfilled his mission: but a Prophet was to be
raised up like unto Moses; and hence I draw the conclusion that this
is the only Prophet or the only dynasty of Prophets through whom the
Lord would speak.

vol. 5, p.281
I know that some think the Lord is going to establish his kingdom
through other prophets than those amongst us. Well, if the law is to
be given through others, why is the responsibility placed upon us to
go and preach the Gospel to all nations? If it is not to proceed from
this Priesthood wholly, why should the Twelve Apostles be required to
open the Gospel to all the nations of the earth, if there were other
channels through which the Gospel might be preached? By this I come to
the conclusion that whosoever will not hear this Prophet will be
destroyed from among the people.

vol. 5, p.281
This is the only people who profess to have Prophets of this
character, even like unto Moses; and the word is that whosoever will
not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. A
Prophet shall be at the head to lead, as it was with Israel when Moses
led them. Did he not say, "I will take and lead you as in days of
old?" Well, then, the ministration and signs of Moses are to be
enacted again. Joel shows us how they are to be. Read the 2nd chapter
of Joel all the way through, and that will show you how things are to
be.

vol. 5, p.281
"Why," says the Lord, "I sent my angel before my people hitherto; but
I have said that in the last days I will go myself before my people."
He has declared that he will utter his voice before his army, for his
camp is very great.

vol. 5, p.281
We shall be led into straitened places—into tried places; and now it
is for us to prepare ourselves, to fortify our hearts, to fortify our
spirits, that we never murmur against God nor against the Moses that
he has given us; for I tell you that the man that God has raised up is
no more responsible than we are; and I have thought not so much.

vol. 5, p.281
Can he make one erroneous move? If our prayers are offered up to the
Lord in his behalf—if our hearts are set upon doing that which we know
to be right, then we are right; but if not, we are wrong. If he is
wrong, our prayers are not heard.

vol. 5, p.281
Well, then, you see, the weight of responsibility reaches back upon
our shoulders; and we are the ones to take that responsibility and to
have faith in the words and in the prayers which we utter before the
Lord.

vol. 5, p.281
Brethren and sisters, be agreed in this respect, and be sure that when
you ask for a thing you do not doubt it; but hold on to it and believe
that you receive the things you ask for, and you shall have them. What
mind of spirit is it that comes and says, "Now, I will go and ask for
this or that; I do not know whether I will get it; it is a question
whether my prayers are heard; but I will pray because it is my duty?"

vol. 5, p.281
Now, a double-minded man is not a man of faith. We should consider
what we want and what is the mind and will of God to grant us. Say,
"So and so is the mind of God," and satisfy yourself that the prayer
you are about to offer is really the mind and will of your Father in
heaven; then bow down and ask for that thing or for those very things.
And when we have asked for any blessing, never [p.282] let a doubt
arise in our minds as to whether we shall receive the blessing, but
believe that our prayers are heard, and then they will be answered.

vol. 5, p.282
Let me say, brethren and sisters, do not pray for too many things at
once. What would you think if your son were to come and say, "Father,
I want a yoke of oxen, I want a cow, I want a horse, I want some
money, I want this, and I want that?"

vol. 5, p.282
"Why," says the father, "you ask for so many things that I cannot give
you anything at all." That son is covetous; he reaches for everything,
and I cannot give them to him; and hence the father concludes that he
won't give him anything; when, if the son had come and said, "Father,
if you can let me have a cow, I shall be glad," and then stop at that,
the father would say, "Yes, I will give you a cow;" and he is pleased
to do it. The son takes care of her, and by-and-by he comes and says,
"Father, won't you give me a horse ?" "Yes," says, the father. And so,
you see, he gets all that he wants, but not all at once.

vol. 5, p.282
Our Father in heaven says, "Where two or three of you agree as
touching one thing, and ask in the name of the Son, it shall be given.
Our Saviour had his eye upon this when he said, "If thy eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thy eye be evil, (some
say double,) thy whole body shall be full of darkness."

vol. 5, p.282
If your affections are divided, can you love two individuals or two
objects alike? Water, when its power is concentrated, turns machinery;
but when you divide it and apply its force upon many wheels at the
same time, it accomplishes little; whereas its condensed force upon
one wheel will effect the desired object.

vol. 5, p.282
This is true in relation to prayer; but is it true in relation to the
plurality of wives? Can a man really love more than one wife at the
same time? I may answer this question in the negative or in the
affirmative, and either may be considered correct according to
circumstances.

vol. 5, p.282
It was the prayer of Christ that his disciples, though many, might be
one,—that is, to have no mind or will of their own, but all partake of
his spirit and his mind; and thus, they being one in him, he could
easily love them all. But if one set  up a will of his own—rebelled in
his feelings against a union with each other and with his legitimate
head also, he might pity the folly of that rebellious one, but could
not love him as those who rebelled not.

vol. 5, p.282
If a man bare forty wives, and they all receive his mind and spirit,
and are thus one in him, he can as easily love them all (because they
are one,) as a father can love a half-score of children who copy his
mind and spirit. But if a woman rebel in her feelings against a good
man, and yield to the temptations of the Devil, she may know that her
husband may pity, but cannot love her, because she has ceased to be
one with him and to partake of his mind and spirit. If, therefore,
your husband be a good man, and you copy his mind and his spirit, he
cannot help loving you, though he have forty other wives in the same
situation.

vol. 5, p.282
Now, you wives, partake of the spirit of your husbands, and you will
be loved; but you set up a standard and a spirit aside from his, and
he never will love you; no, he never will. I speak to the knowledge
and experience of some: yes, too many know that this is true.

vol. 5, p.282
And ye husbands, drink into the Spirit of your God and of your
superiors in the Priesthood on earth; and if your wives are good
women, they will love you; but if you do not, they will not love you;
they won't have confidence in you.

vol. 5, p.282
You husbands, go to work by your [p.283] own spirit and set up a
standard independent of the Holy Ghost, and will God love you? No, he
won't. If you do not drink into the spirit of your superiors, will
they love you? —will they have confidence in you? No, they won't.

vol. 5, p.283
Well, you see it is all flowing in our legitimate channel. If God has
ten thousand children, or a million, or ten millions, and all partake
of one spirit, and they are one, does he not love them all? Yes, he
does. But if one steps aside from the path marked out, will he love
him? No, he won't. But if the ignorant sin and go astray, he may send
a messenger after them and get them back. He may rejoice over them and
pity them when they are away, and rejoice over them when they come
back.

vol. 5, p.283
Now, brethren and sisters, consider these principles: weigh them well
in your minds; for the greatest evil that I know of in this people is
the little bickerings in families. I am happy to say that even this
evil is diminishing; yet there should be none at all.

vol. 5, p.283
The spirits of men and women should ever be guided and tempered by the
Holy Ghost; and I believe that the desire and intention of a large
majority of the people are to keep the spirit of their superiors and
of their God—to drink it and live by it.

vol. 5, p.283
Would to God that all the women that are adopted into families would
partake of the spirit of their husbands, if they are upright men. They
have no right to an independent standard any more than I have a right
to a standard independent of the Holy Ghost. I should have an
independence to turn away from all sin; for that is the Spirit of God,
and that is the right kind of independence, and that is the only kind
that is justifiable.

vol. 5, p.283
I feel, brethren and sisters, that I should not go amiss—that I should
not go astray from the path of duty, were I to call upon families to
repent of their sins in this respect. I have laid before you, this
morning, some of the greatest evils there are in families —an
unwillingness of the members of those families to keep the spirit of
their head. Some of them are unwilling to do it: it is too much the
case. I only direct these remarks where they are applicable; and
there, fore those to whom they do not apply will not take them: and
perhaps there will be some to whom they are applicable that will say,
I do no; believe that doctrine. To such I would say. You are the very
one; you are the very character to repent and submit yourself to the
proper government, of God.

vol. 5, p.283
In relation to murmuring against: God, brethren and sisters, do you
not know that the Israelites were reproved and that they were slain
because they murmured against their God? Well, now, in the same light
do families stand who murmur against their head and partake not of the
spirit of their head; for, say the Scriptures, "Whose will not hear
that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." Remember that
it is by patient continuance in welldoing that we seek for honour,
happiness, and eternal life,—by patient continuance all the time,. and
not when we come into trying places to turn aside; but to abide in the
covenants and be patient, seeking for honour, immortality, and eternal
life.

vol. 5, p.283
Well, now, you brethren, do not you go home and say that just suits
me—that is my doctrine, and take liberty thereby to tyrannize over
your families. If it just suits you, and if it is your doctrine, all
right. But one thing lot me tell you—Seek the spirit of your head; and
if you will do that, you will never take advantage of the remarks of
the servants of God to mistreat your women. But, at the same time, the
principle must be laid open before [p.284] you, so that you can
understand it. No doubt you all know it and under stand it perfectly
well; but it is necessary once in a while to "stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance." Do not murmur against God, against Moses, nor
against your legitimate head: no, do not do it; for "Whoever will not
hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people."

vol. 5, p.284
Well, now, brethren and sisters, these are about the remarks that I
wanted to make. There are a great many things in which we have
improved; and in respect to the things of which I have spoken, there
is no doubt but you have greatly improved; but I tell you there is
room for a mighty stride of improvement in this respect. This is the
way I feel about it.

vol. 5, p.284
I do not wish to divide your attention upon a thousand things, but I
wish to call your attention to this thing and say, Repent of all your
deviations from the path of duty; and I believe that you know this is
a true doctrine—that you are satisfied that it is true. Cast away from
you every feeling of rebellion and of murmuring that will lead you to
oppose your legitimate head, and drink down the spirit of your
superiors, and abide by it; and then you are one: and when you are
one, God can love you all at the same time. Why, when I love a person,
I not only love the head, but I love the face, the hands, the feet,
and all the members of that body. Well, then, if we are all members of
the body, does not God love us all? Certainly he does. Then away with
the idea that a man cannot love but one object at a time: away with
this, I say, and let us all be one. Then if any part of us is loved,
we are all loved. I believe that I have said all that I wanted to say.
May God bless you and save us all in his kingdom! Amen.

vol. 5, p.284
There is one word more that I want to say, and it is right in
connection with what I have said. I won't turn your minds away from
what has been spoken; but I want to tell you that brother Brigham,
brother Heber, and brother Daniel's responsibilities laid upon them
make them feel more than any other men can feel. They are enough to
burst iron hearts, aside from their family responsibilities. Pray,
therefore, that their strength may be equal to their day; and while
you pray for them, work to your prayer. And if you ask, "How shall I
work to it?" I will tell you. If you get some little difficulty on
your mind, you Bishops, you Elders, you members, do not run to brother
Brigham, to brother Heber, nor to brother Daniel. You have prayed to
God that their burdens may be lightened; then do not throw your
troubles upon them, but pray to God to nerve their bodies and their
spirits, and to give them power and strength sufficient for their day.

vol. 5, p.284
You would not say to the mule or jackass that is bending beneath his
burden, "Oh! poor animal!" and then jump on to him yourself: you would
not do that. Then, when you see the Presidency of our Church—, our
leaders—when you see them bowed down, if you cannot go to do them any
good, do not go to them with any of your petty troubles and
difficulties. We want all these miserable petty cases put away or
settled between parties and their Bishop, and mercifully relieve our
head from unnecessary, petty, and vexatious troubles.

vol. 5, p.284
God bless us and enable us all to do so, through Jesus Christ! Amen.
[p.285]

Erastus Snow, October 4, 1857

Preparation of Heart for Divine Blessings—Responsibility—
Family Government

Remarks by Elder Erastus Snow, delivered in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 4, 1857.

vol. 5, p.285
I feel like offering a few of my reflections in connection with those
remarks we have heard this morning from Elder Hyde. I feel that they
are timely and good for the congregation of the Saints to reflect upon
and treasure up. I would not say anything to draw the minds and
reflections of the people from those sentiments which have been
presented by Elder Hyde this morning, but rather to enforce and
impress them upon the minds of the congregation, that every potion
capable of understanding may be able to treasure them up, that these
principles may abide in our hearts; for, says the Saviour, "If you
abide in me, and my words abide in you, they shall be in you as living
water, and ye shall bear much fruit."

vol. 5, p.285
Now, this people are not perishing for lack of knowledge: they have
not a lack of the words of the Lord. But if this people perish for
lack of knowledge at all, it is because they do not retain the word of
the Lord which is delivered to them: it is not because it is not
planted in our hearts, but because our ground is not properly broken
up. The ground of our hearts is not prepared, that the word that is
sown may bring forth fruit. This is the trouble and the reason why we
do not advance and bring forth more fruit, and grow more thrifty in
the work of the Lord our God, and increase in faith, in power with
God, in unison with him and with those whom he has set over us, and
with one another.

vol. 5, p.285
The trouble is not in our God, neither is it in our fellow
servants—those whom he has set to be our leaders, our teachers; for
God is with them, and he would be with them much more abundantly, if
we as a people were more ready to listen to them, and there was place
found in us for their words, and their words take effect in our
hearts. Then his Spirit and power would increase upon us, and there
would be no lack. The lack is in us—in the people, and always has
been, and is not in our God. He is waiting and anxious to pour out
blessings, and glory, and honour, and exaltation upon his people, far
more than we have ever received, and far more than we are capable of
receiving; and the only reason we have not received it long ago is
because there was no place found for it.

vol. 5, p.285
The great labour of the Lord and of all his servants is to prepare the
hearts of the people, to concentrate the feeling of the people, to
concentrate their faith, and to make them one, and to prepare their
hearts to bring forth the fruits of the kingdom of God. This is the
labour of preaching and praying, of exhorting, inviting, and
beseeching all the time,—to move upon the hearts of the people and
convince them of the necessity of union,—to impress it upon them, that
they may remember all those principles which alone can exalt them.
And, as was said by Elder Hyde, the responsibility of our conduct
rests [p.286] upon ourselves, and not upon our leaders. The
responsibility that is resting upon our leaders is alone the
responsibility of doing what the Lord wants them to.

vol. 5, p.286
The responsibility of what befals this people is no more upon brother
Brigham than it is upon me, and no more upon me than it is upon you;
and every individual soul in all Israel has his own responsibility to
bear, and he cannot throw it off. Whether it be good or evil—whether
it  be joy or sorrow—whether it be affliction or blessings, the
responsibility thereof rests upon us individually.

vol. 5, p.286
Brothers Brigham, Heber, and Daniel, who are they but our
fellow-servants—those that the Lord has given us to be our leaders and
the mouthpieces of the Lord unto this people—the legitimate channel
through which to lead, govern, and control this people? But are they
responsible any more than you or I? No, not one whit. When they have
discharged their duties, they are as free from responsibility as you
or I. When they have done what lies in their power to do, they are
exonerated before their God, although they feel as no other men on
earth can feel, because there are no others placed in their condition;
and it is impossible for any others to feel as they feel and have the
same interest they have for the welfare of this people.

vol. 5, p.286
It is God who rules and leads; it is God who controls the destinies of
all men. Every man is in his hands, to be used as he will.
Whithersoever this people are led, they will be led through that
channel he has intended; and whether they go to the east, west, north,
or south,—whether they burn their dwellings and flee to the mountains,
or remain here,—whether they fight the Gentiles, or turn their hacks
upon them,—whatsoever they have to do, it will be the Lord Almighty
that does it; but he will do it through the channel he has appointed.

vol. 5, p.286
But will the responsibility of thousands be upon those men that are
set over us to lead us? No, it will not. I am well aware that there
are a great many people who in their childish simplicity feel that any
act that they do is nothing to them.

vol. 5, p.286
So far as taking thought or having trouble in our spirits about what
is to come or what will be the result of things, it is well that we
should set our hearts at rest and be at ease and feel quiet, and our
spirits calm as a summer's morning and resigned, and our feelings
prayerful and peaceful. But as far as feeling indifferent and like
throwing off the responsibility from our shoulders upon our leaders,
this should not be; neither should we claim exemption from the
responsibility of anything in Israel. Every one should have a share of
that responsibility, and they cannot throw that responsibility off;
for upon my head devolves the responsibility of directing my hands and
my feet and other members of my body in .their exercises. It is
equally the duty of every other member of the body to administer to
the head. The hands have to feel the head, and the head has to be
properly guarded and shielded, that it may be active and the brain
vigorous, that every movement may be wisely directed and every energy
of the body directed in proper channels.

vol. 5, p.286
Our God deals with us as a people. He does not deal with brother
Brig-ham, brother Heber, or brother Daniel separately and distinctly
from this people, or the people distinct from them. We cannot be
separated; we are one. We are the Twelve Apostles, the High Priests,
the Seventies, the Elders, the Priests, the Teachers, the Deacons, the
Bishops. Every quorum of the Priesthood, every man in Israel,  and
every woman in Israel are members of the same body—branches of the
[p.287] same vine, and partake of the same spirit, unless they are
branches that are withered and dried up. God will deal with us as a
whole all the time.

vol. 5, p.287
How was it with Israel of old, as has been referred to by Elder Hyde?
They were led by the hand of God all through the wilderness. God led
Moses. Sometimes they were led in one direction, and sometimes in
another. They were brought up against the Red Sea; and did not they,
in their blindness, chide with Moses because he had led them thus?
Looking at things naturally, they could say, "You might have gone
round and  avoided this snare: we might have taken another road,
instead of running right into this kanyon, between these two
mountains, and against the Red Sea, where there is no chance to dodge;
and so we are to perish by the armies of Egypt close in our rear and
the sea before us." These were the feelings of a great many weak in
faith and ignorant people among them; and they were ready to pick up
stones to stone Moses because he had done it.

vol. 5, p.287
There are a great many instances of the same kind during their forty
years' sojourning in the wilderness. Sometimes they were led into the
wilderness when they might have followed some streams of water, had
the Lord have led them in that channel. And when they were led into
different circumstances there were always some who complained and
threw the responsibility upon Moses, exonerating themselves.

vol. 5, p.287
Some wished to turn back unto Egypt, and a great many plans were in
view to extricate themselves from difficulties; except fleeing to the
Almighty, who had led them into those difficulties; and time and again
the Lord rebuked them and manifested his power to deliver them. But
who led them? Did Moses lead them? No. The Almighty led them. Moses
was his servant, and led them as the Almighty directed him.

vol. 5, p.287
Why did not the Almighty direct him to lead them round the Red Sea
instead of through it? And why did he not lead them to follow the
streams, instead of taking them across the desert? Why did he not lead
them a straight course from Egypt to Canaan, instead of keeping them
forty years in the wilderness? Who was most to blame for it? Was the
responsibility upon him, or was it upon the people? Why was it upon
the people? Because they were a stiffnecked people, a hardhearted
people, and an ignorant people.

vol. 5, p.287
We read in the Scriptures that they were so stiffnecked as to provoke
the Lord, and he came out upon them in his wrath and consumed them
from his presence,—sometimes by fire that came forth from his
presence, at other times by causing the earth to open and swallow them
up by thousands, at other times by pestilence, and at other times by
fiery flying serpents which came among them and bit them that they
died.

vol. 5, p.287
Why was the anger of the Lord kindled against them? Because of the
hardness of their hearts and the stiffness of their necks. It was not
because of Moses. Only in one instance did Moses offend. That was not
in any of his movements in leading and controlling Israel, but because
he did not sanctify the Lord God of Israel before their eyes when he
smote the rock of Horeb. This was the only instance in which the Lord
condemned Moses; but he directed Moses how to lead Israel, and Moses
led them in the way he was directed; and they were tried forty years
in the wilderness, until most of them were worn out and perished.

vol. 5, p.287
Were they a wicked people above all other people, that their carcasses
should thus fall in the wilderness? [p.288] What think you, brethren
and sisters, —ye that are called Latter-day Saints, were they, as a
people, more wicked than the rest of mankind, that God should have
dealt with them thus? I answer, No. But of a truth they were the best
people upon the face of the earth, and the only people that had the
Priesthood of God among them.

vol. 5, p.288
They were the people whom God had delivered from Egyptian bondage with
an outstretched arm; and by his power, they were the only people God
could make use of. They had faith sufficient that he could govern and
control them; and so far from being the worst, they were the best
people upon the earth; but upon them rested the responsibility, and
they did not improve upon their privileges and appreciate their
blessings as they ought to have done; and for this reason were they
set forth as examples to all who should live after; and the
responsibility of their carcasses falling in the wilderness, the
responsibility of their being led into the desert, the responsibility
of all their trials and troubles was not upon Moses and their leaders,
nor upon their God, but upon themselves; for, had they been pliable,
submissive, willing, and obedient, and had their spirits been pliable
before the Lord, willing to be moulded and fashioned, they could have
been led forth conquering and to conquer, and been planted in Canaan
just as well in two years as in forty. And if this people were capable
of receiving it, the Lord could as well give them the kingdom to-day
as forty years hence. And if the people of the United States would
have hearkened to the voice of the Lord, given through the Prophet
Joseph, they might have been a more prosperous and powerful nation
to-day.

vol. 5, p.288
The history of all religious generations and dispensations is similar,
and shows this fact to us, that human nature is the same in every age
of the country, and among every country, and among every people,—that
all men are subject to like weaknesses and have to be taught
gradually.

vol. 5, p.288
Children grow from infancy to manhood; and whether God leads our
footsteps in correct paths or not, he is only leading us to school: he
is only directing our course in a round of experience by which he
trains us, and makes us one, cements our hearts together, and rids our
spirits of iniquity and abomination. He wants to teach men and women
how to walk together in union and be great—to teach this people how to
be bound to him and to those that he sets over them, and to teach his
Saints how to reign in the house of Israel as his servants.

vol. 5, p.288
I do feel conscious that if the men of Israel do their duty and live
their religion, reformation will go forth from them through their
families, and it cannot be stayed; and every branch of every family in
Israel will feel the effects of that reformation: every woman and all
her children will feel it.

vol. 5, p.288
If a man of God lives his religion and is controlled only by the
Spirit of Zion in his family, and if he has a turbulent, disobedient
spirit in his family, that spirit will be subject or that individual
will be separated from his family, upon the same principle that
turbulent persons that repent not are severed from this Church by the
vote of this people; and when that turbulent person is severed, he
will dry up and wither, and will be gathered and burned with the
ungodly.

vol. 5, p.288
It may be that heretofore the fanning-mill has blown out more of the
men than it has of the women; but if it has done this, it is because
the sieve is not quite fine enough. But as the work of reformation
goes  forward, it will sift to the very bottom; and every member of
every family in [p.289] Israel will feel the effects of the driving
element that will sanctify them for the Lord Almighty or separate them
from this people.

vol. 5, p.289
Every man in Israel is responsible in a certain degree for the conduct
of his wives and children. He has covenanted that he will assume that
responsibility; that is, he will assume the responsibility of the sins
of his wives, if he fails to discharge his duties towards them in
teaching and leading them in the ways of life and salvation.

vol. 5, p.289
I assume the responsibility of the acts of my wives and children so
far as they are obedient to me; and when I discharge my duties to
them, reprove them in their transgression, set a godly example before
them, live my religion, and show forth the spirit thereof in my course
with my family, and they will not drink into the same spirit and
receive good at my hands, those consequences shall roll from me upon
them; and it becomes my duty to separate myself from those sins and
from the rebellious members of my family, that we may not all be
cursed because of the transgression of one or two individuals.

vol. 5, p.289
But if I do not discharge my duties towards them, admonish them when
they are out of the way, instruct them in their duties, and walk as a
man of God before them, the consequences and responsibility of every
individual's transgressions, even those of every wife and every child
I have, and of every evil that is done in my house, shall rest upon
me. God has laid it upon me.

vol. 5, p.289
Sometimes we may err by being remiss in duty—too lenient in our
families, and some of us may be under condemnation by being too
careless about transgressors in our families; for if we hold
fellowship with transgressors and spirits that are in rebellion
against God and that will not repent and humble themselves,—if we
close our ears to it and go to sleep while wickedness is stalking
unrebuked through our habitations, we become partakers in that
transgression, and the consequences thereof will stick to us.

vol. 5, p.289
But if the head of a family reproves iniquity and seeks to purge it
from his presence—from his family, then his hands are free from stain
of guilt; he is not a partaker in the transgression, and by his doings
he says he will no longer hug to his bosom that individual,—he will no
longer eat and drink with him or her as a member of the body of
Christ,—he will no longer be held responsible for their sins.

vol. 5, p.289
So should every man and every family rid themselves of evil and
transgressors in their midst; for God deals with every family as a
whole, as he deals with this people as a whole; and every man in
Israel is responsible, and that responsibility he assumes when he
assumes the responsibility of a family.

vol. 5, p.289
If there is no sieve fine enough yet to separate the dross from the
wheat of the female portion of this community, I tell you, in the name
of Israel's God, there is a fine one preparing, and it will separate
the chaff from the wheat from every family in Israel, as sure as there
is a God in Israel, until the families of Israel shall be sanctified
before the Lord—until they shall be one, even all the families in
Israel, that the Lord God shall accept and not be ashamed of them.

vol. 5, p.289
There are many ways by which this may be accomplished; but the Lord in
his own due time will bring it to pass. We naturally cling to our
families, loving and cherishing them; so does every man that feels the
weight of his responsibility—that is set over this people to
administer in any department thereof: he feels his heart full of
compassion, and he desires the salvation of every member [p.290]
thereof. So does our Father desire the salvation of every member of
his family.

vol. 5, p.290
Many among us, in their ignorance, manifest a weakness of soul in
training. up their offspring. Their weakness is such that they cannot
administer chastisement unto their children; but they love them with a
foolish, blind, ignorant love, that gratifies every desire and allows
them to hays their own way and pursue the channel of their own
inclinations unrebuked, unchastened, until they grow up wild, as it
were, without any proper impulse being given to their minds. If I feel
satisfied in thus allowing my offspring to follow the bent of their
own inclinations, God will hold me responsible for their evil acts.

vol. 5, p.290
If any man have members in his family whom he cannot control by the
principles of the Gospel, far better were it for him, if they want to
go to the States or to any other country, to give them a good outfit
and send them off, get them out of the way, and let them go their own
way: far better this than to harbour them where they were like a viper
in his bosom corrupting and corroding in the midst of his family.

vol. 5, p.290
The female portion of this community have to bear their share of this
responsibility; and we know they are the best set of women that exist
upon the earth; and that all the world will bear witness to, when they
talk about plurality.

vol. 5, p.290
Men of some discretion in the Gentile world ask questions about the
operations of the plurality of wives among us. "How many wives live in
each house? How do they get along in their associations? Are they all
the time quarrelling and fighting?" A man said to me once, "My wife
would not stand it five minutes, if I should bring a woman into my
house to have a share of my company and my affections: I should have a
hell upon earth, and no house that I could build would be big enough
to hold my wife. It is marvellous to me how you can live, and how it
is you are not killed."

vol. 5, p.290
They cannot understand it, because they are governed by their
passions, and not by principles; and it is the hardest thing in the
world for them to be convinced that this people are governed by
principle. This is the doctrine we have been preaching abroad, and it
is the very thing the Gentiles will not receive; and they marvel and
wonder that we do not tear each other's eyes out. They say this would
be the case with them: in a little while they would be bald and blind
and full of wounds, bruises, and putrifying sores; or, like the
Kilkenny cats, use each other up all but the tails, and then the tails
would jump at each other. So it would be among them indeed; for there
is no law of the Lord that would keep the people together a minute in
the peace and order that exist here.

vol. 5, p.290
Existence among this people is of itself one of the greatest
privileges. The world of mankind may soon know that God is with us,
and that, he is at the helm, that he is the founder of this work, and
that the women as well as the men are the best upon the earth, and
that we are determined to live and be governed by principle and not
passion.

vol. 5, p.290
Have we all learned to be altogether thus governed? No, we have not.
But we are learning it: the men and women of Israel are learning it;
but some of them are very dull scholars, and would a great deal rather
go off and play than take a lesson; and they whine and cry over it,
and sit on the dunce block rather than study and learn their lessons;
and they will be dunces, because nothing but foolishness is bound up
in their hearts. But many of us are learning to be governed by
principle, not passion, and  [p.291] learning that we must become
one,—that there is somebody else that has feelings besides them,—that
there is somebody else worthy of respect and love besides them,—that
there are some good qualifications in some other being,—and some other
woman's children have some claims as well as mine; they are learning
to let principle rule them.

vol. 5, p.291
Well, go on: let the good work continue. This is my prayer all the
time. Are all the families of Israel and every woman striving herself
to play well her part and reverence her husband as her lord; for he is
her lord. Will she ever have another? No, never; and if she ever
expects to have another, she has not learned "Mormonism" aright. She
may tear herself loose from him and attach another, but she may have a
worse one: she ought to have a worse one. If she cannot learn to
honour him, the next one she gets, if she is permitted to have
another, ought to be a worse one. How shall women honour their
husbands? Just as we honour brother Brigham in his place, and the
authorities of the Wards in their places; because upon him is laid the
responsibility of that family, and he cannot get rid of it. He is in
duty bound to purge them of their follies, and they are in duty bound
to listen to his reproofs and honour him and pray for him, that he may
be led aright.

vol. 5, p.291
Do the women, when they pray, remember their husbands? Do you pray for
brother Brigham? Yes, you should always pray for him. But when you
pray for him, do you pray also for your own husband, that he may have
the inspiration of the Almighty to lead and govern his family as the
lord? Do you uphold your husband before God as your lord? "What! —my
husband to be my lord?" I ask, Can you get into the celestial kingdom
without him? Have any of you been there? You will remember that you
never got into the celestial kingdom without the aid of your husband.
If you did, it was because your husband was away, and some one had to
act proxy for him. No woman will get into the celestial kingdom,
except her husband receives her, if she is worthy to have a husband;
and if not, somebody will receive her as a servant. 

vol. 5, p.291
We have one God, the Father of us all, who is graciously kind to us;
and those who call upon his name receive his Spirit; but the spirit we
have got to be in is for every woman to be one with her husband, and
every man to be one with those that are set over him in the Lord, Thus
we become as branches of one vine, partaking of the same spirit.

vol. 5, p.291
Does every woman pray for her children and with her children? Does she
teach them to reverence their father and honour him ? If she does not
teach them thus to honour him in her own words and examples, her
children learn disobedience from her. Show me disobedient children,
and I will show you disobedient parents, the world over.

vol. 5, p.291
Where there are disobedient and rebellious children in the midst of
Israel, tell me who their father and mother are, and I will point out
to you disobedient, rebellious, disaffected parents; and if there is a
woman in any family whose children dishonour their father, I will show
you a woman that dishonours her husband and shows him disrespect, from
which the children take their example.

vol. 5, p.291
We do not want such women in Israel: we do not want their offspring,
nor anything that pertains to them, except they repent. If they will
have their children learn righteousness, let them seek it themselves,
and pray to God in their apartments for their little ones. It is the
mothers in Israel that have the charge of [p.292] children; the men of
Israel are abroad among the nations of the earth to preach the Gospel
and fight the battles of Zion, to go abroad and return once in a few
years, perhaps, to visit their family and become acquainted with their
children. God wishes the mothers in Israel to assume that
responsibility, and assume it by the Holy Ghost, that there may be a
generation raised up that shall be fit for the Lord to use.

vol. 5, p.292
Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, ye mothers in Israel, and fast,
and hunger and thirst after righteousness. Pray for and with your
little children in your apartments. Is it enough for a father to
gather together his wives and children when he is at home, and pray
with them? That is his duty; and every mother should take pattern by
his example, and with their own offspring follow his example and call
down the blessings of heaven upon them, and they will learn from her.
While they listen to her prayers, they will learn to lisp from her
mouth the words of prayer and thanksgiving to God; and faith will rest
upon them, and the Holy Ghost will rest upon them, and they will be
inspired with faith and power, and draw down blessings upon her and
upon their father; and the blessings of God will rest upon them from
their mother's womb, if they pursue this course.

vol. 5, p.292
May the God of heaven help us to pursue this course, one and all, is
my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Brigham Young, October 4, 1857

Ultimate Victory of the Saints

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday, October 4, 1857.

vol. 5, p.292
I will say a few words before the congregation is dismissed.

vol. 5, p.292
As but few can be in our offices to learn the news that is brought in,
I will say that on the 2nd, Friday last, a messenger arrived with
intelligence that the soldiers were going up Ham's Fork.

vol. 5, p.292
Previous to that I had sent by Lieutenant-General Wells a copy of the
Proclamation proclaiming martial law, and ordering the troops not to
come here. They treated it as I presumed they would. They say that
they are sent by the President, are subject to superior officers, and
intend to abide their instructions; and I expect that they will, until
some other power checks their progress.

vol. 5, p.292
The brethren are well, and the spirit of peace and contentment rests
upon them. They are doing their duties—living to and serving their
God.

vol. 5, p.292
Keep the "'Mormon' creed," and especially just now in regard to the
remarks made by brother Spencer. Some may think they will have to
deviate in attending to digging their neighbours' potatoes; but this
is now the very business for the brethren to do. This is now their
duty, and what the brethren ought to do.

vol. 5, p.293
[p.293] I do not know that anybody's heart burns, except it is to get
a little nearer to our enemies and for the troops to undertake to come
in here. Well, we are in the hands of the Lord our God, and he will
overrule things just as he pleases.

vol. 5, p.293
Many want to know what the result will be; and they want the Lord to
give them revelation. Get revelation, if you can. I have told you
before, and I can tell you now, that the result will be that
"Mormonism" will be higher and greater in power and influence than
ever it was before. Our enemies will sink, while we will increase in
power and strength, and enjoy an influence that we never enjoyed
before; and the Lord will have his own way in bringing about these
things.    I know that all will be made right; and an allwise,
overruling Providence will bring us off victorious. He has led us to
victory and peace, and has given us power and influence that we can
sustain ourselves; and I believe that it is the calculation of all to
sustain themselves against all that can come to annoy, destroy,
desolate, and drive. the Saints of God. God will fight our battles;
and he will do it just as he pleases.

vol. 5, p.293
You know that it is one peculiarity of our faith and religion never to
ask the Lord to do a thing without being willing to help him all that
we are able; and then the Lord will de the rest.

vol. 5, p.293
The main object I had in coming to meeting this morning was to let you
know that my health is better. Last Sabbath I did not think it prudent
to come out; but I am at my post, and God is at the helm.

vol. 5, p.293
Let us walk in the precepts of our Saviour—those that he has marked
out for us, and God will bless us; and I bless you, my brethren and
sisters, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

vol. 5, p.293
I mean to save my brethren and sisters, God being my helper. God bless
you! Amen.

Brigham Young, October 6, 1857

Advantages of Trials and Experience—
Reformation of Conduct, Etc.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made at the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Tuesday Morning, October 6, 1857.

vol. 5, p.293
Quite a goodly number have assembled to our Conference to transact
business in a Church capacity. We shall first present and attend to
the business, and then to such instructions, teachings, exhortations,
&c., as may come before the Conference.

vol. 5, p.293
I think there are quite a number of brethren present who have lately
returned from their fields of labour. We would like to have them come
to the stand, and we will give them the privilege of occupying a
portion of the time. I think brother Jacob Hoffheins has not been on
the stand since his return; and I see several others who have not.

vol. 5, p.293
We shall first present the [p.294] authorities of the Church to the
Conference this morning, though such has not been our general
practice. I believe the brethren are pretty much in readiness, and
have all got their guns ready for shooting. We will first attend to
the business, so that if it is necessary to repair to the kanyons we
can do so.

vol. 5, p.294
I do not know how long we shall hold this Conference, and therefore no
one needs to ask me. There is a time for all things; and I never saw a
better time than now to secure potatoes and other crops, and thus do
our preaching in the season thereof and digging potatoes in the season
thereof. And I could almost wish that our Conference would be
dismissed this morning, and all hands go and secure the potatoes,
squashes, corn, &c.

vol. 5, p.294
We have heretofore spent a great deal of time in Conferences
unmolested, and we shall again have a great deal of time to spend in
this capacity undisturbed. We must have what is good for us—that which
puts us in mind and brings to us principles that are free. Should we
live in peace, year after year, how long would it be before we were
glued to the world? Our affections would be so fastened to the things
of the world that it would be hard for us to spend a little time in
Conference; it would be hard to go on missions; it would be contrary
to our feelings to attend to anything but our own individual concerns
to make ourselves rich.

vol. 5, p.294
It seems to be necessary for the Lord to bring this people into
circumstances to show them that the things of this world are mere
nothingness in their present state—are but a shadow. They are to-day,
and tomorrow they are not. This shows to us that all things pertaining
to this world are subject to change, and such changes as we cannot
control. We find that kings are raised up and emperors placed in
power, and then they are hurled down. We see men who are popular,
wealthy, and rich become poor. History and our own experience prove
all this, and that riches take the wings of the morning and fly away.
To-day we are rich—to-morrow we are poor. Next week we may be rich,
and the week after poor again. It is the Lord that gives and the Lord
that takes away; and it is a blessing that we have the privilege of
this experience in our present condition.

vol. 5, p.294
Look at ourselves—run over our own experience, and we shall discover
that ourselves, our neighbours, our friends, our acquaintances, and
all people do not always know when they are happy. In other words, if
you could crowd an individual or a community into heaven without
experience, it would be no enjoyment to them. They must know the
opposite: they must know how to contrast, in order to prize and
appreciate the comfort and happiness, the joy and the bliss they are
actually in possession of. Can you realize this? How many there are
who will exclaim, "If I had but known it, I was happy in such a
situation! How happy I might have been, if I had only known that I was
happy."

vol. 5, p.294
You will see individuals who are easy and comfortable, that would like
to change their situations; and when they change, they find that they
have changed for the worse. They then turn round and say, "How happy I
could have been, if I had known how to appreciate my own happiness! I
had nothing to annoy me; I was in comfortable circumstances; I enjoyed
good health, and had all that I could ask for to make life desirable;
but I did not know at the time that I enjoyed one of the comforts of
life."

vol. 5, p.294
Is that the experience of any of you? I know that it is of a great
many of you. Then learn to be happy  when you have the privilege. For
many years we have had the privilege [p.295] of living in peace and
making ourselves comfortable in these valleys of the mountains; and do
you recollect that but a short time ago it seemed as though almost
everyone had wandered his own way? The people had almost forgottten
and lost sight of the principles of truth and righteousness, of the
religion that we have embraced; and the whole plan of salvation. They
had almost lost sight of the redemption of the nations of the earth,
and each one had turned to his own way. Can you recollect that
situation of the people?

vol. 5, p.295
We have reason to be thankful that we have forsaken backslidings and
returned to the Lord in a great measure; but we are still far from
being as we should be, taking every individual, though the great
majority of the people are doing the best, or about as well as they
know how. This I believe with all my heart; and they feel very anxious
to live so that they can enjoy more and more of the knowledge of God:
they are very anxious to know how to obtain more of the revelations of
Jesus Christ; and some are fearful that the people are not doing
right, and that they do not live up to their privileges.

vol. 5, p.295
Some of the brethren were conversing in my office the other day, and I
discovered that a part of them had a great anxiety for us to know more
of godliness, and had a feeling that this people must do better—must
more strictly refrain from evil and walk more humbly before their God.
I said to them, "Brethren, I will take you for an example, with
myself; and I tell you, for one, that I do not know how to do any
better than I do; and if the Lord wants me to do any better, he must
let me know it; for I cannot do any better of myself. Can you say the
same?" They said they could. So it is with the people: the most of
them are doing the best they know how. There are a few who sin, and a
few who will do wrong—do things that they ought to be ashamed of. They
are scarce: but there is once in a while one of that class in this
community; and we expect that there will be, just so long as the wheat
and the tares grow together. There is once in a while one that we
would like to be rid of—would love to have leave us and this
community.

vol. 5, p.295
It is astonishing that any should prefer to act wickedly, and yet
there is a reason for all this. We expect it —at least I do: I look
for it. I do not look for anything else but that them will be tares in
the field until the time of burning. I will just say, for your
consolation and mine, that I think the field is now pretty well weeded
out, though the roots are here, and they will spring up occasionally,
and once in a while things are done that are disgraceful. Some will do
things that the Devil would be ashamed of and would not think of
doing. But I am thankful that there are but few of that class here;
and I pray that the evils may be lessened and that the people may be
purified before the Lord.

vol. 5, p.295
It is truth—it is God's truth—it is eternal truth, if people did but
know it, that it is much better to be honest, to live here uprightly,
and forsake and shun evil, than it is to be dishonest. It is the
easiest path in the world to be honest,—to be upright before God; and
when people learn this, they will practise it. If they could only
believe this, it does appear to me. that they will forsake every evil
practice, every evil thought, and banish them from their minds, and
try to practise virtue and truth, and to live in that way that they
will overcome: every evil disposition, and live so that they can
control their reflections, and that their reflections will tend to
virtue, truth, and holiness; for this is our privilege, until we
become  pure in our hearts, and find that the [p.296] principles of
righteousness dwell within us. Then, as it was said by the Saviour to
his disciples, He will be in us a fountain of living water, springing
up into everlasting life.

vol. 5, p.296
That is the principle—the fountain that Jesus our elder brother dwells
in; and we can have the same privilege of overcoming sin in ourselves
until we have no desire to do anything but right—no desire only to
build up His kingdom upon the earth, and have the Spirit of the Lord
Jesus to be in us a fountain of living water. Let us do so, and
thereby be prepared for every emergency that shall come upon us.

vol. 5, p.296
Let us secure our crops. I feel to exhort the brethren to secure their
crops so as to be ready, if our enemies come upon us, to defend
ourselves. Let us obey our officers, not loving the world nor the
things of the world above our duties. The Lord will prepare the way
and provide all things necessary for us; and if we suffer a little, it
is good for us. If we suffer for food, for raiment, it gives us an
experience that we will know how to appreciate the comforts of life
when we have them in our possession.

vol. 5, p.296
We will attend to the business of the Conference first, and then
dismiss until afternoon.

vol. 5, p.296
[After putting the motion for himself to be sustained as "Prophet,
Seer, and Revelator," the President remarked:—]

vol. 5, p.296
I will say that I never dictated the latter part of that sentence. I
make this remark, because those words in that connection always made
me feel as though I am called more than I am deserving of. I am
Brigham Young, an Apostle of Joseph Smith, and also of Jesus Christ.
If I have been profitable to this people, I am glad of it. The
brethren call me so; and if it be so, I am glad.

Charles C. Rich, October 7, 1857

Sufficiency of the Gospel—Obedience to Truth—Union—
Good Spirit Among the Saints—The Lord Will Deliver His People

Remarks by Elder Charles C. Rich, made at the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Wednesday Afternoon, October 7, 1857.

vol. 5, p.296
Brethren and sisters, I can truly say, as others have said, that I
have been edified during the Conference and greatly benefited by the
spirit that has been made manifest and the testimony that has been
borne by the brethren. It has cheered my heart, and I have not had a
better time for years.

vol. 5, p.296
We have great reason to rejoice, notwithstanding some people might
think that we have reason to mourn.

vol. 5, p.296
But I do not think so, neither do I think that you feel so. I think
there is but one feeling, and that is peace and joy. Notwithstanding
all the appearances that are around us, we have abundant reason to
rejoice; for we have something to rejoice about and in, if we
comprehend our position, which I have no doubt the great majority do.

vol. 5, p.296
We have had the privilege of embracing the Gospel of salvation; and
[p.297] inasmuch as we have embraced it with honest hearts, it has
been salvation to us: and what is there besides this that we should
rejoice in, or that should make us rejoice? For my part, I feel, as
has been expressed by some of the brethren who have spoken from this
stand, that this Gospel contains all that I desire; consequently, I
have no feelings nor desires to go outside of it, simply because it
bestows upon you and me everything that will do us good and that will
save us. All that is outside of it will damn us in time and in
eternity; consequently, we have no need of that which is outside of
this kingdom.

vol. 5, p.297
If we understand the principles of truth as we should, we shall have
no desires to go after anything but what is right, simply because it
would do us an injury; therefore, it will be well for us to examine
ourselves, and know whether the principles that are in our bosoms are
of God. If they are, they will bless us in time and exalt us in all
eternity. If they are not, they will be an evil to us in time, and as
long as we have them in our bosoms; consequently, it would be well for
us to know something about ourselves, and what we have in our bosoms,
and the principles that we practise from day to day continually.

vol. 5, p.297
We profess to be Saints—to have received the Gospel of salvation; and
if we have embraced it with pure motives, it is salvation to us—and
that, too, at the present time. When we look at the world we find them
talking about being saved; but all the salvation they are looking for
is a long way from this, which I think will be the case. But we
receive the Gospel for the purpose of being saved. It proposes
salvation to us on the onset, at the commencement, and from that day
to all eternity.

vol. 5, p.297
If we do not embrace the principles of life and live by them, we do
not partake of the principles of salvation at the time we receive
them; but if we live by them, they continue to save us from that time
onward.

vol. 5, p.297
For instance, when we heard the sound of the Gospel, it proposed to us
that we should have the same Spirit that was poured out upon the
ancient Saints—upon Christ's disciples. This was the doctrine that his
servants declared to us. When we received their testimony, we went
forward and were baptised for the remission of sins; and what
followed? I will tell you what followed: we were enabled to bear
testimony that we bad received the truth, and we obtained thereby a
knowledge that our Father in heaven lived—that his son Jesus Christ
had been crucified for the sins of the world.

vol. 5, p.297
But did we not discover that we were saved—saved from ignorance that
had beclouded our minds? We had received something that we did not
before know. We could then rejoice in the truth when the whole world
were in darkness on this subject; and what further? Why, there was one
truth after another made manifest to us—one truth after another
revealed. Well, if we have embraced those truths that have been made
manifest, we have received the blessings that are given from time to
time,—yes, from the time that we embraced them up to the present; and
they have saved us.

vol. 5, p.297
The Gospel requires to be honest to our God, to ourselves, to our
brethren. We should not steal, we should not commit adultery, and
there are a great many things that we should not do and that the
principles of eternal truth would forbid. If we had not among us any
who commit any of these sins, those evils would not be in our midst.
if the principles that dwell in the bosom of our God are in us, we
will do nothing under any circumstances that we know to be wrong.

vol. 5, p.297
When some men's evil deeds are discovered, they will say that they did
[p.298] not do the evil with which they are charged. They will deny
it. This is a mark of the greatest degradation and infamy.

vol. 5, p.298
Evils are of two classes; and what are they? First, people do wrong
because they do not know how to do right: second, they do wrong
because  they are disposed to do wrong: and do you not see that in
either case they are wrongs? We are not half as well saved as we
should be; consequently, to be saved, we want to learn to know what
right is. If we are dishonest and want to do wrong, we are wicked.
Nevertheless, it is wrong both ways; and we are not saved by pursuing
such a course.

vol. 5, p.298
You know it is said that in the last days the knowledge of God shall
cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep. We can bear
testimony that the Spirit of God is poured out upon his Saints. We see
it day by day and from time to time, and we are increasing in the
knowledge of the truth.

vol. 5, p.298
Inasmuch as we are trying to be saved, we are all the time increasing
in the principles of truth; we are continually treasuring them up, and
we can use them for our benefit.

vol. 5, p.298
We may easily discover that a person cannot use that which he has not
got. He must first learn a principle before he can act upon it. Well,
if we do not know the truth, the best way is to get somebody that does
know to lead us; and perhaps, by diligence, we may arrive at the
knowledge thereof. This has been a course of safety pointed out to the
Saints from the beginning, and it is the same now.

vol. 5, p.298
When we have learned one truth we are prepared to learn another; for
every truth seems to unfold some other truth. When a matter is
presented to a person who has a knowledge of a great many truths, let
him compare it with the many truths that he knows, and they will
agree; for all truth will agree. If it is not truth, it will come in
contact; therefore, the more truths we are in possession of, the more
keys we have to test other truths by; and the longer we live in this
way, the more we know of our Father and the principles that pertain to
his kingdom, and the less disposition we will have to do wrong: we
will be more inclined to do right, and to carry out the principles of
his government. We will do this because it is the safest and best
course to pursue: hence; if we have a disposition to be blest and
saved, we shall be disposed to take this course.

vol. 5, p.298
I feel rejoiced in one principle that I see manifest among the Saints
in these days, and that is, the principle of union. Of course we have;
as a community, always been more united than any other people; but we
still come short of that fulness of union which should exist among us.
But I consider that we have done first rate.

vol. 5, p.298
It is an easy matter to do right, if we only pursue the right course:
at least I have always found it so. I never had any difficulty to be
agreed with those I was associated with. The way that I am united with
my brethren is simply this: I calculate to adopt the same policy that
the Lord manifests through his servants that have a right to dictate
me. I do not calculate to have anything in my heart that is not right;
then you see there will be no difficulty, if I pursue this course, to
be united with my brethren that preside over me.

vol. 5, p.298
I have been a member of the Church over twenty-five years, and I have
been preaching all the time: at least, I have been a preacher, whether
I have been preaching all the time or not. I have never seen the time
but I have always found those who were leading me to be right; and I
have never seen the time  but I could bear [p.299] testimony that they
were right; for I knew it by the Spirit of God that was in me. I knew
it was the privilege of every Saint to have this knowledge.

vol. 5, p.299
When we are agreed and live our religion, we are prepared to receive
the blessings that are poured out upon us. We cannot claim the
blessings that are in store for us, except we pursue a course that
will put away all our sins and iniquities far from us.

vol. 5, p.299
I do not say that I am perfect, but I can say this—that I never
intended to do a wrong thing. I have done the best I could. To be sure
I have been away from this place most of the time among the wicked: at
least I term them wicked. They say they seek after God and everything
that pertains to godliness. But if ever I was glad to get home among
the Saints it was this summer.

vol. 5, p.299
I have thought that the spirit that is among this people and the quiet
feeling that seems to prevail when difficulties are approaching was
most heavenly; and I have sometimes felt and queried as to whether I
did not feel too well. But when the brethren have been pouring out
their feelings from this stand, I have felt to rejoice. I feel that we
have got further along than I thought we had before I came back here.

vol. 5, p.299
I have been looking for the time of deliverance, but I did not expect
it so soon. But I know it cannot come too soon to meet with a hearty
welcome. I have been through some of the difficulties, as some others
have said and can tell you, in all that I have passed through from the
beginning, I have felt paid as I have gone along. I have always felt
that the course to do right was the best, and that there would be the
most joy and happiness in doing right.

vol. 5, p.299
So far as our enemies are concerned, I feel about them precisely as
our brethren have expressed themselves. I do not fear them; but I feel
that the Lord will take care of his Saints and of his kingdom. All we
have to do is to do as we are directed, and all will be well.

vol. 5, p.299
A great number of the Elders have been on missions, and we have been
bearing testimony to the world of mankind that this is the kingdom of
God—that God has set his hand to recover the house of Israel. We have
been bearing testimony of this, and we still continue to bear it, and
the Spirit of God flows into our hearts when we testify to this. Have
we any fears that the Lord is not able to deliver his Saints? We ought
not to have any.

vol. 5, p.299
I will tell you how I feel. It is best for us to do right; and there
will be more salvation flowing to us through doing right than pursuing
any other course. This is the course of salvation. Whatever our
heavenly Father dictates, that is the thing for us to do, whether it
is to fight or let it alone, I have been in difficulties where there
actually was fighting, where the Saints had to defend themselves
against their enemies; but the time had not come for us to take the
stand that we have now taken. But the Lord directed matters then, and
he is directing matters now. We have seen difficulties from the
beginning, from the time that the Lord established his kingdom upon
the earth until the present time.

vol. 5, p.299
Every person that has a portion of the Spirit of God can see the
manifestations of the power of God, from the time that the kingdom was
established until the present. We have no need to fear for the
kingdom; but it is for us to do our duty, and then all will be well
with us.

vol. 5, p.299
I do not wish to occupy time that should be occupied by my brethren. I
say that I feel well: I never felt better, and never had less fears of
our [p.300] enemies than I have at the present time.

vol. 5, p.300
That we may live so as to he sanctified through the truth—that we may
secure salvation in this world, and in that which is to come, is my
prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Erastus Snow, October 7, 1857

Testimonies of Returned Missionaries—Trials Lead to
Exaltation—Faith in God

Remarks by Elder Erastus Snow, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Wednesday Afternoon, October 7, 1857.

vol. 5, p.300
I have listened during the progress of this Conference with very great
satisfaction. Every one that speaks bears testimony to us that our God
has not forsaken us, and that the prayers of this people are still
acceptable before him, and, notwithstanding our weaknesses and our
sins, that we are a blessed and a happy people, and that our God is
near at hand to multiply his blessings upon us.

vol. 5, p.300
I have rejoiced in listening to my brethren who have recently returned
from their missions. I feet that I am one of them, and I thank my
heavenly Father for that good Spirit which has so bountifully attended
their labours and returned with them.

vol. 5, p.300
I do not believe that it has ever fallen to my lot, since we have been
a people, to hear, at any one time, so large a number of our returned
missionaries stand forth before the people to give in their testimony
and speak of the dealings of God with them, as we have heard during
this Conference. They universally bear the same testimony, rejoicing
in their labours, manifest the goodness of our God upon them and upon
the people where they have laboured; and it is evidence to my mind of
the increased favour of God upon this people, and that it is the
faithful prayers of this people that sustain our sons and our brethren
who are sent forth by the voice of this people as their
representatives to preach the Gospel to the nations.

vol. 5, p.300
It appears that there is no one who lifts up his voice to speak in the
midst of this people but is constrained to speak good for Israel.
There seems to be no doubt upon the minds of the people—no forebodings
of distress in the hearts of the Elders of Israel. What there may be
lying in our path—I was going to say, we neither know nor care; but we
do know that the straightforward path is strewed with blessings,
glory, honour, exaltation, and eternal lives. Let us not, therefore,
turn either to the right or the left from the path our God has marked
out, whatever them may be of trial alongside of the path.

vol. 5, p.300
I feel firmly convinced of this, whatever may be by some accounted
trials, that when we reach them, if the light of the Lord is in us, we
shall pass them without stopping to consider whether they are trials;
and we shall look back upon them and count it all joy. To us it will
be glory, honour, and exaltation, and stepping-stones to that which we
are [p.301] seeking for—the very means, in the hands of God, of
preparing us to receive all that he has in store for us.

vol. 5, p.301
Is it not enough for us to know that our Father in Heaven will suffer
nothing to come upon us, only that which is to prepare us to receive
the good he has in store for us? Ask this people, Are the soldiers
coming in here? Are we going to have a fight this fall? Are they
coming in on our Emigration Road, or going round by Fort Hall? What
will the United States do? Will they raise 50,000 volunteers next
spring? Shall we burn up what we have got and take it Indian fashion?
What is to be the result of all these things?

vol. 5, p.301
Ask anybody to tell you; and who is there that will describe the
course God will mark out before this people and the course our enemies
will take towards us, or the precise details of the programme that is
before us. Who is there that can tell us?

vol. 5, p.301
Ask this or that Elder if he has any revelation on the subject, or
appeal to the congregation of the Saints; and who is there that can
answer it? I confess I cannot answer it, nor have I ever heard it
answered by anybody else in detail; and I conclude the Lord will take
his own course; and doubtless he will show us the programme as fast as
we are prepared to act it, and that will be fast enough.

vol. 5, p.301
The Lord hath shown us both ends of the drama. As to the particular
scenery of the different parts of the drama, it will be made manifest
from time to time. When the curtain is raised, we shall see it, if we
are on hand to play our part. I am fully persuaded we have a good
manager, and he is our God: it is he that is moving upon the
checkerboard of nations, and he understands the game and will make the
right moves.

vol. 5, p.301
Go back and take a retrospective view of this people and the dealings
of God with us from the time of the organization of this Church, the
persecutions through which this people have passed in Ohio, Missouri,
Illinois, and the various places where we have been located; and when
has the Lord beforehand made known all the particulars of the scenery
through which we were destined to pass? He has always given us general
items and sufficient to encourage every faithful man to do his duty
and trust in him for the result. But if all the details were made
known unto us—if we could see every minutia portrayed, would there be
a chance for the exercise of our faith in the same degree as now?
Would there be a chance for the faith of this people to be shown in
the same degree?

vol. 5, p.301
For my own part, I feel perfectly satisfied to leave it in the hands
of our God, where it is, and where it should be, to make manifest unto
us just as much from time to time as he sees is necessary to bear up
and sustain this people.

vol. 5, p.301
It is through faith that the Lord performs his wonders among his
people; and in enduring that trial of their faith he gives a blessing;
and often the Lord shapes trials in a manner different from our
expectations. We, in our limited capacity, may mark out in our minds a
programme; and when he moves upon the checker-board, he does not move
the men we have in our minds, but he shapes and moves in another way;
and we should be satisfied with the result. He will get the game, and
in the end will move into the king row and be able to move both ways,

vol. 5, p.301
I feel first-rate. All is right with the Lord; all is right with his
kingdom, and with everybody that is right. And may the Lord help us to
keep his commandments for ever! Amen. [p.302]

Amasa Lyman, October 11, 1857

Benefit of Experience—Patience Under Sufferings—
Recognition of the Hand of God in the Vicissitudes of His Saints, Etc.

A Sermon by Elder Amasa Lyman, delivered in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 11, 1857.

vol. 5, p.302
The circumstances of our meeting this morning has brought me to this
place to occupy a portion of the time allotted for the worship of
to-day. I cannot say, as I have heard men say at times, that I have
thought of nothing to say; for it has been my study and my labour,
since my connection with the work of God in the last days, to learn
what to say, in order that I might have something whereof to speak, in
case that I should be required to say anything; and I would always
wish to be able, through the blessing of God and the manifestation of
his Holy Spirit, to say, at at any time when it might be my duty to
speak, something that will be calculated to benefit those to whom I
may speak. I know of no other blessing, or glory, or wealth accruing
from our living and our labours in the world, but that which we learn
of the truth, that will bless us and make us free from the dominion
and influence of error.

vol. 5, p.302
We talk about experience, and we have had a great deal of experience,
and we are constantly in the school of experience. But I am inclined
to think that it may be the case with us in that school as in other
schools. We sometimes improve by what we experience, adding to our
store of knowledge; and then, again, we may experience very
considerable from which we derive no particular benefit, like the
scholar that attends school, but from inattention, a failure to apply
himself properly to his lessons and to the acquirement of the
knowledge that is imparted, he fails to comprehend the truth to the
extent that he might otherwise have done; and hence he is not
benefited to the extent that he might have been, although he has been
in the school.

vol. 5, p.302
Well, as Saints and as children of God, we are in the school; and if
there is any higher purpose connected with our being in the
school—connected with living in the world, and connected with all our
labours in the world, and what we are supposed to be here for,—if
there is any higher object than the attainment of the knowledge that
will save us, I do not know it: I never have heard of anything greater
or more glorious, or more to be esteemed, than our being saved. It is
simply for this that we are being taught and that we are learning: it
is for this that we are required to be obedient: it is for this that
we are obedient.

vol. 5, p.302
When we have been obedient to every requirement—made every possible
attainment that can be made, what is our condition? We are saved from
the bondage of sin and darkness, the consequences of ignorance. Well,
then, it will be profitable for us to think of what we experienced—to
think of the  experience through which we have passed. Has it been a
varied scenery, embracing an almost [p.303] countless variety of
changes and of circumstances, involving a good deal of comfort,
pleasures and happiness, with a corresponding amount of sorrow,
affliction, and wretchedness?

vol. 5, p.303
Have we profited from it all? When we have supposed that the hand of
chastisement was upon us, and we have been afflicted, has that
affliction been to us a source of knowledge to benefit and to perfect
us in our sphere of action? We were passing through this as a
necessary school of experience, And when we have passed through it,
has it left with us an increase to the store of our knowledge? Has it
profited us to an extent that we have comprehended more of the truth
that influences our Father in the heavens? And have we learned more of
the principles which constitute our happiness and that, will be the
bliss and the glory of the saved and the sanctified? Has this been the
case with us, or have we done as many others have—passed blindly
through the school of experience, passed through the sufferings,
endured the sorrow, and experienced the joy, the pleasure, and the
happiness, and still are unenlightened—still are ignorant?

vol. 5, p.303
I believe we may, with profit to ourselves, look over our experience;
and why? So long as we have been connected with the Church, if we have
not been following, as Saints, in the path of our own making, in
yielding obedience to the requirements of the work of God,—if we have
been obedient to the counsel that has been given,—if we have acted up
to the calls that have been made,—if we have done these things, we
have done them for this purpose, for our salvation, our deliverance,
and for our improvement, that it might and to increase our happiness
and our comfort.

vol. 5, p.303
Under this view of the matter, should we to-day really conclude that
we have really been made sufferers, and that we have in reality been
afflicted, and that we have really been made to participate in some
wretchedness and misery, we cannot conclude that we have passed
through these things for any other purpose than that we should have
been brought to a comprehension of the truth by them.

vol. 5, p.303
If it was not our misery that prompted our Father in his dealings
towards us—that gave character to his operations with us, then he had
an object in view. He commenced with us to accomplish his own
purposes, to bring about an increase of his own glory in our
salvation. Well, when that increase shall be accomplished, we shall
know that it was not our sorrow or our affliction that he sought: it
was because he wished our salvation, that we were made to partake of
the cup of suffering, that we should partake of sorrow before we could
reach happiness and bliss as a reward for it.

vol. 5, p.303
Well, then, in what way should we look at what we have endured and at
what we have suffered? Why, simply  as lessons—as admonitions imparted
to us for our benefit, for our profit, and for our learning, and that
we might increase in knowledge, and this might produce an increase of
the legitimate principles of happiness: and it was simply a
conscientiousness that we were free from sin that led us to persevere
in the pursuit of further happiness, by endeavouring to obtain a more
extensive knowledge of the truth. It is for this, then, that we have
endured all that we have endured. Have we regarded this in this light,
while we have been passing through those scenes that have marked our
history from the commencement of the work of God to the present
moment?

vol. 5, p.303
It was said of the Saints anciently, that they took joyfully the
spoiling of their goods; and no doubt they did. [p.304] It has
probably been the case in this dispensation, that the Saints have
taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods. But to how great an extent
have we taken patiently the spoiling of our goods as trials that were
calculated by our Father in heaven only for our good?

vol. 5, p.304
We have been in the habit, in consequence of the feelings that
pervaded our minds, of looking at the doings of our Father in a
limited light; and we have been in the habit of looking at his
operations in this way, and whatever was required of us to-day we
regarded as being the fulness of his purposes and of his operations
with us; and if we should comply perfectly or readily to-day with the
requirements made of us, we have thought that we had attained all that
was to be obtained.

vol. 5, p.304
Well, is this so? No. He has been making requirements of us
continually: requirement after requirement has been made of us. He has
required us to accomplish a work to-day, and something else the next
day; and each succeeding day, from the beginning to the present time,
has brought some change in his requirements. He has required us to
travel in one direction, for instance, to-day; and then the
accomplishment of the same work which he has to do requires us to take
a directly opposite course to what we were pursuing. Well, then, if
taking up one course to-day and another to-morrow seems to be undoing
the work of yesterday and to be diametrically opposed to the work of
yesterday, can we recognize the hand of God in it? If we have
recognized his hand in these things, we have had a profitable
experience by them.

vol. 5, p.304
"But," says one, "how can it be that God should require one thing
to-day, and then something else to-morrow? We thought he was a
straightforward dealing individual—that there was no variableness nor
shadow of turning in him." Well, this is the character of him; but,
perhaps we have been in difficulty, and could not recognize the hand
of God, and could not recognize the blessing in the present apparent
suffering. We could not recognize the hand of God as on yesterday,
when we thought we were in better circumstances than we are to-day.
Where is the difficulty? It is simply that we have not recognized the
hand of God so clearly as in the day that we have considered to be
more rich with blessings and prosperity; and what is the reason? "Why,
says one, "we could not see the design of these things." Well, if we
could not see their ultimate design, there must have been a reason why
we could not see; and we will consider that there was a purpose in
this, as well as in the Lord sending the Gospel which has reached our
ears.

vol. 5, p.304
Suppose that we should have known that it was his purpose to bring us
to this place; why, we never could have believed that we were
following his counsel when we were travelling to every other place;
for in our journeyings we travelled towards almost every other place
before we came here; and, in fact, every other place that we have
visited we visited before we came here; and still we were following
the purposes of God every time and in all those windings. Well, if we
could not know it then, it will be good to know it now—to discover it
and to look at it in a way and to an extent that will profit us. It
will be well to look at the true position we have been in, now that we
understand that all the scenes that we have passed through have been
for the accomplishment of his purposes.

vol. 5, p.304
If we did not understand his purpose at the beginning, we must at some
time comprehend it, or we  never can see his hand in it—we never can
be blessed with that freedom from [p.305] ignorance, from error, and
from darkness; but the chains that have hitherto held us in error and
in bondage will continue to hold us until we reach that point. Then to
see and to comprehend, by the light that dwells within us, that God is
with us, and that he is round about us, and that he is fulfilling his
purposes all the time, however varied our circumstances may be—however
they may change from time to time, if we can but know that God is in
it, what will be the result? Why, contentment that will be unbroken;
it will be a feast to our souls; it will be the banquet of happiness
for our minds to feast upon; and then, however difficult our
circumstances may be considered, we shall have an inward joy, a peace,
a satisfaction, and resignation to the will of our Father, that we
could not have while we were bound down by the chains of ignorance and
error.

vol. 5, p.305
Well, is there anything that we should know? Yes, if we would be
happy, we should know that if the clouds of adversity lour around
us—if there are indications of a storm continually threatening us,
then, if we have not assurance and a knowledge of the truth that will
enable us to look through the clouds that have thickened around us to
the triumph of the cause that we are engaged in, the scenery will
become discouraging to us; and consequently, we shall become unhappy.
The consequence will be that we shall be fearful; and it will be that
fear that produces unpleasant feelings and which is the result of
ignorance. It is required of us not so much to read and comprehend the
future which is not revealed, but like the schoolboy that is rapidly
passing over lessons given by his preceptor, and who glances over them
without seeing their importance, but simply commits the words to
memory and passes rapidly along to something else. We should read and
learn these lessons in our experience; and let us in all these
windings see that there is an importance attached to every lesson of
experience through which we are called to pass.

vol. 5, p.305
Then, if we can see the hand of God in all these changes and trials,
and if we can see to the extent that the relationship is perfect in
our comprehension, between the purpose of God and its accomplishment,
then we are settled upon a basis from which we cannot be moved, and we
are then standing upon a rock which cannot be shaken; and while the
Spirit of God is upon us, we will not become wretched; but so long as
that Spirit can find a place in us, we cannot become alienated from
the things of God.

vol. 5, p.305
It was said in old times that when the Lord commenced his work in the
latter times, he will actually accomplish it. Well, now, we have
actually come upon the stage of action to take our part when that work
is about to be done, and we are to constitute a portion of his agents
to accomplish that work. And when we have done that. which is needful
for the accomplishment of his work, then we shall see the consistency
of God's hand dealing with us.

vol. 5, p.305
For the last twenty-five years, and especially when the kingdom of God
was first established, it became necessary with our Father, as with
any other workman, to have the requisite material for the building,
and then in the next place to have that material in a suitable
condition to accomplish the work with. The same as when the Presidency
of the Church designed to build a Temple—a holy place to the name of
the Most High, what is requisite? In the first place, it is requisite
to prepare for a foundation; and then, in the next place, the material
to lay that foundation is required, and the Temple commences to be
[p.306] built: and as the material is prepared, the work of the
building goes on, and the material is adjusted in the foundation of
that Temple according to the plan of the architect. Well, so with our
Father, to accomplish his work in the last days; his first move was to
find men that would engage in it, and then to send men forth to
attract the attention of others—of those who would give heed to it.

vol. 5, p.306
This called forth the preaching of the Gospel as it was first sounded
in our ears. Did we understand anything of the work of God in the last
days? I speak from my own experience, and answer, No. We believed the
truth as it was first announced to us, but not in all its extent nor
what it really amounted to; but what developments it would show we
were ignorant of. But still being attracted by the sound that brought
with it the Holy Spirit, we followed it; and what has been the result?
We are here to-day; we have passed through all the varied scenes that
have filled up the history of this people; we have been associated
with all the changes and vicissitudes that fill up the work of God for
the last twenty-five years, and we are here to-day, and our experience
is what we have passed through in that length of time.

vol. 5, p.306
And how have we profited by it? Is the great superstructure of the
kingdom of God built up? Is the organization of the Saints complete?
Are they perfect? No. Then what has been doing? Why, the people have
been receiving instruction; they have been taught from year to year;
lesson after lesson has been given; one field of experience has
followed upon the track of another; we have been practising upon those
things revealed through the Priesthood upon the earth; and, by
following this Priesthood, it has brought us to these times and to
this place. Well, it has done how much of the work of God? How much of
the foundation is laid? How much of the Temple is built ?

vol. 5, p.306
Why, you can go out here and see the Temple that is being built on
this ground, and you can see how much. Just as much has been built as
there has been material brought on to the ground and adjusted in its
place according to the design of the architect. Is this all that has
been done towards the building of the Temple? No. Here has been a
canal built, and there has been rock quarried and laid on the way in
almost every place from here to Big Cottonwood Kanyon. But is the
Temple built? No: but just so much as is adjusted there to-day tells
us that so far the Temple is built. Will it be any different when the
top-stone is laid? Will it make any difference with the parts that are
already adjusted? No: they will still maintain the position that was
assigned them; but that was not given them until they were every whit
prepared, according to the plan of the architect, to take their place
in the building.

vol. 5, p.306
Well, look at our place as Saints of the Most High God, and what is
there developed in relation to the building of it? The Gospel has been
preached, perhaps, to every nation under heaven, or they have heard
the sound borne by our own report, either in Zion or in the nations
abroad. But what has been done? Why, the people of the Saints have
been wandering from State to State, from country to country,
unsettled, having no abiding-place, no permanent home.

vol. 5, p.306
Was it necessary for us to wade through all these scenes? Yes; it was
necessary that we should move and remove, until we gained the place we
now occupy. It is necessary, before the kingdom of God can be built up
in strength and in power, to stand for ever, that there should be
developed in the people a sufficiency of the knowledge of salvation to
hold them to the truth just as firmly and as stedfastly  [p.307] as
these rocks are held to their place in the foundation of the Temple,
so that there will be no disposition to apostatize. And the people
must be possessed of capacity, like the rock in the building; they
must be possessed of strength to bear the weight upon them in the
superstructure.

vol. 5, p.307
This is the work that has been going on, and we have to learn,
experience, and appreciate this; and until we do, we only learn as the
brute beasts, who may experience, but know no reason.

vol. 5, p.307
The Lord has been leading us for our profit and for our learning; he
has been leading us in a course of experience, and we shall be
continually subject to changes and vicissitudes until our experience
becomes sufficiently fruitful in knowledge that we shall be bound to
the Work of God. "How? says one. Why, by a knowledge of the truth; and
when we know the truth in relation to the work of God, shall we
cherish a desire to depart from it? Does a man ever apostatize when he
knows the work is true and that God is working for his own glory, and
when he all the time sees this? No, never. You never see a man
apostatize that in the days of his apostacy ever knew this or
appreciated it. Why, if he knew this, he would not apostatize.

vol. 5, p.307
Apostates are found as we pass through the country, and they will say,
"I knew the work to be true, twenty years ago, when you, brother
Lyman, or somebody else, came through our section of country and
preached the Gospel; I knew that it was true then."

vol. 5, p.307
Then, why did you apostatize and leave the Church? Have you found out
that it was false?

vol. 5, p.307
"Well, I do not know that I have, but it was that 'Mormonism' that was
preached twenty years ago that I knew."

vol. 5, p.307
Well, if you knew that which was preached twenty years ago, you would
have recognised it to-day, because this is the first fruit of that
which you wens acquainted with; and if you had known it, you would not
have departed from it. You did not know the Gospel; you did not
understand it: you might have known or felt conscious that what some
man told you was true. But what is the spirit of the Gospel to that
man that comprehends it? It is that which comprehends all truth and
all good; and there is no truth, neither is there any good outside of
it; and there is, consequently, no chance for the individual that
views the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this light to adopt those kinds of
conclusions that lead men away from the truth and that cause them to
apostatize.

vol. 5, p.307
If we realize this, then we are secure, and we are prepared for any
contingency that may arise; and if God does not build up his kingdom
with us and with the people that are gathered together to the place
that he has appointed, there is but one reason: why he does not do it,
and that is, they do not understand enough of the principles of
salvation; therefore, his kingdom cannot be built up entirely and
completely.

vol. 5, p.307
Now, the fact of a man's being gathered with the Church and with the
Saints does not constitute his salvation in the kingdom when the
kingdom shall triumph; for men will apostatize and go away from the
Church, until they know that it is worth everything else, that it is
everything that is good, and that it is all that can bestow permanent
happiness upon man. Until they understand this, they are in danger,
because there are agencies in the world, throughout the world, and a
train of corrupt influences that are in lively exercise among men and
that have gained power in consequence of the ignorance of mankind; so
that until there is as [p.308] much of the knowledge of the truth
within the people that constitute the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints as will sustain them till there is no disposition to
look after anything else, until they consider nothing outside the
kingdom of any value, they will be in danger of stepping aside and
doing wrong. What is it that will save us? Why, simply knowing that
the truth is so broad that it fills the infinitude of space and
embraces all true happiness, glory, immortality, and eternal life—all
that man will possess when he is associated with the redeemed and
sanctified.

vol. 5, p.308
When we have this understanding and these views of the subject, will
we ever go away from the truth? I say, No, we will not. What will we
go away for? There is no money to be made; there is no blessing to be
obtained; there is no power or riches that can be gained or acquired,
or that can be hoped for; there is nothing outside of the truth.

vol. 5, p.308
Does a man get away from the truth by apostacy? No; he simply revels
in the darkness, with truth all around him: the truth pervades the
whole country where he may dwell and where he may travel; he cannot
get outside of it. Then what has he done? He has closed his eyes and
said, "I will not see;" and by doing so, what has he effected? He has
only run around the circle of truth, until he is worn out and comes
back and finds that the truth is still there. When he opens his eyes,
there is the truth; God is there, his influences are there, his Spirit
is there, his work is there; and he finds that he has not gone away
from God, neither has he gone away from the truth; but he has simply
closed his eyes and refused to see that light and truth which were
presented to him.

vol. 5, p.308
What has he got to do? He has got to take up the truth where he
thought he had left it, be obedient to its requirements, live to it,
and put it on like a garment; he has got to shake off the shackles of
darkness, and emerge into the light and liberty that the Gospel
brings.

vol. 5, p.308
"Well," says one, "where?" Why, in that very place where a long time
ago you closed your eyes against the light and the truth. You may
apostatize, go away, and stay as long as you please; but you must get
a good deal of money, or you will not have enough to get through with.
I have never seen an individual that could get enough that would last
him through.

vol. 5, p.308
Men may go round the world, and they cannot get away from the truth.
It is simply because we do not understand the Gospel as a system of
truth that we are subject to doubts and fears. If we did understand it
in that light, we would not be carried away, for the best of all
reasons, that we would not have any inclination to. go away from the
truth. If we love it, do you think we will apostatize, or or become
alienated from it? No, never.

vol. 5, p.308
Do you see what is requisite to learn, to prepare for those dangers to
which we are liable? Why, it is simply to comprehend the truth; and
when we do this, what shall we see? We shall see that God has a hand
in all things—that he designs to build up his work and to establish it
with us, but not until there is a sufficiency of the light and
manifestations of the Spirit of truth in us that we could not be
separated from it.

vol. 5, p.308
All this scenery that we have been passing through has been preparing
us, just as the labourer, in taking the rock from the mountain, has
been preparing it for its proper place in the House of God.

vol. 5, p.308
Well, what is necessary next? Why, you know, the stone-mason, when he
commenced on the rough  ashlar that was in the quarry, commenced
[p.309] with heavy tools; and when he had knocked off some of the
rough corners and smoothed down the exterior appearance of the stone,
he then used lighter tools and continued to use lighter still, until
the piece under his hand was prepared and polished and fit for its
place.

vol. 5, p.309
Well, what will we have to be when we are as smooth as some of the
nicely polished pieces of stone that will be in the house of God? We
will have to do a great deal more in "Mormonism" than to join the
Church and ranks a journey of some ten thousand miles. Men have been
journeying all the time, but very few have journeyed so as to be saved
in the kingdom of God; and what is the reason? Why, in their
travelling there has been something that has been neglected. Well, if
nothing has been neglected with us, and we are to be removed no more,
but to become abiding fixtures in the kingdom of God, why, then we can
see that it has been necessary that every evil should be drawn out,
and that the Spirit of truth in every part of our organization should
become a living pulse that should vibrate and reach every individual
action and that should purify every individual thought, and that the
fountain of life and thought within us might become well purified by
its sacred and life-giving influence, that it might purge out from us
all that unhallowed leaven within us and round about us, and in which
we find ourselves involved as we pass through the journey of life.

vol. 5, p.309
We get angry, we get out of humour, "out of sorts," as the printers
term it; hence we do not have that equanimity of thought which it is
desirable that we should possess. Our passions rule us, and we do not
rule them; the passions, the feelings that may be within us, overcome
us, and we say we did not think anything about it. We do not think
that we are to control ourselves, that this is our business upon the
earth, that we came here to learn our Father and the principles which
influence him—to learn how he has put on power, and how he has
surrounded himself with glory and strength, come off victorious, and
never become subject to evil.

vol. 5, p.309
Well, are we learning it when our passions are running away with us
like a wild, untrained team with the carriages that they are attached
to? "Why," says one, "we shall do as the Spirit dictates us." There is
a saying that I have read somewhere, that says the spirit of the
prophet should be subject to the prophet; hence I infer that I should
not always prophesy because the spirit of prophecy is in me; for the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, which we should have all
the time. But although we should have the spirit all the time, we
should only use it when it would be prudent and profitable to do so.
It is so with all our conduct in life; it is so with all those duties
that flit up our time and that occupy our attention in the domestic
circle; for there is where we should begin to build up the kingdom of
God,—first in ourselves, then with our wives, next with our children,
and then all build up the kingdom of God together.

vol. 5, p.309
Well, but we have been told that this was our sectarian traditions, to
think of building up the kingdom of God in our hearts. But I want to
tell you, not because you have not heard it before, but because it is
a thing that you have been told again and again; and what is that? To
live your religion; and to live your religion is to have every
principle pertaining to the building up of the kingdom of God, to its
perpetuity and perfection, developed in you; and what will be the
result? Why, then, when you are adjusted in the Temple of God and
assigned your position, you [p.310] will not run away, but you will
remain and become as a pillar here. What is a pillar? It is a fixture.
You know they are put in a building to remain there while the building
stands. If the building is designed to be an eternal place—a
dwelling-place for God, then they are to remain there for ever. 

vol. 5, p.310
You want to live so that your minds will be filled with his Spirit;
and to do this, you need not take a mission to the sun, to the moon,
or to the stars, to find out their distances or how much they weigh?
But are you acquainted with your homes? You answer, "Yes." Well, then,
do right at home, do not do wrong, do not quarrel at home, do not stir
up disunion, do not, in a word, do anything to bring about a
pandemonium instead of a paradise; but do that which brings peace—that
which produces the spirit of peace and of heaven.

vol. 5, p.310
But where division of sentiment, diversity of feeling, and discord
exist, the principles of heaven are not there; the principles of peace
are not there. Study these principles, and for what purpose? Why, that
it may stir up the spirit of peace within you, that the spirit of
peace may be, not a casual visitor, but a constant attendant,—that he
may take up his abode with you; and when an individual takes up his
abode with you, then you do not consider him a transient visitor, but
there is his home—there is where he lodges, where he stays, where he
imparts blessings,—if he is a minister of blessings, where he imparts
good, if he has any good to impart. And if you open a door that this
Spirit will take up his abode with you, then that fountain which will
be opened up will become very plenteous in its supplies; it will
become so to you because you welcome the Holy Spirit there, and you
study to cultivate within you such a feeling that the Spirit will love
to tarry with you day by day; and its book of instructions will be
opened to you, so that each succeeding day will give you an increase
of knowledge, and you will find yourselves able to comprehend one
degree of light and knowledge after another, until your whole soul
will be swallowed up in your love for the truth; your affections will
be bound up in the truth, for which you will be willing to sacrifice
all; and you will throw away all the old fogyism that was around you;
and if you have acted as if you thought the world was yours, then you
will think that it is your Father's, and that he only lent it. You
will acknowledge his ownership to it, and you; will give yourself to
him and to his cause continually.

vol. 5, p.310
What will this prepare you for? For any contingency that may arise;
and you will be contented in the storm and confident of what the
result will be. If the storm-clouds lour around you, you will be
comforted by the sunshine of the Spirit of God; and however dark the
clouds that may lour around, you will find that Spirit to be your
companion; you will see the sunshine that opens to you the prospect of
happiness, of glory, and of eternal life when the clouds shall pass
away.

vol. 5, p.310
Why will this be the case? Because you have prepared yourselves that
the Spirit might be in you, having cultivated it all through your
lives. Then you have a devotion to the truth, and the Spirit of truth
will tarry with you, and by-and-by you will become fully devoted to
the truth; your affections will become pure and holy; and then when
you are purified and made holy, you will not depart from the truth,
nor go into darkness and apostacy, because the sunlight of truth is
within you.

vol. 5, p.310
This is what I want you to learn; and why? Because the days, the times
that are around us require that  [p.311] we should be firm in our
purpose, and not only that we should put up our hands or raise our
voices to high heaven to sustain the kingdom, but that we should be
prepared with every feeling that is within us to devote ourselves to
the truth, knowing that it is all in all, and that there is nothing.
outside of it that is worth possessing.

vol. 5, p.311
Knowing this, then, let us be devoted to the truth, not blindly, but
because the affections that are within us are chained by a knowledge
of its excellency above everything that can be possessed—above every
good that can be attained, and then we shall be secure.

vol. 5, p.311
Brethren and sisters, if we will cultivate this principle and seek to
subject ourselves to the truth, all things are right around us. There
can be nothing wrong to the man who is swallowed up in the truth—whose
whole affections are swallowed up in the beauty and excellency of that
truth which he has learned. There is no feeling in him to
apostatize—there is no room for such a feeling, and consequently he
will not apostatize.

vol. 5, p.311
Such a man would not apostatize at seeing the little plans our enemies
are forming for our destruction. But when we have endured all the
sufferings that our enemies can bring upon us, let us so live that we
may come from the battle-field unscathed, unharmed, and be victorious;
then we shall find that the least of the foes over which we have
triumphed will be the enemies outside.

vol. 5, p.311
If we can triumph over our feelings, our affections, so that our whole
souls can become subject to the principles of heaven, then we shall
easily conquer the other foes. These are the things to be conquered;
and when these are conquered, the others are at our feet.

vol. 5, p.311
What is continually declared to us through the mouth of the Presidency
of the Church? All will be right, if we do right. Well, now, how can
you neglect these things and do right? You cannot. But if we do right,
what does it do? It saves our backs from the rod—it secures to us the
protection of our Father; and if we fail to do right, he will do with
us as he has been doing. He has led us through all the meanderings of
our course; his hand has been over us all the time; and what has been
his design? It has been his design to develop a people to do his own
work—to move them until they should find the place where his kingdom
should be built; up in strength and in power.

vol. 5, p.311
Well, cannot we see it is idle for us to gather around us hopes that
we can be saved and redeemed, or that God will redeem and save us any
farther than the principles of truth are developed within us? If we do
see it, it leaves hope to us and an inducement to live better; and if
there are lesser sins that find place and that still exist in the more
narrow circles of our life, let the work of purification go on until
there shall not be a faultfinding wife nor a husband that shall exact
anything that is not right in the circle of his home.

vol. 5, p.311
When this is the case, where will wickedness find a place to be
nestled and nourished? Where there is no evil in the heart, there is
no evil committed. Let us strive for this with all our energies, and
let us take the word, with us to our homes; for the way is for us to
take this home to ourselves. Let this be the case in every home, and
the work is begun.

vol. 5, p.311
Brethren and sisters, may God bless you with wisdom, faith, prudence,
humility, and every grace that is necessary to strengthen you, that
you may take hold of this work and carry it home with you! The most of
it is to be done at home, where you wash dishes and attend to the
duties of [p.312] domestic life: this is the sanctuary that is to be
made pure and holy.

vol. 5, p.312
And that everything may go on right, that God may help you to purify
yourselves and to reach this point—this consummation, is my prayer.
Amen.

Lorenzo Snow, October 11, 1857

The Blessings and Privileges of the Saints—
Obedience to Counsel

A Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, delivered in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City Sunday Afternoon, October 11, 1857.

vol. 5, p.312
I presume, brethren and sisters, that we all feel measurably thankful
and grateful that we have had the privilege of receiving the fulness
of the Gospel—that we have been counted worthy to be gathered out from
among the nations, to meet in these valleys of the mountains for the
purpose of receiving instruction, learning the mind and will of our
Heavenly Father, and of preparing ourselves for those things that are
coming upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.312
But, at the same time, I presume to say that we do not all of us fully
comprehend the blessings and privileges that are prepared in the
Gospel for us to receive. We do not fully comprehend and we do not
have before our view the things which await us in the eternal worlds,
nor, indeed, the things which await us in this life and that are
Calculated to promote our peace and happiness and to answer the
desires of our hearts.

vol. 5, p.312
The Lard has established certain constitutional desires and feelings
in our bosoms; and it is so with all mankind—with the whole human
family. There are implanted and interwoven in their constitutions
certain desires and capacities for enjoyment—desires for certain
things that are in their nature calculated to promote our peace and
wellbeing, that answer their feeling and promote their happiness. But
how to obtain the gratification of those capacities and desires, the
world do not know nor understand. But the Lord has seen fit to put us
in the channel and in the way of understanding those things by being
faithful and walking in the light of the Holy Spirit, and receiving
truth, and eventually coming in possession of everything that our
hearts desire in righteousness, to promote our peace and happiness and
the highest things that pertain to glory and exaltation in the eternal
worlds.

vol. 5, p.312
We frequently, in the multitude of cares around us, get forgetful, and
these things are not before us; then we do not comprehend that the
Gospel is designed and calculated in its nature to bestow upon us
those things that will bring glory, honour, and exaltation—that will
bring peace and glory. We are apt to forget these things in the midst
of the cares and vexations of life; and we do not fully understand
that it  is our privilege, and that the Lord has placed it in [p.313]
our reach to pursue that Gospel where by we may have peace within us
continually.

vol. 5, p.313
All this trouble and vexation of mind is but a matter of the present;
and if we keep. the light of the Spirit within us, we can so walk in
the Gospel that we can measurably enjoy and happiness in this world;
and while we are travelling onward, striving for peace and happiness
that lie in our path, in the distance, we shall have a peace of mind
that none can enjoy but those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

vol. 5, p.313
Now, let a worldly man once conceive that it is in his power, after a
succession of years of trial and difficulty, to come in possession of
worldly riches and wealth, and of all things that his heart can
desire, what is he not willing to do? Why, he is willing to labour and
toil; and although dressed in poverty and in rags, and with but little
of the comforts of this life, yet, so long as he has a sure testimony
that eventually he is coming in possession of all the desires of his
heart, he urges forward undaunted and full of courage. He has within
him a secret desire and hope that the people around him do not
comprehend. When the people think there is nothing like peace and
happiness about him, he is full of peace; and he has a secret and
strong assurance that he is coming in possession of that which he has
wished for and that his heart is seeking for.

vol. 5, p.313
In the Gospel we have received, by the light thereof and by the power
thereof, we see that by-and-by we are coming into possession of those
things that we have so long desired and laboured for. Those who are
not in possession of this Spirit do not understand that the Lord God
of our fathers has revealed himself unto us; and although many of them
have had a like  opportunity, yet they have not made use of it to
acquire that knowledge.

vol. 5, p.313
Through a continual course of progression, our heavenly Father has
received exaltation and glory, and he points us out the same path; and
inasmuch as he is clothed with power, authority, and glory, he says,
"Walk ye up and come in possession of the same glory and happiness
that I possess."

vol. 5, p.313
In the Gospel those things have been made manifest unto us, and we are
perfectly assured that, inasmuch as we are faithful, we shall
eventually come in possession of everything that the mind of man can
conceive of—everything that heart can desire.

vol. 5, p.313
Well, then, in the midst of poverty and deprivations, or in the midst
of comforts and conveniences, still these hopes are the secret springs
of our joys. We see that our heavenly Father does provide us with
everything we need; we see that we are in the sure path to come in
possession of those richer blessings that are promised; and nothing in
this world can, or ever will, place an impediment in our way to
prevent us from receiving those blessings.

vol. 5, p.313
Is not our liberty, our comfort in the everlasting Gospel, the
assurance that we shall receive all the reward that is made sure to
the faithful children of God? Then where is the man that is not
willing to set fire to his substance—that is not willing to yield
everything for the salvation of himself and the people, if that be the
principle upon which salvation is to be obtained? 

vol. 5, p.313
Let a man have the visions of the Almighty unfolded to his view, and
see in yonder heavens the government of the eternal worlds,—let him
see the liberty and joy that are to be participated in, and let him
see that the Gospel gives all to this man, and he is willing in his
heart and in his feelings to yield everything to the will of God, that
he may come  in possession of those things. Will [p.314] such a man
pursue a course that will eventually throw him out of the kingdom?
Will he give up those blessings and those prospects for a little
comfort, or for a little of this world's goods, or to enjoy the
comforts of this life for a season?

vol. 5, p.314
Where is there cause to mourn? Where is there cause for the Saints to
wear long faces? Where is there cause for weeping or repining ? There
is none; but it is life or death that is set before us. Principalities
and powers are ours, if we continue faithful; sorrow and banishment,
if we disregard the Gospel.

vol. 5, p.314
What can we wish for more than is comprehended in our religion? If we
will stand firm upon the rock, ad will follow the Spirit that has been
placed in our bosoms, we shall act right in the way of our duties—we
shall act right to those who are placed over us,—we shall act right,
whether in the light or in the dark.

vol. 5, p.314
Where is the man that will turn aside and throw away those prospects
that are embraced in the Gospel which we have received? In it there is
satisfaction, there is joy, there is stability, there is something
upon which to rest our feet, there is a sure foundation to build upon,
and upon which to yield that which is required of us.

vol. 5, p.314
When the enemy is near, and when the stormy clouds arise, and the
war-clouds approach, even then we can feel free and quiet, and be
satisfied that all is right in Israel. It is only for us to be ready
to do our duty, to serve our President with all our heart, with all
our might, with all our feelings, with all our property and energies,
and with all things that the Lord has put into our hands.

vol. 5, p.314
Let the power that God has put into our hands be used; for herein lies
a continued advancement in dominion in power, and in knowledge. We
should be ready at all times to exercise all the power, means, and
influence we possess in the service of our God, and resignedly follow
out the directions of our President and those that are appointed over
us.

vol. 5, p.314
Let us be like little children, ready and willing to do as we are
commanded by the powers that we should obey. Let us be obedient to the
voice of truth, and ever be found in the path of duty; and there let
us continue. Let a man do this, and he continues to advance; he will
grow in the knowledge of God, and in influence, and in everything that
is good. We may well be said to be a people of one mind, for we are
the Saints of the living God. The Saints who are brought from the
nations of the earth—those who have been gathered together in one, are
the ones who hold the birthright to reign on the earth.

vol. 5, p.314
It is a good thing, brethren, to be a Saint. We are as children; we
have to pass through the state of infancy, of childhood, and of youth,
before we can arrive at manhood; and we have to learn by degrees.

vol. 5, p.314
There are some who do not learn and who do not improve as fast as they
might, because their eyes and their hearts are not upon God. They do
not reflect, neither do they have that knowledge which they might
have: they miss a good deal which they might receive. We have got to
obtain knowledge before we obtain permanent happiness; we have got to
be wide awake to the things of God.

vol. 5, p.314
Though we may now neglect to improve our time, to brighten up our
intellectual faculties, we shall be obliged to improve them sometime.
We have got so much ground to walk over; and if we fail to travel
today, we shall have so much more to travel to-morrow. We should try
to learn and understand how we may best perform our daily duties, and
learn what enjoyment it is our privilege to receive.

vol. 5, p.315
[p.315] Wives and children fail in a great many instances to enjoy
that which they might enjoy, because of tradition—because of not
employing their minds in reflection. Take an individual family in
Zion, for instance, and you will see that there is not that amount of
enjoyment that there might be, provided they would act up to their
privileges; for then they would receive the blessings in store for
them.

vol. 5, p.315
The husband has to learn to give proper counsel and direction; he has
to learn how to manage his wives and his children, and it takes him
some time to learn how to manage wisely and to bestow comfort upon
each member of his family.

vol. 5, p.315
Our children, if we are diligent in cultivating in ourselves the pure
principles of life and salvation, will grow up in the knowledge of
these things, and be able with greater facility than ourselves to
promote the orders of heaven and establish happiness and peace around
them. But our traditions are so interwoven with our nature that it
requires more time and effort on our part for us to learn.

vol. 5, p.315
It does not trouble some women to follow out the counsel of their
husbands: they will serve them in faithfulness—they will honour and
respect the power of the Priesthood that is upon their husbands. In
this respect they do well and enjoy themselves in doing so, as every
woman will; but in the relationship that exists between them and other
wives of that man, you are are very apt to see a little discord.

vol. 5, p.315
And some men will at once fall into the channel of obedience, while it
takes other men quite a length of time to learn that principle and
carry it out. While a man is full of the Spirit and power of the
Almighty, he perceives the line of duty in a moment.

vol. 5, p.315
There are men who will follow the counsel of President Young in every
particular; but set such a man to preside over men who have not that
fulness of light that he has, and he will find difficulty in governing
those men: they have to think about it and study about it.

vol. 5, p.315
It requires more energy and more strength of purpose in a man to
follow out the counsel of one who is just above him than it is to
follow a man that is a long way ahead of him. So it is in regard to
the women; they can follow the counsel of their husband and do as he
wishes much better than they can regard one another. But we should do
our duty, if it not so pleasing to ourselves.

vol. 5, p.315
We are all imperfect and full of weaknesses; we have not become
perfect in the things of God; and hence we have to suffer for one
another. Now, in my dealings with the brethren, I have more difficulty
in getting along with the man that is ignorant than with him who can
see his duty. I perceive that the ignorant man is weak—that he is
blind; and inasmuch as I have to suffer from his wrong, because he has
not learned to control his passions, it becomes a greater virtue in me
to be patient with him; for there is more required of me.

vol. 5, p.315
Well, so it may be with some women. You very seldom find that husbands
and wives are perfect; but perhaps it is very well that the husband is
not perfect, because, if he was, he would be placed at a great
distance from his wives. It requires a great exertion on the parts of
wives to keep pace with their husbands.

vol. 5, p.315
You all perceive more imperfections in those around you than you do in
yourselves. It is much more difficult for wives to learn than it is
for husbands, because women have not the degree of light and knowledge
that their husbands have; they have not the power over their passions
that their husbands have: therefore, they [p.316] have to suffer one
for another until they get power over themselves like unto those that
have advanced more fully in the knowledge of our God.

vol. 5, p.316
There is a struggle all the time, and it requires exertion on our part
to know how to manage, how to move, and how to come in possession of
the greatest amount of happiness. Let wives pursue an even course with
regard to their husband; let them bear with his faults; let them be
united and live in peace, and they will increase in light and
intelligence. Let the one that has got the most light learn to be the
most forbearing, for the sake of her husband and for the sake of the
principles of truth. If the Lord has made one woman more perfect than
another, and given her more intelligence than her sisters, let her
show more mercy and patience in overlooking their faults. By this
means a wife will gain influence and favour with her husband, with her
sisters, and with her heavenly Father. She thus advances herself and
puts herself in a position to enjoy all that is for the righteous. The
whole is summed up in this—DO RIGHT.

vol. 5, p.316
The man that has the most influence will enjoy the most, and the most
is required of him. It is so with you women. If any of you have more
knowledge and influence than the others, more is required of you; you
have the more to endure.

vol. 5, p.316
Let families put themselves in possession of all the good they can—be
in a position to do right, and be continually in the path to
exaltation and glory. We should all think of these things and practise
them. If you want to know how to be great, good, and happy, and how to
advance faster in the principles of exaltation and perfection, why,
then, set yourselves to work to find out how you can do the most good
good. You, women, do this, and learn how you can best serve your
husbands. You, men, learn how you can best serve President Brigham
Young.

vol. 5, p.316
Well, it may be more glory for you, sisters, to serve your husbands,
than to serve each other; but you have got to learn to do both, and
you will get all the honour and glory that you are capable of
receiving. But some do not conceive of this: they think that it
matters not whether they love their husbands or not, so long as they
do not let them know it. But if they do not put themselves in the way
of acting properly, they bring darkness and trouble upon themselves.

vol. 5, p.316
For instance, if one of my fingers is injured, I feel that injury all
over my body. So also if a man has several wives, and one of them gets
injured, he feels the injury that is put upon that wife. Some women
think, if they can do all that is required by their husbands, that is
all that is required. That is very good; but it is a wild, fanciful
notion to think that this is all that is called for. But if you will
set to with all your energy to bless your husband in serving him and
those around him, and endeavouring to make them all happy, because
they desire exaltation and happiness, then you are in the line of your
duty. This requires an exertion; it requires faith, prayer, and the
Spirit of the Lord to enable you to carry out this operation.

vol. 5, p.316
But you, sisters, have made rapid advances in consideration of where
you stood a few years ago. Well, still continue in the good work and
attend faithfully to those things that pertain to your duties and to
the stewardship appointed you. See that the little, trifling
misunderstandings in domestic concerns do not poison your happiness.

vol. 5, p.316
And you, brethren, attend to those duties that pertain to your calling
and Priesthood, and know that the Lord has called us to receive the
fulness of the Gospel.

vol. 5, p.317
[p.317] We are his Saints, his sons, and his daughters, and all things
are open to us; the treasures of time and of eternity are
ours—everything is ours, if we will serve our God in faithfulness,
even to the sacrifice of all we possess. There lies the preparation
for happiness hereafter.

vol. 5, p.317
Brethren and sisters, may the Lord bless you! I ask it in the name of
Jesus. Amen.

Amasa Lyman, October 7, 1857

Peace, Confidence, and Ultimate Victory of the Saints, Etc.

Remarks by Elder Amasa Lyman, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Wednesday Afternoon, October 7, 1857.

vol. 5, p.317
I can say that I have been gratified, edified, and blessed in various
ways since the commencement of our Conference. I have not been
anything but blessed, that I know of. So far as our meeting here is
concerned, I have been highly gratified in hearing from our brethren
who have just returned from abroad. The spirit with which they have
expressed their feelings and delivered their testimony here is a
living evidence that the cause of God and of truth is onward—that it
is progressive—that it is increasing in the earth.

vol. 5, p.317
When we were young and had but just commenced to testify of the
Gospel, we could not hear the same testimony that we hear now: still
the Spirit of God was always good, and the testimony of the servants
of God that were inspired by it was always good, and the days that are
past were very good days, and the times past were very good; but to
day is a better time than any other that I ever saw: the circumstances
that surround us to-day are better than any with which we have ever
been surrounded since we have been a people.

vol. 5, p.317
Our prospects are brighter than ever they were before; and the clouds
that gather around us, if there are any, are hardly perceptible, from
the increased amount of light that is shining: they vanish, they
disappear in the increasing, confidence, faith, intelligence, and
knowledge that exist in the people.

vol. 5, p.317
We need not question this, if we but for a moment contemplate the
quietude, the harmony, and the peace that pervade the homes of the
Saints—the place where they dwell. There is no excitement such as is
generally attendant upon an expected war; but it seems the time
approaches nearer that was to effect the establishing a line of
division between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this
world—that there has been a full and corresponding increase of
confidence on the part of the people in relation to the truth they had
embraced; so that I can hardly see or determine, from anything that
has outwardly taken place, that there is anything that has happened,
except it is their progress in the truth and their advancement in
knowledge.

vol. 5, p.317
Nobody seems to be alarmed; all seem to feel confident that the
contest [p.318] that is in prospect is to decide the question: it does
not seem to be who will prevail; it does not seem to be asked at all
who will conquer; but the matter is all settled, that Israel will
prevail.

vol. 5, p.318
This has been written a long time ago; and we are happy if we can see
it and understand it—if we can appreciate it so as to inspire within
us that confidence that would be requisite to our salvation.

vol. 5, p.318
Now, is it because we all understand—is it because we all comprehend
the truth, that we are in this position? What will be the sequel of
our history? We may as well read it to-day as to wait for the future
to reveal it. What will it be, if the confidence and quietude that we
enjoy to-day, that pervades our souls to-day, is the result of our
comprehension of the truth? It will be the same ever and always: the
history of the future will never reveal that we have departed from the
truth—that we have professed to know, to understand, to comprehend,
and feel the blessings of the truth, and then have at a subsequent
period of our lives departed from it.

vol. 5, p.318
I do not know altogether what may inspire your hearts or what may have
an influence upon your minds; but I believe that I know—I feel
satisfied in my own mind that, I know why it is that I have no fears
as to the issue of matters that we are interested in. To sum it all up
and tell what it is, in the shortest possible way, would be simply to
say that I cannot see any place for a failure; I cannot see any place,
nor conceive of the existence of a possibility of a failure. "Why,"
says one, "there is no room for a failure. The truth upon which is
predicated—upon which is based the declarations of the servants of God
in ancient times, that when God should set his hand to build up his
kingdom, that he would build it up, that it should be established,
that it should triumph over every other kingdom and stand for ever,
that truth is so broad, so extensive, that there is no room for a
failure—there is nothing on which to hang a doubt, or on which to
ground a single exception."

vol. 5, p.318
I am not preaching now of what may be my fate, but I am speaking about
the fate of the work we are interested in, that we are engaged in,
that has brought us together, that holds us together, and that at the
present moment is influencing us.

vol. 5, p.318
I may apostatize—I may leave. What! could I really leave the truth? It
is generally implied that if we leave anything, we get away from it;
but, for my part, I do not know where to go to get away from it. I
might stand still, shut up my ears, harden my heart, and say that I
would not have it; but I could not get away from it.

vol. 5, p.318
I suppose there is no such fate for me: I hope not. But for the work
of God there is nothing but victory—the triumph that has been spoken
of and written about by many of the ancients.

vol. 5, p.318
Have we found the time when that triumph is to take place? I think we
have good mason to believe that we have, if for no other reason than
that we have searched for and found the place.

vol. 5, p.318
If Abraham went to seek a country that he knew not of, so have we been
seeking a country. I do not care whether we were in the company of the
pioneers who came to Salt Lake Valley first, or whether our pioneering
has been in other places, preaching and calling upon the inhabitants
of the earth to embrace the Gospel and trying to induce them to gather
together. We have all been pioneering—we have all been exploring under
the direction of our Father—for what? For a place on which to build up
his kingdom upon the earth. What else have we been doing? Why, we have
been doing some other things  that are [p.319] equally necessary as
the finding of a place.

vol. 5, p.319
When the experience that we have gained is sufficient for the
accomplishment of his work, if we have at the same time found the
place at which the work could be accomplished, then two points are
gained preparatory to building up his kingdom and carrying out his
purposes. Without either of these, he could hardly be calculating to
accomplish his work, unless he works differently from what we
generally understand that he does.

vol. 5, p.319
When we shall in a future day look back over our travels in connection
with the history of this Church, we shall not set them down as awful
persecutions, as we may have regarded them in days that are past. We
shall look at them as we now look at the wanderings of Israel in the
wilderness between the land of Egypt, where they were held in bondage,
and from which they were led to the land of Canaan, which was given to
them as a possession.

vol. 5, p.319
Why did they not travel directly? We generally understood it was
because they were rebellious; it was because they would not learn so
much of the truth as was necessary to qualify them for entering into
the rest of God. This prolonged their travel in the wilderness, and
they travelled and travelled, and continued to travel, till there was
a people that could be led—that could be controlled —that could be
managed and led to possess the land, and to do the thing that was
designed to be done at that time. The Lord had it in his heart to
accomplish a work with the people of this dispensation in the
proclamation of the Gospel—to call them to the knowledge of the truth;
and then, by the revelation of his will from time to time, he taught
them the things that they could believe and that they could receive,
and he imparted those things that were suitable for them. The things
that they could not and would not receive were withheld from their
sight until other times and other circumstances surrounded them—until
there was a disposition developed in the people that they would
receive them; and under this kind of guidance we have travelled west,
even under the direction of God; then the Devil has kicked us east,
and then we have travelled west again; and finally our journeying has
led us to this place—the first place that the Saints have ever
occupied where the kingdom of God could be built up.

vol. 5, p.319
This makes me calculate that the time has come when the kingdom of God
should be built up—when it should become a nation, a kingdom, a power
upon the earth, whose increasing enlargement should be the diminution,
the decline, the falling away of all other powers of the earth.

vol. 5, p.319
Well, then, should we be driven away from here, or should we be
trodden down here? To admit this is to admit that this is not the
kingdom and work of God. This is the work of God, and this is his
kingdom; and we are here—not because the Devil would have us here, for
he is very sorry that we are here; neither are we here because our
enemies have desired to have us here, but because it was the design of
our Father to bring us here. His own right hand has brought us here,
and his Spirit has led us and dictated his people and servants until
he has brought us here.

vol. 5, p.319
However this may appear to us, it is the Lord's own doing. Why so?
Because he could not accomplish his purposes without it. And if it is
the Lord's work, then there is no failure—then we are net to be
destroyed, we are not to be driven away, we are not to be wasted any
more, we are not to be trodden down any more by the iron heel of
oppression; but we are [p.320] here to gather strength, to put on,
power and might, and to be in the midst of the nations what our Father
has designed from the beginning of his kingdom upon the earth in these
last times.

vol. 5, p.320
What should we be driven away from here for? Has God any purpose to
serve by our being annoyed—by our being again driven away? If he has,
it is something that I do not know of. He has brought us here through
immense labour and toil. We thought it was awfully hard when we came
here: we nearly had to waste away all that we had, all that was given
to us,—not what we had of our own in reality, but what was given to
us: we have had to lose nearly all that we had to get here, and now we
are in the place where God designs we should be.

vol. 5, p.320
Will he build up his kingdom on the earth? Yes he will. Well, then we
shall not be driven away. Has he found the people.—the material out of
which to build his kingdom? Yes, he has. We have been travelling and
preaching backward and forward to prepare us for these things. Is
there a people here that is capable of being governed, and not only
that are capable of being governed, but capable of becoming governors?

vol. 5, p.320
Where did these governors come from? Why, they have been manufacturing
all the time from the time that we first heard the Gospel. We have
been trying to be obedient to its behests and requirements. From the
time that men began to learn obedience and gain knowledge, God has
been preparing and manufacturing them out of the material of which he
is going to build up his kingdom.

vol. 5, p.320
In Nauvoo, when our enemies repealed the charter, we were better off
than we were before; and I do not suppose that we have retrograded,
but we have come out here and have made a Government—a State
Government;

vol. 5, p.320
and then Uncle Sam thought he would have a finger in the pie, and he
made us a Territory, and we have got along very well.

vol. 5, p.320
I expect that the next time we are made anything, it will be the
kingdom of God, and no amalgamation; and it will be made of the
material that God has manufactured in the course of the training that
we have had. This is what we are here for.

vol. 5, p.320
We have found the place and the material of which to build the
kingdom; and this leads me to think that we shall not be driven away;
for I can see the hand of God in our coming here; and "Why?" one may
ask. Because he said, in the beginning, that this was his work—to
build up his kingdom; and knowing that there must be a place to build
it upon, and then seeing the Lord lead us to a place, and seeing his
servants building it up through his guidance and counsel, cannot I see
the hand of God in it? I can; for he told me this in the beginning.

vol. 5, p.320
Then is it not his hand? It is. Can you see it? Many will answer,
"Yes." Then why not be contented? This is the reason that the peace of
heaven pervades the land where we dwell, and why fear is banished from
our hearts.

vol. 5, p.320
The Spirit of truth, the Spirit of the Highest dwells in the Saints
and inspires them with confidence, and victory is the Song of every
heart. The Saints do not sing any other song. The songs are made in
prospect beforehand; but they all speak of victory—they are all songs
of triumph.

vol. 5, p.320
Now, I do feel well: as the western man says, I reckon I do. Why do I
feel so well? Because I cannot find anything to feel bad about. I have
a great many things, to think about; and what are they, and where are
they?

vol. 5, p.320
If I can only maintain my relationship unbroken with the cause of God,
[p.321] and remain identified with it, why,  then I am saved; and why?
Because the kingdom of God will make me just as great as I can be, and
greater than I know enough to speak of now. Why? Because I will know
more then. It is all embraced in the kingdom of God.

vol. 5, p.321
Is not this a simple thing, that this is God's kingdom and that he has
allowed our enemies to kick us tilt they have kicked us to this point?
And when they reached at anything else they have always been
restrained; but while the Devil was kicking us to this point, the Lord
was well satisfied, and he kept his hand over him and said, "Now, old
fellow, do not kick too hard; these are my people: when you have
kicked them so far, all well; but you must not kick any farther."

vol. 5, p.321
Now the Lord has got us here, our enemies want to drive us off farther
still. But now comes the declaration that meets with a hearty
response—ISRAEL IS FREE!

vol. 5, p.321
Free from what? From labour, from toil, from watch? No, not at all.
Then what are we free from? From the restraint that we have been
under. Now, we are declaring boldly that we are the kingdom of God,
and that in the strength of God we are determined to defend it and to
defend the truth.

vol. 5, p.321
Now, all these things considered are among the things that make me
feel well. This is the reason that I think we shall prevail—that is,
in the strength of our God.

vol. 5, p.321
I do not feel any other way than that we are a part of the work of
God, and that the decree of the Almighty has fixed it immutably and
unchangeably that his kingdom shall be built up, and that as it rises
in its greatness and grandeur he has fixed our exaltation and glory,
if we are so happy as to maintain our relationship unchanged in
harmony and beauty.

vol. 5, p.321
Is it so with you all? This is the way I feel; and it is this that
makes this day the best day that I ever saw. This is why I rejoice:
this is why I have no fears but that our cause will be triumphant; and
we will triumph so long as we live with it and do not separate
ourselves from it by any sin.

vol. 5, p.321
Brethren and sisters, this is a theme big enough to talk about a long
time. There can be a great deal said about it; but I will not trespass
upon the time, but conclude by saying, God bless Israel in every land
and clime, that they may triumph, that God may remember our enemies,
that they may not be forgotten, but that they may be remembered and
have their reward in full; and if they can be taken care of without
much trouble, let us be satisfied; and if the Lord. requires us to
take care of them, let us do as we have been doing while preaching the
Gospel. This is my feeling.

vol. 5, p.321
May God bless you all, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. [p.322]

Lorenzo Snow, October 7, 1857

Wisdom Gained By Experience—The Trials and the 
Final Triumph of the Saints, Etc.

Remarks by Elder Lorenzo Snow, made in the Bowery, 
Great Salt Lake City, Wednesday Morning October 7, 1857.

vol. 5, p.322
There is one thing, brethren, that I reflect upon, that pleases me
very much; that is, to see, under our present circumstances, the
feeling of calmness and serenity which manifests faith in the Lord.
The calmness and serenity that is in the minds of the Saints in regard
to the circumstances of war and threatenings that are around us at the
present time is a principle that we, as the people of God and as wise
men and wise women, need very much to inculcate within ourselves. We
should be perfectly calm and serene, without excitement, otherwise we
will be excited and consider that the circumstances around us are of a
dangerous nature, and thus shall not be able to act prudently and in a
way that would be pleasing in the sight of our Father in heaven.

vol. 5, p.322
Sailors and mariners become wise, useful, and qualified for their
stations only by experience. Storms, tempests, and hurricanes have to
occur in order to give them that experience. If all was calm, and
storms never arose at sea, where would the mariner get the experience
that is necessary for him to have, that when storms do occur and
difficulties arise, when the ship sails out upon the ocean, he shall
be prepared to manage and guide his his vessel safely into port. If
there are individuals on board that have never experienced storms, or
perhaps have never ventured away from land before, when storms arise,
you see that trepidation of spirit that you do not witness in those
that have had experience.

vol. 5, p.322
So it is with ourselves in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have to
learn by the things that take place around us and act in the stations
assigned us by the circumstances that transpire and the experience we
gain.

vol. 5, p.322
As a general thing, I presume to say that the people before me to-day
feel that all is well—that all is right, notwithstanding an armed
force is only about 147 miles distant from us, full of their hellish
designs for our destruction, and have formed their schemes for the
purpose of entering into our settlement for the destruction of the
principles of righteousness and to gratify their hellish lusts. The
least idea never entered their hearts that the people would be found
here that would dare to oppose them. I presume the Saints feel that
all will be well as a general thing, and to see these feelings
existing in the bosoms of the Saints this day is pleasing and
gratifying to my feelings; and I feel assured that whatever shall take
place —whatever course shall be pursued by our enemies or be taken by
ourselves, all will terminate for the glory and exaltation of the
Saints of the living God. The kingdom of our God is bound to prosper
and to go forward.

vol. 5, p.322
While we are here studying the interests of Zion—of the honest in
heart among the nations of the earth—how we can gather them together,
that the [p.323] fetters under which they are now labouring may be
broken,—while we are doing this, on the other hand our enemies are
scheming for the destruction of these righteous principles, for the
purpose of binding the yoke more strongly upon our neck—of destroying
those pure and holy principles that have been revealed for the
salvation of the honest in heart—principles that are calculated to
exalt, to happify, and glorify.

vol. 5, p.323
Such principles have been revealed —such principles have been
restored—such principles have been held forth by the Elders among the
nations as you heard yesterday. For these principles this people have
been driven several times; they have forsaken their homes; they have
forsaken their enjoyments and the privileges they might have had among
the nations; and they would now willingly burn up their dwellings, if
they were so commanded. We understand, from the feelings of our
bosoms, and we find, as a general thing, that the people are willing
to continue their efforts for the promotion of these principles, that
they may still remain upon the earth, and that the honest in heart may
be delivered. For the dissemination and final triumph of these holy
principles, all that is required on our part is to sustain and support
them, so far as the God of heaven shall lead us by his Holy Spirit.
Where the Lord plants us there we are to stand: when he requires us to
exert ourselves for the support of these holy principles, that we are
to do; that is all we need to trouble ourselves about; the rest our
Heavenly Father will take care of. But it need not surprise us that
difficulties and storms arise—that we see hurricanes playing about
us—that we see war-clouds gather thick and fast about us; this need
not be surprising. Where there is no trial there can be no
deliverance; where there is no temptation the power of God cannot be
made manifest to any great extent.

vol. 5, p.323
You, brethren, that have been baptised for the remission of your sins,
receive the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the
Holy Ghost has been poured out upon you, did you not have to make your
sacrifice? Did you not have to give up some things you had formerly
held dear to you? Did you not have to come to this place that you
might receive the blessings of God? And after you had done all this,
did you not receive what you had anticipated and been promised?

vol. 5, p.323
Take the children of Israel from the days when they were called from
Egyptian bondage, and take ourselves from the day we were organized
through brother Joseph as the kingdom of God upon the earth; you will
see that in every instance his power and deliverance were manifest to
a greater extent than we could have anticipated. Take it individually
or take it collectively, we have suffered and we shall have to suffer
again; and why? Because the Lord requires it at our hands for our
sanctification.

vol. 5, p.323
In the days of brother Joseph the mob came and took individuals:
brother Joseph suffered them to take him; he suffered them to take
possession of the brethren's houses—to come in and shake hands with
him, as traitors; and in every instance, they sacrificed every
principle of virtue, of honour, and purity.

vol. 5, p.323
This course of conduct continued year after year. We suffered them to
come upon us in Jackson County, and they there sacrificed every
principle of virtue and righteousness. In Nauvoo, also, the devils
incarnate were there again laying their hellish plots for the
destruction of every holy principle; and after the death of Joseph the
Prophet, President B. Young and others of the servants of God swore
that if their enemies laid their hands [p.324] upon them they should
die. But the brethren never declared this until they had suffered from
their enemies until forbearance was no longer a virtue.

vol. 5, p.324
We suffered these things day after day and year after year; and why?
Because the Lord suffered it and required it of us. Men may be good
and righteous; yet the Lord causes them to undergo trials to a certain
extent. And when the Lord gave us the privilege of giving away our
lives and letting the enemy have power over us, our enemies never
troubled us.

vol. 5, p.324
When we kindly, generously, and with the utmost courtesy asked the
President of the United States, if he could, possibly, to let us
choose rulers out from amongst ourselves; and if that was not
agreeable, to go so far as to let us have kind, decent sort of men—men
that have some interest here—men that would themselves obey the laws
which they came to administer; the Government were ofended, and hence
they are sending an army—men that wear epaulettes. Probably these are
the citizens which they consider will be interested in our welfare.

vol. 5, p.324
The power of the Almighty bears record in every heart that the
position for us to take is not to suffer them to come in here; and
this is the universal feeling in this community; and it is the power
of the Holy Ghost which testifies to every man and to every woman that
this is our position.

vol. 5, p.324
The Lord has preserved us in every position; and although we have
suffered, he has been with us by the power of his Spirit. He has
suffered us to give up our arms and to exhibit his mercy. He did this
in Far West and in Nauvoo. He suffered brother Joseph to give himself
up, and now we see what they have done. But now it is altogether
different; we are in a different position from what we were then. The
Lord has revealed to brother Brigham to take the stand which we are
taking.

vol. 5, p.324
I was speaking yesterday of the contrast between this people and the
world. We are here in the capacity of a Conference; we are labouring,
striving, and struggling for the deliverance of the honest in heart
throughout the world; we are labouring for the establishment and
continuance of holy principles.

vol. 5, p.324
There are men on this stand whose testimony you have heard; and those
very men would suffer themselves to be cut in pieces, inch by inch,
before they would suffer those principles to be trampled upon. It is
their business to make people happy,—to put them in possession of
eternal life, so that sorrowing and crying may cease from the earth.

vol. 5, p.324
Look 147 miles eastward; there our enemies are contemplating what they
may do—how they may come or send an armed mob here. They would hire
and bribe a posse, if they could, to come and take President Young;
and they are all the time plotting and scheming how they may subvert
this people. When our brethren were amongst them, they were all the
time singing their lustful songs and damning those holy principles
which we have embraced. Look across the wild sage plains—over the
deserts to the United States, and the same spirit is there; they are
studying how they may rid the United States of the principles of
righteousness. Now, which will prevail?

vol. 5, p.324
[President B. Young: "Truth will prevail?"]

vol. 5, p.324
Yes, the truth will; the Saints of the Most High will prevail. It is
the Lord Almighty that has called his Saints; he has chosen his sons
and daughters.

vol. 5, p.324
It is not our work, but it is the work of our Heavenly Father, and we
are called to be engaged in it. The  storms must arise—the oppressor
must [p.325] lay his hand upon the people, or it could not be taken
off. And you, brethren and sisters, whose husbands are yonder in the
kanyons, who have gone forth to defend Israel, pray for them that they
may be victorious, and pray that you may be united unto each other.

vol. 5, p.325
I think, as Elder Hyde observed here the other day, that probably the
greatest unpleasantness may be found in families. Now, you sisters,
just unite your hearts together; and if there is dissension in your
midst, get rid of it, and put away those hard feelings; then you can
bow together as the children of God and as the wives of your husbands,
united together in all things; you can then call upon the Lord, and he
will give you power to obey your husbands; and do you pray that they
may be able to execute the designs of the Almighty, and that the enemy
may have no power over them.

vol. 5, p.325
If you have difficulties, go and settle them, and do your duties as
the Saints of God, and pray that the Holy Spirit may rest upon your
husband; and that will nerve him up more than your flour—more than
your extra shirts. Just tell him that you are calling upon God in his
behalf—that you are praying that the enemy may have no power over him.
Sisters, be united in these things, and the blessings of Israel's God
will be upon you; your husbands will come home safely, they will be
full of the Spirit of the Lord, and the wicked will fear and tremble
to see the calmness and serenity that rests upon the people of God.

vol. 5, p.325
May the Lord bless you, brethren and sisters. It is a time of
rejoicing: never did I feel better than I do this day. Everything
signifies that the day of our deliverance is at hand. If there should
be a little difficulty in getting the child born, all will be
perfectly right. I tell you the child is bound to pass through its
childhood, its boyhood; and whatever it may cost, the victory must be
ours. A man or a woman is just as well the other side of the vail as
here; it does not matter a particle in relation to their going forward
in the principles of exaltation.

vol. 5, p.325
Our duty is to do right here and everywhere—to keep right all the time
with our God; then all is right with us, whether we are here or on the
other side of the vail.

vol. 5, p.325
Leave things in the hands of God, and I tell you the physical conquest
is ours as well as the spiritual one. Remember those little striplings
who went forth some twenty or twenty-five years ago, without first
learning to preach the Gospel: they had not the wisdom of the colleges
nor of the schools, but they went forth not having any natural hopes
of an intellectual conquest; but they went forth and they stopped the
mouths of the priests, and men of learning were in dead silence before
them through the power of God which attended their preaching.

vol. 5, p.325
The Lord said unto his servants, "Ye are not to be taught, but to
teach." (Doctrine and Covenants.) He also said, Be valiant and be
diligent in laying up wisdom; but take no thought for the morrow, but
all things shall be brought seasonably to your minds in the very hour
that you need them. This is the work of the Lord, and it is the way
the Lord works.

vol. 5, p.325
Well, here comes another conquest to be gained: they have forced us
into this, and the result will be precisely the same in the physical
as in the spiritual.

vol. 5, p.325
Are we studied in war? These fellows have been studying it from all
the books that have been written from the days of Adam down to now,
and they are full of military science as the priests were full of
divinity. But remember that but a little stone from [p.326] the sling
of David put to death the Goliath of the Philistines; and so it will
be in the deliverance of Zion. If the brethren go forth depending upon
their physical arms, they cannot do much; but if they go forth
depending upon the Spirit of the Almighty, I can assure you that the
conquest will be as glorious as in the day when we went forth to
preach the Gospel under those circumstances which I have named. I just
know it, for it is God's work.

vol. 5, p.326
Women will find that they hold a good deal of power and influence in
relation to blessing their husbands; therefore, let your faith and
your hearts be united together, and pray for your husbands and for
your children, whose fathers have gone forth to fight the battles of
Zion. Children, pray for your fathers, and that will cheer them up.
But if a man looks back and sees that there is nothing but confusion
and disorder in his family, he is apt to slacken his efforts; his
heart gives way; he has not the power nor the hardihood that he would
otherwise have, providing that he knew that all was peace—that all was
right at his home.

vol. 5, p.326
Think of this, you sisters. I tell you a great deal depends upon your
conduct. I presume there are persons with families, who, if called to
go out to fight, would pray God that they might never return again.
This should not be.

vol. 5, p.326
Brethren, be united; pray for brother Brigham, for brother Heber, for
brother Daniel, and the brethren with him in the mountains; and the
enemy can never—no, never get possession of them. It is for you and
me—yea, even if it costs our life's blood, to defend those men. If you
or me saw a weapon presented at President Young, it is our business to
step in and save his life, if it costs our own; and you will see the
day when you will understand this; you will see the day when you will
be ready to stand in the gap.

vol. 5, p.326
Now, if I saw a sword drawn, would I not lift my hand to prevent its
injuring the Prophet of God? Yes, if it was at the risk of taking off
my hand. This is right; and if this people are willing to sacrifice
all for the purpose of preventing our enemies coming in here, they
never will come into our midst. We are willing and ready to burn
everything, and then we are in a right position; and I believe this is
the general feeling, and this indicates to me that the Lord is on our
side.

vol. 5, p.326
Some people are not sufficiently schooled to know how to make
sacrifices. When we are satisfied of the course the enemy will take,
that will be enough; we shall then know what to do.

vol. 5, p.326
The Lord bless you, brethren and sisters! Be willing to fellow
counsel—the counsel of President Young, also of your Bishops, and then
all is well. Zion stands and prospers, and it will not be long before
the enemy will melt away as before the morning sun. Zion will spread
and increase until she holds dominion over all the nations of the
earth.

vol. 5, p.326
The Lord bless you all for ever, is my prayer. Amen. [p.327]

Brigham Young, October 7, 1857

Testimony of the Spirit—Revelation Given According to
Requirements—Spiritual Warfare and Conquest, Etc.

Observations by President Brigham Young, made in the 
Bowery, Wednesday Afternoon, October 7, 1857.

vol. 5, p.327
I rise to bear my testimony with the rest of the brethren who have
spoken. Several who have lately returned from foreign missions have
addressed you during this Conference. As has been observed here, we
are all missionaries; and when our mission will be ended I am not able
to say. I expect that in all probability our bodies will have to rest
for a time, by-and-by: when they fall back to their mother earth, they
will have a rest. But as for the mission being at an end with a
faithful person, I do not know anything about its closing merely
because the body has been laid in the grave. In this Church I have
always felt myself to be a missionary, and I always desire to be ready
and willing to bear my testimony to the truth. That has been about the
amount of my preaching for the last twenty-six years. As for
sermonizing, I have but seldom attempted it, but I have borne my
testimony of the truth to the people.

vol. 5, p.327
I had only travelled a short time to testify to the people, before I
learned this one fact, that you might prove doctrine from the Bible
till doomsday, and it would merely convince a people, but would not
convert them. You might read the Bible from Genesis to Revelations,
and prove every iota that you advance, and that alone would have no
converting influence upon the people. Nothing short of a testimony by
the power of the Holy Ghost would bring light and knowledge to
them—bring them in their hearts to repentance. Nothing short of that
would ever do. You have frequently heard me say that I would rather
hear an Elder, either here or in the world, speak only five words
accompanied by the power of God, and they would do more good than to
hear long sermons without the Spirit. That is true, and we know it.

vol. 5, p.327
My testimony is that this is the kingdom of God on the earth. The
people that sit before me, in connexion with the many thousands that
are upon the earth, are the people of God. If we have become so taught
that the Lord sees that we shall be capable of managing, governing,
and controlling the kingdom of God upon the earth in a more perfect
manner than it has been heretofore, you may rest assured that this
people are bound to victory. Just as fast as we are capable of rightly
dispensing the principles of power, of light, of knowledge, of
intelligence, of wealth, of heaven, and of earth, just so fast will
they be bestowed upon this people. Could we in wisdom ask to have
things bestowed upon us, if they would be to our injury? Every honest
heart would at once say, "No." One of the Elders observed that he
prayed the Lord not to reveal too muck to him, lest it should prove a
stumbling-block and cause him to deny the faith. Pray that the Lord
will reveal nothing to this people for their injury, [p.328] and that
he will only reveal that which will be for their good.

vol. 5, p.328
Brother Lorenzo Snow, while he was speaking in the forenoon upon the
principle of self-government—victory over every besetting sin, spoke
of the inward work required to be done, as every person in his
experience knows that the spirit wars against the flesh, and the flesh
against the spirit. So far as our spirits by the power of God, by the
Holy Ghost —by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, are assisted to overcome
every seed of iniquity and sin within us, we may expect to gain the
victory over our evil passions; and in that proportion this people
will gain victory in a national capacity. That is as true logic as
ever was introduced in this world. This people might have been
independent—might have been a kingdom, had they been capable of
receiving, disposing, and controlling that kingdom to the Divine
acceptance of our Father in heaven. As brother Amasa said, the Lord
has a school upon the earth, and we are his scholars; and the Devil
also has a school attended by a great number of scholars. While we
have been learning how to sustain the kingdom of God upon the earth,
the Devil and his pupils have been learning how to sustain the kingdom
of darkness. From the very nature of the two kingdoms upon one planet,
the crisis must come when there will be a literal open warfare, just
as much as there now is a warfare within us against evil; and if we,
as individuals and as a community, have gained the victory over our
passions to such a degree that our Father knows that we are capable of
actually sustaining the kingdom of God upon the earth, just so true we
shall be a kingdom by ourselves. If we are not yet capable of
maintaining and rightly managing that kingdom, it will not at present
be given to us in the fulness thereof; but the time will come when it
will be given and established in its perfect organization on the
earth. 

vol. 5, p.328
A great many—yes, the most of this, people have kept up a spiritual
warfare until they have become almost masters of their passions; yet
we still see some of them who do sin. Brother Rich has said that they
sin ignorantly; but I say that some sin knowingly, and others sin that
would know better if they had stopped to reflect. And you will see men
and women commit acts which make them appear as though every particle
of thought of the honour and true dignity of humanity had left them.
Keep your spirits in subjection to the principles of truth and life,
and do not let evil spirits control you. 

vol. 5, p.328
How often you hear men and women confess their sins and say, "I
committed this, that, and the other wrong."Why do they want the evil
within and around them? Why do they suffer their spirits to be subject
to evil influences, and their tabernacles thereby be disgraced by the
commission of wicked acts? What would you give to have such acts
obliterated, if there was a price set upon them and you could pay it
with property? Can you keep your spirits in subjection to righteous
principles all the time? Yes; but many do not? 

vol. 5, p.328
Keep your spirits under the sole control of good spirits, and they
will make your tabernacles honourable in the presence of God, angels,
and men. If you will always keep your spirits in right subjection, you
will be watching all the time, and never suffer yourselves to commit
an act that you will be sorry for, and you can see that in all your
life you are clear. Do not do anything that you will be sorry for. You
may take the Quorums in this Church—the First Presidency, the Twelve,
the Presidents of the High Priests, the High Councillors, and the
Presidents of the Seventies; and a [p.329] person may go to each of
those Quorums for counsel upon any subject, and he will invariably
receive the same counsel. Why is this the case? Because they are all
actuated by the same Spirit. Do you know why some men give counsel
different one from another? Because they undertake to give counsel
without the Spirit of the Lord to dictate them. But, when the Spirit
dictates, then each one knows what to do, and their counsel will be
the same. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, all the Patriarchs and Prophets,
Jesus and the Apostles, and every man that has ever written the word
of the Lord, have written the same doctrine upon the same subject; and
you never can find that Prophets and Apostles clashed in their
doctrines in ancient days; neither will they now, if all would at all
times be led by the Spirit of salvation. If men will so act as to
order their lives aright and continually keep the commandments of God,
they will be able to administer the blessings of the kingdom of God.

vol. 5, p.329
There is no clash in the principles revealed in the Bible, the Book of
Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants; and there would be no clash
between any of the doctrines taught by Joseph the Prophet and by the
brethren now, if all would live in a way to be governed by the Spirit
of the Lord. All do not live so as to have the Spirit of the Lord with
them all the time, and the result is that some get out of the way.

vol. 5, p.329
We want a people that will be pure and holy; and I wish that the
principle that brother Lorenzo Snow spoke of this morning could be
understood and practised by all, you would then gain your spiritual
conquest. If we have not gained that, we must labour until we do. And
although we cannot tell the result of all the affairs that are in
motion, yet we know that the kingdom of God will prosper, that his
name will be revered, that the spirits of darkness will have to give
way to the kingdom of God, and that "Mormonism" will triumph, and that
no power can hinder it.

vol. 5, p.329
But there are still many things for us to learn pertaining to our
salvation.

vol. 5, p.329
The great stumblingblock in the midst of the people is, that their
minds are not yet wholly weaned from the evil habits and practices of
the world. With some, the end of strife and covetousness has not yet
come. You can yet see one brother take another by the throat,
figuratively speaking, and say, "Pay me what thou owest." You may see
another come up and say, "I owe you, but you need not ask me for the
pay, for I will not pay you." Which is the worst? If there is any
difference, the one who refuses to pay is the meanest.

vol. 5, p.329
If a man is so mean as to say to you, "I owe you, but I shall not pay
you," it is best to say to him, "All right—I can live without it."

vol. 5, p.329
The Lord will rule; and if we continue stedfast to the kingdom of God,
it will save us; but if we do not, we shall be left off, and the old
ship Zion will sail right a-head and safely carry her passengers into
port. If the people could understand, they would be able to discern
that we must gain that spiritual victory I have already spoken about,
before we can have the privilege of proclaiming the building up of the
people of God in the mountains.

vol. 5, p.329
We have a nation here in the mountains that will be a kingdom
by-and-by, and be governed by pure laws and principles. What do you
call yourselves? some may ask. Here are the people that constitute the
kingdom of God. It may be sometime before that kingdom is fully
developed, but the time will come when the kingdom of God will reign
free and independent. 

vol. 5, p.329
There will be a kingdom on the [p.330] earth that will be controlled
upon the same basis, in part, as that of the Government of the United
States; and it will govern and protect in their rights the various
classes of men, irrespective of their different modes of worship; for
the law must go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem, and the Lord Jesus will govern every nation and kingdom
upon the earth.

vol. 5, p.330
A great many have thought that every person will then be in the
Church, but that will not be the case. There will then be as great a
variety in religious belief as there is now; one will believe one
thing, and another will believe something different, while the Devil
rules among men.

vol. 5, p.330
Will the kingdom of Jesus triumph? It will; and the legislators of
that kingdom are in this congregation and will remain, and the laws of
that kingdom will be made in accordance with the revelations from
Jesus Christ.

vol. 5, p.330
Many have thought that all will believe in the revelations of the Lord
Jesus Christ when the kingdom of God is fully established; but they
will not; and if those characters were in heaven, they might believe,
but would not obey the revelations of Jesus Christ. There are
multitudes in this Church who have not yet learned these truths; and
there are multitudes in the world who would not know Jesus, were he to
pass before their eyes, and would not understand what he meant, if he
were to speak to them. Such will be the case in the millennium.

vol. 5, p.330
The kingdom of God will grow out of this Church, and the time appears
to have been hastened faster than we anticipated. This is the best
time we ever saw. We are happy, and we make a heaven of every place to
which we go, which is the reason we are happy. How long it will be
before the kingdom of God sends forth its laws, I do not know. Brother
Erastus Snow remarked that no one can foretell all the events that may
arise from our present difficulties; but I can tell you a part. God
will reign and will bring forth victory to the humble and faithful;
that I know, and so do you.

vol. 5, p.330
I have never found any fault with the Lord for not bringing victory
sooner; for I know that if our enemies intend to try to come here by
way of Emigration Kanyon, we shall be ready to meet them; and if they
intend to come round by the Malad, we shall be ready to meet them; and
if they undertake to come by Fort Hall, we shall also be ready to meet
them. If they thought that we were or would be asleep, they might
undertake to come here.

vol. 5, p.330
I recollect a dream that my father had. He dreamed that he was
travelling, and that during his journey he came to a tremendous
mountain of snow and saw that his pathway was hedged up. But some one
said, "Take one more step." My father replied, "But that will be the
last." However, he took that step, and then his guide said, "Do you
not, see that there is room for you to take another?" When he had
taken another, his guide told him to take still another in advance;
and there was a passage all the way through. So it will be with us.
The Lord will not reveal all that we at times wish him to. If a
schoolmaster were to undertake to teach a little child algebra, you
would call him foolish, would you not? Just so with our Father: he
reveals to us as we are prepared to receive, and I hope to continue to
learn. There is no cessation, in time nor in eternity, to the progress
and increase of the righteous. If we will but put away every selfish
feeling, we can come in possession of all the blessings that are in
store for us.

vol. 5, p.330
Some of the speakers have been exhorting you to let your prayers
ascend in behalf of the brethren who  [p.331] are in the mountains;
but your prayers cannot prevail if there is disunion among you.

vol. 5, p.331
The teachings given us from Sabbath to Sabbath must be learned and
lived before we can enjoy the kingdom of God in its fulness.

vol. 5, p.331
I am thankful that I do not hear, of late, since the Spirit has been
generally diffused among the people, "O Lord, give revelation through
brother Brigham." I wish to fulfil what we have received before I ask
for more. I said to brother Joseph, the spring before he was killed,
"You are laying out work for twenty years." lie replied, "You have as
yet scarcely began to work; but I will set you enough to last you
during your lives, for I am going to rest." All I can do or ask now is
to do the work, so that it will be right and acceptable to him when he
comes here again. And that is not all; for you have or should have the
candle of the Lord continually burning within you. Then I ask you if
you still need revelation? You will say, "Yes, just as much as we need
a candle to enable us to see to walk in our streets at noonday." A
person that is filled with the Spirit knows just as much as he has
occasion to know; for the Spirit of our God is a Spirit of revelation.

vol. 5, p.331
The time has arrived when we have either to be trodden under foot by
our enemies and die, or to defend ourselves and our rights; and which
will it be? Every man and woman feel their hearts fail them when they
think of submitting to the oppression and unlawful abominations
practised by our enemies, and sought by them to be introduced into our
society; and we will not submit to such wicked and unlawful treatment,
whether it comes from United States or united hell, for the terms are
synonymous as the Government is now conducted. I tell you and  I tell
our enemies that we are here, and we intend to stay here. [The
congregation responded, Amen."] They have a job on hand, if they
persist in their efforts to deprive American citizens of their rights.
I told Captain Van Vliet that I did not care how many troops they
sent. "Why," said he, "The United States, with an overflowing
treasury, can send out ten, twenty, or fifty thousand troops." I
replied, "I do not care anything about that." The Captain then asked
whether I had counted the cost; and I said, "Yes, for this people. I
have; but I cannot estimate it for the United States; for if they
actually persist in their present tyrannical course, before they get
through they will want to let the job to sub-contractors." They do not
know the Captain of the armies of Israel; and although they profess to
believe in him, they do not realize that he is about to hold a
controversy with them for their iniquity.

vol. 5, p.331
Their belief reminds me that brother Joseph B. Nobles once told a
Methodist priest, after hearing him describe his god, that the god
they worshipped was the "Mormons'" Devil—a being without a body,
whereas our God has a body, parts, and passions. The Devil was cursed
and sent down from heaven. He has no body of his own; therefore he is
constantly endeavouring to obtain possession of the tabernacles
belonging to others. Some have grumbled because I believe our God to
be so near to us as Father Adam. There are many who know that doctrine
to be true. Where was Michael in the creation of this earth? Did he
have a mission to the earth? He did. Where was he? In the Grand
Council, and performed the mission assigned him there. Now, if it
should happen that we have to pay tribute to Father Adam, what a
humiliating circumstance it would be! Just wait till you pass Joseph
Smith; and after Joseph lets you pass him,  you will find Peter; and
after you pass [p.332] the Apostles and many of the Prophets, you will
find Abraham, and he will say, "I have the keys, and except you do
thus and so, you cannot pass;" and after a while you come to Jesus;
and when you at length meet Father Adam, how strange it will appear to
year present notions. If we can pass Joseph and have him say, "Here;
you have been faithful, good boys; I hold the keys of this
dispensation; I will let you pass;" then we shall be very glad to see
the white locks of Father Adam. But those are ideas which do not
concern us at present, although it is written in the Bible —"This is
eternal life, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent."

vol. 5, p.332
What is the nature and beauty of Joseph's mission? You know that I am
one of his Apostles. When I first heard him preach, he brought heaven
and earth together; and all the priests of the day could not tell me
anything correct about heaven, hell, God, angels, or devils: they were
as blind as Egyptian darkness. When I saw Joseph Smith, he took
heaven, figuratively speaking, and brought it down to earth; and he
took the earth, brought it up, and opened up, in plainness and
simplicity, the things of God; and that is the beauty of his mission.
I had a testimony, long before that, that he was a Prophet of the
Lord, and that was consoling. Did not Joseph do the same to your
understandings? Would he not take the Scriptures and make them so
plain and simple that everybody could understand? Every person says,
"Yes, it is admirable; it unites the heavens and the earth together;"
and as for time, it is nothing, only to learn us how to live in
eternity.

vol. 5, p.332
I will prophesy a little, and I will say that my word shall be as true
as any word ever spoken from the heavens. If this people, called
Latter-day Saints, will live to the truth, the thread of oppression
which is cut will never be united again, and we shall have the
privilege of saying, "Here is the kingdom of God, and here are the
people that God owns and blesses," and we shall reign triumphantly for
ever and ever. But if you do not live your religion, that period may
be postponed a little longer. You know that cases sometimes rest in
court for want of witnesses and documents. But if we live our
religion, from this afternoon, this is the kingdom of God, and we are
free and will live in it; at any rate, the kingdom will prosper.

vol. 5, p.332
I feel to bless this people, and they are a God-blessed people. Look
at them, and see the difference from their condition a few years ago!
Brethren who have been on missions, can you see any difference in this
people from the time you went away until your return? [Voices: "Yes."]
You can see men and women who are sixty or seventy years of ago
looking young and handsome; but let them apostatize, and they will
become gray-haired, wrinkled, and black, just like the Devil. If we
will stand up as men and women of God, the yoke shall never be placed
upon our necks again; and all hell cannot overthrow us, even with the
United States to help them. It is not pleasant to the natural feelings
to be obliged to talk in this manner about fellow-citizens with whom
we have been reared; but when they act like the Devil, it is
impossible for us to bow to their unjust and illegal mandates without
becoming as corrupt as they are. It is an honour to resist the wicked;
and my name will be had in, honour, and so will Joseph Smiths, and so
will your names, for not bowing to their iniquitous doings.

vol. 5, p.332
We are the happiest people when we have what are called trials; for
then the Spirit of God is more  [p.333] abundantly bestowed upon the
faithful. If the Lord requires it, I would as soon consume all I have
and go into the mountains with my family as to do a good many other
things. The women and children might suffer a little; but, as I told
you the other day, we are upon the backbone of the continent, and we
intend to enjoy that freedom which is our right. If our enemies will
behave, themselves, all right; and if they do not, they may take what
follows. We could have used up those now in our borders, and have
taken their trains; but we do not wish to hurt one of them: but let
them undertake to come in here, and they must abide the consequences.
And in reality, instead of their speaking against my character, they
ought to send in presents for having lived till now.

vol. 5, p.333
The question now is, Shall we close Conference to-day? I know that
many of you have much work to do. I do not know how soon you will be
needed in the mountains. I deem it most prudent for all to go to their
work and to be always prepared with five days' rations; and then, when
the word, comes, you are ready for the mountains, and the women and
children will be safe here.

vol. 5, p.333
If you now wish to close this Conference, all right; and if you want
to continue it another day, you are at liberty to do so; and I am
willing to do as I have a mind. The last missionary who spoke said
that a captain could not please everybody; but I have tried to first
to please my Father in heaven, and have not cared so particularly
about the will of the people. I have said, "Father, let me know your
will, and I will do it." And there is not a person in this
congregation but will do my will, if he will do the will of his Father
in heaven. If all would do so, they would be free from those little
nasty sins that some are occasionally guilty of and that I am ashamed
of.

vol. 5, p.333
If you say, "Adjourn this Conference now," all right. Amen.

Heber C. Kimball, October 18, 1857

Divine Communications to the People Through Their
Leaders—Peace the Result of Obedience—Prosperity of The Saints

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 18, 1857.

vol. 5, p.333
I feel first-rate. I can say one thing for a surety, and that is, that
God is on our side, and that he does hear prayers. He hears mine; that
is, I suppose I pray for the thing that others pray for, and it comes
to pass; and I think he hears my prayers, and it is just as well as
any other way, if it is answered.

vol. 5, p.333
I just as well know that what brother Brigham has said to you to-day
is ours and will be ours for ever, just as well as you know that I am
in this stand to-day before you.

vol. 5, p.333
I will tell you how I pray. I ask my Father and my God, in the name of
his Son Jesus Christ, Father, will you speak to brother Brigham—will
[p.334] you speak to our leader—will you speak to my President—will
you dictate him just as you would dictate matters if you were here in
the flesh? That is my prayer, and that should be the prayer of this
whole people; and I just know, from this time henceforth, if he lives
a hundred years, he never will be led to do a thing except the very
thing God would do himself, if he was here. I just know it, brethren.
You all understand, naturally, that the food that you partake of goes
into the head first, and then passes through to the extremity of every
limb to every fibre and to every member of that body, does it not?
Well, then, do you not see that everything must first be received by
the head, and that there is where God will communicate? And when he
communicates to the head, if you are all members of that body and
connected with that head, like the limbs of a tree, how can you help
partaking of that same Spirit, the same knowledge with the head? You
cannot help it. He cannot be a person of much sense that cannot
believe this.

vol. 5, p.334
These are my feelings. I want to point your minds to it; and when our
President—our leader wants a man to do anything, God will go with that
man, even as he is with brother Daniel H. Wells; he will attend to the
business that pertains to the mountains, and he is almighty in the
place in which he is authorized and appointed to act, and so is every
other man. If he will go there and honor that calling, God will honour
him, and he will honour every man who will honour him. God never will
honour you except you honour the Priesthood and pay due respect to it
and to every commanding officer in the Church and the kingdom of God.

vol. 5, p.334
If this people will do as they are told from this day, I will eat
peaches, apples, plums, and the products of these valleys in Great
Salt Lake City till we go to Jackson County, and I know it. [President
Young," I believe it."] Brethren, I am telling the truth, and I am
telling it as it is in the bosom of our God and of our leaders. It is
the first time we ever eat peaches—that is, of our own raising, since
we came into this Church; and it is the first time we ever eat apples;
and it is the first time we ever were a free people.

vol. 5, p.334
Now we are living under the blessings the Prophets foretold. They said
the time would come when we would sit under our own vine and fig
trees, and our own peach trees and apple trees, and would eat; and
that we should build, and another should not inhabit.

vol. 5, p.334
Brethren, our enemies never will inhabit these valleys if we do just
as we are told from this time forth; and we will inhabit these valleys
and will have power and victory over our enemies from this time
henceforth and for ever. Good heavens! I cannot live your religion: I
can only live for myself. Every man, every woman, and every child must
live the religion of Jesus Christ, and the religion you are taught by
your leaders, according as you are dictated. Do you not see it? You
have got to do it.

vol. 5, p.334
Can I live the religion for my wife and my children? I cannot. But if
they will take my counsel, I will lead them just as brother Brigham
leads me, and as God leads him; and we will go right into heaven, just
like taking the head of a vine and drawing it right into our Father's
kingdom: every branch goes with it that sticks to the vine, with the
fruit thereof that cleaves to the branches.

vol. 5, p.334
Do I feel well? I never felt better in my life. I felt pretty well in
Nauvoo, at the time brother Brigham was speaking of; though I did
regret —perhaps I did wrong—but I did regret that peace was proclaimed
 so [p.335] quick; for I tell you there were about one or two score of
men I wanted to see under the sod; then I was willing to make peace:
but I had to, as it was. We have made peace a great many times, and
the United States have taken a course to make us do as they wished us;
but let me tell you that day is past and gone, and we will now
proclaim the course they will have to take; and they will have to make
peace with us, and we never shall make peace with them again. Brother
Brigham will designate the course they have got to take; and if they
come here, they have got to give up their arms: they cannot come in
here with a gun on their shoulders, or a pistol in their belts.

vol. 5, p.335
War has commenced, and the Devil will never cease his operations upon
us; but if we live the religion of Jesus Christ, we are just as free
today as we ever shall be; and when it comes to-morrow, we are free
to-morrow; and we are free this year, and will be free next year, and
will be just  as free twenty years from now as we are now, only a
little more so: we increase and advance as we live.

vol. 5, p.335
Well, we shall prosper, and we shall not burn up our houses; we shall
not cut down our orchards, nor throw down our walls, nor our barns;
and I am not going to stop building, because I just want to secure my
fruit; I want to secure it and take good care of it.

vol. 5, p.335
Am I discouraged? If this people do right, you will live for ever and
prosper and aggrandize these valleys. Well, now, will you stop
increasing? When you stop increasing, that is the end of you; when you
stop multiplying, that is the end of you; when you stop improving,
that is the end of your improvements. Many persons, if they had a
peach-pit or an apple-seed, would not put them in now. I am going to
put in more now than I ever did, and raise them; and I will give them
to those that will take them and be choice of them and live their
religion. Those that will live the religion of Christ will have
orchards.

vol. 5, p.335
Well, these are my feelings. God is with us and with brother Brigham,
and he will lead him right from this time henceforth and for ever.

vol. 5, p.335
God bless you! God bless the boys in the mountains, for they shall
live to let live; and the angel of life will be with them and with all
those that do the will of God and the will of those that lead. Amen.
[p.336]

Brigham Young, October 8, 1857

Present and Former Persecutions of the Saints, Etc.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 18, 1857.

vol. 5, p.336
I purpose to have read to you this morning some of the communications
that have passed between our enemies and ourselves, for the people are
anxious to know the feeling of the two parties; they are very anxious
to learn the news. I am perfectly willing that they should know all,
for my feelings and yours are very different from those of the world.
You are aware that among the nations the soldiers are never permitted
to know anything about the plans of the officers: statesmen withhold
from their constituents every policy they possibly can, and the
statement of one of them is verily true pertaining to their use of the
English language—that is, to secrete ideas instead of revealing them.
Men study to talk a great deal, when at the same time they know but
very little, and often even strive to conceal the little they do know.
Among its other capabilities, the English language is better adapted
than any other in existence to the using of thousands of words without
conveying an idea.

vol. 5, p.336
If the Government of the United States have sent soldiers to this
Territory, I do not know it; for I have had no official notice of such
a circumstance, and you will perceive that I treat them accordingly.
If they are sent by Government, they are sent expressly to destroy
this people; and if they are not sent by the Government, they have
come expressly to destroy this people; therefore I shall treat them,
as I have informed the officer in command, the same as though they
were an avowed mob,—not as I would those who have heretofore mobbed
us, but as parties who have come to mob us now.

vol. 5, p.336
I have informed Colonel Alexander that had his command been the men
who have heretofore mobbed us, and the lying scribblers and the wicked
rabble, who have all the day long been trying to incite mobs against
us, they never would have seen the South Pass.

vol. 5, p.336
You will perceive from the communications which brother John T. Caine
will read, the feelings of the two parties,—myself representing the
Latter-day Saints, and Colonel Alexander representing the officers of
what he states to be a portion of the United States army. Whether it
is or not, I have no business to know, and shall not know, until I am
officially notified.

vol. 5, p.336
Brother Caine will now read the principal letters in the order best
adapted to your comprehending their purport.

vol. 5, p.336
[Brother Caine read an unofficial letter from President Brigham Young
to Colonel Alexander, dated Oct. 14; one from Lieut. General Wells to
President Young, dated Oct. 15; one from Colonel Alexander to Governor
Young, dated Oct. 12; and one from Governor Young to Colonel
Alexander, dated Oct. 16.]

vol. 5, p.336
There are a good many here who have not witnessed the scenes of
persecution that some of us have. I was asking father Morley, this
morning, whether he thought the enemy could now ride into our
corn-fields and through our gardens and shoot down [p.337] our cattle,
and plunder and burn our houses, as they did in Missouri.

vol. 5, p.337
When the mob in Missouri commenced burning our habitations, we
frequently sent to the Governor, petitioning him to stop mobbings;
but, instead of doing that, he rendered them assistance, by ordering
about 3,500 men to go and lay waste the city of Far West, and destroy
men, women, and children. Those orders General Clark had, though at
their close the Governor said to him, "I shall leave it discretionary
with you whether you kill all the Mormons or not." We saw them coming,
and some thought they were sent to disperse the mob, in answer to our
petition; but the mob were expecting them and seemed to understand the
movement.

vol. 5, p.337
The first act that I saw General Clark's army perform was to throw
down about half a mile of fence that opened into a six hundred acre
field of corn. The mob mingled with the army, and they rode and drove
their animals into and through that cornfield. At night, they took the
rails and burned them for firewood, and let their horses run loose in
the field. That I saw and knew; hence I was just asking father Morley
whether he thought our enemies could now ride into the corn-fields of
the "Mormons." He said that he thought they could not. This blessing
makes me say, Hallelujah to God.

vol. 5, p.337
It is pretty hard for us to come here with nothing; and we have come
as near coming here with nothing as the Lord did to creating the
heavens and the earth out of nothing; and I have frequently thought a
little higher. I do not think that he was under the necessity of
borrowing; but I was. I believe that the Lord has material enough to
build all he wants; but I had almost nothing. Some of us worked in the
Temple in Nauvoo until about five days before we left, which gave us
but little opportunity for outfitting, though many were crossing the
river before that time.

vol. 5, p.337
If I remembered rightly, I then owned one span of horses and a buggy
that brother Daniel Spencer gave me. I traded for waggons, other
things that I needed, and for an old horse. I then had three horses
and three waggons. I bought, and borrowed, and traded, and got the
brethren to help me out; and a good many others borrowed on my credit.
Surface it to say, we left our houses and lands and thousands and
thousands of bushels of grain.

vol. 5, p.337
This year has made me think of the season that we were obliged to
leave Nauvoo. That was one of the most. productive seasons ever known
in the State of Illinois. It has been asked me by some of the
brethren, "Do you think we shall have to leave our fine crops? The
earth seems to be loaded as well as it was in Nauvoo." We have not got
to leave; we shall not be obliged to leave our crops and our houses to
our enemies: we can sustain ourselves. It makes me rejoice that we are
now in a situation that, if this people will live as they should live,
they will no more have to be driven as we have been hitherto. Should
we ever be obliged to leave our houses, the decree of my heart is that
there shall naught be left for our enemies but the ashes of all that
will burn. [The congregation responded, "Amen."] They shall not have
my house nor my furniture, as they have had hitherto.

vol. 5, p.337
That privilege gives me joy and comfort; and I will now say to those
who are not acquainted with such scenes, (for many of you are not,)
that if you see the time that you are obliged to lay waste and leave
your homes, you will say, right in the time, and afterwards, that you
never felt so well in your lives; for the Spirit and power of God will
rest upon you in proportion to the necessity of the case. I [p.338]
know that those who have been in our past troubles—those who have been
in the midst of death and destitution can bear testimony that they
never enjoyed so much of the Spirit of the Lord at any other time in
their lives. I do not know that anybody complained in Nauvoo, except
brother Kimball; and he was only sorry that the war closed so soon,
for we had our eyes upon a good many of those infernal scoundrels, and
we wanted to sod them.

vol. 5, p.338
We have sought for peace all the day long; and I have sought for peace
with the army now on our borders, and have warned them that we all
most firmly believe that they are sent here solely with a view to
destroy this people, though they may be ignorant of that fact. And
though we may believe that they are sent by the Government of the
United States, yet I, as Governor of this Territory, have no business
to know any such thing until I am notified by proper authority at
Washington. I have a right to treat them as a mob, just as though they
had been raised and officered in Missouri and sent here expressly to
destroy this people. We have been very merciful and very lenient to
them. As I informed them in my unofficial letter, had they been those
mobocrats who mobbed us in Missouri, they never would have seen the
South Pass. We had plenty of boys on hand, and the mode of warfare
they would have met with they are not acquainted with.

vol. 5, p.338
I would just as soon tell them as to tell you my mode of warfare. As
the Lord God lives, we will waste our enemies by millions, if they
send them here to destroy us, and not a man of us be hurt. That is the
method I intend to pursue. Do you want to know what is going to be
done with the enemies now on our borders? If they come here, I will
tell you what will be done. As soon as they start to come hate our
settlements, let sleep depart from their eyes and slumber from their
eyelids until they sleep in death, for they have been warned and
forewarned that we will not tamely submit to being destroyed. Men
shall be secreted here and there and shall waste away our enemies, in
the name of Israel's God.

vol. 5, p.338
I have thought that perhaps the Lord designs to furnish us a little
clothing and ammunition; and if he does, he will permit our enemies to
try to come in here; but if he sees that that would be an injury to
us, he will turn them another way.

vol. 5, p.338
I intend to publish the communications between the army and myself;
for I wish the whole United States to understand it.

vol. 5, p.338
Colonel Alexander complains of our mode of warfare. They have two or
more field-batteries of artillery with them, and they want us to form
a line of battle in an open plain and give them a fair chance to shoot
us. I did not tell the Colonel what I thought; but if he had a spark
of sense, he must be a feel to think that we will ever do any such
thing. I am going to observe the old maxim—

vol. 5, p.338
"He that fights and runs away
Lives to fight another day."

vol. 5, p.338
Should our enemies venture upon violent measures, I design to so
manage affairs that none of our boys will be killed; and in my answer
to the Colonel, I have told him pretty plainly what we shall do under
certain contingencies.

vol. 5, p.338
Did he not granny it off admirably about the prisoners, when he wrote,
"I need not assure you that not a hair of their heads will be hurt?"
He dare not hurt them, neither has he the first particle of reason for
hurting them. He has released and sent in the younger brother with an
express, under the alleged  consideration of his having a wife and
three children [p.339] entirely dependent upon him. I wonder that the
Colonel had not a young officer to send with him.

vol. 5, p.339
The boys report their order of march to be the 10th Infantry in front,
the baggage in the centre, the 5th Infantry in the rear, and several
flanking companies travelling through the brush as best they can.
Don't you think they would look well coming from the United States in
that way? That is the way in which they were travelling at our last
advices, and it was said that their picket-guard declared they would
not watch.

vol. 5, p.339
If the soldiers knew the facts in the case as do their officers, they
would probably nearly all leave the army; but the officers keep the
soldiers in the dark. The last report is that the officers had been
telling the men that I had written a very favourable letter to Colonel
Alexander, and that they were intending to come in.

vol. 5, p.339
When I think, Are they in your houses? Are they in your fields? I can
answer, No: they are in the mountains; they are in the cold and snow;
and if they continue, as those officers appear to intend to, upon the
side of despotism and mobocracy, they justly ought to be served as we
would serve all mobocrats. But we are here and we are free, as brother
Kimball has said—just as free, in one sense, as we ever shall be. We
need not think that we are always going to be unmolested by the
efforts of mobs, until wickedness is swept from this earth. If we
live, we shall see the nations of the earth arrayed against this
people; for that time must come, in fulfilment of prophecy. Tell about
war commencing! Bitter and relentless war was waged against Joseph
Smith before he had received the plates of the Book of Mormon; and
from that time till now the wicked have only fallen back at times to
gain strength and learn how to attack the kingdom of God.

vol. 5, p.339
Colonel Alexander preached to me a little, stating in his letter, "I
warn you that the bloodshed in this contest will be upon your head."
But that warning gave me no thought. But if the blood of those
soldiers is shed, it will be upon the heads of their officers. 

vol. 5, p.339
What they will do I neither know nor care; for it will be just as the
Lord God wills it. If he sees that we need their substance, he will
turn things to that end; and if he designs them to be wiped out, he
will either cause them to undertake to come here or will overrule some
other plan to accomplish that end.

vol. 5, p.339
Another year I am going to prepare for the worst, and I want you to
prepare to cache our grain and lay waste this Territory; for I am
determined, if driven to that extremity, that our enemies shall find
nothing but heaps of ashes and ruins. We will be so prepared that in a
few days all can be consumed. I shall request the Bishops to see that
the people in their wards are provided with two or three years'
provisions. There is already enough raised in many places this season
to supply the people from two to three years, and I wish them to take
care of it; though I expect that in all probability we will raise a
great many crops before our enemies again attempt to come here to
disturb us; and I expect that we are fully able to defend ourselves,
and that our enemies will not be able to come within a hundred miles
of us. I know that ten men, such as I could name and select, could
stop them before they got to Laramie. And if we had seen fit to have
sent such men this season, they alone could very easily have so
stopped our enemies that they never would have got through the Black
Hills. I count five such men equal to twenty-five thousand, and
believe [p.340] that two of them could put ten thousand to flight. I
believe we are now where that could be done. I will take five or ten
such as I can name; and if two can put ten thousand to flight, I am
sure that ten are perfectly able to do it.

vol. 5, p.340
Who has sought for war? Have we? No. We have preached the Gospel to
Saints and strangers, when strangers would come and tarry long enough
to hear it. We do not want to stand here and talk about war. There is
nothing so repugnant to my feelings as to injure or destroy. But what
is upon us? Nothing, only another manifestation of the opposition of
the Devil to the kingdom of God. War has been declared against the
Saints ever twenty-seven years, and our enemies have only fallen back
so as to gain strength and pretexts for making another attack. Will
that spirit increase? If it does, and we love our religion, let me
tell you that we will increase faster than our enemies will. This
Territory and people are perfectly able to defend themselves, with the
help of our God. They are perfectly able to set apart men of the right
stripe and maintain a standing army that can keep off the armies of
our enemies. And if the world combine against us, so we are but one,
then all will go on well and work together for our good.

vol. 5, p.340
Our enemies, in the last treaty they made with us, should have
stipulated that we should have gone only a short distance, so that we
would not be out of their reach. They had better have made that
stipulation; but they did not have wisdom, or they would have stopped
us from going so far away. They drove us away from their society and
allowed us to travel so far over the sage plains, that it is
impossible for an army to bring provisions enough to last them here.

vol. 5, p.340
I have been told that the first artillery company, upon its arrival at
Laramie, loaded up all the grain they could haul to feed their mule
teams; and when they reached the Devil's Gate they sent forward after
their grain from their freight trains, and then they had not enough to
last them to Ham's Fork. It is impossible for them to lead up teams
with sufficient forage to last them to Green River; and the more men
they send the more there are to eat up what the mule and ox-trains
haul; and the consequence is that the more men they send the worse it
is all the time.

vol. 5, p.340
If they undertake to send fifty thousand men to Utah, I will venture
to say that they cannot raise so large a company in the United States
but what would cut each other's throats before they travelled a
thousand miles across the Plains, to say nothing about any other
persons molesting them. They would be cursing, damning, and howling
all the way. I know that the comparatively few scattered here and
there over the country and in the mountains can spoil their march
before they could get here.

vol. 5, p.340
If the Lord sees that we need to be afflicted, he can apply the rod. I
do not say this to urge you to your duty; for if you will not bye your
religion for the blessings that God bestows upon it, you will not live
it anyhow; and the man who will not live his religion ought to be
damned. Never serve God because you are afraid of hell; but bye your
religion, because it is calculated to give you eternal life. It points
to that existence that never ends, while the other course leads to
destruction, to dissolution, where they will be destroyed from the
earth and from the eternities, and return back to the native elements.

vol. 5, p.340
What blessing can be bestowed upon man equal to that of eternal life?
The greatest blessing that can be bestowed is that of eternal
existence—to place mortal beings where they can endure for ever—where
they are free [p.341] from sorrow and pain, and possessed of keys,
thrones, and dominions—where they can be perfectly swallowed up in
happiness and bliss. What greater gift can be bestowed upon beings?
None. Therefore, if we will not live up to our religion, according to
our ability, we ought to be damned.

vol. 5, p.341
We have the privilege of honouring the stations we are in; we have the
privilege, in the Lord's hands, of preparing for exaltation. We are
compared to the making of pottery upon the wheel; but the Lord never
intended to show in that comparison that we were helpless beings and
had no agency. Clay has so little intelligence that it is often so
full of lumps that it will mar; but it is not to blame for that: but
the Lord says, "You, intelligent Israel, are to blame, if you do not
obey my voice; and if you are disobedient, I will serve you as the
potter serves the clay that has very little intelligence. You, Israel,
are capable of choosing, you are capable of refusing, you are capable
of performing, you are capable of hearing counsel from my mouth and of
carrying cut those principles that I tell you; but the clay upon the
wheel has no such intelligence; and if you do not obey my voice it
will prove that you are not worthy of intelligence, any more than the
clay upon the potter's wheel: consequently, the intelligence that you
are endowed with will be taken from you, and you will have to go into
the mill and be ground over again."

vol. 5, p.341
I wish the people to hasten and gather together and secure all that
they have raised in the fields; and when this little skirmish is over,
I am going to instruct the people to begin to prepare for going into
the mountains, also to raise their grain another year, and to secure
that which we now have by putting it where our enemies cannot find it.

vol. 5, p.341
You want to know where you can go. I know of places enough where I can
hide this people and a thousand times more, and our enemies may hunt
till doomsday and not be able to find us.

vol. 5, p.341
I do not know but we shall call upon the sisters to go into the fields
and raise potatoes while their husbands go out to war; and if they can
do that, then perhaps we will see whether they can go into the fields
and raise wheat while their husbands are defending Zion. In such an
operation we shall call for volunteers; we shall have no compulsion
about it. So soon as I learn that a woman would sooner go to the
enemy's camp, just so soon I will send her; and you may mark it. I
shall not warrant such a one safe, only until she reaches the enemy's
camp. I told a man yesterday—one that I understood wanted to go away,
"If that is your feeling and faith, I want you immediately conveyed to
those troops." I want to forthwith send to our enemies every man and
every woman that does not wish to do right, but wishes to join them in
their crusade against this people. You may enquire why I take that
course. I answer, So as to send them to hell as quickly as possible.

vol. 5, p.341
That reminds me of a circumstance that transpired here some years ago.
A man from Boston, on his way to the gold diggings, stopped a few days
in this city and heard me preach. Soon afterwards I met him in the
street, and he asked me if I knew where hell was. I told him I thought
that he was on the road to that very place; and when he crossed over
the Sierra Nevada mountains into the gold diggings in California, if
he discovered that he had not found hell, to come back and let me
know. As I have not since heard from him, I presume he found it, which
I now think a person will who goes East as as well as West.

vol. 5, p.342
[p.342] The President of the United States, his Cabinet, the Senate,
the House of Representatives, the priests of the various religious
sects and their followers have joined in a crusade to waste away the
last vestige of truth and righteousness from this earth, and
especially from this part of it. Yes, they have joined together; and
we have to maintain truth and righteousness, virtue and holiness, or
they will be driven from the earth. With us, it is the kingdom of God,
or nothing; and we will maintain it, or die in trying,—though we Shall
not die in trying. It is comforting to many to be assured that we
shall not die in trying, but we shall live in trying. We will maintain
the kingdom of God, living; and if we do not maintain it, we shall be
found dying not only a temporal, but also an eternal death. Then take
a course to live.

vol. 5, p.342
Read the history of the world from the time that Cain killed Abel to
this day, and see whether you can find an instance when, in a mountain
country, fifty resolute, united men have been overcome by five
hundred. If brother Joseph Smith had taken a company and come to this
country, as he intended to do, he could have been living here now, in
spite of earth and hell. Yes, he could have done this, if he could
have brought only fifty men with him; for, with them, he could have
defied the whole world; and you know that he would have had thousands
of the upright gathered with him before now; though, if he had been
here with only fifty good men, he could have bid defiance to all his
enemies.

vol. 5, p.342
Did their enemies ever overcome the small band of Waldenses in the
mountains in Piedmont? No. They slaughtered army after army sent
against them and maintained their position, notwithstanding to reach
them was only like sending an army here from San Pete, or from here to
San Pete. They were within easy reach of their enemies:.

vol. 5, p.342
Would Scotland ever have been so far overcome by England as to unite
with that power, if her chiefs had not indulged in petty feuds with
each other? No, it never would. But the chiefs were like our Indians:
some were in favour of this one, and others of that one being crowned
chief; and by contending with each other they lost the advantage of
their position, or to this day Scotland might have been an independent
nation, even though surrounded by water on all sides except the one
joining England.

vol. 5, p.342
I instance those examples to show you that, if you will give me the
right kind of men, I will take a few hundred of them and be at the
defiance of the armies of the world; and that, too, upon natural
principles. If God is for us, that of course makes us still stronger;
but if he is against us, let us not strive to do anything in
opposition to his will: let righteousness triumph. But I know that we
are right.

vol. 5, p.342
When I used to be preaching in the world, priests would come to me and
enquire about my doctrine. I would tell them my principles—every
principle that I could get plainly before them that would be for their
good; and after giving them my doctrine, I would ask, What do you
Methodists believe? They would tell me. I would reply, I know all
about that. Next would come the Baptists, and I knew all about them.
Then came along the Presbyterians, and I would say, I know all about
your doctrine. And I would have the Quakers and the Shakers; and when
I talked to them, I knew all they believed. I understood the whole
concern, and nay religion embraced all the truth they all had and a
great deal more. I could put on paper all the knowledge of salvation
that all the religious sects possess, and put that [p.343] paper into
a snuff. box, and never miss the room it occupied. I would say, I know
how much truth you have embraced; you have bounds to your religion,
but I have no bounds to mine: the faith I have embraced is broad as
eternity.

vol. 5, p.343
I would say, Brother Methodist, have you a truth? If you have, let us
hear it: that is the Bible; that is my doctrine: I believe it. "I read
in the Bible that the Saviour was crucified," say the Methodists. I
reply, I have embraced that in my faith: that is true; and every
particle of truth that you believe I have incorporated in my faith;
therefore you perceive that you must take the stand that you will
defend error and falsehood, or there is no chance for a discussion or
contention; for I believe all the truth that you believe. Now, all the
truth I have I want you to embrace, and then go ahead; and then there
is no chance for an argument.

vol. 5, p.343
We wish for all the truth and all the righteousness we can get hold
of; and every heart that loves this religion, called "Mormonism,"
exclaims, from the centre and circumference of his soul and feelings,
"Let the Lord be God." Without that, all will be worthless; with that
is everything. Without that we are nothing; we cannot endure; and all
our prospects are blasted and scattered to the four winds. In reality,
we are nothing only what the Lord makes us. In a short time, if the
Lord is for us, all will be right.

vol. 5, p.343
Take things upon natural principles, and I will organize this
community so as to be prepared for any and every emergency. And the
truth compels me to say, about our enemies that all hell are crying to
come here and I must either say, Come in here and practise your
principles of death and destruction, or I must say, I will contend
against you, though I have prayed most fervently for the Lord to keep
that event off. But the Lord says, "Will you be for me, or will you
take upon you their cause?" I will say, "We will be for the Lord; for
he is the God we serve."

vol. 5, p.343
We are free. There is no yoke upon us now, and we will never put it on
again. [The congregation responded, "Amen."] That is the way for every
man and woman to feel. When it is necessary, and the Lord calls me to
do so, I would just as soon preach about war as anything else, or go
and fight a battle as to do anything else.

vol. 5, p.343
You hear a great many people talk about a virtuous life. If you could
know what an honourable, manly, upright, virtuous life is, you might
reduce it to this—Learn the will of the Lord and do it; for he has the
keys of life and death, and his mandates should be obeyed, and that is
eternal life.

vol. 5, p.343
I pray God to bless you all the time; and I bless you in the name of
Jesus Christ! Let us be of one heart and mind; and do you not see that
the Lord is going to make us of one heart and mind, or we will be
suffered to be scourged?

vol. 5, p.343
In Missouri most of the brethren signed what they called a "a deed of
trust." The brethren were forced to sign away their houses, lands, and
property; for they were going to make us bear the expense of the war.
When the brethren had done this, they would kick up their heels; and
old Judge Camron saw it, and swore, and ripped out an oath and said,
"They are whipped, but they are not conquered." One fellow said, "I
will swear we can make them consecrate: old Joe has been trying, but
he could not do it." I suppose a few have urged it upon the brethren
to consecrate. But do you not see that we are coming to where the Lord
will make us consecrate?

vol. 5, p.343
God bless you! Amen. [p.344]

Amasa Lyman, October 18, 1857

The Saints' Blessings—Divine Protection, Etc.

A Discourse by Elder Amasa Lyman, delivered in the 
Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 18, 1857.

vol. 5, p.344
I have been highly gratified to-day and edified in what I have heard
and in what has been expressed, not only here by the Presidency who
addressed us this morning; but the greatest or highest source of
gratification in all this matter to myself is that I feel as they feel
and as they have expressed themselves; I feel the spirit that is in
them, and I feel that it imparts to me the same blessing that it
imparts to them. If it is in them a source of light, eternal life, it
is the same to me; if it is a source of comfort to them, it is to me.
I feel this in relation to our position at the present time and the
circumstances that at present surround us, which are different from
those that have surrounded us in days that have gone by.

vol. 5, p.344
As was remarked by President Young this morning, in his correspondence
with our enemies outside, the time has been when we were at the mercy
of those that were around us—those that wished us no good—that never
have done us aught but evil. But our circumstances have so changed,
and the work in which we are engaged has so far progressed, that it
has brought us to the circumstances in which we are placed even now.
It has not only brought us to know the truth, but we have the
privilege, the ability, and the capacity, through the blessings of
heaven, to take care of and defend ourselves.

vol. 5, p.344
What are the honest convictions that are within us? They are that we
can defend ourselves; for we are where we dare speak in favour of the
truth; and I thank God that we are today so far removed from the seat
and power of our enemies, that they are unable to reach us in the
summary way in which they have done heretofore. This to me is a
gratification and a comfort: it enables me to look upon those things
around me with feelings different from those in which I have been in
the habit of contemplating them.

vol. 5, p.344
In times that are past we have been forced by the surrounding
influence to look upon things around us as though they were only to be
enjoyed for a short time—that though we had something one day, there
was but little assurance that we would have them the next. If blessed
with home, with our firesides, and habitations, and those things that
rendered us happy, we had but little assurance that to-morrow would
not sweep them all away. But here, in this place in which we are at
present located, we have our homes, through the blessing of God, we
have our associations, and we have all that we have in our possession
to happify our situation and cause hope to live within us for that
which is still better; and we are so far removed from the land of our
enemies, that we can hope consistently that they may be continued unto
us for many days.

vol. 5, p.344
As has been remarked to-day, look at it naturally, as men not
connected with the work of God in which  we are [p.345] engaged, and
we are blessed; we are in a place that is blessed, and the very place
of which we have almost, at times, been inclined to complain and to
feel that we were sharing in a hard lot—that we were forced to live
and to dwell in such a place as we now occupy. But the things that we
have thus regarded as hardships are blessings to us.

vol. 5, p.345
If you never had been able to appreciate them at all in their truthful
character until now, just now open your eyes, and do not keep your
eyes closed against the truth; hut open them and look upon our
situation—the circumstances that surround us, and you will feel, if
you feel as I do, to thank God—for what? For the rugged mountains that
are around us —for the barren and desert country that lies between us
and the land of our enemies. You will feel, in the spirit of the
persecuted of other days and other climes and dispensations, to bless
God for the strength of the hills, and that the Plains that lie
between us and our enemies are sterile and barren; for in these things
are our protection.

vol. 5, p.345
"But," says one, "would not God protect us?" Certainly; and how has
God protected us? He has protected us by bringing us to the land where
we now dwell—a land where, if there had been great labour bestowed
upon it, it could not have been better prepared to constitute a home
for the naked, the driven, the afflicted, and the despised people of
God. It is every way calculated to give security to the people of God.
For this reason I feel well.

vol. 5, p.345
If I have ever seen the hand of God—if I have ever seen or known his
dealings with his people, or have ever seen a manifestation of his
wisdom, it is more than ever manifest in his bringing us to this land,
where the distance is so great from the land of our enemies. The
character of the country intervening between us and them is better to
us than millions of millions of armed men to protect us: it affords us
a protection that cannot be found in the armies of the earth, were
they all marshalled in our behalf.

vol. 5, p.345
Well, then, I feel to thank God that we are here; I feel to bless him
for every foot of desert country that intervenes between this and our
enemies. There is not a foot of barren soil between us and them but
for it I feel to thank God. I regard it as a bulwark of strength to
protect the infant kingdom of God while it should gather to itself
strength, that it might exist in the midst of the nations of the
earth.

vol. 5, p.345
For all these things I feel well today; I feel happy, and I would that
all the Saints could feel happy. "Well," says one, "I would feel
happy, if I could." What is the reason you cannot be happy? Where is
the evidence of the truth that the people are not happy in this
country? Where are those who are not satisfied in this country? I do
not believe that there is a dissatisfied soul in the whole length and
breadth of the land where the Saints dwell that enjoys the Spirit of
God. Why? Because here is the only place that man can live and enjoy
the Spirit of God without restraint: here is the place where the
peace, the bliss, the prospect of happiness can be cherished in the
mind of man, free from restraint.

vol. 5, p.345
Well, then, this is the place in which to be happy. But shall we be
protected? Shall we be preserved? Shall we be upheld? Shall we be
sustained? I say, shall we continue to enjoy these blessings? This is
a question that we may answer for ourselves.

vol. 5, p.345
"But," says one, "has not President Kimball said that we should be
victorious?" Yes, he has said it again and again, that we should, if
we would but do right. This is why I say it is a question for us to
answer  for [p.346] ourselves. Now, will we do right? What I do we say
within ourselves? What is the feeling that lives within us in relation
to this matter? Will we do right? I have no doubt but what we may all
think that we will do

vol. 5, p.346
right.

vol. 5, p.346
If we conclude that we will all do right, let us make up our minds for
the struggle; for it will require all our  power. We are not going to
do right  without an effort; we will not attain to that which is right
without an effort; neither will we retain the blessings when we have
them without an effort, and one that is constant and unremitting—as
constant as the life that we seek and the blessings that we calculate
to secure to ourselves.

vol. 5, p.346
When we engage in this struggle, it should not be with half a purpose,
nor with our affections divided; a part of our regards running out to
the things that are around us, and that are but of little moment,
without regard for God and his work and the consummation and
perfection of our own salvation; but we should commence this struggle
with all the energies of our souls concentrated upon this one point
—that we will do right, and as fast as we learn the right, do it.

vol. 5, p.346
We have been told what it is to do right, and that is to learn the
will of God and do it. We knew the will of God in relation to a great
many things, and you would think you were abused and underrated in
relation to your knowledge, if you were told that you did not know how
to do better than you sometimes do.

vol. 5, p.346
We know the will of God in relation to a great many things, because it
has been sounded in our ears ever since we commenced in the work of
God: it has been told us from day to day and from time to time.

vol. 5, p.346
You know that it is peace that we want. Our President has told us that
he has sought for peace with our enemies. We have all desired peace
with our enemies outside; but we shall not have peace in the complete
sense of the term till we make it at home.

vol. 5, p.346
Have we made peace within ourselves and in our homes? Have we made
peace in that territory over which we preside? Is the same unanimity
of feeling, the same union, the same singleness of purpose developed
within us, as individuals and families, that marks the action and the
conduct of this great people when the public safety and the interests
of the people require effort? When labour is to be performed or
sacrifice to be made, and it is called for, is it made? Yes; the
experience of the past few weeks shows this is the case. If you ask
for men, they are on hand; if you ask for means, they are rendered
without a grudge; they come freely, and then more than you have asked
for.

vol. 5, p.346
What does this prove? Why, it proves that the feelings of unanimity
exist in the body of this people. If this feeling exists to this
extent in the mass of the people, one would suppose that it certainly
would exist to a corresponding extent in individuals. Is this the
case? Are we as ready to turn out, to make exertion, to lose sleep, to
watch by night and by day, to weary ourselves again and again, that we
may live acceptably before God—that we may bring ourselves into
perfect subjection to the spirit of the Gospel that we have
embraced,—are we, I say, as ready to do these things as we would be to
respond to the call to shoulder our guns and go into the mountains, as
our brethren are doing and have done?

vol. 5, p.346
Are we willing, with the same hearty good feeling, with the same
perseverance, to subject ourselves to the spirit of the Gospel and
cultivate it within us with just as much industry, with as much
indefatigable  zeal as that with which we go into the mountains and
labour by day, sleep [p.347] out at night, and endure the weather,
fair or foul, without grumbling, without fault-finding; so that our
whole soul and our whole affections are in the cause? If we leave our
homes for the love of God, and if we live our religion at home and
honour the Gospel that we have embraced, what would it secure to us?
It would secure to us a reward for all the difficulties, for all the
losses that we have sustained. Would it save us from burning our
dwellings and leaving the land covered with piles of smoking ruins?
Yes; for this is the condition upon which we are promised these
things.

vol. 5, p.347
I want to see the people go to work, as his servants have said,
individually, throughout the length and breadth of this nation and
kingdom of Israel, here in the valleys of the mountains. I want every
man and every woman to say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord," and when we learn his will, then go to work and do it. I want
you to commence a war of extermination on the evils that are between
you and your God in claiming this promise.

vol. 5, p.347
I do not in my heart desire to see men, women, and children flee into
the mountains. But we should be willing to go, remain here, or do
whatever is required, and feel that in so doing we were doing the will
of God.

vol. 5, p.347
How do you feel, brethren and sisters? Do you feel as though we would
do right and keep the commandments of God, and claim the promises that
have been made, us to-day, that, if we would do as we have been
counselled, we should come and go, confront our enemies, and conquer
them, and not many fall in the struggle.

vol. 5, p.347
[Blessed the sacramental cup.]

vol. 5, p.347
I presume that there is not a soul that belongs to the Church of the
Saints, here or elsewhere, that feels a living interest in the
prosperity of Zion, but what would wish that they might be enabled to
pursue a course of life that would secure to them this blessing—that
our brethren, a part of ourselves, those that are united to us by the
ties of the Gospel, are called to go abroad to face our enemies, to be
exposed as they may be to the chances of death, can secure this
blessing and get the blessing and protection of our Heavenly Father.

vol. 5, p.347
Be perfect in your sphere; be constant, and you shall be preserved
while in dangers that are around you, until you shall accomplish the
object of your mission, return to us unscathed and unharmed, and
rejoice in the blessings accruing from the victory gained.

vol. 5, p.347
Do you want this, mothers? Fathers, do you want this blessing? If you
do, do as I have exhorted you this afternoon—put away everything from
you that is evil, and cultivate the Spirit of truth within you, that
your prayers may ascend up before God, and that they may be
acceptable. Call down his protection upon the absent ones, as well as
upon yourselves. Do not be careless—do not settle down in thoughtless
indifference, thinking that because the servants of God have promised
victory, that it must come, independently of your exertions. It is
only upon this condition that safety is secured to you and to me, and
that is, that we DO RIGHT.

vol. 5, p.347
It is only as the conditions are complied with, that the blessing is
obtained; it is only as we live for them; it is only as we render
ourselves worthy to receive, by the course of conduct that we pursue.
This is the nature of the blessing that will come home to us; this is
the blessing that our Father will bestow; and beyond this will we
receive blessings? No. Well, then, have we not every reason to be
faithful? Yes; and why? Because everything depends upon it.

vol. 5, p.347
Then, brethren and sisters, let us [p.348] remember this brief lesson,
and let us take it home with us when we go. "Well, then," says one,
"if we take it home with us, and do a requisite amount of praying, it
will be right, will it not?" It will depend upon the way you pray. I
want you to go home and pray acceptably; and, lest your prayers be
hindered, be careful not to allow any spirit to live around you or in
you that would not be pleasing in the sight of God.

vol. 5, p.348
Do not quarrel at home, because it will not do you any good. Now, that
is reason enough. Do not cherish any bad feelings. "Why?" says one.
Because they will not do you any good; and that should be reason
enough. Do not allow yourself to do any wrong.

vol. 5, p.348
I want you to go home and do all the right that is required of you.
You are only required to do right as far as you know what is right.
You are not required to do right in the President's place, nor for
anybody but yourself. And the wrongs done by individuals, should they
all be piled up until they made a pile that would reach the gates of
the celestial city, would not justify you in a single wrong.

vol. 5, p.348
Then let us go home and turn aside this other calamity and this other
chastisement that will come upon us if we do not do right. If we do
not do right, the result will be that we shall have to suffer that
which we are told: but we shall not suffer, if we will do right. If we
do suffer, it will he because we have not done right; and we shall
know in a few years whether we have done right or whether we halo not.

vol. 5, p.348
If I could live for all the Saints or for anybody else besides
myself—if I had any time that did not need to be occupied for myself,
I would not mind doing right for others; but I cannot for I have only
time enough to do the good that I am required to do myself, in order
to do my share in this work: therefore I want you to do your share.

vol. 5, p.348
You, each one, do your piece of work; carry it to your firesides, to
your fields; keep it with you, so that it may be in you all the time.
Keep your face Zionward every day and every night and all the time
that shall be allotted to you; and when you will all do this, what
will be done? Why, we shall secure an insurance against the
destruction of the comforts that are around us and desolating our
country. If we are not forced to desolate our country, there is one
thing that is certain—our enemies will not occupy it; they will not
dwell in it, and it will not be cursed by their running over it.

vol. 5, p.348
If these are not inducements for us to live our religion, I do not
know what are. It appears to me that they should be sufficient to
secure the interest and the affections of every man and woman that has
a knowledge of the truth.

vol. 5, p.348
This is a point that I feel particularly and specially interested
about: I care but little about big things or mysterious things. If we
can only, as a people, take hold of these small matters that affect us
at our home, which, if not attended to, will roll obstacles between us
and our God, and then ask God our Heavenly Father to do for us as we
would do for each other—to bless us as we want to be blessed—to be
charitable to us as we are charitable to each other—merciful to us as
we are merciful to one another, what will be the result. If we always
do these things, there will never be anything in the way of our
prayers.

vol. 5, p.348
But if we withhold our hand, and do not bless our brethren and sisters
as we should. will God hear us when we pray to him? I tell you he will
not. We might pray until we were so hoarse that we could not speak; we
might pray in thundertones, till our prayers could be heard from one
end of the continent to the other, and still he would not listen to
us.

vol. 5, p.349
[p.349] He has told us what spirit we should pray in and how we should
act towards those around us. Then let us go and cultivate these things
in our homes, in our family circles; for this is the most effectual
way to carry out these principles.

vol. 5, p.349
If all the men in the Territory or three-fourths of them are called
away, do they quarrel? No. Some of them write home to me and say they
have been for ten days assembled together in a motley crowd of four or
five hundred men, in circumstances not near so comfortable as those by
which we are surrounded here at home; and there has not been a sign of
difference or of contention or quarrelling in their midst.

vol. 5, p.349
Well, is this a sign that everything is all right in Zion? I do not
know. I wish that the same feeling pervaded the circle of every family
in the mountains that pervades those brethren in the mountains. Well,
sisters, cannot you help to make it so? You can. Men have been told
how to make it so. Be charitable to one another's faults, just as you
would be charitable to your children, or as you would wish God to be
charitable to you. When you pray, ask God to do as you would have
others do. And, as you think it would be good for God and angels to
do, and as you would have others do, even so do yourself.

vol. 5, p.349
If you go home and do that way, whether it is in the domestic circle,
or whether it is in the more extended circles of your associations in
life, there will be a peaceable, happifying influence around and
within you, and, that influence will extend from you to others.

vol. 5, p.349
You come to the Tabernacle and enjoy the Spirit of peace and of truth
that is here—the Spirit of God. Well, now, you ought to enjoy that
Spirit, the Spirit of peace, just as much at home as anywhere else:
you should have it there all the time. There is a fruitful field for
the cultivation of practical purity and virtue, that is as
imperishable as truth itself, that will render you secure in that
victory that is anticipated in the conquest before us. Let us not be
found delinquent; in the duties that are enjoined upon us.

vol. 5, p.349
That you and I may be enabled to attend faithfully to our duties is my
prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. [p.350]

Brigham Young, October 25, 1857

Extent of the Latter-Day Work—The Freedom of the Saints
Dependent on Their Doing Right—Satan's Revelations, Etc.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, October 25, 1857.

vol. 5, p.350
We have heard considerable preaching this morning; and to me, what we
have heard is full of pith and marrow.

vol. 5, p.350
This people are to the world an object of derision and hatred; to God,
of care and pity. There are but few of us, when we compare ourselves
with the rest of the inhabitants of the earth. We now have a day of
trial. It has been observed that the Saints feel well: they never felt
better.

vol. 5, p.350
Some present may not know that my oldest and my youngest brothers have
been preaching to-day. There are but three boys between those two, and
we are all here on hand.

vol. 5, p.350
As has been observed by brother John, my eldest brother, this is the
first time that we have ever had the privilege of doing anything, only
submitting to our enemies. Now, for the first time since this Church
was organized, we are in a position for defending those rights common
to all American citizens; and our true and lawful course to abide by
the Constitution of the United States in the defence of those rights
will probably give the wicked a pretext for complaint; so that in
measuring out oppression to us, our enemies will have a new set of
pretexts, instead of feasting on infernal lies so much as they have
hitherto done.

vol. 5, p.350
Colonel Alexander accuses us of what he terms a very uncivilized
method of warfare. If we are to do as they do, we shall have to get
drunk, to swear, to quarrel, to lie, and believe in lies, and indulge
in many other like traits of civilization, in order to be prepared to
act as they do. I do not know anything about those men that are now in
the mountains, only in the capacity of a mob. I have no business to
know them as anything else, neither shall I, until I have been
officially notified that the Government of the United States wishes to
send troops here and build stations.

vol. 5, p.350
I suppose that the boys have annoyed them a good deal; but at the same
time, I would much rather clothe them and feed them, if they would
agree to go back in the spring and leave us in peace, as they found
us. We are obliged to maintain our rights; for every blackleg, horse
thief, counterfeiter, and abominable character are united with the
hireling priests and lying editors and wicked leaders of our
Government to falsely accuse the "Mormons," with a view to our
destruction. Can they now truly accuse them of anything? Yes—of
burning up a little grass, as brother Attwood told them, when they
asked him why we burnt the grass—" That we may have a better crop next
year," which you are aware is customary in prairie regions. We have
done that; therefore our enemies can now concentrate their power to
shoot at the target they have compelled us to raise in self-defence,
whereas heretofore they have shot without an object to fire at.

vol. 5, p.350
There is one thing in particular with regard to this people—they prove
[p.351] their faith by their work; and there is  no other way for us
to prove it. While  brother John was speaking of the labour of this
people to preach and send the Gospel to the nations of the earth, I
thought that, take us as a people in this day, in the situation we
have been in, and then look over the history of the Church of the
living God on the earth from the days of Adam until now, and I will
ensure that you cannot find the equal to the excessive labour of the
Elders of Israel in our day in spreading the truth through the world
to save mankind. I have no idea that it was done in the days of Enoch;
for the human family had then spread over the earth but little, and
the Elders did not have to travel scores of thousands of miles without
purse or scrip among the wicked. So also in the days of Noah: they had
but a short distance to travel. In the days of the Israelites, of the
Prophets, of Jesus Christ, and the Apostles, what was their labour in
the extent of its field, compared with that of this people? Very
small. You may trace the course of their travel, and you will find
that it was far less than that of the Elders of Israel in our day.

vol. 5, p.351
We have laboured diligently, and suffered everything but death to
preach the Gospel to our fellow beings; and thousands of our fathers,
mothers, brothers, sisters, children, and connections have gone into
their graves through their sufferings, from being robbed of everything
we had, and scattered, to find shelter where we best could. Are we
going to suffer it any more? No, God being our helper. We are
perfectly free, on condition that we do right; and upon that condition
we never will be in bondage again·

vol. 5, p.351
You will recollect that this is the first time that this Church can
say, "We are free." Do we wish to be free from the United States
Constitution? No. There is not a word in it but what we can subscribe
to with all our hearts. Do we wish to be free from the laws of the
United States? No. They are as good laws as we can ask for. Neither do
we wish for any better laws than are the most of those enacted in
Missouri and Illinois. What, then, was the difficulty with this
people? Magistrates, sheriffs, constables, military officers, &c,
walked those laws under their feet, and trampled upon them as a thing
of naught, in order to get at this people and drive them from their
hard-earned homes. I have said, and say it again, if those laws had
been executed, they would have hung Governor Boggs and Governor Ford,
with many others, between the heavens and the earth, or shot them as
traitors to the Government. It is not the laws and the Constitution of
our country that we wish to be free from, but it is from the power of
those who profess to be law-makers and law-executors, but who trample
every wholesome law under their feet. 

vol. 5, p.351
We are now as free from them as is the mountain air we breathe; and we
could wipe the few enemies now in our borders out of existence in a
very short time, if I would give the word to do so. But they will
judge themselves out of their own mouths and receive their just reward
at the hands of him whom they have listed to obey. I believe the Lord
has wisdom enough to make them destroy themselves,—though, if it were
left to me solely, under the guidance of the spirit pertaining to man,
probably I should have had them in eternity before now. But the Lord
dictates, governs, and controls: I do not, neither do I wish to. 

vol. 5, p.351
It is said that if we do right we shall overcome. I will tell you one
mark you have got to come to, in order to do right. If you can bring
yourselves, in your affections, your feelings, [p.352] your passions,
your desires, and all that you have in your organization, to submit to
the hand of the Lord, to his providences, and acknowledge his hand in
all things, and always be willing that he should dictate, though it
should take your houses, your property, your wives and children, your
parents, your lives, or anything else you have upon the earth, then
you will be exactly right; and until you come to that point, you
cannot be entirely right. That is what we have to come to; we have to
learn to submit ourselves to the Lord with all our hearts, with all
our affections, wishes, desires, passions, and let him reign and rule
over us and within us, the God of every motion: then he will lead us
to victory and glory; otherwise he will not.

vol. 5, p.352
Brother John referred to some persons receiving revelations. I say to
such persons, Go ahead, and get all the revelations you can. If
brother Joseph visits you every night, go ahead, and tell him to bring
brother Hyrum, father Smith, Don Carlos Smith, St. Paul, Peter, James,
and John, and Jesus Christ, if you can induce him to do so. But I
could almost lay my hand on that Bible and swear that the man or woman
who gets such revelations has been guilty of adultery, or of theft, or
has been rebellious and apostatized in feelings, but has come back
again, and now professes to have such revelations. Hell is full of
such revelations; and I could almost testify that a man or woman who
receives them has been guilty of some outrageous crime. I have had men
come to me and tell the wonderful great dreams and visions which they
have, when those very persons have apostatized heretofore, have denied
their God and their religion; and I knew it. Many come to me and tell
me what wonderful visions they have—that their minds are open to
eternal things—that they can see visions of eternity open before them
and understand all about this kingdom,—many of whom have at some time
been guilty of betraying their brethren, or committing some atrocious
crime. I never notice them much. I sit and hear them talk about their
wonderful knowledge, but it passes in and out of my ears like the
sound of the wind. It is for me to see to this kingdom, that it is
built up, and to preserve the Saints from the grasp of the enemy. The
visions of the class I have mentioned are nothing to me. They may
exhibit their great knowledge before me; but when they have done, it
is all gone from me.

vol. 5, p.352
Some are very anxious that I should have visions. I have all that the
Lord gives to me; and all that he keeps back he may; for that is no
concern of mine. We are on the old ship Zion; and if God is not at the
helm, the old ship will wreck and go to the Devil. As for nay taking
charge of the kingdom of God on the earth, exclusively and
independently of direction from heaven, I shall not do any such thing.
If the Lord does not direct the old ship and act as captain and pilot,
it will go to destruction, and I care not how quick.

vol. 5, p.352
He is at the helm, and will stay there. If you and I will bring our
feelings to the point I have just spoken of, he will continue to guide
the welfare of Zion and all its rights.

vol. 5, p.352
All is right. Sing hallelujah; for the Lord is here. He dictates,
guides, and directs. If the people will have implicit confidence in
their God, never forsake their covenants nor their God, he will guide
us right, and we are free as the air of these mountains. The yoke of
the wicked is off, and I am determined it shall stay off.

vol. 5, p.352
If any man or woman in Utah wants to leave this community, come to me,
and I will treat you kindly, as I always have, and will assist you to
[p.353] leave; but after you have left our settlements, you must not
then depend upon me any longer, nor upon the God I serve; you must
meet the doom you have laboured for. If any wish to go away, come to
me and I will assist you to go in peace and safety to the army or
anywhere else; but if you come again with bitter feelings to this
Territory, we shall meet you as we would a mob.

vol. 5, p.353
After this season, when this ignorant army has passed off, I shall
never again say to a man, "Stay your rifle-ball," when our enemies
assail us; but shall say, "Slay them where you find them." But the
army that are now upon our borders are in ignorance, and know not what
they are doing, nor the spirit that prompts them, or they would ere
now have been visited with swift destruction. On account of their
ignorance and their being sent by rotten demagogues and corrupt
speculators, I feel like letting them alone, unless they turn to come
here; which if they do, sleep will depart from their eyes and slumber
from their eyelids until they sleep the sleep of death or beg quarters
at our hands—God being our helper.

vol. 5, p.353
I do not altogether know why I should not feel it right to slay them
where they are. But I do not; consequently, I withhold; and if that
course should be right, I believe it will be manifested to me; and if
it is not so manifested to me, and anybody else can know of a surety
and will take the responsibility, go ahead.

vol. 5, p.353
I have joy and comfort in seeing this people trying to live up to the
spirit of their religion—to the spirit of the Gospel; and I should be
glad to see the spirit of reformation continue among them. I would be
pleased to have it within myself, and do better than I now do, or do
more, or do something I do not do. But unless the Lord will reveal to
me something more than he has, I cannot do any better than I am doing;
for I do not know how. I have done as well as I could since I have
been in this kingdom. I can hardly refer to the time when I have not
done the best I knew how, and I can hardly refer to the time when I
put my hand to do a thing unless I knew it to be right.

vol. 5, p.353
I am not a visionary character nor subject to excitement in my
feelings. My life, you know, is an even continuation; and I hope it
will be until I lay down this tabernacle. If we take this course and
trust in the Lord, he may send armies here or not, call upon us to
fight, or let us raise grain, build houses, &c., or send us to the
nations; it matters not. If we bring our feelings to this, we shall
never be brought into bondage to the wicked again; but we will be
free.

vol. 5, p.353
Do you not know, brethren, that the day will come of which the Lord
says, "For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver,
and for wood brass, and for stones iron;" and yet if those things were
now delivered into our hands, there would be selfishness. I have seen
that spirit manifested, and I am afraid of it. I am more afraid of
covetousness in our Elders than I am of the hordes of hell. Have we
men out now of that class? I believe so. I am afraid of such spirits;
for they are more powerful and injurious to this people than all hell
outside of our borders. All our enemies in the United States or in the
world, and all hell with them marshalled against us, could not do us
the injury that covetousness in the hearts of this people could do us;
for it is idolatry.

vol. 5, p.353
As brother John observed, one devil can keep all Babylon in confusion
continually, because they are already so wicked; but it takes armies
of devils to take care of the Saints, lest they overcome the kingdoms
of darkness. The Devil's forces are particularly marshalled against
us. If I can [p.354] contend against the powers of darkness and get
this people to control themselves so as to have no principle or
feeling about them only to do the will of our Father in heaven, I do
not fear all hell. Were all the United States arrayed against us in
these mountains, I would rather have ten men who are Saints, and will
do more with them to overcome all our outside enemies than this whole
people, with their affections not sanctified to the Lord. Do you
understand that, ye Saints? Or is it to you like some visions that are
told to me—going in at one ear and out at the other? We, as a people,
will be chastened until we can wholly submit ourselves to the Lord and
be Saints indeed. May God bless you! Amen.

Orson Hyde, October 25, 1857

Privileges of the Saints—Trials, Etc.

A Discourse by Elder Orson Hyde, delivered in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, October 25, 1857.

vol. 5, p.354
I arise to make a few remarks to you, and I do it with a great deal of
pleasure and satisfaction.

vol. 5, p.354
I feel, in the first place, to express my gratitude to God for the
privileges that we enjoy, that we are permitted to meet together and
hear instructions from time to time, by which our minds may be
fortified against evil, that we may receive strength to resist the
powers of darkness and every evil principle that may suggest itself to
our minds. I trust that our hearts have become so softened by the
power of truth and so opened by its blessed influence, that we are
prepared to receive any impression which the truth may be calculated
to make upon us, that it may affect us to the glory of our Heavenly
Father.

vol. 5, p.354
I feel thankful that we are blessed with gifts and qualifications in
our midst that can set right and give a proper tone to all things that
go forth from us, so that we are not left to spell out our own course
by the limited light and intelligence that we possess.

vol. 5, p.354
We have not only the Spirit of God in our own hearts to guide us in
the path of duty, of principle, and of doctrine, if we live our
religion; but we have the Spirit of God also in our President to set
us right when wrong. I feel thankful that we are looked after with
such an anxious and watchful eye—with an eye to our happiness and
wellbeing and to our future exaltation.

vol. 5, p.354
I hope that we shall appreciate these gifts while we have them—that we
shall profit by them, and do all in our power to preserve them
unimpaired in our midst, that we may long derive benefit from such
sources. To be sure, it is a day of trial to the Saints; and yet it is
a matter of gratification to see that the Saints, as a general thing,
take their trials so calmly, and to see that they are willing to pass
through the fiery ordeal; for we know that the final issue will be
glorious, and we shall see the desire of our souls and be satisfied.

vol. 5, p.354
This proves that we are satisfied with our lot and that we are living
[p.355] our religion in a goodly degree; and I hope and trust that the
good Spirit that seems to prevail in our midst will be cultivated and
its dictates carried out, that we may do nothing to grieve it away
from us, but be ready to follow its suggestions—to fulfil its
requirements and the requirements of those that preside over us. It is
a day of trial to us; but our trials are light, and the test that we
are subjected to is but light, compared with the final test to which
we shall be subjected when the Son of Man shall be revealed from
heaven, taking vengeance upon them that know not God and obey not the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.

vol. 5, p.355
I have mentioned once or twice concerning the trials that await the
Saints at that time. We look forward to the day when the Son of Man
shall come in his glory as the greatest event and most sublime display
of power and glory that were ever beheld by mortal eye; and it is
requisite that we should be prepared for that scene. We shall be
prepared, if we listen to the Spirit of the Lord as it is manifesting
itself, and so continue to do during our probation here; for the Son
of Man shall be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and obey not the Gospel. The Prophet asks the
question, "Who can dwell with devouring fire or with everlasting
burnings?" He answers and says, He that has clean hands and a pure
heart; he can dwell with devouring fire.

vol. 5, p.355
We are to be operated upon by the Holy Ghost, and undergo such a
material change by its power that we can abide the day of burning in
which the Son of God will be revealed with the same comfort that
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did in the fiery furnace. They were
east into that devouring element and moved as pleasantly and as
agreeably as the fish moves in the sea, its native element. When that
day comes, it will be made to appear who is pure; for it will hear
upon every individual; and those who are not right and pure will be
devoured and destroyed. If we are faithful, we can abide that day and
feel that we are wrapped in nothing more than in a blaze of glory,
because we shall be prepared for it. But if we do not live our
religion, we shall be consumed in that day; and it will be a day that
no creature can dodge. Hypocrisy and deceit will then be no shield.
Pure and unadulterated goodness done will enable us to stand in that
day. We shall then know who possesses the qualifications of Saints,
and who does not; and we shall have to be tested, and that strongly,
compared with that to which we are now subjected. The two will be so
different, so widely apart from each other, that we cannot now imagine
the difference.

vol. 5, p.355
But I do not know that it is profitable to go on so far ahead and
picture out the tests or trials that we may be subjected to; yet still
it may be necessary to show what we shall have to possess and guard
against, that we may be ready for the day of exaltation.

vol. 5, p.355
At that time, we are informed that the wicked will call for the rocks
to fall on them and hide them from the presence of him that sitteth
upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Why will they do this?
If the flaming fire has the same effect as we may suppose it will
have, it will be very natural for them to call upon the rocks to hide
them from the face of the Lord. They will prefer this to standing the
test. This will be the cry, "Fall upon us, ye rocks, and hide us from
this terrible test." But the rocks and mountains hear them not! The
ungodly must be consumed by the devouring fire. There are
stepping-stones to this test; and when we get to that point, that will
be no greater trial than the present is now. [p.356] It will not be
any greater stumbling-block to us; it will be no more terrible than
our present trial, if we live our religion; for we shall be prepared.

vol. 5, p.356
Brethren and sisters, we not only have the evidence that I spoke of
this forenoon, but we have more. I desired, in my remarks this
morning, to point out to the sinner and to the ungodly, if you please,
or to those that do not belong to the Church; I wanted to show that
they possess evidence in themselves—that they have it in their own
hearts and in their own feelings, that this is the work of God; I
wished to convince them that God had given them a testimony, that they
might know for themselves. He has so ordered things that hypocrites
and false-hearted individuals might know for themselves that this is
the work of God and that he would accomplish it in his own way. For
this reason he said that "sinners in Zion should be afraid, and
fearfulness surprise the hypocrite," and that they should go away;
they should leave because they are afraid for their own persons; they
are afraid for their property; they are afraid because the atmosphere
that surrounds the servants of God is not congenial with their
unhallowed natures, and they are fearful. This evidence is in their
own hearts, and when they go, they carry the lighted candle of
evidence with them.

vol. 5, p.356
There are some who have been acquainted with the Church from place to
place and from time to time. There are some that have followed all the
time, and they can neither take hold of it nor throw it away. Have
they not had testimony that this is the work of God—that this is the
truth of heaven? Has not the Holy Spirit raised convictions in their
minds that this is the troth of God? Have they not been convicted of
its truth? I will venture to say that they have been pungently
convicted, and they have had all the lies that the Devil could put
them in possession of and help them to, in order to resist the force
of truth. Why have they not yielded obedience to the laws of the
kingdom of God and taken upon them the yoke of Christ? It does seem to
me that persons holding that position are ready to turn to the enemy
or to any other quarter as may best suit their interests and
circumstances. They are on the top of the fence, and rather leaning
over to our enemies' side. "He that is not for us is against us."

vol. 5, p.356
It does sometimes appear that unwise persons not guided by the Spirit
of God should take a course, with some such hangers-on, to make them
take sides, one way or the other,—to compel them to take to their own
convictions before God, or else go away.

vol. 5, p.356
We find that God will overrule all actions that are performed, even
injudiciously, to the best good and to the perfection of his people
who trust in him, and to the best good of those also who would hang
on, yet neither enter themselves nor let anybody else enter. Now,
there are individuals that will not come into the Church themselves;
and if they can lay a stumblingblock in the way of their friends, they
will do it. They will say to a Gentile, or to a person who may be
favourably impressed with the truth, "We have never joined the Church,
and there is no particular need of it. We may appear friendly to the
society, but not join it. Then we are under no rules or restrictions,
and may do as we please."

vol. 5, p.356
We read a man's character and feelings by his actions. You have been
acquainted so long, and the truth has made so small an impression that
it shows there is no real love there for it. Such individuals are even
ready to talk to those who come in here and to bias their minds, and
then they come to the conclusion  that [p.357] this is not the work of
God; for they conclude that those persons who have talked to them,
having had such opportunities, must know.

vol. 5, p.357
If such individuals should have a jog that would knock their
sensibilities into them, I do not know but God would work it for their
good. I believe it is said that all things shall work together for
good to those that love God and keep his commandments. We have
convictions of those things; we are confident that all shall work for
our good, not only in our hearts, but when we can see wisdom
manifested that is evidently manifested by the hand of a superior
being; but we cannot but acknowledge the hand of God. We have the
testimony in our hearts of the truth, and what we feel and see all the
time should stimulate us to cling to the Lord with all our hearts,
might, mind, and strength.

vol. 5, p.357
The Saints in former days had a great deal to overcome; they had not
only their weaknesses, but they had armies to overcome; and we find
they put to flight the armies of the aliens. They had many trials.
They were clad in sheep-skins, and goat-skins. Inasmuch as we believe
that the cattle upon a thousand hills belong to the Lord, I do not
know but that their very hides may be dressed, and we wear them
instead of broadcloth. Well, now, those skins properly dressed, as I
have seen some specimens in this town, may be our clothing when we get
into the hills, and they will last some time to go through the
mountains. Necessity, we say, is the mother of invention. The sisters
may ask what they shall do for petticoats? I can tell you. (Voice: Let
the women wear pantaloons.) Necessity being the mother of invention,
we will seek them out something suitable; we have got common sense,
and a good deal more too, if we will live our religion. Our father
went to work and made coats of skins; and I suppose that mother Eve
had a coat of skins as well as father Adam. But whether hers was a
petticoat, we are not told.

vol. 5, p.357
We have been talking about the ancient order being restored; and if we
live to return to that order, we shall live to be dressed in the skins
of animals. I do not know how these things may be, but yet we judge,
if we are driven to such necessity, we may have to adopt that style.

vol. 5, p.357
Let us prepare our minds for all things and to live where and when
others may perish and die. We have got to learn that when the day of
burning comes to be ready to live upon the barren rocks, where others
would starve to death. If we get wisdom to live where they would
perish, then we shall be the more completely independent. Thank God,
we are beyond their reach. The Almighty God in his wisdom and kindness
has given us understanding, and I have every reason to believe that he
will deliver us and provide for us, if we live our religion and cleave
unto him; for I tell you that some of the most simple things will be
for our deliverance, and at the same time for the destruction of our
enemies; and we can do all that is required, by his hand helping us.
We are nothing of ourselves; but when we are inspired by the Almighty
and take such a course as will give us confidence in God, we cannot
perish. Then we have reason to rejoice and be glad.

vol. 5, p.357
Here is the evidence that this is the work of God. I remarked to
brother Hardy, to-day, that last winter we preached some strong things
in his ward (12th ward). Myself, brother Hardy, the Bishop, and
brother Joseph A. Young doubled teams; and I then said, Where will
these things lead us? I did not stop long to reflect; but, said I, we
have the Spirit of God, and it will be all right; and I feel more
satisfied now that his arm will bear us [p.358] off triumphant. At
that time fearfulness began to take hold upon the hypocrite, and we
saw that sinners began to tremble and fearfulness to surprise the
hypocrite. I tell you, perfect love casteth out all fear, if fear has
no place in us; for our love for the truth casteth out all fear.

vol. 5, p.358
"Fear not, little flock," says Jesus,  for it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom." I believe it is said in one
revelation, "Unto you the kingdom has been given, and power to
overcome all things that are not ordained of God." I believe it is
said so, in so many words, that you shall have power to overcome all
that has not been ordained of God. What more can we ask for? Power has
been given us, that that power may be in us, that it may be as a
flaming fire; and I tell you the Almighty will be in us by his Spirit;
he will go before as and clear the track. He does not require us to do
anything without his first clearing the track, preparing the way for
us to accomplish it.

vol. 5, p.358
That Zion is free is a satisfaction to the sons of light and causes
joy in their hearts. In fact, we have lived so long under the
Priesthood, that I, for one, do not want to live under any other
government. If it is necessary, however, to take some other along, as
the man did who made the stone soup, by putting in everything
necessary to make the soup rich, palatable, and nutritious, before he
put in the stone, concluding that the stone might give a favourite
name to the soup, without; imparting to it any injurious flavour or
quality, I shall not object.

vol. 5, p.358
However, I will tell you that the government of God is the only
legitimate government upon the earth; and when he reckons with
nations, rulers, and privates, he will pronounce all guilty of "high
treason" who have opposed his kingdom, fought against his Saints, or
in any manner interrupted them in the execution of his mandates. Then
let us contend for the rights of our Sovereign, the God of heaven and
earth, and for the rights of his kingdom. And may God in his mercy
shield us by his all-powerful arm, and may we live so that his angels
won't be far off; but that we may have their aid and their
cooperation!

vol. 5, p.358
Brethren and sisters, may God bless you! And I feel in my soul to
bless you and to bless all that bless Zion. But let the wrath of God
be upon the Mother of Harlots, and upon all that wish evil to Zion;
and may the Lord God be round about his Saints, and his wisdom be
manifested conspicuously in all their movements, is my prayer. Amen.
[p.359]

George A. Smith, November 1, 1857

Religious Worship a Natural and Universal Principle—
Sincerity No Test of Truth—Priestly Authority, Etc.

A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, November 1, 1857.

vol. 5, p.359
Our Father who is in heaven has placed us in this world in the present
generation, and has placed before us laws and principles by which we
may obtain exaltation and celestial glory.

vol. 5, p.359
In the acquisition of any department of science, the laws thereof must
be ascertained and the application properly made, or it is not in our
power to become acquainted with its branches, so as to master it and
realize the benefit of its effects. So, also, in entering into the
kingdom of the Most High God, we enter by a door preparatory; and, to
all those who have been traditioned in the false religions of the
present age, this door seems to be but little understood.

vol. 5, p.359
I have watched the movements of persons coming into the Church of
Christ from sectarian churches for many years, and I discover that
they are almost entirely enveloped in a kind of cast-iron shell; and
it is with the greatest of difficulty that they divest themselves of
it—of their prejudices and traditions. It is the work of years; and
although many come into this Church while young, without an extensive
knowledge of sectarian principles, yet such is the force of tradition,
even in them, that they have to stop, consider, and question whether
principles are really true and received from a proper source, or
whether they are false.

vol. 5, p.359
There is a feeling in the human breast to reverence something. We find
it among the untutored savages; we find it among what are denominated
the heathen nations—among those who are considered pagans, bowing down
to worship images, the workmanship of their own hands.

vol. 5, p.359
I had the pleasure, while in the States, of being subject to the
Sabbath-keeping rules of the railroad company. I wished very devoutly
to have the privilege of spending my time with the Saints in Saint
Louis: but, to avoid travelling on the Sabbath, the railroad decree
had gone forth that we should not leave Chicago; so, on the Sabbath, I
went to Saint Mary's Cathedral for the purpose of hearing a Catholic
discourse.

vol. 5, p.359
I was there gratified by hearing a very eloquent gentleman explain the
reason why the paintings, crucifixion, and emblems of this kind are
used in the Catholic churches. He said that it was not understood with
them that a person bowing before a likeness or a picture of a saint
did so with the intention of worshipping that saint or picture; but
that the design was to inspire in the heart of the worshipper a
disposition to emulate the virtuous deeds and good actions of that
saint. Hence, said the orator, a portrait of the Virgin Mary, placed
in a proper position where females, especially the young, can come
before it and offer their adorations, inspires in their minds chaste
and virtuous ideas, holy thoughts, pure principles, and ardent desires
to live as perfectly, to be as humble, and to observe the laws of
righteousness as fully as did the virgin whose picture they stand
before.

vol. 5, p.360
[p.360] I bring this up simply to illustrate the principle upon which
the Catholics answer the objections raised by the Protestant world
against the use of images, &c., in their churches, thus accusing them
of idolatry.

vol. 5, p.360
There are reasons well known to every reader of history why, pictures
were introduced into the Catholic churches. Although they assign for
this the reasons given by the eloquent gentleman in St. Mary's
Cathedral, Chicago; yet they were not. originally used in the Catholic
churches nor in any of the Christian churches previous to their
becoming mixed with Romanism.

vol. 5, p.360
When it took its origin, the empire of Rome was both a religious and a
political institution: its emperors and senators had attached to them
sacred authority; and their religion embodied within it the power,
perfection, and consolidated union of the pagan institutions of that
age, which consisted in a series of systems of idolatry.

vol. 5, p.360
Hence, by order of the government, temples were dedicated particularly
to their god of peace, to be opened in the time of peace and to be
shut in the time of war; temples were also dedicated to the god of
war, to be opened in time of war and closed in time of peace; for at
certain times the gods of peace and plenty were to be invoked; at
other times the god of war was to be courted.

vol. 5, p.360
The Christian religion silently advanced until it became a power to be
courted by men who thirsted for dominion. When Constantine got
possession of the throne, the empire had become to a considerable
extent Christianized, and it became necessary to do something to
consolidate the feelings of the whole. To destroy idols entirely would
be taken with a bad grace by the higher order of the Roman people. In
order to meet this difficulty, Constantine substituted pictures
instead of idols. Instead of the statue of Minerva, he had the picture
of the Virgin; instead of a temple dedicated to Jupiter, a church
dedicated to St. Peter; instead of a statue of Apollo, a likeness of
some of the Apostles, or of some saint or personage, imaginary or
real; thus completely co. mingling the Christian religion with
idolatry. Then men started up to assign reasons for this, and these
reasons were presented in the eloquent style of the address I heard in
St. Mary's Cathedral.

vol. 5, p.360
Heathen and pagan idols are built for the same purpose. You ask the
priest of a heathen temple if the real intent is to worship that stone
or that image of gold, silver, brass, or iron, and he would tell you
that it was only a representative of something—that you could not see
the real god, and the image was introduced as a substitute.

vol. 5, p.360
Among the early inhabitants of the world who rejected the true
religion, many began to pay their adoration to the sun, moon, stars,
&c. These soon adopted personages that they considered would represent
the objects of the adoration. Hence, we find Jupiter is represented as
the king of gods, or as the god of thunder, more particularly,—the
thunder, representing his weapon, being the most powerful agent they
had any idea of; and his image or statue was worshipped by the early
inhabitants of the earth as the representative of that power. There
was generally attached to these deities an idea of terror.

vol. 5, p.360
In studying the principles of mythology held by the Greeks, who are
considered the most classical people of early ages, we discover that
to almost everything they associated the idea of terror; hence, when a
man passed from this world to the next, they considered it necessary
to place a little change in  his coffin to pay his passage across the
river Styx. They [p.361] had a personage named Charon, who, in their
mythology, operated as ferryman; and the very moment the spirit of the
dead crossed the river, it came in contact with a dog, Cerberus, with
three heads, and, instead of hair, covered with snakes: that dog
answered as watchman to keep the departed spirit from returning to the
abodes of men.

vol. 5, p.361
The human imagination was tortured to bring up the most hideous
pictures. In following these imaginations, they had a variety of
detail; and in these we find that scarcely any two writers agree. The
Greeks were about as united in the worship of their gods as the
Christians are who profess to worship Jesus. They went in, however,
for worshipping all the deities, and some of them to a great extreme.

vol. 5, p.361
For instance, go to Athens, in the day of its glory, as did the
Apostle Paul, and you might see the statues of all the gods of the
ancients; and, among the rest, an altar to the "unknown God." There
was a God they did not know; but they were determined to hit every
case and be prepared to worship everybody, like the man in a storm at
sea—it was good Lord and good Devil with him, for he knew not. in
whose hands he should fall: therefore, to be sure that they worshipped
all, they set up an altar to the unknown God, that, if they should
fall into his hands, they could claim that they had worshipped him;
and that is about the sum and substance of the so-called Christian
worship of the present ago.

vol. 5, p.361
You may go into any society of people, almost, and ask them what they
worship, and they would as soon tell you they worship the unknown God
as not. You may take up their creeds, and they give it out that they
worship a God that has neither body, parts, nor passions, and yet has
three persons. Their ideas are so perfectly confused, and their
knowledge so supremely ridiculous on this subject, as to make it clear
to those enlightened by the Holy Ghost that they are entirely ignorant
and totally in the dark on this matter. They must have made their
creeds without thinking whether the words composing them had meaning
or not.

vol. 5, p.361
When I was 18 years of age, I was sent on a mission preaching the
Gospel. I called one Sabbath to see a friend of the Baptist
persuasion. The old gentleman wanted I should go to the Baptist
meeting with him. As I had no appointment until evening, I went with
him. I had not been there a great while before he made an effort to
have them let me preach. They, however, did not feel disposed. Their
minister was gone, and one of the deacons got up and read an
old-fashioned, close-communion, dry chip-and-porridge sermon; and
besides the deacon being a miserable, poor reader, I was not very much
interested.

vol. 5, p.361
When the meeting was dismissed, the deacon came up to me, and asked me
where I lived. I told him; and I in return enquired of him what church
that was. He said it was the Church of Christ. Said I, "What Apostle
built it?"

vol. 5, p.361
"The Apostle Paul," he replied.

vol. 5, p.361
I said I was not aware that Paul had been in this country preaching
and building up churches.

vol. 5, p.361
"Well," said he, "it was built up upon his doctrine."

vol. 5, p.361
"Indeed," said I: "what Apostle presides. over it?"

vol. 5, p.361
"We don't have any in these days."

vol. 5, p.361
"Then it is not the Church of God."

vol. 5, p.361
"Yes, it is," said he;" Apostles and Prophets are done away."

vol. 5, p.361
"Not so," said I; and I drew out the New Testament and read, "God hath
set in his church first Apostles," &c. "Now," said I, "the very fact
[p.362] of there not being Apostles and Prophets in your Church proves
that it is not the Church of God; and I don't want anything to do with
it."

vol. 5, p.362
Says he, "You are a strange follow: I never thought of that before."

vol. 5, p.362
I told him to read the Scriptures, and said, "You may for ever read
such sermons as you have been reading to-day, and they will keep you
blind. Unless there is a principle in the organization of the Church
inspired from the Almighty—unless there is an authority that is
governed by the power of God and his Spirit, men might just as well
worship dumb idols, the fancy gods of the ancient heathen, or the
pictures of the Catholics, as to go to meeting or perform any other
kind of worship. If you undertake to go to any place, you have got to
take the right road: you must start right. If you start wrong, you are
sure to come out wrong; and the further you go in a wrong direction,
the further you are off the starting-point."

vol. 5, p.362
I have heard it said, in the course of my travels, that if persons
think they are right, they are right,—that if persons are only
sincere, all will come out well. That may answer for people to talk
about who know they are wrong, and are trying to carry themselves into
the idea that it is just as well to be wrong as right. But if we wish
to enter the kingdom of heaven, we have to enter by the door; for,
says the Saviour, "I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall
have life."

vol. 5, p.362
But suppose you enter through somebody else; where has the idea
originated that there is the least possible prospect of coming out
right from starting wrong? Suppose a man should start to the States,
but instead of that he makes his way into the Western desert, saying,
"It don't make any difference which way I go;" what would be the
result? He would wander in the desert and perish. Suppose a man, in
attempting to serve the Lord, by mistake should serve the Devil; is
the Lord going to reward him for serving the Devil? Not at all.

vol. 5, p.362
When Joseph Smith commenced to proclaim to the world the truth, the
way of life and salvation, in the manner he was inspired of the Lord
to do, every religious denomination, Protestant, idolater, or what
not, the moment they heard of it, commenced a dismal howl of  "False
prophet! False teacher! Imposture! Deception!" &c. Why? Because there
was a light directly from the Almighty; a man had come forth that
taught in the name of the Lord; a personage bore testimony of the plan
of salvation, that would actually overthrow, dissolve, use up,
annihilate, and destroy everything that did not come from God.

vol. 5, p.362
"Well," says the old priest, "if this goes abroad, what will be the
result? The people will see the light, the true doctrine, and they
will quit coming to my meeting and paying me for preaching; and I
cannot grunt and groan over them and play the hypocrite with them any
longer; and I shall have to go and get an honest living: I will
therefore stir up the people to kill and destroy the man."

vol. 5, p.362
This was the spirit and design of every one over whom the spirit of
the Devil had dominion. The very instant the first message of truth
began to be proclaimed to the children of men, all the devils in hell
and all the devils on earth and the spirits of demons were stirred up,
and went to work at once to frustrate, destroy, and overthrow this
work.

vol. 5, p.362
"Where did you get your authority?" say they.

vol. 5, p.362
By the inspiration of the Almighty the holy Priesthood was conferred,
and we were ordained to the Apostleship and Priesthood to go forth and
preach to you the plan of salvation. Where did you get your authority?

vol. 5, p.363
[p.363] "It came down from the ancient Apostles, through the Church of
Rome, and by the way of the Waldenses," says the Baptist, or by the
way of the Reformers.

vol. 5, p.363
But were not those reformers expelled by the Church of Rome? 

vol. 5, p.363
"Yes."

vol. 5, p.363
If they, then, had their authority from the Church of Rome, that
Church must have had the power also to divest them of that authority.
If we admit that the Romish Church had this power and authority, we
must go back there to find it; and if we take that testimony, it
proves that all the reformers have no authority.

vol. 5, p.363
The Baptists attempt to show that their authority came through Waldo.
Who was this Waldo? He was a merchant, and hired a man to translate
for him the four books of the Gospel. He went to preaching without any
inspiration, revelation, or light from heaven: he had only the light
which he could discern from the translation made by an excommunicated
monk. He was zealous and doubtless honest in his intentions, but
without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Priesthood, or authority
from God.

vol. 5, p.363
Now, as I said before, if you start wrong, you will be wrong all the
way. Without a messenger from God, with. out the revelation of the
Most High, it is all folly and useless to attempt to follow the
Saviour. It is written, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God,
who giveth liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."

vol. 5, p.363
The Saviour said, "If any man will be my disciple, let him take up his
cross and follow me." You may follow all the men and devils in the
world; but, unless you follow Christ, you cannot be his disciple; and
the more men and devils you follow, the worse you are off.

vol. 5, p.363
When we talk about following Christ, we hear it said that we should
believe in him with all our hearts, repent of our sins, and be
baptised for the remission of them. Before the Saviour commenced his
mission on the earth, he went to Jordan to be baptised, that he might
set an example for us to follow. Take any other track, and you go
wrong. The right track is the only plan, the only design, and the only
intention that can bring us to the enjoyment of salvation; and it is
not only in starting right that salvation depends, but when we start
it is necessary to continue to the end.

vol. 5, p.363
Now, it is plain and reasonable to me why it is that the nations of
the earth seek to destroy the Saints. They pretend that the Bible is
their platform, and it condemns them on every page, both their
doctrines and practices. In order to maintain their false systems,
they have created a kind of aristocracy, called Priesthood, who are
hired to explain away the sayings of the sacred book. By this means,
having itching ears, they have heaped to themselves teachers to turn
away their ears from the truth unto fables.

vol. 5, p.363
These false teachers have a strong hold on the minds of the people;
the rulers bear rule by their means, and most of the people love to
have it so. If anybody comes to change this order of things, almost
every man is up in arms against him. They are so perfectly organized
that it takes but a few devils to keep them in subjection.

vol. 5, p.363
This makes me think of an old Chinese fable. A man travelling through
the country came to a large city, very rich and splendid; he looked at
it and said to his guide, "This must be a very righteous people, for I
can only see but one little devil in this great city."

vol. 5, p.363
The guide replied, "You do not understand, sir. This city is so
perfectly given up to wickedness, corruption, degradation, and
abomination [p.364] of every kind, that it requires but one devil to
keep them all in subjection."

vol. 5, p.364
Travelling on a little further, he came to a rugged path and saw an
old man trying to get up the hill side surrounded by seven great, big,
coarse-looking devils.

vol. 5, p.364
"Why," says the traveller, "this must be a tremendously wicked old
man! Only see how many devils there are around him!"

vol. 5, p.364
"This," replied the guide, "is the only righteous man in the country;
and there are seven of the biggest devils trying to turn him out of
his path, and they all cannot do it."

vol. 5, p.364
The Devil has these Christian Priests and the whole world with them so
perfectly at his disposal, that it only takes a very few devils to
keep them all in subjection; and the whole legion of devils have
nothing to do but look after the "Mormons" and stir up the hearts of
the children of men to destroy them—to put them out of existence.

vol. 5, p.364
If you will examine the public prints of the United States for the
last two years, you will find in them the most bloodthirsty articles,
cruel declamations, and awful imprecations, originating from the pens
of religious priests and their dupes. Say they, "If we talk with the
Mormons on principles of religion, the Bible, of course, sustains
them; if we talk with them on human rights, those principles sustain
them; if we talk with them on the Constitution and laws of our
country, these sustain them; if we talk with them on the dealings of
God with man, they get the better of us; and our only way is to try
and destroy them from the earth."

vol. 5, p.364
This is the spirit that is being stirred up in the hearts of the
children of men. There have never been in reality but two kingdoms on
this earth—the kingdom of God and that of the Devil; or, I will say,
those who are willing to observe the principles of truth and those who
are not. The latter array themselves against the Saints.

vol. 5, p.364
A gentleman, with whom I came in contact while at Washington, made
this objection against "Mormonism." Talking about the institution of
plurality of wives, said he, "It never will answer; it will break up
all the whore-houses in the country; for women would not abide in such
establishments and sustain them, if they could only have respectable
and comfortable houses. This polygamy system will smash up that
(Christian) institution altogether."

vol. 5, p.364
The spirit of opposition to "Mormonism" takes hold of the king on his
throne, the president in his chair, and all those would-be sacred
priests—those holy hypocrites who stir up the hearts of the people to
seek to overthrow the work of God. High and low, great and small are
united in one grand union for the destruction of the Saints of God,
though they be deadly foes on all other questions.

vol. 5, p.364
To endure this hatred—to be cursed, despised by his friends, jeered at
by his neighbours and all who ever knew him, and to be set down as a
poor, cursed, worthless, good-for-nothing "Mormon" feel, requires a
courage in any man or woman who will step forward to receive the pure
principles of this Gospel, that is a stranger in the heart of the
greatest warrior that ever faced an enemy on the battle-field.

vol. 5, p.364
It is the animosity of the Adversary that fills the hearts of the
children of men to overflowing, so that they desire to destroy the
Saints—so that they are filled with anger, violent wrath, and
indignation. But they know not the reason of these things.

vol. 5, p.364
Go and ask a Christian priest why he wants to put down "Mormonism;"
and if he would honestly acknowledge the truth, he would say, "It will
upset our trade, and," as the gentleman said in  Washington, "it will
[p.365] destroy our peculiar institutions." The politicians say, "If
the Mormons adopt the principle that honest men are to come into
power, and they succeed with that principle, we shall be rooted up and
our means of gain be taken from us."

vol. 5, p.365
You understand that a petition was sent from the Legislature of this
Territory, begging of the President of the United States to send no
more damned scoundrels here, but to send good men. Then, it went on to
tell him, if he did not send good men, we were not going to have them.
It was considered by Congress and the great men of this Government as
one of the greatest outrages, and equivalent to treason, because we
said we would not receive the cursedest scoundrels that could be
scraped from the very scum of the earth, and bow down to them and lick
the dust of their feet.

vol. 5, p.365
We are right in this matter, whether we act as Saints of the Most High
God or as citizens of the Republic of the United States. There could
not be a greater outrage committed on any community than to place over
them, contrary to their choice, corrupt demagogues to rule their
destiny. The idea of forcing these corrupt dogs on a community to rule
it is what I call dogmatism.

vol. 5, p.365
I am not very familiar with the dictionary, but I will tell a story
that will illustrate my meaning. A fine fellow, who considered himself
smart, had married a learned lady, and he felt very proud of her
learning and education; and in order to be on a par with her, he used
many very pretty words, and, now-and-then, one he did not understand
the meaning of himself. On one occasion he used the word dogmatism
improperly. Says she, "My dear, what is the meaning of that word?"

vol. 5, p.365
He drew down a hard face and said, "Dogmatism, dogmatism, my
dear,—why, it is fuji-grown puppyism."

vol. 5, p.365
I do consider that to undertake this kind of measure is full-grown
puppyism, whether it is to exterminate men for their religion or to
annihilate them from the earth for political motives.

vol. 5, p.365
Every human being has rights; and it is a true principle, in all
governments upon the earth, that governors should rule by the consent
of the governed. But there is not a people on the face of the earth
that I know anything about, except the Latter-day Saints, that are
actually governed in this way. In our government, all our movements
are by the unanimous consent of the governed; and we are the only
people on the earth that observe this constitutional principle. Other
people may try to do it to some limited extent.

vol. 5, p.365
When men are placed as rulers and governors to control: the destinies
of any people, they must do it by the consent of that people, or it is
unlawful, unconstitutional, unjust, unholy. God himself does not rule
the children of men upon any other principle. "You can serve me, live
under my dominion, observe my laws, if you choose," says the Lord: "if
not, you may serve the Devil and reap the reward that follows."

vol. 5, p.365
I forgot, however, that I was preaching a religious sermon when I ran
off into politics; but I have had my head a little charged with
politics of late; and consequently, when I undertake to preach, it is
natural for me to shoot off in that direction.

vol. 5, p.365
We, as a people, have to depend, to a great extent, upon the policy we
adopt. We have got to respect ourselves, at least, if the world will
not respect us. It will not be many years until the world will
understand that when they speak of us we are to be respected. They
will realize, feel, and understand this more and more. To be sure, we
have submitted to [p.366] them, suffered our houses to be burned, and
ourselves to be driven from our homes; we suffered our friends to be
murdered, and we have fled into the wilderness: for 20 years we have
fled before our enemies. But it is a long road that never has a turn.
The day will come when our enemies will flee before us. There must be
a change. Although they may despise us, let them remember—an old adage
has it—that despised enemies are dangerous.

vol. 5, p.366
The time will shortly come when it will be considered better policy
for men to stay at home and mind their business than to be marching a
thousand miles to murder the "Mormons." The day will come when it will
be considered more for the health and happiness of the human family to
let the "Mormons" alone.

vol. 5, p.366
Brother Hyde, in addressing us this morning, spoke very strongly about
cutting out an ulcer. When any man goes to cutting off a member of his
body, he mars it. If he only, chops off his big toe, he cannot hop
quite so good as he could before. So, when the Government of the
United States—our dear uncle, whom I have always been so afraid of,
chops off one member of the great confederacy, the work of
dismembering begins.

vol. 5, p.366
Peace has been taken from the earth, and there is little or no
confidence among the children of men and while all the devils in hell
and all the priests upon the earth are at work to unite for the
extinction of the kingdom, it is in the mountains pursuing the even
tenor of its way, every man minding his own business. But, confusion
will increase in the midst of the wicked—those who are our enemies,
and, as says the revelation, "the wicked will slay the wicked."

vol. 5, p.366
The Lord says it is his business to take care of his Saints. The
safest place on the earth is in Zion. If you were in the city of New
York, San Francisco, St. Louis, or in any of those great cities, and
had 10 dollars in your pocket, a valuable penknife, or a gold watch,
and should happen to be walking in the streets at night, you would be
under the necessity of keeping a constant guard, peradventure your
life should be taken for the property in your pocket. Policemen are
not of much use. If you place two policemen in a street, there will be
four robberies; if you place four, there will be eight robberies: they
nearly all colleague together, and no man that is decently dressed can
lie down or walk the streets in safety or quiet in any of those cities
without risking his life almost as much as he would in facing an enemy
on the battle-field. 

vol. 5, p.366
These are solemn truths: they are what I have seen. Somebody is after
a stranger every moment he is in the streets, to rob him. Is it so
here? No. This is the safest place on this earth; and as we learn more
righteousness, divest ourselves more and more of selfishness, and
become more and more instructed in the intrinsic value of earthly
substance, compared with eternal riches, the principle of safety will
increase and the Millenium will actually commence with this people. 

vol. 5, p.366
There is yet in the hearts of our people, although the reformation has
done a great work, a spirit of selfishness. We have got to divest
ourselves of this principle; we have got to become so perfectly stript
of it that we will love the Lord our God with all our hearts and our
neighbours as ourselves, that our hearts will not be set upon our own
property or upon the property of others, so as to covet the things
that pertain to this world, and that, with our whole soul, mind, and
strength, we will desire to serve the Lord our God,—that we would just
as soon set fire to our own dwellings, sacrifice our property, and
flee into the [p.367] mountains, to dwell there in dens, caves, and
holes, as did the ancients, as dwell in palaces and enjoy the soft
raiment of kings.

vol. 5, p.367
Every man and woman should cultivate in their hearts a desire to love
the Lord, keep his commandments, and appreciate the spirit and the
freedom of the Gospel and the privilege and blessing of the fulness of
the holy Priesthood more than all the treasures upon the face of the
earth.

vol. 5, p.367
Do you recollect that when the children of Israel were invading the
land of Canaan, to drive out the Canaanites and inherit the land, in
some instances they coveted the property of their enemies? In one
instance, an individual stole a wedge of gold and a Babylonish
garment. Because of this, God was offended and suffered Israel to be
driven before their enemies. Let us not be caught in this snare, but
cast out from our hearts every principle of covetousness, and let our
desires be to serve the Lord.

vol. 5, p.367
If our enemies will let us alone, we are rich enough, and can enjoy
all the comforts of life that we need to make us healthy and happy,
and we will spring forth a mighty people. If they do not let us alone,
God Will preserve us and reward us for all the sacrifices we have to
make. Covet not anything that is theirs; let not our spirits desire
it, but in all things do as we are counselled, and pray God for
wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence to live righteously, soberly, and
be devoid of idolatry, to be prepared to dwell as Gods and reign and
have dominion in our time and season.

vol. 5, p.367
Had it not been for the faith and works, the union and exertions of
the Saints, we might this day have had our streets paraded with the
martial forces of our enemies. But God has blessed us for our faith
and exertions—for our willingness to listen to the counsel of him whom
he has appointed to direct us, to be our father and counsellor in
Israel. Because they have to spend their time in the mountains, some
men may feel as though it is a waste of both time and labour to no
good. Others say, "We have been robbed so many times of our homes, and
so many of our friends murdered, we would now like to draw the sword
and slay our enemies." If it had not been for this principle in the
breasts of many, I do not believe our enemies would ever have crossed
the South Pass.

vol. 5, p.367
I believe, if we, as a people, were of one heart and mind, and would
place ourselves in the right position before the Lord, and ask him for
what we need, that we never would have any serious annoyance from our
enemies. But it is a great labour to place the whole people in this
position.

vol. 5, p.367
I believe, for the time the work has been progressing, that the people
of Enoch's city were not more united than are the inhabitants of these
valleys. I believe the greatest work has been performed towards
bringing the children of men back into the presence of God, since
Joseph Smith commenced to preach the Gospel to this generation, than
ever was since the creation. It requires all our faith and
watchfulness to continue the work and roll it on fast enough to keep
out of the way of our enemies.

vol. 5, p.367
If there are any among us who have not obeyed the Gospel, now is a
good time for them to repent of their sins: or, if there are any who
have not renewed their covenants, now is a good time for you to repent
of your sins and be re-baptized for the remission of them; and let it
be our whole intent and only desire to serve the Lord our God all the
days of our lives. May the blessings of Israel's God rest upon us, is
my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. [p.368]

John Young, October 25, 1857

The Present Crisis—The Prospects of Zion 
and the Fall of Babylon

A Discourse by Patriarch John Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, 
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 25, 1857.

vol. 5, p.368
I am glad to be here and to bear my testimony of the truth. I shall
speak such things as may be presented  to my mind by the Holy Ghost. I
know that I have the prayers of the  Saints and of the faithful
servants of the Lord. I realize that their prayers are always in
behalf of those that are mouthpieces for the Lord.

vol. 5, p.368
I realize for myself that this is a time when it is necessary that
every man and every woman should enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. The
time has been when men and women in this Church and kingdom could pass
along without a great deal of the Spirit of the heavens to rest upon
them; but I want to observe to my brethren and sisters, that that time
has gone by; and no man or woman that professes to be a Saint of the
Most High can stand any longer in this Church and kingdom unless they
have faith in the Sen of God.

vol. 5, p.368
Our Prophets and Apostles have long been teaching to the people that
the time was near at hand when everything that could be shaken should
be shaken—that that which could not he shaken should remain. You have
often heard it proclaimed from the stand that the time was near at
hand when the line would be drawn. The time has come that was spoken
of by the Prophet Micah, when we should discern betwixt him that
serveth God and him that serveth him not.

vol. 5, p.368
I realize, my brethren and sisters, that this is the day when we need
to have communion with the heavens—the day when we want the Holy
Comforter to abide with us continually; for I know it is a trying time
with the Saints; it is a turning-point; and I know that none but the
pure in heart can stand.

vol. 5, p.368
There never was a time since the Church was organized, that I have any
knowledge of, when there was more necessity for the people being
united than there is at this time; for we are told that "union is
strength;" and this is what we want at this time. We all very well
know and understand that we have no friends abroad in the world out of
this Church.

vol. 5, p.368
When I consider this, I am glad that I can say to-day and hear
testimony that there is now more union among the Saints than ever
there was before, since I have been in the Church.

vol. 5, p.368
Can I speak good concerning Israel to-day? I can. I have no misgivings
in my feelings; for I tell you, my brethren and sisters, the Lord God
Almighty is on our side. He is for us; and who can be against us? I
know there are persons who are against us in their feelings. A few
such are now before me who have their misgivings: their faith is not
concentrated. Sometimes they look on one side of the picture, and
sometimes on the other; and sometimes, perhaps, the devils make them
believe that we are all going to be blown to the four winds. by our
enemies.

vol. 5, p.369
[p.369] I can tell you the Devil does not sleep in these times; and I
do not believe that he has slept any for a long time; but he works
powerfully with the children of disobedience: therefore I exhort you
to be obedient.

vol. 5, p.369
"Well," says one, "I thought we were obedient." It is true there is a
very large majority that are; but this does not prove that they are
all so; and I know they are not.

vol. 5, p.369
I am thankful that things are as well with us as they are. I am
thankful that we have got Prophets and Apostles; and I know that the
Spirit of the Gods has rested upon them, and it is resting upon them;
and as long as the people will be obedient and do as they are told,
they have nothing to fear; for nothing can harm them. But I can tell
you what the Devil is doing. It is as the Apostle said—"We are not
altogether ignorant of the devices of Satan."

vol. 5, p.369
Now, Satan is hard at work, and the Lord is at work, the angels of
heaven are at work, the fallen angels of heaven are at work; and I
tell you, in the name of the Lord, there is a mighty war. "Well," says
one, "who will conquer and overcome?" The Lord Almighty will overcome;
his Saints and his servants will overcome.

vol. 5, p.369
I believe that the Scripture would apply very well to this people
which Jesus used to his disciples—"Fear not, little flock; for it is
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

vol. 5, p.369
You perceive that they were small in numbers, for he called them
little. I can say to my brethren and sisters, "Fear not, for it is
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Zion is free,
and I rejoice in it. Talk about revelation; if there has not been some
of the greatest revelations given within one year to the Saints of
God, then I know nothing about it. Says one, "I wish you would tell of
one of them." Well, I will; for nothing short of the Spirit of the
living God, right from the Gods of eternity, could have brought our
military into the organization that they are in now. I want to know
how the Prophets of God could have done that without revelation? They
could not have done it. Was there ever such an organization before?
No, never since the days of Moses. Then they had their captains of
hundreds, of fifties, and of tens; and no Prophets have gone into the
organization since that time; and I contend that this is by
revelation; and it was by the revelations of Jesus Christ that these
things were made manifest.

vol. 5, p.369
I feel thankful that we are where we are at the present time. We have
been driven; and sometimes I look at the present prospects of the
Church and compare it with the days of its infancy, and I am perfectly
astonished at the marvellous strides the work has taken. We have been
driven from one place to another and afflicted, until, last of all, we
have been driven into the mountains, to fulfil the words of the
Prophets; for it could not have been done in any other way. The
language of the poet will apply very well here—

vol. 5, p.369
"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform."

vol. 5, p.369
I thank my heavenly Father to-day that there is so goodly a number of
the Saints in the valleys of the mountains; and I know that God will
work all things together for our good. Our enemies gave the kingdom
one more jog than they intended to have done. Before this we had
always been in a place where they could pick up a rock and throw it,
and it would fall on to us; but now they have to pick it up a good
many times before it will reach us.

vol. 5, p.369
[Voice: "And it will fall on to them."]

vol. 5, p.369
The time has come when this Church and kingdom can no more be
amalgamated with any other kingdom. What was the reason that the Lord,
could not destroy Sodom? It was because [p.370] Lot was there, and the
Lord told him to go out; and when he had gone out, the city and people
of Sodom were destroyed. The Lord has destroyed wicked nations at
various times; and he has declared that he would destroy the nations
of the earth, and that Babylon should fall; but that cannot be the
case so long as this Church is amalgamated, in any sense of the word,
with it; therefore the Lord has designed to cut the thread, and our
independence was declared the 24th of last July; and I was glad of it,
and I feel glad of it to-day. There is a good deal for us to do; and
we are required to straighten up and live our religion, so that we may
be enabled to sustain ourselves through the mighty struggle that is to
come.

vol. 5, p.370
I realize that it is time for the Saints to look about themselves; and
every man and every woman should be on the watch-tower, wide awake,
and have, almighty faith in the Son of God, and call mightily upon his
name. Although brother Brigham said here at Conference that there was
not time to pray much, he meant that we should not spend too much of
our time in praying; I suppose the war was uppermost in his mind, as
it is in everybody else's; but, in speaking to some brethren about it,
I told them that it was all "Mormonism."

vol. 5, p.370
You know there are some who neglect to pray, and there are others who
pray too much,—or, in other words, they do nothing else. But I think
some of our sisters might be a little more diligent in their faith
prayers, and good works, while the brethren are in the mountains to
stand in the defence of Zion,,

vol. 5, p.370
I understand that some of the sisters have a great many things to
attend to. I have understood that, since our brethren have gone, the
sisters have undertaken to set things in order in the family. But I
think they had better let that alone. I know the Devil will try every
stratagem; and if he cannot make an inroad in one place, he will in
another; if he cannot get into the brethren, he will try to get into
their families, and he will work there and set them at variance with
each other.

vol. 5, p.370
I tell you it is time for us to cease quarrelling with each other. We
should be united in our families, in our neighbourhoods, and in the
kingdom of God. If we are united, we shall stand and overcome: there
is no mistake about that at all. And if there should one-half of the
people apostatize and go away, the other half are pretty sure to
stand. I heard brother Brigham say that, if there are not more than
fifty that keep the faith and are united, the kingdom will be sure to
stand.

vol. 5, p.370
It is a great thing for the brethren and sisters to be united in the
cause of truth. I have travelled a great deal among the brethren,
especially in the southern settlements, and I never saw half the
union, the strength, the faith that is in the people at this time; and
as long as you will continue humble and faithful to the Gospel, and
keeps the power of God in you, then our enemies cannot have any power
over us.

vol. 5, p.370
In every place where I have been and heard the Saints pray, they have
prayed for the Lord to confuse our enemies, to clothe them with
darkness, and to cause fear to come upon them; Has the Lord heard our
prayers? Yes; he has; for I have noticed dark clouds to be travelling:
along the eastern mountains, and they move up and down as the troops
move; and my prayer is, that they may be clothed with snow. That has
been my prayer for some time; and I still continue to pray for
darkness to cover them.

vol. 5, p.370
Says one, "You are a hard-hearted man." I cannot help that. I love to
pray for my enemies; and in doing  so I have fulfilled the word of the
Lord [p.371] in that thing. I do not pray so much for our enemies that
are out here; but it is for the whole world. You know all
mankind—every class and society of mankind have got their artillery
pointed against this people.

vol. 5, p.371
The Devil and his emissaries are out against us. They want to destroy
our Prophet and to glut themselves with the blood of innocence. There
is not a spot where the Lord can tarry over night outside of these
valleys of the mountains; the rest of the world is Babylon, in the
strictest sense of the word.

vol. 5, p.371
Oh, how the Devil does labour to diffuse the spirit of Babylon among
the people. To do this he has sent his emissaries across the Plains a
thousand miles to bring destruction upon the Saints of God; but the
Lord Almighty has defeated them in their plans. The angel of the Lord
has stood in the way as much so as in the days of the Prophets; and if
our asses have not spoken, our boys have, and the way of our enemies
is hedged up so that they cannot get here; and they never will, so
long as the people will do as they are told. This is a comfort to my
heart. How I have longed to see this day when the kingdom of God
should be free—when the Saints should enjoy their rights and
privileges as Saints of the Lord. This is what we have been labouring
for. It is what Joseph and all the Apostles have laboured for day and
night, unwaveringly.

vol. 5, p.371
When I look back upon the exertions which have been made to spread the
truth among the nations, to gather up Israel, I see that it is beyond
all that can be imagined. I am not master of language enough to tell
the thing as I see it; but suffice it to say that this is the Zion of
the Lord—this is the only place where the Lord has a people. He has no
place only with the Latter-day Saints, because the Lord will not dwell
in unholy temples. He loves the pure in heart, and he dwells with
them.

vol. 5, p.371
Brethren and sisters, let us be encouraged; for the day is ours, the
kingdom is ours, all is ours; for the Lord is on our side, and we have
nothing to be afraid of from our enemies. We have more to be afraid of
from ourselves than anything else; and as long as men and women will
do as they are told and keep it in their hearts to do good
continually, they are safe.

vol. 5, p.371
There is no need to fear about anything. Some of the brethren and
sisters feel fearful; sometimes they are weak: they do not feel to do
wrong—they have no wish to violate any law, but they are subject to
temptations and weaknesses.

vol. 5, p.371
There are some who know what it is to be driven from their homes, and
that in the dead of winter, cold and barefooted; and many of those
persons are here, and have survived and come up to this place with the
Church. There may be trials equally as severe as those already past;
but if we do right, all will be well with us. There never was a truer
thing said, than that if this people have to leave here, it will be
for our good, for our salvation, temporal and spiritual, and they will
be better off than ever. But still, if the people will keep humble and
do as they are told, they will stay here as long as they have a mind
to, and then go back and build the Temple in the centre stake of Zion.

vol. 5, p.371
Perhaps I do not feel right, but this is my feeling all the time—that
the Lord Almighty will deliver us, and we shall find everything to
work together for our salvation, for our good and welfare, and for the
welfare of Zion. I never heard nor read of any people under heaven,
when they were obedient to the Prophets of God—to those that led
them,—I say I never heard of such a people being given into the hands
of their enemies.

vol. 5, p.372
[p.372] When the Nephites were given up to their enemies, it was when
they became wicked and disobedient, and made derision of the Prophets
and Apostles that were sent unto them; hut when they were obedient to
their Apostles and Prophets and to the servants of God, then their
enemies had no power over them. So it is and will be with this people.

vol. 5, p.372
I can speak good of Zion, for I know the people are obedient. I have
really thought in some places that the people would be willing to
sacrifice everything, if called upon to do it, and also to lay down
their lives for the cause of God and to carry out the counsel of the
servants of the Lord.

vol. 5, p.372
Every man and every woman seem determined to put forth their hands to
sustain the servants of God in the cause in which we are engaged. It
is generally said that actions speak louder than words, and with us it
is as brother Grant used to say, "Yankee doodle, do it;" and has long
as this people do this, all will prosper with Israel.

vol. 5, p.372
The Saints Who are filled with the Spirit of the living God like to go
and hear the servants of the Lord proclaim the words of life and
salvation.

vol. 5, p.372
I feel thankful, my brethren, that things are as well as they are with
us; and I feel thankful every day and every moment of my life, and I
see and realize a great deal more than I can express; but I can truly
say that I am not discouraged in the holy warfare. I have always
believed, from the first moment that I heard this Gospel, that it is
the work of God, and that it will stand when all other kingdoms will
go to ruin and sink into oblivion.

vol. 5, p.372
We know that the kingdoms of Babylon must fall, and that this kingdom
must rise; for we know it is the kingdom of God; and I have always
known it ever since I embraced the work. I have had no doubts in
relation to its authenticity and truthfulness; but all the ground I
have gained and all the advancement; I have made has been at the point
of of the sword. To be sure I have been slow, but the matter seems to
be rooted and grounded in me; and my prayer is that the Lord Almighty
will preserve me in the faith, and that he will keep me as in the
hollow of his hand.

vol. 5, p.372
Everything goes to prove that this is the kingdom of God. I remember
that in the rise of this Church I used to argue with the priests; and
when they would contend that this was the kingdom of the Devil, I
would remark that it must fall; for a kingdom divided against itself
must fall to pieces.

vol. 5, p.372
This is the kingdom which Daniel spoke of, and I know it; and I know
that there are hundreds and thousands in these valleys of the
mountains that would lay down their lives before they would deny one
word of the principles of the Gospel to please anybody. There are many
who would suffer themselves to be massacred sooner than deny the word
of the Lord; but under all circumstances they will testify to the
truth.

vol. 5, p.372
I want my brethren and sisters to do right—to live by faith, that they
may be strong and powerful, and have mighty faith in the Son of God,
and power over our enemies, and strength to overcome them; and we
shall, ere long, become strong and terrible in the sight of our
enemies, when the children of Zion shall return to the land that the
Lord has designed for the building up of a temple in the last days.

vol. 5, p.372
I do not wish to take up a great deal of time; but I do wish to let
the people know that I feel everything is right with us as a people. I
do not say it is so with every individual; but I know that there are a
 [p.373] very large majority who are right, and they show their faith
by their works. This pleases me, and it pleases all the servants of
God. I rejoice in these things continually; and, brethren, let us be
faithful, and we shall be immoveable; for they that trust in the Lord
are to be as Mount Zion, that cannot be moved.

vol. 5, p.373
When I am abroad, I try to do what I can to strengthen the Saints, to
build them up in the most holy faith, and to bless them, that they may
prosper and become a sanctified people, that we may all be prepared
for the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ; for he has declared that he
would come to those that look for his coming without sin unto
salvation.

vol. 5, p.373
I believe that the time is not far distant when the servants of God
will commune more visibly with the heavens than they now do: the time
will come when they will commune with the angels; and I believe there
is a right place for it to begin.

vol. 5, p.373
I have understood, of late, that some of our brethren and sisters have
got a little ahead in this respect; but they had better let such
things alone, and be humble and faithful, and remember that we cannot
get higher than the head; for the fountain is as high as we can go. If
there are any who have a disposition to go ahead of their leaders, I
think they will find themselves in difficulty. Brother Brigham says,
"Tell them to go ahead." But I can tell you they will go till their
heads go against the dunce block, and that will bring them up all
standing.

vol. 5, p.373
I do not like to see men and women that want to be a little ahead of
anybody else—a little ahead of Prophets of God. The Spirit of the Lord
is liberally enjoyed by the Saints generally; and if they continue,
they will hold converse with the servants of God who are behind the
vail. But that time is not yet.

vol. 5, p.373
Some of the brethren and sisters tell of their receiving visits from
Joseph, Hyrum, brother Grant, and others. Such persons must look out
for their ship; for, if they do not watch, just as sure as you are
born, they will run under and be overcome. When a man or woman comes
and tells me that he or she is visited by the Prophets and Apostles
that are gone beyond the vail, and that they have these communications
day and night, and all the time,—that they have the opportunity of
conversing with the spirits of just men made perfect,—I will just say
that the Devil is in them, and not the Lord. I wonder if the Lord
loves them so much better than the Prophets that he would send to them
all the heavenly hosts?

vol. 5, p.373
I do not know that it is my business to say anything about this; but
brother Kimball told me I might say what I pleased. I can tell you the
Devil has left the great chair in hell; for his emissaries could not
accomplish what he desired they should; therefore he has come to see
to it himself. Why, bless you, Lucifer has nothing to do in the world;
for one of his imps can keep all Babylon going and keep them in
eternal night. But let a man go through the world, having the
principles of salvation in him, and I tell you the Devil and his hosts
will growl. But here, in the Territory of Utah, it is different: we
can stand forth and boldly declare our views and religious opinions.

vol. 5, p.373
Still, brethren, you need not think that you have yet got rid of them;
for the devils will be after the Saints of God: therefore be careful
and keep them out of your tabernacles.

vol. 5, p.373
"What shall I do?" Says one. Why, keep your mouth shut when you have
no need to open it, and the devils won't get in at your ears. James,
the Apostle, said that the tongue was an unruly member, and [p.374]
that it set all the rest on fire; and there is considerable truth in
the saying. If you cannot keep your tongue still, put it between your
teeth and hold it there until you can control it; and I will promise
that, if you will do that, the Devil cannot do much with you; but I
can assure you that he will play upon the tongue. And you know when he
gets the women going, their tongues are as limber as a bird's wing.

vol. 5, p.374
I am not in the habit of saying much about the women. But they are
said to be the weaker vessel; but I tell you some of them carry mighty
heavy sail. I advise you, sisters, to take in your extra sail. Talk of
being the weaker vessel, and carrying such a superabundance of sail!
Sisters, live in peace with each other, and do not allow yourselves to
be fault-finding, but peaceable and happy together.

vol. 5, p.374
Some may enquire, "Do you not mean your own family?" Yes, I do
exactly; for I expect they need it as much as any other.

vol. 5, p.374
I saw the Devil's looking-glass once. In it the faults of others are
written in capital letters, but our own are all kept in the dark. When
the Devil presents his magnifying-glass, do not allow him to overcome
you. I have told you to shut your mouths; and now, when the Devil's
looking-glass is brought before you, I tell you to shut your eyes. You
have no occasion to read; for if you do, you will read the faults of
every creature but your own, especially of those that you are most
intimately associated with.

vol. 5, p.374
The Devil does not care how he cheats a man or a woman out of their
souls, so that he is able to accomplish that. He desires to torture us
all that he can. Let us get the Spirit of the Lord, and retain it; for
the work of our common adversary is to overcome the kingdom of our
Father, and he works in various ways and tries every stratagem in his
power whereby he can afflict the Saints of God.

vol. 5, p.374
One of the Apostles has told us that if we would resist the Devil,
being steadfast in the faith, he would leave us; and I know that he
won't have any power over us if we are faithful. I desire to be
delivered from his grasp and power; for I know he is a powerful foe.
He has spread his vail of darkness over the whole world, and he is
acknowledged to be the prince and power of the air: in a greater or
less degree he controls the elements, and endeavours to do it to the
destruction of the Saints; but the Lord Almighty controls him and
listens to the voice of his servants who trust in him, and he holds
them as in the hollow of his hand and under the pavilion of his wings.

vol. 5, p.374
The reason that the people are now so much united is because they are
living better than ever they were before; and the time is near at hand
when there will be a highway cast up for the people of God, and their
deliverance will be wrought out. The principles of salvation are
portrayed from this stand; and if we deviate from that way, Satan will
have power over us.

vol. 5, p.374
Many of you who are acquainted with the works of John Bunyan will
doubtless recollect the place where he talks about the trials of
Christian, and his description of the lions and the tigers in the way,
so placed and stationed on each side of Christian that, if he should
deviate from the narrow path, he is in the power of the lions and
tigers; but if he keeps in that path, he is safe.

vol. 5, p.374
Now, the Almighty has laws by which he works, and he has pointed out
the path, which is so plain that it has been said that a feel may see
to walk therein.

vol. 5, p.374
Let us be careful and do our duty, for we have got the game to play.
Let us be faithful and honourable  and [p.375] keep the Spirit of God.
Let us so conduct ourselves and so order our lives  before our
heavenly Father, that we will feel the approbation of heaven, so that
we shall have the testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of the Lord, in us
day after day.

vol. 5, p.375
When we have this spirit in us we can say, All is well. Then, when I
meet a man or a woman and ask them how they are, I can feel well, for
I can see the Spirit of truth in them. I have met a number of the
Saints of late, and enquired, "How is it with you?" "Oh, all is right;
the truth triumphs." There never was a time, since the kingdom was
organized in the last days, when the Saints felt so well as they do
now. It is so in every place. The Saints feel this same Spirit on the
other side of the planet and upon the remotest island of the seas.
They feel better, and why? Because ZION IS FREE! The Saints know this,
feel it, and bear testimony of it.

vol. 5, p.375
We hear of wars and rumours of wars; and these are some of the signs
which Jesus spoke of when he said, "And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and
then shall the end come." (Matt. xxiv. 14.)

vol. 5, p.375
The messengers of salvation have been sent from this place—scores and
hundreds of them: they have travelled thousands of miles over deserts
and mountains to go to hell, if you please, to bear testimony of the
truth. I have a testimony in my heart that the servants of God who
have been out for the few years past have been faithful, and they have
been to almost every nation upon earth.

vol. 5, p.375
What will come next? Why, they will be warned by thunderings, by
lightnings, by pestilence, and by fearful sights,—men's hearts failing
them for fear of those things that are coming upon the earth. After
their testimony, these things will come and I knew that the time is
near at hand when Babylon will fall.

vol. 5, p.375
Let us be a sanctified people, and keep out everything that is
calculated to drive us asunder; for "union is strength;" and the Lord
has said that except we are one we are not his. I desire to see this
people united in one.

vol. 5, p.375
The Lord saw that it was necessary that there should be a reformation;
and he inspired his servants to call upon the people and to wake them
up out of their sleep; and if this had not been done, how would it
have been? How good the Lord was to wake us up by his servants who
stand upon the watch-tower of Zion! They have called upon the people
to wake up, and the people have complied; and I thank my heavenly
Father for it. There is now a good feeling throughout the Territory
where I have been; there is union among the people; but still there
are some things that I could wish were otherwise.

vol. 5, p.375
If you will be humble and faithful to the counsel of the servants of
God, not a hair of your heads shall fall. I have felt to say to the
brethren whom I have blessed, "If you will trust in the Lord, there is
no weapon formed against you that shall prosper." I see now the reason
that I was so led; and I feel to assure them that the Lord is able to
preserve them by the Priesthood, and I do not think nor feel that the
brethren will have any fighting this season, but am rather of the
opinion that the Lord intends to fight the battles himself, and to
send them down to hell.

vol. 5, p.375
I am not a man of blood; but I want to see the cause of Zion flourish.
I know the feelings of my brethren who have been driven by the poor,
miserable devils from Kirtland to Missouri, and from there to
Illinois, then across to Mississippi, and over the Plains to the
valleys of the mountains; and yet the peer curses cannot let us alone.

vol. 5, p.376
[p.376] I can tell you that the time is near when He will reign whose
right it is to reign; and when the Son of Man comes again, we intend
that he shall have a place where to lay his head, and not be as he was
when he came before. We are but few, but we are able to do mighty
things in the strength of Israel's God. Our enemies have got the arm
of Jehovah to fight against, and he will work for the salvation of
Zion; for the cause of the Lord hangs upon his arm; and inasmuch as we
do right, he will make this a sifting-machine, and the hypocrites will
be found out, Satan's kingdom will be overthrown, the Saints of God
will possess the land, and it will not be a great while before the
Church will go back and take possession of their inheritances.

vol. 5, p.376
I can say, for the benefit of our brethren that are out in the
mountains, that there are hosts of angels with them all the time. I
have prayed that the Lord would be a strong tower, a hiding place, a
buckler, and a shield to his people; and I know he will be.

vol. 5, p.376
I see that the Saints are going to be free: they are no more going to
be bound with the cursed yoke of the Gentiles. You will never feel it
from this time henceforth and for ever. We have worn it long enough,
as long as he wants us to wear it.

vol. 5, p.376
The servants of God want the chaff and bran to be sifted out. There is
no danger of the pure wheat being hurt; for it will stand through all
the processes. The pure gold will endure the burnings, and troubles,
and drivings.

vol. 5, p.376
Jesus had enemies when he was upon the earth. He has them now, and
always will have until he subdues the kingdom of Satan and reigns as
King of kings and Lord of lords. And that this time may be hastened is
my constant prayer.

vol. 5, p.376
May the Lord bless us all. Amen.