Brigham Young 1851-1855.

              BLESSINGS OF THE SAINTS--A HOUSE FOR THE LORD.
An address by President Brigham Young, delivered at the Christmas Festival
              of the Public Hands, in the Carpenters' Hall,
                   Great Salt Lake City, Dec. 16, 1851.

 	Five years ago we were menaced on every side by the cruel
persecutions of our inveterate enemies; hundreds of families, who had been
forced from their houses, and compelled to leave behind them their all,
were wandering as exiles in a state of abject destitution: but, by the
favor of heaven, we have been enabled to surmount all these difficulties,
and can assemble here to-day in the chamber of these mountains, where
there are none to make us afraid, far from our persecutors, far from the
turmoil and confusion of the old world.

	Brethren and sisters, has not the Lord poured out His blessings upon
you to surpass all former times?  Your barns and presses are filled with
fine wheat, and other productions of these valleys; your tables groan
under the abundance of the blessings of the Almighty.  Is there room for
one complaint or murmur by this people?  No!  You are full with the
blessings of God; you can sit down and eat and drink until you are
satisfied.  There are hundreds of thousands in the old world who can say
they never did have enough to satisfy the cravings of nature.  There are
thousands at this time, who would crawl upon their hands and knees, or
travel on foot over the mighty ocean, were there an highway cast up,
carrying their little children upon their backs, to obtain the blessings
that we this day enjoy.  That day of peace and plenty which the Saints
have looked for from the commencement of this Church, has in a great
measure come to pass.

	This is a party for the public hands, those who are laboring for the
public good.  I am a public hand, and myself and all I possess belong to
the Lord; all I possess is tithing, from the cap upon my head to the soles
of the pumps upon my feet.  When my Bishop came to value my property, he
wanted to know what he should take my tithing in.  I told him to take
anything I had got, for I did not set my heart upon any one thing; my
horses, cows, hogs, or any other thing he might take; my mind was not set
upon any of them.  My heart is set upon the work of my God, upon the
public good of His great kingdom.  If there be any public hands who feel
contrary to this, they had better leave and seek to build up themselves;
let them try if they can accomplish any more in that way, than by
dedicating themselves to the Lord, in the building up of His works.  Those
who wish to try this, will meet with a signal disappointment.

	Brethren, we are the Lord's, and all we possess; and I have
determined, by the help of the Lord and this people, to build Him a house. 
You may ask, "Will He dwell in it?"  He may do just as He pleases; it is
not my prerogative to dictate to the Lord.  But we will build Him a house,
that if He pleases to pay us a visit, He may have a place to dwell in, or
if He should send any of His servants, we may have suitable accommodations
for them.  I have built myself a house, and the most of you have done the
same, and now shall we not build the Lord a house?  (The deep-toned voices
of the public hands answered, "Aye.")  I will not interrupt your
enjoyments by saying more, though, on such an interesting occasion as
this, much more might be said.


                  RECREATION, AND THE PROPER USE OF IT.
     A speech delivered by President Brigham Young at the Legislative
      Festival held in the Territorial House, Great Salt Lake City,
                              March 4, 1852.

	With joy and delight I look upon you, brethren and sisters.  I feel
to render all praise, thanks, and adoration to our Father and God, that my
heart is capable of rendering; and with all the afflictions, together with
all the talent bestowed upon me, I feel to serve, praise, adore, and
acknowledge the Lord our God.

	Let me ask a question.  Finding ourselves in our present position in
the world of sin and darkness, of ignorance, unbelief, superstition, and
tradition, which have been woven and interwoven with our lives; thrown
around us like a mantle, which is used to shield the body from the cold
and from the storm; considering ourselves as we are, then ask ourselves
the question, if on earth we have any idea of anything like a kingdom or
community of people being celestial; then ask ourselves again, if we have,
does not the presentation this evening border very nigh to it?  I can say
for one, as far as we do know and understand, as far as our capacities can
expand, and grasp life and happiness, just so far this community which is
present this evening, is advanced in the celestial path.

	If there is a heart here this evening, that does not chime in with
every sentiment of righteousness, that heart has no power in this
assembly.  This company are controllable, like the ship by the rudder, in
a gentle breeze, that can be turned hither and thither at the will and
pleasure of him who commands; so with all here present; at the sound of
the voice, all is hushed, and every heart throbs in unison in response to
the words of praise and thanksgiving to our Father and our God.  This
proves that the majority, at least, are right; and I have no reason to
believe that there is a heart in this house, but chimes in with my own. 
Every countenance is cheerful; every face is lit up with a lively glow of
joy, peace, and tranquillity.

	We are now enjoying our pastimes.  We often meet together and worship
the Lord by singing, praying, and preaching, fasting, and communing with
each other in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.  Now we are met in the
capacity of a social community--for what?  That our minds may rest, and
our bodies receive that recreation which is proper and necessary to keep
up an equilibrium, to promote healthy action to the whole system.

	Let our minds sing for joy, and let life diffuse itself into every
avenue of the body; for the object of our meeting is for its exercise, for
its good.

	This party was gotten up by the members of the Legislature, to rest
their minds, to convene in a social capacity, and enjoy the society of
each other, with their families, and to give renewed activity and energy,
which will invigorate and strengthen them in the discharge of the arduous
duties devolving upon them.

	With regard to these feelings prevailing in our midst this evening,
as well as the correctness of these principles, all men and women must be
their own judge.  I judge for myself, and not for another, although I have
that privilege, and can do it with safety and propriety.  Why is this? 
Because when I look upon the faces of my brethren, I know their hearts;
let the roots of bitterness be there, and their countenances meet mine,
and I know it in a moment.  Do you not know it also?  Can you not feel it? 
Can you not see it?  You can.  This is why I say that I have the privilege
of judging others.  You have the same privilege.  Having this privilege to
judge for others as well as myself, I feel to say, that every heart of the
company present this afternoon and evening, feels to sing praises to the
Lord, and shout hallelujah to His holy name.  I am in the best place I
ever was during my life, and with the best society.  I never saw a
community that enjoyed the tranquillity and peace that are enjoyed by this
people in these vallies of the mountains.  Is it not so?  Judge for
yourselves, ye are my witnesses.

	A few words, perhaps, will suffice the company.  I was requested to
make a few remarks at the opening of the meeting, but I chose to delay
speaking until a more suitable time; for when any of my brethren or myself
speak to the people, I wish all to hear that conveniently can, because
when we are in this capacity, and call our minds together, it is to
reflect for a few moments, and look at each other, and think of the Lord;
view over the past times of our lives, and contrast their history with the
present festive moments.  It is good to look upon each other, because the
faces of our friends, and the gladness of their countenances, cheer our
hearts, furnishing food for future reflection.  Under all circumstances,
in every situation of our past lives, in every transaction of business and
of social enjoyment, remember it is good to reflect and consider upon it
now in the days of peace and prosperity, while we have the privilege.

	Our present situation, and the enjoyments of this evening, will
become subjects of pleasant and agreeable reflection, when we shall be
separated from each other.  Some of these, my brethren, may be absent in
foreign lands; our sisters may be separated from this community, and go to
the right and to the left; then these moments of festive joy will be
remembered with pleasing emotions, and cherished in fond memory in after
years.

	Again, when we meet in this capacity, it is good for our minds to be
refreshed on this wise a little, for the reason, as you are all aware,
that we are naturally forgetful, and it is according to the frailties of
human nature to decline and falter in our feelings at the varied,
besetting, enticing, and almost overwhelming temptations that are abroad
in the world, and with which the people, especially those of the household
of faith, have to contend.  Our former life, its anxieties and enjoyments,
are apt to be forgotten.  This is our experience.  If we should suffer
ourselves to spend our time day after day, and week after week, as we are
to-day, how long would it be, before we would forget the Lord?  It would
not be long.  If we continued in the exercising of the body without
reflection, this company would soon think--it is no matter about praying,
or asking the Lord about anything; we have enjoyed ourselves heretofore,
and all has been peace, quietness, and good order.  But how long would it
remain so?  How long would it be before we would become careless, if we
remembered not the Lord?  For this reason, I say, on every such occasion,
it is right, reasonable, and necessary, that every heart be directed to
the Lord.  When we have had sufficient recreation for our good, let that
suffice.  It is all right; then let our minds labor instead of our bodies;
and in all our exercises of body and mind, it is good to remember the
Lord.  If it cannot be so, but otherwise, I do not wish to see another
party while I live.  If I could not enjoy the Spirit of the Lord in this
capacity with you this evening, and feel the power of God to rest upon me,
I should cease from all such indulgence.  From this time, never let us
permit ourselves to go one step beyond that which the Lord will own and
bless.

	But I pause here, and for this reason--I want it distinctly
understood, that fiddling and dancing are no part of our worship.  The
question may be asked, What are they for, then?  I answer, that my body
may keep pace with my mind.  My mind labors like a man logging, all the
time; and this is the reason why I am fond of these pastimes--they give me
a privilege to throw every thing off, and shake myself, that my body may
exercise, and my mind rest.  What for?  To get strength, and be renewed
and quickened, and enlivened, and animated, so that my mind may not wear
out.  Experience tells us that the most of the inhabitants of the earth
wear out their bodies without wearing their minds at all, through the
sufferings they endure from hard labor, with distress, poverty, and want. 
While on the other hand, a great portion of mankind wear out their bodies
with out laboring, only in anxiety.  But when men are brought to labor
entirely in the field of intelligence, there are few minds to be found
possessing strength enough to bear all things; the mind becomes
overcharged, and when this is the case, it begins to wear upon the body,
which will sink for want of the proper exercises.  This is the reason why
I believe in and practice what I do.  The question might be asked, Why not
go into the kanyons and get out wood, which would be good exercise enough? 
If you would know, come up to my house, you will soon find out.  Were I to
go to the kanyons, the whole camp of Israel would follow me there; and
they would not be there long before they would say, Come, brother Brigham,
I want to talk with you; come, I will chop this wood.  How many scores of
times I have undertaken to work, since I came into this ministry!  Scores
and hundreds of times when my calling in the kingdom of God was less than
it is now, have I endeavored to set myself to work, but seldom could have
a chance to do so more than five minutes; some one would come along, "Give
me the hoe, brother Brigham, I want to talk with you;" and so stop me, and
no sooner stop me than he stops also.  I have given it up, I do not intend
to work any more at manual labor.  I do not wrestle, or play the ball; all
the exercise I do get is to dance a little, while my council room is from
my office to this room, and from this room to my house again, into my
sitting room, dining room, &c.

	You will see the time, you will know what my labor is.  I wish this
community to consider that I have feelings of a very acute nature.  There
is not a man or a woman, Saint or sinner, it mattereth not, that feels
injured, and lays his or her complaints before me; but what it rests upon
my feelings; but my faith is unyielding, and I intend to keep it so, as
much as I can; my feelings sympathize so with the injured, that I am
grieved and distressed, and my head aches, and large drops of cold sweat
sit upon my brow and no man or woman knows anything about my feelings, and
I do not want them to know, for I calculate to kick off from my heels all
that I cannot carry.  I will carry all I should, but there is not a person
in this community that can bring to mind or mention the time whenever I
exhibited one particle of sorrow or trouble to them.  I calculate to carry
my own sorrows just as long as I live upon this earth; and when I go to
the grave, I expect them all to go there, and sleep with me in eternal
silence.

	But to return to our party.  I would just say, it was gotten up by
the Legislature to enjoy ourselves.  I have enjoyed myself first-rate: my
heart is cheerful and full of gladness.  I am in the midst of the Saints
of the Most High, and my desire is, and I will say with all my heart, may
God grant that the blessings, favors, and mercies, and kindness of our
Father in Heaven, may bring us to a sense of the obligations we owe to
Him; and cheer, and cause joy and tranquillity to reign in, this
community, that every heart may be bound up in the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, without having to feel the rod again.  What is the use of
it, when mercy and kindness are lavished upon the people of God, and to
see them falter in their faith, see them grow cold towards the Lord their
God, see them slacken their pace?  Is it not grievous?  Just look at it. 
Suppose you had all the good gifts to bestow upon your children that heart
could wish, and you lavish them out, but the more you give, the more
slothful they become--how would you feel?  Just apply this to yourselves:
I know how I should feel.  When I bring my mind to bear upon this subject,
and see what the Lord has done for me, and for this people, and think that
I should become remiss in my duty, so that the Lord should have need to
chasten me again, it seems, on the first reflection, that I ought to be
damned.  When I look at myself before the Lord, and see what He has called
me to, and what He has called my brethren and sisters to; how He has
bestowed blessings upon us, and heaped them up until there is not room to
receive them, and I should want to go to the gold mines, and return again
here to speculate upon the Saints, and should be guilty of complaining all
the time, it seems, if I were to do this, the Lord would damn me.

	I know you feel as I do upon this subject.  When you take this into
consideration, your serious reflections having place in your heart, you
feel as I do.  For heaven's sake, for your own sake, and for the sake of
Him who died for us, never let us falter in our duty.  While we live, it
is our duty to love the Lord with all our might, and with all our
strength, and with all our souls.  This is our duty first and foremost: we
ought to love Him better than our wives, children, and brethren and
sisters, and all things besides.  Is this our duty?  Verily yes.  Let the
heart love God, and serve Him, without any division of feeling: never
suffer it to wander to the right or to the left for one moment.

	If these were the feelings of this people, the Lord would lift up our
hands, exalt our hearts, and cause us to walk in His almighty strength, so
that the devil and his imps would never have power to bring another
affliction upon us, never, no, never.  Therefore, love the Lord, keep His
commandments, cleave to the Israel of God; this is my exhortation all the
time.  And what is the next duty?  Love your neighbor as yourself, do unto
others as you would that others should do unto you, cease your contention
and bad feelings, your evil speaking and evil doing.

	As I observed here not long since, I consider it is a disgrace to the
community, and in the eyes of the Lord, and of Angels, and in the eyes of
all the Prophets and Revelators that have ever lived upon the earth, when
a community will descend to the low, degraded state of contention with
each other; this little bickering, jarring, fault-finding, somebody's
abused me; why do you not say, if you have a mind to abuse, abuse away? 
Suppose every heart should say, if my neighbor does wrong to me, I will
not complain, the Lord will take care of him.  Let every heart be firm,
and every one say, I will never contend any more with a man for property,
I will not be cruel to my fellow-creature, but I will do all the good I
can, and as little evil as possible.  Now, where would be the wrong of
taking this course?  This is the way to approximate toward a celestial
state.  A community cannot be produced upon all the face of the earth that
presents a celestial aspect like this.  If we continue to be faithful and
prayerful, and strive continually to resist every evil, we shall
approximate more and more towards that celestial kingdom, where there is
an eternal inheritance, and an unsullied glory   And if we should look
back upon ourselves, when we were doing evil to each other, should we not
do so with regret and shame?  Should we not look upon our past mortal
lives with anguish and disgust? I wish men would look upon that eternity
which is before them.  In the great morning of the resurrection, with what
grief would they look upon their little trifling affairs of this
probation; they would say, O! do not mention it, for it is a source of
mortification to me to think that I ever should be guilty of doing wrong,
or of neglecting to do good to my fellow men, even if they have abused me. 
O! how would it appear if you understood the heart of the Lord, and
understood the heart and faithfulness of those in the celestial kingdom. 
As good as we are, we shall not want to look upon our past actions; we
shall say, O! do not mention it, but let it sleep; I never want that to be
resurrected, but let it die in the grave, and sleep an eternal sleep. 
Brethren and sisters, I hope and pray that our evils may never rise with
us.  I can say to you, with all my heart, and with all my soul, and not
only to this company, but to all the Saints throughout the world--may the
heavens bless you; the Lord Almighty blesses you, my soul blesses you, how
my soul loves you, may angels bless you, guard and preserve you; and may
all the heavenly hosts, arrayed in all their panoply of power, be engaged
for your exaltation.

	One thing more.  You will perceive all the time, this one thing in
me, viz., by my conduct, there is no lack of confidence--not a particle of
jealousy arises in my bosom towards this people.  I never felt for one
moment a shadow of doubt upon that subject.  I have never seen one moment
but this people loved me; although I may get up here and cuff them about,
chastising them for their forgetfulness, their weaknesses and follies, yet
I have not seen a moment when they did not love me.  The reason is,
because I love them so well.  Do you not know that spirits beget spirits,
and likeness begets likeness.  I love this people so well that I know they
love me; they have confidence in me, because I have confidence in them. 
You may scan the history of the whole Church, and look over the whole
surface of the matter, and did you ever see this people, when they had the
same confidence as they have in each other at this day?  No, never.  And
it is on the increase; and this is what will make a community powerful. 
But if we lack confidence in each other, and be jealous of each other, our
peace will be destroyed.  If we cultivate the principle of unshaken
confidence in each other, our joy will be full.  What does it prove?  It
proves that we are fast advancing and approximating towards that degree of
light, knowledge, and glory, and all the principles that pertain to the
everlasting Gospel, and that we are actually in the favor of the Lord.  We
need not bring any proofs of that, for that devils never kick and cuff
their own is certain.  As I used to say, fifteen years ago, when I was out
preaching, and the people would get alarmed, when the devil would get mad,
and would say to me, "Oh! dear, sir, what is the matter, I am afraid we
are all going to be killed, for all hell is boiling over"--my answer was,
"Thank God, the devil has not forsaken us yet."  Will he not sustain his
own kingdom?  When you see all the powers of the evil one combined against
a community, you may know that is Christ's kingdom.  Everything has proved
that this is God's kingdom, and I need not say anything more about these
two powers.

	The Lord Almighty is for us, and the devil is against us.  However, I
will tell you what I think of the whole of the devil's company on this
earth--if they will just keep out of my path, I shall be glad, for I never
want to see one of them.  My soul is satisfied with looking upon this
wicked world.  If I never see another wicked person while I live, I am
perfectly satisfied with the Saints; these are my feelings.  True, it is
my duty to preach to them; but I am willing, if the Lord is satisfied,
that I should never see another wicked person upon this earth.  I would be
satisfied to live with the Saints and Angels from this time henceforth. 
May heaven bless you, brethren and sisters.  Amen.

    WEAKNESS AND IMPOTENCE OF MEN--CONDITION OF THE SAINTS--DEDICATION
                       TO THE LORD--THE MILLENNIUM.
     A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young at the opening
       of the new Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1852.

		I rise to occupy a few moments of time this morning, as we have
opened our Conference by the dedication prayer, for we will spend the
remainder of the forenoon in speaking.  I desire to offer my own
reflections upon this interesting occasion, but whether they may be
strictly appropriate or not, will, of course, be left for you to judge.

	We have assembled together in this comfortable and commodious
building in peace, and are we not led to exclaim who could have fathomed,
who could have understood the ways of the Lord, which are higher than
man's ways, as heaven is higher than the earth?  We can now calmly reflect
upon the experience of our past lives, and those minds that are opened to
receive light and truth, that can behold the manifestations of the Lord,
can at once see that He has done that which we could not have accomplished
by our own power, and that directly behind (to all human appearance) a
frowning Providence oftentimes are concealed the greatest blessings that
mankind can desire.  It teaches us to trust in the Lord, to have
confidence in our God.  It teaches us absolutely that we need never
undertake to guide the ship of Zion, or dictate, by our own wisdom, to the
kingdom of God on the earth.  It teaches us definitely and emphatically
that the Lord Almighty can do His own work, and no power of man can stay
the potency of His wonder-working hand.  Men may presume to dictate to the
Lord; they come to naught, but His work moves steadily forward.  Many who
have left this Church have tried the experiment of building up the kingdom
of God by their learning, saying, "When we have established our Church it
will then be the kingdom of the Lord."  They have laid their subtle plans,
have marked out their ground, pointed out their own path, have firmly (as
they supposed) set their stakes, commanding their proselytes not to turn
to the right hand nor to the left, from the course marked out by them, but
in every case has the Lord overthrown their plans, and thwarted all their
designs.  When the Lord works, no man can hinder, while those who feel
willing to hearken to His words work with Him; and when He says, "Be
still," they are subject; when He dictates, they cease to direct; when He
directs, they are willing to do His commandments, He bestows blessings on
their labors, His work prospers in their hands, His kingdom moves onward
with a steady and unwavering progress, the honest in heart are blessed,
and the whole is in a state of continual and rapid increase.  Then let the
world and the enemies of Christ and His kingdom that are upon earth and in
hell, do their worst, it matters not, the work of the Lord is still onward
and prosperous in His hands.

	It is a great privilege which we enjoy this morning of assembling
ourselves together in this comfortable edifice which has been erected in
the short space of about four months, in the most inclement season of the
year.  We have now a commodious place in which we can worship the Lord,
without the fear of being driven from our seats by wet and cold, or of
standing exposed to the weather.  I now say to my brethren, that I feel to
dedicate myself and all I possess to the Lord, and constantly feel, with
all I have, on the altar of sacrifice to the cause of my God.

	A year ago this day, when the brethren were assembled to offer up
their prayers, and to present business before the Conference, for the
consideration of the people, and for the furtherance of the cause we have
espoused, I recollect I was not able to sit up, being sick, but not
discouraged.  I had not fainted by the way, but my heart was as brave as
it ever was in any moment of my life, yet I was not able to be in the
assembly.  I contemplated the situation of this people, and looked over
our past history, considered our then present prospects and privileges in
these peaceful valleys.  My eyes were upon those who were faltering by the
way or wandering after the things of this world, and I could not refrain
from tracing their steps, as they were passing to the right and to the
left after the perishing things of this life.  I saw the afflictions of
the people, and contemplated their past sufferings and present situation. 
As I mused, I said in my heart, "As soon as I am able to speak to the
people, I will unfold to them my thoughts and feelings, and tell them that
in the midst of all the afflictions and checquered scenes through which
the Saints have passed--their joys and their toils, their sufferings and
their comforts, their fears and their faith, I have never seen them as
comfortable as they are now.  I shall say to the brethren, Come, let us
build a house that we may enter within its walls, and there offer our
prayers and thanksgivings before the Lord, and worship Him as long as we
please, without the fear of being driven home with storms of wind, rain,
and snow."  I said, "If the Lord blesses me with life and health, I shall
put forth my hand to rear an edifice, in which the people can comfortably
assemble as large as we can build at present, and dedicate it to the Lord,
that the people may say in their heart, Let us go up to the house of the
Lord to worship."  I saw that when we should obtain this commodious
building, some would wish to be excused from engaging in the pleasing duty
of worshipping here, and say, "My cattle, my farm, or my business will be
forsaken.  I must take care of my family, for the Lord gave them to me to
take care of;" or, "I must attend to my affairs here and there, and I
cannot therefore stay to worship the Lord."  I say to such, Go! but as for
me, though all the world should sink into oblivion, I will go up to
worship the Lord.

	These were my feelings a year ago and they are the same to-day.  I
dedicate myself, my family, and my substance anew unto the Lord, they are
not mine, I am not my own creator, nor the producer of anything I possess;
I did not originate one atom of it.  Let the world and its cares go!  The
Lord, Almighty, who made it, is able to take care of it, and He may do
with it what He pleases; but He has commanded me to worship Him, which is
one of the greatest privileges that could be conferred upon man.

	How long shall we stay here?  I answer, as long as I please. 
Brethren and sisters, cast from you the love of the world, and let it have
no dominion over you.  There are a many who delight in the good things of
this earth--in gold and silver, in carriages and horses, in houses and
splendid furniture, in costly clothing, in orchards and gardens, in
vineyards and fields, and extended possessions.  These things, compared
with eternal riches, are nothing, though in their place they are good. 
You may say, "If we live, we must eat, drink, and wear clothing" and, "He
that provideth not for his own household, has denied the faith, and is
worse than an infidel;" numberless arguments of this kind will present
themselves to the minds of the people, to call them away from the line of
their duty, when they know it is their privilege to dedicate themselves,
their families, and all they possess to the Lord.  How quick is the enemy,
how ready to present something of an opposite nature to what is right
before them!  You know the mental and physical weakness of man, so common
to mortality, and which the enemy is so ready to turn against you, to his
own advantage.  You think that your business needs your continual and
undivided attention, that you must attend to this, or to that, before you
can dedicate yourselves and families to the Lord.  There may perhaps be
some few here this morning who feel they ought to be plowing, fencing,
building, or attending to some minor affair, and cannot possibly spend
time to remain at the Conference.  If you will hearken to the counsel of
your humble servant, you will say to the fields, the flocks, and the
herds, to the gold and the silver, to the goods and chattels, to the
tenements and the possessions, and to all the world--Stand aside, get away
from my thoughts, for I am going up to worship the Lord.  Let it all go by
the board, brethren, and who cares?  I do not.  Your oxen and horses will
not live for ever, they will die occasionally; and sometimes we are
deprived by death of our children, and other members of our families.  I
say, let the dead bury the dead, let the corn and the wheat, and all other
things, take care of themselves, but let us dedicate ourselves, our
families, our substance, our time, our talents, and everything we have
upon the face of this world, with all that will hereafter be entrusted to
us, to the Lord our God; let the whole be devoted to the building up of
His kingdom upon the earth, and whether you are called here or there, it
makes no matter: but this morning let every heart be humble, watchful, and
prayerful, dedicating themselves unto the Lord.

	This people have passed through scenes of deep sorrow and affliction,
but they are now in comfortable circumstances.  They have been miserably
poor, but they are now, I may say, in comparative wealth.  We have been
sick, now we are well.  We have been tormented, now we are comforted.  We
have been afflicted by our enemies, but we are now far from them.  You
pause, and ask, how long will it be so?  I answer, so long as you and I
serve the Lord with all our hearts, just so long shall we be free from our
enemies.

	We have now a comfortable habitation to meet in, and we enjoy the
privilege of assembling here in peace.  How has it been in by-gone years? 
Look back six, seven, eight, ten, or twelve years ago, or to the year
1830, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized
with six members--which is twenty-two years ago this day, and can you tell
me of a year, of six months, or of three months that Joseph was not hunted
like the deer upon the mountains, by sheriffs with writs in their hands to
drag him from us to prison; when he and his brethren were not menaced with
blood-thirsty mobs, until this people assembled in the peaceful valleys of
the mountains?  Who troubles them now?  No person who fears God, who
serves the King, the Lord of Hosts; and none who are willing to love our
Father in heaven supremely--above all things else upon the face of this
earth, or in eternity, will be found persecuting even an idolater, to say
nothing of the Saints of the Most High.

	Let us now seek with greater diligence to build up the kingdom of
heaven, and establish righteousness; seek to magnify the Lord God, and
sanctify our own hearts; establish peace on earth, destroy every root of
bitterness from among the people, and cease from this moment to find fault
with any brother or sister, even though they do wrong, for the Lord will
apply the chastening rod to them if they need it.  We serve our children
so; if we consider they need chastening, we chastise them, but we do not
thereby hate them.  If it is necessary, we will correct their faults.  But
should we contend with them?  By no means.

	Are those who have assembled here this morning prepared to make a
covenant with themselves that they will cease from all evil practices,
from all evil speaking, and from all evil thinking, and say from this very
morning, I will never do another evil as long as I live, the Lord being my
helper?  I will do all the good I can, and prepare for the coming of the
son of man?  To this end I wish we should dedicate our hearts, our
affections, and our whole life to the cause of God on the earth.

	I do not feel like preaching a discourse upon any particular subject;
but of urging the necessity of the brethren and sisters absolutely coming
to the determination this morning, and dedicating themselves and all they
have to the Lord from this time henceforth.  Can we come to this
conclusion, to firmly, faithfully, and unitedly enter into a covenant with
ourselves, saying, I am for the Lord and none else; from this time
henceforth, I will do the will of my Father who is in the heavens, who has
called me to minister the fulness of the Gospel, and to share the glory
that is prepared for the righteous; I will be like clay in the hands of
the potter, that He may mould and fashion me as seemeth Him good; and if
He will make known to me His will, mine shall bow to it, my affections
shall be placed upon eternal things, and shall not rest upon the fading,
transitory objects of time and sense?  Can we make this covenant with
ourselves this morning.  Not only to say we dedicate this house and
ourselves, our flocks, herds, families, and possessions, to the Lord, but
actually perform the work, dedicating our affections to His service.  If
our affections are won and wholly dedicated to His cause, we have then
obtained the victory.

	Perhaps we may find one here and there who will say, "I cannot do
this, I may say it with my lips, but to feel it in my heart, the case is
hard; I am poor and needy, and desire to go to the gold mines to obtain
something to help myself, by speculating upon the Gentiles, and thus get
me a good farm and team, with which to get out of this thraldom and
difficulty; my mind is so perplexed, I cannot say my affections are fully
dedicated to the Lord my God."  What is to be done in such a case?  I know
what I would do, for I have experience in these matters--I would call upon
the Bishop, and make known to him my distress.  There are many who in
these words complain, and say they are so poor they cannot pay their
tithing; say they, "I have only got three horses and two yoke of cattle
and about fifty sheep; I want one horse to ride, and the others to haul
wood, I therefore do not know how I can possibly pay my tithing."  While
on the other hand, others who have only got half a dozen chickens can
willingly pay their tithing.  You may say, "It is easier for them to pay
tithing than for those who possess so much, for they are so very poor, it
does not infringe upon other matters."  Now if I had but one cow, and felt
thus, I would give her away forthwith.  If you have only six horses and
ten yoke of cattle, or only one cow, and you are too poor to pay your
tithing, give the whole into the public works.  I speak thus to those who
are inclined to love the substance of this world better than the Lord.  If
you have gold and silver, let it not come between you and your duty.  I
will tell you what to do in order to gain your exaltation, the which you
cannot obtain except you take this coarse.  If your affections are placed
upon anything so as to hinder you in the least from dedicating them to the
Lord, make a dedication of that thing in the first place, that the
dedication of the whole may be complete.

	What hinders this people from being as holy as the Church of Enoch? 
I can tell you the reason in a few words.  It is because you will not
cultivate the disposition to be so--this comprehends the whole.  If my
heart is not fully given up to this work, I will give my time, my talents,
my hands, and my possessions to it, until my heart consents to be subject;
I will make my hands labour in the cause of God until my heart bows in
submission to it.

	I might here use a just and true comparison which will apply to the
Church.  The rulers of Great Britain have tried to make every capitalist
identify his interest with the Government--that has sustained the kingdom,
and is like a powerful net-work around the whole.  Apply this comparison
to the kingdom of God on earth.

	Brethren, do you wish this heavenly government to stand?  There is no
government more beautiful, no confederacy more powerful!  What shall we do
to accomplish this?  Imitate the policy of that earthly kingdom, identify
our interest with the kingdom of God, so that if our hearts should over
become weaned from loyalty to the sovereign, all our earthly interest is
bound up there, and cannot be taken away.  We must therefore sustain the
kingdom in order to sustain our lives and interests; by so doing, we shall
receive the Spirit of the Lord, and ultimately work with all our hearts.

	This is a policy which I have not reflected upon until this morning,
but before we get through with the Conference, I shall, perhaps, see it
entered into, not as the result of any premeditation in the least, but
when the condition of our temporal affairs is read from the stand, you
will find the Church in considerable indebtedness.  If any man is in
darkness through the deceitfulness of riches, it is good policy for him to
bind up his wealth in this Church, so that he cannot command it again, and
he will be apt to cleave to the kingdom.  If a man has the purse in his
pocket, and he apostatizes, he takes it with him; but if his worldly
interest is firmly united to the Kingdom of God, when he arises to go
away, he finds the calf is bound, and, like the cow, he is unwilling to
forsake it.  If his calf is bound up here, he will be inclined to stay;
all his interest is here, and very likely the Lord will open his eyes, so
that he will properly understand his true situation, and his heart will
chime in with the will of his God in a very short time.  Were we to
dedicate our moral and intellectual influence, and our earthly wealth to
the Lord, our hearts would be very likely to applaud our acts.  This
reasoning is for those who do not feel exactly to subscribe to all that
has been said this morning, with regard to dedicating ourselves to the
cause of truth.  This is what you must do to obtain an exaltation.  The
Lord must be first and foremost in our affections, the building up of His
kingdom demands our first consideration.

	The Lord God Almighty has set up a kingdom that will sway the sceptre
of power and authority over all the kingdoms of the world, and will never
be destroyed, it is the kingdom that Daniel saw and wrote of.  It may be
considered treason to say that the kingdom which that Prophet foretold is
actually set up; that we cannot help, but we know it is so, and call upon
the nations to believe our testimony.  The kingdom will continue to
increase, to grow, to spread and prosper more and more.  Every time its
enemies undertake to overthrow it, it will become more extensive and
powerful; instead of its decreasing, it will continue to increase, it will
spread the more, become more wonderful and conspicuous to the nations,
until it fills the whole earth.  If such is your wish, identify your own
individual interest in it, and tie yourselves thereto by every means in
your power.  Let every man and every woman do this, and then be willing to
make every sacrifice the Lord may require; and when they have bound up
their affections, time, and talents, with all they have, to the interest
of the kingdom, then have they gained the victory, and their work is
complete, so far as they understand.

	If this people would take that course, what hinders their being in
the Millennium?  If I were to ask what the Millennium--the Latter-day
glory so often spoken of, is, I should find numerous opinions among this
people, and many in and out of this congregation.  I have learned long ago
that the thoughts and expressions of men are very diversified; if, indeed,
their thoughts or ideas are similar, I know their words differ widely; so
should I find a great many different opinions among this people, with
regard to the real essence and effect of the Millennium.  The Millennium
consists in this--every heart in the Church and Kingdom of God being
united in one; the Kingdom increasing to the overcoming of everything
opposed to the economy of heaven, and Satan being bound, and having a seal
set upon him.  All things else will be as they are now, we shall eat,
drink, and wear clothing.  Let the people be holy, and the earth under
their feet will be holy.  Let the people be holy, and filled with the
Spirit of God, and every animal and creeping thing will be filled with
peace; the soil of the earth will bring forth in its strength, and the
fruits thereof will be meat for man.  The more purity that exists, the
less is the strife; the more kind we are to our animals the more will
peace increase, and the savage nature of the brute creation vanish away. 
If the people will not serve the devil another moment whilst they live, if
this congregation is possessed of that spirit and resolution, here in this
house is the Millennium.  Let the inhabitants of this city be possessed of
that spirit, let the people of the territory be possessed of that spirit,
and here is the Millennium.  Let the whole people of the United States be
possessed of that spirit, and here is the Millennium, and so will it
spread over all the world.

	Let us cease from all evil, and do all the good we can to the nations
abroad, and by and by the vail of the covering will be taken from the
earth, and the inhabitants see as they are seen.

	May the Almighty Father of heaven and earth bless you, and I bless
you in His name, and pray that we may be diligent in every good word and
work before the Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

     THE LORD AT THE HEAD OF HIS KINGDOM--SELF-DISCIPLINE--NECESSITY
OF CULTIVATING A KNOWLEDGE OF SCIENCE, AND PARTICULARLY OF THEOLOGY, ETC.
A Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered at the Spring
Conference,
       held in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1852.

	It may be considered that we are a mixed congregation, consisting of
Bishops, Seventies, High Priests, Elders, the Twelve, and the First
Presidency; but I consider we are, strictly speaking, a meeting of the
Elders of Israel; for if we were to be instructed in the duties of any one
of these-Quorums, that instruction would be equally good for all.

	This vast concourse of persons are all Elders in Israel, with but a
very few exceptions; for there are some Priests, Teachers, and Deacons
present, but not a great many.  The greater portion of the male members of
this community are Elders in the Church; and, as Elders, we are to be
instructed so as to obtain an understanding of all things pertaining to
our duty.

	We have heard and felt sufficient to know that the wisdom which is to
be obtained in this kingdom is more satisfactory to us than the boasted
wisdom of the world.  This is appreciated by the majority of this
assembly, if not by all.  The knowledge possessed by this people is of
more value than all the knowledge of the world put together, and
infinitely greater.  In this kingdom you will find the root of all
science, and that, too, in men who have not been taught the sciences after
the manner of the world.  They understand the origin of science, and can
trace it through the life of man, much to their satisfaction.  Let any man
who possesses the Holy Ghost, though never taught the sciences but a very
little, hear a learned man exhibit the principles of any science, he
understands the origin and proper bearings of the subject treated upon by
the speaker, through the increased rays of that light which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world.  This is to us a matter of no little
satisfaction.

	I have many cogitations with regard to this work of the last days and
the prosperity of this kingdom; yet I have learned years ago that the Lord
stands at the helm that guides Zion's ship.  He is its Dictator; and that
is marked out by him, our works will be in vain.  This has been my
experience from the beginning.  In every branch and avenue of our lives we
must learn to work to the line of truth.  It is for us to know what ought
to be done, and then do it.  Though there should be no earthly prospect of
accomplishing it, we can certainly try; and if we try with all our might,
that act will prove at least a resolute and determined mind, adorned with
patience and perseverance.  And if, with all our resolute endeavours, we
are still unable to accomplish our purpose, the Lord will be very likely
to stretch forth his hand and give the victory.

	Perhaps, before we get through with this Conference, we shall ask
such a favour of the Bishops as we asked of them last Conference, which
was granted to the letter, and that most rigorously.  The brethren are
rigorous with themselves, for they have paid their Tithing willingly, and
I do not know that the Bishops have had to urge them any to the fulfilment
[sic] of this duty.  However, some on the first reflection thought it
seemed impossible for them to comply with it, and some thought that our
request was inconsistent; but with a little more mature reflection, with a
little faith and prayer, they brought themselves directly to obedience.  I
thing this has been almost universally the case.  If we should now call
upon the Bishops for a favour, it would be to grant us a little assistance
with regard to our purchasing and laying in lumber, nails, glass, and
other merchandize to supply our future wants.  I wish each Ward to bear
their share in this matter.  I mention it that the Bishops may be alert in
their feelings.

	Now, brethren, can we fight against and subdue ourselves?  That is
the greatest difficulty we ever encountered, and the most arduous warfare
we ever engaged in.  This will apply most perfectly to the brethren who
have gathered with the Saints.  When we are out in the world we preach
faith and repentance, so that the Saints bring the knowledge of first
principles with them to the gathering-place.  Your next step is to enter
into the study of this.  A man may learn letters and study all the various
branches of scholastic education to the day of his death; but if he does
not attain to strict self-discipline, his learning will not amount to
much.  The catalogue of man's discipline he must compile himself:  he
cannot be guided by any rule that others may lay down, but is placed under
the necessity of tracing it himself through every avenue of his life.  He
is obliged to catechise and train himself, for he knows his own
disposition the best--its fortified and unfortified parts.  He is
therefore the most fit to school himself, until every particle of the man
is brought into subjection to the law of Christ.

	When you had obeyed the first ordinances of the Gospel, then you
discovered that the Lord and set his hand to gather Israel, that Zion
might be built up and Israel gathered from the four winds.  These
doctrines have been taught and re-taught again and again.  I think there
is not a man here who did not fully understand them while in his native
country.  There may be a few exceptions among those who have by chance
fallen into the society of the Saints at the gahteringplace where their
first acquaintance was formed, and consequently have not had the same
opportunity of hearing the first principles as others have had in the
world.  Now, we enter this school to be planed, squared, and polished.

	Suppose we admit of malice, anger, and wrath in our hearts,--steep
ourselves in wickedness, by taking the name of God in vain, by entering
into every kind of outbreak and transgression, by defiance to every
wholesome law, by neglecting our families, physically, mentally, and
morally, and by neglecting our brethren and ourselves, our former
repentance and baptism for the remission of our sins will nor profit us,
through indulging in sin afterwards; but all our former sins will again be
upon us, and we must atone for the whole.  Then let us cleave unto
righteousness, learn to do well, and continue to do so all the days of our
lives, that our former sins may not stand against us.  This is our duty.

	If every person in the community would correct his own errors each
day he lives, the errors of the whole would continually be effectually
corrected.  For where is there a man who, by preaching on a text from the
Bible of the Book of Mormon, can correct the faults of the people?  That
may be done until they go into their graves, and little or no good result
from it.  I mean to correct my own faults, and it is for you to do the
same.  It is an individual business, over which each man must preside,
until every fault in our whole lives is corrected and we are sanctified
before the Lord.

	If your neighbour suffers his cattle or his children to trespass upon
your property, never retaliate or speak an angry reply, for this will
engender a spirit of anger in him.  Consider well before you suffer your
minds to be irritated in the least.  Suffer them not to be agitated until
your blood is boiling with rage before you are aware; but stop and
reflect, coolly consider, and quietly reason with the person or persons
who have trespassed upon you, and show them the nature of their
transgression against you.  If they continue in the same course of
conduct, reason the stronger with them, without quarrelling.  Thus bring
your passions down into subjection to your will, and cultivate an even
unruffled temper, until you can perfectly control yourselves at all times,
in all places, and under all circumstances.  Then our affections and
feelings would become congenial to those of the Angels of God, and we
should continue to increase in that Holy Spirit which would prepare us for
the society of holy beings.  This is our school, and a profitable one it
is to the Elders of Israel.

	Why I mention these things is that you may understand, as quick as
you have believed and have been baptized for the remission of your sins,
that you have then further duties to perform.  To be continually repenting
is not required of us.  If the Elders of Israel could do all that is
required of them, they wold not need to repent, but they would seek
continually to walk in the paths of truth, virtue, and holiness.  It is
not in keeping with their calling to be fighting and quarrelling with
their brethren, or treading upon the sacred rights of others; but it is
their duty to walk in the paths of righteousness all the day long.  And
they will be chastened again and again until they do it.

	This is my teaching to the people continually.  We do not care about
hearing an overgrown Gospel sermon preached here; for the people
understand it perfectly already.  But do they understand the principle of
self-control, and of properly ordering their lives and course before the
Lord?  Do the Elders of Israel understand all that the Lord requires of
them?  They do not.  This belongs to other branches of the same celestial
science.  This perfect science requires men and women to be in the school
all the days of their lives; and they will not see a single day in which
they will not learn some truth with which they were not acquainted.  They
can learn from themselves--from the world--from the government of
heaven--from the management, government, control, doctrines, and laws of
eternity, which will yet be exhibited before us.  The Lord has established
the world, with its varied productions, for the education of his children,
that they may improve upon little things first, and so continue to
increase, grow, and strengthen, until they become perfect men in Christ
Jesus.  These are the duties and this is the situation of the Elders at
home.

	We have not had much privilege hitherto of meeting together in the
Valley.  Four years ago, when the brethren came into this valley, brother
George A. Smith delivered his first lecture upon the cannon, for there
were no houses wherein the people could assemble.  Since then they have
been greatly blessed, yet they have had little opportunity of holding
meeting.  The first large place we had to meet in was the Bowery.  We felt
comfortable in it, and I felt as thankful for it as I ever did for
anything in my life; but as quick as the falling weather came, it drove
the Saints away, and rendered it necessary to discontinue the meetings in
that place and to hold them in the different Wards, so that it became
impossible to get all the people together.  Now we have a convenient
room--the best hall I ever saw in my life, wherein he people could be
convened on one floor.  I trust we shall renew our strength, meet here to
pray, and to praise the Lord, and partake of the sacrament, until our
feelings are perfectly pure; for we are where we can sit and enjoy the
society of each other as long as we please, and there is none to make us
afraid.  Let us be industrious in this great school, nor ever slacken our
pace.

	There are a great many branches of education:  some go to college to
learn languages, some to study law, some to study physic, and some to
study astronomy, and various other branches of science.  We want every
branch of science taught in this place that is taught in the world.  But
our favourite study is that branch which particularly belongs to the
Elders of Israel--namely, theology.  Every Elder should become a profound
theologian--should understand this branch better than all the world. 
There is no Elder who has the power of God upon him but understands more
of the principles of theology than all the world put together.

	This reminds me of a little circumstance that transpired here a year
ago last summer.  You, no doubt, well recollect Elder Day, (a Baptist
minister on his way to California,) who use to preach to us so nicely.  I
preached one day when he was present.  In the course of my remarks, I
brought up the subject of the Deity--at the point touching the character
of our Father in heaven, upon which he desired the most to be instructed. 
I dropped the subject and turned to something else.  He went to dinner
with me, and while we sat at the dinner table, he said, "Brother Young, I
was waiting with all my anxious heart, with mouth, eyes, and ears open to
receive something great and glorious."  "What about, brother Day?"  "Why,
as you were describing the Deity, and just came to the point I was the
most anxious to have expounded, behold you waived it and turned to
something else."  I smiled and said, "After I had taught them how, I
wanted the people to add the rest of the sermon themselves."  He said, "I
declare, brother Young, I would have given anything I possessed in the
world, if you had continued your remarks until I had obtained the
knowledge I desired."  I inquired the nature of it.  "To know the
character of God."  I smiled and said, "Are you a preacher of the Gospel?" 
"Yes."  "How long have you been a preacher?"  "Twenty-seven years I have
been a preacher of the Gospel of Christ."  "And you have been a minister
so long, and have never learned anything about the character of the Being
about whom you have been preaching!  I am astonished!  Now you want to
find out the character of God.  I can make you answer the question
yourself in a few minutes."  "Well, I do not know, brother Young:  it is a
very mysterious subject to mortal man."  "Now, let me ask you a single
question.  Will you tell me what God our Father in heaven appears like?" 
He sat a considerable time, while the colour on his cheeks ebbed and
flowed alternately, till at last he replied, "Brother Young, I will not
presume to describe the character of the Deity."  I smiled, and he thought
I was treating the subject lightly.  "I am not making light of the
subject, but I am smiling at your folly, that you--a teacher in Israel--a
man who should stand between the living and the dead--yet know nothing
about your Father and God.  Were I in your place, I would never preach
another sermon while I lived, until I learned more about God.  Do your
believe the Bible?"  "I do."  "What resemblance did our father Adam bear
to his God, when he placed him in the Garden of Eden?"  Before he had time
to reply, I asked him what resemblance Jesus bore to man in his
incarnation? and "Do your believe Moses, who said the Lord made Adam in
his own image and after his own likeness?  This may appear to you a
curiosity; but do you not see, bona fide, that the Lord made Adam like
himself; and the Saviour we read of was made to look so like him, that he
was the express image of his person?"  He laughed at his folly himself. 
"Why," said he, "Brother Young, I never once thought of it before in all
my life, and I have been a preacher twenty-seven years."  He never had
known anything about the character of the God he worshipped; but, like the
Athenians, had raised an altar with the inscription, "To the unknown God."

	There is not one of the faithful Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints but is more or less acquainted with the physical and
moral character of the God he serves; which is more than all the world
knows, or can know, independent of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.  The
greatest, the best, the most educated, and the most profound theologians
on the earth, who have obtained their learning by reading and study, had
no correct knowledge of what is in the Bible about God, angels, sin,
righteousness, and many other important subjects, until Joseph Smith made
it known.

	We are now in the school of theology and making rapid progress in the
study of this celestial science.  I admit there are some few dunces in the
school:  Some advance at the very slow pace, and some not at all.  It
would be difficult to tell whether they enjoy anything or not, or whether
they are in the faith or not.  But, as a general thing, our boys, who are
from the age of ten to fifteen years, know more of the principles of
theology than the most educated clergymen in Christendom.  In comparison
to what is plainly revealed, the world of mankind are almost entirely
ignorant of those principles which to them are of the greatest importance.

	You certainly are learning; and, brethren, I tell you again, what I
have told you repeatedly, if you ever wish to have my good feelings, it
will be owing to your conduct in the strict observance of righteousness
and ceasing from all contentions--from speaking lightly of our great
Father in heaven, of our elder brother Jesus Christ, of the angels of God,
and of any good being upon the earth, from this time henceforth and for
ever.  If you want my fellowship, cease from doing these things.  I may
love you and seek your welfare with all my might; but I do not love the
profane speeches and wicked conduct of some of the Elders in Israel.  I
have no fellowship for men who are guilty of breaking the Sabbath, of
drinking spirituous liquors to excess, of contending with each other, and
going to law before Gentile or Bishops' courts to settle their
difficulties.  There is a better way of settling difficulties than either
of these.

	I gave the Elders a little key lately, to know when they were in the
right path.  I will now give you another.  When a difference of judgement
exists between two parties, let them come together and lay their
difficulties at each other's feet, laying themselves down in the cradle of
humility, and say, "Brother, (or sister,) I want to do right; yea, I will
even wrong myself, to make you right."  Do you not think that a man or
woman, acting in that manner towards his or her neighbour, would be
justified by the law of righteousness?  Their judgments come together, and
they are agreed:  there would, consequently, be no need of calling in a
third person to settle the difference.  After taking this course, if you
cannot come together, then call in a third person and settle it.  But for
those who bear the name of Saints to go into a Gentile court to settle
their differences is a stink in the nostrils of the Almighty.  To me it is
disgusting, filthy, and loathsome, in every sense of the word.  I abhor
it.  Do, for the Heaven's sake and for your own sakes, take my counsel and
show mercy to your brethren, even as the Lord has been merciful to us.

	It has been observed that the people want revelation.  This is
revelation; and were it written it would then be written revelation, as
truly as the revelations which are contained in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants.  I could give you revelation about going to California, for I
know the mind of the Lord upon this matter.  I could give you revelation
upon the subject of paying your Tithing and building a temple to the name
of the Lord; for the light is in me.  I could put these revelations as
straight to the line of truth in writing as any revelation you ever read. 
I could write the mind of the Lord, and you could put it in your pockets. 
But before we desire more written revelation, let us fulfil the
revelations that are already written, and which we have scarcely begun to
fulfil.

	A person was mentioned to-day who did not believe that Brigham Young
was a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator.  I wish to ask every member of this
whole community, if they ever heard him profess to be a Prophet, Seer, and
Revelator, as Joseph Smith was?  He professed to be an Apostle of Jesus
Christ, called and sent of God to save Israel.  If you know what the
calling of an Apostle is, and if there were ten thousand of them on the
earth at the same time, you must know that the words of an Apostle who
magnifies his calling are the words of the Almighty to the people all the
time.  He never need be called in question whether he revealed the mind of
the Lord or not.  Although brothers Willard Richards, Heber C. Kimball,
and myself are out of the Quorum of the Twelve, our Apostleship has not
been taken from us.  Who ordained me to be First President of this Church
on earth?  I answer, It is the choice of this people, and that is
sufficient.  If the Lord designates a plan how his cause and kingdom can
be best advanced, whose business is it, if it is the mind if the people to
follow it?  It is ours and the Lord's; but it is certainly not the
business of those who are enemies to his cause.  I preached considerable
upon this point in Nauvoo, to give the people the understanding of the
different callings of men.  Joseph Smith was a Prophet, Seer, and
Revelator before he had power to build up the kingdom of God, or take the
first step towards it.  When did he obtain that power?  Not until the
angel had ordained him to be an Apostle.  Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery,
and David Whitmer were the first Apostles of this dispensation, though in
the early days of the Church David Whitmer lost his standing, and another
took his place.  I have taught the brethren this principle years ago. 
When a men is an Apostle, and stands at the head of the kingdom of God on
the earth, and magnifies his calling, he has the keys of all the power
that ever was bestowed upon mortal man for the building up of the kingdom
of God on the earth.

	I will now leave these items and take up another.  I hinted to-day at
the wisdom of the Lord in opening the gold mines, and said he had one
object in view, among many others,--namely, to try the faith of the
Saints.  By this his wisdom has been exhibited, and much accomplished by
it among those also who are not Saints.  Take a view of this community.  A
portion will not be Saints.  This has always been the case when God has a
Church on the earth.  They are not all sheep that are in the fold, neither
are they all Saints who bear the name.  I wish you to understand that when
the sheep are separated from the goats, they will never again bear the
like afflictions they bore while they mingled with the goats, as long as
the world stands; no, neither in this world or any other.  Let the sheep
and goats be once separated, and the master of that flock of sheep will
never afflict them.  When there are no goats to annoy the sheep, the
latter will mingle with each other and go hand and hand in full
fellowship.  But when goats are among the sheep, they will besmear them
with their stink, and they frisk about, and behave so as to actually turn
the sheep almost into goats.  They will grow short in the hair, look like
goats, and stink like them.  The master of the flock must therefore do
something to preserve the blood of the sheep pure, lest they completely
degenerate and altogether become goats.  They must be chastened by
persecution, to drive out the stinking goats from their midst.  The Lord
opened the California gold mines to lead them off; and I say to the goats,
Go!  I am glad of it.  "But do you not think the sheep will go too?" 
Never mind, if they do:  they will get well besmeared with the flavour of
the goats, run off and wash themselves and come back again.  Though I
speak thus, I do not despise the goats; no, not in the least.

	You will perhaps recollect a dream I had in the spring of 1843, when
so many were going to California.  It seemed as though the whole community
would be carried away with he spirit of gold, which caused much anxiety in
my mind and enlightened my understanding.  I dreamed I was a little north
of the hot springs, with many of my brethren, among some scattered timber. 
I thought of sending to Captain Brown's, on the Weber river, to get some
goats, which I had previously bought from him; but while I was conversing
with the brethren, I thought the Prophet Joseph Smith came up to us, and I
spoke to him.  I thought I would send for my goats which I had purchased
from Captain Brown, and brother Joseph started off to the north, and I
thought very likely he would purchase the whole of brother Brown's stock;
but I felt quite reconciled, if he did.  I thought I stood there some time
talking with the brethren, when I looked up towards the road on my right,
and behold I saw brother Joseph returning, riding on a waggon without any
box to it; but is had a bottom of boards, and one these boards there was a
tent and other camping implements, &c., as though he had been on a journey
of some length.  He alighted from the waggon, and came to where we were
standing.  I looked, and saw, following the waggon, an almost innumerable
flock of sheep of all kinds, sizes, colours, and descriptions, from the
largest, finest sheep I ever saw, down to the ugly decrepit dwarf.  The
wool on the large ones, I thought, was as white as snow; then the next
smaller ones had also nice fine wool on them, and some where black and
white; others had coarse long wool upon them, approximating to hair; and
so on, until they became a mixture of goats and sheep.  I looked on the
strange flock and wondered.  While I was looking, I asked Joseph what in
the world he was going to do with such a flock of sheep, and said to him,
"Why, brother Joseph, you have the most singular flock of sheep I ever
saw:  what are you going to do with them?"  He looked up and smiled, as he
did when he was living, and as though he was in reality with me, and said,
"They are all good in their place."  This is the dream.

	So it is with this people.  If you can only find the place for the
goats, they answer the end for which they were made.  I have always
realized that a half-hearted "Mormon" is one of the meanest of human
beings, for such are always ready to say, "How do you do, brother Devil?"
and "How do you do, brother Jesus?" or, "Brother Jesus, I want to make you
acquainted with brother Devil."  It is no trouble for them to turn unto
Baal or unto Jesus; yet, at the same time, the Lord has a use for them.  I
have often heard men say they were convinced that "Mormonism" was true,
and that they would cleave to it; but as for their hearts being converted,
it is altogether another thing.  Mobs never have done one thing against
this people, but they could trace them, and have known all about it; for
you will always find that the goats will run and lick salt with the sheep;
and the Lord who made them has placed them in the world to serve his own
purpose.  When by these characters afflictions are brought upon the
Saints, and they are bereft of all they possess, it is to make them more
attached to the cause of truth, while their persecutors are hurled into
oblivion, which is the last of them.

	If gold is a sufficient inducement to lead men off to live in the
midst of that society in California, after they know and understand the
condition of it, it certainly proves that they love the things of this
world better than they love Christ.  You may say you are poor, and wish to
accumulate something to help yourself and your family.  "Are you starving
to death for want of food?"  "No."  All of you have plenty to subsist
upon.  If those who go to California for Gold were full of the Holy Ghost,
they would clothe their wives and children with buckskin, and wear it
themselves to the day of their death, rather than mingle with the wicked
and be induced to leave the society of the Saints.  The true cause of
their taking such a course is, they do not love the Lord.

	There is a class of person that persecution will not drive from the
Church of Christ, but prosperity will; and again, there is another class
that prosperity will not drive, but persecution will.  The Lord must and
will have a company of Saints who will follow him to the cross, if it be
necessary; and these he will crown.  They are the ones who will wear a
celestial crown and have dominion, rule,a nd government.  These are thy
who will receive honour of the Father, with glory, exaltation, and eternal
lives.  They shall reign over kingdoms, and have power to be Gods, even
the sons of God.

	Those other classes will take different stations and possess inferior
glories, according to their works in the flesh.  That class who will
altogether serve the world and disregard the cause of truth will become
servants to the sons of God and be in servitude throughout eternity.

	What shall we do?  I say, Cleave to "Mormonism," work with all our
might for the Lord, and love him; better than any other earthly or
heavenly object.  And if he requires us to sacrifice our houses, our
horses, our cattle, our wives, and our children, let them remain upon the
altar; but let us follow him to salvation and eternal life.  Amen.



                                EDUCATION.
   A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, April 8th, 1852.

	It does not exactly please me at this time to make the remarks I wish
upon the subject of education, as the greater part of the morning has been
devoted to laying before the congregation, the necessity of improving
ourselves in the knowledge of the sciences.  The subject which has been
aimed at by the speakers this morning, bearing particularly upon the
necessity of instructing the human family, has been laid before us in the
light in which it is generally held by the world.  When we speak upon
education, it is not to be understood that it alone consists in a man's
learning the letters of the alphabet, in being trained in every branch of
scholastic lore, in becoming a proficient in the knowledge of the
sciences, and a classical scholar, but also in learning to classify
himself and others.  It has been hinted that education commences with the
first dawn of knowledge upon the mental faculties of the child, and
continues with it till death.  But I will trace it a little further back
still, and say that education commences with the mother, and the child in
connection.  I will state the facts in the case, as you will find them to
be hereafter, in the education of your children.  It depends in a great
degree upon the mother, as to what children receive, in early age, of
principle of every description, pertaining to all that can be learned by
the human family.  When will mothers understand this?  Knowing that this
is the case, I am perplexed with grief when I see such a wanton diversion
from the real design of life, it causes me to mourn for my poor, ignorant,
fellow mortals, and sometimes almost goads me to anger.  I can see mothers
pay attention to everything under heaven, but the training up of their
children in the way they should go, and they will even make it appear
obligatory on the father to take care of the child at a year old.  How
often is it the case that mothers will say--"Why, Pa, this child is
growing up in ignorance, he is going to ruin.  Really, dear husband, what
shall we do with him?" I will tell you the truth as you will find it in
eternity.  If your children do not receive impressions of true piety,
virtue, tenderness, and every principle of the holy Gospel, you may be
assured that their sins will not be required at the hands of the father,
but of the mother.  Lay it to heart, ye mothers, for it will unavoidably
be so.  The duty of the mother is to watch over her children, and give
them their early education, for impressions received in infancy are
lasting.  You know, yourselves, by experience, that the impressions you
have received in the dawn of your mortal existence, bear, to this day,
with the greatest weight upon your mind.  It is the experience of people
generally, that what they imbibe from their mothers in infancy, is the
most lasting upon the mind through life.  This is natural, it is
reasonable, it is right.  I do not suppose you can find one person among
five hundred, who does not think his mother to be the best woman that ever
lived.  This is right, it is planted in the human heart.  The child
reposes implicit confidence in the mother, you behold in him a natural
attachment, no matter what her appearance may be, that makes him think his
mother is the best and handsomest mother in the world.  I speak for
myself.  Children have all confidence in their mothers; and if mothers
would take proper pains, they can instil into the hearts of their children
what they please.  You will, no doubt, recollect reading, in the Book of
Mormon, of two thousand young men, who were brought up to believe that, if
they put their whole trust in God, and served Him, no power would overcome
them.  You also recollect reading of them going out to fight, and so bold
were they, and so mighty their faith, that it was impossible for their
enemies to slay them.  This power and faith they obtained through the
teachings of their mothers.

	The character of a person is formed through life, to a greater or
less degree, by the teachings of the mother.  The traits of early
impressions that she gives the child, will be characteristic points in his
character through every avenue of his mortal existence.

	This is the education I wish you to establish in this Church, that
mothers may not suppose they are not required to watch over the early
education and impressions of their children, but over their husbands to
know where they are every moment of their lives, taking special care to
order them thus and so, so as to keep them advised and properly instructed
all the time, instead of doing that which they ought in their houses with
their children.  I am not quite so strenuous as some of the ancients were,
who taught that if the women wanted to learn anything, to learn it at home
from their husbands.  I am willing they should come to the meetings and
learn, but some of the ancients proscribed them in this privilege, and
would confine them at home to learn through their husbands.  I am a little
more liberal than they were, but this is not liberal enough for many of
the women, they must also be watching their husbands, while at the same
time their children are running abroad in the streets, naked and
barefooted, cursing and swearing.  What time have I got to watch my
children to-day?  Does not my duty demand my presence here?  Where are my
children?  Some are here.  Where are the rest of them?  Perhaps in the
streets, with other children, playing, or doing that which is wrong,
entirely unnoticed by their mothers.  This applies to the community.  And
the their mother will say "Husband, our children will certainly be
ruined."  Mothers, what do you want?  Do you wish your husband to sit all
the time in the parlor with you?  Yes, and I should suppose, by the
conduct of some, you want to be seated over the head of God Almighty, to
rule over Him, and all His kingdoms.  If I mention my own family, and use
them as an example, I do it that other people cannot complain.  Do you
suppose that I cannot see faults in my own family, as well as in my
neighbors'?  I am not so prejudiced in their favour, as not to discover
faults in them, neither can I close my eyes upon the faults of my
neighbors'.

	What faults do I discover in my neighbors' families?  I can see their
women go off visiting, riding on horseback, attending parties, while their
little ones are neglected, and left to run at large in the streets,
exposed to the pernicious examples of vile company.  Hear it again!  The
blood of these wicked children will be required at the hands of their
mothers!  Should your husbands be called out to fight the Indians, or go
to the islands of the sea to gather the poor, it is none of your business,
when it is their calling to be away from home.

	I want education to commence here.  I wish you strictly to follow out
this principle, and when children are old enough to labor in the field,
then the father will take them in charge.  If children are not taught by
their mothers, in the days of their youth, to revere and follow the
counsels of their fathers, it will be hard indeed for the father ever to
control them.  I know it is so, for it is too true.  Mothers will let
their children go to the Devil in their childhood, and when they are old
enough to come under the immediate guidance of their fathers, to be sent
out to preach the Gospel in the world, or to learn some kind of mechanism,
they are as uncontrollable as the winds that now revel in the mountains.

	It is not for the mother to rise up and encourage her children to
fight against their father.  You know my feelings on this point--they are
pointed, resolute, and strong.  And when I undertake to conquer a child
who wants to conquer me, it shall be death to him before I yield.  I would
rather see every child I have, go into the grave this day, than suffer
them to rise up and have control over me.

	Mothers, if you suffer your children to grow up wild, and
uncorrected, when they come into the hands of their fathers, and will not
follow their counsels, let them be disowned, and have no portion in the
inheritance; let them be disfranchised, be banished from Israel, and not
be numbered in the books of the offspring of Abraham.  This shall be the
fate of my disobedient children, if I have any; and if there are any of my
children here to-day, let them hear it! for if they will not keep my
commandments, they shall have no part or lot in the household of faith.

	Let education commence at this point, you mothers! and then with
brother Spencer and the board of Regents.  Let mothers commence to teach
their children while in their laps, there do you learn them to love the
Lord, and keep His commandments.  Teach them to keep your commandments,
and you will learn them to keep the commandments of your husbands.  It is
not the prerogative of a child to dictate to his mother, or his father;
and it is not the prerogative of the father to rise up and dictate to his
God whom he serves.  Is it right that my wife should dictate to me?  It is
just as reasonable, and as right, as it is for your children to rise up
and dictate to their mother.  It is not their business to dictate to you,
their duty is to obey, and not to dictate.

	The Lecture which you have heard from Chancellor Spencer, is so far
in advance of us, that it does not touch the case of this people, at
present, with regard to education, until they have learned the rudiments,
that is, according to my view of the subject.

	It is true the Lord has revealed great and precious revelations to us
through our language, and I believe it is as good a language as any now in
use; but when we scan it narrowly, we find it to be fraught with
imperfections and ridiculous vagaries.  I am as far from believing that it
is meet for us to adopt it in preference to any other tongue, as I am that
it is to adopt Presbyterianism, or the Baptist's religion, in preference
to any other of the same order of antichristian churches, for they are all
imperfect.  The Lord can reveal Himself to these Indians, He can talk to
any nation, it makes no difference to Him, as He can connect the ideas He
wishes to convey by means of their langauge, as imperfect as it is.

	I wish to impress my lecture more particularly upon the minds of
mothers.  Am I not continually exhorting the brethren to be kind to their
families, and never to ill use a human being on the earth?  I exhort you,
masters, fathers, and husbands, to be affectionate and kind to those you
preside over.  And let them be obedient, let the wife be subject to her
husband, and the children to their parents.  Mothers, let your minds be
sanctified before the Lord, for this is the commencement, the true
foundation of a proper education in your children, the beginning point to
form a disposition in your offspring, that will bring honor, glory,
comfort, and satisfaction to you all your life time.  To the mothers who
may be here to-day, who have not the experience they will have, and young
women who are perhaps just entering upon the stage of life, let me say,
(and I wish you always to keep it in remembrance, even you younger females
who have newly entered into the sacred state of matrimony,) fulfil the
commandments of Eloheim, fill up the measure of your creation, that the
joy of your hearts may be full in the day of the resurrection, in that you
have done all you could to fulfil His law, and bring to pass the purposes
of the Lord.  Always keep your minds pure before the Lord.  You may say it
is impossible, because of your temptations, but let me inquire, Do you
pray?  Did you pray this morning, before you left your houses?  Did you
pray last evening, before you laid your bodies down to rest?  Did you pray
that the Holy Spirit might rest upon you, so that your sleep might be
sweet and refreshing?  Some of you may reply, that you have children, and
have not time to pay attention to this duty in the morning.  Some of you
may have sick families, and others of you may be afflicted in other ways,
and you will offer these facts as reasons for similar neglect.  In these
circumstances the mind must be centred upon the Lord, and upon His work,
continually.  When you embark to fill up the end of your creation, never
cease to seek to have the Spirit of the Lord rest upon you, that your
minds may be peaceable, and as smooth as the summer breezes of heaven. 
Never cease a day of your life to have the Holy Ghost resting upon you. 
Fathers, never cease to pray that your wives may enjoy this blessing, that
their infants may be endowed with the Holy Ghost, from their mother's
womb.  If you want to see a nation rise up full of the Holy Ghost, and of
power, this is the way to bring it about.  Every other duty that is
obligatory upon man, woman, or child, will come in its place, and in its
time and season.  Remember it, brethren.  Let your hearts be pure before
the Lord, and never cease to do anything you can for the satisfaction and
comfort of your family, that all may enjoy the comforts of the Spirit of
the Lord continually.  If you do not come to this, your literary
attainments will not exceed those of the world.

	We have but few collegians among us, but I know that a thoroughly
educated man knows no more than you do, when his literature is displayed,
though he spreads himself like the green bay tree.  Brother Spencer has
given us a display of the learning of the day, he has erected a beautiful
building, but where is the foundation?  In his discourse, he referred to
Joseph.  Joseph built on the sure foundation, and, when I build up my
superstructure, it shall be upon the same foundation.  Brother Spencer has
used language quite beyond your reach.  Well, I have the foundation, and
he can make the building.  When he commences the building, I have asked
the Board of Regents to cast out from their system of education, the
present orthography and written form of our language, that when my
children are taught the graphic sign for A, it may always represent that
individual sound only.  But as it now is, the child is perplexed that the
sign A should have one sound in mate, a second sound in father, a third
sound in fall, a fourth sound in man, and a fifth sound in many, and, in
other combinations, soundings different from these, while, in others, A is
not sounded at all.  I say, let it have one sound all the time. And when P
is introduced into a word, let it not be silent as in Phthisic, or sound
like F in Physic, and let two not be placed instead of one in apple.

	I ask, have the great and learned men completed their education?  No,
they are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth.  Let the Board of Regents commence on the proper foundation, that
when we have learned a great while, we may find to our satisfaction, we
have at last come to the knowledge of the truth.

	The English language, in its written and printed form, is one of the
most prominent now in use for absurdity, yet as a vehicle in which to
convey our ideas verbally, it is one of the best, for extent and variety
it goes before, and far beyond, any other.  Its variety is what I dislike. 
The schools in the Southern, New England, and Eastern States, all teach
the English language, yet the same ideas are conveyed with entirely
different classes of words, by these separate communities.  If there were
one set of words to convey one set of ideas, it would put an end to the
ambiguity which often mystifies the ideas given in the languages now
spoken.  Then when a great man delivered a learned lecture upon any
subject, we could understand his words, for there would be only one word
with the same meaning, instead of a multiplicity of words all meaning the
same thing, as is the case now.  For instance, there are men in this house
so technical in their feelings with regard to their choice of words, that
when their ideas are formed, and they commence to convey them, they will
stop in the middle of a sentence, and introduce another set of words to
convey the same idea.  If I can speak so that you can get my meaning, I
care not so much what words I use to convey that meaning.

	I long for the time that a point of the finger, or motion of the
hand, will express every idea without utterance.  When a man is full of
the light of eternity, then the eye is not the only medium through which
he sees, his ear is not the only medium by which he hears, nor the brain
the only means by which he understands.  When the whole body is full of
the Holy Ghost, he can see behind him with as much ease, without turning
his head, as he can see before him.  If you have not that experience, you
ought to have.  It is not the optic nerve alone that gives the knowledge
of surrounding objects to the mind, but it is that which God has placed in
man--a system of intelligence that attracts knowledge, as light cleaves to
light, intelligence to intelligence, and truth to truth.  It is this which
lays in man a proper foundation for all education.  I shall yet see the
time that I can converse with this people, and not speak to them, but the
expression of my countenance will tell the congregation what I wish to
convey, without opening my mouth.  We are at present low, weak, and
grovelling in the dark, but we are planted here in weakness for the
purpose of exaltation.  It is at the time of the formation of the
tabernacle of flesh, that the education of human life commences.  Now,
mothers, train up your children in the way they should go.  Fathers and
husbands, instruct your wives and children in the ways of the Lord, and
love, joy, and prosperity will attend you from this time, henceforth and
for ever, which may God grant for Jesus' sake.  Amen.



          SELF-GOVERNMENT--MYSTERIES--RECREATION AND AMUSEMENT,
     NOT IN THEMSELVES SINFUL--TITHING--ADAM, OUR FATHER AND OUR GOD
    A sermon delivered by President Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 9, 1852.

	It is my intention to preach several discourses this evening, but how
many I do not know.

	I will in the first place bear testimony to the truth of many remarks
made by brother Hunter, and especially his exhortation to the Seventies
and Elders, and those men who wish to go on missions.  I wish also to urge
the necessity of your proceeding on your missions immediately, and of
going to the place of your destination full of the Holy Ghost, preaching
righteousness to the people; and while you do this, live up to the
principles you preach, that you may teach also by your example, as well as
by precept.  Go, ye Elders, and now consider yourselves from this time
forth missionaries.  If the Gospel is in you like a flaming fire, to be
poured upon the people, gather your neighbors together, and give your
brethren an invitation to your house, and set before them the duties of
man; and preach, if you can speak but for five minutes, occupying that
time to the best advantage.  Continue to preach, study, and learn, by
faith and prayer, until your minds and mouths are opened, and you
understand most perfectly the love of Christ.

	It is not uncommon for Elders to say, "If I could have a mission, and
be sent among strangers, I could speak to them, because they have not been
instructed in the way of life and salvation:  I could lay before them the
principles of the Gospel, which have been taught to me, without that
difference of feeling, and fear, which I experience while speaking to my
brethren."  It is very true that the first principles of the Gospel taught
by the Elders of this Church are easy to be understood, compared with what
it is to preach them to our families, or to our neighborhood, and to
govern and control ourselves by the principles of righteousness which the
Gospel inculcates.  Again, to gather the Saints, to preach the Gospel to
the world, and convince them of the truth, are much easier tasks than to
convince men that you can master yourself, and practise the moral
principles inculcated by your religion.  That is a small portion of the
duty required of you in order to obtain crowns of glory, immortality, and
eternal lives. I will here remark, that it is natural for the people to
desire to know a great deal of the MYSTERIES; this, however, is not
universally the case, though it is so with a great many of the Elders of
Israel.  I do not suppose it will apply to those who compose this
congregation; your object in being here this evening is not to hear some
great mystery of the Kingdom, which you never understood before.  The
greatest mystery a man ever learned, is to know how to control the human
mind, and bring every faculty and power of the same in subjection to Jesus
Christ; this is the greatest mystery we have to learn while in these
tabernacles of clay.  It is more necessary for the Elders to learn and
practise upon this lesson in the midst of the Saints at head quarters than
in the world; for their facilities for learning are much greater, and I
will tell you wherein.  Let a Bishop, a High Priest, a President of any
Stake or Quorum, any who are Elders in Israel, or any individual Saint
from the first to the last of them, fall into error, and it is at once
made manifest; he cannot pursue that course any further, for he is where
lie can learn his duties, and know how to walk straight in the paths of
righteousness.  Here is the place for you to teach great mysteries to your
brethren, because here are those who can correct you.  This fault the
Elders of Israel do not fall into in this Tabernacle, although they may in
private houses and neighborhoods.  When a man is capable of correcting
you, and of giving you light, and true doctrine, do not get up an
altercation, but submit to be taught like little children, and strive with
all your might to understand.  The privileges of those who dwell here are
greater than the privileges of those who are abroad.  When your duties
call you into foreign lands, and you there exhaust your stock of knowledge
and wisdom, and you are not in possession of the keys to obtain that
instruction which you desire, it is because you are far from the right
fountain--far from the body, where all the members are in lively
operation--where the eye can see, the ear hear, the nose smell, and the
mouth speak, and so forth.  When your face is turned from the body, let
mysteries alone, for this is the only place for you to be corrected if
wrong.  Preach the simple, unadorned truth; work out your salvation with
diligence, and do that which will guarantee you a warranted deed, an
undeniable title to eternal lives.

	If you feel prayer in you, pray; and if you feel the spirit of
preaching in you, preach; call in your brethren, and read the Bible, the
Book of Mormon, the Book of Covenants, and the other revelations of God to
them; and talk over the things contained in those books, and deal them out
to your brethren and neighbors; pray with them, and teach them how to
control themselves; and let your teachings be sustained by your own
example.  Teach your families how to control themselves; teach them good
and wholesome doctrine, and practise the same in your own lives.  This is
the place for you to become polished shafts in the quiver of the Almighty. 
This will answer for one sermon.

	I feel much inclined to talk to the brethren: I have not had the
privilege of preaching much for some time, because of the inconvenience of
our former meeting place.  Now, as we have a good, convenient place to
meet in, and my health will serve me, I expect to improve the time.  I
love to preach at home with the Saints.  I love to meet with them, and
look up on their happy countenances, lit up with the joys of eternity.  In
short. I love the society of all good men, and to preach salvation to
them.

	You may consider what I shall now lay before you a small matter; but
I think it of some importance.  When the Elders of Israel leave this
place, and go forth among the wicked, it is not their privilege to mingle
with them in any of their worldly exercises; for if they do, the devil
will obtain an advantage over them, and succeed in drawing them away from
the path of their duty.  For instance--suppose you and I, with many more
of the brethren, meet together in a convenient place in the Valley, and
dance to the sweet strains of the violin; we could do so with a perfect
good will: but if we should be called to England, and there have an
invitation to join with the wicked in their pastimes and recreations, and
we in our feelings bow down to this, and suffer our spirits to be subject
to their commandments, we suffer ourselves to be ruled over by them, and
at once become their servants.  While I am here, I am in the midst of the
Priesthood of heaven, and in the centre of the kingdom of God.  We are
before the Lord, where every hand I shake is the hand of a Saint, and
every face I see, when I look upon the assembled thousands, is the
countenance of a Saint.  I am the controller and master of affairs here,
under Heaven's direction; though there are those who do not believe this. 
I invite those who are not subject to me as their President, not to
contaminate my friends; for were I and my friends to become subject to
those who object to us, we are then on the ground of the devil, and
subject ourselves to him they serve.

	Never suffer yourselves to mingle in any of those recreations that
tend to sin and iniquity, while you are away from the body of the Church,
where you cannot so fully control yourselves.  Let the Elders who are
going out from this place carry this instruction with them into the other
portions of the earth.  Whatever a man does, let him do it in the name of
the Lord--let him work in the name of the Lord, let all his acts through
life be in the name of the Lord; and if he wants light and knowledge, let
him ask in that name.

	You are well aware that the wickedness of the world, or the apostacy
of the Church, is so great, that those who now profess religion cannot
enjoy their own natural privileges in the world.  In many places their
folly and superstition are so great that they would consider they had
committed the sin of blasphemy if they happened to hear a violin.  The
whole world could not hire a good, honest, sound Presbyterian, of the old
fashion and cut, to look into a room where a company of young men and
women were dancing, lest they should sin against the Holy Ghost.  This
over-righteous notion is imbibed by the generality of professors of
religion, but it is because they themselves have made it a sin.  Let us
look at the root of the matter.  In the first place, some wise being
organized my system, and gave me my capacity, put into my heart and brain
something that delights, charms, and fills me with rapture at the sound of
sweet music.  I did not put it there; it was some other being.  As one of
the modern writers has said, "Music hath charms to soothe the savage
breast."  It has been proved that sweet music will actually tame the most
malicious and venomous beasts, even when they have been stirred up to
violent wrath, and make them docile and harmless as lambs.  Who gave the
lower animals a love for those sweet sounds, which with magic power fill
the air with harmony, and cheer and comfort the hearts of men and so
wonderfully affect the brute creation?  It was the Lord, our heavenly
Father, who gave the capacity to enjoy these sounds, and which we ought to
do in His name, and to His glory.  But the greater portion of the
sectarian world consider it sacrilege to give way to any such pleasure as
even to listen to sweet music, much more to dance to its delightful
strains.  This is another short sermon.

	I wish now to say a few words to the brethren upon the subject of
tithing.  It is well known to the majority of this Conference what
transpired, last Conference, upon the stand in the old Bowery.  At that
Conference I had good cause to find fault with the Bishops, and I took the
liberty to brush them down a little.  From that day to this there has been
more accomplished by our Bishops in the short space of seven months, than
was accomplished by them for the space of years previously.  This gives me
great satisfaction.  The Bishops have done as well as men could do: their
conduct in fulfilling the duties of their calling has truly been
praiseworthy, and I feel to bless them, and pray the Lord to bless them
all the day long, for they have done first rate.  When we consider the
ignorance of the world, their unbelief in God, and realize that the vail
of the covering is over the face of all nations, and remember the
ignorance we were once in ourselves, having to commence like babes at the
rudiments of learning, knowing also how faltering men are in their faith,
and then look at what this people have accomplished, we are led to
exclaim, "It is marvellous in our eyes!"  Were I to say, "Elders of
Israel, you that feel to put your all upon the altar, rise upon your
feet," who would be left?  [All present rose up simultaneously.]  Where is
there another people upon the earth who would have done this?  I have no
tithing, but all--all I have is the Lord's.  You know the word sacrifice:
as brother Banks said to-day, it is a mere burlesque--a nonsensical term. 
No man ever heard me say I had made a sacrifice.  I possess nothing but
what my heavenly Father has been pleased to give me, or, in other words,
He has loaned it to me while I remain here in this mortal flesh.

	Is it not marvellous, considering the weakness of man, to see the
willingness of this whole people to die if necessary for the truth?  How
do you suppose it makes me feel?  Though I may sometimes chastise my
brethren, and speak to them in the language of reproof, there is not a
father who feels more tenderly towards his offspring, and loves them
better than I love this people; and my Father in Heaven loves them; my
heart yearns over them with all the emotions of tenderness, so that I
could weep like a child; but I am careful to keep my tears to myself.  If
you do wrong, it grieves my heart, and it also grieves the heart of my
heavenly Father.  I feel continually to urge my brethren to cease from all
evil, and learn to do well.

	The fulness of the heavens and the earth is the Lord's--the gold and
the silver, the wheat, the fine flour, and the cattle upon a thousand
hills; and when we fully understand His works, we shall know that He is in
all the earth, and fulfils His will among the children of men, exalting
and debasing them according to His pleasure; for the systems, creeds,
thrones, and kingdoms of the world are all under His control.  "Shall
there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it"--or that He doth
not control?  The Lord controls the whole; and in the end, you will find
He has regulated all things right, for all will be consummated to His
glory.

	The children of men are made as independent in their sphere as the
Lord is in His, to prove themselves, pursue which path they please, and
choose the evil or the good.  For those who love the Lord, and do His
will, all is right, and they shall be crowned, but those who hate His ways
shall be damned, for they choose to be damned.

	As I was meditating on the philosophy of the day, it occurred to my
mind how visible it must appear to all eyes that the Lord does indeed
work, that it is He who blesses this people; and yet it seems as though
they cannot see His hand.  The Lord fills the immensity of space.  What
saith the Psalmist?  "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?  or whither
shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascent up into heaven, thou art
there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there; if I take the
wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even
there shall thy hand lead me."  I was trying to think of the place where
God is not, but it is impossible, unless you can find empty space; and
there I believe He is not.  If you can find such a place, it will become
useful for a hiding place to those who wish to hide themselves from the
presence of the Lord, in the great day of accounts.  I will close this
sermon, as I intend to preach another before I present the subject I more
particularly wish to speak upon.

	My next sermon will be to both Saint and sinner.  One thing has
remained a mystery in this kingdom up to this day.  It is in regard to the
character of the well-beloved Son of God, upon which subject the Elders of
Israel have conflicting views.  Our God and Father in heaven, is a being
of tabernacle, or, in other words, He has a body, with parts the same as
you and I have; and is capable of showing forth His works to organized
beings, as, for instance, in the world in which we live, it is the result
of the knowledge and infinite wisdom that dwell in His organized body. 
His son Jesus Christ has become a personage of tabernacle, and has a body
like his father.  The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Lord, and issues
forth from Himself, and may properly be called God's minister to execute
His will in immensity; being called to govern by His influence and power;
but He is not a person of tabernacle as we are, and as our Father in
Heaven and Jesus Christ are.  The question has been, and is often, asked,
who it was that begat the Son of the Virgin Mary.  The infidel world have
concluded that if what the Apostles wrote about his father and mother be
true, and the present marriage discipline acknowledged by Christendom be
correct, then Christians must believe that God is the father of an
illegitimate son, in the person of Jesus Christ!  The infidel fraternity
teach that to their disciples.  I will tell you how it is.  Our Father in
Heaven begat all the spirits that ever were, or ever will be, upon this
earth; and they were born spirits in the eternal world.  Then the Lord by
His power and wisdom organized the mortal tabernacle of man.  We were made
first spiritual, and afterwards temporal.

	Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile,  Saint and
sinner!  When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into
it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him.  He
helped to make and organize this world.  He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the
ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken--HE is our
FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom WE have to do.  Every man
upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and
will know it sooner or later.  They came here, organized the raw material,
and arranged in their order the herbs of the field, the trees, the apple,
the peach, the plum, the pear, and every other fruit that is desirable and
good for man; the seed was brought from another sphere, and planted in
this earth.  The thistle, and thorn, the brier, and the obnoxious weed did
not appear until after the earth was cursed.  When Adam and Eve had eaten
of the forbidden fruit, their bodies became mortal from its effects, and
therefore their offspring were mortal.  When the Virgin Mary conceived the
child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness.  He was not
begotten by the Holy Ghost.  And who is the Father?  He is the first of
the human family; and when he took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his
Father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel,
and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve; from the fruits of
the earth, the first earthly tabernacles were originated by the Father,
and so on in succession.  I could tell you much more about this; but were
I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be nothing to it, in the
estimation of the superstitious and over-righteous of mankind.  However, I
have told you the truth as far as I have gone.  I have heard men preach
upon the divinity of Christ, and exhaust all the wisdom they possessed. 
All Scripturalists, and approved theologians who were considered exemplary
for piety and education, have undertaken to expound on this subject, in
every age of the Christian era; and after they have done all, they are
obliged to conclude by exclaiming "great is the mystery of godliness," and
tell nothing.

	It is true that the earth was organized by three distinct characters,
namely, Eloheim, Yahovah, and Michael, these three forming a quorum, as in
all heavenly bodies, and in organizing element, perfectly represented in
the Deity, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

	Again, they will try to tell how the divinity of Jesus is joined to
his humanity, and exhaust all their mental faculties, and wind up with
this profound language, as describing the soul of man, "it is an
immaterial substance!"  What a learned idea!  Jesus, our elder brother,
was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of
Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven.  Now, let all who may hear these
doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with
indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation.

	I have given you a few leading items upon this subject, but a great
deal more remains to be told.  Now remember from this time forth, and
forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost.  I will
repeat a little anecdote.  I was in conversation with a certain learned
professor upon this subject, when I replied, to this idea--"if the Son was
begotten by the Holy Ghost, it would be very dangerous to baptize and
confirm females, and give the Holy Ghost to them, lest he should beget
children, to be palmed upon the Elders by the people, bringing the Elders
into great difficulties."

	Treasure up these things in your hearts.  In the Bible, you have read
the things I have told you to-night; but you have not known what you did
read.  I have told you no more than you are conversant with; but what do
the people in Christendom, with the Bible in their hands, know about this
subject?  Comparatively nothing.

	I will now again take up the subject of tithing.  The brethren have
done well.  They have been willing and obedient, no people could have been
more so; for this I thank my Father in Heaven.  I could not wish a people
to work more kindly in the yoke of Jesus than this people do; the yoke
grows more and more easy to them.  It seems that every man will not only
pay his tithing, but give all he has, if the Lord requires it: still I see
wherein they may do better.  I asked the people to day to assist to pay
our Church liabilities.  The offer of three or four yoke of oxen only, we
do not want; but I will lay before you what we wish you to do.  By the
manifesto which has been read, you have learned the precise situation of
the property of the Church.  What has incurred this debt? Why does it
exist in the shape in which it now appears?  And wherein could we have
obviated the difficulty, and done better?  A fourth part of the money
already paid out, did not come in upon tithing.  This money we have had to
borrow in order to keep the public works in progress.  You may say,
wherein could we have done better, for we have paid our tithing
punctually?  But has that brother, who sent $100 back to the East for
merchandize, paid $10 of it into the tithing office?  Or did the brother
who has sent $500 back, let us have $50?  No; these have used it
themselves, and thereby involved those who bear the responsibilities of
the Trust.  Again, those who have not possessed sufficient money to send
back for merchandize, have been necessitated to pay out what they had. 
Thousands of dollars have been paid here for merchandize.  Has one-tenth
of all that money been paid into the tithing office?  It has not.  And
where is the tithing that should have come in from England and California.
Instead of tithing their money, they have used it for other purposes, and
paid it in property, with which we could not pay our debts.  This is
wherein we have failed to liquidate our debts.  The people go to these
Gentile stores, on the Saturday, in crowds, to purchase goods.  I think we
shall not over-rate the amount, if we say that $500,000 has been paid, in
these vallies, to the merchants.  But suppose they have received no more
than $50,000 from this community, $5,000 of that money ought to have been
first paid into the tithing office and we could have sent it to the
States, and purchased goods ourselves for one-third or one-half less than
we have to pay the merchants here.  And $25,000 more should have come into
the tithing office from the Church in the United States.  The brethren in
California have made no less than $100,000, the tenth of which is due this
tithing office.  For want of this money, we are brought into bondage; and
we must now apply our faith and works to raise means to liquidate our
indebtedness, which has accumulated by purchasing goods at high and
extortionate prices.  I find no fault with the merchants, for they came
here to gather gold by the hundred weight.

	Now, brethren, and Bishops, look over this matter, and try to think
what your feelings would be if you were laid under the same responsibility
that I and my brethren have upon our shoulders.  We are required to see
the Gospel preached to the nations afar off, to build council houses and
temples, to cope with the united wisdom and craft of legislative
assemblies, and with the powers of darkness in high places; and then place
yourselves in the circumstances we are now placed in!  Besides all this,
see the hundreds who come to us every day to be administered to in various
ways: some want fruit, some sugar, others tea, and all want clothing, &c. 
Then step into our private rooms, where we commune with the people, and
yon will see and hear all this, and a great deal more.  Instead of every
man bringing his picayune, or his six pence, or his $5, &c., as tithing on
the money in his possession, it is all used for something else, and the
storehouse of the Lord is left empty.  Suppose nothing had been put in
there but what the people have put in, the workmen would have been naked. 
Walk into the storehouse, and examine for yourselves.  To be sure there
has been a little clothing put in lately; for instance, there was an old
silk dress put in for $40, that had been lying for years rotting in the
chest: this is a specimen of the rest.  What are such things worth to our
workmen?  Why, nothing at all. We wish you to put in strong and
substantial clothing.  Good, strong, homemade stuffs make the most
suitable clothing for those who are building up the public works.

	Will you help us out of this thraldom, and have it credited to your
future tithing?  There is already a great deal more due than would
liquidate all our debts, but we cannot command it now.  Do you feel
willing to put your shoulder to the wheel, and continue to roll it
forward, and still continue, you that have faith to continue, to increase
in faith? for the business of this kingdom will increase, and the
responsibility also; the labor will and must grow, and continue to
increase, until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God
and His Christ.  So much on tithing; you see where the failure is; it is
in that point, and nowhere else.

	It is not for any man to think he is a cipher--that what he can do
will not tell in this matter, and say, "They will get along well enough
without me;" but it is every man's duty to lay it to heart, and help what
he can with his earthly substance; though I wish you to understand
distinctly that it is no commandment--you are left to act freely.

	Let all the sheep stay in the Valley; also the cows; for they will
give milk and butter, and replenish the stock.  But when we speak of the
horses, mules, and oxen, let every man look up his spare stock of this
description, and with them help to liquidate these debts.  Stock will now
pay debts.  I will use my stock for this purpose, and my brethren will do
the same, until we have enough.  I do not enjoin this upon you, as you
have already paid the tithing which is required of you; except in some
instances in the money tithing.  Had we received the money due to us, we
should have had no debts; but this failure has been, and is now, in
existence.  I will take every kind of spare stock I have, except my cows
and sheep, and wipe off these debts until they are cancelled; and now
every man who will do the same, let him rise upon his feet. [The whole
congregation of two thousand men rose up to a man.]  Do you suppose we
want to deprive you of your teams?  It is not so, but we wished to know
the state of your faith, so that when we are ready to call upon you, we
can be sure our call will be responded to.  I would not cripple any man, I
would rather give him five yoke of oxen, than destroy his team, and you
know it.  [Some of the brethren in the stand, not believing their own
eyes, that the whole congregation rose, it was tried over again, to
satisfy them, when the congregation all rose again to a man.]  Brother
Hunter now knows what to do.  Many of the brethren are killing their
calves; don't do this; if you cannot raise them, it will be better to give
them away to those who can.

	I bless you, and may the Lord bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.



    MARCH OF "MORMONISM"--THE POWER OF GOD AND THE WISDOM OF MAN--GOOD
                 AND EVIL INFLUENCES--THE LAW OF INCREASE
   A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, June 13th, 1852.

	As there is more time which remains to be improved this morning, I
will offer a few remarks to the congregation, feeling thankful for this
privilege, and for all others that I enjoy from day to day.

	We have had the pleasure this morning of hearing the truth of the
work of the last days declared, with the testimony of one of the servants
of the Lord, (Ira Ames), who has had an experience of twenty years in this
Church.  There are many others who also have had a lengthy experience, and
some who have not had more than six months' trial, but who have, in that
short time, obtained an experience which has given them sufficient
information to satisfy them that there is a God in this work, that a
Supreme Power has attended the Gospel of salvation, or what is called
"Mormonism," from its rise to this day.  I say to all, both Saint and
sinner, that there is not an individual who has heard the sound of the
Gospel of Salvation, the report of this work of the last days, of the
coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and of the mission of Joseph Smith,
but the Spirit of the Lord in a greater or less degree accompanied that
report with power, and with the testimony of its truth, no matter as to
the character of the individual, nor yet whether he admits and embraces
the truth.  If he has heard it in its simplicity and purity, the weight of
testimony which it bears along with it, carries conviction to his mind
that it may be true, although, through the influence of the world, of evil
associations in life, or the instigations of the enemy of all
righteousness, those convictions and impressions may be swept away, which,
if exercised at the time, in sincerity, with full purpose of heart to know
the truth, would have substantiated the matter to his entire satisfaction. 
A weight of testimony always accompanies the promulgation of the Gospel of
Salvation.

	Brother Ames has said that "'Mormonism' will progress."  If it does
not, God will be dethroned, for when He undertakes to do anything, it will
be done, notwithstanding every opposing influence.  When the wicked have
power to blow out the sun, that it shines no more; when they have power to
bring to a conclusion the operations of the elements, suspend the whole
system of nature, and make a footstool of the throne of the Almighty, they
may then think to check "Mormonism" in its course, and thwart the
unalterable purposes of heaven.  Men may persecute the people who believe
its doctrines, report and publish lies to bring tribulation upon their
heads, earth and hell may unite in one grand league against it, and exert
their malicious powers to the utmost, but it will stand as firm and
immovable in the midst of it all as the pillars of eternity.  Men may
persecute the Prophet, and those who believe and uphold him, they may
drive the Saints and kill them, but this does not affect the truths of
"Mormonism" one iota, for they will stand when the elements melt with
fervent heat, the heavens are wrapt up like a scroll, and the solid earth
is dissolved.  "Mormonism" stands upon the eternal basis of omnipotence. 
Jehovah is the "Mormonism" of this people, their Priesthood and their
power; and all who adhere to it, will, in the appointed day, come up into
the presence of the King Eternal, and receive a crown of life.

	While speaking the other day to the people, I observed that "the race
was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," neither riches to men
of wisdom.  I happened to cast my eyes upon Ira Ames, who was sitting in
the congregation, I knew he had been in the Church a considerable length
of time, I have been personally acquainted with him for twenty years.  My
eye also caught many more of the first Saints at the same time.  These men
know that "Mormonism" is true, they have moved steadily forward, and have
not sought to become noted characters, as many have; but, unseen as it
were, they have maintained their footing steadily in the right path.  I
could place my hand upon many in this congregation, who will win the race,
though they are not very swift, to outward appearance, and they make not
great pretensions; they are found continually attending to their own
business.  They do not appear to be great warriors, or as if they were
likely to win the battle.  But what is their true character?  They have
faith to-day, they are filled with faith, their words are few, but they
are full in integrity.  You will find them to-morrow as they were
yesterday, or are to-day.  Visit them when you will, or under whatever
circumstances, and you find them unalterably the same; and finally when
you have spent your life with them, you will find that their lives
throughout have been well spent, full of faith, hope, charity, and good
works, as far as they have had the ability.  These are the ones who will
win the race, conquer in the battle, and obtain the peace and
righteousness of eternity.

	I would inquire if the congregation recollect the text for the
season.  Let every man who preaches it act according to it himself.  If
those who speak, do so by the Spirit of the Lord, they will speak
according to the text, for it is impossible ever to depart from it if they
remain in the truth.  If they live to it, their whole lives will aim
directly to the one grand object, namely, to be encircled, wrapt up, and
surrounded with the knowledge of God; that will make them one, (according
to the text), prepare them to do unto others as they would that others
should do unto them, to keep the whole law of the Father and the Son, and
all the laws of the Celestial Kingdom which have been, or ever will be,
revealed, and to meet the Saviour at his coming.

	It yields solid satisfaction to hear men testify of the truth of the
Gospel.  It is always peculiarly interesting to me to hear the Saints tell
their experience.  It is to me one of the best of sermons to hear men and
women relate to each other how the Lord has wrought upon their
understanding, and brought them into the path of truth, life, and
salvation.  I would rather hear men tell their own experience, and testify
that Joseph was a Prophet of the Lord, and that the Book of Mormon, the
Bible, and other revelations of God, are true; that they know it by the
gift and power of God; that they have conversed with angels, have had the
power of the Holy Ghost upon them, giving them visions and revelations,
than hear any other kind of preaching that ever saluted my ears.  If I
could command the languageand eloquence of the angels of God, I would tell
you why, but the eloquence of angels never can convince any person that
God lives, and makes truth the habitation of his throne, independent of
that eloquence being clothed with the power of the Holy Ghost; in the
absence of this, it would be a combination of useless sounds.  What is it
that convinces man?  It is the influence of the Almighty, enlightening his
mind, giving instruction to the understanding.  When that which inhabits
this body, that which came from the regions of glory, is enlightened by
the influence, power, and Spirit of the Father of light, it swallows up
the organization which pertains to this world.  Those who are governed by
this influence lose sight of all things pertaining to mortality, they are
wholly influenced by the power of eternity, and lose sight of time.  All
the honor, wisdom, strength, and whatsoever is considered desirable among
men, yea, all that pertains to this organization, which is in any way
independent of that which came from the Father of our spirits, is
obliterated to them, and they hear and understand by the same power and
spirit that clothe the Deity, and the holy beings in His presence. 
Anything besides that influence, will fail to convince any person of the
truth of the Gospel of salvation.  This is the reason why I love to hear
men testify to the various operations of the Holy Spirit upon them--it is
at once interesting and instructive.  When a subject is treated upon with
all the calculation, method, tact, and cunning of men, with the effusions
of worldly eloquence, before a congregation endowed with the power of the
Holy Ghost, and filled with the light of eternity, they can understand the
subject, trace its bearings, place all its parts where they belong, and
dispose of it according to the unalterable laws of truth.  This makes all
subjects interesting and instructive to them.  But the case is quite
different with those whose minds are not opened and instructed by the
power of God.  Sermonizing, dividing, and subdividing subjects, and
building up a fine superstructure, a fanciful and aerial building,
calculated to fascinate the mind, coupled with the choicest eloquence of
the world, will produce no good to them.  The sentiments of my mind, and
the manner of my life, are to obtain knowledge by the power of the Holy
Ghost.

If all the talent, tact, wisdom, and refinement of the world had been sent
to me with the Book of Mormon, and had declared, in the most exalted of
earthly eloquence, the truth of it, undertaking to prove it by learning
and worldly wisdom, they would have been to me like the smoke which arises
only to vanish away.  But when I saw a man without eloquence, or talents
for public speaking, who could only say, "I know, by the power of the Holy
Ghost, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of
the Lord," the Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminated my
understanding, and light, glory, and immortality were before me.  I was
encircled by them, filled with them, and I knew for myself that the
testimony of the man was true.  But the wisdom of the world, I say again,
is like smoke, like the fog of the night, that disappears before the rays
of the luminary of day, or like the hoar-frost in the warmth of the sun's
rays.  My own judgment, natural endowments, and education bowed to this
simple, but mighty testimony.  There sits the man who baptized me,
(brother Eleazer Miller.)  It filled my system with light, and my soul
with joy.  The world, with all its wisdom and power, and with all the
glory and gilded show of its kings or potentates, sinks into perfect
insignificance, compared with the simple, unadorned testimony of the
servant of God.  Jesus said, "Consider the lilies of the field," behold
the splendid, yet simple beauty of their clothing; even Solomon, the
greatest, and wisest of earthly kings, who swayed his sceptre so as to be
admired and feared by all nations--he, in all his glory could not compare
with one of these lilies, which you can sever from its native stem, with
the least effort, admire for a moment, and then toss it from you.  All
that is considered valuable, precious, glorious, or magnificent among men,
cannot even compare with that lily, which you tread under your feet, for
beauty and excellence.

	The glory of man is fleeting as the twilight, and like the "baseless
fabric" of a dream, it vanishes away.  It is fitly compared in the
Scriptures to the power of the grass when it is cut down, which whithers
and is gone forever, but when the Almighty sheds forth His Spirit upon an
individual, or upon a people, the vision of their mind is opened, so as to
discern between the things pertaining to this organization, and those
pertaining to organizations which are brought forth in other spheres, all
things are made new to them, for all things in the heavens and on the
earth are in the power of the Almighty, and can only be revealed unto
mortals, in their proper light, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

	While brother Ames was relating his experience previous to believing
and embracing the faith of the Gospel, and the few words of conversation
that passed between him and brother George Curtis, this question occurred
to my mind--"What causes men and women, whose minds have been unaccustomed
to reflect upon theological subjects, to speak so intelligently as soon as
the Spirit of the Lord touches their understanding?"  The experience of
most of the congregation can answer this question.  You are the oracle of
the Spirit, the repository of the intelligence that comes from another
state of existence invisible to the natural eye; of the influence that
produces an effect without revealing the cause, and is therefore called a
miracle.  You are already acquainted with my views upon the doctrine of
miracles.  In reality there can be no miracle, only to the ignorant. 
There are spiritual agents, invisible to the natural eye, not only in us,
but in the elements, in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, who
are continually producing effects, the cause of which we cannot
comprehend.

	Does the experience of this people teach them what that is, which
causes men and women to speak that which is wrong?  Many of them, but not
all, understand it tolerably well.  Paul could not explain it though he
was one of Gamaliel's household servants, and probably swept his house, or
cleaned his sandals.  However, he had an opportunity of learning much,
but, with all his learning and talent, he could not explain this matter
any better than his uneducated brethren.  When he would seek the Lord with
all his heart, he found something in the way, which endeavoured to
overcome him, and block up his path, when he pursued the course of
righteousness; and the only way he could explain it was by saying "when I
would do good, evil is present with me."  This evil is with us, it is that
influence which tempts to sin, and which has been permitted to come into
the world for the express purpose of giving us an opportunity of proving
ourselves before God, before Jesus Christ our elder brother, before the
holy angels, and before all good men, that we are determined to overcome
the evil, and cleave to the good, for the Lord has given us the ability to
do so.  Consequently, when the evil is present with me, I have a little
fighting to do, I must turn and combat it until it is eradicated from my
affections, as well as from my actions, that I may have power to do all
the good I wish to perform.  Every person is capable of this, all can
bridle their tongues, and cease from every evil act from this time
henceforth and forever, and do good instead.

	There is an old maxim, and in many cases an excellent one, it is,
"think twice before you speak, and three times before you act."  If we
train ourselves to think what we are about to do, before we do it, and
have understanding to know, and power to perform the good, we can thereby
avoid the evil that is present with us.  When the enemy makes war with me,
I am thrown on the defensive, and if I use my weapons skilfully, and with
firmness of purpose, my antagonist must yield to me the victory, the Lord
being my helper.  The Scriptures say--"Rebuke the devil, and he will flee
from you."  This is the duty of every Saint.  When evil is present with
us, we must overcome it, or be overcome by it.  When the devil is in our
hearts, tempting us to do that which is wrong, we must resist him, or be
led captive by him.  When brother Ames, without giving himself time to
pause or think, said to the person who presented the Gospel to him--"I do
not want to hear one word about 'Mormonism,'" it was the evil in him that
caused him so to speak.  Man is endowed with power and wisdom sufficient,
if he will exercise them, to hush to silence his tongue, and cause his
hands to cease their operations.  His feet may be swift to shed blood, but
he has power to pause, and combat and conquer the enemy; for good is
present with him also, and he is influenced in a greater or less degree,
by the Spirit of the Lord.  You experience these two opposites of good and
evil in yourselves every day you live, you are tried, tempted, and
overtaken in sin, by saying and doing that which is wrong.  Now from this
time, henceforth, pause, and, whatever you do, let it be done in a spirit
of reflection, never again act in haste, but let your actions always be
the result of mature consideration.  "Do not hurry me," is one of the
prominent characteristics of my history.  I frequently exhort the brethren
not to be in a hurry, for we shall not stop here, we are only hunting for
the grave, and there is no fear but we shall find it.

	We have embraced the Gospel, and are professedly Latter-day Saints,
but evil will introduce itself in the midst of my brethren, then I have
frequently to chastise them.  There are two thousand persons in this
assembly, and if only half a dozen of them have done wrong, I could not
chastise them without appearing to chastise the whole congregation, which
in reality is not so.  By chastising the guilty, however, it is impossible
to spot the conscience of good men and women, whose hearts are clean and
pure as a piece of white paper.

	The Lord will help those who help themselves to do right.  Should the
people be determined from this time henceforth, never to do anything but
good, and should go forth to build up the Kingdom of God, doing everything
in their power to promote the cause of truth, and never do another wrong,
it would be but a short time before this people would be a holy people,
sanctified unto the Lord.  We are already the best people on earth, but we
can still improve, we are made for that purpose, our capacities are
organized to expand until we can receive into our comprehension celestial
knowledge and wisdom, and to continue worlds without end.

	There is another thought which strikes my mind at this moment, upon
which it will perhaps be well enough to throw out a few ideas.  It has
been, and is now, believed by numerous individuals, that the brute
creation, by increase in knowledge and wisdom, change their physical or
bodily organization, through numerous states of existence, so that the
minutest insect, in the lapse of time, can take to itself the human form,
and vice versa.  This is one of the most inconsistent ideas that could be
possibly entertained in the mind of man; it is called the transmigration
of souls.  It is enough for me to know that mankind are made to improve
themselves.  All creation, visible and invisible, is the workmanship of
our God, the supreme Architect and Ruler of the whole, who organized the
world, and created every living thing upon it, to act in its sphere and
order.  To this end has He ordained all things to increase and multiply. 
The Lord God Almighty has decreed this principle to be the great,
governing law of existence, and for that purpose are we formed. 
Furthermore, if men can understand and receive it, mankind are organized
to receive intelligence until they become perfect in the sphere they are
appointed to fill, which is far ahead of us at present.  When we use the
term perfection, it applies to man in his present condition, as well as to
heavenly beings.  We are now, or may be, as perfect in our sphere as God
and Angels are in theirs, but the greatest intelligence in existence can
continually ascend to greater heights of perfection.

	We are created for the express purpose of increase.  There are none,
correctly organized, but can increase from birth to old age.  What is
there that is not ordained after an eternal law of existence?  It is the
Deity within us that causes increase.  Does this idea startle you?  Are
you ready to exclaim, "What! the Supreme in us!"  Yes.  He is in every
person upon the face of the earth.  The elements that every individual is
made of and lives in, possess the Godhead.  This you cannot now
understand, but you will hereafter.  The Deity within us is the great
principle that causes us to increase, and to grow in grace and truth.  The
operation once begun, strict obedience to the requirements of heaven is
necessary to obtain the end for which we were created, therefore let us
commence to do the will of God in earnest from this time henceforth.  Let
the child, when he comes to understanding, and the father communicates his
will to him, say, "Father, from this time, henceforth and for ever, I will
do thy will."  So it has been, beginning with Father Adam, and so it will
continue to be the duty of his posterity who will be sanctified, and enter
into the celestial kingdom.  This will cause every person to do unto
others as they would that others should do unto them, and will make them
as pure and holy in their sphere as God is in His.  Commence with it, go
through the vail into eternity with it, and still continue, and the end
thereof no man on earth knoweth, nor the angels in heaven.

	Nothing short of the Holy Ghost will do us any lasting good.  I told
you, in the beginning of my remarks, the truth as it is in heaven, and on
earth; as it is with angels, with Prophets, with all good people, and with
every sinner that dwells upon the earth.  There is not a man or woman that
loves the truth, who has heard the report of the Book of Mormon, but the
Spirit of the Almighty has testified to him or her of its truth; neither
has any man heard the name of Joseph Smith, but the Spirit has whispered
to him--"He is a true Prophet."

	God has raised up a Prophet, brought forth the Book of Mormon,
influenced the people to lay the foundation of his kingdom, taking two of
a nation, and one of a family.  When a person is worked upon by the Spirit
to believe the truth of the Gospel, the Devil tells him it is a falsehood. 
And again, "the loss of my good name" exercises a powerful influence
against a person's embracing the truth, for if he determines to adhere to
"Mormonism," his unbelieving friends take it for granted that he is
deluded.  Therefore but a few prove themselves worthy of the truth by
taking the right path.  Nearly all the world pursue their own path, they
will not believe the truth when it is declared to them, nor see the light
when it is before their eyes, but they close their eyes, harden their
hearts, and would rather believe a lie that they may be damned.

	I am experimentally conversant with the history of this Church
further back than brother Ames is, and he commenced in 1830.  At that time
it was said, "Mormonism must be put down," but IT IS NOW LARGER THAN EVER! 
They can only kill the body, and "Mormonism" is not altered by that in the
least.  The Prophet Joseph was the oracle through which God spoke; they
slew his body, but "Mormonism" is still the same.  Had "Mormonism" been a
falsehood, the Devil and the world, instead of fighting against it, would
have sustained and built it up.

	Perhaps I have said enough to the brethren at this time.  It would
give me much pleasure if we could prevail on all the inhabitants of these
valleys, on the inhabitants of the whole earth, and on ourselves, to cease
to do evil, and learn to do well; that is all I could wish or ask for. 
All I desire to live for is to see the inhabitants of the earth
acknowledge God, bow down to Him, and confess His supremacy, and His
righteous covenant.  To Him let every knee bow, and every tongue confess,
and let all creation say Amen to His wise providences.  Let every person
declare his allegiance to God, and then live to it, saying--"As for me and
my house we will serve the Lord.  As for me, and all I have, it is the
Lord's, and shall be dedicated to Him all my days."  If this can be done,
happiness is here, angels are here, God is here, and we are wrapped in the
visions of eternity.  But I am not the Lord, and can do nothing more than
others of His servants.  I can do good myself, and my brethren and sisters
can do the same; we can unitedly keep His commandments, and do His will. 
This is all I desire, to make me happy here, and feel as well as I can in
my mortal body.  When I see an Elder in Israel who is looked up to, who
stands high in the Kingdom of God, doing something to tarnish his own
character, and that of others, it grieves my spirit; but when I can see
all the people filled with the knowledge of God, then all is peace, all is
happiness with me.

	May the Lord help us to live our religion, from this time henceforth
and forever.  Amen.


    KNOWLEDGE OF THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST--THE RELIGIONS OF MEN, AND THE
            RELIGION OF GOD--JOSEPH SMITH--PERSECUTIONS, ETC.
   An address delivered by President Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, July 11, 1852.

	There are a few minutes more of time allotted to us for worship this
morning, which I will occupy for the consolation of my hearers, and for my
own.

	I can bear testimony that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true; and the
word of the Lord, whether written or spoken, is true.

	Permit me to ask a question.  Who are the individuals upon the face
of the earth, that can make this statement in truth?  Who are the
individuals that can say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and that
he lives?  Can the Christian world?  They cannot.  They may say that they
believe, and have all confidence that Jesus lives; they may have all
confidence in declaring that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true; they may
firmly declare that the Bible (referring particularly to the New
Testament) is true; that therein contained is the plan of salvation, and
is true.  This they may declare in all good conscience, and with all
soberness.  But let me ask, where are the individuals that can say that
they know that Jesus lives?  And who are the individuals that can say that
his Gospel is true, and is the plan of salvation to man?  I will let
Christendom answer this question for themselves; but to me it is certain,
that no man lives on the face of the earth--no woman lives, that can say
this, except those to whom Christ has revealed himself.

	Though others may say in all good conscience they believe he
lives--who knows the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ to be true?  There
is one class of people, and one only, that live upon the face of the
earth, who so know it; and that class of men and women are those that keep
his commandments, and do his will; none others can say it.  None others
can declare with boldness, and emphatically, that Jesus lives, and that
his Gospel is true.  Upon the plain and simple principle of logical and
philosophical deduction, we learn this from his own words, as written by
one of his disciples--"They that do my will, shall know of my doctrine,
and they that love me will keep my commandments;" and I will add, "they
that know and love me," says Jesus, "will keep my sayings."

	This is my testimony.  We have had the first principles of the Gospel
laid before us this morning, and we have heard the testimony of one of the
Apostles of the last days to confirm it.  I am also a witness to the truth
of these sayings contained in the New Testament.

	Permit me, my hearers, brethren and strangers, to say to you, there
is not that man that hears the sound of my voice this day, that can say
that Jesus lives, whether he professes to be his disciple or not; and can
say at the same time, that Joseph Smith was not a Prophet of the Lord.

	There is not that being that ever had the privilege of hearing the
way of life and salvation set before him as it is written in the New
Testament, and in the Book of Mormon, and in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants, by a Latter-day Saint, that can say that Jesus lives, that his
Gospel is true; and at the same time say that Joseph Smith was not a
Prophet of God.  That is strong testimony, but it is true.  No man can say
that this book (laying his hand on the Bible) is true, is the word of the
Lord, is the way, is the guide-board in the path, and a charter by which
we may learn the will of God; and at the same time say, that the Book of
Mormon is untrue; if he has had the privilege of reading it, or of hearing
it read, and learning its doctrines.  There is not that person on the face
of the earth who has had the privilege of learning the Gospel of Jesus
Christ from these two books, that can say that one is true, and the other
is false.  No Latter-day Saint, no man or woman, can say the Book of
Mormon is true, and at the same time say that the Bible is untrue.  If one
be true, both are; and if one be false, both are false.  If Jesus lives,
and is the Saviour of the world, Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, and
lives in the bosom of his father Abraham.  Though they have killed his
body, yet he lives and beholds the face of his Father in heaven; and his
garments are pure as the angels that surround the throne of God; and no
man on the earth can say that Jesus lives, and deny at the same time my
assertion about the Prophet Joseph.  This is my testimony, and it is
strong.

 	Permit me to say, that I am proud of my religion.  It is the only
thing I pride myself in, on the earth.  I may heap up gold and silver like
the mountains; I may gather around me property, goods, and chattels, but I
could have no glory in that, compared with my religion; it is the fountain
of light and intelligence; it swallows up the truth contained in all the
philosophy of the world, both heathen and Christian; it circumscribes the
wisdom of man; it circumscribes all the wisdom and power of the world; it
reaches to that within the veil.  Its bounds, its circumference, its end,
its height, and depth, are beyond the comprehension of mortals, for it has
none.

	Permit me to remark, my hearers, as for the intelligence of the day,
and the knowledge that they have had in Christendom--how long will it take
a man of reflection, of deep thought, and of a sound mind, to circumscribe
every particle of it?  It can be weighed and measured, as easy as the gold
dust.  For instance, go to the "Mother Church," from whence all the
religions of Christendom have sprung; go back to the time when she
flourished in her glory; and how long would it take us to circumscribe the
religion of the "Mother Church," the "Holy Catholic Church?"  Cannot we
learn the principles of that church in a very few years?  We can study her
theology until we get all the knowledge and wisdom to be had upon every
point of doctrine contained in her from first to last.  Go then to the
Church of England, and from that to the latest and last reformer that
lives upon the earth--and how long would it take to circumscribe every
particle of their religion from first to last?  Not long.

	Why do I make these remarks and assertions?  It is because I have an
experience.  All the religion of the world, I have learned already.  The
best and greatest divines that lived in my boyhood, I may say almost in my
childhood, children not as old as I was at the time, almost babes and
sucklings, would drown them in their own arguments, and confuse them. 
Question them, and they cannot answer the simplest question concerning the
character of the Deity, heaven, or hell, this or that, or the other; a
sucking child would comparatively confuse and confound them upon these
subjects; and they would wind up all by saying, "Great is the mystery of
Godliness, God manifest in the flesh."  I would say, great is their
foolery; they are profound in their ignorance.

	But I am proud to say of my religion, I have studied it faithfully
for twenty-two years, day and night, at home and abroad, upon the rivers,
and upon the lakes, when travelling by sea and by land; have studied it in
the pulpit; from morning till night; whatsoever might be my pursuit, I
have studied it with as close an application as any college student ever
did any subject he wished to commit to memory; and I can say I have only
just got into the A B C of it; it leads the vision of my mind into
eternity.

	Suppose the Almighty should unfold the future destiny of the nations
to you, and wrap you in a sea of vision, and show you the eternity of
knowledge, with the history of worlds on worlds, and their destiny--you
can then have a faint idea of what it is like; and any other man, or any
other woman, who ever has received the promise of the Gospel, knows that
the Lord Almighty is in the midst of all His creatures that are scattered
abroad among the nations of the earth, and does His pleasure among them. 
His scrutinizing eye will not suffer a hair of your head to fall to the
ground unnoticed; His attention is at once so minute and so extensive.

	He presides over the worlds on worlds that illuminate this little
planet, and millions on millions of worlds that we cannot see; and yet He
looks upon the minutest object of His creations; not one of these
creatures escapes His notice; and there is not one of them but His wisdom
and power has produced.  But that is no matter to me, I speak with regard
to you.  Is there a man who believes, or professes to believe in what
Jesus says, where he declares by one of his Apostles, or by more than one
pointedly, there is no half way work in this matter?  Now if you can
believe it, it is directly to the point; says he, "If you love me, you
will keep my commandments;" and if you do not love me, you will not keep
my commandments--this follows as a matter of course; and that will show to
my Father, and to my brethren that follow me, that you do love me; and so
say I, they that love the Lord Jesus, will keep his cammandments [sic].

	Why should I not be proud of my religion?  if a man be permitted to
have pride at all; or if this people be permitted to indulge in it in the
least degree, why not be proud of their religion?  for God loves it,
angels adore it, all the heavenly hosts delight in it; it is in the midst
of an eternity of intelligence, and forms a part of it; while, on the
other hand, all hell is opposed to it, all wickedness is opposed to it,
all men and women who desire to make sin their refuge, hate it; and all
hell, and all its votaries hate it, and the Lord Almighty, with all His
subjects, loves it; and He will yet rule triumphantly over this earth. 
What shall we say, will not Jesus reign and subdue the world?  Is he not
the Saviour of the world, and the only begotten Son of the Father, and
will he not accomplish the work he came to accomplish?  Is not the earth
the Lord's, the wheat, the fine flour, the gold, the silver, the earth and
all its fullness?  Can you imagine to yourselves anything that pertains to
this earth that does not belong to its Redeemer?  He is my master, my
elder brother.  He is the character I look to, and the one I try to serve
to the best of my ability.  Should I not be proud of my religion?  I think
if pride can at all be indulged in, the Latter-day Saints should be proud.

	I know there are a great many people who are not acquainted with the
history of this people; I am personally and most intimately acquainted
with the history of Joseph Smith and this people, for twenty-two years. 
There are a great many people that are not; and they have thought we have
been persecuted from state to state, and from place to place, because of
our wickedness and lawless acts among the people.  I need not say it to my
Father in heaven, to Jesus Christ His Son, or to the holy angels, or the
Prophets and Apostles, who have lived in former, or in latter days; for
they know it; but I can say to those who do not understand and know our
history, that we have been persecuted because we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and do just as he has told us, and not because of the evil acts of
Joseph Smith.

	Joseph Smith was not killed because he was deserving of it, nor
because he was a wicked man; but because he was a virtuous man.  I know
that to be so, as well as I know that the sun now shines.  Every man and
woman who does the will of the Father, and will keep the commandments of
Jesus Christ, may also know, as well as myself--it is their privilege.  I
know for myself that Joseph Smith was the subject of forty-eight
law-suits, and the most of them I witnessed with my own eyes; but not one
action could ever be made to bear against him.  No law or constitutional
right did he ever violate.  He was innocent and virtuous; he kept the law
of his country, and lived above it; out of forty-eight law suits, (and I
was with him in the most of them), not one charge could be substantiated
against him.  He was pure, just, and holy, as to the keeping of the law. 
Now this I state for the satisfaction of those who do not know our
history; but the Lord and the angels know all about it.

	Let me ask another question; do the people know what we were driven
from Missouri for?  An old friend of mine, called upon me the day before
yesterday.  He said he had been watching my course, had looked and
inquired after me, and had endeavored to find out my history, for we were
friends.  I asked him if he knew anything about the Latter-day Saints, or
not?  I found he had been looking after me, and had learned I had become a
follower of Joseph Smith.  I said, Do you know anything about our history? 
By his reply, I found he knew nothing at all of it, in comparison.

	A great many are in the like situation.  Now let me relate one item
of it, not for those who are wise, and pretend to be filled with
knowledge, and at the same time know nothing, but I relate it for the
information of those who know nothing about it.  To my certain knowledge,
men and women left the counties of Davies and Caldwell, in the upper part
of the state of Missouri, set fire to their own buildings, drove off their
cattle killed and slayed, (I know, and could name the people), and then
swore the "Mormons" had done it.  Now this circumstance came under my
certain knowledge.  Says I, can it be possible that men can become so
corrupt, and so sunken in wickedness?  I say this for the information of
those who do not understand and know this people from the beginning.  From
the first day I knew brother Joseph to the day of his death, a better man
never lived upon the face of this earth.

	From the days of my youth, and I will say from the day that I came
upon the stage of action to act for myself, there never was a boy, a man,
either old or middle aged, that ever tried to live a life more pure and
refined than your humble servant.  As I told my friend, says I, Brother
Brown, I have tried to make myself a better man from the day of our first
acquaintance to this.  I have not infringed upon any law, or trod upon the
rights of my neighbors; but I have tried to walk in the paths of
righteousness, and live an humble life, that I might gain eternal
happiness.  I make bold to speak thus, though in the eastern world it is
quite unpopular to speak in one's own praise; but since I have become a
western man, I can make stump speeches.  Why am I driven from my
possessions?  Why am I persecuted, and forced to leave thousands and
thousands of dollars worth of property in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois? 
though I have never looked back upon it, it {s as ashes under my feet.  I
am in the hands of God, He gave it, and He took it away; and blessed be
the name of the Lord.

	I am in His hands; all men are in His hands; and He has turned the
enemy in his way. and held him by His power.  It is not I, it is not
Joseph, it is not this people, nor the wisdom they possess, that has
delivered them from their enemies; but it is the Lord.  He is our captain,
our pilot, and our master, and in Him do we glory, and will glory.  Let
the world say what they please, we will glory in our holy religion, and
God will we serve.  And furthermore let me remark, I am not afraid nor
ashamed to expose and oppose the iniquity of men, though they may stand in
high places; neither was Joseph Smith.  Let death come, no matter for
that; who cares for it?

	I am aware, as well as brother Kimball, if my body fall into the
dust, I am laying it down to abide the penalty of the law broken in the
fall of man; for dust I am, and unto dust I must return.  It is all right
to me; I have seen a great many times that I would like to have this body
lie down, but as long as the spirit and body hold together, my tongue
shall be swift against evil, the Lord Almighty being my helper.  Though it
may be in "Mormon" Elders, among the people in or out of the Church, if
they come in my path, where I can chastise them, the Lord Almighty being
my helper, my tongue shall be swift against evil; and if evil come, let it
come.  If for this my body shall fall, let it fall; when they have
destroyed the body, then they can do no more that they can do; that is the
end of their power, and of the power of the devil on this earth; but Jesus
Christ has power to destroy both soul and body in hell.  I thank you for
your attention.  May the Lord bless you.  Amen.

          THE PIONEERS--CAPABILITIES AND SETTLEMENT OF THE GREAT
                   BASIN--EXHORTATION TO FAITHFULNESS.
     A speech delivered by President Brigham Young in the Tabernacle,
Great Salt Lake City, 1852, at the anniversary of the 24th of July, 1847.

	I wish to make a few remarks only to this congregation, as the time
allotted to us this morning, is far spent.  The remarks which have been
made previous to my rising are very good, as they are also true.  They are
things not fresh to the majority of this assembly, though there may be
some present who are perhaps ignorant of them.

	Suffice it to say, that five years ago this day, the Pioneers
approached this valley, with their implements of husbandry, &c., which
were represented by them in the procession to-day.  We came for the
purpose of finding a place to set our feet, where we could dwell in peace. 
That place we have found.  If the Saints cannot enjoy that peace which is
so dear to them here, I would say that I am ignorant of the spot on the
earth where they can.  Where could a place have been found where we might
enjoy freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of worship?  If
not in these mountains, I am ignorant of the place.

	We have enjoyed perfect peace here for five years; and I trust we
shall for many years to come.  If the Saints are persecuted, it is for
their good; if they are driven, it is for their good; consequently, when I
reflect, I have nothing to fear in all the persecutions or hardships I may
pass through in connection with this people, but the one thing, and that
is, to stray from the religion I have embraced, and be forsaken of my God. 
If you or I should see that day, we shall see at once that the world will
love its own; and affliction, persecutions, death, fire, and the sword,
will cease to follow us.

	If the Latter-day Saints magnify their calling, walk humbly before
their God, do the things that are pleasing to their Father in heaven, and
walk up to their duty in every respect, I am bold to say that not five
years only, but scores of years, will pass away without the Saints ever
being interrupted, or driven again from their possessions: thus far it is
for our good.

	I did not rise for the purpose of delivering an oration on this
occasion, but to remind you of the blessings we now are privileged to
enjoy.  When we first approached this valley, there was not a man upon the
face of the earth who ever had beheld these valleys of the mountains, or
knew anything of the Great Basin, who knew that corn, or any other kind of
grain could be raised here.  Can you find the man who had any knowledge of
the Great Basin, as it is called, that believed there could be an ear of
corn ripened in it?  There is not that man on the earth, when you have
excepted the people called the Latter-day Saints.  We came here and
planted our garden-seeds of various kinds, five years ago this day; they
grew, but they did not ripen, though the buck-wheat would have ripened,
perhaps, had it been properly taken care of; some other grains also would
have come to maturity, so as to have assisted a small colony to live here;
they, however, lived; how?  Shall I say by faith?  Yes, partially so; for
had they not had faith, they certainly never would have come to this
place: it is the faith of the Latter-day Saints that brought them here.

	There is a very mysterious principle that abides with this people; it
is a mystery, and one of the greatest mysteries to the inhabitants of the
earth that have been made acquainted by history, or by personal knowledge,
with this people.  And what makes it more singular, say they, by all our
calculations we cannot conceive of it; it is so mysterious that it
absolutely amounts to a miracle.  What is this great mystery?  It is that
these Latter-day Saints are of one heart, and of one mind.

	To Saint and sinner, believer and unbeliever, I wish here to offer
one word of advice and counsel, by revealing the mystery that abides with
this people called Latter-day Saints; it is the Spirit of the living God
that leads them; it is the Spirit of the Almighty that binds them
together; it is the influence of the Holy Ghost that makes them love each
other like little children; it is the spirit of Jesus Christ that makes
them willing to lay down their lives for the cause of Truth; and it was
that same Spirit that caused Joseph our martyred Prophet to lay down his
life for the testimony of what the Lord revealed to him.  This mystery,
the great mystery of "Mormonism," is, that the Spirit of the Lord binds
the hearts of the people together.  Let the world look at it.  This I say
by way of exhortation, if you please.  Let the inhabitants of the earth
gaze upon this people, this wondrous people, for a magic power attends
them; something mysterious hangs around them.  What is it?  It is not
magnetism; it is something more wonderful; those that are present this day
may truly say it is wonderful in the extreme.  Who gives me power, that
"at the pointing of my finger," the hosts of Israel move, and at my
request the inhabitants of this great Territory are displaced; at my
command they are here?  Who gives me that power?  Let the world inquire. 
It is the God of heaven; it is the Spirit of the Holy Gospel; it is not of
myself; it is the Lord Jesus Christ, trying to save the inhabitants of the
earth.

	The people are here; they endure. Did they bring their bread with
them? No.  Did they bring their meat with them?  No.  Did they bring that
that sustained them until they raised it from the earth?  They could not
do it, for they were obliged to bring tools, ploughs, drag-chains, &c.;
they were obliged to bring their wives and children in their wagons; five,
and six, and eight, and in some wagons ten, people would get huddled
together, to drive a thousand miles from all sustenance, and there plant
themselves in the wilderness, where nothing met the eye but snowy peaks,
and parched vales; and trust in the God of Israel to sustain them.  Let
the world ask the question--would the Methodists thus run the hazard of
losing their lives for their religion?  Would the Presbyterians, the
Baptists, the Quakers, or their old mother, the Roman Catholic church, run
the same risk?  Would she venture thus in the wilderness?  No.  It is not
very common to find a whole people on the earth, as in the case of the
Latter-day Saints, who would do it; though single individuals might be
found so enthusiastic as to sacrifice their lives, and run into a lion's
den, in proof of their faith in their religion.  But where are the tens of
thousands, and the scores of thousands, and the hundreds of thousands, who
would lay down every principle of life and happiness, and everything that
is desirable, pertaining to this world, for the principles of eternal
life; and would go forth into the wilderness, having no other stay but the
hand of God to lead them?  They are not to be found!

	We meet here and celebrate the day; five years we have been in this
valley; and I will say to the new comers, our brethren, or those who are
not our brethren, three years ago last October, the first house was reared
in this place.  There was not a rod of fence, nor a house, except the old
fort, and a little log cabin.  Here we are now, spread out from the east
to the west, measurably so, but more extensively to the north and south. 
Travel through the valleys, and scan the houses, and the farms, and see
the improvements that have been made; take the back track of the
"Mormons;" follow them from here to Nauvoo; from Nauvoo to Far West; then
to Kirtland; and back to Missouri again to Jackson county; and all people
will acknowledge that the "Mormons" have had enough to do to mind their
own business, and make the improvements that have been performed by them!
they have done nothing but mind their own business.  Look at the
improvements that have followed this people, in all their travels up to
this place, for a testimony of their endurance, and unflinching industry.

	I say to this community, be humble, be faithful to your God, true to
His Church, benevolent to the strangers that may pass through our
territory, and kind to all people; serving the Lord with all your might,
trusting in him; but never fear the frowns of an enemy, nor be moved by
the flatteries of friends or of enemies from the path of right.  Serve
your God; believe in Him, and never be ashamed of Him, and sustain your
character before Him, for very soon we will meet in a larger congregation
than this, and have a celebration far superior; we will celebrate our
perfect and absolute deliverance from the power of the devil; we only
celebrate now our deliverance from the good brick houses we have left,
from our farms and lands, and from the graves of our fathers; we celebrate
our perfect deliverance from these.

	Our lives have been spared, and we are yet upon this planet; and by
and by we will celebrate a perfect deliverance from all the powers of
earth; and we will keep our eyes set upon the mark, and go forward to
victory.

	I say to the aged, to the middle-aged, and to the young--all be true
to your God, true to your brethren, and kind to all, serving God with all
your heart.  And may He bless you for Jesus' sake.  Amen.

       WEAKNESSES OF MAN--LOYALTY OF THE SAINTS--CORRUPTION OF THE
           WORLD--TRUE LIBERTY--CONDUCT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
   A discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, August 1, 1852.

	As there is still a little time which may be occupied to our benefit
this morning, I arise to improve it.

	These are happy days to the Saints, and we should rejoice in them;
they are the best days we ever saw; and in the midst of the sorrows and
afflictions of this life, its trials and temptations, the buffetings of
Satan, the weakness of the flesh, and the power of death which is sown in
it, there is no necessity for any mortal man to live a single day without
rejoicing, and being filled with gladness.  I allude to the Saints, who
have the privilege of receiving the Spirit of truth, and have been
acquainted with the laws of the new covenant.  There is no necessity of
one of these passing a day without enjoying all the blessings his
capacities are capable of receiving.  Yet it is necessary that we should
be tried, tempted, and buffeted, to make us feel the weaknesses of this
mortal flesh.  We all feel them; our systems are full of them, from the
crown of the head to the soles of the feet; still, in the midst of all
these weaknesses and frailties of human nature, it is the privilege of
every person who has come to the knowledge of the truth, to rejoice in
God, the rock of his salvation, all the day long.  We rejoice because the
Lord is ours, because we are sown in weakness for the express purpose of
attaining to greater power and perfection.  In every thing the Saints may
rejoice--in persecution, because it is necessary to purge them, and
prepare the wicked for their doom; in sickness and in pain, though they
are hard to bear, because we are thereby made acquainted with pain, with
sorrow, and with every affliction that mortals can endure, for by contrast
all things are demonstrated to our senses.  We have reason to rejoice
exceedingly that faith is in the world, that the Lord reigns, and does His
pleasure among the inhabitants of the earth.  Do you ask if I rejoice
because the Devil has the advantage over the inhabitants of the earth, and
has afflicted mankind?  I most assuredly answer in the affirmative; I
rejoice in this as much as in anything else.  I rejoice because I am
afflicted.  I rejoice because I am poor.  I rejoice because I am cast
down.  Why?  Because I shall be lifted up again.  I rejoice that I am
poor, because I shall be made rich; that I am afflicted, because I shall
be comforted, and prepared to enjoy the felicity of perfect happiness, for
it is impossible to properly appreciate happiness, except by enduring the
opposite.

	I was glad to hear brother Babbit speak this morning.  He wondered
why he had been called to the stand to speak, and could not conceive of
any other reason, except it was that the people might know whether he was
in the faith or not.  He guessed pretty nigh right.  He has been gone some
time, and travels to and fro in the earth, playing into law up to the
eyes, mingling with the bustle of the wicked world.  Has he got any faith? 
We think he has.  I wanted to hear him speak, and to know what his
feelings were, and if the root of the matter was in him; so we had him
come before the public congregation, to exhibit it there.  My reasons for
pursuing such a course are known to myself; but one thing is certain, if
we magnify our calling as Elders in Israel, we are the saviors of the
children of men, instead of being their destroyers.  We were ordained to
save the people, and to save them in the manner the Lord has pointed out. 
The Savior came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; and
we preach to the people, and call upon them to be saved--not the
righteous, but we call upon sinners; for those that are well, need no
physician, but they that are sick.  With those who are saved already, we
have nothing to do.  But it is those who are in sin and transgression, who
are in darkness and in weakness, those who are wrapt up in the
superstitions and false traditions of the nations that have lived and
passed away, whom we must plead with and try to save; and if they begin to
see, continue to anoint their eyes with truth, that they may see clearly;
and put them in every possible condition we can place them in, to
encourage them to call upon the Lord, and trust in Him alone; for those
who will trust in the Lord will be made strong.

	As for the weaknesses of human nature, we have plenty of them;
weakness and sin are with us constantly; they are sown in the mortal body,
and extend from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet.  We need
not go to our neighbors for sin, to palliate all our crimes, for we
ourselves have plenty of it; we need not crave weakness from our fellow
man, we have our own share of it; it is for us to trust in the Lord, and
endeavor to deliver ourselves from the effects of sin, plead with every
person to take the same course, and propose and plan every possible means
to become friends of God, that we may thereby become friends of sinners,
and receive a great reward in a day to come.

	I am satisfied with the remarks of brother Babbit; and if we sum them
all up, and make a close calculation upon the whole, looking over the
lives of Prophets, Patriarchs, and Apostles; not overlooking the
circumstance of Peter denying his Lord, or any of the old ancients
faltering in their steps, transgressing, falling into weaknesses, turning
away from the commandments of the Lord, or being overtaken in any fault
whatever--sum up the whole, and add the weaknesses and sins of modern
Prophets, Apostles, and Saints; then sum up all the weaknesses and sins of
mankind, and bring them together, and you will find that it will never
justify you nor me one moment in doing a wrong thing, in forsaking the
Lord, and serving the devil, or any of his emissaries. Consequently, I
feel to urge upon every person who has named the name of Christ, the
necessity of his being faithful to the requirements of his religion, and
of shunning all evil, as quick as he becomes acquainted with the principle
by which he can discriminate between good and evil; and cleave unto the
good, follow after it, pray for it, and cling to it by day and by night,
if he wants to enjoy the blessings of a celestial kingdom.  I wish this
for myself and for my brethren.  Never think that the Lord will permit you
to commit a little sin here, and a little sin there; that He will permit
you to lie a little, serve yourselves or somebody else a little, besides
Him, because you have faith, and are a professed friend of God, and have a
desire to see His kingdom prevail, thinking you will be saved at last. 
This throws a person, at least, upon the ground where he is liable to be
overthrown by the enemy.  It is a risky position to stand in, to say the
least of it, for a Saint of God to say he can serve himself, or the enemy,
or anything else in this world, for gold; those who do it, stand upon
slippery ground, and if they are saved at all, it will be by the skin of
their teeth; so I will not justify any person in pursuing such a course. 
Brother Babbit has to law it here, and law it there; though he may not
feel justified in doing so, I rejoice to hear him declare that the root of
the matter is in him.  Would I not rather see him an almighty man before
God, thundering out the truths of eternity, and living in the frame of
revelation, than see him engaged in the paltry business of pettifogging? 
I thank the Lord for all the good and for all the faith there is in him. 
Brother Babbit is near to my heart, for notwithstanding all the faults of
the brethren, I love them--the old, middle aged, and young; if they have a
particle of love in them for the truth, they are near to my heart.  I wish
to bind them to the Lord, and to His cause upon the earth, that they may
secure to themselves salvation.

	I am happy, and am made glad this day.  If you wish to know what I
think of brother Babbit, I will tell you. If we could keep him here a few
months, and in our councils a few years, I think that he would despise
litigation as he would the gates of hell.  If we had him here, we would
wrap him up in the Spirit and power of God, and send him to preach glad
tidings to the nations of the earth, instead of his being engaged in the
low and beggarly business of pettifogging.  If he would dwell among us,
doubtless he would despise it, for it is from hell, and it will go there.

	We have heard good remarks, but let me forewarn you again, that the
Elders in Israel need never flatter themselves that they can serve the
devil, because they think the root of the matter is in them, for before
they are aware, they will be led captive by him, and he will lead them
down to hell.  That is my exhortation, not only to the Elders in Israel,
but to all Saints.

	There is one thing in the sayings of brother Babbit, which I will
refer to, in relation to the loyalty of this people.  I am at the defiance
of the rulers of the greatest nation on the earth, with the United States
all put together, to produce a more loyal people than the Latter-day
Saints.  Have they, as a people, broken any law?  No, they have not.  Have
the United States?  Yes! they have trampled the Constitution under their
feet with impunity, and ridden recklessly over all law, to persecute and
drive this people.  Admit, for argument's sake, that the "Mormon" Elders
have more wives than one, yet our enemies never have proved it.  If I had
forty wives in the United States, they did not know it, and could not
substantiate it, neither did I ask any lawyer, judge, or magistrate for
them.  I live above the law, and so do this people.  Do the laws of the
United States require us to crouch and bow down to the miserable wretches
who violate them?  No.  The broad law of the whole earth is that every
person has the right to enjoy every mortal blessing, so far as he does not
infringe upon the rights and privileges of others.  It is also according
to the acts of every legislative body throughout the Union, to enjoy all
that you are capable of enjoying; but you are forbidden to infringe upon
the rights, property. wife, or anything in the possession of your
neighbor.  I defy all the world to prove that we have infringed upon that
law.  You may circumscribe the whole earth, and pass through every
Christian nation, so called, and what do you find?  If you tell them a
"Mormon" has two wives, they are shocked, and call it dreadful blasphemy;
if you whisper such a thing into the ears of a Gentile who takes a fresh
woman every night, he is thunderstruck with the enormity of the crime. 
The vile practice of violating female virtue with impunity is customary
among the professed Christian nations of the world; this is therefore no
marvel to them, but they are struck with amazement when they are told a
man may have more lawful wives than one!  What do you think of a woman
having more husbands than one?  This is not known to the law, yet it is
done in the night, and considered by the majority of mankind to be all
right.  There are certain governments in the world, that give women
license to open their doors and windows to carry on this abominable
practice, under the cover of night.  Five years ago the census of New York
gave 15,000 prostitutes in that city.  Is that law?  Is that good order? 
Look at your Constitution, look at the Federal law, look at every
wholesome principle, and they tell you that death is at your doors,
corruption in your streets, and hell is all open, and gaping wide to
inclose you in its fiery vortex.  To talk about law and good order while
such things exist, makes me righteously angry.  Talk not to me about law.

 	Suppose that the things they are pleased to say about this people are
true, do you suppose I care about it?  I do not, for I ask no odds of
them.  This people have treated them kindly.  Did we not pay for our land
honorably when we settled in Missouri and other places?  We have paid them
millions of dollars for land, of which we have been basely robbed; and
shall I crouch down, and say I dare not speak of it?  I would rather have
my head severed from my body in this room, than be compelled to be silent
on this matter.  I am a green mountain boy, I was born in the State of
Vermont, and plead for my rights, and the rights of this people, upon the
broad Constitution of the United States, which we shall certainly
maintain, in spite of the poor, rotten, political curses that pretend to
enforce the Constitution.  I ask no odds of them.  I will feed them, if
they come hungry to my door, for they are flesh of my flesh.  The King
upon the throne, and the President in his chair, are the same to me as
these poor emigrants, who are lying around my doors--when they are hungry,
I feed them; when they are sick, I nurse them; the same as I would the
President of the United States, or any of the kings of Europe, unless they
were better men.

	As for the pride that is in the world, I walk over it, it is beneath
me.  To see men who are called gentlemen of character, sense, taste, and
ability, who pass through this city, and come bending with their
recommendation, saying, "Governor Young this," and "Governor Young
that"--it makes me feel to loathe such hypocritical show, in my heart.  I
shall not say all I think about it.  If they would come to me, and say,
"Brigham, how are you?" or, "I want to speak to you, &c.," with a good
honest heart in them, instead of, "Governor Young," "Governor Young," in a
canting tone, with hearts as black and deceitful as hell, they would
command that esteem from me which is due to an honest man.

	A blackleg is a polished rascal.  If you go to the polished circles
of society, you will find the greatest scape-graces and pickpockets
concealed under the most polished gentlemen ia appearance.  A man never
can be a polished scoundrel, until he can figure in polished society.  It
proves the truth of the saying, that it takes all the revelations of God,
and every good principle in the world, to make a man perfectly ripe for
hell.

	You will not see in the nature of a man who has a soul in him, and
who is filled with the Holy Ghost, a disposition to bow and scrape to
every blackguard that may come in the shape and address of a gentleman. 
But if you are thirsty, hungry, or destitute, I will assist you.  How many
have I helped away to California, and given them bread and meat,
notwithstanding they wanted to go to the devil; this made no difference to
me; I have helped them, and told them to go, if they wished to.  There is
no tyranny here, but perfect liberty, which is a boon held sacred to all
men.  They have a right to come and go as they please.  I do not ask you
to be a "Mormon."  Can you point out one person who has entreated any of
the emigrants to become "Mormons," since they came into our midst?  Since
their arrival here, we have been kind and hospitable to them, and have not
cared whether they have been "Mormons" or Methodists.  They can come and
hear preaching, if they think proper; but we shall never put them to any
trouble because they are not "Mormons."

	You may say you do not believe in God.  Well, it is your privilege to
believe as you like; you can believe in the Methodists' God, that has
neither body, parts, nor passions (which amounts to nothing at all), if
you please.

	But one may say, "I belong to the holy Catholic Church."  You have a
right to belong to what Church you please.  Another may say he believes in
and worships a white dog, for he has lived with the nations who have a
tradition teaching them to do so.  It is all right; you are as welcome to
worship a white dog as the God I do, if it is your wish.  I am perfectly
willing you should serve the kind of a god you choose, or no god at all;
and that you should enjoy all that is for you to enjoy.

	There are some things, however, I am not willing you should do.  For
instance, I am not willing you should steal the money out of my pocket,
and then cry, "Bad dog;" and get somebody to kill me.  I am not willing
you should enter my house to defile my bed, or endeavor to bring death
upon an innocent people.  I am not willing you should drive me and my
brethren from our houses and farms, as has been the case in former times. 
There are scores of thousands, I may say hundreds of thousands, of acres
of land in the United States, for which we have paid money, but which we
cannot possess.  I am not willing you should drive your cattle into my
corn field, which has been done before my eyes, by men who have thought,
"You are only poor damned Mormons anyhow, and we'll tread you down."  I am
willing every man should worship God as he pleases, and be happy.  But the
measure that has been meted to this people, will be measured to that
people; and it will be heaped up, pressed down, and running over; and then
as much again thrown in; all this good measure I am willing they should
have when the Lord will.  I shall not exult in the miseries that will come
upon them, but weep over them; whereas I have seen a mob with their rifles
pointed at me by hundreds, and could not be moved to tears, but I felt
like Daniel of old, "I will worship my God, and pray with my windows open,
if my life should be the penalty."  I would not be afraid if the whole
artillery of the United States, with the best engineers that could be
raised to manage it, were arrayed against me for righteousness' sake,
knowing that the God of heaven, in whom I trust, would not suffer a ball
to touch me, if it was His will that I should yet live.  This I have felt
time and time again.

	I do not desire to harass the feelings of the people by reiterating
the past, but if you want these things buried up, treat us like men and
human beings, and they will be forgotten, but if you still want to probe
us with the hot iron of persecution, probe on.

	We came here ourselves, unassisted by any power, but that of God, and
walked through the Indian tribes as independent as I am this day.  We dug
our way through the kanyons, and made the roads to this place; while at
the same time five hundred of our most energetic men were fighting the
battles of the United States in Mexico.

	When our women and children were left on the banks of the Missouri,
in a helpless condition, I said to one of the United States officers, who
had been threatening those who were left behind--"While I am gone to find
a home for my family, if you meddle with them, or insult them in the
least, by the Gods of Eternity I will be on your track."  And had their
threats been executed, I would have slain them, even though I should have
had to go into the heart of Washington city to do it.  Says he, "Mr.
Young, you talk strangely."  "Well," I said, "let my family alone;" for
they wanted to persuade them back to the other side of the river, to
afflict them still more.

	Five hundred of our best men were then in the United States' army,
traversing the sandy deserts and scorching plains of the South, without
shoes to their feet, or clothes to cover them. There are scores in the
congregation who can prove this declaration.  On one occasion they
travelled day and night for ninety miles, through the scorching sands,
without one drop of water.  And now, as payment for this arduous service,
they try to taunt us by saying--"We don't want to give you Mormons
anything."  I care not if you should never give us one dime.

	Now let me tell you the great killing story--"Governor Young has
sixteen wives, and fourteen babies."  Now they did not see that sight; but
the circumstance was as follows.  I took some of my neighbors into the
large carriage, and rode down to father Chase's, to eat water melons. 
When driving out of the gate in the evening, brother Babbit walks up, and
I invited him into the carriage, and he rode up into the city with me, and
I suppose he told the United States' officers.  That I believe is the way
the story of sixteen wives and fourteen children first came into
circulation.  But this does not begin to be the extent of my possessions,
for I am enlarging on the right hand and on the left, and shall soon be
able, Abraham like, to muster the strength of my house, and take my
rights, asking no favors of Judges or Secretaries.

	Do you think we shall all die in Utah?  If so, why have we not died
ere this, when we dwelt in the midst of a people that cherished hostile
feelings against the Latter-day Saints?  Who delivered Joseph Smith from
the hands of his enemies to the day of his death?  It was God; though he
was brought to the brink of death time and time again, and, to all human
appearance, could not be delivered, and there was no probability of his
being saved.  When he was in jail in Missouri, and no person expected that
he would ever escape from their hands, I had the faith of Abraham, and
told the brethren, "As the Lord God liveth, he shall come out of their
hands."  Though he had prophesied that he would not live to be forty years
of age, yet we all cherished hopes that that would be a false prophecy,
and we should keep him for ever with us; we thought our faith would
outreach it, but we were mistaken--he at last fell a martyr to his
religion.  I said, "It is all right; now the testimony is in full force;
he has sealed it with his blood, and that makes it valid."

	I would be happy, exceedingly happy, to let our past experience and
afflictions sleep for ever; but the Lord will not suffer me to let them
sleep. I would be willing to forget them, but I cannot.  The Lord will
never suffer this people to dwindle down, and be hid up in a corner; it
cannot be; neither does He want any person to help them but Himself. 
Satan and the Lord never can shake hands, and He will let the nation know
it; for He has got servants who will do His righteous will, and that
faithfully.  I would rather be chopped to pieces at night, and resurrected
in the morning, each day throughout a period of three-score years and ten,
than be deprived of speaking freely, or be afraid of doing so.  I will
speak for my rights.  I would just as soon tell a government officer of
his meanness and filthy conduct, as I would any other person; they are all
alike to God, and to those who know His will.

	I have studied the law, and say again, I defy the united authorities
of the earth to shew where this people have not been loyal, wherein they
have not proved loyal, in Germany, in France, in England, or in the United
States; for they are the best people upon the face of the earth to observe
the law and keep order.  I want to live perfectly above the law, and make
it my servant, instead of its being my master.  That is the way to live:
to be humble before God, and observe the laws; for there is no necessity
of breaking the laws in America, in keeping the commandments of God.  When
the law is our master, the yoke is hard to bear; but when it is our
servant, it works easy; whereas, if it be our master, we are continually
compelled and driven by it.

	There is not a single constitution of any single state, much less the
constitution of the Federal Government, that hinders a man from having two
wives; and I defy all the lawyers of the United States to prove the
contrary.

	Let the past experience be buried in the land of forgetfulness, if
the Lord will; but if this is done at all, it will be by showing kindness
towards us in the future.  If they wish us to forget the past, let them
cease to make and circulate falsehoods about us, and let all the good
people of the Government say--"Let us do this people good for the future,
and not try to crush them down all the day long by continuing to persecute
them."

	If we are a company of poor, ignorant, deluded creatures, why do not
they show us a better example?  Why not send the money to pay the expenses
of our legislature, and the expenses of the expeditions against the
Indians, as they do to other territories?  Their present course towards
us, put in language, is, "We will squeeze them still, and dig out their
eyes if it be possible."  While they continue to pursue that course
towards us, we shall continue to tell them of it.  It makes me think of
what an old farmer said in Boston, who had been in the habit of paying his
merchant's bills very punctually, but, from some cause, he did not
continue to meet his payments as usual.  The merchant sent for him, and
said--"I have always found you to be a very honest man, why do you now lie
to me?"  The farmer replied,--"Because I am pinched."  The merchant
asked--"How hard should an honest man be pinched to make him lie?"  The
farmer replied--"Just pinch him till he lies."  They want to pinch us till
we are led to do something to bring the whole nation down upon us,
according to the plan of old Tom Benton, but, gentlemen, this cannot be
done, for there is a God in Heaven, and He rules, thank His Holy Name; and
we will be wise enough to keep His commandments, that we may be saved. 
Amen.

        THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION--A VISION--REDEMPTION OF THE EARTH
                       AND ALL THAT PERTAINS TO IT.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, August 8, 1852.

	I will read a revelation given to Joseph Smith, junior, and Sidney
Rigdon.  But previous to my doing so, and commencing upon the subject that
I expect to lay before the people this morning, I will say to them, my
understanding with regard to preaching the Gospel of Salvation is this:
there is but one discourse to be preached to all the children of Adam; and
that discourse should be believed by them, and lived up to.  To commence,
continue, and finish this Gospel sermon, will require all the time that is
allotted to man, to the earth, and all things upon it, in their mortal
state; that is my idea with regard to preaching.  No man is able to set
before a congregation all the items of the Gospel, in this life, and
continue these items to their termination, for this mortal life is too
short.  It is inseparably connected, one part with the other, in all the
doctrines that have been revealed to man, which are now called the various
doctrines of Christianity, of which all the professors of religion believe
a portion; but severally reject, or desire to reject, other portions of
the truth; each sect or individual, taking to themselves portions of the
Bible, portions of the doctrine of salvation, that are the most pleasing
to them, rejecting all the rest, and mingling these doctrines with the
tenets of men.

	But let a Gospel sermon be preached, wherein all the principles of
salvation are embodied, and we will acknowledge, at the end of the
mortality of this earth, and all things created upon it--at the closing up
scene, at the final consummation of all things that have been from the
commencement of the creation of the world, and the peopling of it unto the
latest generation of Adam and Eve, and the final finishing up of the work
of Christ--I say, we shall acknowledge that there is the Gospel sermon,
and that it could not be preached to finite beings, in one short life.

	I make these remarks for the purpose of extricating myself from the
arduous task of undertaking to set before this congregation, every item of
the doctrine of salvation, in all of their various significations, as they
are presented in this life, and according to our understanding.  I make
these introductory remarks to free myself from the great task of finishing
the discourse I shall commence.  I did not expect to finish it; I do not
expect to see the end of it, until the winding up scene.  I do not even
commence at the beginning of it; I only catch at it, where it comes to me,
in the 19th century, for it has been before me; it is from eternity to
eternity.

	Christ is the author of this Gospel, of this earth, of men and women,
of all the posterity of Adam and Eve, and of every living creature that
lives upon the face of the earth, that flies in the heavens, that swims in
the waters, or dwells in the field.  Christ is the author of salvation to
all this creation; to all things pertaining to this terrestrial globe we
occupy.

	This, however, would be contrary to our prejudices, to admit for a
moment, that Christ, in his redeeming properties, has power to redeem any
of the works of his hands--any other living creature, but the children of
Adam and Eve--this would not be in accordance with our prepossessed
feelings, and long-imbibed prejudices, perhaps; but he has redeemed the
earth; he has redeemed mankind and every living thing that moves upon it;
and he will finish his Gospel discourse when he overcomes his enemies, and
puts his last enemy under his feet--when he destroys death, and him that
hath the power of it--when he has raised up this kingdom, and finished his
work which the Father gave him to do, and presents it to his Father,
saying, "I have done the work, I have finished it; I have not only created
the world, but I have redeemed it; I have watched over it, and I have
given to those intelligent beings, that you have created by me, their
agency, and it has been held with perfection to every creature of
intelligence, to every grade of mankind; I have preserved inviolate their
agency; I have watched over them, and overruled all their actions, and
held in my hand the destinies of men; and I have finished up my Gospel
sermon," as he presents the finished work to his Father.  

	It takes just such a character as the Savior, to preach one Gospel
discourse; and this was commenced with the commencement of all men upon
this earth or any other; and it will never close until the winding up
scene, and all is finished, and the kingdom is presented to the Father.

	I expect only to look into some portions of it, as it comes to me in
the 19th century of the Christian era.

	I will now read a revelation that was given to Joseph Smith, junior,
and Sidney Rigdon, called

                                A VISION.

	"1.  Hear O ye heavens, and give ear O earth, and rejoice, ye
inhabitants thereof, for the Lord is God, and beside him there is no
Savior: great is his wisdom, marvellous are his ways, and the extent of
his doings none can find out; his purposes fail not, neither are there any
who can stay his hand; from eternity to eternity he is the same, and his
years never fail.

	"2.  For thus saith the Lord, I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious
unto those who fear me, and delight to honour those who serve me in
righteousness and in truth unto the end, great shall be their reward and
eternal shall be their glory; and to them will I reveal all mysteries;
yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages
to come will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will
concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom; yea, even the wonders of
eternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the
things of many generations; and their wisdom shall be great, and their
understanding reach to heaven: and before them the wisdom of the wise
shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught;
for by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known
unto them the secrets of my will; yea, even those things which eye has not
seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.

	"3.  We, Joseph Smith, junior, and Sidney Rigdon, being in the Spirit
of the sixteenth of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two, by the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened
and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the
things of God--even those things which were from the beginning before the
world was, which were ordained of the Father, through his only begotten
Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, even from the beginning, of whom
we bear record, and the record which we bear is the fulness of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw and with whom we conversed in
the heavenly vision; for while we were doing the work of translation,
which the Lord had appointed unto us, we came to the twenty-ninth verse of
the fifth chapter of John, which was given unto us as follows: speaking of
the resurrection of the dead, concerning those who shall hear the voice of
the Son of man, and shall come forth; they who have done good in the
resurrection of the just, and they who have done evil in the resurrection
of the unjust.  Now this caused us to marvel, for it was given unto us of
the Spirit; and while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the
eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord
shone round about; and we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand
of the Father, and received of his fulness; and saw the holy angels, and
they who are sanctified before his throne, worshipping God, and the Lamb,
who worship him forever and ever.  And now, after the many testimonies
which have been given of him, this is the testimony last of all, which we
give of him, that he lives; for we saw him, even on the right hand of God,
and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only begotten of the
Father--that by him, and through him, and of him the worlds are and were
created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto
God.  And this we saw also, and bear record, that an angel of God who was
in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against the only
begotten Son, whom the Father loved, and who was in the bosom of the
Father--was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son, and was
called Perdition, for the heavens wept over him--he was Lucifer, a son of
the morning.  And while we were yet in the Spirit, the Lord commanded us
that we should write the vision, for we beheld Satan, that old
serpent--even the devil--who rebelled against God, and sought to take the
kingdom of our God, and his Christ, wherefore he maketh war with the
saints of God, and encompasses them round about.  And we saw a vision of
the sufferings of those with whom he made war and overcame, for thus came
the voice of the Lord unto us.

	"4.  Thus saith the Lord, concerning all those who know my power, and
have been made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves, through the
power of the devil, to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy my
power--they are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it
had been better for them never to have been born, for they are vessels of
wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and his angels in
eternity; concerning whom I have said there is no forgiveness in this
world nor in the world to come, having denied the Holy Spirit after having
received it, and having denied the only begotten Son of the Father--having
crucified him unto themselves, and put him to an open shame.  These are
they who shall go away into the lake of fire and brimstone, with the devil
and his angels, and the only ones on whom the second death shall have any
power; yea, verily, the only ones who shall not be redeemed in the due
time of the Lord, after the sufferings of his wrath; for all the rest
shall be brought forth by the resurrection of the dead, through the
triumph and the glory of the Lamb, who was slain, who was in the bosom of
the Father before the worlds were made.  And this is the gospel, the glad
tidings which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us, that he
came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to
bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it
form all unrighteousness; that through him all might be saved whom the
Father had put into his power and made by him, who glorifies the Father,
and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of perdition, who
deny the Son after the Father has revealed him; wherefore he saves all
except them; they shall go away into everlasting punishment, which is
endless punishment, which is eternal punishment, to reign with the devil
and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is
not quenched, which is their torment; and the end thereof, neither the
place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows, neither was it revealed,
neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made
partakers thereof: nevertheless I the Lord show it by vision unto many,
but straightway shut it up again; wherefore the end, the width, the
height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither
any man except them who are ordained unto this condemnation.  And we heard
the voice, saying, write the vision, for lo! this is the end of the vision
of the sufferings of the ungodly!

	"5.  And again, we bear record, for we saw and heard, and this is the
testimony of the gospel of Christ, concerning them who come forth in the
resurrection of the just; they are they who received the testimony of
Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his
burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the
commandment which he has given, that by keeping the commandments they
might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy
Spirit by the laying on of the hands  of him who is ordained and sealed
unto this power, and who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy
Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are
just and true.  They are they who are the church of the first-born.  They
are they into whose hands the Father has given all things--they are they
who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his
glory, and are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchisedek,
which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the only
begotten Son; wherefore, as it is written, they are Gods, even the sons of
God--wherefore all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things
present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ's and
Christ is God's; and they shall overcome all things; wherefore let no man
glory in man, but rather let him glory in God, who shall subdue all
enemies under his feet--these shall dwell in the presence of God and his
Christ forever and ever.  These are they whom he shall bring with him,
when he shall come in the clouds of heaven, to reign on the earth over his
people.  These are they who shall have part in the first resurrection. 
These are they who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just. 
These are they who are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all.  These are they who
have come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and
church of Enoch, and of the first-born.  These are they whose names are
written in heaven, where God and Christ are the judge of all.  These are
they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new
covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of
his own blood.  These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is
that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory
the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical.

	"6.  And again, we saw the terrestrial world, and behold and lo,
these are they who are of the terrestrial, whose glory differs from that
of the church of the first-born, who have received the fulness of the
Father, even as that of the moon differs from the sun of the firmament. 
Behold, these are they who died without law, and also they who are the
spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the
gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh,
who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards
received it.  These are they who are honorable men of the earth, who are
blinded by the craftiness of men.  These are they who receive of his
glory, but not of his fulness.  These are they who receive of the presence
of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father; wherefore they are
bodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in glory as the
moon differs from the sun.  These are they who are not valiant in the
testimony of Jesus; wherefore they obtained not the crown over the kingdom
of our God.  And now this is the end of the vision which we saw of the
terrestrial, that the Lord commanded us to write while we were yet in the
Spirit.

	"7.  And again, we saw the glory of the telestial, which glory is
that of the lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of
the glory of the moon in the firmament.  These are they who received not
the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus.  These are they who
deny not the Holy Spirit.  These are they who are thrust down to hell. 
These are they who shall not be redeemed from the devil, until the last
resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the Lamb shall have finished his
work.  These are they who receive not of his fulness in the eternal world,
but of the Holy Spirit through the ministration of the terrestrial; and
the terrestrial through the ministration of the celestial; and also the
telestial receive it of the administering of angels who are appointed to
minister for them, or who are appointed to be ministering spirits for
them, for they shall be heirs of salvation.  And thus we saw in the
heavenly vision, the glory of the telestial, which surpasses all
understanding, and no man knows it except him to whom God has revealed it. 
And thus we saw the glory of the terrestrial, which excels in all things
the glory of the telestial, even in glory, and in power, and in might, and
in dominion.  And thus we saw the glory of the celestial, which excels in
all things--where God, even the Father, reigns upon his throne forever and
ever; before whose throne all things bow in humble reverence and give him
glory forever and ever.  They who dwell in his presence are the church of
the first-born, and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known,
having received of his fulness and of his grace; and he makes them equal
in power, and in might, and in dominion.  And the glory of the celestial
is one, even as the glory of the sun is one.  And the glory of the
terrestrial is one, even as the glory of the moon is one.  And the glory
of the telestial is one, even as the gory of the stars is one, for as one
star differs from another star in glory, even so differs one from another
in glory in the telestial world; for these are they who are of Paul, and
of Apollos, and of Cephas.  These are they who say they are some of one
and some of another--some of Christ, and some of John, and some of Moses,
and some of Elias, and some of Esaias, and some of Isaiah, and some of
Enoch; but received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus,
neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant. Last of all, these
all are they who will not be gathered with the saints, to be caught up
unto the church of the first born, and received into the cloud.  These are
they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and
whosoever loves and makes a lie.  These are they who suffer the wrath of
God on the earth.  These are they who suffer the vengeance of eternal
fire.  These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of
Almighty God, until the fulness of times when Christ shall have subdued
all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work, when he
shall deliver up the kingdom, and present it unto the Father spotless,
saying--I have overcome and have trodden the winepress alone, even the
winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.  Then shall he
be crowned with the crown of his glory, to sit on the throne of his power
to reign for ever and ever.  But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the
inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the
stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea shore, and
heard the voice of the Lord, saying--these all shall bow the knee, and
every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne forever and
ever; for they shall be judged according to their works, and every man
shall receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the
mansions which are prepared, and they shall be servants of the Most High,
but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end.  This
is the end of the vision which we saw, which we were commanded to write
while we were yet in the Spirit. 

	"8.  But great and marvellous are the works of the Lord, and the
mysteries of his kingdom which he showed unto us, which surpasses all
understanding in glory, and in might, and in dominion, which he commanded
us we should not write while we were yet in the Spirit, and are not lawful
for man to utter; neither is man capable to make them known, for they are
only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God
bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him; to whom
he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves; that
through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh,
they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory.  And to God
and the Lamb be glory, and honor, and dominion forever and ever.  Amen."

	These are the words of the vision that were given to Joseph and
Sidney.  My mind rests upon this subject, upon this portion of the Gospel
of salvation; and has done so, more or less, for a great many years.  The
circumstances that surround me, almost daily; things that I see and hear,
cause my mind to reflect upon the situation of mankind; create in me an
anxiety to find out--to learn why things are as they are; why it is that
the Lord should build a globe like this earthly ball, and set it in
motion--then people it with intelligent beings, and afterwards cast a vail
over the whole, and hide Himself from His creation--conceal from them the
wisdom, the glory, the truth, the excellency, the true principles of His
character, and His design in forming the earth.

	Why cast this vail over them, and leave them in total darkness--leave
them to be carried away with erroneous doctrines, and exposed to every
species of wickedness that would render them obnoxious to the presence of
God, who placed them upon the face of this earth.  My daily experience and
observation cause me to enquire into these things.  Can I attribute all to
the wisdom of Him that has organized this earth, and peopled it with
intelligent beings, and see the people honestly desiring to do right all
the day long, and would not lift hand or heel against the Almighty, but
would rather have their heads taken from their bodies than dishonor him? 
And yet, we hear one crying on the right hand, this is the law of God,
this is the right way; another upon the left, saying the same; another in
the front; and another in the rear; and to every point of the compass,
hundreds and thousands of them, and all differing one from another.

	They do the best they can, I admit.  See the inhabitants of the
earth, how they differ in their prejudices, and in their religion.  What
is the religion of the day?  What are all the civil laws and governments
of the day?  They are merely traditions, without a single exception.  Do
the people realize this--that it is the force of their education that
makes right and wrong, with them?  It is not the line which the Lord has
drawn out; it is not the law which the Lord has given them; it is not the
righteousness which is according to the character of Him who has created
all things, and by His own law governs and controls all things; but by the
prejudice of education--the prepossessed feeling that is begotten in the
hearts of the children of men, by surrounding objects; they being
creatures of circumstances, who are governed and controlled by them more
or less.  When they, thus, are led to differ one from another, it begets
in them different feelings; it causes them to differ in principle, object,
and pursuit; in their customs, religion, laws, and domestic affairs, in
all human life; and yet every one, of every nation there is under heaven,
considers that they are the best people; that they are the most righteous;
have the most intelligent and best of men for their priests and rulers,
and are the nearest to the very thing the Lord Almighty requires of them. 
There is no nation upon this earth that does not entertain these
sentiments.

	Suppose a query arising in the minds of the different sects of the
human family--"Do not the Latter-day Saints think they are the best people
under the whole heavens, like ourselves?"  Yes, exactly; I take that to
myself.  The Latter-day Saints have the same feelings as the rest of the
people; they think also, that they have more wisdom and knowledge, and are
the nearest right of any people upon the face of the earth.

	Suppose you visit China, and mingle among the "celestial" beings
there; you will find a people who hold in scorn and ridicule every other
people, and especially those of Christendom.  They consider themselves
more holy, more righteous, more upright, more honest; filled with more
intelligence; they consider themselves better educated; better in every
respect, in all their civil and religious rites than any other nation
under heaven.

	Suppose you next visit Spain; there you will find the mother, and
grandmother, and great-grandmother of all the Christian denominations upon
the face of the earth--though these are but a scanty proportion of
mankind, compared with all the inhabitants upon the face of the globe.  I
suppose not one twelfth, or one sixteenth part of the inhabitants of the
earth, believe in Jesus Christ--and probably not one thirtieth part of
them.

	Take the mother of modern Christianity; go into Italy--to Rome, the
seat of her government, and we find that they also consider themselves to
be the best people in the world--the nearest the Lord and the path of
right--more so than any other people upon the face of the earth.

	Then visit the first Protestant church that was organized, and they
consider themselves nearer right than their mother, or any of their
sisters.  You may thus follow it down to the last reformer upon the earth;
and then step back to those we call heathen; to all that ever lived, from
the place where Noah landed his ark, to the building of the tower of
Babel; and in their dispersion, trace their footsteps to the islands and
continents, under the whole heavens, and you cannot find a people that do
not believe they are nearest right in their religion--more so than their
neighbors--and have the best form of civil government.

	Suppose you call upon the aborigines of our country, here, these wild
Indians; we call them savages; we call them heathens.  Let yourselves be
divested of prejudice; let it be entirely forgotten and out of the
question, together with all your education, and former notions of things,
your religious tenets, &c., and let your minds be in open vision before
the Almighty, seeing things as they are, you will find that that very
people know just as much about the Lord as anybody else; like the rest of
mankind, they step into a train of ideas and ordinances, peculiar to the
prejudices of their education.

	All this I admit; and I admit it upon the resources of my own
knowledge that I have pertaining to the inhabitants of the earth; this,
also, every person knows, who is acquainted with the different customs and
religions of different countries.

	Let me step over into England, and carry with me my Yankee notions
and manners, and I should be a burlesque to them.  Let an Englishman pass
over into Scotland, and speak and act according to English customs, it
would differ so far from them, that they would laugh at him.  Let a
Scotchman or an Englishman go to Ireland, and it would be just the same. 
This difference of feeling, sentiment, and custom, exists in those
countries that are so near each other.  If you go to France, you find that
they walk over the customs and manners of England, as unworthy of their
notice.  Should you thus go, from one people to another, throughout all
nations, you would find that they differ in their religions and national
customs, according to the teachings of their mother, and the priest.  In
this manner the consciences of mankind are formed--by the education they
receive.  You know this to be true, by your own experience.

	That which you once considered, perhaps, to be a non-essential in
religion, you now consider to be very essential.  That which you once
esteemed to be unbecoming in society, has become so interwoven in your
feelings, by being accustomed to it, that it ultimately appears quite
rational to you.

	When you survey the inhabitants of the world, you will find that the
religious tenets of all nations have sprung from their education;
consequently, if we should summon the whole earth before us, and strictly
examine them, we should find that the nations of the earth, as far as they
know and understand, are doing about the best they know how; they are just
about as near right as they know how to be. 

	These tribes of Indians differ from one another in their sentiments
and feelings; they war with each other, and try to destroy each other; and
why do they do it?  Why, "you are not as righteous as I am, and I want to
bring you over to my holy faith."  You see these bands of Indians doing
these things, and you spurn the idea.  Suppose you extend the principle,
and carry it among the greatest nations of the earth; and you would see
Queen Victoria, one of the most powerful sovereigns, sitting at the head
of one of the most powerful nations upon the earth, sending her forces
among these "celestial" ones, battering down the walls of China,
bombarding their cities, throwing confusion into their States, and
destroying thousands of their people--extending their sway of empire over
India, And why all this?  "To subdue you heathens, and bring you over to
our more enlightened customs and religion."

	Does one nation rise up to war with another without having motives,
and those which they will substantiate as being good and sufficient?  Will
one people rise up to war with another people, except the motive that
moves them is of a nature to justify them in their own minds and judgment
for doing so?  No.  There is not a people upon the face of this earth that
would do so; they all calculate to do that which seemeth good to them.

	There are the Jews--and recollect that they are a very religious
people to this day; a more religious people never lived  than they, that
is, the tribe of Judah, and the half tribe of Benjamin that were left in
Jerusalem--they are as tenacious as any people can be, to this day, for
the religion of their fathers; and where can you see them among the
nations of the earth, without seeing a hunted, driven, and persecuted
people?  The laws of nations have been framed for the express purpose of
killing and destroying them from the earth.  Yes, in the midst of nations
that profess to adhere to the doctrines of Christianity--that legislate,
and make laws, and put them in force--laws have been made to exterminate
them; then cry out against them, and raise mobs to persecute and destroy,
and clear the earth of the Jews.  Notwithstanding all this, will they
forsake their religion?  No.  They have suffered themselves to be stoned
in the streets of the cities, their houses to be burned over their heads;
but will they forsake their religion?  No; they will perish rather.

	The Christians say they are wrong; and the "Holy Roman Catholic
Church" would have killed every one of them, hundreds of years ago, had
not God promised by His holy Prophets, that they should remain and
multiply.  They have been distributed, dispersed, scattered abroad among
the nations of the earth, to fulfil that, and many more of the sayings of
their Prophets: and they are as tenacious, this day, with regard to their
religion, as in the days of Moses, and are as anxiously expecting, and
looking for the Messiah.

	Conscience is nothing else but the result of the education and
traditions of the inhabitants of the earth.  These are interwoven with
their feelings, and are like a cloak that perfectly envelops them, in the
capacity of societies, neighborhoods, people, or individuals; they frame
that kind of government and religion, and pursue that course collectively
or individually, that seemeth good to themselves.

	When we look at the whole creation, and that, too, from the days of
Adam, down to this time, what do we see?  According to the reading of the
Bible, the sayings of Jesus Christ, of all the ancient Prophets, and of
the Apostles, every soul, every son and daughter of Adam and Eve, that
have lived from the day of transgression to this time; and that will live
from this time henceforth, so long as any of the posterity of Adam and Eve
shall continue upon the earth, unless they know Jesus Christ, and his
Father, and receive the Holy Ghost, and be prepared to dwell with the
Father and the Son; become acquainted with them, and converse with them,
they will all be damned; every soul of them will be sent to hell.

	And what do we see on the back of this, I ask?  We see that all
Christendom are ready to pounce upon them that believe in Jesus Christ,
and are trying to attain to this knowledge, and grind them down, and send
them down, and continue to bear upon them, and crowd them down, down to
the bottom of the "bottomless pit," and throw upon them pig metal, and
lead, to keep them down. This is what we see; and all creation may see it
also, if they will open their eyes.

	I shall not undertake to prove from the Bible every thing I say, yet
it is all there.

	With regard to the peculiar and varied formations of the religions of
the day, I will say, we can see in them the first strong lines of the
religion of Christ drawn out, which have existed among them from the days
of the apostacy from the true order, to the present day.

	If you could just humble yourselves until your eyes should be
enlightened by the Spirit of God, by the spirit of intelligence, you may
understand things the world cannot see; and understand that it is the
privilege of every person to know the exact situation of the inhabitants
of the earth, for themselves.  The ancient Apostles saw it; Jesus Christ
knew all about it; and the Prophets before them prophesied, and wrote, and
preached about what was then upon the earth, what had been, and what would
be.

	The inquiry might be made, "Can any person in the world prophesy,
unless he possess the spirit of it?"  No, they cannot. They may prophesy
lies by the spirit of lies, by the inspiration of a lying spirit, but can
they see and understand things in the future, so as to prophesy truly of
things to come, unless they are endowed with the spirit of prophecy?  No. 
Is this the privilege of every person?  It is.  Permit me to remark
here--this very people called Latter-day Saints have got to be brought to
the spot where they will be trained (if they have not been there already,)
where they will humble themselves, work righteousness, glorify God, and
keep His commandments.  If they have not got undivided feelings, they will
be chastised until they have them; not only until every one of them shall
see for themselves, and prophesy for themselves, have visions to
themselves, but be made acquainted with all the principles and laws
necessary for them to know, so as to supersede the necessity of anybody
teaching them.

	Is not the time to come when I shall not say to my neighbor, know the
Lord, for he will know Him as well as I do?  This is the very people that
have to come to it, sooner or later.  Can we come to it?  We can.  If you
are industrious and faithful scholars in the school you have entered into,
you shall get lessons one after another, and continue on until you can see
and understand the spirit of prophecy and revelation, which can be
understood according to a systematic principle, and can be demonstrated to
a person's understanding as scientifically as Professor Pratt, who sits
directly behind me, can an astronomical problem.

	I do not purpose to go into that, or to say anything to the brethren
or to this people with regard to their daily walk and actions.  I proposed
to view the inhabitants of the earth and their situation, that you and I
might understand that the Lord Almighty has a hand in all these matters;
that the Lord is on the earth, and fills immensity; He is everywhere; He
dictates governors and kings, and manages the whole affairs of the nations
of the earth, and has from the days of Adam, and will until the winding up
scene, and the work shall be finished.

	There is only one Gospel sermon, recollect, brethren and sisters, and
the time that is required to preach it is from the day of the fall, or
from the day when Adam and his wife Eve came here upon this planet, and
from that time until Jesus Christ has subdued the last enemy, which is
death, and put all things under his feet, and wound up all things
pertaining to this earth.  Then the Gospel will have been preached, and
brought up and presented, and the effects thereof, to the Father.

	Now what shall we do with the inhabitants of the earth?  Their true
situation can be presented to your minds, if you will calmly reflect. 
Every person, whether they have travelled or not, if they are acquainted
with the history of nations, can discover at once the variety there is of
religions, customs, laws, and governments; and if you will apply your
hearts, you can understand the cause of this variety of effects.

	Again, there are the nations that have lived before us; what shall we
do with them?  And what is their situation in the other world?  What have
we now to say of them? I can tell it in short.  We are preaching to them
the Gospel of salvation--to the dead--through those who have lived in this
dispensation; and it is a part and parcel of the great Gospel discourse, a
little here and a little there, that is necessary for the nation unto whom
given.  With regard to doctrine, rules, customs, and many sacraments, they
are meted out to the inhabitants of the earth severally as they stand in
need, according to their situations and what is required of them.

	You may ask, "What is meted out to us?"  I answer, the ordinances,
the sacraments that the Lord Jesus christ instituted for the salvation of
the Jews, for all the house of Israel, and then for the Gentiles.  This is
the Gospel--the plan of salvation the Lord has given to us.  This is the
kingdom the Lord has presented to us; the same he presented to the
Apostles in the days of Jesus.  Now it is for the people to become
acquainted with these laws and ordinances of salvation, then apply them to
their lives, and that will save as many in the celestial kingdom, in the
presence of the Father and Son, as will strictly adhere to them.  This we
read in the sacred book; we have it before us all the time, that just as
many as will believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, live up to its
requirements in their lives, and die in the faith, shall receive a crown
of life with the Apostles, and all the faithful in Christ Jesus.

	What next?  I will tell you a practice of the Latter-day Saint Elders
generally.  For instance, I get up here, and preach the fulness of the
Gospel, perhaps to individuals who never heard it before in their lives,
and I close by saying, you that believe this which I have told you, shall
be saved; and if you do not, you shall be damned.  I leave the subject
there.  But, says one, "don't the Bible say so?"  You ought to explain
yourself. "I only said what the Savior taught--he says, go into all the
world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is
baptized, shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be damned. 
Don't I say the same?"  You leave it there, don't you?  "Yes; the Apostle
left it there, and so do I."

	I wish to explain it a little more, according to the plain, simple,
English language.  The sum of this practice is this; when I preach a
gospel sermon, and they don't believe what I say, I straightway seal their
damnation.  Brethren, do you believe in such a thing as that?  I do not;
yet there are many of the Elders just so absurd.

	I recollect, in England, sending an Elder to Bristol, to open a door
there, and see if anybody would believe.  He had a little more than thirty
miles to walk; he starts off one morning, and arrives at Bristol; he
preached the Gospel to them, and sealed them all up to damnation, and was
back next morning.  He was just as good a man, too, as we had.  It was
want of knowledge caused him to do so.  I go and preach to the people and
tell them at the end of every sermon, he that believeth and is baptized,
shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be damned.  I continue
preaching there day after day, week after week, and month after month, and
yet nobody believes my testimony, that I know of, and I don't see any
signs of it.  "What shall I do in this case, if I am sent to preach
there?"  you may inquire.  You must continue to preach there, until those
who sent you shall tell you to leave that field of labour; and if the
people don't manifest by their works, that they believe, as long as they
come to hear me, I will continue to plead with them, until they bend their
dispositions to the Gospel.  Why?  Because I must be patient with them, as
the Lord is patient with me; as the Lord is merciful to me, I will be
merciful to others; as He continues to be merciful to me, consequently I
must continue in long-suffering to be merciful to others--patiently
waiting, with all diligence, until the people will believe, and until they
are prepared to become heirs to a celestial kingdom, or angels to the
devil.

	When the book of Mormon was first printed, it came to my hands in two
or three weeks afterwards. Did I believe, on the first intimation of it? 
The man that brought it to me, told me the same things; says he, "This is
the Gospel of salvation; a revelation the Lord has brought forth for the
redemption of Israel; it is the Gospel; and according to Jesus Christ, and
his Apostles, you must be baptized for the remission of sins, or you will
be damned."  "Hold on," says I.  The mantle of my traditions was over me,
to that degree, and my prepossessed feelings so interwoven with my nature,
it was almost impossible for me to see at all; though I had beheld, all my
life, that the traditions of the people was all the religion they had, I
had got a mantle for myself.  Says I, "Wait a little while; what is the
doctrine of the book, and of the revelations the Lord has given?  Let me
apply my heart to them;"  and after I had done this, I considered it to be
my right to know for myself, as much as any man on earth.

	I examined the matter studiously for two years before I made up my
mind to receive that book.  I knew it was true, as well as I knew that I
could see with my eyes, or feel by the touch of my fingers, or be sensible
of the demonstration of any sense.  Had not this been the case, I never
would have embraced it to this day; it would have all been without form or
comeliness to me.  I wished time sufficient to prove all things for
myself.

	The Gospel of Jesus Christ, must be preached to all nations for a
witness and a testimony; for a sign that the day has come, the set time
for the Lord to redeem Zion, and gather Israel, preparatory to the coming
of the Son of Man.  When this Gospel is preached to the people, some will
believe, and some will not know whether to believe it, or not.  This is
the situation of the world; go forth among the people; go among your own
neighbors, and you may see it; because the Lord has touched your
understanding with the spirit of truth, it looks to you as though all the
world will believe it, if they can only hear your testimony; you go and
preach to them, but, to your astonishment, they seem perfectly
uninterested; some go to sleep, and others are dreaming of their farms and
possessions.

	The Methodist will tell you, he has had the Gospel from his youth,
and been brought up in the Methodist society; and so will the Quaker; and
so will the Presbyterian; and so will the Shakers; for they say they are
the only people, who are preparing for the Millennium.  What is law here,
is not there; and what is not there, is here.  I have been used to this
method of worship, or that; and have heard the good old tone, all the days
of my life.

	The Methodists come along and say, you may be baptized by pouring, or
by sprinkling, or not at all, for there is nothing essential in it. 
Another man says, you can partake of the Lord's Supper if you like, or let
it alone, for it is non-essential; if you have only the good old tone, you
are all right.

	Now I ask a question:  Who is there that can know the things of God;
who can discern the truth from the error?  Where is the man; where are the
people now in the world that can do it?  They do not exist.  Let the best
wisdom of the world be summoned to their aid, and they cannot know the
things of God.  Let a man be endowed with the revelations of Jesus Christ,
and he will say at once, they  cannot tell--it is impossible.  Let the
just Judge sound his trump, what would he say?  I can read it to you in
this book.  (Laying his hand on the Bible.)

	He is compassionate to all the works of His hands, the plan of His
redemption, and salvation, and mercy, is stretched out over all; and His
plans are to gather up, and bring together, and save all the inhabitants
of the earth, with the exception of those who have received the Holy
Ghost, and sinned against it.  With this exception, all the world besides
shall be saved.  Is not this Universalism?  It borders very close upon it.

	I have preached portions of the doctrine of salvation to the people,
when I travelled abroad.  When I would take up this subject, the
Universalists would run after me hundreds of miles, saying, "We are
Universalists, where I live; we are troubled with the Methodists, and the
various sects; won't you come and use them up for us; we want them whipped
out."

	It is only parts and portions of the Gospel that you hear; a little
here, and a little there, scattered all over the world.  Now let the
hearts of the children of men be enlightened; let them be awakened to
understand the designs of the Lord, in the salvation of man, and what will
their voices echo one to another?  I will tell you what would be the
feeling of every heart; salvation, glory, hallelujah to God and the Lamb,
forever and ever.  Why?  Because of His abundant mercy and compassion;
because His wisdom has devised for us, that which we could not have
devised for ourselves.  That is what all creation would do.

	I will take up another thread of my discourse, by observing, that a
few men upon the earth, have found an item of truth, here and there, and
incorporated it with their own wisdom, and taught the world that the Lord
designs to save all mankind, no matter what they do.  Another portion will
catch at the Calvinistic principles; they hold that the Lord has
fore-ordained this, that, and the other, and vigorously contend that the
Lord did decree, and did fore-ordain whatsoever comes to pass, and away
they run.  Another comes along with free salvation to all; he has caught
that principle, and away they all go, deprecating everything else, only
the little particle each one has incorporated to himself.

	It is this that makes the variance in the religious world.  We see a
party here, and a party there, crying, "Lo here, and lo there;" and the
people are contending bitterly with each other, nation against nation,
society against society and man against man, each seeking to destroy the
other, or bring them to this little particle of doctrine, that each one
thinks is just right.  It is right, as far as it goes.

	Man is made an agent to himself before his God; he is organized for
the express purpose, that he may become like his master.  You recollect
one of the Apostle's sayings, that when we see Him, we shall be like Him;
and again, we shall become Gods, even the sons of God.  Do you read
anywhere, that we shall possess all things?  Jesus is the elder brother,
and all the brethren shall come in for a share with him; for an equal
share, according to their works and calling, and they shall be crowned
with him.  Do you read of any such thing as the Savior praying, that the
Saints might be one with him, as he and the Father are one?  The Bible is
full of such doctrine, and there is no harm in it, as long as it agrees
with the New Testament.

	I will continue the point I am now at. The Lord created you and me
for the purpose of becoming Gods like Himself; when we have been proved in
our present capacity, and been faithful with all things He puts into our
possession.  We are created, we are born for the express purpose of
growing up from the low estate of manhood, to become Gods like unto our
Father in heaven.  That is the truth about it, just as it is.  The Lord
has organized mankind for the express purpose of increasing in that
intelligence and truth, which is with God, until he is capable of creating
worlds on worlds, and becoming Gods, even the sons of God.

	How many will become thus privileged?  Those who honor the Father and
the Son; those who receive the Holy Ghost, and magnify their calling, and
are found pure and holy; they shall be crowned in the presence of the
Father and the Son.  Who else?  Not anybody.  What becomes of all the
rest.  Are you going to cast them down, and sink them to the bottom of the
bottomless pit, to be angels to the devil?  Who are his angels?  No man
nor woman, unless they receive the Gospel of salvation, and then deny it,
and altogether turn away from it, sacrificing to themselves the Son of God
afresh.  They are the only ones who will suffer the wrath of God to all
eternity. 

	How much does it take to prepare a man, or woman, or any being, to
become angels to the devil, to suffer with him to all eternity?  Just as
much as it does to prepare a man to go into the celestial kingdom, into
the presence of the Father and the Son, and to be made an heir to His
kingdom, and all His glory, and be crowned with crowns of glory,
immortality, and eternal lives.  Now who will be damned to all eternity? 
Will any of the rest of mankind?  No; not one of them.

	The very heathen we were talking about; if they have a law, no matter
who made it, and do the best they know how, they will have a glory which
is beyond your imagination, by any description I might give; you cannot
conceive of the least portion of the glory of God prepared for His beings,
the workmanship of His hands; for these people who are seated before me,
who are the sons and daughters, legitimately so, of our Father in heaven,
they all sprung from Him; it hath not entered into the heart of man to
conceive what He has prepared for them.

	The Lord sent forth His Gospel to the people; He said, I will give it
to my son Adam, from whom Methuselah received it; and Noah received it
from Methuselah; and Melchisedek administered to Abraham.  In the days of
Noah, the people generally rejected it.  All those who became acquainted
with its principles, and thereby were made acquainted with, and tasted the
power of salvation, and turned away therefrom, became angels to the devil.

	Let us apply it directly to ourselves, who have received the truth,
and tasted of the good word of God.  Let me turn around with you and
reject it, and teach our children that it is an untruth, teach the same to
our neighbors, and that it is a burlesque to our senses; let us deny the
Lord that brought us, what would be the result?  Our children would grow
up in unbelief, and the sin would rest upon our heads.  Suppose we are
faithful, and the people will not believe our testimony, we shall receive
our reward, the same as though they did believe it. 

	Suppose the inhabitants of the earth were before me, those who have
died, what shall we say of them?  Have they gone to heaven, or to hell? 
There is a saying of a wise man in the Bible, like this:  "Who knoweth the
spirit of a man that goeth upward or the spirit of the beast that goeth
downward?"  All have spirits, I should suppose, by this.  Again, there is
another saying, "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, and blessed be
the name of the Lord."  Man dies, and his spirit goes to God who gave it. 
All these things are within the scope of the Gospel sermon; all these
principles are embraced in this great Gospel dicourse [sic].

	What shall we say without going to the Scriptures at all?  Where do
the spirits of this people go to, when they lay down their tabernacles?
They go into the presence of God, and are at the pleasure of the Almighty. 
Do they go to the Father and the Son, and there be glorified?  No; they do
not.  If a spirit goes to God who gave it, it does not stay there.  We are
all the time in the presence of the Lord, but our being in the presence of
the Lord, does not make it follow that He is in our presence; the spirits
of men are understood to go into the presence of the Lord, when they go
into the spiritual world.

	The Prophet lays down his body, he lays down his life, and his spirit
goes to the world of spirits; the persecutor of the Prophet dies, and he
goes to Hades; they both go to one place, and they are not to be separated
yet.  Now. understand, that this is part of the great sermon the Lord is
preaching in his providence, the righteous and the wicked are together in
Hades.  If we go back to our mother country, we there find the righteous
and the wicked.

	If we go back to our mother country, the States, we there find the
righteous, and we there find the wicked; if we go to California, we there
find the righteous and the wicked, all dwelling together; and when we go
beyond this vail, and leave our bodies which were taken from mother earth,
and which must return; our spirits will pass beyond the vail; we go where
both Saints and sinners go; they all go to one place.  Does the devil have
power over the spirits of just men?  No.  When he gets through with this
earth, he is at the length of his chain.  He only has permission to have
power and dominion on this earth, pertaining to this mortal tabernacle;
and when we step through the vail, all are in the presence of God.  What
did one of the ancients say?  "Whither shall I go from thy spirit, and
whither shall I flee from thy presence; if I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there; if I take the
wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth, even
there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."  Where is
the end of His power?  He is omnipotent, and fills immensity by His
agents, by His influence, by His Spirit, and by His ministers.  We are in
the presence of God there, as we are here.  Does the enemy have power over
the righteous?  No.  Where are the spirits of the ungodly?  They are in
prison.  Where are the spirits of the righteous, the Prophets, and the
Apostles?  They are in prison, brethren; that is where they are.

	Now let us notice a little experience, lest some of you should be
startled at this idea.  How do you feel, Saints, when you are filled with
the power and love of God?  You are just as happy as your bodies can bear. 
What would be your feelings, suppose you should be in prison, and filled
with the power and love of God; would you be unhappy? No.  I think prisons
would palaces prove, if Jesus dwelt there.  This is experience.  I know it
is a starling idea to say that the Prophet and the persecutor of the
Prophet, all go to prison together.  What is the condition of the
righteous?  They are in possession of the spirit of Jesus--the power of
God, which is their heaven; Jesus will administer to them; angels will
administer to them; and they have a privilege  of seeing and understanding
more than you or I have, in the flesh; but they have not got their bodies
yet, consequently they are in prison.  When will they be crowned, and
brought into the presence of the Father and the Son?  Not until they have
got their bodies; this is their glory.  What did the holy martyrs die for? 
Because of the promise of receiving bodies, glorified bodies, in the
morning of the resurrection.  For this they lived, and patiently suffered,
and for this they died.  In the presence of the Father, and the Son, they
cannot dwell, and be crowned, until the work of the redemption of both
body and spirit is completed.  What is the condition of the wicked?  They
are in prison.  Are they happy?  No; They have stepped through the vail,
to the place where the vail of the covering is taken from their
understanding.  They fully understand that they have persecuted the just
and Holy One, and they feel the wrath of the Almighty resting upon them,
having a terrible foreboding of the final consummation of their just
sentence, to become angels to the devil; just as it is in this world,
precisely.

	Has the devil power to afflict, and cast the spirit into torment? 
No!  We have gained the ascendency over him.  It is in this world only he
has power to cause affliction and sickness, pain and distress, sorrow,
anguish, and disappointment; but when we go there, behold! the enemy of
Jesus has come to the end of his chain; he has finished his work of
torment; he cannot come any further; we are beyond his reach, and the
righteous sleep in peace, while the spirit is anxiously looking forward to
the day when the Lord will say, "Awake my Saints, you have slept long
enough;" for the trump of God shall sound, and the sleeping dust shall
arise, and the absent spirits return, to be united with their bodies; and
they will become personages of tabernacle, like the Father, and His Son,
Jesus Christ; yea Gods in eternity.

	They look forward with great anxiety to that day, and their happiness
will not be complete--their glory will not attain to the final
consummation of its fulness, until they have entered into the immediate
presence of the Father and the Son, to be crowned, as Jesus will be, when
the work is finished.  When it is wound up, the text is preached, in all
its divisions, pertaining to the redemption of the world, and the final
consummation of all things; then the Savior will present the work to the
Father, saying, "Father, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do;"
and the Son will give it up to the Father, and then be subject to Him, and
then he will be crowned, and that is the time you and I will be crowned
also.

	We will notice, by this, that all the nations of the earth, with the
exception of those who have apostatized from the Gospel salvation; every
son and daughter of Adam, except those who have denied the Holy Ghost,
after having received it, are placed in prison with the rest of them, with
Prophets, Priests, and Saints.  Suppose we quote a little Scripture on
this point.  Jesus died to redeem the world.  Did his body lay in the
tomb?  Did his spirit leave his body?  Yes.  Where did his spirit go, you
may inquire?  I do not know that I can tell you any better than what the
ancient Apostle has told it; he says he went to preach to the spirits in
prison.  Who are they to whom he went to preach?  The people who lived in
the antediluvian world.  He preached the Gospel to them in the spirit,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh.

	What shall we say of the people who live in the 19th century?  When
any of the Latter-day Elders or Apostles die, and leave this world,
suffice it to say, that their spirits go to that prison, and preach the
Gospel to those who have died without hearing it; and every spirit shall
be judged precisely as though he lived in the flesh, when the fulness of
the Gospel was upon the earth.  This leads to the subject of the saving
and redeeming powers possessed by the righteous; but we shall not have
time this morning to treat upon it, suffice it to say, that saviors are
coming up, in the last days, upon mount Zion.

	This I say of every son and daughter of Adam, Prophets, Priests, and
those that slew the Prophets, all go to prison; the Elders of this Church
go there, and there continue their labors; and by and bye you will see
Zion redeemed, and saviors will come up upon mount Zion.  The faithful
Elders will come, and go forward in the ordinances of God, that our
ancestors, and all who have died previous to the restoration of the Gospel
in these last days, may be redeemed.

	Now, ye Elders of Israel, when you say that John Wesley went to hell,
say that Joseph Smith went there too. When you tell about Judas Iscariot
going to hell, say that Jesus went there too.  The world cannot see the
whole of the Gospel sermon at one glance; they can only pick up a little
here, and a little there.  They that do understand it from the beginning
to the end, know that is as straight as a line can be drawn.  You cannot
find a compass on the earth, that points, so directly, as the Gospel plan
of salvation.  It has a place for every thing, and puts everything in its
place.  It divides, and sub-divides, and gives to every portion of the
human family, as circumstances require.

	It is for us to get rid of that tradition in which we are incased,
and bring up our children in the way they should go, that when they get
old, they will not depart from it.  It is your privilege and mine, to
enjoy the visions of the Spirit of the Lord, every one in his own order,
just as the Lord has ordained it, that every man and woman may know for
themselves, if they are doing right, according to the great plan of
salvation.  I have only touched a little of the great Gospel sermon, and
the time has come, that we must close our meeting; so may the Lord God of
Israel bless you, in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

           EXTENSIVE CHARACTER OF THE GOSPEL--COMPREHENSIVENESS
                        OF DIVINE REVELATION, ETC.
      A Discourse by President Brigham, delivered in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, August 15, 1852.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I am confident I have the prayers of the Saints and the faith of
those who have faith.  It is seldom that I request the Saints to pray for
me, for I judge them by myself with a righteous judgment.  I always pray
for the Saints, and suppose in return they pray for all the faithful; and
consequently, I have my share of their prayers.

	I recollect a statement that I made, last Sabbath, with regard to the
Gospel--what a Gospel sermon is, how long it takes to preach it, and what
it comprises; that it takes the same time to preach it that it does to
accomplish the plan of salvation pertaining to the children of men.

	I have never yet seen the time that I had wisdom, strength, and
ability enough to preach a Gospel discourse--to commence it, and finish
it, setting before the people the plan of salvation sufficiently full,
that thereby they might be saved.  But it is only given in portions--a
little here, and a little there, by feeble man.

	The subject that is before us to-day is in the great discourse.  To
understand the first principles of the Gospel--to rightly understand them,
a man must have the wisdom that comes from above; he must be enlightened
by the Holy Ghost; his mind must be in open vision:  he must enjoy the
blessings of salvation himself, in order to impart them to others.

	In our capacity, we are privileged, in a spiritual point of view,
precisely as we are in a temporal point of view.  We have the privilege of
learning and adding to the knowledge we have already obtained.  We have a
knowledge, for instance, of the rudiments of the English language.  If we
continue in our studies--in our exertions to acquire information, we
obtain more knowledge; and if we continue still to persevere, we add still
more to that, until we are perfect masters of the language.

	Again, with regard to mechanism, in a certain sense, the same
principle will hold good.  We have the privilege of learning the arts and
sciences that the learned among the Gentile nations understand; we have
the privilege of becoming classical scholars--of commencing at the
rudiments of all knowledge--of entering into the academies, we might say,
of perfection.  We might study, and add knowledge to knowledge, from the
time that we are capable of knowing anything until we go down to the
grave.  If we enjoyed healthy bodies, so as not to wear upon the functions
of the mind, there is not end to a man's learning.  This compares
precisely with our situation pertaining to heavenly things.

	The capacity of mankind in attaining to geometrical knowledge and the
fine arts is great:  all nations and people understand more or less of the
knowledge pertaining to the arts and sciences.  But when they leave those
principles that are comprehended in the studies pursued by the natural
man, and undertake to define their own persons, their own being, and to
understand the propriety and wisdom of the creation, and bring forth to
themselves or to others those principles that pertain to future knowledge,
they are in the dark; there is a veil over them.  The veil of the covering
that is over the nations of the earth has beclouded their understandings,
so that they are in thick darkness.  This our experience teaches us--that
when any uninspired person or persons (who pretend to) step beyond
organized nature, which is visible to the natural eyes, there is a
mystery--the hidden mystery--the deep and unsearchable mystery of
creation.

	We can see the natural man, we can behold our face in the glass; but
can we tell what manner of person we are?  Can we define the object of
this organization--of this body?  Can we circumscribe it?  Can we fathom
the depths, the propriety, the necessity, and the object of Divine wisdom
in our organization?  It is a mystery to the wisest there is upon the
earth.  We see life in action:  this we witness daily; ourselves, we act;
we see others act.  We have sight to see; our ears are organized to hear,
our hands to feel, and all the system throughout seems to be perfectly
framed to sense and understanding; and the mystery of it is such that the
wisest of all the philosophers are ready to acknowledge, and exclaim, It
is a mystery!--it is not to be fathomed or understood by man.  When we
advance into the future or recede into the past, either plunges a man into
still greater mystery.  It is a mystery that the world have sought after
by their wisdom:  they have studied diligently for the express purpose of
becoming acquainted with these mysteries.  Thousands and thousands have
spent their whole lives in study--have sought after and read the comments
and ideas of others with the utmost anxiety and fervency of intention,
seeking to find that which others have not found--to learn that which has
not been learned.

	This Book, which is the Old and New Testament, preaches but one
sermon from Genesis to Revelations.  We commence and go through with this
volume; then search all those books which have been rejected by the
Christian nations as not canonical, and any other writings of Prophets and
Apostles, and all good men,--all revelations that have been set aside, and
considered unnecessary,--summon all the revelations that have been given
from the days of Adam to the present time; and what is the sum of the
whole of the teachings of Him who has created (the Supreme of the
universe)--who has organized and planned and executed and brought into
existence--all his teachings to his people?  Simply this--Son, daughter,
live before me, so that I can come and visit you:  order your lives with
that propriety, that I will not be disgraced to come and abide with you
for a season; or, when I send my angels or my minister the Holy Ghost to
reveal my mind and will to you, or to bless you with abiding comfort, that
they may not be disgraced in your society.

	I say, all revelations of God teach simply this--Son, Daughter, you
are the workmanship of mine hands:  walk and live before me in
righteousness; let your conversation be chaste, let your daily deportment
be according to my law; let your dealings one with another be in justice
and equity; let my character be sacred in your mouth, and do not profane
my holy name and trample upon mine authority; do not despise any of my
sayings, for I will not be disgraced.  I wish to send one of my servants
to visit you.  What for?  That you may see and know as others have--that
you may see as you are seen--that you may understand those principles
pertaining more particularly to the kingdom you are in.  I have, in my
wisdom, reduced you; I have caused that you should drink of the dregs of
the bitter cup.  I have placed you in the depths of ignorance, and have
surrounded you with weakness, to prove you.  I have subjected you to all
misery that can be endured.  I have caused you to come upon this earth,
where misery, and darkness, and every species of unbelief and wickedness
reign, to prove you, that you may understand and know the good from the
evil, and be capable of judging between these with a righteous judgment.

	I have caused all this to be done; and now, son and daughter, the
inhabitants of the whole earth that have lived from the days of Adam until
now, the first and the last,--the grand aim of all that I, the Lord, have
revealed is to instruct you to live so that I can come and visit you, or
send my angels, that they can enter into your habitations, walk and
converse with you, and they not be disgraced.  By so doing, you shall be
made partakers of all knowledge and wisdom, power and glory that the
sanctified or glorified beings enjoy.  And this is, first of all, what the
Lord wishes of the people.

	What does our experience teach us--our eyes witness day by day? 
True, I may say, with many of you, I am not under the necessity of hearing
the name of my God, whom I serve, my Father in heaven, blasphemed daily; I
am not associated with those who blaspheme the name of the Father and the
Son, and the character of the Holy Ghost; I do not associate with those
who are liars, or adulterers, or whoremongers, or those who love and make
a lie.  You can say the same:  yet, when we mingle among the wicked, what
do we see and hear?  What do these my brethren hear, that take the pains
to go into the kanyons to sell a little beer to the traveller?  They hear
the name of the Lord that brought them blasphemed.  It would take all the
teams you have in the country to draw gold enough to tempt me into such a
situation.

	Men are going crazed to attend the ferries, in order to amass a few
paltry dollars.  What do you hear there?  You hear the name of the Lord
Almighty, and his character, and his Son Jesus Christ, and his minister
the Holy Ghost, blasphemed; and every servant of God upon the earth is
cursed by them to the lowest regions.  It is not all the gold of Ophir and
California that could hire me to hear it for one month.  These are my
feelings.

	Gold and silver will perish, but the name of the Almighty will remain
for ever.  His character will not sink, nor the character of his Son, nor
of his ministers, nor of any of his faithful servants who keep his
commandments.  Riches will perish, but they will endure.  I say again,
there is not gold enough lying east of the Rocky Mountains to bring me to
one of these ferries and hear the blasphemies I should have to hear.  But
can we not hear it here?  Yes--to the shame and disgrace of a few of those
that call themselves Latter-day Saints.  Is it so, that there is a man
whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life that will take the name
of the Deity in vain?  I speak to you who are trifling with the Lord Jesus
and the Holy Spirit of promise, to the shame of a few of the Elders of
Israel.

	The time will come when they will be cut off, though I am sorry to
say that.  I would rather say that while I am in the society of the
Latter-day Saints, I might never hear the character of the Deity ridiculed
and disgraced, and his name used in a light and trifling manner.

	It is true, I do not hear it.  If I were to hear that which other
people say they hear--an Elder of Israel use the name of the Lord God in
vain, I should cut him off from the Church; and if I could not get any
help to cut him off, I would do it myself.  Let me tell you, he must be a
very ignorant man who can use the name of the Deity in vain, without
having to repent forthwith.

	While I was talking, last Sabbath, I wished that I could have
strength of lungs to speak about one thousand years, and live without
eating or resting.  I thought in that time we should get pretty well
through with a portion of the Gospel sermon.

	I will now read a little in this book, called the Book of Doctrine
and Covenants, pertaining to the subject we had before us last Sabbath.  I
will read a part of a short revelation, in order to exhibit some items of
doctrine that are not generally understood, although it is before the
people.  All people who are disposed, have the privilege of reading this
book for themselves; for it has been published to the world for some
years.  The Saints read it and have the privilege of understanding it, if
they choose.  Still, as I observed, we are in the school and keep
learning, and we do not expect to cease learning while we live on earth;
and when we pass through the veil, we expect still to continue to learn
and increase our fund of information.  That may appear a strange idea to
some; but it is for the plain and simple reason that we are not
capacitated to receive all knowledge at once.  We must therefore receive a
little here and a little there.

	I will read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 44:--

	"A commandment of God, and not of man, to Martin Harris, given
(Manchester, New York, March, 1830,) by Him who is eternal."

	I could give the people the cause of this revelation, but it is not
necessary.  I may say a word upon it when I come to it in the revelation,
which will explain all that is necessary.  Those who are acquainted with
Martin Harris know his natural turn and disposition:  he wanted to learn
all things at once, was continually in pursuit of knowledge, and neglected
to act upon that which he had already received.  That is his true
character, as far as I have known him.  The revelation reads as follows:--

	"I am Alpha and Omega, Christ the Lord; yea, even I am he, the
Beginning and the End, the Redeemer of the world:  I have accomplished and
finished the will of Him, whose I am, even the Father, concerning me;
having done this that I might subdue all things unto myself, retaining all
power, even to the destroying of Satan and his works at the end of the
world and the last great day of judgment, which I shall pass upon the
inhabitants thereof, judging every man according to his works and the
deeds which he hath done."

	We read in the Bible, you recollect, that every man shall be judged
according to his works; but it is almost impossible; or, I will say, it is
a considerable task and quite a labour to get a community to understand
these words as they read; when, in reality, to those that understand them,
it is as plain to them as it is for this congregation to count how many
fingers I am now holding up before you.  If I hold up two fingers, you
exclaim, There are two.  But somebody will start up and say, No; there is
but one; while another declares, There are four, and not one or two. 
Every person has a privilege of looking for themselves, and may know
whether I hold up one, two, or four fingers.  To a person who understands
this saying it is just as easy for him to judge and know that mankind will
be judged according to their works which they do in the body; and yet how
hard it is to get the people to say it is so, and have them understand it.

	"And surely every man must repent or suffer; for I, God, am endless: 
wherefore I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass; but woes shall go
forth, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth,--yea, to those who are
found on my left hand:  nevertheless, it is not written that there shall
be no end to this torment; but it is written, Endless torment."

	This revelation has been before the people, in this volume, since the
year 1834, and yet how few have paid attention to it.  Suppose I repeat a
part of this last quotation--"Neverless [sic], it is not written that
there shall be no end to this torment; but it is written, Endless
torment."

	"Again, it is written, Eternal damnation:  wherefore, it is more
express than other Scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the
children of men, altogether for my name's glory:  wherefore, I will
explain unto you this mystery; for it is meet unto you to know, even as
mine Apostles.  I speak unto you that are chosen in this thing, even as
one, that you may enter into my rest.  For behold the mystery of
godliness, how great is it?  For behold, I am endless, and the punishment
which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. 
Wherefore, eternal punishment is God's punishment.  Endless punishment is
God's punishment."

	If I recollect right, I think there is no place in the Bible so
explicit, with regard to this name of the Deity--"for Endless is my name."

	"Wherefore, I command you to repent and keep the commandments which
you have received by the hand of my servant Joseph Smith, junior, in my
name; and it is by my Almighty power that you have received them: 
therefore I command you to repent, repent, lest I smite you by the rod of
my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be
sore--how sore, you know not! how exquisite you know not! yea, how hard to
bear, you know not!  For behold, I, God have suffered these things for
all, that they might not suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself,
even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at
every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit, and would that I might not
drink the bitter cup and shrink:  nevertheless, glory be to the Father!
and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. 
Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my
almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these
punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in
the least degree, you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit."

	This language needs no particular explanation to those who ever knew
Martin Harris.

	"And I command you that you preach naught but repentance; and show
not these things unto the world until it is wisdom in me; for they cannot
bear meat now, but milk they must receive:  wherefore they must not know
these things, lest they perish.  Learn of me and listen to my words; walk
in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.  I am Jesus
Christ:  I came by the will of the Father, and I do his will."

	I want to connect this part of the revelation given to Martin Harris,
with a few words in the revelation called the Vision:--

	"Thus saith the Lord, concerning all those who know my power, and
have been made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves, through the
power of the Devil, to be overcome, and to deny the truth, and to defy my
power:  they are they who are the sons of perdition, and whom I say that
it had been better for them never to have been born; for they are vessels
of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the Devil and his
angels, in eternity:  concerning whom, I have said there is not
forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come; having denied the Holy
Spirit, after having received it, and having denied the Only Begotten Son
of the Father, having crucified him unto themselves, and put him to an
open shame:  these are they who shall go away into the lake of fire and
brimstone, with the Devil and his angels, and the only ones on whom the
second death shall have any power; yea, verily, the only ones who shall
not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord, after the sufferings of his
wrath; for all the rest shall be brought forth by the resurrection of the
dead, through the triumph and the glory of the Lamb who was slain--who was
in the bosom of the Father before the worlds were made."

	I wished to connect these two quotations, and refer directly to the
situation of the world, believing that this can be made profitable like
everything else.  All the revelations that are given, and every revelation
that was given, and every matter of fact or truth that is revealed to the
children of men is for their benefit; and, if improved upon, in honesty
and truth, in righteousness and humility, to the glory of God, and to
their own honour, it is a lasting benefit; but if they should turn about
and make an evil use of it, it always will be to their condemnation: 
consequently, it is for the inhabitants of the earth to know the blessings
and the privileges the Lord has for them to enjoy.  It was said by the
Saviour, when in the flesh, to the scribes and pharisees and learned
doctors of the law; and it will apply to every class and grade and every
individual in every community:  "This is the condemnation, that light has
come into the world, and men choose darkness rather than light."

	So it is; it always has been, and it always will be so:  when light
comes, if the people reject that light, it will condemn them, and will add
to their sorrow and affliction.  So it is with the inhabitants of the
earth, at the present day, as much as it was in the days of the Saviour,
or in any other period of the world.  Light comes into the world, but men
choose darkness:  when they do, it proves that their deeds are evil.  This
principle may prove beneficial to us and to every son and daughter of Adam
who hear and have the privilege of hearing and of understanding for
themselves.

	When we take a view of the inhabitants of the earth, and look at
ourselves, and contemplate our own situation and circumstances, we are
satisfied that we, as a people, are favored above any other class upon the
face of this globe.  Our blessings are multiplied unto us more than any
people.  We have the privilege of knowing how to escape this world of
sorrow and sin, to enter into the strait gate that was spoken of by the
Saviour, and obtain eternal life.

	Is there any other people that know these principles--that have
committed to them the keys of the holy Priesthood, by which they may save
themselves, save their families, save their neighbours, and save all that
will hear them?  Where is that community?  I do not know.  So may this
congregations exclaim, if the same inquiry was made of them:  they can
say, We do not know.

	We are blessed, greatly blessed; and when we contemplate even upon
our afflictions, the fact is, they appear to us not worth mentioning: 
they should never come into remembrance before us.  We have the privilege
of serving the Lord, of growing in grace, and obtaining that which the
Lord has for us.  This is the people that Lord designs should be prepared
to enter in at the strait gate; for strait is the gate and narrow is the
way, says Jesus, that leadeth to the endless lives.  It is translated in
King James' version of the Old Testament, "That leadeth unto eternal
life."  But in our late revelations it is rendered, "Strait is the gate
and narrow is the way that leadeth to the endless lives, and few there be
that find it."

	Were I do inquire of the Latter-day Saints if they are all expecting
to enter in the strait gate spoken of by the Saviour--if they are all
going to inherit eternal lives, every one would answer in the affirmative. 
I hope they will.  It really would rejoice me, were it to be so; but I
cannot believe for a moment that every person who receives this Gospel
will be prepared to enter in at the strait gate and inherit eternal lives. 
But there is one fact, and that is undeniable--we cannot alter it, and
that is, every man shall be judged according to his works, and every man
will receive according to the extent of his capacity.

	Every individual among the Latter-day Saints and among all professors
of religion, and then among all the heathen upon the face of the earth,
will be judged according to their works.  Is this all?  No.  Every
individual will also receive according to the extent of his capacity.  The
inquiry might arise, Are all individuals who receive the new and
everlasting covenant, and by their acts submit to it,--are they capable of
receiving the glory to be revealed--the crowns of glory, of immortality,
and eternal lives?  You may answer that question yourselves.  Pause a
moment.

	I will refer your minds to Abraham.  He lived many years without
children, and sought diligently of the Lord to know if his name should be
blotted from the book--if it should become extinct.  He was a righteous
man, a good man, and conversed with his Lord, received revelations from
above, and communed with heavenly beings; while his constant cry was O
Lord, shall my name stop here?  You can read in the Bible how he obtained
a promise, and his wife actually bore him a son in her old age.  He
obtained this promise--"Abraham my son, you shall have a posterity, and a
great nation shall spring forth from your loins; you shall receive the
desire of your heart.  What can you desire, Abraham?"  I want to know if
this will be the end of my posterity? and is my name to stop here?  No,
says the Lord; to your posterity there shall be no end.  You remember what
the Apostle says concerning this matter.  It is this:--"His seed shall be
like the sands upon the sea-shore, and like the stars in the firmament,
for multitude; they cannot be numbered from this time henceforth and for
ever; they are endless, and still continue to increase and increase.

	Here is the very posterity of Abraham in this house.  Nearly the
whole of this congregation in composed of them; and they are on the
increase, spreading forth on the right and on the left, according to the
promise made to Abraham, and the blessings he was earnestly seeking for. 
I mention this to remind you of one fact:  it is a great blessing, and one
of the greatest that can be bestowed upon a mortal being, to receive the
sanction of the Almighty, the voice of God to man, saying that he shall
inherit eternal lives.  The gifts that can be bestowed upon mankind.

	When we step forth into other communities, or contemplate the past,
and view our forefathers, what will be their situation?--what their doom? 
I can tell you, and you will allow me to judge the matter; not, however,
that I am going to judge them and pronounce sentence upon them; but their
situation is plain to those who understand.

	My father and grandfather--my ancestors were some of the most strict
religionists that lived upon the earth.  You no doubt can say the same
about yours.  Of my mother--she that bore me--I can say, no better woman
ever lived in the world than she was.  I have the feelings of a son
towards her:  I should have them--it is right; but I judge the matter
pertaining to her from the principles and the spirit of the teachings I
received from her.

	Would she countenance one of her children in the least act that was
wrong according to her traditions?  No, not in the least degree.  I was
brought up so strict, so firm in the faith of the Christian religion by my
parents, that if I had said "Devil," I believed I had sworn very wickedly,
no matter on what occasion or under what circumstances this might occur. 
If I used the name of Devil, I should have certainly been chastised, and
that severely.  Would my father or mother allow any of their children to
cay "Darn it?"  Were they every allowed to say "I vow?"  No.  If we had
said either of these words, we should have been whipped for it.  I don't
say that we did not say such things when out of the sight of father and
mother; but if by any means it came to their ears, we were sure to be
chastised.

	Did I ever hear a man swear in my father's house?  No, never in my
life.  I never heard my father or any person about his premises swear as
much as to say "Darn it," or "Curse it," or "the Devil."  So you see I was
brought up pretty strictly.  My mother, while she lived, taught her
children all the time to honour the name of the Father and the Son, and to
reverence the holy Book.  She said, Read it, observe its precepts, and
apply them to your lives as far as you can:  do every thing that is good;
do nothing that is evil; and if you see any persons in distress,
administer to their wants:  never suffer anger to arise in your bosoms;
for, if you do, you may be overcome by evil.  I do not know that I every
wronged my neighbour, even to the value of a pin.  I was taught, when a
child, not to take a pin from the door-yard of a neighbour, but to carry
it into the house and give it to some of the family.  Never did my mother
or father countenance any of their children in anything to wrong their
neighbour or fellow-being, even if they were injured by them.  If they
have injured me, says my father, let me return good for evil, and leave it
in the hand of the Lord; he will bless me for doing right and curse them
for doing wrong.

	I have merely mentioned my own parents and their teachings to their
children to bring before your minds the thousands and millions and
thousands of millions of the inhabitants of the earth who have lived and
passed off this stage of action, and the millions that are now living,
eating, drinking, and busily engaged in the almost endless pursuits of
mortal life an we are, every one moving according to his own capacity and
according to his own views and notions of things; but they all alike
breathe the free air and drink of the free water, and all are before the
Lord.  I bring up these little items to prepare the way for the question,
"What are you going to do with all these inhabitants of the earth?

	The Methodists answer, "You must come to the anxious seat, or else be
plunged into that lake of fire and brimstone, and there live for ever,
without any end to your torment, among devils employed in pitching you
around, adding brimstone to fire and fire to brimstone.  You are to stay
there for millions of billions of years, and all the rest of it a man can
think of in the shape of numbers.  When you have lived there so many
years, you are not any nearer the end of this awful torment than you were
when it first began."

	This has appeared to me, from my childhood to this day, a piece of
complete nonsense, to talk about the inhabitants of the earth beings thus
irretrievably lost--to talk of my father and mother, and yours, or our
ancestors, who have lived faithfully according to the best light they had;
but because they had not the everlasting covenant and the holy Priesthood
in their midst, that they should go to hell and roast there to all
eternity.  It is nonsense to me; it always was, and is yet.

	What are you going to do with them?  I will tell you.  Take the
Methodists and every reformer, from the latest back to King James, who
seceded from the authority of the Pope, and the hundreds and thousands
that are now living upon the earth, and have lived and passed away, who
profess no religion, but stand aloof from all parties,--among those who
are dead and those who are living, there are multitudes who have been and
are as good as they know how to be.

	Now, the point is to know what we are going to do with them.  Are we
going to send them to an endless hell?  This wants a little explanation;
for if I were to say that all go to hell, I should certainly tell the
truth; and I can say, as I said last Sabbath, All go there, both Saint and
sinner, in one sense of the word.

	There are reasons for this, and it is for man to understand what they
are, placing everything in its own place, classifying and putting all
things where they belong, to make the doctrine of salvation complete. 
Foreordination, for instance, and free grace are both true doctrine; but
they must be properly coupled together and correctly classified, so as to
produce harmony between these two apparently opposite doctrines.  We must
know, when the Lord speaks, what he is talking about, and who he is
talking about; all and considerably more of which is necessary to get a
proper knowledge of the whole scheme of salvation.

	I ask you again, what are we going to do with father and mother?  Are
we going to send them to perdition, and there let them welter in awful
misery and endless torment?  No; we are not going to do any such thing;
but we will put them where they belong.

	Now, understand, all spirits came from God, and they came pure from
his presence, and were put into earthly tabernacles, which were organized
for that express purpose; and so the spirit and the body became a living
soul.  If these souls should live, according to the law of heaven, God
ordained that they should become temples prepared to inherit all things. 
I wish you to understand that All spirits are pure when they are put into
these tabernacles; but we have not time to explain or set before you the
reasons for the variation in appearance in the mortal tabernacles.  There
are causes for it.  Our spirits fill the tabernacles organized for them;
the body is a habitation for the spirit to dwell in; and if the spirit and
the body both agree in keeping all the laws and all the commandments that
the Lord reveals unto that tabernacle it never shall be destroyed.

	How many shall be preserved?  All who do not deny and defy the power
and character of the Son of God--all who do not sin against the Holy
Ghost.  Now, to return again.  Here are the spirits which have come and
taken possession of the tabernacles prepared they have entered into their
house; and you observe that these habitations of the spirits of men are
scattered over the face of the earth, and they have come from the Lord
pure in their spirits.  These enter their tabernacles and are shut out
from his presence and the knowledge of the Lord:  they are ignorant,
filled with unbelief, exposed to the unholy traditions of the fathers,
which they have to grapple with, and all the wickedness that is in the
world with which they have to contend.

	With your mind's eye look at the millions of them in all nations who
are doing according to the best knowledge they possess.  What! the Roman
Catholics?  Yes, and then every one of her daughters down to the latest
Protestant Church that has been organized.  They are all doing just as
well as they can, and living according to the best light they have--a
great many of them, though not all.  What shall we do with them?  They
pass from the world, their spirits go into the spiritual world, and their
bodies go back to their mother earth, and there sleep, while their spirits
are before the Lord.

	Are they happy?  Every son and daughter of Adam who live according to
the best light and knowledge they have, when the go into the spiritual
world, are happy in proportion to their faithfulness.  For instance, take
a view of some of our late reformers; take the best specimen of reformers
that we have, who are all the time full of glory and happiness and full of
praise to the Lord--who meet together oft and sing and pray and preach and
shout and give thanks to the Lord Almighty; and in a great many instances
and in a great degree they enjoy much of a good spirit, which is the
Spirit of the Lord, or the Light of Christ, which lighteth the world.

	Now, this may be singular to some.  What! they enjoy the Spirit of
the Lord?  Yes, every man and woman, according to their faith and the
knowledge they have in their possession.  They enjoy the goodness of their
Father in heaven.  Do they receive the Spirit of the Lord?  They do, and
enjoy the light of it, and walk in it, and rejoice in it.

	What will be their state hereafter?  Every faithful Methodist that
has lived up to and faithfully fulfilled the requirements of his religion,
according to the best light he had, doing good to all and evil to none,
injuring no person upon the earth, honouring his God as far he knew, will
have as great a heaven as he ever anticipated in the flesh, and far
greater.  Every Presbyterian, and every Quaker, and every Baptist, and
every Roman Catholic member,--every reformer, of whatever class or grade,
that lives according to the best light they have, and never have had an
opportunity of receiving a greater light than the one in their possession,
will have and enjoy all they live for.

	I am telling you the truth as it is, and you may write it down if you
please, and call it revelation if you will.  But it has been revealed
before I revealed it here to-day.  This is the situation of Christendom
after death.

 	You may go among the Pagans, or among all the nations there are, and
they have their religion, their sacraments, and ceremonies, which are as
sacred to them as ours are to us:  they are just as precious and dear to
them, though we call them heathen.  They are idolatrous worshippers; yet
their religion is as sacred to them as ours is to us.  If they live
according to the best light they have in their religion, God is God over
all and the Father of us all; we are all the workmanship of his hands; and
if they are ignorant, filled with superstition, and have the traditions of
the fathers interwoven like a mantle around and over them, that they
cannot see any light, so will they be judged; and if they have lived
according to what they did possess, so they will receive hereafter.

	And will it be glory? you may inquire.  Yes.  Glory, glory, glory to
our merciful Father in heaven; for the least glory spoken of in this
Vision given to Joseph Smith, junior, and Sidney Rigdon, cannot be
described:  it is so great and so exquisite that it is altogether beyond
mortal perception.

	They could not write it, neither describe it in language.  The glory
of the telestial world no man knows, except he partakes of it; and yet, in
the world they differ in glory as the stars in the firmament differ one
from the other.  The terrestrial glory is greater still, and the celestial
is the greatest of all; that is the glory of God the Father, where our
Lord Jesus Christ reigns.  Well, this people are privileged above all
other people upon the earth:  this community--this congregation now before
me are the people whose blessings are far superior to the blessings of all
the human family besides.

	What manner of persons ought we to be?  Should not all our lives be
filled with praise, and glory, and hallelujahs to God and the Lamb, with
good works and good feelings, being filled with the Spirit of God?  If so,
would there be any room for anger or contention from this time forth? 
There would not be one man or woman that could find time to talk about
their neighbours or contend with a brother, but all hearts would be
sanctified before the Lord, and every tongue would be speaking praise, and
every hand would be put forth to do good and to seek to build up the
kingdom of God; and they would never sin again.  If we seek to build up
this kingdom, hereafter the Lord will build us  up.  I don't know that I
shall get half through with what I want to say today.  I wish to come back
and look at ourselves in the next place.

	How many glories and kingdoms will there be in eternity?  You will
see the same variety in eternity as you see in the world.  For instance,
you see here one class of men who have lived according to the best light
they had:  you may go among the heathen, or among the Christians, it is no
matter; I will call them all Christians, or all heathens, if it will
accommodate any body's feelings, for they don't come much short of all
being heathen.  We will take the best men we can find among them,--when
they pass through the veil they are in happiness, they are in glory, they
go among the disembodied spirits; but they do not go where there are
resurrected bodies, for they cannot live there:  a Prophet or an Apostle
cannot live there.  They also go into the spiritual world to live with
spirits.  Do they commune with the Father and Son?  The Father communes
with them as he pleases, through the means of angels, or otherwise the Son
and the Holy Ghost.  This is the situation of the Prophet, the Apostle,
and all Saints before they receive their resurrected bodies; but they are
looking forward to the time when they shall receive their bodies from the
dust; and those that have been faithful, probably, will now soon get their
resurrected bodies.  Abraham has had his body long ago, and dwells, with
the Father and the Son, among all the Prophets and faithful Saints who
received their resurrected bodies immediately after the resurrection of
the Saviour.  They were then prepared to enter into the Father's rest and
be crowned with glory and eternal lives; but they were not prepared
before.

	No spirit of Saint or sinner, of the Prophet or him that kills the
Prophet, is prepared for their final state:  all pass through he veil from
this state and go into the world of spirits; and there they dwell, waiting
for their final destiny.  It no doubt appears a singular idea to you that
both Saint and sinner go to the same place and dwell together in the same
world.  You can see the same variety in this world.  You see the
Latter-day Saints, who have come into these valleys,--they are by
themselves as a community, yet they are in the same world with other
communities.  But I do not feel as though I am dwelling where there are
six or eight kinds of religion or more, and, after all, no religion at
all; I am not dwelling where there is cursing, and swearing, and
horse-racing, and gambling, and everything else that is calculated to
disturb a peaceable community.  Though I am in the same world where all
this exists, I am not dwelling where it is, nor am I disturbed by it; but
I am peaceable and serving the Lord.

	You can see the variety here.  The Presbyterians can go away by
themselves and build cities and towns, and try to prohibit all other
persons who are not Presbyterians from dwelling with them:  the Methodists
can do the same; the Baptists can do the same.  We have the privilege of
organizing society in the world as we please in one sense.  This is what
Mr. Owen calls Socialism.  He says mankind are controlled by
circumstances, and others say that mankind govern and control
circumstances.  Both are true.  We govern and control circumstances; but
when we come into circumstances which the Lord controls, we are then
controlled by circumstances.  I and my brethren can go and settle down in
a certain part; and if you choose we can go into merchandising or
stock-raising; and if we choose, we can live without a family, like a
Shaker.  In this way we can control circumstances in a great degree, while
there are circumstances over which we have no control.  All this exhibits
precisely the situation of the people hereafter:  they control
circumstances to a great degree, and sometimes circumstances control them. 
When they are in the world of spirits, there is the Prophet and the
Patriarch; all righteous men are there, and all wicked men also are there.

	What is going to be done with them?  By-and-by Zion will be built up;
Temples are going to be reared, and the holy Priesthood is going to take
effect and rule, and every law of Christ will be obeyed, and he will
govern and reign King of nations as he now does King of Saints.  Pretty
soon you will see Temples reared up, and the sons of Jacob will enter into
the Temples of the Lord.  What will they do there?  They will do a great
many things.  When you see Zion redeemed and built up--when you see the
people performing the ordinances of salvation for themselves and for
others, (and they will hereafter,) you will see simply this (but I have
not time this morning to tell you only a little part of it):  About the
time that the Temples of the Lord will be built and Zion is
established--pretty nigh this time, you will see, (those who are faithful
enough,) the first you know, there will be strangers in your midst,
walking with you, talking with you:  they will enter into your houses and
eat and drink with you, go to meeting with you, and begin to open your
minds, as the Saviour did the two disciples who walked out in the country
in days of old.

	About the time the Temples are ready, the strangers will be along and
will converse with you, and will inquire of you, probably, if you
understand the resurrection of the dead.  You might say you have heard and
read a great deal about it, but you do not properly understand it; and
they will then open your minds and tell you the principles of the
resurrection of the dead and how to save your friends:  they will point
out Scriptures in the Old and New Testament, in the Book of Mormon, and
other revelations of God, saying, "don't you recollect reading so and so,
that saviors should come up on Mount Zion?" &c.; and they will expound the
Scriptures to you.  You have got your Temples ready:  now go forth and be
baptised for those good people.  There are your father and your
mother--your ancestors for many generations back--the people that have
lived upon the face of the earth since the Priesthood was taken away,
thousands and millions of them, who have lived according to the best light
and knowledge in their possession.  They will expound the Scriptures to
you, and open your minds, and teach you of the resurrection of the just
and the unjust, of the doctrine of salvation:  they will use the keys of
the holy Priesthood, and unlock the door of knowledge, to let you look
into the palace of truth.  You will exclaim, That is all plain:  why did I
not understand it before? and you will begin to feel your hearts burn
within you as they walk and talk with you.

	You will enter into the Temple of the Lord and begin to offer up
ordinances before the Lord for your dead.  Says this or that man, I want
to save such a person--I want to save my father; and he straightway goes
forth in the ordinance of baptism, and is confirmed, and washed, and
anointed, and ordained to the blessings of the holy Priesthood for his
ancestors.  Before this work is finished, a great many of the Elders of
Israel in Mount Zion will become pillars in the Temple of God, to go no
more out:  they will eat and drink and sleep there; and they will often
have occasion to say--"Somebody came into the Temple last night; we did
not know who he was, but he was no doubt a brother, and told us a great
many things we did not before understand.  He gave us the names of a great
many of our forefathers that are not on record, and he gave me my true
lineage and the names of my forefathers for hundreds of years back.  He
said to me, You and I are connected in one family: there are the names of
your ancestors; take them and write them down, and be baptised and
confirmed, and save such and such ones, and receive of the blessings of
the eternal Priesthood for such and such an individual, as you do for
yourselves."  This is what we are going to do for the inhabitants of the
earth.  When I look at it, I do not want to rest a great deal, but be
industrious all the day long; for when we come to think upon it, we have
no time to lose, for it is a pretty laborious work.

	I have a great feeling to just let the lash slide over on to some men
a little.  Do your think they would want to go to California to get gold,
or run to the ferries, where the name of the Almighty is blasphemed, if
they properly understood these things--The way of life and salvation?  You
will enter into the temple of the Lord, when by-and-by here come along
brothers Joseph and Hyrum Smith, for instance; for they will be perfectly
capable of coming and staying over night with you, and you not know who
they are.  Or suppose David Patten should come along, and shake hands with
some of the Twelve, and want to stay all night with them and expound the
Scriptures and reveal the hidden things of God.  It will not be long
before this will be so.

	Suppose we are ready for it, and a great Temple is build at the
central point, in Jackson County.  Gentlemen, don't be startled; for if we
don't go back there, our sons and daughters will; and a great Temple will
be built upon the consecrated spot, and a great many more besides that. 
The land of Joseph is the land of Zion; and it takes North and South
America to make the land of Joseph.  Suppose we are ready to go into the
Temples of God to officiate for our fathers and our grandfathers--for our
ancestors back for hundreds of years, who are all looking to see what
their children are doing upon the earth.  The Lord says, I have sent the
keys of Elijah the Prophet--I have imparted that doctrine to turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts children to the
fathers.  Now, all you children, are you looking to the salvation of your
fathers?  Are you seeking diligently to redeem them that have died without
the Gospel, inasmuch as they sought the Lord Almighty to obtain promises
for you?--for our fathers did obtain promises that their seed should not
be forgotten.  O ye children of the fathers, look at these things.  You
are to enter into the Temples of the Lord and officiate for your
forefathers.

	Suppose we are ready to enter into the Temple to be baptised and
attend to the ordinances for one hundred of our best forefathers, and
Thomas should say to John, "John, take this affair and see to it; I want
to go to this ferry to make a little money;" or "Joseph, you know the
names of our ancestors better than I do; won't you go and see to their
salvation?  I have not time myself; I want to build a bridge."  "James,
are you ready to perform your duties for the dead?"  "No; I want to go and
keep a grocery."  And you know the language that is common to such places: 
the name of the Lord is blasphemed, and his servants are cursed with
bitter oaths.

	What do your think of it, gentlemen, Elders in Israel?  What would
money have to do with you, if you were not upon the threshold of eternity,
and eternity open to you?  Would you have the apostacy, as you have now? 
A little money is more to such persons than the salvation of all the sons
and daughters of Adam.  I wish I had a voice like ten thousand
earthquakes, and all the world might hear and know the loving-kindness of
the Lord.

	I am telling you things that are before me constantly.  When men and
women are reaching after the perishable things of this world, and will
step out of the path of duty and endanger their salvation, it has been
said that it hurts brother Brigham's feelings.  It is true, and I could
even weep over such; and the angels weep over us to see our
foolishness--that we are so giddy-headed as to run after the fading things
of the world, and set out minds and feelings upon riches, and neglect our
duty in preparing ourselves for the coming of the Son of man, for the
coming of the ancient and modern Apostles and Prophets, for the redemption
of Zion, and the redeeming of our dear friends in every age of the world
when the Priesthood was not upon the earth.

	Now, the inquiry on our minds is, Are all the world going to share in
these blessings?  Yes, all the world.  Are there none going to be lost? 
Are there none going to suffer the wrath of the Almighty?  I can say, in
the first place, as I have said all my life, where I have been preaching,
I neve [sic] had the spirit to preach hell and damnation to the people.  I
have tried a great many times--I tried last Sabbath, and I have tried
to-day to come to that point--the sufferings of the wicked.  They will
suffer, it seems; but I cannot get my heart upon anything else only
salvation for the people.  All nations are going to share in these
blessings; all are incorporated in the redemption of the Saviour.  He has
tasted death for every man:  they are all in his power, and he saves them
all, as he says, except the sons of perdition; and the Father has put all
the creations upon this earth in his power.  The earth itself, and mankind
upon it, the brute beasts, the fish of the sea, and the fowls of heaven,
the insects, and every creeping thing, with all things pertaining to this
earthly ball,--all are in the hands of the Saviour, and he has redeemed
them all.  Who is there that is out of his power?  I will tell you, in the
first place, he has made man an agent to himself before the Lord, with all
the rest that he has ordained, that mankind shall act for themselves,
think for themselves, deal for themselves.  They can choose the good and
forsake the evil, or cleave to the evil and neglect the light and the
good, just as they choose.  Life and death are placed before them, and
they have the privilege of choosing life or death.  If they choose death,
evil, and darkness, the time will come when those who are acquainted with
the power of God will deny that power and speak against the Holy Ghost,
and commit the unpardonable sin.  They then throw themselves out of the
power of the Saviour, and take to themselves power, and say, "I will not
hearken to the Lord Jesus now; I will serve whom I please, and I defy the
power of the Son of God."  They yield themselves servants to the Devil and
become his angels.  They are then out of the hands of the Saviour, and can
never dwell in heaven, worlds without end.

	This will illustrate the Idea.  You have heard a great deal about
having your names written in the Lamb's Book of Life.  When we were
Christians, according to the common acceptation of the word, we used to
preach a great deal about getting our names written in the book.  I will
tell you how it is.  The name of every son and daughter of Adam are
already written in the Lamb's Book of Life.  Is there ever a time when
they will be taken out of it?  Yes, when they become sons of perdition,
and not till then.  Every person has the privilege of retaining it there
for ever and ever.  If they neglect that privilege, then their names will
be erased, and not till then.  All the names of the human family are
written there, and the Lord will hold them there until they come to the
knowledge of the truth, that they can rebel against him, and can sin
against the Holy Ghost; then they will be thrust down to hell, and their
names be blotted out from the Lamb's Book of Life.

	I want to have the brethren look at the work that is before us. 
Contemplate your blessings, and realize them.  There is not a people who
are blessed as we are.  We have the words of eternal life, the holy
Priesthood of the Son of God.  We possess the keys of that Priesthood, and
can prepare ourselves to become angels of God--yea, more, to become Saints
of God--yea, more, to become Gods in eternity, and to be crowned with
crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal life.  And woe to them that
neglect these things--that read them lightly!  Woe to them that live among
the world, and live riches, or anything better than they do the Author of
our salvation!

	These are some parts of the Gospel of redemption.  Is it not a
blessing?  Is it not a great privilege for the inhabitants of the earth to
know the truth as it is--to have it sounded in their ears, that they may
go to hell and suffer the wrath of the Almighty; yet, if they have not had
the privilege of receiving the holy Gospel, have not come to the knowledge
of the truth, so as to sin against the Holy Ghost the time will come, by
the power and triumph of the Lamb, that he will bring them forth, when
they have suffered his wrath according to the deeds done in the body.  Is
it not a great blessing?

	I will tell you, brethren and sisters, and friends, when I look at
these things, I earnestly wish they could be understood by the universal
world.  I wish they could see and realize them, and behold the goodness,
and severity, and kindness with that severity, and the love that the
Almighty has for them.  If they could know it, we should not wait for the
rising of the sun again before every knee would bow before the Lord, from
the east to the west, and from the north to the south, all over this
globe, and every tongue confess before God the Father that Jesus is the
Christ.

	When they do know it and understand it, that is the time when the
veil of the covering is taken form their eyes, and all flesh will see his
glory together.  Then every knee will bow, and every tongue confess, that
Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer, the Saviour, and the rightful heir of
this creation, and honour him as their kind benefactor, and praise him
continually, though they are in the terrestial world.

	I feel to say, May the Lord bless you!  It is with difficulty I talk
to you this morning.  My voice does not thunder, as it once did; and it
would be misery for me to talk to a congregation, and they not hear me. 
It is with difficulty I preach.  I should like if we could talk here one
thousand years and not get tired, if we had the ability and power to do
so.  We will come to that by-and-by.  May the Lord bless you and prepare
you for the kingdom of rest.  Amen.



   BUILDING UP THE KINGDOM OF GOD--HOW TO TREAT IMMIGRANT SAINTS, ETC.
        Remarks by President Brigham Young at a Special Conference
      held in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 28, 1852.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	The morning is far spent; but before we close the morning service, I
would like to present before the Conference the names of a few Elders who
have been selected to take missions.

	I suppose the brethren understand the object of this special
Conference.  It is for the purpose of transacting business pertaining to
foreign Missions and of giving the brethren an opportunity to cross the
Plains before the cold weather.  We shall send them out from this
Conference.

	I wish to say to the brethren, I am thankful, and I rejoice in the
Lord my Saviour, for his choice blessings which we enjoy.  It was observed
by brother Benson that brother Brigham has but one fear concerning this
people.  It is true.

	I do not fear all the devils in hell, or all the mobs that could be
raised; but if I have any fear, it is upon this ground--that the people,
in their blessings, should forget the Lord their God.  I do not see that
this is the case with this people; but if there is danger to be
anticipated, it is in the slackness of the people to remember the Lord,
when the fostering hand of Providence is pouring out blessings upon them
and round about them all the day long.

	This has been in former times, when the blessings of the Lord have
been poured out upon the people.  It is written in the Bible, concerning
ancient Israel, that they got fat and kicked against the Lord their God. 
You may understand the expression as you please.  They forgot the Lord and
began to trust in the wisdom of man.  They forgot their prayers and the
duties they owed to one another, and they fell back into a careless,
carnal security, and became like the rest of the world.

	This is the only ground on which I would have fear, were I to
entertain any.  As I have often said, and the same I can say again--it is
too late in the day for this people ever to be cast off and disowned by
the Lord.  The work the Lord promised to do it too nigh accomplished, and
he has promised to make a short work on the earth.  This work has some
time since commenced; and if any of the people will not serve their God
and do the work he has given them to do, they will be removed out of the
way, and that speedily.  It is too late in the day for this people to
apostitize and the Priesthood to be taken again from the earth; so there
is not much ground for fears even in this respect.

	A few words to the Elders of Israel with regard to the building up of
the kingdom of God.  Suppose every man who has wanted to go out to preach,
(and almost every Elder has wanted to go,)--suppose they had all gone six
years ago last fall, and left Nauvoo entirely destitute of Elders, and
attended diligently to preaching up to this time.  Would there have been a
place prepared for the gathering of the Saints from all the world?  No. 
THere would have been no place for the elders to gather them to: there
would have been no standard reared or rallying point for the people.  Do
you preach the gathering of Israel and the redemption of Zion?  You do;
and when you would have got through this, and found all the rest had been
neglected, what would have been the situation of the Elders of Israel? 
Their mouths would be closed up and sealed; they would not have any more
influence among the people than those doctors and philosophers in France
spoken of by Elder Taylor:  they came, they tarried; and if they paid for
what they had, it was all right; they went, and no person cared for them. 
It would have been the same with the Elders of this Church.

	The whole machinery is in operation and complete, that, when the
Elders go forth to preach the Gospel, every man carries with him a
two-edged sword, and pierces the hearts of the people by the spirit of the
Gospel which he goes to proclaim.  But if the work is in progress only in
part, his sword is blunted at once; it has no edge, it is incomplete, and
does not pierce the hearts of the people; consequently, he had better have
stayed at home.

	Why I make these remarks is, that we may understand that unless this
work is in progress as a whole, it is not complete--we are found wanting,
and not prepared to do the work we are called and sent to do.  Now, it is
just as necessary to come to these valleys, build houses, make fences,
erect school-houses, rear up places of worship, and prepare for the
gathering of Israel, as it is to go and preach to Israel to influence them
to gather.  The one is just a honourable and as acceptable in the sight of
God as the other; and those that labour faithfully at home, will be
crowned with those that labour faithfully abroad.  Those who are selected
to remain at home receive as those who are selected to go abroad.

	It is unnecessary for me, for any of the Twelve, or for any of my
brethren to rise up here to preach to the Elders to infuse the spirit of
preaching in them; for we have had to hold them back with a cable rope, as
it were, to keep them from going to preach.  There is no lack of the
spirit of the Gospel in the Elders of Israel; for we have been teased all
the time to give them permission to go out and give vent to the spirit
within them; but had we listened to them, you and I would not have had
this commodious house to preach in this day.  All the Elders would have
been off preaching, and there would not have been enough left to have made
the women and children comfortable.

	What is to be done?  Obey counsel.  They do, and how far?  Enough to
scare the whole world.  Look at the spirit that is in the midst of this
people and that overshadows them.  What influence does this have upon the
nations of the earth?  It fills them with terror and awe; and when they
reflect and reason, it fills them with astonishment that there is a people
on the earth, in the present confused revolutionary state of the nations,
that will hearken to counsel, and be of one heart and one mind.  They are
filled with fear and astonishment, and they dread the union that is among
this people more than they dread the Lord Almighty upon his throne.  This
is a pretty positive proof that this people are willing to hearken to the
counsels of heaven.

	Brother Benson proclaims in our hearing that this spirit has
increased since he left here last fall.  It has, and I expect it has grown
in his own bosom:  it has in mine.  What do you think about yourselves,
brethren?  Would you not be ready also to acknowledge that the same spirit
is increasing in your bosoms--a spirit of love, and union, and of faith in
you calling?  I think there are a great many who can say, and say it
truly, that this Spirit of the Lord has greatly increased in their hearts
for six or eight months past, or for a year.  Were it not so, we should
not be found growing in the knowledge of the truth.  This is out labour,
our business, and our calling--to grow in grace and in knowledge from day
to day and from year to year.

	I wish to say to this congregation, and I wish them to say to the
families of the brethren who are not here to-day, and I would like all the
inhabitants of these valleys to hear it,--When our brethren who are on the
Plains come with their families into this city, or into any of the
settlements of the Latter-day Saints, sit down and calmly make a
calculation in your own hearts, how you would wish a neighbourhood of
Latter-day Saints, to receive you, if you had been journeying across the
Plains this season.  Ponder it over in you minds, and place yourselves in
the situation of a pilgrim travelling across the Plains; and, after a hard
and fatiguing summer's work, now you have got home.  Imagine yourselves at
the doors of your brethren who have plenty.  Here are their gardens
groaning with abundance of the produce of the earth--with potatoes, beets,
and cabbage.  Here are milk and butter and fine flour in great quantities. 
Here are the tomatoes and garden vegetables of every description.  Now,
you say, I have got home, to my brethren's door, and they have got plenty. 
What would you wish these brethren to do to you?  Ask the same question to
your neighbours, and get them to answer it.  I can tell you what you would
they should do to you.  You would wish them to say, come, brother or
sister, into my garden,

	and help yourselves to come garden sauce; walk in here, and take and
eat, and make yourselves glad.  And if they turn round and say, Brother
how shall I pay you for what I get? then you cannot hear that, for it is
something that is altogether out of the question.  The Lord gave it to us: 
now, come and help us to eat it.  That do to the emigrant Saints, every
one of you.  I know it is the will of the Lord you should do it; and I
know, if he should speak to you himself, he would tell you the same thing. 
I tell you just as it is; and that is just as good, precisely, as though
another came and told you.  Then the brethren will feel joyful; their
hearts will be made glad, and they will know that you are actually growing
un the knowledge of the truth.

	There are a great many coming.  Brother Benson says all are coming,
and even the great grand-daddies and great grand-mammies, uncles and
aunts,--all are coming, and I am glad of it.  I rejoice; for it puts us in
a position that we can sent our Elders from this place into all the world;
whereas, before, our circumstances needed all the men we had here to
prepare for the gathering of the Saints.  Now the time has come that we
can send out our little parties to gather up Israel and preach the Gospel
to the nations before the end comes.

	The reports we have heard from our brethren are favourable, cheering,
and rejoicing to every heart.  Those who are coming from the islands of
the sea and from the old countries where the Elders have been sent--those
from Pottawatomie and the States are coming home.  For the present, this
is the place of gathering; here the standard is reared for the Latter-day
Saints from all nations, and they may spread out from this place and fill
up other places, until the whole continent of America, which is the land
of Zion, shall be peopled with the Saints of the Most High.

	Question:  When are we going back to Jackson County?  Not until the
Lord commands his people; and it is just as much as you and I can do to
get ready to go when he does command us.

	Brothers Benson and Grant have been successful in their missions. 
Brother Benson says some of the brethren were glad when he was mobbed.  I
was glad of it; for every mobbing difficulty will add glory upon the heads
of the humble, faithful, and contrite in heart.  It serves to prove and
give them experience; it shows them the contrast between the one and the
other.  All this is preparatory for the Saints to enter into their rest,
and for the wicked to receive their punishment.  Brother Benson has been
successful; and I thank the Lord Almighty that he turned the key here last
fall, and caused a tremendous commotion among the political
elements--earthquake, thundering, and lightning above and below the earth,
with great excitement.  This gathered a great many more Saints than if it
had been fair weather all the time.  This clashing and noise of the
elements stirred up the people in Pottawatomie, and then they want to go
to the mountains, like brother George A. Smith, in the latter days of
Nauvoo:  he wanted to go to the mountains, or to California, or to Oregon;
he was not very particular.  What for?  Simply because he was obliged to
go somewhere.  The Saints who are coming now from Pottawatomie were
obliged to leave for the valleys of the mountains.  Whey?  Because they
had to run somewhere.  Do you suppose I am sorry because of persecution? 
No:  I never was in my life; but I have thanked God a thousand times that
the Devil is not yet bound; for if he had been, the Saints would have gone
to sleep; and if there could be such a thing, they would have been blotted
out of existence, with all their intelligence, and the earth have received
them into its bowels.  Light, knowledge, truth, wickedness of every kind,
the works of the Almighty, and the works of the Devil, all conspire to
roll on the great work that the Lord Jesus Christ is doing upon the
earth,--every person and power in their own order.

	I do not wish to detain the congregation longer this morning. 
Brother Kimball set before you the object of the meeting, and I have
hinted at it.  We will not read over a few names that we have selected. 
May the Lord God of Israel bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

       NECESSITY OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD BEING PURE IN HEART AND IN
     DEED--DEPENDENCE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT--CELESTIAL EXALTATIONS, ETC.
        Remarks by President Brigham Young at a Special Conference
      held in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 28, 1852.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I want to say a few words to the congregation before we dismiss, for
we shall be under the necessity of separating soon, and probably we shall
hold another meeting this evening.

	I have heard the exhortations of the brethren who have spoken to-day
with joy?  They seem to be in good spirit; and certainly--yea, most
assuredly, there is the most novelty in "Mormonism" that there is in
anything upon the face of the earth.  It is musical; it pleases both the
eye and the ear, and I may say every sense of the man.

	When I heard the brethren exhorting those who are going out on
missions, I wished them to impress one thing upon the minds of these
Elders, for it is necessary that it should be uppermost there, which may
be the means of preserving them from receiving stains on their characters,
from which very probably they may never recover.  If we get a blight upon
our characters before the Lord, or in other words, lose ground and
backslide by transgression, or in any other way, so that we are not up
even with the brethren as we are now, we never can come up with them
again.  But this principle must be carried out by the Elders wherever they
go, whatever they do, or wherever they are.  One thing must be observed
and be before them all the time in their meditations in their practice,
and that is, clean hands and pure hearts before God, angels, and men.

	If the Elders cannot go with clean hands and pure hearts, they had
better stay here and wash a little longer.  Do not go thinking, when you
arrive at the Missouri river, at the Mississippi, at the Ohio, or at the
Atlantic, that then you will purify yourselves; but start from here with
clean hands and pure hearts, and be pure from the crown of the head to the
soles of your feet; then live so every hour.  Go in that manner, and in
that manner labour, and return again as clean as a piece of pure white
paper.  This is the way to go; and if you do not do that, your hearts will
ache.  How can you do it?  Is there a way?  Yes.  Do the Elders understand
that way?  They do.  You cannot keep your own hands clean and your hearts
pure without the help of the Lord; neither will he keep you pure without
your own help.

	Will you be liable to fall into temptation and be overtaken by sin? 
Yes, unless you live so as to have the revelation of Jesus Christ
continually, not only to live in it to day or while you are preaching, in
a prayer meeting, or in a Conference; and when you are out of these
meetings, when you are guarded more particularly by the Spirit, say that
you can get along without the Holy Ghost.  You must have it all the
time--on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and every day through the week, and from
year to year, from the time you leave home until you return; so that when
you come back, you may not be afraid if the Lord Almighty should come into
the midst of the Saints and reveal all the acts and doings and designs of
your hearts in your missions; but be found clean like a piece of white
paper.  That is the way for the Elders to live in their ministry at home
and abroad.

	There are a great many things that could be said here, which would
add to the comfort and consolation of us all,--a great many principles
that could be taught to the Elders, which they must learn when they go
abroad.  I will notice one things with regard to learning.  You will hear
a great many Elders say, If I could go to preaching, I could become a man
like many and others:  I should receive knowledge understanding; I should
be noted--become a great man and a wise man.  Many have such feelings,
that they are greater who are in the world preaching the Gospel than those
who remain here.  It is a grand mistake; for if those who have lived with
us all the time have not a knowledge of true principles--do not understand
the root and foundation of the superstructure--are not filled with
knowledge and understanding here, they need not appeal to the Gentile
world for it.  If they have not the foundation within themselves of talent
and tact, they need not go abroad for the Spirit of the Lord to instruct
them in things they cannot be instructed in here at home, and to obtain
improvement where improvement cannot be made.

	We may live here year after year, and store up knowledge all the
time, and yet not have an opportunity of exhibiting it to others; but if I
have knowledge by the Spirit of the Lord, I gain it in the fountain; and
if not quite at the fountain head, the higher I am to that place the more
I get.  Though I have not the privilege of exhibiting it to the people, it
is on hand whenever the time comes it should be used.  It is a vain idea
to suppose that we can send Elders into the world who have not got good
common sense, to make men of them.  If they have good sense here, they
will have it yonder; if they have good sense yonder, they will have good
common sense here.  Whether they are there or here does not alter the
foundation that is in them.  If the Elders have natural ability and have
obtained great wisdom or learning, to go abroad gives them an opportunity
to improve upon what they have.

	I want to refer to the last speech made here.  Brother Phelps feels
very joyful, as the rest of us do.  When we hear the glad tidings of
salvation among the nations, it gives a spring to our feelings and fills
us with unspeakable joy.

	Perhaps in the case before us, as in others, we might say that men
become children.  We are children in the first place, then become men; and
in the second place men become children in their understanding.  As to the
correctness of the exalted views that brother Phelps has of myself, I
leave it to the congregation to decide for themselves; but to place me on
a par with the personages he has named, who have overcome and entered into
the presence of God, or even to compare me with Joseph Smith, our martyred
Prophet, is too much; though I expect, if I am faithful, I shall be as
great as they are now, and so can every other faithful man.  But am I now
to be compared with these exalted characters?  Not at all,--not even with
Joseph; and he is at present inferior to others brother Phelps has named. 
But I expect, if I am faithful with yourselves, that I shall see the time
with yourselves that we shall know how to prepare to organize an earth
like this--know how to people that earth, how to redeem it, how to
sanctify it, and how to glorify it, with those who live upon it who
hearken to our counsels.

	The Father and the Son have attained to this point already; I am on
the way, and so are you, and every faithful servant of God.

	One of the greatest queries on the minds of the Saints is to
understand the nature, the principle of the foundations of our existence. 
To say nothing about what has been if you will follow out that which is
before you, you can learn all about it.  I have a notion to tell you,
though I have not time to say much about it now.  I will, however, just
tell you the simple story relating to the exaltation of man in the
celestial kingdom of God.  We will take Joseph for instance:  he is
faithful to his calling--has filled his mission to this earth, and sealed
his testimony with his blood; he has done the work his Father gave him to
do, and will soon come to the resurrection.  His spirit is waiting for the
resurrection of the body, which will soon be.  But has he the power to
resurrect that body?  He has not.  Who has this power?  Those that have
already passed through the resurrection--who have been resurrected in
their time and season by some person else, and have been appointed to that
authority just as you Elders have with regard to your authority to
baptise.

	You have not the power to baptise yourselves, neither have you power
to resurrect yourselves; and you could not legally baptise a second person
for the remission of sins until some person first baptised you and
ordained you to this authority.  So with those that hold the keys of the
resurrection to resurrect the Saints.  Joseph will come up in his turn,
receive his body again, and continue his mission in the eternal worlds
until he carries it out to perfection, with all the rest of the faithful,
to be made perfect with those who have lived before, and those who shall
live after; and when the work is finished, and it is offered to the
Father, then they will be crowned and receive keys and powers by which
they will be capable of organizing worlds.  What will they organize first? 
Were I to tell you, I should certainly spoil all the baby resurrection
that Elder Hyde and the others ever preached, as sure as the world.

	After men have got their exaltations and their crowns--have become
Gods, even the sons of God--are made Kings of kings and Lords of lords,
they have the power then of propagating their species in spirit; and that
is the first of their operations with regard to organizing a world.  Power
is then given to them to organize the elements, and then commence the
organization of tabernacles.  How can they do it?  Have they to go to that
earth?  Yes, an Adam will have to go there, and he cannot do without Eve;
he must have Eve to commence the work of generation, and they will go into
the garden, and continue to eat and drink of the fruits of the corporeal
world, until this grosser matter is diffused sufficiently through their
celestial bodies to enable them, according to the established laws, to
produce mortal tabernacles for their spiritual children.

	This is a key for you.  The faithful will become Gods, even the sons
of God; but this does not overthrow the idea that we have a father.  Adam
is my father; (this I will explain to you at some future time;) but it
does not prove that he is not my father, if I became a God:  it does not
prove that I have not a father.

	I am on the way to become one of those characters, and am nobody in
the world but Brigham Young.  I never have professed to be brother Joseph,
but brother Brigham, trying to do good to this people.  I am no better,
not any more important than another man who is trying to do good.  If I
am, I don't know it.  If I improve upon what the Lord has given me, and
continue to improve, I shall become like those who have gone before me; I
shall be exalted in the celestial kingdom, and be filled to overflowing
with all the power I can wield; and all the keys of knowledge I can manage
will be committed unto me.  What do we want more?  I shall be just like
every other man--have all that I can, in my capacity, comprehend and
manage.

	I am on my way to this great exaltation.  I expect to attain unto it. 
I am in the hands of the Lord, and never trouble myself about my
salvation, or what the Lord will do with me hereafter.  It is for me to do
the will of God to-day, and, when to-morrow comes, to inquire what is his
will concerning me; then do the will of my Father in the work he has
appointed me to do, and that is enough for me.  I am serving a God who
will give me all I merit, when I come to receive my reward.  This is what
I have always thought; and if I still think so, it is enough for me.

	I say to the brethren who are leaving home--when you go from home,
leave everything you have go here:  don't take anything with you but the
Lord and yourselves.

	You will want horses to bear you over the Plains, but don`t carry
your wives or your children in your hearts or in your affections with your
one rod.  Dedicate them to the Lord God of Israel, and leave them at home;
and when you are in England, or among other nations, no matter where, when
you pray for your families, pray for them as being in the Great Salt Lake
Valley, and do not bring them close to you, as though they were in your
carpet-bag.  Pray for them where they are.  You must feel--If they live,
all right; if they die, all right:  if I die, all right; if I live, all
right; for we are the Lord's, and we shall soon meet again.

	I wish to say to you that are left here, whose husbands and fathers
are going away for a season--Don't cling to them one particle, but let
them go as cheerfully as you would give a weary traveller a cup of cold
water.  If you live, it is all right; and if you fall asleep before they
return, it is all right.  Don't send your hearts after them one step, nor
suffer you spirits to cling to them one moment.  Then you wives in very
deed will be blessed, and be helpmeets to your husbands.

	But if a wife should yet cling round a husband's neck and say, Oh,
how I love you, dear husband! and keep him in her embraces, that woman is
a dead weight to that man, and not a help to him.  Women should be loyal
to the cause of God, and help to build up his kingdom by their husbands,
in assisting them to fulfil their missions; and if they do not do it, they
are not helpmeets to their husbands.  I know there are a great many hear
who have had an experience in these things.  It is not matter if they are
on the other side of the globe, apart, let them long for each other, and
there will be a thread of communications between them; the man cannot be
useful in his labours while she is all the time weeping and mourning every
day of her life.  Let a man suffer his mind to be drawn out all the time
after his family, and he will become inactive in the work of the Lord.

	When you leave, understand it, you have neither wife nor children: 
you have handed them all over to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let the brethren
go and say, I will keep my eyes straight before me on the object of my
mission, and not look behind me to my family; but I will accomplish my
mission; and when I have done, it is all right.  I am willing to go home,
if the Lord wishes me to do so.

	The time is far spent, and it is necessary for our meeting to be
brought to a close.  May the Lord bless you; and I say he does bless us. 
We are greatly blessed above all people upon the face of this earth.  Let
us be faithful to God and the covenant we have made.  Amen.

         THE SACRAMENT--THE SABBATH--SECTARIAN OPPOSITION TO THE
               DOCTRINES AND ORDINANCES OF THE GOSPEL, ETC.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, at a Special Conference
      held in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 29, 1852.
                          Report by G. D. Watt.

	While the sacrament is passing, I will take the liberty of making a
few remarks.

	Some truth has been referred to here, from the stand, with regard to
the congregation.  These, my brethren and sisters, are in the habit of
being here one part of the Sabbath, to hear and understand for themselves. 
I should be happy to see this house as full every Sabbath in the after
part of the day as it is this afternoon.  It is a requirement of the Lord,
which is both reasonable and pleasing to all those who are diligently
doing his will.  We have a comfortable house to meet in, where we can
preach, sing, pray, exhort, and exercise ourselves in our several
capacities, according to our calling, in the worship of God.

	This is a great blessing.  If we can realize it, it is one of the
greatest blessings we can enjoy, to manifest to our Father in heaven--to
witness to him that we do always remember the death and sufferings of his
Son Jesus Christ, whom he sent into the world to redeem the world--to shed
his own blood for our sins.  If we could realize it, it is one of the
greatest blessings we could enjoy, to come before the Lord, and before the
angels, and before each other, to witness that we remember that the Lord
Jesus Christ has died for us.  This proves to the Father that we remember
our covenants, that we love his Gospel, and that we love to keep his
commandments, and to honour the name of the Lord Jesus upon the earth. 
Let us try to do this.  It is a blessing, a privilege, and a duty we
should constantly attend to.

	Instead of suffering our labours to occupy the Sabbath--instead of
planning our business to infringe upon the first day of the week, we
should do a little as possible; if it is necessary to cook food, do so;
but even if that could be dispensed with, it would be better,  As to
keeping the Sabbath according to the Mosaic law, indeed, I do not; for it
would be almost beyond my power.  Still, under the new covenant, we should
remember to preserve holy one day in the week as a day of rest--as a
memorial of the rest of the Lord and the rest of the Saints; also for our
temporal advantage, for it is instituted for the express purpose of
benefiting man.  It is written in this book, (the Bible,) that the Sabbath
was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  It is a blessing to him.
As little labour as possible should be done upon that day:  it should be
set apart as a day of rest, to assemble together in the place appointed,
according to the revelation, confessing our sins, bringing our tithes and
offerings, and presenting ourselves before the Lord, there to commemorate
the death and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ.

	These are institutions expressly for the benefit of man,--not imposed
upon him as by a task-master, in the form of a rigid discipline; but they
are bestowed upon him as a blessing, a favour, and a mercy, for his
express benefit.  I trust I shall yet see the day when we shall be so
situated and attain to that knowledge and understanding, that every man
and woman will observe and do their duty strictly--do not evil,--when all
will be peace and joy, and the earth be lighted up with the spirit of
intelligence.  You trust and hope for the same things; and if we are
faithful, that time is near at hand.

	It is true, most of the doctrine we believe comes in contact with all
the prejudices and prepossessed feelings of the Christian world.  In the
practical part of our religion we do not differ from them in many
respects.  They pray and so do we; they keep the Sabbath pretty tolerably
well, and so do we; they say they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; so do
we, and keep his commandments; and they call upon the Lord, probably, as
faithfully.  In some of the plain, practical duties of the Gospel, the
religious world are very diligent; but to the doctrinal parts of the
Gospel of salvation they are entire strangers.

	In the commencement of the career of brother Joseph Smith, he had all
the influence and talent of the sectarian world that were acquainted with
his doings to cope with; he had them to contend with day and night.  He
laboured faithfully, though in his youth, and almost entirely destitute of
literary knowledge, with not many advantages of an earthly nature; yet the
truth he revealed triumphed; the principles he put forth actually
circumscribed the religious knowledge of all the Christian world.  Almost
every principle and every idea taught in the Gospel, that the world had
preached and written so much about, he proved they were ignorant of.  He
taught the people how to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  He also
taught them how to repent.  This was new to the world--to be informed that
they did not know even how to repent.  He taught them how to embrace the
Gospel of salvation, what it was, and that these doctrines are essentially
necessary for the salvation of the children of men.

	There was not person, previous to this, to step forth and say it was
absolutely necessary to observe these doctrines in order to be saved, and
actually substantiate that doctrine from the Bible.  No person could
substantiate the doctrine, so as to place the truth of it beyond doubt and
controversy, that it was necessary for a person to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ.

	It is well known to this congregation that the whole Christian world
were baffled, and not only baffled, but actually put to shame, upon true
philosophy, and their mouths were closed in silence, by the infidel so
called.  It is well known to this congregations that those who did not
believe the Bible--who did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, by good
reasoning would overcome and triumph over the whole christian world, set
them at naught, and hold them in derision.

	The case is different now.  Do they overcome the Elders of this
Church?  They do not; but they are like the frosted grass upon the prairie
before the burning flame.  An Elder of Israel overcomes them on the ground
of their own philosophy, and drowns them in the sea of their own
arguments.  Could the Christian world do it?  No.  Brother Joseph told the
people it was necessary to be baptised for the remission of sins, and
proved it by the Bible:  he proved it by his works; he proved it by
thousands of witnesses in his day.

	He also introduced the doctrine of the laying on of hands for the
reception of the Holy Ghost, and proved it from the Bible, by reason, by
his own and the experience of thousands besides.  You Elders of Israel, do
you know whether these doctrines were borne off by you and others
triumphantly?  They have been successful among every people, nation, and
kindred, and tongue, wherever they have been proclaimed.  These doctrines
are beyond the power of controversy and doubt; no caviller could confute
or present the least argument which would prove successful in overthrowing
the principles taught by the Elders of Israel.

	Brother Joseph introduced a great many new doctrines.  It was
perfectly new to this generation, but in truth an old doctrine, to be
baptised for the remission of sins--that it was absolutely necessary; and
then receive the laying on the hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost,
and many other doctrines, though in reality they are old, yet true, and
new to this benighted generation.

	When the Elders first commenced preaching "Mormonism," twenty years
ago, they would take the Bible and prove every item of doctrine to the
people beyond doubt and controversy.  What did the priests say to you? 
Can you recollect what they said in the different States where this Gospel
was first preached?--what arguments were used against you position and the
doctrines you believe?  Yes:  the priests would halloo from the pulpit Joe
Smith!--old Joe Smith!!  That was their argument, to begin with. 
Imposter!--imposter!!--He is deluding the people!!!--he is deluding the
people!!!!--Old Joe Smith, the money digger!--He is a necromancer!!--he is
a fortune-teller!!!--a money digger!!!!  Old Joe Smith!!!!!  What a
profound argument!  There is no answering it.  You know these are the
arguments used against the doctrines preached by the Elders of this
Church.

	When you introduced the Book of Mormon, the argument used against it
was, It is a deception!  Joe Smith!!--Imposter!!!  And these are the
arguments that have been urged from beginning to end; but they could not
bring one passage of Scripture or one substantial reason against the
doctrine taught and believed by this Church.

	What has been said to you?  What has been said to me?  If we will
preach this doctrine, the people almost universally will follow us and
say, "Don't mention Joseph Smith--never mention the Book of Mormon or
Zion, and all the people will follow you."  I said, It would not do them
any good, if we were to listen to their requirements.  What I have
received from the Lord, I have received by Joseph Smith:  he was the
instrument made use of.  If I drop him, I must drop these principles: 
they have not been revealed, declared, or explained by any other man since
the days of the Apostles.  If I lay down the Book of Mormon, I shall have
to deny that Joseph is a Prophet; and if I lay down the doctrine and cease
to preach the gathering of Israel and the building up of Zion, I must lay
down the Bible; and consequently, I might as well go home as undertake to
preach without these three items.

	Did not your hearts use to tremble dreadfully, you old Elders in
Israel, when you had to preach in new places?  You would take up the Bible
and quote Scripture from Genesis to Revelations, so as to surprise the
people, and did not mention Joseph Smith.  Did it not make you tremble,
when you had to say that Joseph Smith was a Prophet--when yon [sic] came
to that point, and were obliged either to deny or to own him before the
people.

	Some are endowed with more moral courage than others.  I know the
spirits in men generally are inclined to weakness and diffidence; and all
men more or less feel their own weakness and inability.  The Elders of
Israel especially feel the prejudices of the people bearing down upon
their spirits; but when they once open their mouths and say that Joseph is
a Prophet, such a flood of light at once comes upon them, that they are
ready to ask no odds of all the world.  But in preparing to make this
declaration, their hearts tremble and their knees smite each other, almost
like Belshazzar's.  After they have once started, they are independent
enough.

	I suppose some of you have an experience on this subject.  One of our
Elders with whom I was acquainted, after he was baptised, got cornered up,
and was obliged to preach a sermon.  He never had been able to say that he
knew Joseph was a Prophet; but he was there in the meeting:  the house was
crowded with the congregation; the windows and doors full of people, and
all around on the green waiting to hear a "Mormon" preacher.  There were
none there but this one man, and he was called upon to preach.  He thought
he would pray and dismiss the meeting.  He never had known that Joseph
Smith was a Prophet:  that was the lion that lay in his path; and he could
not get by him, nor round about him, nor dig under him, nor leap over him;
and the lion he must meet:  he must say Joseph, for better or worse.  As
soon as he got "Joseph" out, "is a Prophet" was the next; and from that,
his tongue was loosened, and he continued talking until near sundown.  The
Lord pours out his Spirit upon a man when he testifies that which the Lord
gives him to testify of.  From that day to this, he has never been at a
loss to know that Joseph was a Prophet.  I assure you, his heart quaked;
and that has been the case with many others.

	When brother Joseph revealed the great mystery of being baptised for
the dead, did not a great many of the Elders of Israel think
then--"'Mormonism' cannot endure; it will be overcome."  Every item of
doctrine brother Joseph has brought forth had to meet with opposition from
the world.  We all know that it comes in contact with sectarian influence
and every other influence that is not direct from God.

	When the Elders went forth, the priests supposed they could easily
put them down; but when they undertook to substantiate the doctrine of
baptism for the dead, were the priests successful in confuting their
arguments?  No.  The doctrine has ridden triumphantly over all
sectarianism; (what I mean by sectarianism is false religion;) and it is
so far from being put to silence by all the rest of the world, that it is
as popular, wherever you go, as any doctrine taught; it is as readily and
as quickly believed.

	You can understand, from the few remarks I make with regard to the
Gospel, that many things which were revealed through Joseph came in
contact with our own prejudices:  we did not know how to understand them. 
I refer to myself for an instance:  I never could be persuaded that God
would send every person to a lake of fire and brimstone, to be tormented
by the Devil, to all eternity, for any little sin he might commit,--which
was the doctrine handed down.  After all, my traditions were such, that
when the Vision came first to me, it was directly contrary and opposed to
my former education.  I said, Wait a little.  I did not reject it; but I
could not understand it.  I then could feel what incorrect tradition had
done for me.  Suppose all that I have ever heard from my priest and
parents--the way they taught me to read the Bible--had been true, my
understanding would be diametrically opposed to the doctrine revealed in
the Vision.  I used to think and pray, to read and think, until I knew and
fully understood it for myself, by the visions of the Holy Spirit.  At
first it actually came in contact with my own feelings, though I never
could believe like the mass of the Christian world around me; but I did
not know how nigh I believed, as they did.  I found, however, that I was
so nigh, I could shake hands with them any time I wished.

	You heard brother Pratt state, this morning, that a revelation would
be read this afternoon, which was given previous to Joseph's death.  It
contains a doctrine a small portion of the world is opposed to; but I can
deliver a prophecy upon it.  Though that doctrine has not been practised
by the Elders, this people have believed in it for years.

	The original copy of this revelation was burnt up.  William Clayton
was the man who wrote it from the mouth of the Prophet.  In the meantime,
it was in Bishop Whitney's possession.  He wished the privilege to copy
it, which brother Joseph granted.  Sister Emma burnt the original.  The
reason I mention this is because that the people who did know of the
revelation suppose it is not now in existence.

	The revelations will be read to you.  The principle spoken upon by
brother Pratt, this morning, we believe in. and I tell you--for I know
it--it will sail over and ride triumphantly above all the prejudice and
priestcraft of the day:  it will be fostered and believed in by the more
intelligent portion of the world as one of the best doctrines ever
proclaimed to any people.  Your hearts need not bear; you need not think
that a mob is coming here to tread upon the sacred liberty which the
Constitution of our country guarantees unto us, for it will not be.  The
world have known, long ago, even in brother Joseph's days, that he had
more waves than one.  One of the Senators in Congress knew it very well. 
Did he oppose it?  No:  but he has been our friend all the day long,
especially upon that subject.  He said pointedly to his friends, "If the
United States do not adopt that very method--let them continue as they now
are--pursue the precise course they are now pursuing, and it will come to
this--that their generations will not live until they are 30 years old. 
They are going to destruction; disease is spreading so fast among the
inhabitants of the United States, that they are born rotten with it, and
in a few years they are gone."  Said he, "Joseph has introduced the best
plan for restoring and establishing strength and long life among men, of
any man on earth; and the Mormons are a very good and virtuous people."

	Many others are of the same mind:  they are not ignorant of what we
are doing in our social capacity.  They have cried, "Proclaim it."  But it
would not do, a few years ago:  everything must come in its time, as there
is a time to all things.  I am now ready to proclaim it.

	This revelation has been in my possession many years; and who has
known it?  None but those who should know it.  I keep a patent lock on my
desk, and there does not anything leak out that should not.

	It pleases me a little to think how anxious this people are for new
revelation.  I wish to ask you a question:  Do this people know whether
they have received any revelation since the death of Joseph, as a people? 
I can tell you that you receive them continually.  I would be willing the
Elders of Israel should understand one principle; and this I have taught
often.  This is also taught in the old and new Scriptures, or, in other
words, in the former and latter Scriptures,  The principle is set forth
simply, which is this--When a man is called, as Joseph was, to be a
Prophet, he writes his revelations.  Joseph wrote a great many.  He would,
for instance, give a revelation to a man to go to Sanpete to labour; he
would give revelations touching both temporal and spiritual things, in the
building up of houses and cities, or in the proclamation of the Gospel in
the world--all of which are necessary for the salvation and exaltation of
the people of the Lord.

	Now, brethren, the calling of an Apostle is to build up the kingdom
of God in all the world:  it is the Apostle that holds the keys of his
power, and nobody else.  If an Apostle magnifies his calling, he is the
word of the Lord to this people all the time, or else he does not magnify
his calling;--either one or the other.

	If he magnifies his calling, his words are the words of eternal life
and salvation to those who hearken to them, just as much so as any written
revelations contained in these three books (Bible, Book of Mormon, and
Doctrine and Covenants).  There is nothing contained in these three books
that is any more revelation than the words of an Apostle that is
magnifying his calling.

	I want you to understand it.  If it was necessary to write them, we
would write all the time.  We would rather the people, however, would live
so as to have revelations for themselves, and then do the work we are
called to do:  that is enough for us.  Can any of you think of any
revelations you have received that are not written?  You can.

	I preached a short sermon here, yesterday, with regard to exaltation. 
I spoke but a few minutes, and brother Pratt brought up the same subject. 
It is all connected with the great Gospel sermon; for we can but notice
parts of it, when we undertake to speak to the people.

	It is all connected with the exaltation of man, showing how he
becomes exalted to be a king and a Priest--yea, even a God, like his
Father in heaven.  Without the doctrine that this revelation reveals, no
man on earth ever could be exalted to be a God.  Do you find out now, when
you are exalted, what you work will be yonder?  We read in the Scriptures
that Jesus declared he is the First and the Last.  It is written again in
this book, by the Prophet Joseph, that he is the First and the Last--the
Last and the First.  This principle you see in all the works of the Lord. 
When a man commences the work of his exaltation, he begins at the last
thing that will be completed.  Our spirits, thousands of years ago, were
first begotten; and at the consummation of all things, when the Saviour
has finished his work and presented it to the Father, he will be crowned.

	None of you will receive your crowns of glory, immortality, and
eternal lives before he receives his.  he will be crowned first, and then
we shall be crowned, every one in his order; for the work is finished, and
the spirit is complete in its organization with the tabernacle.  The world
is the first to be redeemed, and the people last to be crowned upon it.  I
leave these remarks with you, and we will now have the revelation read.

	[Elder Thomas Bullock then read the revelation.  See Supplement to
Vol. XV. of Millennial Star.]




             MANAGEMENT OF THE KANYONS--PAYING DEBTS--KEEPING
                     STORES--MATERIAL FOR THE TEMPLE.
      An address delivered by President Brigham Young at the General
    Conference in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 9, 1852.

	There is a matter of temporal business that I wish to lay before this
Conference, and I embrace the present opportunity to do so.  I have not
very acute feelings upon the matter, but I have frequently known cases of
difficulty and dissatisfaction come before me, which were calculated to
annoy my feelings, and the feelings of this people.  I feel very acutely,
very exquisitely, upon certain subjects pertaining to their history, but
on the present occasion I am quite careless and indifferent as to the
subject I now propose to lay before the Conference.  If we could obtain a
hearing of all the male members of this community, or in other words, get
all the inhabitants of these valleys together that portion of them that
can hear and understand, it would the better; but seeing that this cannot
be done, we shall have to content ourselves by laying before this
Conference the matter pertaining practically to the action of men, that we
now wish to present.  It is concerning the kanyons, the wood, the timber,
or whatever the kanyon situated near these valleys produce.

	Wood seems to be the first and most prominent product of the kanyons. 
The situation of them is too well known to make it necessary for me to
offer a description.  I believe that there are some acts performed in
these kanyons, of which the actors are ashamed, and they would rather I
would pass over these points, and the hard words they have made use of;
they would much rather have them forgotten by all who have a knowledge of
what they have done and said in the kanyons.

	There are a great many whose experience exceeds the experience of
brother Hyde in this matter.  His short experience, he says, teaches him,
that if he had the power in his hands, he would decree that all men who go
into the kanyons for wood and timber should be saved.  This may be the
mind of others, and to them it may serve as an excuse for outraging the
principles of righteousness, but to another class of men it would be no
effort at all.  I believe it would be just as necessary for the boys, when
they have mounted their sleds on the top of the hill, to curse, and swear,
and fight, and quarrel, while they are riding down with all ease, and
without any trouble, as it would be to curse, swear, and fight while
drawing their sleds up the hill to enjoy another ride. You know, boys
enjoy themselves very well while their sleds are travelling down the hill
at a great speed; it is hurrah with them, and all is right; but in drawing
their sleds up the hill, they fall down sometimes, and bump their heads,
and bruise their knees against the hard snow, and they have no sooner
recovered their foot-hold than down they go again, and so they get into
confusion.  Now it appears to me to be just as necessary for them to
quarrel in riding down the hill, as it is for them to quarrel in drawing
their sleds up the hill, as for any good it accomplishes in either case.

	It is an up hill business to go into these kanyons and get wood, to
say the least of it.  If I am able to present what I would like to
present, and what I have previously had in my mind, and exhibit it in a
few words, and in its true colors, I believe an expression upon it from
this Conference will have a salutary influence upon the community; that is
my opinion, and the reason why I now present the subject before you.  I
will call upon my brethren who sit here, to let their past experience
answer a question, or perhaps more than one. Are you not dissatisfied, and
is there not bitterness in your feelings, the moment you find a kanyon put
in the possession of an individual, and power given unto him to control
the timber, wood, rock, grass. and, in short, all its facilities?  Does
there not something start up in your breast, that causes you to feel very
uncomfortable?  You may be ready on the right and on the left to say, "No,
I am not aware that it affects me any."  This may be the case with a few,
but while we find one here and another there of that class, do we not find
multitudes of the other class that would lie very irritable upon that
subject--a facsimile of a roily fountain much disturbed, or like the
troubled sea that casts up mire and dirt?  Why I judge the matter in this
light is because of what I have learned previously to this day, concerning
the real feelings of the majority of the people touching this matter. 
There were a few instances, some two or three years ago, of the
legislative council assigning kanyons to individuals.  Now it is in the
hands of county officers to dispose of such matters.  Are the people
satisfied with these assignments?  They are not.  Could they be satisfied
were they placed under different circumstances in relation to this matter? 
They could.  Have we power as a people to introduce an order of things
that will give general satisfaction?  I will say, that it depends
altogether upon circumstances.  It can or it cannot not be done, just as
the people please.

	I will relate a few circumstances or incidents that have taken place
here, but I will not name particular places, nor individuals.  Mr. B. goes
into the kanyons, without any leave or licence, and without even asking
for a grant; he makes his way up a kanyon, and finds, on each side of him,
both fire-wood and fence poles.  He climbs the mountain, for two or three
miles, works a road, and gets to the timber, poles, and wood, at an
expense of from one to five hundred dollars.  He commences to get out
poles, and keeps his men and teams laboring there from day to day.  Now
how long will he remain there before news will come into the city, that
Mr. B. is getting timber and poles at such a point, and that it is a most
excellent chance there?  Well, some of the citizens will say, "Has brother
B. worked a road up there?"  "Yes."  "Can we get up with a team?" "Yes." 
"Then let us go and get some wood and poles."  How long would it be before
the eyes of a portion of the community would be turned directly to that
spot?  How long would it be before they would go to the very place where
brother B.'s road branches off from the main road, and go up the mountain,
(of course they could see no other track than where Mr. B. was getting out
his wood,) and get poles, wood, and timber?  They would not stop to look
on the mountains around them, and make new roads for themselves.  No, they
can only get wood, poles, and timber where brother B. is getting them,
after he has been at the trouble and expense of making a road.  When they
find brother B. there, he says, "You cannot come into this kanyon, for I
have worked the road myself, to facilitate the getting of my wood and
poles here."  Another person comes along with twenty or thirty wagons. 
Mr. B. says to him, "Look yonder, there is plenty of timber, and as easy
to get at as this that I call my own."  Friend H. replies, "But I will be
damned if I don't get wood where you get it."  Mr. B. says, "And I'll be
damned if you do go there."  This is the language of men who sit here
before me today, and so near me that I could put my hand upon them.  They
go up in the kanyon, and there quarrel with each other.  Let friend S.
once pass by the road that Mr. B has made, and he may go on up the kanyon
ten miles, surrounded with wood, and not get a stick of timber, for he and
friend H., with his train, and others, never can see and understand how
they can get poles in any other place than where friend B. has made a good
road leading to where he gets his.  Is this so?  You Elders of Israel will
go into the kanyons, and curse and swear--damn, and curse your oxen, and
swear by Him who created you!  I am telling the truth.  Yes, you will rip,
and curse, and swear, as bad as any pirates ever did.

	Suppose these characters do as the old quaker did when he whipped the
man: he took off his coat, and said, "Religion, do thou lie there, until I
whip this man."  The boys or many of them, who go into the kanyons with
wagons and teams, do the same: they lay down their religion at the mouth
of the kanyon, saying, "Thou lie there, until I go for my load of wood." 
I expect, in all probability, it was the case with Elder Hyde, for he
never would have thought that he ought to be saved for going into the
kanyon once, if he had had his religion along with him.

	I do not wish to say much upon this subject, I am not spirited in it,
nor do I care much about it.  I want to show to this community a plan by
which these matters of business transactions can be brought to some kind
of a system, to the better accommodation of the public.  We will suppose,
when strangers come to these valleys, that they find land offices, kanyon
offices, timber offices, &c.  They enter, and walk up before the clerk in
the office, and inquire what facilities there are to get a living here. 
Out steps the landlord and says, "This valley and all the kanyons belong
to old General Harris, and to his heirs after him.  That valley over
yonder--Utah Valley, belongs to old General Wolf's heirs; and there's
another valley, that belongs to another man; and I am here as the guardian
of these heirs to all this property, I am here to dispose of it."  "We
want to settle here," say the people, "can we get any land?"  "O yes," the
landlord replies, "lift up your eyes to the right, and to the left--do you
see the grass?"  "Yes."  "Do you see the lovely streams that gush from the
mountains?"  "Yes."  "Do you see this vast prairie before you?" "Yes." 
"Look at the soil, it is rich and productive.  We do not have winters here
as you do in the eastern countries, but your cattle can feed in these
mountain valleys both winter and summer.  "The landlord says again, "Lift
up your eyes and look:  this wood, land, and the grass that you see
growing, and all these valleys, with all they contain, you are freely
welcome to; go now, lay out your city plots and your farms, dig your
ditches, and turn the streams whithersoever you will, for to all this you
are welcome."  Would they not think he was one of the finest men that ever
was?  Would they not love such a landlord? The people inquire again, "What
chance is there here for getting wood?"  "O," says he, "that is another
thing, I will talk to you about that."  "We wish to know if we can get
wood here to burn, to cook our food with, and to keep our houses warm; and
upon what terms?"  Says the landlord, "My hired servants are up in the
Redbute Kanyon, or they may be in Kanyon Creek Kanyon, or over in the west
mountains; I have got servants, and plenty of wood, this you can have on
certain conditions."  "What are your conditions, good landlord?"  "These
are my conditions--you must take your teams into Redbute, where you will
find a gate, and a man living there, to him you will have to pay 25 cents
for getting a load of wood."  "But how is the road after you get through
the gate?"  "O, it is a good road, and the wood, timber, rock, and every
thing else are first rate; and now you go and get a cord of good wood for
25 cents.  Or you may go to the west mountains, there the kanyons are all
prepared for you, the roads are made, and I keep men there to see that
they are kept in good repair, and all you have got to do is to pay 25
cents for the use of the road."  What would be the feelings of this people
under such circumstances?  Do you suppose they would feel as those do that
have kept up a continual quarrelling, murmuring, and bickering, and have
given way to wickedness?  The kanyons are precisely in the position I
present them to you in this similitude; and you murmur at the council, at
the legislative assembly, at the county court, and at every body that
wants to make these kanyons convenient and passable to the community.

	Again, I ask the question, what would be the feelings of this people,
supposing they had come to these valleys under such circumstances?  "The
valleys, the grass, the soil, the water, and all the advantages you are
welcome to, but I shall charge you 25 cents per load for your wood."  If
you won't answer the question, I will for you: every time you would meet
with that landlord, it would be, "God bless you, you are the best man on
earth;--and you would be ready to lick the dust off his feet; you would
not say "God damn you, I will get wood where I please."  I am ashamed to
repeat the language that is too often made use of, but I do it that the
community may see how disgraceful it is, and frown upon every man that
will allow himself to be degraded by the use of such filthy language; it
is a disgrace to the wicked, to say nothing of Saints.  Again upon this
point, would you not take off your hats, and say, "Thank you," every time
you met that landlord?  Yes, you would, and I know it.  Well, supposing
the legislative body in these valleys should say to some man, Take that
kanyon, and put a gate at the mouth of it, and make a good road to the
wood and timber, and to defray the expence of this, lay a tax of 25 cents
on every man that passes through with a team to get wood, timber, or
anything else the kanyon produces--could you bless that legislature, could
you greet it with smiles and thanks, for doing that for this people?  Or
would you curse it?

	If I had time to do so, and if it would be wisdom, I could
demonstrate, by a mathematical calculation, definitely and truly, and you
might take into the calculation Redbute kanyon, and every other kanyon
that the people have been into--I could demonstrate that they have
destroyed more horses, mules, harness, oxen, wagons, chains, and ox yokes,
and other property, in getting out of these kanyons what they have got,
than what would lay a first rate turnpike road in every direction, as far
as they have penetrated these kanyons.  Suppose we have a kanyon here
within one mile of us, open to all the people, I ask where is there a man
that would work the road to the wood?  He is not to be found in this
community.  If it were open and free to all, I might spend a thousand
dollars there, and never get one load of wood.  I have done just such
things myself.  I have gone to work and made roads to get wood, and have
not been able to get it.  I have cut it down, and piled it up, and still
have not got it.  I wonder if anybody else can say so.  Have any of you
piled up your wood, and when you have gone back could not find it?  Some
stories could be told of this kind, that would make professional thieves
ashamed.  It is not all of this community that possesses such spirits.  A
flock of sheep consisting of thousands must be clean indeed if some of
them are not smutty.  This is a large flock of sheep that have come up to
these mountain valleys, and some of them have got taglocks hanging about
them, or in other words, there are those that will do what you have heard
exhibited to you to-day.

	What shall be done with sheep that stink the flock so?  We will take
them, I was going to say, and cut off their tails two inches behind their
ears; however, I will use a milder term, and say, cut off their ears.  But
instead of doing this, we will try to cleanse them; we will wash them with
soap, that will come well nigh taking off the sin; we will then apply a
little Scotch snuff, and a little tobacco, and wash them again until we
make them clean.  That is what I am doing now.  Peradventure we shall find
a few such sheep here in the flock, and a few that have got the itch;
these are apt to spread the disease among those that are clean, for they
will run along and rub themselves on others, until all are smitten with
the disorder, and it would be hard to tell in which it originated.

	I do not want to destroy the people.  I want to wash them, and, if
necessary, apply the Scotch snuff.  If this community would let any man of
sense, of calculation, of a good mind and judgment, sit down and make his
calculations, with regard to their getting wood out of these kanyons, they
would see the advantage of taking the course the legislature has marked
out, so clearly, that this whole people would speak out boldly and say,
"You men having authority, look up every kanyon in these valleys, and put
them in the possession of individuals who will make good roads to the
timber, that we may get there without breaking our wagons, or without
breaking our limbs, destroying our property, and endangering our lives." 
I say, every man of good sense would exclaim, "Put these kanyons into the
hands of individuals, with this proviso--make good roads, and keep them in
good repair."

	To exhibit it to the people in another point of view.  I will suppose
a Gentile owns all these kanyons, Uncle Sam, for instance.  He determines
he will work these kanyons himself, work the roads, &c., and draw his
revenue from them by the people's getting their timber--should we not
esteem it a blessing?  We should.  If it would be a blessing to him, or to
any rich company of speculators, then why would it not be a blessing to
us, to act upon the same principles ourselves?  Could you tell any reason
why not?

	A great many here do not understand certain things that exist; I can
tell you some of them.  If any individual will come here and live, and
find out how we do business, learn and understand our business
transactions, he will see that exhibited that will prove to him a great
many things he is not acquainted with.  I will take one of the best
individuals we have, and put him into the tithing office, put another into
the stone-cutter's shop, and another in the joiner's shop, and let them
work there one or two years, when the books are examined they have taken
up every farthing of their wages, and many have contracted considerable
debts in that office, some are owing 800, 1000, and some as high as 1500
dollars.  Now comes the decision.  Suppose you owe that store across the
road there 1500 dollars, would you try to pay it?  Yes, you would lie
awake at nights to think how to pay those merchants that do not belong to
the kingdom of God, you would offer them horses, and wagons, and oxen, to
liquidate that debt.  But that man who owes on the tithing books will say,
"Just straighten that up for me, cancel that debt, for I want my name to
look as good on the tithing books as the rest."  Would he say this to a
Gentile?  No, he would not.  We never see such goodness, such kindness,
such benevolence, such philanthropy in the persons who owe the tithing
office anything.

	Did you ever ask me to liquidate your debts?  You may answer the
question for yourselves.  I shall not name anybody.  But let one of these
merchants ask for the payment of a debt, saying, "I am going away in
September," and you conclude that that debt must be paid--do you pay it? 
Yes, you will sell every thing you have on earth, to pay it.  But do you
owe the tithing office anything?  "O yes, and I am going to work it off; I
know I owe about 1500 dollars.  But you know it won't do to owe the
Gentiles anything.  Brother Brigham, can't you lend me some money to pay a
small debt on that store?  Can you let me have a yoke of cattle, my family
is suffering for want of wood?"  You trace those cattle, and where are
they gone to?  Why, to pay the enemies of this people.  You would take out
of this Church the last dime of money, and every ox, and cow, and horse,
and hand them all over to our enemies, and let the Church sink to the
nethermost hell, for aught you care.  That is the difficulty that exists
here.  If I have got your spectacles, or your shoes, or any other thing of
yours, the common saying made use of is, "O, never mind, it is all in the
family, you are a brother, it is all right."  I am telling you as it is in
that tithing office.  What did you hear read, last April Conference?  That
there were 48000 dollars owing to the tithing office; yet do you try to
pay that debt?  No, but the word is "Brother Brigham, trust me another
thousand;" and you never will pay it on the face of the earth, and you
think me rather hard because I scold you.  These are the difficulties that
are here among us.

	There exists a double spirit, there is a false, hypocritical spirit
in many of the people; it is bred in the flesh, and in the bones, it is
received from their fathers and mothers, a hypocritical pretension to
friendship, when the real thing itself does not exist in them, and never
did; but they are destitute of the true knowledge of the principles of
righteousness.  I have frequently thought it was not good for a man to
have around him too many friends.  I have said to my brethren, heretofore,
"Don't love me quite so well as to take away all I have got.  I want you
to love me pretty well, I have plenty of flour now, and scores and scores
of tons I can distribute, but do not take my soul out of me, do not love
me quite to death.  I am willing to be loved sincerely, but covet not that
which I possess, under a false pretension of love to me."  There is that
spirit among this people, but it is for want of knowledge, and a proper
understanding.  Did they possess these, there would be no difficulty in
the case.

	Now, for instance, a great many inquire, saying, "Why does not our
Church keep a store here?"  Many can answer that question, who have lived
here for some years past; and you who make such an inquiry, would have
known the reason, had you also lived here.  You that have lived in Nauvoo,
in Missouri, in Kirtland, Ohio, can you assign a reason why Joseph could
not keep a store, and be a merchant?  Let me just give you a few reasons,
and there are men here who know how matters went in those days.  Joseph
goes to New York and buys 20,000 dollars' worth of goods, comes into
Kirtland and commences to trade.  In comes one of the brethren, "Brother
Joseph, let me have a frock pattern for my wife."  What if Joseph says,
"No, I cannot without the money."  The consequence would be, "He is no
Prophet," says James.  Pretty soon Thomas walks in.  "Brother Joseph, will
you trust me for a pair of boots?"  "No, I cannot let them go without the
money."  " Well," says Thomas, "Brother Joseph is no Prophet; I have found
that out, and I am glad of it."  After a while, in comes Bill and sister
Susan.  Says Bill, "Brother Joseph, I want a shawl, I have not got the
money, but I wish you to trust me a week or a fortnight."  Well, brother
Joseph thinks the others have gone and apostatized, and he don't know but
these goods will make the whole Church do the same, so he lets Bill have a
shawl.  Bill walks off with it and meets a brother.  "Well," says he,
"what do you think of brother Joseph?"  "O he is a first-rate man, and I
fully believe he is a Prophet.  See here, he has trusted me this shawl." 
Richard says, "I think I will go down and see if he won't trust me some." 
In walks Richard. "Brother Joseph, I want to trade about 20 dollars." 
"Well," says Joseph, "these goods will make the people apostatize; so over
they go; they are of less value than the people. Richard gets his goods. 
Another comes in the same way to make a trade of 25 dollars, and so it
goes.  Joseph was a first-rate fellow with them all the time, provided he
never would ask them to pay him.  In this way it is easy for us to trade
away a first-rate store of goods, and be in debt for them.

	And so you may trace it down through the history of this people.  If
any brethren came into the midst of them as merchants, I never knew one of
them go into their stores and go out again satisfied, neither did you.  If
I had 100,000 dollars worth of goods in that store, owned by myself, or
held by a "Mormon" company, in six months the goods would be gone, and we
should not have 100 dollars to pay the debt.  But let an infernal mobocrat
come into our midst, though he brands Joseph Smith with the epithet of
"false Prophet," and calls the "Mormons" a damned set of thieves, and
would see all Israel scorching in Tophet, you would give him the last
picayune you could raise.

	There is not a man who has been in this community a few years but
knows I am telling the living truth.  Do any of you hate me for it?  Do
any of you love me for it?  It is all the same to me.  Do you love the
cause?  "Yes," every heart at once responds," "I love the cause, I love
the Lord and my religion."  If I would only permit myself to swear, I
would say, What the devil is the reason, then, you don't live according to
it?  What keeps you from that?  What is the reason you cannot pay me what
you owe me, as well as your enemy.  You continue to trade with the
Almighty that way, and it will sink this whole people down to hell.  You
trade with the Almighty worse than you do with the devil.  These things
exist, and you know it.  A man comes into this Church with a little
property, and he must suffer them to pick him until he is as blind as
brother Leonard is, that sits over there, or else the people will turn
round and curse him, and sink him to the nethermost hell if possible. 
They have treated Edwin D. Woolley so, and others.  Can they keep a store
among this people?  No, they must let them have the goods, and wait until
they can pay them, if they ever do it at all.

	They got up a quarrel, about a year ago, and every High Priest and
Elder were going to cut Thomas Williams off from the Church, because he
asked them to pay their just debts.  I said to Thomas, "If they do not pay
you as they agreed, arraign them before the High Council; I will be your
lawyer, and they shall be cut off from the Church."  They had got it all
cut and dried, that if he asked them to pay him, he should be cut off from
the Church, but I told them that if they did not live up to their
agreement, they should be cut off from the Church, and then be tried by
the law of the land.

	How has Thomas Williams behaved here?  He has paid his tithing, and
done good to this people; he has handed over nails, cotton cloth, and
other necessary articles.  When he brings in his goods, he pays his
tithing on them honorably, yet he can be abused; and it is so with every
man who comes into the midst of this people with goods, unless he pays
them out at random to Tom, Dick, and the devil.  Latter-day Saints cannot
keep a store of goods, because they will not act as Latter-day Saints, but
they will sustain their enemies.  How much do you suppose you have paid
into these Gentile stores within four months?  Can you give a rough guess? 
I can tell you, if you do not know, for I know something about it.  You
have paid to them 300,000 dollars within the last six months.  The
brethren think that we are very hard with them if we ask for a little
tithing.  I wonder if we have received 30,000 dollars, which we should
certainly have received in silver and gold, if the people had been
faithful in paying their tithing on the money they have spent at these
stores; the money has gone, from time to time, in gold and silver, by
box-fulls, to the east.  There is not a span of mules that could be found
in this valley, able to draw the money, if it were all in silver, to the
States, that this people have spent with these merchants within a few
months past; they must therefore do business upon the principle of checks;
in any other way it is a burden to them to get it over the plains.  These
are the difficulties that work against our living and doing as we should
do.

	I will now go back, and say to all the inhabitants of these valleys,
if I had the power, and the people were willing to subscribe to that which
would do them good, I would look up all the kanyons containing wood and
other facilities, put gates at the mouths of them, have good roads worked
in them, so as to make the wood and the timber easy of access, and make
the people pay for the roads and the keeping of them in good repair.  If I
was a Gentile, and I owned these kanyons, and should make such a
proposition, it would be so that I could hardly get down to this meeting
house without some one crying out, "I move that we give that gentleman a
vote of thanks;" another would second it, "For that is certainly a Gentile
of the first class."  [The speaker made motions, such as bowing and
scraping, as the poor serfs of foreign nations do, who subsist on the
patrimony of a titled fellow mortal.]  I make these motions to show this
people how disgraceful it is; it is a disgrace to any community to act as
they have done towards the measures of those who wish to do them good all
the day long.  If a Latter-day Saint wants to do good, why not bless him
for it.  But no, it is overlooked as a thing of naught.  Now, if I do ape
out a little of these feelings here, it is to show you how they look
inside.  I can see them in the people, I know what there is in the midst
of them, I know what they have to contend against, and the difficulties
and weaknesses they are subject to; it is the want of true knowledge and a
sound understanding which causes them to act as they do; if it were not
for that, if this people had the knowledge of angels, and then did as they
do, they would be sent to hell before the rising of another sun; but as
they are ignorant, and inasmuch as they desire to do good, God winks at
their foibles, and hopes by it to bless them.

	Now, I am going to have an expression from this Conference, with
regard to the plan that we, as a community, shall adopt; not as a county,
not as the Legislature of Utah, not as civil and military officers, but as
officers and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints;
and before I take the expression, if there is one man in this house who
feels himself capable of showing a better method, or of producing a better
plan to keep the people from running over each other, from breaking each
other's necks, and the necks of their horses, I will give him an
opportunity of presenting that plan.  In the first place, the feelings of
individuals are--what advantage can I get by introducing this plan?  I
wish you to remember that all I can get by it is, to protect you against
running over and trying to kill each other.  We do not own the kanyons,
but the plan is--let them go into the hands of individuals who will make
them easy of access, by paying them for their labor.  Before I take an
expression, I want to see if there is a man that can rise up and propose a
better plan than I propose, which of course would be to our advantage to
adopt in preference to mine.  I have talked long enough upon this matter. 
The motion is, that we, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, in the capacity of a General Conference assembled, and embracing
the whole community in the midst of the mountains, recommend, and give it
as our opinion, that the best method of disposing of the kanyons is to put
them in the hands of individuals to make good roads in them, and obtain
their pay by taking toll from those who use the roads, at a gate erected
for that purpose at the mouth of each kanyon.  Now, sisters, I want you to
vote also, because women are the characters that rule the ballot box.  If
you are in favor of this motion, as Latter-day Saints, signify it by the
uplifted hand.  [Unanimous.]

	Let the judges in the county of Great Salt Lake take due notice, and
govern themselves accordingly.  The same thing I say to the judges of any
of the other counties of the territory, Take notice, and govern yourselves
accordingly.  Put these kanyons into the hands of individuals who will
make good roads into them, and let them take toll from the inhabitants
that go there for wood, timber, and poles.  Now this is my order for the
judges to take due notice of; it does not come from the Governor, but from
the President of the Church; you will not see any proclamation in the
paper to this effect, but it is a mere declaration of the President of the
Conference.  Let these things go out to make the people satisfied, and
feel contented to have the privilege of getting wood without breaking
their necks and destroying their teams.

	I want to occupy a few moments more, and talk about our contemplated
temple.  It has been moved, seconded, and carried by this Conference, that
we build a temple here of the best material that America affords.  If this
is done, it will have to be built of platina; and I do not know that there
is any of it to be got in this territory.  It is purer, stronger, and is
every way a better metal than pure gold.  If we cannot get the platina, we
must build a temple of pure gold; that is here, I know.  But if the
Conference want us to build a temple of pure gold, they will have to put
into the tithing stores something besides old half-dead stinking cows, and
old broken-kneed horses; or if they even put in all the good cattle they
possess, will it build a temple of gold, of silver, or of brass?  No, it
will not.

	I am inclined to offer a chemical argument with regard to the
material for building a temple in our present circumstances.  The best
materials, I have mentioned, probably.  Iron might be better than stone;
the time will come when the Lord will bring for brass gold, for iron
silver, and for stones iron, and for wood brass, to beautify His
sanctuary, and make the place of His feet glorious.  That will be, but it
is not now.  I thought, when I was at Iron County, and saw the iron
mountains, that the iron was actually come instead of stone.

	But for the chemical argument touching the material for the building
of a temple in this city.  It has been proposed, that we send to San Pete
to get the rock.  Some say it will cost too much, others say we cannot do
it, and others say that we can.  I, not being a practical chemist, but
only a chemist in theory, shall have to use my own language, to express my
ideas.  You may bring the stone from San Pete, which is a beautiful
specimen or rock, and erect a temple here with it; then you may take this
sand stone that is found in abundance in the Redbute Kanyon, and build a
temple of that; then you step over to the Emigration Kanyon, and get this
bastard marble, and build another of the same dimensions as that you have
built of the red sand stone.  Now you have got the San Pete rock temple,
the red sand stone temple, and another built of lime stone, or bastard
marble I call it; then, right beside of that, another one of adobies,
mixed with pebbles--take that clay, and these pebble stones that are so
abundant here, and mix in with them straw, and build another temple of
that composition, besides the three which are built of different kinds of
rock, and let them stand together--which do you think will stand the
longest? Being a chemist in theory, I should say, according to my mind,
when the San Pete rock is washed into the Jordan, the other buildings will
still be standing, and be in moderate condition.  The red sand stone will
go the next, and the other two still remain, the bastard marble or lime
stone will be in pretty good preservation; and when that is all decomposed
and washed away into the Jordan, you will find that temple which is built
of mud or adobies, as some call them, still remains, and in better
condition than at the first day it was built.

	You may ask any practical chemist, any man who knows, understands,
and studies the elements, and he will corroborate these statements.  This
is a matter I want you to look at, to think and meditate upon.  I do not
talk about the expense of the building, and the time it would take to
erect it, but its durability, and which is the best material within our
reach to build it with.  If you take this clay, which is to be found in
abundance on these bottom lands, and mix with it these pebble rocks, and
make adobies of the compound, it will petrify in the wall and become a
solid rock in five hundred years, so as to be fit to cut into millstones
to grind flour, while the other materials I have mentioned will have
decomposed, and gone back to their native elements.  I am chemist enough
to know that much.  My simple philosophy is this.  The elements of which
this terra firma is composed, are every moment either composing or
decomposing.  They commence to organize or to compose, and continue to
grow until they arrive at their zenith of perfection, and then they begin
to decompose.  When you find a rock that has arrived at its greatest
perfection, you may know that the work of decaying has begun.  Let the
practical chemist make his observations upon a portion of the matter of
which this earth is composed; and he will find, that just as quick as it
is at its perfection, that very instant it begins to decompose.  We have
proof of this.  Go into Egypt, for instance, and you will find the
monuments, towers, and pyramids, that were erected in the days of Joseph,
and before he was sold into Egypt; they were built of what we call
adobies, clay mixed up with straw; these fabrics, which have excited
interest for so many ages and are the wonder of modern nations, were built
of this raw material.  They have bid defiance to the wear of ages, and
they still remain.  But you cannot find a stone column that was reared in
those times, for they are all decayed.  Here we have actual proof that the
matter which is the furthest advanced to a state of perfection, is the
first to decompose, and go back into its native element, at which point it
begins to be organized again, it begins to congeal, petrify, and harden
into rock, which grows like a tree, but not so perceptibly.

	Gold and silver grow, and so does every other kind of metal, the same
as the hair upon my head, or the wheat in the field; they do not grow as
fast, but they are all the time composing or decomposing.  So much, then,
for my views touching the material to be used in building a Temple upon
this block.  You may go to San Pete and get stone for it, and when five
hundred years have elapsed you will not find a building.  You may build of
that red sand stone, and it will live out the San Pete rock, and the lime
stone will out live that.  But when you come to the adobies, they will
out-live either of them, and be five hundred years better than the day
they were first laid.  This is a pretty strong argument in favor of a mud
building.

	How long has the city of Washington been built?  What was there
before my father entered into the revolutionary war?  Where was the
Capitol then?  It was in Philadelphia sixty years ago, there was no such
thing as a Capitol in Washington.  Let me ask a question--is it built of
rock?  I never was there.  [Voice, "Yes."]  It is built of rock.  The
House of Representatives was rebuilt in 1812, not more than forty years
ago.  Would any of you that have not been there, suppose that it would
need patching up already to make it comfortable for the representatives of
the nation?  This, however, is the case, for within ten years past eighty
thousand tons of putty have been used to putty up the places where the
stone has decayed by the operation of the elements, and it has not yet
been built forty years.  I mention this, because I wish the Conference to
know what they are doing when they commence to build a temple of stone. 
As for myself, I know enough about rock.  If a man should undertake to put
me up a stone house, I should wish him to build it of adobies instead, and
then I should have a good house.  We are talking about building one for
the community, and I mention this about the Capitol to show you that the
rock does not endure; the moment it becomes as hard as it is ever going to
be, that moment it begins to decay.  It may be a slow process in growing,
or decomposing, yet it is doing the one or the other continually.

	I have my own individual thoughts, of course, and these I express
with regard to the temple.  According to my present views, there is not
marble in these mountains, or stone of any kind or quality, that I would
rather have a building made of than adobies.  As for the durability of
such a building, the longer it stands the better it becomes; if it stands
five thousand years, it increased in its strength until it comes to its
highest perfection, before it begins to decay.  What do our "Mormon" boys
say about trying to dig into one of those old Catholic cathedrals that are
now standing in California?  They say they might as well have undertaken
to dig through the most solid rock you ever saw, as to dig through those
adobie walls.  Do you think they are decaying and falling down?  No, they
are growing better all the time, and so it is with the houses we live in. 
If they have good foundations, these houses that we live in will be better
when they have stood fifty years than they are at this day.  I will not
say that it is so with a stone house, or with a brick house; for when you
burn the clay to make brick, you destroy the life of it, it may last many
years, but if the life is permitted to remain in it, it will last until it
has become rock, and then begin to decay.

	As for the temple, I will give you the nature of your vote with
regard to it--the sum of it was, that those that dictate the building of
it be left to do with it as they please.  They will, anyhow.  But I give
it as my opinion that adobies are the best article to build it of.  I do
not fear the expense, neither do I care what you build it of; only when it
is built, I want it to stand, and not fall down and decay in twenty or
thirty years, like brother Taylor's one would, that he was giving an
exposition of; "that when we go within the vail into the heavenly world,
we need not be ashamed of it, but when we look down upon it, it will be of
solid rock:" but if it is built of San Pete rock, when he looks down to
see it he will find it aint there, but it is gone, washed into the Jordan. 
It cannot remain, it must decay.	May the Lord bless you.  Amen.


                                SALVATION

   A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, January 16, 1853.

	The plan of salvation, or, in other words, the redemption of fallen
beings, is a subject that should occupy the attention of all intelligence
that pertains to fallen beings.  I do not like the term fallen beings, but
I will say, subjected intelligence, which term suits me better--subjected
to law, order, rule, and government.  All intelligences are deeply engaged
in this grand object; not, however, having a correct understanding of the
true principle thereof, they wander to and fro, some to the right, and
some to the left.  There is not a person in this world, who is endowed
with a common share of intellect, but is laboring with all his power for
salvation.  Men vary in their efforts to obtain that object, still their
individual conclusions are, that they will ultimately secure it.  The
merchant, for instance, seeks with unwearied diligence, by night and by
day, facing misfortunes with a determined and persevering resistance,
enduring losses by sea and by land, with an unshaken patience, to amass a
sufficient amount of wealth to enable him to settle calmly down in the
midst of plenty in some opulent city, walk in the higher classes of
society, and perchance receive a worldly title, or worldly honor, and
enjoy a freedom from all anxiety of business, and constraint by poverty,
throughout the remainder of his life.  He then supposes he has obtained
salvation.

	Descend from the busy, wealth-seeking middle classes, to the humbler
grade of society, and follow them in their various occupations and
pursuits, and each one of them is seeking earnestly that which he imagines
to be salvation.  The poor, ragged, trembling mendicant, who is forced by
hunger and cold to drag his feeble body from under some temporary shelter,
to seek a bit of bread, or a coin from his more fortunate fellow-mortal,
if he can only obtain a few crusts of bread to satisfy the hunger-worm
that gnaws his vitals, and a few coppers to pay his lodgings, he has
attained to the summit of his expectations, to what he sought for
salvation, and he is comparatively happy, but his happiness vanishes with
the shades of night, and his misery comes with the morning light.  From
the match-maker up to the tradesman, all have an end in view, which they
suppose will bring to them salvation.  King, courtier, commanders,
officers, and common soldiers, the commodore, and sailor before the mast,
the fair-skinned Christian, and the dark-skinned savage, all, in their
respective grades and spheres of action, have a certain point in view,
which, if they can obtain, they suppose will put them in possession of
salvation.

	The Latter-day Saint, who is far from the bosom of the Church, whose
home is in distant climes, sighs, and earnestly prays each day of his life
for the Lord to open his way, that he may mingle with his brethren in
Zion, for he supposes that his happiness would then be complete, but in
this his expectations will be in a measure vain, for happiness that is
real and lasting in its nature cannot be enjoyed by mortals, for it is
altogether out of keeping with this transitory state.

	If a man's capacity be limited to the things of this world, if he
reach no further than he can see with his eyes, feel with his hands, and
understand with the ability of the natural man, still he is as earnestly
engaged in securing his salvation, as others are, who possess a superior
intellect, and are also pursuing the path of salvation, in their
estimation, though it result in nothing more than a good name, or the
honors of this world.  Each, according to his capacity--to the natural
organization of the human system, which is liable to be operated upon by
the circumstances and influences by which it is surrounded, is as eager to
obtain that which he supposes is salvation, as I am to obtain salvation in
the Eternal world.

	The object of a true salvation, correctly and minutely understood,
changes the course of mankind.  Persons who are taught by their teachers,
friends, and acquaintances, are traditionated, from their youth up, into
the belief that there is no God, or intelligent beings, other than those
that they see with the natural eye, or naturally comprehend; that there is
no hereafter; that at death, all life and intelligence are annihilated. 
Such persons are as firm in their belief, and as strenuous in argument, in
support of those doctrines, as others are in the belief of the existence
of an Eternal God.  The early customs and teachings of parents and
friends, to a greater or less degree, influence the minds of children, but
when they are disposed to inquire at the hands of Him who has eternal
intelligence to impart to them, when their understandings are enlarged,
when their minds are enlightened by the Spirit of truth, so that they can
see things that are unseen by the natural eye, they may then be corrected
in their doctrine and belief, and in their manner of life, but not until
then.

	How difficult it is to teach the natural man, who comprehends nothing
more than that which he sees with the natural eye!  How hard it is for him
to believe!  How difficult would be the task to make the philosopher, who,
for many years, has argued himself into the belief that his spirit is no
more after his body sleeps in the grave, believe that his intelligence
came from eternity, and is as eternal, in its nature, as the elements, or
as the Gods.  Such doctrine by him would be considered vanity and
foolishness, it would be entirely beyond his comprehension.  It is
difficult, indeed, to remove an opinion or belief into which he has argued
himself from the mind of the natural man.  Talk to him about angels,
heavens, God, immortality, and eternal lives, and it is like sounding
brass, or a tinkling cymbal to his ears; it has no music to him; there is
nothing in it that charms his senses, soothes his feelings, attracts his
attention, or engages his affections, in the least; to him it is all
vanity.  To say that the human family are not seeking salvation, is
contrary to my experience, and to the experience of every other person
with whom I have any acquaintance.  They are all for salvation, some in
one way, and some in another; but all is darkness and confusion.  If the
Lord does not speak from heaven, and touch the eyes of their understanding
by His Spirit, who can instruct, guide them to good?  who can give them
words of eternal life?  It is not in the power of man to do it; but when
the Lord gives His Spirit to a person, or to a people, they can then hear,
believe, and be instructed.  An Elder of Israel may preach the principles
of the Gospel, from first to last, as they were taught to him, to a
congregation ignorant of them; but if he does not do it under the
influence of the Spirit of the Lord, he cannot enlighten that congregation
on those principles, it is impossible.  Job said that "There is a spirit
in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." 
Unless we enjoy that understanding in this probation, we cannot grow or
increase, we cannot be made acquainted with the principles of truth and
righteousness so as to become exalted.  Admit that the Spirit of the Lord
should give us understanding, what would it prove to us?  It would prove
to me, at least, and what I may safely say to this congregation, that Zion
is here.  Whenever we are disposed to give ourselves perfectly to
righteousness, to yield all the powers and faculties of the soul (which is
the spirit and the body, and it is there where righteousness dwells); when
we are swallowed up in the will of Him who has called us; when we enjoy
the peace and the smiles of our Father in Heaven, the things of His
Spirit, and all the blessings we are capacitated to receive and improve
upon, then are we in Zion, that is Zion.  What will produce the opposite? 
Hearkening and giving way to evil, nothing else will.

	If a community of people are perfectly devoted to the cause of
righteousness, truth, light, virtue, and every principle and attribute of
the holy Gospel, we may say of that people's the ancient Apostle said to
his brethren, "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in
you, except ye be reprobates;" there is a throne for the Lord Almighty to
sit and reign upon, there is a resting place for the Holy Ghost, there is
a habitation of the Father and the Son.  We are the temples of God, but
when we are overcome of evil by yielding to temptation, we deprive
ourselves of the privilege of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
taking up their abode and dwelling with us.  We are the people, by our
calling and profession, and ought to be by our daily works, of whom it
should be truly said, "Ye are the temples of our God."  Let me ask, what
is there to prevent any person in this congregation from being so blessed,
and becoming a holy temple fit for the in-dwelling of the Holy Ghost?  Has
any being in heaven or on earth done aught to prevent you from becoming so
blessed?  No, but why the people are not so privileged I will leave you to
judge.  I would to God that every soul who professes to be a Latter-day
Saint was of that character, a holy temple for the in-dwelling of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but it is not so.  Is there any
individual within the sound of my voice to day, that has received the Holy
Ghost through the principles of the Gospel, and at the same time has not
received a love for them?  I will answer that question.  Wait and see who
it is that falls out by the way; who it is in whom the seed of truth has
been sown, but has not taken root; and then you will know the individuals
who have received the truth, but have never received a love of it--they do
not love it for itself.  What a delightful aspect would this community
present if all men and women, old and young, were disposed to leave off
their own sins and follies, and overlook those of their neighbors; if they
would cease watching their neighbors for iniquity, and watch that they
themselves might be free from it! if they were trying with all their
powers to sanctify the Lord in their hearts, and would prove, by their
actions, that they had received the truth and the love of it! if all
individuals would watch themselves, that they do not speak against the
Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, nor in short against any being in heaven
or on earth.  Strange as this may appear, there have been men in this
Church that have done it, and probably will be again!  If this people
would be careful not to do anything to displease the spirits of those who
have lived on the earth, and have been justified, and have gone to rest,
and would so conduct themselves, that no reasonable being upon the face of
the earth could find fault with them, what kind of society should we have? 
Why every man's mouth would be filled with blessings, every man's hand
would be put forth to do good, and every woman and child in all their
intercourse would be praising God, and blessing each other.  Would not
Zion be here?  It would.  What hinders you from doing this?  What is the
Lord or the people doing to cause this one and that one to commit sin with
a high hand, in secret and in the open streets?

	If Elders of Israel use language which is not proper for the lips of
a Saint, such Elders are under condemnation, and the wrath of God abides
upon them, those who do it have not the love of truth in their hearts,
they do not love and honor the truth because it is the truth, but because
it is powerful, and they wish to join with the strongest party.  Do they
love light because it is light? virtue because it is virtue? righteousness
because it is righteousness?  No.  But these principles are almighty in
their influence, and like the tornado in the forest, they sweep all before
them, no argument can weigh against them, all the philosophy, knowledge,
and wisdom of men may be set in array against them, but they are like
chaff before a mighty wind, or like the morning dew before the sun in its
strength--such Elders embrace truth because it is all-powerful.  When a
man of God preaches the principles of the Gospel, all things give way
before it, and some embrace it because it is so mighty.  But by and bye
those characters will fall out by the way, because the soil has not depth
to nourish the seeds of truth.  They receive it, but not the love of it;
it dies, and they turn away.  If every person who has embraced the Gospel
would love it as he loves his life, would not society wear a different
aspect from that of the present?

	I do not intend to enter into a detailed account of the acts of the
people, they are themselves acquainted with them; people know how they
themselves talk; and how their neighbors talk; how husband and wife agree
in their own houses, and with their neighbors; and how parents and
children dwell together.  I need not tell these things, but if every heart
were set upon doing right, we then should have Zion here.  I will give you
my reason for thinking so.  It is because I have had it with me ever since
I was baptized into this kingdom.  I have not been without it from that
day to this.  I have therefore a good reason for the assertion I have
made.  I live and walk in Zion every day, and so do thousands of others in
this Church and kingdom, they carry Zion with them, they have one of their
own, and it is increasing, growing, and spreading continually.  Suppose it
spreads from heart to heart, from neighborhood to neighborhood, from city
to city, and from nation to nation, how long would it be before the earth
would become revolutionized, and the wheat gathered from among the tares. 
The wheat and tares, however, must grow together until harvest.  I am not,
therefore, disposed to separate them yet, for if we pluck up the tares
before the harvest, we may destroy some of the good seed, therefore let
them grow together, and by and bye the harvest will come.

	There is another thing, brethren, which I wish you to keep constantly
before your minds, that is with regard to your travels in life.  You have
read, in the Scriptures, that the children of men will be judged according
to their works, whether they be good or bad, If a man's days be filled up
with good works, he will be rewarded accordingly.  On the other hand, if
his days lie filled up with evil actions, he will receive according to
those acts.  This proves that we are in a state of exaltation, it proves
that we can add to our knowledge, wisdom, and strength, and that we can
add power to every attribute that God has given us.  When will the people
realize that this is the period of time in which they should commence to
lay the foundation of their exaltation for time and eternity, that this is
the time to conceive, and bring forth from the heart fruit to the honor
and glory of God, as Jesus did--grow as he did from the child, become
perfect, and be prepared to be raised to salvation?  You will find that
this probation is the place to increase upon every little we receive, for
the Lord gives line upon line to the children of men.  When He reveals the
plan of salvation, then is the time to fill up our days with good works.

	Let us fill up our days with usefulness, do good to each other, and
cease from all evil.  Let every evil person forsake his wickedness.  If he
be wicked in his words, or in his dealings, let him forsake those
practices, and pursue a course of righteousness.  Let every man and woman
do this, and peace and joy will be the result.

	A few words more upon the subject of the eternal existence of the
soul.  It is hard for mankind to comprehend that principle.  The
philosophers of the world will concede that the elements of which you and
I are composed are eternal, yet they believe that there was a time when
there was no God.  They cannot comprehend how it is that God can be
eternal.  Let me ask this congregation, Can you realise the eternity of
your own existence?  Can you realise that the intelligence which you
receive is eternal?  I can comprehend this, just as well as I can that I
am now in possession of it.  It is as easy for me to comprehend that it
will exist eternally, as that anything else will.  I wish to impress upon
your minds the reality that when the body which is organized for
intelligence to dwell in, dies, and returns to its mother earth, all the
feelings, sensibilities, faculties, and powers of the spirit are still
alive, they never die, but in the absence of the body are more acute. 
They are organized for an eternal existence.  If this congregation could
comprehend that the intelligence that is in them is eternal in its nature
and existence; if they could realize that when Saints pass through the
vail, they are not dead, but have been laying the foundation in these
tabernacles for exaltation, laying the foundation to become Gods, even the
sons of God, and for crowns which they will yet receive--they would
receive the truth in the love of it, live by it, and continue in it, until
they receive all knowledge and wisdom, until they grow into eternity, and
have the vail taken from before their eyes, to behold the handiworks of
God among all people, His goings forth among the nations of the earth, and
to discover the rule and law by which He governs.  Then could they say of
a truth, We acknowledge the hand of God in all things, all is right, Zion
is here, in our own possession.

	I have thus summed up, in a broken manner, that which I desired to
speak.  We are not able to comprehend all things, but we can continue to
learn and grow, until all will be perfectly clear to our minds, which is a
great privilege to enjoy--the blessing of an eternal increase.  And the
man or woman who lives worthily is now in a state of salvation.

	Now, brethren, love the truth, and put a stop to every species of
folly.  How many there are who come to me to find fault with, and enter
complaints against, their brethren, for some trifling thing, when I can
see, in a moment, that they have received no intentional injury!  They
have no compassion on their brethren, but, having passed their judgment,
insist that the criminal shall be punished.  And why?  Because he does not
exactly come up to their standard of right and wrong!  They feel to
measure him by the "Iron Bedstead principle"--"if you are too long, you
must be cut off; if too short, you must be stretched."  Now this is the
height of folly. I find that I have enough to do to watch myself.  It is
as much as I can do to get right, deal right, and act right.  If we all
should do this, there would be no difficulty, but in every man's mouth
would lie "May the Lord bless you."  I feel happy, as I always told you. 
Brother Kimball has known me thirty years, twenty one of which I have been
in this Church; others have known me twenty years; and there are some here
who knew me in England; I had Zion with me then, and I brought it with me
to America again, and I now appeal to every man and woman if I have not
had Zion with me from first entering into the Church, to the present time! 
Light cleaves to light, and truth to truth.  May God bless you.  Amen.

                   ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF MAN.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 6, 1853.

	The organization of man, I suppose, is one of the deepest and most
profound studies for philosophers and theologians there is in nature.  The
organization of man, embracing all the attributes and powers of his
physical and mental constitution, is considered a mystery by the wisest
and most expert philosophers that have lived, and is a subject that daily
occupies the thoughts and researches of the more intelligent portion of
the children of men.

	When we carefully notice the manner of our own reflections, it is a
marvel and a wonder to us; and we are apt to say, What am I?  Who am I? 
And for what was I made?  Who is the author of my existence?  Who laid the
foundation of and planned this singular structure?  It is a mystery how
this wonderful machinery works, and how it is sustained to fulfil the
purpose of its creation!  In reality, however, there is no such thing as a
mystery but to the ignorant.  We may also say, there is no such thing, in
reality, as a miracle, except to those who do not understand the "Alpha
and Omega" of every phenomenon that is made manifest.  To a person who
thoroughly understands the reason of all things, and can trace from their
effects to their true causes, mystery does not exist.  Yet the physical
and mental existence of man is a great mystery to him.

	In the experience of our lives we are taught many principles that are
worthy the attention of the most intelligent on earth.  The first great
principle that ought to occupy the attention of mankind, that should be
understood by the child and the adult, and which is the main spring of all
action, (whether people understand it or not,) is the principle of
improvement.  The principle of increase, of exaltation, of adding to that
we already possess, is the grand moving principle and cause of the actions
of the children of men.  No matter what their pursuits are, in what nation
they were born, with what people they have been associated, what religion
they profess, or what politics they hold, this is the main spring of the
actions of the people, embracing all the powers necessary in performing
the duties of life.

	This is the lesson we should study.  The powers of our minds and
bodies should be governed and controlled in that way that will secure to
us an eternal increase.  While the inhabitants of the earth are bestowing
all their ability, both mental and physical, upon perishable objects,
those who profess to be Latter-day Saints, who have the privilege of
receiving and understanding the principles of the holy Gospel, are in duty
bound to study and find out, and put in practice in their lives, those
principles that are calculated to endure, and that tend to a continual
increase in this, and in the world to come.  All their earthly avocations
should be framed upon this principle.  This alone can insure to them an
exaltation; this is the starting point, in this existence, to an endless
progression.  All the ideas, cogitations, and labors of man are
circumscribed by and incorporated in this great principle of life.

	When we duly reflect upon the cogitations of our own minds, when we
look upon the people called Latter-day Saints, upon the earth on which we
stand, and upon the mighty universe around us, by the light of the Spirit
of truth in our minds, we marvel with astonishment.  When the light that
lighteth every man that cometh into the world, illuminates the
understanding, and exposes to view the true order of the works of the
Framer of the Universe, so that they can contemplate the geat first cause
of all things, and then look upon the grovelling pursuits of mortals, and
their anxiety to obtain that which will perish, at the expense of the more
enduring substance, every person must be struck with astonishment beyond
measure.

	The human family are like so many children that have just learned how
to walk, in the eyes of a person whose mind has been opened by the light
of the Holy Ghost.  The sage, grey headed grandfathers, and those of fewer
years, but not of less experience and wisdom, have viewed the eagerness of
children to possess mere trifles, and often something that would be their
sure destruction if they obtained it.  So it is with the inhabitants of
the world.  A company of little children at play is a perfect miniature
picture of the life of man: "Give me this, and give me that; and I want to
have the other thing;" still you are not willing I should possess it; and
the parent knows that often its possession would be an injury.  Or when
one child sits down in a little chair, another one will cry because of it,
without receiving the least injury.  If you place a plate of apples or
plums before a child of three or four years old, he will not be content
with one, or two, or with as many as he can hold; but he will try to grasp
the whole plate full with his little fingers, dropping one, and taking up
another, until he has scattered and wasted them, and at last be contented
to sit down and eat one, that is, if the rest of the children have not any
but himself; or else cry, when he has as many as he can hold, because he
can not hold them all.  The little girl will cry for the needle she sees
her mother working with, and when she has got it, handle it to her injury;
and the little boy will cry for the razor he sees his father using.

	It is so with many of the brethren and sisters; they cry for the
razor.  These inconsistent desires of early childhood for trifling things,
are exhibited in the human family, after they have arrived to maturer
years.  They may be reaching after things of weightier importance than the
child, but when they are compared with eternal matters, they are just as
trifling; and to the mind that is instructed, that has been touched with
the light of eternal truth, they appear even more foolish than children,
because we expect better things of them.  As a general thing, the men of
eighty years of age are as contracted in their minds, as to a knowedge of
the true principles of life, and the end and purpose of their being, as
little children only two and three years old are of the business that
occupies the attention of the City Council or the Legislature of the
State.

	The thousand-and-one inconsistencies of childhood have their parallel
in the actions and doings of many of this people.  Theatrical companies
try to exhibit traits of human life; but a better stage cannot be than the
world, nor better actors than men, to a man of understanding.  It is
pleasing and instructing to see certain characters personified upon the
boards of a theatre which is managed upon righteous principles.  A
prominent feature of the human world was most admirably portrayed by our
performers the other evening, in the melo-drama called "The Serious
Family."  When the mother told the daughter to say to the friend of her
husband, they had no spare rooms in the house, the daughter replied,
"Shall I tell a lie?"  "Yes," answered the old dame, "if it is to promote
our holy cause."  Do anything, no matter what, whether it is right or
wrong, to gain the end we wish, is the language of unenlightened,
unregenerate man.  If the Lord Almighty should give the human family their
desire in full, they would not keep the broad road to destruction, but
they would go across lots, quick to hell.

	It is not my intention to detain the meeting long this afternoon; but
before I bring my remarks to a close, I wish to impress upon your minds
some few prominent items of our religion.  I can say truly that I am
happy, and rejoice exceedingly, and am thankful beyond measure, that the
items I wish to notice are in a great degree adhered to by this people as
a whole.  That I may bring the matter before our minds at once, I will
repeat part of the "Mormon Creed," viz., "Let every man mind his own
business."  If this is observed, every man will have business sufficient
on hand, so as not to afford time to trouble himself with the business of
other people.  You can now comprehend the whole discourse by the nature of
the text.

 	While brother Erastus Snow was speaking, he made use of weedy gardens
as a comparison, to apply to those who complained of other people's
gardens, while their own were neglected.  I will refer to the same idea. 
There are plenty of evils about our neighbors; this no person will pretend
to deny; but there is no man or woman on the earth, Saint or sinner, but
what has plenty to do to watch the little evils that cling to human
nature, and weed their own gardens.  We are made subject to vanity, and it
is right.  We are made subject to the powers of evil, which is necessary
to prove all things.  We are apt to neglect our own feelings, passions,
and undertakings, or in other words, to neglect to weed our own gardens,
and while we are weeding our neighbor's, before we are aware, weeds will
start up and kill the good seeds in our own.  This is the reason why we
should most strictly attend to our own business.

	I am happy to say that this people do increase in understanding,
wisdom, patience, and faith.  It appears to me much more easy for mankind
to live without sin, than with it.  We have been taught that it is
contrary to nature to live without sin.  If a man should spit in my face,
it would be natural for me to knock him down, or in return spit in his
face.  But suppose one should injure me in person, or estate, and I should
overlook it, and show mercy to the individual, it would cause him to
reflect upon his conduct, and show him the true bearings of his unjust
act, and make him ashamed of it much better than if I retaliated.  If I
were to pay him back in his own coin, I should render myself worthy of
what I have received.  If I bear an insult with meek patience, and do not
return the injury, I have a decided advantage over my adversary.  And if
the person is susceptible of feeling such a rebuke, he will say, "I have
done wrong; my conscience condemns me, and my neighbor, or my brother, did
not retaliate."  It at once causes the evil doer to reflect, and he will
say, "Why did I do it? The devil tempted me; I will go and confess my sin
to my neighbor, for he is not disposed to return the wrong, and he is a
better person than I am; and from henceforth I will mind my own business,
and keep a guard upon my passions."  Is it not better in all such cases to
be guided by that principle, than by the principle of retaliation?

	To illustrate still further.  Suppose A insults B, and B demands
satisfaction, and they agree to fight: they meet and inflict upon each
other blows and injuries, and whip each other right well.  A, however, is
the conqueror, and B retires vanquished, in shame and disgrace.  He cannot
any longer remain in the same neighborhood with his victorious enemy, and
therefore concludes to sell out, and leave the place.  Now suppose B had
borne the first insult, or injury, and returned it only with good, instead
of trying to do A an injury; A would have been completely conquered, and B
would have escaped a sound whipping.  Were we, one and all, to pursue the
latter course, quarrels would soon cease in our community.  As I said, if
we keep our own gardens clear of weeds, our neighbors will take a pattern
by us, and produce from their gardens greater quantities of fruit another
year.

	Now, brethren and sisters, receive the exhortation and counsel of
brother Snow, and profit by it; and employ the rest of your lives in good
thoughts, kind words, and good works.  Shall I sit down and read the
Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Covenants all the time?" says
one.  Yes, if you please, and when you have done, you may be nothing but a
sectarian after all.  It is your duty to study to know everything upon the
face of the earth, in addition to reading those books.  We should not only
study good, and its effects upon our race, but also evil, and its
consequences.

	I make these remarks to lay the foundation for principle in the minds
of the people; and if you do not yet understand what I would be at, I will
try to illustrate it still further.  For example, we will take a strict,
religious, holy, down country, eastern Yankee, who would whip a beer
barrel for working on Sunday, and never suffer a child to go into company
of his age--never suffer him to have any associates, or permit him to do
any thing or know anything, only what the deacon, priests, or missionaries
bring to the house; when that child attains to mature age, say eighteen or
twenty years, he is very apt to steal away from his father and mother; and
when he has broken his bands, you would think all hell was let loose, and
that he would compass the world at once.

	Now understand it--when parents whip their children for reading
novels, and never let them go to the theatre, or to any place of
recreation and amusement, but bind them to the moral law, until duty
becomes loathsome to them; when they are freed by age from the rigorous
training of their parents, they are more fit for companions to devils,
than to be the children of such religious parents.

	If I do not learn what is in the world, from first to last, somebody
will be wiser than I am.  I intend to know the whole of it, both good and
bad.  Shall I practise evil?  No; neither have I told you to practise it,
but to learn by the light of truth every principle there is in existence
in the world.

	Still further.  When I was young, I was kept within very strict
bounds, and was not allowed to walk more than half-an-hour on Sunday for
exercise.  The proper and necessary gambols of youth having been denied
me, makes me want active exercise and amusement now.  I had not a chance
to dance when I was young, and never heard the enchanting tones of the
violin, until I was eleven years of age; and then I thought I was on the
high way to hell, if I suffered myself to linger and listen to it.  I
shall not subject my little children to such a course of unnatural
training, but they shall go to the dance, study music, read novels, and do
anything else that will tend to expand their frames, add fire to their
spirits, improve their minds, and make them feel free and untrammeled in
body and mind.  Let everything come in its season, place everything in the
place designed for it, and do everything in its right time.  And inasmuch
as the Lord Almighty has designed us to know all that is in the earth,
both the good and the evil, and to learn not only what is in heaven, but
what is in hell, you need not expect ever to get through learning.  Though
I mean to learn all that is in heaven, earth, and hell.  Do I need to
commit iniquity to do it?  No.  If I were to go into the bowels of hell to
find out what is there, that does not make it necessary that I should
commit one evil, or blaspheme in any way the name of my Maker.

	Do you not suppose the Lord is there, and knows all about it?  I am
satisfied of it.  If He is not there, when the wicked inhabitants of the
earth begin to inquire where they shall flee to escape from His presence,
they will find a hiding place in hell.  If the wicked wish to escape from
His presence, they must go where He is not, where He does not live, where
His influence does not preside.  To find such a place is impossible,
except they go beyond the bounds of time and space.

	I have learned enough to be happy, when I am in the enjoyment of the
blessings of the Lord.  That is a great lesson for a man to learn.  There
are two things that make this people unhappy, if ever they are unhappy,
viz., themselves, and the spirits that are around them.  This, however,
will more particularly apply to individuals.  As a people, as a community,
there is not its parallel to be found on the earth, for contentment and
happiness.  Will you make yourselves happy?  You are greatly blessed of
the Lord, all the day long, and should be happy; but we are apt to close
our eyes against this fact, and fancy ourselves miserable, when we are
actually blessed.

	To make ourselves happy is incorporated in the great design of man's
existence.  I have learned not to fret myself about that which I cannot
help.  If I can do good, I will do it; and if I cannot reach a thing, I
will content myself to be without it.  This makes me happy all the day
long.  I wish you to learn the same profitable lesson.  Who hinders you
from being happy? from praying, and serving the Lord as much as you
please?  Who hinders you from doing all the good in your power to do?  Who
is there here, to mar in any way the peace of any Saint that lives in
these peaceful valleys?  No one.  It is for us to keep our own gardens
clean, and see we do not harbor evil in our own hearts.  Were we to look
into our own hearts, and seek diligently to do all the good in our power,
and never commit another evil while we live, what is there to prevent us
from being happy?  I know there never lived a happier people, upon the
earth, I might venture to say, because of the dispensation in which we
live; it brings joy, comfort, and satisfaction to those who will receive
it, that could not be realized by any people who have lived before us.

	Do we expect to see our children grow up in darkness, and rebellion
against the principles of the Gospel of Christ?  Have you this thought to
worry your minds?  No.  The ancients had, and their souls were sometimes
weighed down with sorrow on this account.  They saw their children would
leave the true Church, transgress the laws, change the ordinances, and
break the everlasting covenant.  This we have not to fear.  God has seen
fit in our day to bring forth the Priesthood again, even at the eleventh
hour--at the end of summer--at the harvest time--at the gathering up of
his sheep. At this time, or never, He has put forth His hand to send the
Gospel to all nations, and gather the people together, and give to the
chosen of the Lord the inheritance of the earth.  Now what hinders our
being a happy people?  I do not see anything to hinder it.

	I have a few words to say concerning our spiritual labors.  I cannot,
however, define any difference between temporal and spiritual labors.  I
call it spiritual to accommodate my language to the ideas of the people.
Anything that pertains to the building up of the Lord's kingdom on earth,
whether it be in preaching the Gospel, or building Temples to His name, we
have been taught to consider a spiritual work, though it evidently
requires the strength of the natural body to perform it.

	If the weather had been fine the past week, we should have been ready
to have commenced excavating the earth for the foundation of the Temple. 
When we call upon the brethren, we wish them to be ready to obey the call. 
Probably a week from to-morrow we shall call upon them to commence this
work.  To satisfy those who may wish to know the size of the excavation, I
will state that it will be about 250 feet from east to west, and from
north to south a little less, and from 16 to 20 feet deep.  We expect the
mason work of the basement will be 24 feet high, 16 feet below the ground,
and 8 feet above.  That will require considerable labor.

 	We wish the excavation made, and everything prepared to lay the
corner stones on the 6th day of April next, if the Lord will; and if the
Lord will not, I care not whether a stone is laid here, or in any other
place; I care as little about it as the snow birds in our fields.  All
that concerns me, is to do the work the Lord has for me to-day; and if the
world is designed for to-morrow, I will prepare for it to-day, so as to be
ready to perform it to-morrow with alacrity.

	I need not say anything more about the Temple; we shall accomplish
that work as expeditiously as we can.  I might advance many profitable
ideas pertaining to business, if the brethren who are men of business, and
understand what is needed in our case, would listen, and profit by them.

	I will say a word to the Seventies.  Some of them have incorrect
notions touching the Seventies' Hall; and I wish them to understand, that
the Temple must be the first thing in our thoughts; and if I want all the
funds that have been collected for the Seventies' Hall, for the erection
of a Temple, I calculate to use them.  The people need not expect us to
give them the easy circumstances the noblemen of the Gentile nations
enjoy, while there is so much for us to do for the public good.  There is
more before us to be done this year, than will take five to accomplish. 
We are not, however, going to do all things this year; we are not going to
finish the Temple this year, but we will begin it.  The Lord requires all
we have to be devoted to His kingdom; and though it be but the widow's
mite, He can do as much with two mites as we can with millions of them.

	May the Lord God of Israel bless you, in the name of Jesus.  Amen.



                            BUILDING TEMPLES.
  An address delivered by President Brigham Young, on the Temple Block,
                   Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 14, 1853.

	If the congregation will give me their attention, I will detain them
but a short time.  Our history is too well known to render it necessary
for me to enter into particulars on the subject this morning.  Suffice it
to say, to this congregation, that we shall attempt to build a temple to
the name of our God.  This has been attempted several times, but we have
never yet had the privilege of completing and enjoying one.  Perhaps we
may in this place, but if, in the providence of God, we should not, it is
all the same.  It is for us to do those things which the Lord requires at
our hands, and leave the result with Him.  It is for us to labor with a
cheerful good will; and if we build a temple that is worth a million of
money, and it requires all our time and means, we should leave it with
cheerful hearts, if the Lord in His providence tells us so to do.  If the
Lord permits our enemies to drive us from it, why we should abandon it
with as much cheerfulness of heart as we ever enjoy a blessing.  It is no
matter to us what the Lord does, or how He disposes of the labor of His
servants.  But when He commands, it is for His people to obey.  We should
be as cheerful in building this temple, if we knew beforehand that we
should never enter into it when it was finished, as we would though we
knew we were to live here a thousand years to enjoy it.

	If the inquiry is in the hearts of the people--"Does the Lord require
the building of a temple at our hands?" I can say that He requires it just
as much as ever He required one to be built elsewhere.  If you should ask,
"Brother Brigham, have you any knowledge concerning this? have you ever
had a revelation from heaven upon it?" I can answer truly, it is before me
all the time, not only to-day, but it was almost five years ago, when we
were on this ground, looking for locations, sending our scouting parties
through the country, to the right and to the left, to the north and the
south; to the east and the west; before we had any returns from any of
them, I knew, just as well as I now know, that this was the ground on
which to erect a temple--it was before me.

	The Lord wished us to gather to this place, He wished us to cultivate
the earth, and make these valleys like the Garden of Eden, and make all
the improvements in our power, and build a temple as soon as circumstances
would permit.  And further, if the people and the Lord required it, I
would give a written revelation, but let the people do the things they
know to be right. Permit me to ask the question--do you not know that it
is your duty to accumulate your daily bread, to cease your wickedness? 
Are not these duties required at your hands?  Do you not know this of
yourselves?  There is not an individual in this assembly that does not
understand this, that is not as well convinced of it as I am.

	Concerning revelations pertaining to building temples, I will give
you the words of our beloved Prophet while he was yet living upon the
earth.  Many of us that are here to-day, were with him from the
commencement of the church. He was frequently speaking upon the building
of temples in Kirtland, Missouri, and Illinois.  When the people refused
in Kirtland to build a temple, unless by a special revelation, it grieved
his heart that they should be so penurious in their feelings as to require
the Lord to command them to build a house to His name.  It was not only
grievous to him, but to the Holy Spirit also.  He frequently said, that if
it were not for the covetousness of the people, the Lord would not give
revelations concerning the building of temples, for we already knew all
about them; the revelations giving us the order of the Priesthood make
known to us what is wanting in that respect at our hands.  If you should
go to work to build a dwelling house, you know you would want a kitchen, a
buttery, sitting rooms, bedrooms, halls, passages, and alleys.  He said,
you might as well ask the Lord to give revelation upon the dimensions and
construction of the various apartments of your dwelling houses, as upon
the erection of temples, for we know before hand what is necessary.

	Concerning this house, I wish to say, if we are prospered we will
soon show you the likeness of it, at least upon paper, and then if any man
can make any improvement in it, or if he has faith enough to bring one of
the old Nephites along, or an angel from heaven, and he can introduce
improvements, he is at liberty so to do.  But wait until I dictate, and
construct it to the best of my ability, and according to the knowledge I
possess, with the wisdom God shall give me, and with the assistance of my
brethren; when these are exhausted, if any improvement can be made, all
good men upon the earth are at liberty to introduce their improvements. 
But I trust this people do not require commanding, every day of their
lives, to pray, to do unto others as they would that others should do unto
them: I trust they do not want a special command for this; if not, upon
the same principle, they will not want any commandment upon the subject of
building a temple, more than what is before them.

	A few words to this people, upon the principles which were laid
before them yesterday, in the tabernacle.  One thing is required at the
hands of this people, and to understand which there is no necessity for
receiving a commandment every year, viz.--to pay their tithing.  I do not
suppose for a moment, that there is a person in this Church, who is
unacquainted with the duty of paying tithing, neither is it necessary to
have a revelation every year upon the subject.  There is the law--pay one
tenth.  I wish to say to you, and I wish you to tell your neighbors, if
there is any man or woman who do not want to pay their tithing, we do not
want they should.  It is for your particular benefit, and that of every
individual upon the face of the earth.  To me, as an individual, it is no
matter whether you build a temple or not; I and my brethren have received
our endowments, keys, blessings--all the tokens, signs, and every
preparatory ordinance, that can be given to man, for his entrance into the
celestial gate.

	The Prophet's feelings were often wounded because he was under the
necessity of giving commandments concerning duties that were already
before the people, until the temple was completed; but had he not done so,
the temple would not have been built; had he waited until the minds of the
people were opened, and they were led to see and do their duty, without
commandment, he would have been slain before the keys of the Priesthood
could have been committed to others, but the Lord put it into his heart to
give this power to his brethren before his martyrdom.

	If the people will pay their tithing, we have all the means we can
ask or wish for.  If the tithing is paid, we do not want the brethren and
sisters to give up their surplus property, for there will be a great
surplus in the storehouse of the Lord.  This is what is required of this
people, not to give all they have, though it should be constantly upon the
altar, but to be ready, if required; but if the people will pay their
tithing punctually, there will be an abundance, yes, and a surplus.  For
me to ask the people if they will give their surplus property, would be
useless.  I shall not ask any such question, but I shall now ask the
people to pay their labor tithing, that we may excavate this foundation,
and prepare for the stone work by the 1st of April.  I expect to see a
great turn out, no doubt we shall have all the help we can require.

	While the brethren are before me, let me say, that we cannot commence
to lay rock here without time, and we cannot get the stone for the
foundation without the railroad from this place to the quarry is
completed; these two items must be attended to.  This is sufficient to say
upon that matter.

	Let us revert for a moment to the past, to the years we have spent in
toil and labor, though very agreeably.  Seven years ago to-morrow, about
eleven o'clock, I crossed the Mississippi river, with my brethren, for
this place, not knowing, at that time, whither we were going, but firmly
believing that the Lord had in reserve for us a good place in the
mountains, and that He would lead us directly to it.  It is but seven
years since we left Nauvoo, and we are now ready to build another temple. 
I look back upon our labors with pleasure.  Here are hundreds and
thousands of people that have not had the privileges that some of us have
had.  Do you ask, what privileges?  Why, of running the gauntlet, of
passing through the narrows.  They have not had the privilege of being
robbed and plundered of their property, of being in the midst of mobs and
death, as many of us have.

	Only be faithful, brethren and sisters, and I promise that you shall
have all such privileges as shall be for your good.  You need not be
discouraged, or mourn, because you were not in Jackson County
persecutions, or were not driven from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, and
stripped, robbed, and plundered of all your property.  Do not mourn and
feel bad, because you were not in Nauvoo; have no fears, for if the word
of the Lord is true, you shall yet be tried in all things, so rejoice, and
pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks, even if it is in the
spoiling of your goods, for it is the hand of God that leads us, and will
continue so to do.  Let every man and woman sanctify themselves before the
Lord, and every providence of the Almighty shall be sanctified for good to
them.  I will now close my remarks.


               THE PRIVILEGES AND BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL.
   A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young at the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 20, 1853.

	Truly happy is that man, or woman, or that people, who enjoys the
privileges of the Gospel of the Son of God, and who know how to appreciate
his blessings.  Who is that person, or that people?  We are ready to
reply, "The Latter-day Saints are the only people on earth, that we have
any knowledge of, to whom the everlasting Gospel has been given in these
days; they are the only people who are the heirs to it, with all its
blessings and privileges.  Not to our knowledge is there any other people
on the face of this globe that enjoy this inestimable blessing."  True,
all mankind enjoy to a certain degree its influence, the manifestations of
the Author, Proprietor, and Giver of the Gospel of life and salvation to
fallen man.  All the offspring of Adam, from his day to this, have
enjoyed, to a greater or less degree, the light, the glory, and the
manifestations of the countenance of their Lord.  But they have not
enjoyed in all ages the Gospel, with its ordinances, blessings, and
privileges.  This is the only people that now enjoys such signal favours. 
The Priesthood has been upon the earth from time to time, and the kingdom
of God has been organized to certain degrees, but we can truly say, this
is the time of times, we live in the day of days, we enjoy the blessings
of the blessed, and have bestowed upon us, in the fulness of times,
privileges that surpass all privileges hitherto bestowed upon mankind.  In
this dispensation all things will be gathered together in one, and strange
and marvellous as it may appear to the world, these are the people who are
the instruments in the hand of God to bring it to pass.  This is a truth
that no arguments can successfully bear down.  No matter how it is
despised, persecuted, or neglected, as a frivolous, trifling, and childish
work, it is true, and it will remain; it is the kingdom of heaven upon the
earth.  Here is the plan of salvation, here are the words of life, here is
the light of eternity, here is the intelligence that will instruct kings,
and impart judgment to rulers.  It is embodie

	
 here in the midst of this people, and from there the rays of heavenly
light, wisdom, and intelligence have spread upon the wide earth; and the
Spirit of the Lord, that fills immensity, has been poured out upon its
face, giving light to every man and woman that cometh into this world.

	Brethren and sisters, can we realize its greatness?  Arouse the
reflecting and reasoning faculties with which you are endowed, reason upon
your past experience in this Church, and then inquire if you are as happy
as you anticipated you would be, if you have received that which you
desired, if you enjoy that which was once in the future to you--and what
will be your reasonable conclusions?  What would an enlightened judgment
tell you?  What would the spirit of truth decide?  That here are the pure
rays of light, here is heaven on earth; and no argument, no intelligence,
no influence of earth and hell combined could disprove it, or produce one
good reason to the contrary.  You may then ascend to the powers supreme,
and consult the intelligence that fills the bosom of eternity; you may
inquire of the Creator, Organizer, and Preserver of the Universe, our
Father who is in heaven; you may associate with the glorious retinue of
Saints, angels, martyrs, and the spirits of just men made perfect; and
they will all, with one voice as it were, testify to the truth of this
work in which we are engaged.  On the other hand, nothing short of the
power of the Almighty, nothing short of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ,
can prove to you that this is the work of God.  Men uninspired of God
cannot by their worldly wisdom disprove it, or prevail against it; neither
can they by wisdom alone prove it to be true, either to themselves or to
others.  Their not being able to prevail against it does not prove it to
be the kingdom of God, for there are many theories and systems on the
earth, incontrovertable [sic] by the wisdom of the world, which are
nevertheless false.  Nothing less than the power of the Almighty,
enlightening the understandings of men, can demonstrate this glorious
truth to the human mind.

	When you were in your native homes in the old countries and in the
United States, before you gathered with the people of God, what were your
thoughts and expectations, when you looked forward to the period of your
being embodied with the Saints?  What were the vision [sic] of your mind,
and the operations of the Spirit upon your understanding?  When you were
gathered with the Saints of the Most High, and became associated as a
brother, a sister, and a neighbour with that blessed society, you expected
to enjoy the manifestations of the Lord Jesus Christ, to walk in the light
of his countenance, and by the power of the Holy Ghost have the oracles of
truth revealed to you continually, and that you would be in heaven, and in
the Zion of the Lord.  These were your expectations.  You did not expect
to hear the name of the God we serve blasphemed from morning until
evening; you expected to be delivered from hearing the blasphemies of your
wicked shopmates, from the tyranny of your ungodly employers, and from the
persecutions of the bigoted religionists, who were all united to pick you
to pieces, and destroy you both temporally and spiritually, if it were
possible; on one side you were sheared, and on the other shaved.  You were
annoyed with the ungodly conversation and filthy deeds of your neighbours,
your peace was destroyed, and you could not enjoy that happiness held out
to you in the Gospel; yet you felt the influence of the spirit of truth
burning in your heart, which kindled in you a longing desire to mingle
with the Saints; you would exclaim, "Oh! that I could enjoy the society of
the Saints, and make my escape from this ungodly place.  Oh! that I had
means to gather up my little family, and journey to the place of the
gathering of the Saints of the Most High."  This was your feeling, and
this your prayer.  You anticipated deliverance from hell, to find a heaven
with the Saints; you expected to exchange confusion for a Zion of order
and beauty, misery for peace and happiness, blasphemy and tumult for
quietness and reverence to the name of God, starvation for plenty; in
short, you expected to find a place where all evil had ceased, and
iniquity and sorrow were brought to an end, and where you would bask
undisturbed in the smiles of the countenance of your Lord from day to day. 
I think I have drawn a faithful picture of what were the thoughts of the
majority of this people, before they were gathered to the body of the
Church.

	Now, brethren and sisters, what hinders you from enjoying all you
anticipated?  The calm reflections of your own minds, and the conclusions
of a well balanced judgment, enlightened by the Spirit of the Lord, will
give you a correct answer to this question.  I can answer it for myself,
and perhaps for many of you.  If I do not enjoy all I anticipated, if my
happiness is not as complete as I anticipated, if the light of the Holy
Spirit is not in my heart to that degree which I expected it would be, if
I have not obtained all I anticipated when I was down in yonder world,
mingled with the wicked, the cause is in myself, in my own heart, in my
own disposition, in the weakness of human nature; it is my own will that
prevents me from enjoying all I anticipated, and more.  It is a mistaken
idea to suppose that others can prevent me from enjoying the light of God
in my soul; all hell cannot hinder me from enjoying Zion in my own heart,
if my individual will yields obedience to the requirements and mandates of
my heavenly Master.  He has set me a pattern to copy, which, if I imitate
faithfully, will yield to me all and more of heaven in my own heart than I
can anticipate.  This is my answer.

	Brother Erastus Snow asked a question--"If my neighbour shall do
wrong to me, am I thereby compelled to do wrong to my next neighbour?"  I
say, no.  If a brother shall tread down my grain, that is ripening in the
field, am I thereby compelled to run through and tread down yours?  No. 
When a person steals my poles from the fence, am I compelled to steal
yours?  If my neighbour, or my brother in the Church, shall swear, and
take the name of God in vain, does it necessarily follow that I must use
the same language?  If my brother shall do wrong in any way, it does not
follow that I shall be justified in committing one single evil in all the
acts of my life.  Let each Latter-day Saint examine himself, and inquire,
"Am I one of those persons who will do right in all things, though others
may do wrong?  Am I that person that will serve the Lord with my house,
that will cease from every evil act, and from every evil word, though my
neighbours, or my brethren and sisters, may do the opposite?"  Let the
spirit within you reply to these questions, and in every breast the
response is, "Let me be that person, let me do right from this time
henceforth and forever, without committing another evil."  Then what have
you got?  You have got heaven in your own bosoms, you have got Zion in
your hearts, you have obtained all the glory, all the peace, all the joy,
all the comfort, and all the light you anticipated when you were mingling
with the wicked world.  If you are deceived, who will deceive you?  If you
are wronged, who wrongs you? If you are cheated out of your crown at last,
who has cheated you?  These questions may apply in different ways.  They
may apply to the business operations of the world, as well as to the grace
of God in the heart, and the salvation of the soul.  It is to the latter I
wish them more particularly to apply.  Who has influence over any one of
you, to cause you to miss salvation in the celestial kingdom of God?  I
will answer these questions for myself.  If brother Brigham and I shall
take a wrong track, and be shut out of the kingdom of heaven, no person
will be to blame but brother Brigham and I.  I am the only being in
heaven, earth, or hell, that can be blamed.

	This will equally apply to every Latter-day Saint.  Salvation is an
individual operation.  I am the only person that can possibly save myself. 
When salvation is sent to me, I can reject or receive it.  In receiving
it, I yield implicit obedience and submission to its great Author
throughout my life, and to those whom He shall appoint to instruct me; in
rejecting it, I follow the dictates of my own will in preference to the
will of my Creator.  There are those among this people who are influenced,
controlled, and biased in their thoughts, actions, and feelings by some
other individual or family, on whom they place their dependence for
spiritual and temporal instruction, and for salvation in the end.  These
persons do not depend upon themselves for salvation, but upon another of
their poor, weak, fellow mortals.  "I do not depend upon any inherent
goodness of my own," say they, "to introduce me into the kingdom of
glory,but I depend upon you, brother Joseph, upon you, brother Brigham,
upon you, brother Heber, or upon you, brother James; I believe your
judgment is superior to mine, and consequently I let you judge for me;
your spirit is better than mine, therefore you can do good for me; I will
submit myself wholly to you, and place in you all my confidence for life
and salvation; where you go I will go, and where you tarry there I will
stay; expecting that you will introduce me through the gates into the
heavenly Jerusalem."

	I wish to notice this.  We read in the Bible, that there is one glory
of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.  In
the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, these glories are called telestial,
terrestrial, and celestial, which is the highest.  These are worlds,
different departments, or mansions, in our Father's house.  Now those men,
or those women, who know no more about the power of God, and the
influences of the Holy Spirit, than to be led entirely by another person,
suspending their own understanding, and pinning their faith upon another's
sleeve, will never be capable of entering into the celestial glory, to be
crowned as they anticipate; they will never be capable of becoming Gods. 
They cannot rule themselves, to say nothing of ruling others, but they
must be dictated to in every trifle, like a child.  They cannot control
themselves in the least, but James, Peter, or somebody else must control
them, They never can become Gods, nor be crowned as rulers with glory,
immortality, and eternal lives.  They never can hold sceptres of glory,
majesty, and power in the celestial kingdom.  Who will?  Those who are
valiant and inspired with the true independence of heaven, who will go
forth boldly in the service of their God, leaving others to do as they
please, determined to do right, though all mankind besides should take the
opposite course.  Will this apply to any of you?  Your own hearts can
answer.  Do you know what is right and just, as well as I do?  In some
things you do, and in some thing you may not know as well; but I will
explain what I mean, in the following words--I will do all the good I can,
and all I know how to do, and I will shun every evil that I know to be an
evil.  You can all do that much.  I will apply my heart to wisdom, and ask
the Lord to impart it to me; and if I know but little, I will improve upon
it, that to-morrow I may have more, and thus grow from day to day, in the
knowledge of the truth, as Jesus Christ grew in stature and knowledge from
a babe to manhood; and if I am not now capable of judging for myself,
perhaps I shall be in another year.  We are organized to progress in the
scale of intelligence, and the least Saint by adhering strictly to the
order of God, may attain to a full and complete salvation through the
grace of God, by his own faithfulness.

	I know how it was in Jackson County.  There are families in this city
that went to that county twenty-one or twenty-two years ago last fall, if
I mistake not.  I know what their feelings were.  All their desire was to
get into the town of Independence, Jackson County, where they expected to
find all sin and iniquity dried up, heaven begun on earth, and an end to
all their mortal griefs.  That was the motive that prompted them to go
there.  Poor souls, how little they knew about salvation and its mode.  I
might have gone there too, but I wanted to thunder and roar out the Gospel
to the nations.  It burned in my bones like fire pent up, so I turned my
back upon Jackson County to preach the Gospel of life to the people.  Such
were the feelings of those who went up to Jackson County, but I did not
want to go there, nothing would satisfy me but to cry abroad in the world,
what the Lord was doing in the latter days.  After a while this under
current began to work two ways, and they had more trouble in Independence
than we had in York State; it came foaming, and bellowing, and pressing
upon them until they had to fly.

	I wish to ask those persons why were driven from Jackson County, if
they suffered as much in the actual driving as they would have done in the
anticipation of it a year before it took place?  You will all reply that,
if you had known it a year beforehand, you would not have endured the
thought.  I wish to apply this both ways.  You that have not passed
through the trials, and persecutions, and drivings, with this people, from
the beginning, but have only read or them, or heard some of them related,
may think how awful they were to endure, and wonder that the Saints
survived them at all.  The thought of it makes your hearts sink within
you, your brains reel, and your bodies tremble, and you are ready to
exclaim, "I could not have endured it."  I have been in the heat of it,
and I never felt better in all my life; I never felt the peace and power
of the Almighty more copiously poured upon me than in the keenest part of
our trials.  They appeared nothing to me.  I hear people talk about their
troubles, their sore privations, and the great sacrifices they have made
for the Gospel's sake.  It never was a sacrifice to me.  Anything I can do
or suffer in the cause of the Gospel, is only like dropping a pin into the
sea; the blessings, gifts, powers, honour, joy, truth, salvation, glory,
immortality, and eternal lives, as far outswell anything I can do in
return for such precious gifts, as the great ocean exceeds in expansion,
bulk, and weight, the pin that I drop into it.  Had I had millions of
wealth, and had I devoted it all to the building up of this people and
said, "Take it, and build temples, cities, and fortifications with it,"
and left myself pennyless, would it have been a sacrifice?  No, not to my
feelings.  Suppose I should be called to preach the Gospel until my head
is white, and my limbs become weak with age, until I go down into my
grave, and never see my family and friends again in the flesh, would it be
a sacrifice?  No, but one of the greatest blessings that could be
conferred upon mortal man, to have the privilege of calling thousands, and
perhaps millions, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan and
unrighteousness to the principles of truth and righteousness in the living
God.

	I was as ready to pass through the scenes of mobbing and driving in
Jackson County, as I was to pass through the troubles in Kirtland, Ohio;
in Davis and Caldwell Counties, Missouri; in Illinois; and up to this
place.  And what of it?  I have not known or seen a single sacrifice that
this people have made.  There has not been one such providence of the
Almighty to this people, that was not calculated to sanctify the pure in
heart, and enrich them with blessings instead of curses--enrich them not
only with earthly blessings, but with crowns of glory, immortality, and
eternal lives in the presence of God.  Where, then, is the sacrifice this
people have ever made?  There is no such thing--they have only exchanged a
worse condition for a better one, every time they have been moved--they
have exchanged ignorance for knowledge, and inexperience for its opposite.

	I want you to look at the Saints before they first gathered to be
mobbed; they expected all sin to be at an end at the place of gathering. 
These were my own feelings, though I did not gather with them at that
time.  I had to go out and preach, lest my bones should consume within me. 
But I will tell you what I did do, I commenced to contract my business
operations and dealings, and laid away my ledger, and note books, saying,
"I shall never want you any more."  I believe that those who wanted to be
Saints indeed, should do every thing to promote righteous principles and
peace among men, and be perfectly of one heart and of one mind.  I laid
aside my old account books, because I expected we should be one family,
each seeking to do his neighbour good, and all be engaged to do all the
good possible.  To carry out this principle faithfully, would crown the
people of God with good to overflowing.  It is easy for us to think how
things should be, but the difficulty is, things are not always as we would
like to have them.  Though if the Saints at that time could have rightly
judged of appearances, could have understood the aspect around them, it
was clear that sorrow and trouble were impending.  It was right they did
not see the dark cloud that was ready to burst with violence upon their
heads.

	In the short speech of not more than five minutes, which I delivered
in the old Bowery, when that judge publicly insulted this people, there
were men and women in the congregation who suffered more in the
anticipation of what might be the result of it in future, than the
generality of this people have suffered in being actually mobbed.  They
could see, in imagination, all hell let loose upon us, themselves strung
up, their ears cut off, their bowels torn out, and this whole people cut
to pieces.  After they had had time to think, they found themselves still
alive and unhurt, to their great astonishment.  They suffered as much as
though they had been sent to the bottom of the bottomless pit.  They
suffered all this, because I told that corrupt man, that he ought to be
kicked out of the territory for his insolence and barefaced presumption. 
I know this people have suffered more by the contemplation of trouble,
than they have when actually passing through it.

	As they have magnified future trouble almost infinitely beyond its
real dimensions, so they have imagined to themselves a greater heaven than
they can find in Zion, at its present stage of progression.  You do not
enjoy the Zion you anticipated.  That mankind make mistakes in these two
ways must be apparent to those who have felt the workings of hope and fear
in their nature.  People suffer more in the anticipation of death, than in
death itself.  There is more suffering in what I call borrowed trouble,
than in the trouble itself.  On the other hand, you have anticipated more
Zion, more happiness, and more glory in the flesh than you will ever
realise in this mortality.  Those who are apt to go to one extreme, are
almost sure to go to the other, which always causes disappointment, either
agreeably, or disagreeably.  These two extremes have caused the Saints
much trouble; and some, for want of patience, and a little reasonable
thought, have laid the blame of their disappointments in the wrong
quarter, and have apostatised from the Church, never thinking the blame
was in themselves.  Upon these weaknesses of human nature the devil works
sometimes very successfully.  But brethren, we cannot escape from
ourselves; and while we remain in this tabernacle, our onward course will
be obstructed, more or less, by the weakness to which the mortal flesh is
subject.  By and bye our bodies will go to their mother earth, and receive
a resurrection, and become glorious; then we shall enjoy all, and more
than the heart of man can conceive, unless it is inspired by the Holy
Ghost.  This will be the inheritance of the faithful.

	There is much room for improvement in all.  If we commence from this
day, and do all the good we can, and never do another evil, we shall come
to that which I want the brethren to preach about, and endeavour to
establish.  I wish it preached by the Bishops, by the Deacons, and by
every officer in the Church; I wish fathers to teach it to their children;
and I desire the subject to be taken up by all bodies of the Saints
throughout the world, viz., establish CONFIDENCE IN EACH OTHER.  Take this
for a text if you like, and preach upon it, both verbally and practically,
until confidence in each other reigns universally among the Saints, and
then will be accomplished what I wish to see.  If we wish to establish a
confidence such as the Gods enjoy, let us cease from every evil act, and
from the contemplation of every evil design; never infringe upon another's
right, but let each one sustain his brother in the enjoyment of his
privileges and right, holding them as sacred as our own salvation.  If
confidence has been lost, this is the surest and only successful way to
restore it.  Hear it, ye preachers, ye Apostles, and Prophets; ye Elders,
High Priests, and Seventies; ye Priests, Teachers, Deacons, and Bishops;
every man and woman in the Church of God throughout the world; commence to
preach this discourse at home, beginning with your own heart; then teach
your wives and your children; then let it spread its warming and cheering
influence, like the genial sun beam, from family to family, until the
whole Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is united as the heart
of one man.

	I will illustrate the method of establishing confidence in each other
by taking, for example, the child of four or five years of age.  The
mother allows that child to own a small chest in which to keep his little
trinkets, such as little bosom pins, ribbons, doll clothes, &c.  This is
considered by all the family the child's chest.  Now let none go into that
chest and take anything from it, without the consent of the child.  This
is a very small matter, some may think; but begin at as small a point as
this to create confidence, and let it grow up from little to much.  Wives,
let your husband's stores alone, if they have not committed them to your
charge.  Husbands, commit that to your wives that belongs to them, and
never search their boxes without their consent.  I can boast of this.  I
have lived in the marriage relation nearly thirty years, and I never was
the man to open my wife's chest, without her consent, except once, and
that was to get out a likeness that I wanted on the instant, and she was
not at home to get it for me.  That was the first time I ever opened a
trunk in my life, that belonged to my wife, or to my child.  The child's
little chest, with its contents, is as sacred to him, as mine is to me. 
If this principle were strictly carried out by every man, woman, and child
among the Saints, it would make them a blessed people indeed.  We should
seek to preserve our neighbour's horse or ox from starving in the cold of
winter, and if we see any of his property in jeopardy, we should be as
careful of it as if it were our own; our object should be to save every
thing we can, both of our neighbour's and our own.

	Let every man pay his just debts.  The editor of the News has
published a piece in the paper about owing no man anything; read it,
reflect upon and practise it.  I can owe every body everything; that is
one side of the matter, and to pay everybody is the other.  I mean to owe
every man a debt of gratitude.

	I have perhaps spoken too long.  I have given you all a text to
preach upon, and to act upon in your lives; do it faithfully, and it will
do you good.

	May the Lord God of Israel bless you, and save you in His kingdom, is
my prayer.  Amen.



   DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES--SACRIFICE--CONFIDENCE--LANGUAGE--ORGANIZATION
                    AND DISORGANIZATION--TAKING WIVES
   A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 27, 1853.

	I arise to make a few remarks, upon the subject on which brother Hyde
was speaking, concerning the privileges of the Saints.  I think that he
has plainly shown us, that privileges are, in a measure, disconnected with
duties; and although we may not exercise ourselves in all of them that we
might, still, we shall not fall under condemnation for this neglect.

	The privileges of the Saints of God, and that are granted unto the
inhabitants of the earth, are founded upon the principles of truth and
righteousness; but many people use them to their own condemnation; yet, if
they knew how to receive and act upon them, there would be no
condemnation, but to the contrary, a blessing.  This remark applies not
only to the privilege of dancing, (for such it is,) but to all other acts
and privileges that exist, and still are not specifically pointed out by
revelation as duties or requirements.  All blessings of this nature are to
be used as such, understandingly, by the Saints, and upon righteous
principles.

	What are the privileges of the Saints in these valleys?  Are they
abridged in the least?  Can they not accumulate wealth by trading with
each other, with emigrants, by cultivating the soil, raising stock, going
to the mines and digging for gold--in short, pursuing any and every
avocation to increase in wealth, and accumulate unto themselves the things
of this world?  Still further, if they wish to act upon unrighteous
principles, they can take advantage of their neighbor's necessity, ask
extortionate prices for rendering any little assistance or service, and
after thus dishonestly filling their purses, go to the gambling table, or
grog shop, and spend it by getting drunk, and rolling in the streets. 
Almost numberless indeed are the privileges and blessings of the human
family, and their abuses co-extensive therewith.

	But when blessings and privileges are to be used by the Saints, it
should be so as not to bring condemnation.  Upon what principle, when, and
where may we use them?  I have the privilege of associating myself with my
brethren and sisters in the dance.  When can I do this without abusing
this privilege, and thereby bringing condemnation upon myself?  I answer,
it is when I have performed every act, every duty that is incumbent upon
me, when every necessary labor and requirement is accomplished, when I
have served my God and my brethren, when I have performed every act
required of me, until nothing remains to be done, but to lie down and
rest, to seek recreation, then it becomes my lawful privilege, and not
before.  I fear this is quite different from the practice of many.  I
also, as well as others, could act upon unrighteous principles, if I
would, and neglect my duties pertaining to life and salvation.

	Suppose you go into some of the wards and say, "we have obtained some
music, let us go into the school house and have a dance."  "O yes!" is the
ready response, and they will immediately prepare, get ready their sons
and their daughters, and, leaving all important duties pertaining to their
welfare here and hereafter, unattended to, fill the house to overflowing. 
Brethren, you will use these privileges to your own destruction, if you
are not careful.  Yes, you could have a full house, dancing attendance to
the sounds of revelry and music; but, on the other hand, suppose your
invitation is to your neighbor, "Come, brethren, sisters, we are going to
have a prayer meeting over at the school house.  Will you go?  Will you
come?  Not to dance, but to pray!"  "Well, really, I do not see how I can;
my work is not done; I have a few chores [trifling domestic affairs] to do
yet; I have agreed to go to a neighbor's on business; a neighbor promised
to call on me to night, and I cannot well leave.  I should like very much
to go, but I really do not see that I can to-night."  In short, excuses
are not wanting.  I say to you, my brethren, and to myself, if we take
this course, condemnation is our doom, we will ruin, condemn ourselves,
and the Lord Almighty will judge us out of our own mouths.  This is the
tale told as it is.  It is not for any of us to enjoy the privilege of the
dance, or any other recreation, until every duty that is enjoined upon us
is performed.

	I cannot, legally, have the privilege of exercising myself perfectly
independent of my brethren, until I have performed every requirement that
they have placed upon me; the same applies to you and all Saints.

	I ask the brethren, do you pray before you go to these dances?  When
you return, are you not tired, fatigued, and is not your mind filled with
nonsense, so that you do not want to pray; and finally, do you not
conclude to wait, to put it off until morning?  This abuse of this
privilege, of this blessing, will bring condemnation to thousands; and not
this alone, but all the privileges of this life, if they are not wisely
used.

	When you go to amuse, or recreate yourselves in any manner whatever,
if you cannot enjoy the Spirit of the Lord then and there, as you would at
a prayer meeting, leave that place; and return not to such amusements or
recreation, until you have obtained the mastery over yourself, until you
can command the influences around you, that you may have the Spirit of the
Lord in any situation in which you may be placed.  Then, and not until
then, does it become the privilege of you, of me, or of any of the Saints,
to join in the festivities designed by our Creator for our recreation.  I
wish that you would remember it; and that you may, I repeat that it is not
your lawful privilege to yield to anything in the shape of amusement,
until you have performed every duty, and obtained the power of God to
enable you to withstand and resist all foul spirits that might attack you,
and lead you astray; until you have command over them, and by your faith,
obtained, through prayer and supplication, the blessings of the Holy
Spirit, and it rests upon you, and abides continually with you.

	You can never obtain my consent to engage in amusements and
recreations, until you are in this situation, until you are exercised and
influenced by the Spirit of the Lord our God.  Hear it, all ye Latter-day
Saints!  Will you spend the time of your probation for naught, and fool
away your existence and being?  You were organized, and brought into
being, for the purpose of enduring forever, if you fulfil the measure of
your creation, pursue the right path, observe the requirements of the
Celestial law, and obey the commandments of our God.  It is then, and then
only, you may expect that the blessing of eternal lives will be conferred
upon you.  It can be obtained upon no other principle.  Do you understand
that you will cease to be, that you come to a full end, by pursuing the
opposite course?

	The privileges and blessings of the Saints of the Most High God, are
many.  Yes!  All there is in heaven, and on the earth--kingdoms, thrones,
principalities,

	powers, heights, depths, things present, and things to come; with all
you can see, hear, or think of, realize or contemplate; everything in
heaven, earth, or hell, is for your glory, exaltation, and excellence, if
by your lives you honor the Priesthood which has been conferred upon you;
and, in the proper time, all will become subservient unto you, but not
until then.  But if you submit to serve your own feelings, and if you
desire not to build up the kingdom of God, and sanctify your hearts, they
will lead you down to be eternally subject thereunto--subject to the power
that will afflict and torment you, and eventually bring you to
destruction; whereas, if you pursue the opposite course, those feelings
and passions will become subject unto you; you will be enabled to govern
and control them, and cause them to serve you, and subserve the object and
design for which they were planted in your bosoms.

	Often have I looked at individuals passing to and fro through our
Territory, and heard them say, "These are the jolly Mormons; these are the
merry Mormons, I never saw such a society!"  Why is this?  Simply because
they enjoy themselves, because they take so much comfort.

	Is a man a Saint, who comes into the Church of God under such
influences, merely because the Saints appear to be happy?  No, he is not. 
No person can be a Saint, unless he receives the Holy Gospel, for the
purity, justice, holiness, and eternal duration of it.  Everything else
tends to decay, separation, annihilation; no, not annihilation, as we use
the English term, there is no such principle as this, but dissolution or
decomposition.

	Now, you Elders who understand the principles of the kingdom of God,
what would you not give, do, or sacrifice, to assist in building up His
kingdom upon the earth?  Says one, "I would do anything in my power,
anything that the Lord would help me to do, to build up His kingdom." 
Says another, "I would sacrifice all my property."  Wonderful indeed!  Do
you not know that the possession of your property is like a shadow, or the
dew of the morning before the noon-day sun, that you cannot have any
assurance of its control for a single moment!  It is the unseen hand of
Providence that controls it.  In short, what would you sacrifice?  The
Saints sacrifice everything; but, strictly speaking, there is no sacrifice
about it.  If you give a penny for a million of gold! a handful of earth
for a planet! a temporary worn out tenement for one glorified, that will
exist, abide, and continue to increase throughout a never ending eternity,
what a sacrifice to be sure!

	Many, no doubt, would consider it a great sacrifice to be called to
go on a mission a few years; to leave wife, children, friends, comfortable
homes, travel perhaps on foot, encounter storms on the sea, be in perils
on land among mobs, and be hated of all men.  It is true we might consider
this a great sacrifice, and yet men do all this, and more--they risk their
own lives upon their venture to get gold, to follow the allurements of
pleasure.  And should not the Saints of the Most High God be more willing,
more anxious to promote the cause of their holy religion, devoting
themselves, their influence, property, and, if necessary, their existence,
than the votaries of fashion, the devotees of wealth and pleasure, and to
merely sensual, temporary objects of worldly gain or aggrandisement? 
Verily I say unto you, if you are not, and if you have a spirit to seek
after the giddy, vain, foolish vanities of the world, the things
pertaining only to the gratification of present feelings, passions, and
selfish desires, and have no spirit of prayer and supplication, cannot and
do not feel to exercise an interest above all others, for the cause of
truth, my advice and counsel is for all such, to go straightway to the
gold mines of California, and seek for gold, for rest assured, as many as
have this spirit, will run as their unrighteous feelings prompt or
dictate.  Yes!  Go to the gold region, and do not come and seek my counsel
about it, whether I am willing that you should go or not, for I am not
only willing that you should leave, but anxious that you may as soon as
possible.

	If you do not love God, and His cause, better than everything else
besides, and cannot with a good heart and willing hand, build it up upon
the earth; if you will not repent of your follies, and get the Spirit of
truth in you, so as to love it, and feel willing to sacrifice all for it,
you cannot build up the kingdom of God.

	Confidence, brethren, CONFIDENCE in our God, and in each other, is
the text I gave the Twelve and all others who preached last sabbath, to
preach from.  The Twelve received missions to preach to the people in
these valleys, in their various locations, last Conference; and I believe
they have been tolerably faithful, under the direction of the President of
their Quorum, brother Hyde.  Let them now preach from this text,
CONFIDENCE; and let the entire people act upon its principles, and notice
when and where it will begin and end, and see if we do not establish such
confidence in this community, among this people, as never did, nor ever
will exist upon the earth, in any community of people but Saints.  I may
say, that we have it already; but I think that an increase of faith in our
God, and confidence in each other, is desirable.  If we could obtain that
faith and confidence in each other, and in our God, that when we ask a
favor, we could do so with a full assurance and knowledge that we should
receive, do you not perceive that it would lead us directly to do as we
would be done by, in every transaction and circumstance of life.  It would
prompt us to do, not only as much as requested, but more.  If your brother
should request you to go with him a mile, you would go two; if he should
sue you for your coat, you would give him your cloak also.  This principle
prompts us to do all we can to promote the interest of each other, the
cause of God on the earth, and whatever the Lord desires us to do; makes
us ready and willing to perform it at once.  It needs the language of
angels to express our ideas, to converse with each other in a manner to be
perfectly understood.  When we see and comprehend things in the Spirit, we
ofttimes realize an utter inability to simplify and tell them in our
language, to others; though we may receive principles, and convey the same
to others, to some extent.  It would be a great consolation to me,
inasmuch as faith comes by hearing the word of God, if I had language to
express my feelings.  No man can tell all that he can see in the Spirit,
when the vision of the Spirit is upon him.  He can see and understand in
the Spirit only.  He cannot tell it, yet many things may be given, in
part, to others.

	I thought, while brother Rich was speaking upon certain principles,
how beautiful, how satisfactory it would be to the Saints, could they
converse in a pure language; if they could have the language of angels
with which to communicate with each other.  I have contemplated the
principles that pertain to salvation--the principles which I have been
trying to lay before you; the acts of men, and how they should be ordered
before their God.  I would simply say, we must attend to the duties which
are laid upon us, before we enjoy our privileges.

	What principle does this convey to your minds?  None, unless your
minds are open, and enlightened by the visions of the Holy Spirit.  The
principles of truth are eternal.  The mind would ask at once, what is
truth?  It is any thing, principle, or fact that actually has an
existence.  If a falsehood, yet it is true that falsehood exists.  It is
as true that devils exist, as that Gods exist.

	Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  The devil also
says, "I am, I exist;" and consequently, by the same rule, "I am Truth." 
How far short is this of what the Lord reveals by His Holy Spirit!  Jesus
Christ, his father before him, all the faithful, the Gods of eternity, and
all organized elements, have been organized for the express purpose of
being exalted to an eternal increase; or suppose I say to eternal truth. 
Would this convey to your minds that the devil, because it is a truth that
he exists, could attain to the same power and exaltation?  Suppose that we
admit the idea that we shall see the time when we can combine and organize
elements, bring worlds into existence, redeem, and bring them up to
eternal glory, by merely saying--"I am Truth."  As before quoted, "Jesus
is the way, the truth, and the life."  We can turn round and say--Satan is
the way, the truth, and the death; or the way, and the falsehood.  Can you
perceive the difference?  But to say that Jesus Christ is the way, the
truth, and the life, is equivalent to saying that he is the only continued
or eternal existence.  The Lord Jesus Christ works upon a plan of eternal
increase, of wisdom, intelligence, honor, excellence, power, glory, might,
and dominion, and the attributes that fill eternity.  What principle does
the devil work upon?  It is to destroy, dissolve, decompose, and tear in
pieces.  The principle of separation, or disorganization, is as much an
eternal principle, as much a truth, as that of organization.  Both always
did and will exist.  Can I point out to you the difference in these
principles, and show clearly and satisfactorily the benefit, the
propriety, and the necessity of acting upon one, any more than the other? 
I will try in my own way, as briefly as I can.  It is plain to me, but can
you understand it?

	In the first place, matter is eternal.  The principle of
annihilation, of striking out of existence anything that has existed, or
had a being, so as to leave an empty space which that thing occupied, is
false, there is no such principle in all the eternities.  What does exist? 
Matter is eternal.  We grow our wheat, our fruit, and our animals.  There
they are organized, they increase and grow; but, after a while, they
decay, dissolve, become disorganized, and return to their mother earth. 
No matter by what process, these are the revolutions which they undergo;
but the elements of the particles of which they were composed, still do,
always have, and always will exist, and through this principle of change,
we have an eternal increase.

	But Satan works upon the opposite principle; he seeks to destroy,
would annihilate if he could, but only decomposes, disorganizes.  Permit
me to inquire what was his curse?  It was, that he should not increase any
more, but come to an end.

	When I came to the door of the tabernacle, this morning, I heard
brother Rich telling about one third part of the heavenly host revolting
from the government of Jehovah.  This was their curse--to never have
tabernacles to dwell in.  They now exist in Spirit, but shall never have a
body, nor be exalted; they shall have no further addition to their
existence; whilst those who did not rebel, could have tabernacles, and,
through the resurrection, become personages of tabernacle in the eternal
world.  There it is, on the one hand, and on the other.  You can now see
the benefit, the propriety of obeying the principles which lead to eternal
lives, exaltations, and increase; and why it is that Jesus Christ has so
much more power than Satan.  The power of the evil one is beyond the
conception of man; his cunning craft, and winning ways to insinuate and
introduce himself into a community, an individual.  This is to obtain, if
possible, a tabernacle, which, although a borrowed one, yet increases his
power, so long as he can wield it to suit his purposes; and if he fails in
this, and in enticing unto evil, then, his object is to decompose, to
destroy, that the good power, the good influence, may, like himself,
become bereft of the power pertaining to an embodied spirit.

	The Lord operates upon the principles of continuing to organize, of
adding to, gathering up, bringing forth, increasing and spreading abroad;
while the opposite power does not.  It shows the nature of his opposition
to that peculiar trait of Christianity, based upon the principles of
eternal duration, increase, power, glory, and exaltation; and points out
the difference between the two adverse powers.

	Again, what do you love truth for?  Is it because you can discover a
beauty in it, because it is congenial to you; or because you think it will
make you a ruler, or a Lord?  If you conceive that you will attain to
power upon such a motive, you are much mistaken.  It is a trick of the
unseen power, that is abroad amongst the inhabitants of the earth, that
leads them astray, binds their minds, and subverts their understanding.

	Suppose that our Father in heaven, our elder brother, the risen
Redeemer, the Saviour of the world, or any of the Gods of eternity should
act upon this principle, to love truth, knowledge, and wisdom, because
they are all powerful, and by the aid of this power they could send devils
to hell, torment the people of the earth, exercise sovereignty over them,
and make them miserable at their pleasure; they would cease to be Gods;
and as fast as they adopted and acted upon such principles, they would
become devils, and be thrust down in the twinkling of an eye; the
extension of their kingdom would cease, and their God-head come to an end.

	Language, to convey all the truth, does not exist.  Even in the
Bible, and all books that have been revealed from heaven unto man, the
language fails to convey all the truth as it is.  Truth, wisdom, power,
glory, light, and intelligence exist upon their own qualities; they do
not, neither can they, exist upon any other principle.  Truth is congenial
with itself, and light cleaves unto light, it seeks after itself, and
clings thereto.  It is the same with knowledge, and virtue, and all the
eternal attributes; they follow after and attract each other.  Mercy
cleaves to mercy, because it is mercy; light to light, because it is
light, and there is no darkness, no deception, no falsehood in it.  Truth
cleaves unto truth, because it is truth; and it is to be adored, because
it is an attribute of God, for its excellence, for itself.  It is upon
this principle, that these principles should be held, esteemed, practised. 
Any persons, men or women, who do not receive these principles for the
love which they bear towards them, because of their beauty, excellence,
and glory; and because they are congenial to their feelings upon this
principle, are not Saints!  They exist upon their own basis, and rest upon
their own foundation.  Eternal justice, mercy, love, and truth, never can
be moved; they are attributes that correspond, and are congenial with each
other; they promote each other, fortify the heavens, the Gods, and that
which the Gods possess.

	Now look upon the opposite side of these principles.  Suppose you
say, "We will give up the pursuits of our holy religion.  We are not
Latter-day Saints.  Let us go and seek after the things of the world,
speculate, get unto ourselves riches, turn away from our duties, neglect
the things pertaining to our salvation, go with the giddy, the frivolous,
the seeker after gold, to California, Australia, or elsewhere, for the
purpose of acquiring wealth."  I tell you the result of that course.  You
would cease to increase in all the attributes of excellence, glory, and
eternal duration, from that very moment.  So soon as you conceive such
ideas, they find a soil within you prepared to nurture them, and it brings
forth their direful effects; from that very moment you cease to increase. 
The opposite principle seizes you, fastens itself upon you, and you
decrease, lessen, diminish, decay, and waste away in quality, excellence,
and strength, until your organization becomes extinct, oblivion covers
you, your name is blotted out from the Book of Life, from the heavens,
from the earth, and from under the earth, and you will return, and sink
into pour natural element, which cannot be destroyed, though many read the
Bible as conveying such an idea, but it does not.

	The principle opposite to that of eternal increase from the
beginning, leads down to hell; the person decreases, loses his knowledge,
tact, talent, and ultimately, in a short period of time, is lost; he
returns to his mother earth, his name is forgotten.  But where, Oh! where
is his spirit?  I will not now take the time to follow his destiny; but
here, strong language could be used, for when the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be revealed, after the termination of the thousand years' rest, he will
summon the armies of heaven for the conflict, he will come forth in
flaming fire, he will descend to execute the mandates of an incensed God,
and, amid the thunderings of the wrath of Omnipotence, roll up the heavens
as a scroll, and destroy death, and him that has the power of it.  The
rebellious will be thrown back into their native element, there to remain
myriads of years before their dust will again be revived, before they will
be re-organized.  Some might argue that this principle would lead to the
re-organization of Satan, and all the devils.  I say nothing about this,
only what the Lord says--that when he comes, "he will destroy death, and
him that has the power of it."  It cannot be annihilated; you cannot
annihilate matter.  If you could, it would prove there was empty space. 
If philosophers could annihilate the least conceivable amount of matter,
they could then prove there was the minutest vacuum, or empty space; but
there is not even that much, and it is beyond the power of man to prove
that there is any.

	Brethren, what is it that you love the truth for?  Is it because it
gives you the power, the authority of the Priesthood?  Is it because it
makes you rulers, kings, and priests unto our God, and gives you great
power?  There are men professing to be Saints, even in this congregation,
within the sound of my voice, who feel how almighty they have become. 
They will curse you, if you do not see proper to comply with their wishes. 
Many men have feelings in their hearts towards their wives, that if they
will not do precisely as they wish to perform this or that, they will
curse them.  What wonderful things they are going to do!  "If you do not
obey my voice, my counsel, I will send you to hell, and turn the keys upon
you, that you may never! no NEVER! be released."  Sisters, you might as
well heed the crackling of thorns under the pot, the passing idle bird, or
the croaking of a crane, so far as their Priesthood is concerned.  You are
safe, if they will only keep their hands off from you; let them curse.  It
reminds me of a proverb which the Arabs have, that "cursings are like
young chickens, they will still come home to roost."

	Is it for this--is it because it gives you such great power and
authority, that you love the Truth?  That it gives you power to curse your
neighbors, your neighbor's children, their cattle, and everything around
you?  Let all such go away to their own place, to California, by the
northern route; not to San Bernardino, at brothers Lyman and Rich's
location, for they have devils enough there already; but go in to the
world entirely away from the Saints, and the sooner the better.

	Men should act upon the principle of righteousness, because it is
right, and is a principle which they love to cherish and see practised by
all men. They should love mercy, because of its benevolence, charity,
love, clemency, and of all of its lovely attributes, and be inspired
thereby to deal justly, fairly, honorably, meting out to others their just
deservings.

	If selfishness prompts you to embrace the truth, if it is merely to
exalt yourself and your friends that you covenant to serve your God, and
that is your only motive, you had better pass on the northern route, for
we can do you no good if you wait, or remain with us; not but that God has
regard for all His children; but He loves those who love all the
principles of righteousness, because they are righteous, and have a
delight in the exercise of pure principles, of virtue, of excellence and
truth, of meekness, long-suffering, and self denial, mercy, and charity.

	I am aware that my language fails to convey my ideas to you as I
could wish.  But I will proceed a little further.  A great promise was
made to Abraham, which was--you shall have seed, and unto your increase
there shall be no end.  The same promise was made unto the Saviour, and
unto every true and faithful man who serves God with all his heart, and
whose delight is in keeping the law of the Lord, obeying the behests of
Jehovah, and building up His kingdom upon the earth.

	The Elders of Israel frequently call upon me--"Brother Brigham, a
word in private, if you please."  Bless me, this is no secret to me, I
know what you want, it is to get a wife!  "Yes, brother Brigham, if you
are willing."

	I tell you here, now, in the presence of the Almighty God, it is not
the privilege of any Elder to have even ONE wife, before he has honored
his Priesthood, before he has magnified his calling.  If you obtain one,
it is by mere permission, to see what you will do, how you will act,
whether you will conduct yourself in righteousness in that holy estate. 
TAKE CARE!  Elders of Israel, be cautious! or you will lose your wives and
your children.  If you abuse your wives, turn them out of doors, and treat
them in a harsh and cruel manner, you will be left wifeless and childless
; you will have no increase in eternity.  You will have bartered this
blessing, this privilege, away; you will have sold your birthright, as
Esau did his blessing, and it can never come to you again, never, NO
NEVER!

	Look to it, ye Elders!  You will awake from your dream, alas! but too
soon, and then you will realize the truth of the remarks I am making
to-day.  Whose privilege is it to have women sealed to him?  It is his who
has stood the test, whose integrity is unswerving, who loves righteousness
because it is right, and the truth because there is no error therein, and
virtue because it is a principle that dwells in the bosom of Him who sits
enthroned in the highest heavens; for it is a principle which existed with
God in all eternities, and is a co-operator, a co-worker betwixt man and
his Maker, to exalt man, and bring him into His presence, and make him
like unto Himself!  It is such a man's privilege to have wives and
children, and neighbors, and friends, who wish to be sealed to him.  Who
else?  No one.  I tell you nobody else.  Do YOU HEAR IT?

	Many applications will unquestionably be made to me for wives, and,
perhaps, by men too who will steal, or trespass upon me, their neighbors,
kill their stock, do wickedly in various ways.  Nothing would damn such
men sooner than to give them this privilege.  I answer the brethren, they
have to go upon their own responsibility.  I tell you the truth.  If you
are a first-rate good man, and honor your Priesthood, it is your
privilege.  The man who has proved himself before God, has been faithful,
has gone through and performed everything the Lord has laid upon him to
do, for the purpose of building up and sustaining His kingdom, has proved
himself before men, angels, and his Father in heaven, he is the only
character that will increase, and obtain a celestial glory.  Others may
seem to prosper, to increase for a season, but by and bye they are left in
the shade, their glory is clipped, and their house is left unto them
desolate.

	Pray the Lord to inspire your hearts.  Ask for wisdom and knowledge. 
It is our duty to seek after it.  Let us seek, and we shall find; knock,
and it will be opened unto us.  But as for His coming down here to pour
His Spirit upon you, while you are aiming after the vain and frivolous
things of the world; indulging in all the vanity, nonsense, and foolery
which surrounds you; drinking in all the filthy abomination which should
be spurned from every community on the earth--so long as you continue this
course, rest assured He will not come near you.

	I will not enter into particulars.  You already know enough about
them.  I ask that you would leave it off; refrain, purify, and sanctify
yourselves before your God, and get so much of the spirit of truth that
you may become filled with it, so that you can shout aloud with all your
might to the praise of God, and feel your hearts clear as the noon-day
sun.  Then you can dance, and glorify God; and as you shall abide in the
truth, God will raise you up, and add to your numbers, so that your train
will fill the Holy Temple, as it was said of the Lord by one of old. 
  May the Lord bless you.  Amen.

              JOSEPH, A TRUE PROPHET--APOSTATES--DREAM, ETC.
    An address delivered by President Brigham Young in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, March 27th, 1853.

	I do not know that I can speak so that you can hear me, as you
perceive something affects my throat; I wish, however, to say a few words
to you this morning; I would like to say considerable--a good many words,
but perhaps a few will answer.

	There are a goodly number in the congregation, who have been
acquainted with this Church and kingdom from its rise, and that knew
Joseph in his first career in the Gospel.  There are many here that have
been in the Church for fifteen, sixteen, and some more than twenty, years. 
I have been in the Church, wanting a few days of twenty-one years, and
there are a considerable number that I know have been in it longer than I
have.  They knew Joseph--they knew him from week to week, and from year to
year, they knew what he did, they knew how he spake, they knew the spirit
he possessed, they were acquainted with it, it is the same spirit they
possess to the present day--the spirit of "Mormonism," the spirit of the
Gospel.  I will ask those brethren, and those sisters, if they believe
Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God? if they believe that he magnified his
calling?  I will ask them if Joseph lived and died a Prophet of God, and
what would they answer?  All men and women know, by the power of the Holy
Ghost, by the spirit they know it, by the light that is in them, for light
cleaveth to light, and truth embraces truth.  These pure attributes, as I
told you here a few Sabbaths ago, stand upon their own basis--the fabric
sustains itself, but falsehood, and that which is built upon it, will,
sooner or later, fall.

	How many witnesses could we bring, men that are upon the islands of
the sea, in foreign lands, and people scattered through the United States,
hundreds and thousands in their poverty, who are not able to gather with
the Saints; I ask, what would they witness if they were here to-day?  They
would tell you, and they would sound it so that all the world might hear,
if they could, that Joseph Smith was a man called of God to build up His
kingdom in the last days, preparatory to the coming of the Son of Man.

	There are many witnesses here, not only witnesses of Joseph and his
career, but witnesses of Joseph of the disaffected spirits that have come
into this Church, and gone out again.  Are there witnesses of men trying
to rise up and usurp Joseph's place in his day?  Yes, there are many
witnesses, that many men tried it.  Are there witnesses here, of the rise
and fall of men in this kingdom?  Yes, plenty of them.  I have witnessed
more than has been pleasing to me.  It delights me to see men come into
the Church, and magnify the Holy Priesthood, but it is a grievous matter
to see men turn away from the holy commandments delivered unto them,
gather to themselves false spirits, follow after a phantom, and be duped
by the devil--be ensnared by the power of the enemy, and give way to it
until they fall.  It is a source of regret, but we witness it, we could
name many of this class.

	Let me ask this congregation, that portion of it that was in Jackson
county; and again that portion that was in Kirtland in the days of Joseph,
and in leaving Kirtland; then those that were in Caldwell and Davis
counties, Missouri; then ask those who were in Nauvoo in his day, and
after he was slain; these portions of my congregation which I have
mentioned, I will ask, what has produced your persecutions and sorrow? 
What has been the starting point of all your afflictions?  They began with
apostates in your midst; these disaffected spirits caused others to come
in, worse than they, who would run out and bring in all the devils they
possibly could.  That has been the starting point and grand cause of all
our difficulties, every time we were driven.  Are there not witnesses of
this, here?  Yes, a good portion of this congregation are witnesses of
these things, although many of them never saw Joseph, and were not
personally acquainted with him.

	We have been persecuted--we have built houses, made farms, cultivated
the land, broken up the wild prairie, and made it like the Garden of Eden;
we have fenced, built, and gathered substance around us many times, and as
many times have been driven from our possessions, until we came to this
inheritance which we now enjoy in these valleys of the mountains.

	Now think a moment, reflect, and ask yourselves what do we see here? 
I am coming nearer home, I am coming to this place; what do we see here? 
Do we see disaffected spirits here?  We do.  Do we see apostates?  We do. 
Do we see men that are following after false and delusive spirits?  Yes. 
When a man comes right out, as an independent devil, and says, "Damn
Mormonism, and all the Mormons," and is off with himself, not to Texas,
but to California, (you know it used to be to Texas), I say he is a
gentleman, by the side of a nasty sneaking apostate who is opposed to
nothing but Christianity.  I say to the former, Go in peace, sir, go and
prosper if you can.  But we have got a set of spirits here worse than such
a character.  When I went from meeting, last Sabbath, my ears were saluted
with an apostate crying in the streets here.

	I want to know if any one of you who has got the spirit of
"Mormonism" in you, the spirit that Joseph and Hyrum had, or that we have
here, would say, Let us hear both sides of the question, let us listen,
and prove all things?  What do you want to prove?  Do you want to prove
that an old apostate, who has been cut off from the Church thirteen times
for lying, is anything worthy of notice?

	I heard that a certain gentleman, a picture maker in this city, when
the boys would have moved away the wagon in which this apostate was
standing, became violent with them, saying, Let this man alone, these are
Saints that are persecuting (sneeringly.)  We want such men to go to
California, or anywhere they choose.  I say to those persons, you must not
court persecution here, lest you get so much of it you will not know what
to do with it.  Do NOT court persecution.  We have known Gladden Bishop
for more than twenty years, and know him to be a poor, dirty curse.  Here
is sister Vilate Kimball, brother Heber's wife, has borne more from that
man than any other woman on earth could bear; but she won't bear it again. 
I say again, you Gladdenites, do not court persecution, or you will get
more than you want, and it will come quicker than you want it.  I say to
you Bishops, do not allow them to preach in your wards.  Who broke the
roads to these valleys?  Did this little nasty Smith, and his wife?  No,
they staid in St. Louis while we did it, peddling ribbons, and kissing the
Gentiles.  I know what they have done here--they have asked exorbitant
prices for their nasty stinking ribbons.  [Voices, "that's true."]  We
broke the roads to this country.  Now, you Gladdenites, keep your tongues
still, lest sudden destruction come upon you.

	I will tell you a dream that I had last night.  I dreamed that I was
in the midst of a people who were dressed in rags and tatters, they had
turbans upon their heads, and these were also hanging in tatters.  The
rags were of many colors, and, when the people moved, they were all in
motion.  Their object in the appeared to be, to attract attention.  Said
they to me, "We are Mormons, brother Brigham."  "No, you are not," I
replied.  "But we have been," said they, and they began to jump, and caper
about, and dance, and their rags of many colors were all in motion, to
attract the attention of the people.  I said, "You are no Saints, you are
a disgrace to them."  Said they, "We have been Mormons."  By and bye,
along came some mobocrats, and they greeted them with, "How do you do,
sir, I am happy to see you."  They kept on that way for an hour.  I felt
ashamed of them, for they were in my eyes a disgrace to "Mormonism."  Then
I saw two ruffians, whom I knew to be mobbers and murderers, and they
crept into a bed, where one of my wives and children were.  I said, "You
that call yourselves brethren, tell me, is this the fashion among you?" 
They said, "O, they are good men, they are gentlemen."  With that, I took
my large bowie knife, that I used to wear as a bosom pin in Nauvoo, and
cut one of their throats from ear to ear, saying, "Go to hell across
lots."  The other one said, "You dare not serve me so."  I instantly
sprang at him, seized him by the hair of the head, and, bringing him down,
cut his throat, and sent him after his comrade; then told them both, if
they would behave themselves they should yet live, but if they did not, I
would unjoint their necks.  At this I awoke.

	I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will
unsheath my bowie knife, and conquer or die.  [Great commotion in the
congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, assenting to the
declaration.]  Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be
put on the line, and righteousness to the plummet.  [Voices, generally,
"go it, go it."]  If you say it is right, raise your hands.  [All hands
up.]  Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this, and every good work.

 	After Alfred Smith was called upon to go on a mission, he would not
go, and I knew he would apostatize.  Do you suppose that after a man has
refused to fulfil his calling, he can retain the spirit of truth, and
stand?  He can not. They say they believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet
raised up to establish the work of the last days, and bring forth the Book
of Mormon; and thus they deceive.  But if you will examine them you will
not find anything but contradiction to every principle of truth.

	I felt to say this that I have said, though my throat is very sore,
but I think this exercise has done it good.  I feel to say to Jew and to
Gentile, Let this people alone in these valleys of the mountains, or you
will find that which you are not looking for.  We are on the Lord's side,
and we have the tools to work with.  But shall this people sink?  No.  The
time has come that Israel shall be redeemed, and they never shall lie
trampled under foot again.  Now is the time; Joseph told us, before he was
killed, the set time to favor Zion had come.  I want you to hear, Bishops,
what I am about to tell you.  Kick these men out of your wards.  If you
want to apostatize, apostatize, and behave yourselves.  You shall not
disturb my peace, nor the peace of this people.  If you want to go to
California, go, and serve Gladden Bishop there, if you wish, but disturb
not this community, or else you will find judgment is laid to the line. 
Do not court persecution, for, remember, you are not playing with shadows,
but it is the voice and the hand of the Almighty you are trying to play
with, and you will find yourselves mistaken if you think to the contrary.

	May the Lord bless you, my brethren; and I pray, all the time, that
we may be preserved in the truth, that when the Lord has anything for us,
we may be ready to receive it, and thus serve Him all the day long.  If we
have not been driven far enough to enjoy peace, tell me where next we can
be driven to, to find it; and if apostates follow, let them follow.

              NECESSITY OF BUILDING TEMPLES--THE ENDOWMENT.
An Oration by President Brigham Young, Delivered on the South-East Corner
 Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the First Presidency
           and the Patriarch had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853.

	This morning we have assembled on one of the most solemn,
interesting, joyful, and glorious occasions, that ever have transpired, or
will transpire among the children of men, while the earth continues in its
present organization, and is occupied for its present purposes.  And I
congratulate my brethren and sisters that it is our unspeakable privilege
to stand here this day, and minister before the Lord on an occasion which
has caused the tongues and pens of Prophets to speak and write for many
scores of centuries which are past.

	When the Lord Jesus Christ tabernacled in the flesh--when he had left
the most exalted regions of His Father's glory, to suffer and shed his
blood for sinning, fallen creatures, like ourselves, and the people
crowded around him, a certain man said unto him, "Master, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest."  Jesus said unto him, "Foxes have holes,
and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to
lay HIS head."  And we find no record that this man followed him any
farther.

	Why had not the Son of Man where to lay his Head?  Because his Father
had no house upon the earth--none dedicated to Him, and preserved for His
exclusive use, and the benefit of His obedient children.

	The Ark containing the covenant--or the Ark of the Covenant in the
days of Moses, containing the sacred records, was moved from place to
place in a cart.  And so sacred was that Ark, if a man stretched forth his
hand to steady it, when the cart jostled, he was smitten, and died.  And
would to God that all who attempt to do the same in this day, figuratively
speaking, might share the same fate.  And they will share it sooner or
later, if they do not keep their hands, and tongues too, in their proper
places, and stop dictating the order of the Gods of the Eternal Worlds.

	When the Ark of the Covenant rested, or when the children of Israel
had an opportunity to rest, (for they were mobbed and harassed somewhat
like the Latter-day Saints,) the Lord, through Moses, commanded a
Tabernacle to be built, wherein should rest and be stationed, the Ark of
the Covenant.  And particular instructions were given by revelation to
Moses, how every part of said Tabernacle should be constructed, even to
the curtains--the number thereof, and of what they should be made; and the
covering, and the wood for the boards, and for the bars, and the court,
and the pins, and the vessels, and the furniture, and everything
pertaining to the Tabernacle.  Why did Moses need such a particular
revelation to build a Tabernacle?  Because he had never seen one, and did
not know how to build it without revelation, without a pattern.

	Thus the Ark of the Covenant continued until the days of David, King
of Israel, standing or occupying a Tabernacle, or tent.  But to David, God
gave commandment that he should build Him a house, wherein He, Himself,
might dwell, or which He might visit, and in which He might commune with
His servants when He pleased.

	From the day the children of Israel were led out of Egypt to the days
of Solomon, Jehovah had no resting place upon the earth, (and for how long
a period before that day, the history is unpublished,) but walked in the
tent or Tabernacle, before the Ark, as it seemed Him good, having no place
to lay His head.

	David was not permitted to build the house which he was commanded to
build, because he was a "man of blood," that is, he was beset by enemies
on every hand, and had to spend his days in war and bloodshed to save
Israel, (much as the Latter-day Saints have done, only he had the
privilege to defend himself and people from mobocrats and murderers, while
we have hitherto been denied that privilege,) and, consequently, he had no
time to build a house unto the Lord, but commanded his son Solomon, who
succeeded him on the throne, to erect the Temple at Jerusalem, which God
had required at his hands.

	The pattern of this Temple, the length, and breadth, and height of
the inner and outer courts, with all the fixtures thereunto appertaining,
were given to Solomon by revelation, through the proper source.  And why
was this revelation-pattern necessary?  Because that Solomon had never
built a Temple, and did not know what was necessary in the arrangement of
the different apartments, any better than Moses did what was needed in the
Tabernacle.

	This Temple, called Solomon's Temple, because Solomon was the master
workman, was completed some time previous to the appearance of the Son of
Man on the earth, in the form of the babe of Bethlehem, and had been
dedicated as the House of the Lord, and accepted as a finished work by the
Father, who commanded it to be built, that His Son might have a resting
place on the earth, when he should enter on his mission.

	Why, then, did Jesus exclaim to the man who volunteered to follow him
wheresoever he went, that "the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head?" 
Jesus knew the pretended Saint and follower to be a hypocrite, and that if
he told him plainly that he would not fare as well as the birds and foxes,
he would leave him at once, and that would save Him much trouble.

	But how could Jesus' saying, that he had "not where to lay his head,"
be true?  Because the house which the Father had commanded to be built for
his reception, although completed, had become polluted, and hence the
saying, "My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of
thieves," and he made a scourge of cords, and drove the money-changers,
and dove-sellers, and faro-gamblers, all out of his house, and overthrew
their tables; but that did not purify the house, so that he could not
sleep in it, for an holy thing dwelleth not in an unholy Temple.

	If Jesus could not lay his head in an unholy, polluted temple, how
can the Latter-day Saints expect that the Holy Spirit will take and abide
its residence with them, in their tabernacles and temples of clay, unless
they keep themselves pure, spotless, and undefiled?

	It is no wonder that the Son of Man, soon after his resurrection from
the tomb, ascended to his Father, for he had no place on earth to lay his
head; his house still remaining in the possession of his enemies, so that
no one had the privilege of purifying it, if they had the disposition, and
otherwise the power, to do it; and the occupants thereof were professors
in name, but hypocrites and apostates, from whom no good thing can be
expected.

	Soon after the ascension of Jesus, through mobocracy, martyrdom, and
apostacy, the Church of Christ became extinct from the earth, the Man
Child--the Holy Priesthood, was received up into heaven from whence it
came, and we hear no more of it on the earth, until the Angels restored it
to Joseph Smith, by whose ministry the Church of Jesus Christ was
restored, re-organized on earth, twenty-three years ago this day, with the
title of "Latter-day Saints," to distinguish them from the Former-day
Saints.

	Soon after, the Church, though our beloved Prophet Joseph, was
commanded to build a Temple to the Most High, in Kirtland, Ohio, and this
was the next House of the Lord we hear of on the earth, since the days of
Solomon's Temple.  Joseph not only received revelation and commandment to
build a Temple, but he received a pattern also, as did Moses for the
Tabernacle, and Solomon for his Temple; for without a pattern, he could
not know what was wanting, having never seen one, and not having
experienced its use.

	Without revelation, Joseph could not know what was wanting, any more
than any other man, and, without commandment, the Church were too few in
numbers, too weak in faith, and too poor in purse, to attempt such a
mighty enterprise.  But by means of all these stimulants, a mere handful
of men living on air, and a little hominy and milk and often salt or no
salt when milk could not be had; the great Prophet Joseph, in the stone
quarry, quarrying rock with his own hands; and the few then in the Church,
following his example of obedience and diligence wherever most needed;
with laborers on the walls, holding the sword in one hand to protect
themselves from the mob, while they placed the stone and moved the trowel
with the other, the Kirtland Temple,--the second House of the Lord, that
we have any published record of on the earth, was so far completed as to
be dedicated.  And those first Elders who helped to build it, received a
portion of their first endowments, or we might say more clearly, some of
the first, or introductory, or initiatory ordinances, preparatory to an
endowment.

	The preparatory ordinances there administered, though accompanied by
the ministration of angels, and the presence of the Lord Jesus, were but a
faint similitude of the ordinances of the House of the Lord in their
fulness; yet many, through the instigation of the devil, thought they had
received all, and knew as much as God; they have apostatized, and gone to
hell.  But be assured, brethren, there are but few, very few of the Elders
of Israel, now on earth, who know the meaning of the word endowment.  To
know, they must experience; and to experience, a Temple must be built.

	Let me give you the definition in brief.  Your endowment is, to
receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary
for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to
the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels,
being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining
to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth
and hell.

	Who has received and understands such an endowment, in this assembly? 
You need not answer.  Your voices would be few and far between, yet the
keys to these endowments are among you, and thousands have received them,
so that the devil, with all his aids, need not suppose he can again
destroy the Holy Priesthood from the earth, by killing a few, for he
cannot do it.  God has set His hand, for the last time, to redeem His
people, the honest in heart, and Lucifer cannot hinder Him.

	Before these endowments could be given at Kirtland, the Saints had to
flee before mobocracy.  And, by toil and daily labor, they found places in
Missouri, where they laid the corner stones of Temples, in Zion and her
Stakes, and then had to retreat to Illinois, to save the lives of those
who could get away alive from Missouri, where fell the Apostle David W.
Patten, with many like associates, and where were imprisoned in loathsome
dungeons, and fed on human flesh, Joseph and Hyrum, and many others.  But
before all this had transpired, the Temple at Kirtland had fallen into the
hands of wicked men, and by them been polluted, like the Temple at
Jerusalem, and consequently it was disowned by the Father and the Son.

	At Nauvoo, Joseph dedicated another Temple, the third on record.  He
knew what was wanting, for he had previously given most of the prominent
individuals then before him their endowment.  He needed no revelation,
then, of a thing he had long experienced, any more than those now do, who
have experienced the same things.  It is only where experience fails, that
revelation is needed.

	Before the Nauvoo Temple was completed, Joseph was murdered--murdered
at sun light, under the protection of the most noble government that then
existed, and that now exists, on our earth.  Has his blood been atoned
for?  No!  And why?  A martyr's blood to true religion was never atoned
for on our earth.  No man, or nation of men, without the Priesthood, has
power to make atonement for such sins.  The souls of all such, since the
days of Jesus, are "under the altar," and are crying to God, day and
night, for vengeance.  And shall they cry in vain?  God forbid!  He has
promised He will hear them in His own due time, and recompense a righteous
reward.

	But what of the Temple in Nauvoo?  By the aid of sword in one hand,
and trowel and hammer in the other, with fire arms at hand, and a strong
band of police, and the blessings of heaven, the Saints, through hunger,
and thirst, and weariness, and watching, and prayings, so far completed
the Temple, despite the devices of the mob, that many received a small
portion of their endowment, but we know of no one who received it in its
fulness.  And then, to save the lives of all the Saints from cruel murder,
we removed westward, and being led by the all-searching eye of the Great
Jehovah, we arrived at this place.

	Of our journey hither, we need say nothing, only, God led us.  Of the
sufferings of those who were compelled to, and did, leave Nauvoo in the
winter or 1846, we need say nothing.  Those who experienced it know it,
and those who did not, to tell them of it would be like exhibiting a
beautiful painting to a blind man.

	We will not stop to tell you of the sufferings of widows and orphans
on Omaha lands, while their husbands and fathers were traversing the
burning plains of the South, to fight the battles of a country which had
banished them from civilization, for they secured the land on which we
dwell, from our nation's foe, exposed the gold of California, and turned
the world upside down.  All these things are before you--you know them,
and we need not repeat them.

	While these things were transpiring with the Saints in the
wilderness, the Temple at Nauvoo passed into the hands of the enemy, who
polluted it to that extent the Lord not only ceased to occupy it, but He
loathed to have it called by His name, and permitted the wrath of its
possessors to purify it by fire, as a token of what will speedily fall on
them and their habitations, unless they repent.

	But what are we here for, this day?  To celebrate the birth-day of
our religion!  To lay the foundation of a Temple to the Most High God, so
that when His Son, our Elder Brother, shall again appear, he may have a
place where he can lay his head, and not only spend a night or a day, but
find a place of peace, that he may stay till he can say, "I am satisfied."

	Brethren, shall the Son of Man be satisfied with our proceedings this
day?  Shall he have a house on the earth which he can call his own?  Shall
he have place where he can lay his head, and rest over night, and tarry as
long as he pleases, and be satisfied and pleased with his accommodations?

	These are questions for you to answer.  If you say yes, you have got
to do the work, or it will not be done.  We do not want any whiners about
this Temple.  If you cannot commence cheerfully, and go through the labor
of the whole building cheerfully, start for California, and the quicker
the better.  Make you a golden calf, and worship it.  If your care for the
ordinances of salvation, for yourselves, your living, and dead, is not
first and foremost in your hearts, in your actions, and in everything you
possess, go!  Pay your debts, if you have any, and go in peace, and prove
to God and all His Saints that you are what you profess to be, by your
acts--a God of Gods, and know more than He that made you.

	But if you are what you profess to be, do your duty--stay with the
Saints, pay your Tithing, and be prompt in paying, as you are in feeding
your family; and the Temple, of which we have now laid the South-east
Corner Stone, will arise in beauty and grandeur, in a manner and time
which you have not hitherto known or contemplated.

	The Saints of these valleys have grown in riches, and abundance of
the comforts of life, in a manner hitherto unparalleled on the page of
history, and if they will do by their Heavenly Father as He has done by
them, soon will this Temple be inclosed [sic].  But if you go in for a
speculation with passers by, as many have hitherto done, you will not live
to see the Topstone of this Temple laid; and your labors and toils for
yourselves and friends, dead and alive, will be worse than though you had
had no existence.

	We dedicate this, the South-east Corner Stone of this Temple, to the
Most High God.  May it remain in peace till it has done its work, and
until He who has inspired our hearts to fulfil the prophecies of His holy
Prophets, that the House of the Lord should be reared in the "Tops of the
Mountains," shall be satisfied, and say, "It is enough."  And may every
tongue, pen, and weapon, that may rise against this or any other Corner
Stone of this building, feel the wrath and scourging of an incensed God! 
May sinners in Zion be afraid, and fearfulness surprise the hypocrite,
from this hour.  And may all who do not feel to say Amen, go speedily to
that long night of rest from which no sleeper will awake, till roused by
the trump of the Second Resurrection.

                                HEIRSHIP.
A Discourse delivered by President Brigham Young, at a General Conference
       held in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1853.

	I wish to deliver a short discourse, which may, perhaps, become a
lengthy one before the close of this Conference.

	I will now give the text, and probably shall call upon the brethren
to fill out the sermon.  I do not know that I can refer you to the Bible
for the particular chapter and verse, to find the text; but the text may
be given here, and the book referred to hereafter.

	The text is the Right of Heirship.  I will, however, make an addition
to the Scripture before I proceed further with my remarks, and say, The
Right of Heirship in the Priesthood; for unquestionably this will be
connected with the text and brought into the discourse.

	In the little that I say, I will endeavour to point out the items of
doctrine and the right view to be contemplated and spoken upon by the
brethren; for I wish this subject to be properly understood.

	Pertaining to the kingdom of God, to this earth, to the organization
of it, and to the bringing forth of the children of men upon it, to the
preparatory Gospel or law to fit and prepare them, after receiving their
tabernacles, to enter again into the presence of their Father and God,
this heirship, this right did belong, still belongs, and for ever will
belong to the first-born son in every family of Adam's race.

	This is understood from the Bible, not only by the Latter-day Saints,
but also by the Christian world.  Jesus Christ, first-begotten of the
Father, of all the rest of the children, and of all they possess, alone is
the lawful heir.  This is no mystery.

	After passing over the ages and generations of the children of men
for about six thousand years, we will come to the present congregation and
say the right of heirship is the same now that it was in the beginning. 
It is as it was and as it ever will be, worlds without end.  This I wish
the Latter-day Saints to understand a little better than they have
heretofore.  I will give you my reason.

	For instance, there are sisters in this Church that have been
bereaved of their husbands, who died full of faith in the holy Gospel and
full of hope for a glorious resurrection to eternal life.  One of them is
visited by a High Priest, of whom she seeks information touching her
situation and that of her husband.  At the same time, the woman has a son
twenty-five years of age who is an Elder in one of the Quorums of
Seventies, and faithful in all the duties connected with his calling.  She
has also other sons and daughters.  She asks this High Priest what she
shall do for her husband, and he very religiously says to her, "You must
be sealed to me, and I will bring up your husband, stand as proxy for him,
receive his endowments and all the sealing, keys, and blessings, and
eternal Priesthood for him, and be the father of your children."

	Hear it, ye mother!  The mother that does that barters away the
sacred right of her son.  Does she know it?  No.  This has been done in
hundreds of instances, though innocently and in ignorance, which makes it
excusable.  For my own part, I am willing to wink at the ignorance of the
people, and I believe our heavenly Father is.

	But you that will hear and be made to understand the true principles
that govern this matter, go from this place and do hereafter as has been
done in the bygone days; and instead of the children being robbed of their
just rights, the woman shall lose her children, and they shall yet stand
in their place and be put in the possession of their rights.  What is to
be done?  Let mothers honour their children.  If a woman has a son, let
her honour that son.

	But a mother may say, "My son is only five years old.  I never had
but one son among a number of daughters.  I am advancing in years, and may
die before I can be sealed to my husband."  Let that son wait until he is
old enough to officiate for his father; and though you may go into your
grave, let you son do his duty, and [you] never hang to the skirts of a
man that is avaricious.

	You may see a great many miserly persons with regard to dollars and
cents.  It is just as natural for men to be miserly with regard to their
religious blessings.  You may see hundreds of Elders who say to the
sisters, "come and be sealed to me," crawling round to make the holy
ordinances of God a matter of speculation to administer to their
avaricious dispositions.  They will tell you that you will go into
eternity and find yourselves without husbands, and cannot get an
exaltation,--that you cannot have this, that, or the other, unless you are
sealed to them.  I am free, and so are you.  My advice to the sisters is,
Never be sealed to any man unless you wish to be.  I say to you High
Priests and Elders, Never from this time ask a woman to be sealed to you,
unless she wants to be; but let the widows and children alone.

 	I will refer you to a discourse I delivered here last season upon the
subject of the resurrection and the millennium, setting forth before the
people the work to be accomplished in that period of time.  We have at
least one thousand years, counting three hundred and sixty-five days, five
hours, forty-eight minutes, and fifty-seven seconds to the year, if I
recollect right, wherein the Elders of Israel will enter holy temples of
the Lord and officiate for just such persons as you and I, that have done
the work we were called to do in our day, whether it was much or little. 
There will be hundreds of thousands of the sons of Jacob to administer in
these temples for you and me.  Joseph, Hyrum, father Smith, and many
others will be there to dictate and preside.  Joseph will stand at the
head of this dispensation and hold the keys of it, for they are not taken
from him:  they never were in time; they never will be in eternity.  I
shall be there if I live or if I die.  If I die, my brethren or my
children will officiate for me.  I shall lose nothing through death. 
Magnify your calling to this Church, and I will warrant you an exaltation
just as good and as great as you can ask for.

	I might notice many more items pertaining to this matter; but the
Elders going round telling the sisters they must be sealed to them, or
they cannot get an exaltation, particularly has wounded my feelings.  How
ignorant such men are?  This to me is like a shadow.  To talk about it is
sheer nonsense.  Let every man and woman magnify their calling in the
kingdom of God, and he will take care that we have our exaltation.

	Sisters come to me and inquire what they shall do, saying, Brother A.
or B taught me so and so.  They are as wild as the deer on the mountains. 
Their ideas and calculations are derogatory to every shade of good sound
sense and to every principle of the Priesthood of heaven.

	Brethren, learn to be patient and submissive to your duty and
callings in life, and not be anxious to accumulate to yourselves that
which, when you have obtained, you are at a loss to know what to do with. 
There are scores of men in this house that, if they could pile up an
almost unlimited amount of gold, in a short time would not possess one
dime of it.  there are also scores of Elders here who, if they had five
hundred women sealed to them and a thousand children, would destroy
themselves and those over whom they exercise any influence.  They would
not know what to do with them.  You want to have another wife:  but do you
use well the one you have got?  It is a bad omen to me when a man wants
another wife, and the one he has got is ready to leave him.  If you cannot
keep the jewel you already possess, be cautious how you take more, lest
you lose them both.

	I did not design to speak long, as it hurts me.  I think I have laid
out the text before the brethren plain enough for them to preach upon it. 
I wish them so to exhibit the subject before the people, that they may
carry it away in their understandings.

	Let me hear no more "You must be sealed to me, or you cannot get an
exaltation."  If a man gets the widow of a good man, sealed, married to
him, with a view to hold control over and rob every child in that family
of their birthright, he will be mistaken.  It will not be.  I say to you,
my brethren, young men, you Elders, Rise up and magnify your calling,
honour the Priesthood; and if a man has stepped up and married your mother
under the influence of such an expectation, TURN HIM OUT OF YOUR HOUSE,
AND MAINTAIN YOUR BIRTHRIGHT.



          SAINTS SUBJECT TO TEMPTATION--TRUE RICHES, VIRTUE, AND
         SANCTIFICATION--"MORMONISM"--GLADDENITES, APOSTLES, AND
                   SAINTS--DEVILS WITHOUT TABERNACLES.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, April 17, 1853.

	I will embrace the present opportunity for making a few remarks, as I
expect to leave this city before another Sabbath, to be gone several
weeks.

	You have heard good instructions, counsel, and advice from Amasa
Lyman and Charles C. Rich; I desire to profit by their sayings, and I hope
this people will.

	We see men before us who are old Elders in this Church, veterans in
the kingdom of God; I hope they will live many years to grace our ranks. 
Those who have been in the Church from the beginning are men and women who
have paid attention to their faith, and to the doctrine of sound common
sense; they have been good scholars, and by this time must understand
tolerably well what they believe.  They must also be schooled in the study
of man, and in matters which pertain to nations and kingdoms, and in
circumstances which concern us as individuals.

	The doctrine we have heard is good; we have listened to principles
that pertain to life and salvation; and I repeat again what you have heard
often, "Secure for yourselves first the kingdom of heaven and its
righteousness."  When you have done this, every good principle, every good
thing, every great endowment, every peaceful influence, and all that can
be enjoyed by celestial beings are and will be yours.

	We may be within the pale of the kingdom of God on earth, yet we are
liable to be overcome of evil.  There are many spirits who have gone
abroad in the world, and men are overcome by false spirits, and led astray
from the path of truth.  They will begin by doing some evil thing out of
sight, and say, "O, it is nothing, it is a mere trifle, and the Lord is
merciful, and forgiveth sin."  The sins which are considered trifles lay
the foundation for greater evils, and expose men to be tempted, and
buffeted by Satan, and they will be overcome little by little, until by
and by they are overtaken in a fault which is more aggravating in the
sight of justice, which lays the foundation for another trial more severe,
and to be buffeted more by the devil, for they lay themselves more liable
to his power.  We might refer you to many instances of Elders of Israel
becoming victims to evil--but I pass over that disagreeable matter.

	God never bestows His grace upon an individual without trying it in
that person, to see if the compound is good.  Men do not realize this, nor
think upon it as they ought; if they did they would be more careful never
to speak against the Father, against the Son, against any heavenly being,
or against any being on the earth.

	Brethren, seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness,
then all the blessings that brother Amasa anticipates enjoying will be
yours.  But no man or woman can enjoy them unless they have first secured
to themselves the kingdom of heaven--unless they have secured to
themselves eternal life.

	Our bodies are satisfied with plenty of food, and we have property
around us of various kinds, which satisfies our temporal wants for the
moment.  But, as I told you some time since, the king seated upon his
throne wearing a glittering crown, and surrounded with all the glory of
his greatness to-day, to-morrow may be numbered with the beggar, and his
crown given to another.  Today we possess riches, and to-morrow they may
take the wings of the morning and leave us poor indeed.

	How long shall we enjoy the happiness we now enjoy, in coming to this
house to worship the Lord, and in associating in other capacities with our
dear friends?  Perhaps by another Sabbath many of us may be laid away, if
not in the graveyard, upon a bed of sickness.  We cannot trust to the
certainty of mortal possessions; they are transitory, and a dependence
upon them will plunge into hopeless disappointment all those who trust in
them. When men act upon the principles which will secure to them eternal
salvation, they are sure of obtaining all their hearts' desire, sooner or
later; if it does not come to-day, it may come tomorrow; if it does not
come in this time, it will in the next.

	If people would contemplate the stupendous works of God, and be
honest and candid in their investigations, there is much to be learned
that would show them how comparatively worthless are earthly things.  We
see the spangled vault of the starry heavens stretched over us; but little
is known of the wonders of the firmament.  Astronomers have, by their
researches, discovered some general facts that have proved useful and
instructing to the scientific portion of mankind.  The phenomena of the
motions of the heavenly bodies, and their times and seasons are understood
pretty accurately.  But who knows what those distant planets are?  Who can
tell the part they play in the grand theatre of worlds?  Who inhabits
them, and who rules over them?  Do they contain intelligent beings, who
are capable of the happiness, light, glory, power, and enjoyments that
would satisfy the mind of an angel of God?  Who can tell these things? 
Can they be discovered by the light of science?  They cannot.  Let every
intelligent person seriously contemplate this subject, and let the true
light of reason illuminate the understanding, and a sound judgment
inspired by the Spirit of Christ be your guide, and what will be your
conclusions?  They will be what mine are--that the Lord Almighty reigns
there; that His people are there; and that they are, or have been, earths
to fulfil a similar destiny to the one we inhabit; and there is eternity;
and as Enoch of old said--"Thy curtains are stretched out still."

	Can any of the astronomers in the world point out the kingdom or the
world where God is not? where He does not reign?  Can a kingdom be found,
by worldly wisdom, study, or by any means that can be employed, over which
He does not sway His sceptre?  If such a kingdom exists, I will
acknowledge that the doctrine I taught you the other day is incorrect; and
besides that, you will have to blot out some of the writings of the
ancient Scriptures.

	I wish to make an application of this, with the sayings we have heard
from brother Amasa Lyman to-day.

	We talk about true riches--about the eternal attributes of the
Deity--and about that which He has given to the children of men.  I also
heard something said the other day about sanctification.  This doctrine I
heard taught many years ago, and I perceive that men do not fully
understand these principles; even the best of the Latter-day Saints have
but a faint idea of the attributes of the Deity.

	Were the former and Latter-day Saints, with their Apostles, Prophets
Seers, and Revelators collected together to discuss this matter, I am led
to think there would be found a great variety in their views and feelings
upon this subject, without direct revelation from the Lord.  It is as much
my right to differ from other men, as it is theirs to differ from me, in
points of doctrine and principle, when our minds cannot at once arrive at
the same conclusion.  I feel it sometimes very difficult indeed to word my
thoughts as they exist in my own mind, which, I presume, is the grand
cause of many apparent differences in sentiment which may exist among the
Saints.

	What I consider to be virtue, and the only principle of virtue there
is, is to do the will of our Father in heaven.  That is the only virtue I
wish to know.  I do not recognize any other virtue than to do what the
Lord Almighty requires of me from day to day.  In this sense virtue
embraces all good; it branches out into every avenue of moral life, passes
through the ranks of the sanctified in heaven, and makes its throne in the
breast of the Deity.  When the Lord commands the people, let them obey. 
That is virtue.

	The same principle will embrace what is called sanctification.  When
the will, passions, and feelings of a person are perfectly submissive to
God and His requirements, that person is sanctified.  It is for my will to
be swallowed up in the will of God, that will lead me into all good, and
crown me ultimately with immortality and eternal lives.

	There are numbers of men who can say much with regard to their faith
in, and exalted views of, "Mormonism;" they could converse continually
about it.  In a word, if "Mormonism" is not my life, I do not know that I
have any.  I do not understand anything else, for it embraces everything
that comes within the range of the understanding of man.  If it does not
circumscribe everything that is in heaven and on earth, it is not what it
purports to be.

	I will inform you how I became a "Mormon"--how the first solid
impression was made upon my mind.  When I undertook to sound the doctrine
of "Mormonism," I supposed I could handle it as I could the Methodist,
Presbyterian, and other creeds of Christendom, which I had paid some
considerable attention to, from the first of my knowing anything about
religion.  When "Mormonism" was first presented to me, I had not seen one
sect of religionists whose doctrines, from beginning to end, did not
appear to me like the man's masonry which he had in a box, and which he
exhibited for a certain sum.  He opened the main box from which he took
another box; he unlocked that and slipped out another, then another, and
another, and thus continued to take box out of box until he came to an
exceedingly small piece of wood; he then said to the spectators, "That,
gentlemen and ladies, is free masonry."

	I found all religions comparatively like this--they were so deficient
in doctrine that when I tried to tie the loose ends and fragments
together, they would break in my hands.  When I commenced to examine
"Mormonism," I found it impossible to take hold of either end of it; I
found it was from eternity, passed through time, and into eternity again. 
When I discovered this, I said, "It is worthy of the notice of man."  Then
I applied my heart to wisdom, and sought diligently for understanding.

	But the natural wisdom and judgment which were given me from my
youth, were sufficient to enable me to easily comprehend the discrepancies
and lack in the creeds of the day.

	"Mormonism" is all in all to me; everything else in the shape of
false government and false religion will perish in the due time of the
Lord, or else the ancient Prophets have been mistaken.  If death is not
destroyed, and him that hath the power of it, and every man and woman who
are not prepared to enjoy a kingdom where angels administer, then much of
the Bible is exceedingly erroneous.  Every kingdom will be blotted out of
existence, except the one whose ruling spirit is the Holy Ghost, and whose
king is the Lord.  The Lord said to Jeremiah the Prophet, "Arise, and go
down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 
Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on
the wheels.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands
of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the
potter to make it."  The clay that marred in the potter's hands was thrown
back into the unprepared portion, to be prepared over again.  So it will
be with every wicked man and woman, and every wicked nation, kingdom, and
government upon earth, sooner or later; they will be thrown back to the
native element from which they originated, to be worked over again, and be
prepared to enjoy some sort of a kingdom.

	Then where will be their glory--their lands--their silver and
gold--their precious diamonds and jewels--and all their fine pictures, and
precious ornaments?  In the hands of the Saints.  Will the wicked inherit
them?  No; they will be disinherited.

	I do not wonder at the ancients marvelling at the wickedness and
unbelief of the people.  I do not wonder at the words of the Savior, which
will apply to the people generally as well now as then, when he said, "O
fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." 
This generation are seeking eagerly after that which will perish in their
hands; they are madly rushing forward, hazarding their eternal all, to
secure transitory possessions, which, when they think they have obtained
them, are not fully satisfactory; they have grasped at the walls of an
airy phantom, and sacrificed an enduring substance.  How foolish, in the
eyes or the truly intelligent, the pursuits of the wicked appear.  They
set their hearts' affections upon that which is not durable, seeking
happiness where misery and all its attendant effects are sure to be
realized.  Jesus said to his disciples, when he was about to leave them,
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In
the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome
the world."

	Who wishes to overvalue earthly things as they are now constituted? 
They are made to be changed, they are subject to decay.  But the earth
will not be utterly destroyed; the elements of which it is composed will
not be annihilated, but they will be changed.  Neither shall those be
consumed who can abide the day of the Lord Almighty, and stand in His
presence.  The earth in that great day will be renovated--cleansed from
wickedness--purified from dross, sanctified, and prepared for the
habitation of the Saints of the Most High.

	On the other hand, the wicked shall be consumed with the Spirit of
His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of his coming.  The gold, the
silver, the precious stones, and all that is desirable to beautify the
heaven of the Saints, will be made pure, and fit for them to handle.  It
is the misapplied intelligence God has given us that makes all the
mischief on the earth.  That intelligence He designed to carry out the
purposes of His will, and endowed it with capabilities to grow, spread
abroad, accumulate, and endeavor to enjoy greater happiness, glory, and
honor, and continue to expand wider and wider, until eternity is
comprehended by it; if not applied to this purpose, but to the grovelling
things of earth, it will be taken away, and given to one who has made
better use of this gift of God.

	I say again--"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness," and in due time, no matter when, whether in this year or
in the next, in this life or in the life to come, "all these things" (that
appear so necessary to have in the world) "shall be added unto you." 
Everything that is in heaven, on the earth, and in the earth, everything
the most fruitful mind can imagine, shall be yours, sooner or later.  I
wish you would square your lives according to what has been said to you
to-day, especially while I am gone.

	I wish to say to all the brethren, young men, and boys, while I am
gone from your midst for a season, let your conduct and conversation be
such as becometh your profession in all things.  I hope I shall not hear
of drunkenness, confusion, and quarrelling when I return.  I am never
afraid of it when I am here, for I can manage such characters so
completely that they do not think it worth while to begin.  While I am
gone, behave yourselves.  I will preach to you the same sermon I preached
to the missionaries a week ago, viz., "Walk uprightly."  When I return,
and find you have done this, all will be well; if you have violated this
counsel, you may expect to be chastised.  Let it be said when I return,
"All is right; all has been peace; and good order has prevailed in your
absence."

	I wish to say a few words about some men and families in this city,
called Gladdenites.  We have been pretty severe upon them, but nowhere,
except in the pulpit, to my knowledge.  I counsel my brethren to keep away
from their houses; let them alone, and treat them as courteously as you
would any other person.  Do you enquire whether I have any grounds for
giving this advice?  I answer, I have.  For there are few men in this
congregation who know when to stop, should they find themselves engaged in
a contest with one of that class of people, therefore let them alone
entirely.  Those individuals are disagreeable to me, and so are their
doctrines.  The man they hold up is so low and degraded in his spirit,
feelings, and life, I have not patience to hear anything said about him. 
I have known him too long, and too well, not to be satisfied of the
wickedness of his heart.

	You say you wish to do right, and please the Lord in all your
actions; but were I to adopt an evil practice, the greater portion of this
community would follow it.  Why not follow me then in doing right? 
Righteousness, in whomsoever found, will never lead you astray; while
wickedness will lead you to ruin.  No man possessing the Spirit of the
Lord, can for a moment believe Gladden Bishop's writings.  If it were
possible, his system is more foolish than the exhibition of free masonry I
have referred to.

	I wish this community to understand, that what has been said here
touching those men and their views, has been with no other design than to
cause them to use their tongues as they ought, and cease abusing me and
this people.  Some of them visited me yesterday, and wished to know if it
was safe for them to stay here.  I told them they were as safe as I was,
if they did not undertake to make us swallow, whether or not, something we
are not willing to take.  "We have been driven, and redriven," said I,
"and if corrupt people stay in our midst, they have got to use their
tongues properly."  They promised they would, if they might stay.

	If they wish to live here in peace, I am willing they should, but I
do not wish them to stir up strife.  I never expected that this community
would be composed entirely of Latter-day Saints, but I expected there
would be goats mixed among the sheep, until they are separated.  I do not
look for anything else, but I wish them to behave themselves in their
sphere, also the sheep; and let the goats associate with their goatish
companions, and not endeavor to disturb the equanimity of the sheep in
their pasture.

	This comparison will apply to this people, and those men.  If they
wish to labor, and obtain a living, they are welcome to do so; but they
are not at liberty to disturb the peace of their neighbors in any way;
neither let this people disturb them, but grant them every privilege
claimed by, and belonging to, American citizens.  Let them meet together
and pray if they please; this is their own business.  Let them do as some
did in a camp-meeting in York State--One man met another and said, "How do
you do?  How are they getting along on the camp-ground?"  "Why they are
serving God like the very devil," was the reply.  And the Gladdenites may
serve God like the devil, if they will keep out of my way, and out of the
way of this people.

	The men who visited me yesterday, stated that they believed Joseph
was a true Prophet, and that they were full-blooded "Mormons;" indeed they
seemed to have in them an extra charge of "Mormon" blood.  I asked one of
them if he had any confidence in the endowment.  He confessed he had no
faith in it.  I then asked him if he did not believe that Joseph Smith was
a fallen Prophet.  His reply was, "I rather think he is."

	When a man throws a stone at me, and with it dashes his own brains
out, I have nothing to say.  He called himself a full-blooded "Mormon,"
and almost in the same breath declared Joseph was a fallen Prophet, and
that he had no confidence in the endowment.  How is it in reality with
those men?  Why they have not a particle of faith either in Joseph Smith,
or in the Book of Mormon.  I told one of them, who professed to be so
honest, that he wanted the Lord to come down from heaven that moment and
judge him, that five years would not pass away before he would be cursing,
and swearing, and proclaiming blasphemously against every good principle
in heaven and on earth.

	They do not know what they believe, neither do they know what they
have received; they think they know all about it; they think they know
that you are out of the right way, and that they are walking in it.  When
they say this people are going to be destroyed by the judgments of God, it
is to me like the crackling of thorns under the pot.  Pass along, and mind
your own business, is a fit reply to their declarations.

	There has never been a Church of God on the earth without such
characters.  According to their outward appearance, they are as good men
and women as you might think could possibly be.  You might say with
safety, "They are truly Saints," if you were to judge by the appearance of
the outside of the platter.  But what does Jesus Christ say?  "Not every
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." 
Again, "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

	He that doeth the will of God, is His disciple.  You may say Joseph
was a devil, if you like, but he is at home, and still holds the keys of
the kingdom, which were committed to him by heavenly messengers, and
always will.  Do you ask who brother Brigham is?  He is an humble
instrument in the hands of God, to keep His people in the path which He
has marked out through the instrumentality of His servant Joseph; and to
travel in which is all I ask of them.  I said some time since on this
stand, if I was not a Prophet, I certainly had been profitable to this
people.  I know I have, by the blessing of the Lord, been successful in
profiting them.  The Lord has done it through me.

	There is a man named Martin Harris, and he is the one who gave the
holy roll to Gladden.  When Martin was with Joseph Smith, he was
continually trying to make the people believe that he (Joseph) was the
Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.  I have heard Joseph chastise him severely
for it, and he told me that such a course, if persisted in, would destroy
the kingdom of God.  Who else ever said that Joseph Smith was anything but
an unlearned son of a backwoodsman; who had all his lifetime, ever since
he would handle an ax, helped his father to support his little family by
cutting wood?

	Thus the Lord found him, and called him to be a Prophet, and made him
a successful instrument in laying the foundation of His kingdom for the
last time.  This people never professed that Joseph Smith was anything
more than a Prophet given to them of the Lord; and to whom the Lord gave
the keys of this last dispensation, which were not to be taken from him in
time, neither will they be in eternity.

	I wish to see this people fulfil in every particular what Joseph told
them to do, and build up the kingdom of God, and this they are doing.  I
give them praise to-day, for they are a God-blessed people.  Which of
these Elders that are sitting round me, if they were asked to go on a
mission for five, ten, or twenty years, would not rise up and say, "I am
ready," notwithstanding all their weaknesses and foolishness?

	Ask an apostate to go and preach salvation to a perishing world, and
his reply would be, "I cannot go, I am too poor."  They are a perfect
abomination among men.  Did they ever build up the kingdom of God in any
way?  Never.  They have done nothing but apostatize, and they will now
continually try to destroy the work of God with all their might.  This is
all they ever did do, and it is all they ever will do.  There is not a
faithful Elder here who would not, if called upon, readily go forth to
preach the Gospel in distant countries, though he had not a shoe to his
feet, or a coat to his back.  Would an apostate do it?  No, they cannot do
anything without money! money! money! which is their god.  The faithful
children of God will be faithful in preaching the Gospel, in building up
the cause of their God, and in carrying salvation to thousands and
millions of the fallen race of Adam, which we have done.

	I wonder what apostate would do as we did when we went to England?  I
was better off than many of my brethren, for I had three shillings to pay
my expenses to Preston.  On we went to that town, and held our Conference,
and from thence we started out every way, preaching the Gospel in the
regions round about.

	Allow me the privilege of boasting, though it is not me but the Lord
that has done it.  We sustained ourselves, and assisted the poor to a very
large amount, and only staid in England one year and sixteen days.  This
means was gathered up by faith, and we baptized over seven thousand
people, gave away about sixty thousand tracts, for which I paid the money
and sent Elders out to preach in every direction.  Would an apostate do
this?  No.  But they wish to sour, corrupt, and desecrate with apostacy
every Saint they come in contact with.  It is not in them to do any good
to the cause of truth; but out of the evil they design the Lord will bring
good.

	This people commenced with nothing.  Joseph Smith, the honored
instrument in the hands of God to lay the foundation of this work,
commenced with nothing; he had neither the wisdom nor the riches of this
world.  And it is proven to our satisfaction, that when rich men have come
into this Church, the Lord has been determined to take their riches from
them and make them poor; that all His Saints may learn to obtain that
which they possess by faith.

	How many times has He made us poor?  Thousands of dollars' worth of
property in houses and lands, which the Lord gave me, are now in the East,
in the hands of our enemies.  I never said they were mine, they were the
Lord's, and I was one of His stewards.  When I went to Kirtland, I had not
a coat in the world, for previous to this I had given away everything I
possessed, that I might be free to go forth and proclaim the plan of
salvation to the inhabitants of the earth.  Neither had I a shoe to my
feet, and I had to borrow a pair of pants and a pair of boots.  I staid
there five years, and accumulated five thousand dollars.  How do you think
I accomplished this?  Why, the Lord Almighty gave me those means.  I have
often had that done for me that has caused me to marvel.  I know, as well
as I know I am standing before you to-day, that I have had money put into
my trunk and into my pocket without the instrumentality of any man.  This
I know to a certainty.  Ask an apostate, if they can, in truth, bear
testimony to such a thing.  They cannot do it.  Enough about that.

	Again, I say if "Mormonism" is not all I anticipated it to be, it is
nothing.  If it is not in me, and I in it, if it is not all and in all to
me, I am deceived in myself.  It is everything in heaven and on earth to
those who possess it truly; but lose this, and, as I told you the other
day, what remains will dwindle, perish, decay, decompose, and be reduced
to its native element, or, in other words, be thrown into the mill to be
ground over.

	The Lord Almighty will not let anything endure that offers
hospitality to the devil and his imps.  Those who suffer their bodies to
be dwellings for evil spirits, must suffer loss, for devils cannot
construct a house that will in any way answer their purpose; neither have
they been able to do so in all the eternities there are; that is the very
thing which causes us trouble continually; for they are trying all the
time to get into our dwellings, because they have none of their own.  Did
you ever desire to take possession of another person's tabernacle, and
leave your own?  No rational person owning a tabernacle would wish to do
so.  The devils have no tabernacles, which is the reason of their wanting
to possess human bodies.  If any of you have suffered any of these
houseless spirits to enter you, turn them out, and they will perhaps seek
refuge in the body of an ox, or some other animal, or may be go [sic] into
Jordan.

	Do you think the legion we read of, that entered the swine, in the
days of Christ, had bodies of their own?  No; they have no meeting houses
but in ball rooms, gaming houses, brothels, gin palaces, parlors, bed
rooms, and other places which they frequent in the bodies of those they
lead captive; otherwise they are wandering to and fro in the earth,
seeking to possess tabernacles that other spirits, not of their order,
already occupy.  They are in our midst watching for an opportunity to
enter where they may.  What will be the doom of those who give way to
them, and yield to them the possession of their tabernacles?  They will
wander to and fro, happiness will be hid from them, they will weep, and
wail, and suffer, until their bodies return to their mother earth, and
their spirits to judgment.

	Brethren and sisters, you are on the right track; be virtuous,
humble, thankful, generous, and true to your God, and to each other,
loving Him more than all things else, and making His Law your delight day
and night.  If I did not love the Lord enough to leave houses, lands,
father, mother, wives, and children, and even be ready to lay down my life
freely for the kingdom of God's sake, I should not consider I was worthy
of it.  Were I to forsake all for it, I should lose nothing; for the man
who honors and serves God, cannot suffer loss.

	The very laws which govern eternity are planned to sustain an eternal
growth, gathering together and increasing; so that the true servant of God
cannot possibly suffer loss, but will reap eternal gain, though he, for
the cause of truth, is poor and needy through the whole of this short
life.  He has made truth his theme; and what is it?  I will say it is that
which endures; it is eternity, and its power is to grow, increase, and
expand, adding life to life, and power to power, worlds without end.

	May God bless you.  Amen.



PRESIDENT B. YOUNG'S JOURNEY SOUTH--INDIAN DIFFICULTIES--WALKER--WATCHING
  AND PRAYER--THIEVES AND THEIR DESERTS--EASTERN INTELLIGENCE--FINANCIAL
               STATE OF THE CHURCH--GAINING KNOWLEDGE, ETC.
   An address delivered by President Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle,
                    Great Salt Lake City, May 8, 1853.

	I take the liberty to occupy a short time, this morning, in
addressing my brethren and sisters.

	I do not profess to be extensively versed in historical lore, still I
expect to be able to relate a small portion of my own history to you this
morning, referring especially to the latter part of my life, say for three
weeks past.

	It is known by you all, that I started from this place with the
intention of journeying south to the extent of our southern settlements,
but I have returned short of performing that journey.  I will state the
reasons why, that the minds of the people may be at rest, and freed from
anxiety.

	We went to the city of Provo, in Utah Valley, where I had some
business to attend to.  We tarried there a short time before proceeding on
our journey, the principal items of which I wish to lay before the
brethren, in connexion with some circumstances that had transpired
previous to our leaving this place.  These circumstances combined
together, caused a suspicious feeling in my own heart.  I have endeavored
all my life to follow one portion of the instructions of the Saviour to
his disciples, that is, to "WATCH."  I am a very watchful man.

	Previous to my starting from this city, there was an express sent
from Iron county, that Indian Walker manifested hostile feelings; for it
seems he had drawn out his men on a small portion of our brethren, and
commanded them to return home, when they were in pursuit of supposed
thieves; these Indians would not suffer them to proceed any further.

	This circumstance, small as it might appear to some, caused suspicion
in my mind that all was not right with the Indian chief, though I expected
to visit him on my journey.

	After tarrying at the city of Provo a dyy and a night, I was accosted
in a very abrupt manner by a stranger, a person that I knew nothing of,
and had never seen before.  I have learned since that he is an American
from the State of New York, and has been living in New Mexico some years. 
This person came up to my carriage, while I was standing upon the steps of
it, arranging my luggage, preparatory to proceeding onward, and said in a
rough, authoritative tone, "Is Governor Young in this carriage?"  "No,
sir, " I said, "but he is on the steps of it.  What is wanting?"  I turned
round to see who addressed me, and saw this stranger, dressed in
buck-skin, pretty well smoked.  He said, "I have a little privacy with
you."  Stepping aside, far enough not to be heard by any other person, I
said, "Say on, sir."  "But I want to see you in private," he replied.  I
said, "I have no privacy with strangers; if you have any communication to
make to me, you can do it by letter."  He walked, and left me.  That was
all that passed between us.  As soon as he intimated that he wanted a
private conference with me, I scanned the man, and saw that his pockets
were filled with deadly weapons, and of his intentions I had my own
thoughts.

	I went about my business, but in the meantime sent a man to
reconnoitre him, to whom he made some haughty expression about Governor
Young.  Said he, "Governor Young need not feel so damned important, I
associate with Governors when I am at home, and have money enough to buy
Governor Young and all his wives."  He further said, "I have four hundred
Mexicans waiting my orders, and can have as many more if I wish, besides,
the Indians here are all at my command."

	I soon learned to my satisfaction, that he had come into the
Territory to buy Indian children, and sell them again for slaves. 
Therefore I issued the Proclamation which you have no doubt read in the
pages of the News, gave orders to the Lieutenant General, and he has done
what he has.

	We proceeded on our journey, and found that his man had been trading
with the Indians.  He said, "He asked no odds of the authorities of this
Territory, but calculated to buy all the Indian children he could."  He
was told it was against the law.  He replied, "Catching is before
hanging."

	When I arrived at San Pete, I learned that one hundred and fifty
Yampa Utes on the west fork of the Sevier river, had come over to Walker's
camp.  I did not believe that this Mexican trader had four hundred
Mexicans lying on the head waters of the Sevier, for I did not think that
men would patiently wait in the snow and frost for a man of his
appearance.  Instead of Mexicans, they turned out to be those Yampa Utes.

	I sent out a reconnoitering party consisting of thirty men, to learn
their intentions, if possible; also the whereabouts of D. B. Huntington,
who had gone previously, but I have not heard from them, nor him, since
they left us at Salt Creek, about a week ago last Tuesday morning.  Amasa
Lyman and Charles C. Rich proceeded on their journey, and omitted calling
at San Pete.  I went to San Pete to learn the situation and proceedings of
the Indians.  Arapeen, it appeared, from some cause, had been
dissatisfied, and had left.  Before he left, he gave them to understand
that he desired peace, and wanted to live in peace.  However, I was
prepared for whites, reds, or blacks, by night and by day, and always
intend to be.

	This is a short account of my journey.  I wished to lay it before you
as it was, in consequence of the different statements which have been
made, that vary considerably from the truth, after passing through a few
hands.  After relating the simple facts as they existed, you may regard
them as you please; but when you tell them over again to your neighbors,
tell them as they were, or not at all.

	I have heard a great many different stories since I came home, and
find the minds of the people very much agitated about the probable result
of the hostilities of the Indians, and the presence of the Mexicans among
them.  I will tell you the reason why I returned home before accomplishing
the remainder of my contemplated journey--it was because I wished to
return.  You may inquire why I wished to return.  I will tell you.  I am a
great coward myself, I do not wish to rush into danger imprudently.  If
there should happen to be any trouble with Indians, and I away from this
place, there would be more trouble here than with me.  Of this I was fully
aware, and it was proved to my satisfaction when I returned home. 
Imagined danger always produces the most trouble.  The Indians are very
much as they say the whites are, that is, uncertain--not to be trusted. 
The whites may be uncertain, but I know the Indians are.  I dislike to
trust them far.  I never wish to be injured, nor have this people injured
by Indian depredations, committed upon them; and if the Saints will do as
they are told, they will never suffer from that quarter in this Territory.

	Take up the history of the first settling of America, and you cannot
read of a colony ever being settled in the midst of savages, without
having trouble, and suffering more from them than this people have in
Utah.  What is the reason?  It is because those people did not know how to
take care of themselves.  We can scarcely read of one colony founded among
the aborigines in the first settling of this country, wherein the tomahawk
of wild Indians did not drink the blood of whole families.  Here there
have been no such deeds committed; because when we first entered Utah, we
were prepared to meet all the Indians in these mountains, and kill every
soul of them if we had been obliged so to do.  This preparation secured to
us peace.

	Every settlement that have been made in these valleys of the
mountains, have received strict charges from me, to build, in the first
place, a Fort, and live in it until they were sufficiently strong to live
in a town; to keep their guns and ammunition well prepared for any
emergency; and never cease to keep up a night watch, if any apprehensions
of the Indians being hostile were entertained.  We have suffered nothing
from them, compared with what we have suffered from white men who are
disposed to steal; and I would rather take my chance to-day for good
treatment among Indians, than I would among white men of this character.

	I have no recollection of the Indians killing any of this community,
except one man, which happened about three years ago this spring, who had
started for California, on foot and alone, against counsel.  The red skins
found him and slew him.  I have never heard of their even disturbing a
family; and I do not intend that they ever shall, if watching, and
praying, and being ready for them will prevent it.

	I have always acknowledged myself a coward, and hope I always may be,
to make me cautious enough to preserve myself and my brethren from falling
ignobly by a band of Indians.  I am satisfied that the men who follow
Walker, who is the king of the Indians in these mountains, do it out of
fear, and not because they have real regard for their leader.  If he
becomes hostile, and wishes to commit depredations upon the persons or
property of this people, he shall be wiped out of existence, and every man
that will follow him.  This is my calculation, and I wish you to be ready
for it.

	Yesterday morning, we received a communication from father Morley, in
which we were informed that Walker and Arapeen came down to pay him a
visit.  The morning that we left San Pete, we sent back by the hands of
Arapeen's two messengers, some little presents in the shape of shirts and
tobacco.  Walker said to Father Morley, "Tell brother Brigham, we have
smoked the tobacco he sent us in the pipe of peace; I want to be at peace,
and be a brother to him."  That is all right.  But it is truly
characteristic of the cunning Indian, when he finds he cannot get
advantage over his enemy, to curl down at once, and say "I love you."  It
is enough for me to know that Walker dare not attempt to hurt any of our
settlements.  I care not whether they love me or not.  I am resolved,
however, not to trust his love any more than I would a stranger's.  I do
not repose confidence in persons, only as they prove themselves
confidential; and I shall live a long while before I can believe that an
Indian is my friend, when it would be to his advantage to be my enemy.

	I wish now to put you in mind of a few things.  Do you pray for
Israel?  You will no doubt answer in the affirmative.  These Indians are
the seed of Israel, through the loins of Joseph who was sold into Egypt;
they are the children of Abraham, and belong to the chosen seed; were it
not so, you would never have seen them with dark, red skins.  This is in
consequence of the curse that has been placed upon them, which never would
have come upon them in the world, had their fathers not violated the order
of God, which was formerly among them; for in proportion to the light they
sinned against, so were they reduced by the curse of God, which has been
visited upon their children for many generations.  They are of the House
of Israel, and the time has come for the Lord to favor Zion, and redeem
Israel.  We are here in the mountains, with these Lamanites for our
neighbors, and I hesitate not to say, if this people possessed the faith
they ought to have, the Lord Almighty would never suffer any of the sons
of Jacob to injure them in the least; no never.

	But I am suspicious that this people do not possess the faith they
should have, therefore I calculate to carry with me proper weapons of
defence, that if a man should aim a blow at my person to take away my
life, before he is aware, he himself is numbered with the dead.  I have
always been thus prepared for years.  It is a matter of serious doubt in
my mind, whether this people have faith enough to control the Indians in
these mountains, by that alone, without works.  Again, you may pray as
fervently for them as for yourselves, which I have always done; it is my
business to pray for them, and seek the redemption of Israel, but
something more is wanted to hold them at bay.

	Who are Israel?  They are those who are of the seed of Abraham, that
have received the promise through their forefathers; and all the rest of
the children of men, who receive the truth, are also Israel.  My heart is
always drawn out for them, whenever I go to the throne of grace.  I love
Israel, I long for their salvation, and look forward with a desire full of
hope and peace to the day when they will be gathered and saved; when their
forefathers who enjoyed the Gospel, and through their faithfulness
received great promises and blessings for their posterity, shall see them
fulfilled upon their heads.

	I wish you to have faith to lay hold on the promises, and claim them
as your own.  If you have faith like the ancients, you might escape the
edge of the sword, stop the mouths of the lions, quench the violence of
fire, open the prison doors, and burst asunder iron fetters--all this
could be accomplished by faith.  But, lest you should not have faith, we
have caused to be done that which has been done, in having this people
prepared for any emergency that should arise.  My advice is be on the
watch all the time.  Do not lie down, and go to sleep, and say all is
well, lest, in an hour when you think not, sudden destruction overtake
you.

	We will carry this out a little further.  Never permit yourself to
sleep in your houses until your doors are made perfectly secure, that the
Indians cannot come in and kill you in your sleep.  In this respect, the
people generally are careless, and perfectly unconcerned.  Some want to be
separated far from their neighbors, and own all the land around them,
saying "all is right, all is peace, and the Indians are perfectly good
natured, and wish us no harm;" wrapping themselves up in the mantle of
security, with a few shattered boards roughly put together for a door to
their houses, and that without any fastening.  Were it not that the people
of this city are kept stirred up continually, and teased from time to time
by some person on this matter, it would not be one year before fifty men
could conquer and slay the whole of the inhabitants.

	Are you sure you have faith enough to bind Satan so that he can have
no influence in this city?  If you are not, you had better watch as well
as pray.  Are you sure you have faith enough to control the ungovernable
nature of the Lamanites, or subdue a Gentile mob?  If you have, I am glad
of it, it is the first time this people ever enjoyed it.  Even suppose you
have faith to accomplish all this, will you add no works to your faith? 
And if you have the spirit of prayer to an almost unlimited degree, will
you cease to watch?  I have prayed many times, and had a man at the door
to watch for the murderer who thirsted for my blood.  Then he would pray,
and I would watch.  What for?  To kill the blood-thirsty villain.  I would
not go and seek for him, but when he came to kill me in my own house, I
wished to be prepared to disembody his spirit, to save my own tabernacle,
and send his down to the dust, and let him go to the place prepared for
murderers, even to hell.

	Suppose we had faith enough to accomplish all we have been speaking
of, which would be the most proper, to use prayer alone without watching,
and have faith alone without works, or watch and add works to faith?  I
will mix works with my faith, and watching with my prayer, and reap the
benefits of their united operation.

	A few words more concerning Walker the Indian.  He sent word to us
that he was coming down to this city to trade.  That is all right, it is
very good.  I expect he will be peaceable, and the rest of the Indians
also.  I have no doubt of it.  Why?  Because they dare not be any other
way.  If they dare be otherwise, I know not how quick they would be at war
with us.  But they will be kind and peaceable, because they are afraid to
die, and that is enough for me.

	If they will in the least receive the spirit of the Gospel, I shall
be glad of it.  There is no doubt in my mind but Walker has felt it from
time to time, and I am satisfied that our faith and prayers will do a
great deal of good to these wretched remnants of Abraham's seed.  We must
continue our labors until we have faith to bind satan; and if you and I do
not live to do it, our posterity will step forward and accomplish it after
we are gone.

	When a person is placed in circumstances that he cannot possibly
obtain one particle of anything to sustain life, it would then be his
privilege to exercise faith in God to feed him, who might cause a raven to
pick up a piece of dried meat from some quarter where there was plenty,
and drop it over the famishing man.  When I cannot feed myself through the
means God has placed in my power, it is then time enough for Him to
exercise His providence in an unusual manner to administer to my wants. 
But while we can help ourselves, it is our duty to do so.  If a Saint of
God be locked up in prison, by his enemies, to starve to death, it is then
time enough for God to interpose, and feed him.

	While we have a rick soil in this valley, and seed to put in the
ground, we need not ask God to feed us, nor follow us round with a loaf of
bread begging of us to eat it.  He will not do it, neither would I, were I
the Lord.  We can feed ourselves here; and if we are ever placed in
circumstances where we cannot, it will then be time enough for the Lord to
work a miracle to sustain us.

	If you wish to know what you must do hereafter, I will tell you in a
few words--keep your powder, and lead, and your guns in good order.  Go
about your work, plough your fields, work in your mechanic shops, and be
ready in the morning, at noon, or in the night, that whenever you are
called upon, you can put your hand upon your musket and ammunition at the
shortest notice.  "Be ye also ready, for in an hour you think not behold
the thief comes," and takes away your horse from your stable.

	How many complaints have been made to me by men who have had their
horses stolen out of their stables, or out of their carals [sic], or of
clothes being taken from the line.  The reason why people lose their
property is because they do not watch it.  Have I ever complained of any
such thing?  No!  Why?  Because I watch my caral.  Do I lose anything out
of my barn.  No.  Because I lock it up, and keep somebody there to watch
it.  Do I lose any clothing?  Not that I know of.  I tell my folks not to
leave out their clothing.  "Why," they ask, "is there any danger of their
being stolen?"  It is none of your business, they will not dry after dark,
therefore take them in, and hang them out again in the morning.  That is
the way to live, and this is what I wish to say to you concerning these
matters, that your minds may be at peace.  All will be peace this summer,
if you will keep on watching.

	If you want to know what to do with a thief that you may find
stealing, I say kill him on the spot, and never suffer him to commit
another iniquity.  That is what I expect I shall do, though never, in the
days of my life, have I hurt a man with the palm of my hand.  I never have
hurt any person any other way except with this unruly member, my tongue. 
Notwithstanding this, if I caught a man stealing on my premises I should
be very apt to send him straight home, and that is what I wish every man
to do, to put a stop to that abominable practice in the midst of this
people.

	I know this appears hard, and throws a cold chill over our revered
traditions received by early education.  I had a great many such feeling
to contend with myself, and was as much of a sectarian in my notions as
any other man, and as mild, perhaps, in my natural disposition, but I have
trained myself to measure things by the line of justice, to estimate them
by the rule of equity and truth, and not by the false tradition of the
fathers, or the sympathies of the natural mind.  If you will cause all
those whom you know to be thieves, to be placed in a line before the mouth
of one of our largest cannon, well loaded with chain shot, I will prove by
my works whether I can mete out justice to such persons, or not.  I would
consider it just as much my duty to do that, as to baptize a man for the
remission of sins.  That is a short discourse on thieves, I acknowledge,
but I tell you the truth as it is in my heart.

	As you have heard the history of our journey south, I will now give
you a little of what is going on in the world beneath us, gleaned from the
eastern mail which came in last evening.  I know there is a great anxiety
in the minds of the people to learn the news, as it is now seven months
since we had anything from that quarter.

	I understand that New York is yet standing in the same place, also
the cities of Philadelphia and Washington still flourish, also the old Bay
States, with the Northern, Southern, and Western States, are all there
yet, and Franklin Pierce is President of them.  That we guessed would be
the case, last year.  But if the Whigs had had half the cunning that men
have here, they would have beaten that party, and Franklin Pierce would
not have been President; but they do not know enough.

	Brother Orson Pratt was in Washington, when he wrote last March; he
is probably now in England.  He has published a paper called The Seer,
seven Numbers of which have appeared before the public.  He also hired a
Hall in that city, when he first arrived there in December last.  Many
came to hear him at first, but they kept dropping off, until there were so
few that he gave it up, but he continues publishing.

	There is influence enough there, among the priests, and the members
of Congress, to keep the people away from hearing Orson Pratt.  They are
all well persuaded that if they contend with him, he will break up their
churches.  Ignorant as they are in other matters, they know enough to
guard against that.  The paper has a good effect.  He says, "A great many
who have apostatized, say, had they seen the Revelation on Celestial
Marriage, years ago, they would never have left the Church.  The believed
'Mormonism;' but supposed there was no such Revelation in existence."

	He says hundreds of families from whom the light of truth had well
nigh departed, are again reviving, and inquiring how they may get to the
Valley.  There is no opposition compared with what has been.  The public
prints burlesque the doctrine published in The Seer, which is about all
the opposition there is.  And what can they say?  Nothing more than what
they always have said.  I can sum up all the arguments used against Joseph
Smith and "Mormonism" in a very few words, the merits of which will be
found in "OLD JOE SMITH.  IMPOSTOR, MONEY DIGGER.  OLD JOE SMITH. 
SPIRITUAL WIFE DOCTRINE.  IMPOSTURE.  THE DOCTRINE IS FALSE.  MONEY
DIGGER.  FALSE PROPHET.  DELUSION.  SPIRITUAL WIFE DOCTRINE.  Oh my dear
brethren and sisters, keep away from them, for the sake of your never
dying souls.  FALSE PROPHETS THAT SHOULD COME IN THE LAST DAYS.  OLD JOE
SMITH.  ANTI-CHRIST.  MONEY DIGGER, MONEY DIGGER, MONEY DIGGER.  And the
whole is wound up with an appeal, not to the good sense of the people, but
to their unnatural feelings, in a canting, hypocritical tone, and there it
ends.

	I have not learned anything yet of any change being made touching the
Executive Officer of this Territory.  Brigham Young is still the Governor
of Utah.  Brother Bernhisel has succeeded in getting liberal
appropriations for the Territory, among which twenty thousand dollars has
been appropriated for a Penitentiary.  I appoint Dr. Willard Richards,
Secretary pro. tem., which appointment has been honored by the General
Government, and one thousand eight hundred dollars appropriated for his
services; notwithstanding I rebuked the runaway Secretary in a public
manner, when he and his companion publicly insulted this great people; and
notwithstanding the hue and cry which they made about the "Mormons in Salt
Lake Valley."  I have courage enough to tell a man of his meanness, no
matter whether he be a Sheriff, a Judge, a Governor, a Priest, or a King. 
I have courage enough to tell them of their wickedness, and expect I
always shall have.

	The general news you will get through the columns of our city paper.

	We have a great many letters still back at Laramie; when our mail
carriers left there, there were seventeen mail bags, six of which they
brought away.  As a general thing, the people will get their letters; as
the newspaper bags were chiefly left, and the letter bags brought on.

	I will say a word concerning the brethren who left here last fall. 
Daniel Carn had to leave Germany, and brother Orson Spencer could not
obtain permission to stay in Prussia.  The Governor said to the brethren
who went to Jamaica, that they might minister among the people; and the
minister from the States did all he could to have them stay there, but
they had to leave on account of the prejudices of the community, and they
are now preaching in the United States.  These are some of the leading
items we have received per this Mail.

	I now wish to say to the Latter-day Saints that which will be a great
comfort to them.  We laid before you our Church indebtedness a year ago,
last April Conference; it now gives me great consolation to be able to say
that every dime of that debt is paid, and money left, enough to answer our
purpose at present.  [A general expression of satisfaction in the
congregation.]

	The Lord has delivered us from this difficulty.  I never liked to be
in bondage to my enemies, but I would be as willing to owe the brethren
money as not, for it is better doing good in my hand, than to be locked up
in a chest, doing no good.

	When the brethren go to the world to administer salvation to them, we
wish them to go perfectly clean, and represent an honorable and
independent people.  It is a great consolation to me that we do not owe
the Gentiles one red cent, or not more than one tenth part of the money we
have got on hand, at the furthest.

	We can now put forth our hand and help the poor Saints, that are
scattered abroad, to this place.  We can now obtain articles to build the
Temple we have commenced.  Joseph Smith laid the foundation of the great
fabric, and we have commenced to build upon it.  If we do right, there
will be an eternal increase among this people in talent, strength of
intellect, and earthly wealth, from this time, henceforth, and forever.

	I might tell you many great and good things, but I will tell you at
once, if you will do your duty, and live as you ought to live before God
and your brethren, you will have good with you all the time.  It is our
duty to apply our hearts to wisdom, and learn enough of the things of God
to enable us to see the world as it is, which is one of the greatest
privileges that can be granted to man.  It is not only a privilege, but a
duty for the Saints to seek unto the Lord their God for wisdom and
understanding, to be in possession of the spirit that fills the heavens,
until their eyes are anointed and opened to see the world as it really is,
to know what it is made for, and why all things are as they are.  It is
one of the most happifying subjects that can be named, for a person, or
people, to have the privilege of gaining wisdom enough while in their
mortal tabernacle, to be able to look through the whys and wherefores of
the existence of man, like looking through a piece of glass that is
perfectly transparent; and understand the design of the Great Maker of
this beautiful creation.  Let the people do this, and their hearts will be
weaned from the world.

	If this people will pursue the course they are bound by their
obligations and covenants to take, they will obtain spirit enough to see
and understand all things in heaven and on earth, that are sufficient for
their salvation.  the cobwebs of early traditions and antiquated
superstitions will be brushed away, and they will plainly see that the
world is just the world, and nothing but the world, and we are nothing but
people on the world, designed to fill the measure of our creation, to
bring to pass certain results that pertain to our exaltation.

	Let us seek the Lord with all our hearts, then shall we be weaned
from the world; no man will love this, that, or the other thing, except to
do good with it, to promote the eternal interests of mankind, and prepare
them to be exalted in immortality.  No man can be exalted unless he be
independent.  I will use a comparison to illustrate this idea.  If you put
an animal or being not endowed with intelligence on a throne, he would be
nothing but an animal still; but put  intelligence into that creature, to
give him knowledge how to prepare himself to reign on that throne, and
fortify it with strength, then he is exalted.  Mankind are naturally
independent and intelligent beings, they have been created for the express
purpose of exalting themselves.  When they apply their hearts to wisdom,
they will then get understanding.  There is the fountain, go and drink at
it, ask and receive all you wish, for there is an eternity of it, it will
never become any less.  It is for you and me to receive wisdom so as to be
prepared for exaltation and eternal lives in kingdoms that now exist in
eternity.

	May God bless you.  Peace be upon you.  Be fervent in spirit, humble,
teachable, and prayerful, taking care of yourselves, endeavoring to save
yourselves and all you have any influence over, which is my continual
prayer for you, in the name of Jesus.  Amen.


           LIFE AND DEATH, OR ORGANIZATION AND DISORGANIZATION.
   A discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, July 10, 1853.

	Life and death are set before us, and we are at liberty to choose
which we will.

	I have frequently reflected upon these two principles, but were I to
explain in full my own views upon them, they might perhaps come too much
in contact with the feelings and views of many people.

	To me, these principles are like the vision of open day upon this
beautiful earth.  Life and death are easily understood in the light of the
Holy Ghost, but, like every thing else, they are hard to be understood in
its absence.

	To choose life is to choose an eternal existence in an organized
capacity: to refuse life and choose death is to refuse an eternal
existence in an organized capacity, and be contented to become decomposed,
and return again to native element.

	Life is an accumulation of every property and principle that is
calculated to enrich, to ennoble, to enlarge, and to increase, in every
particular, the dominion of individual man.  To me, life would signify an
extension.  I have the privilege of spreading abroad, of enlarging my
borders, of increasing in endless knowledge, wisdom, and power, and in
every gift of God.

	To live as I am, without progress, is not life, in fact we may say
that is impossible.  There is no such principle in existence, neither can
there be.  All organized existence is in progress, either to an endless
advancement in eternal perfections, or back to dissolution.  You may
explore all the eternities that have been, were it possible, then come to
that which we now understand according to the principles of natural
philosophy, and where is there an element, an individual living thing, an
organized body, of whatever nature, that continues as it is?  IT CAN NOT
BE FOUND.  All things that have come within the bounds of man's limited
knowledge--the things he naturally understands, teach him, that there is
no period, in all the eternities, wherein organized existence will become
stationary, that it cannot advance in knowledge, wisdom, power, and glory.

	If a man could ever arrive at the point that would put an end to the
accumulation of life--the point at which he could increase no more, and
advance no further, we should naturally say he commenced to decrease at
the same point. Again, when he has gained the zenith of knowledge, wisdom
and power, it is the point at which he begins to retrograde; his natural
abilities will begin to contract, and so he will continue to decrease,
until all he knew is lost in the chaos of forgetfulness.  As we understand
naturally, this is the conclusion we must come to, if a termination to the
increase of life and the acquisition of knowledge is true.

	Because of the weakness of human nature, it must crumble to the dust. 
But in all the revolutions and changes in the existence of men in the
eternal world which they inhabit, and in the knowledge they have obtained
as people on the earth, there is no such thing as principle, power,
wisdom, knowledge, life, position, or anything that can be imagined, that
remains stationary--they must increase or decrease.

	To me, life is increase; death is the opposite.  When our
fellow-creatures die, is it the death we talk about?  The ideas we have of
it are conceived in the mind, according to a false tradition.  Death does
not mean what we naturally think it means.  Apparently it destroys, puts
out of existence, and leaves empty space, but there is no such death as
this.  Death, in reality, is to decompose or decrease, and life is to
increase.

	Much is written in the Bible, and in the other revelations of God,
and much is said by the people, publicly and privately, upon this subject. 
Life and death are in the world, and all are acquainted with them more or
less.  We live, we die, we are, we are not, are mixed up in the
conversation of every person, to a lesser or a greater degree.  Why is it
so?  Because all creation is in progress; coming into existence, and going
out of existence, as we use the terms; but another form of language fits
this phenomenon of nature much better, (viz.) forming, growing,
increasing, then begins the opposite operation--decreasing, decomposition,
returning back to native element, &c.  These revolutions we measurably
understand.

	But to simply take the path pointed out in the Gospel, by those who
have given us the plan of salvation, is to take the path that leads to
life, to eternal increase; it is to pursue that course wherein we shall
NEVER, NEVER lose what we obtain, but continue to collect, to gather
together, to increase, to spread abroad, and extend to an endless
duration.  Those persons who strive to gain ETERNAL LIFE, gain that which
will produce the increase their hearts will be satisfied with.  Nothing
less than the privilege of increasing eternally, in every sense of the
word can satisfy the immortal spirit.  If the endless stream of knowledge
from the eternal fountain could all be drunk in by organized
intelligences, so sure immortality would come to an end, and all eternity
be thrown upon the retrograde path.

	If mankind will choose the opposite to life held out in the Gospel,
it will lead them to dissolution, to decomposition, to death; they will be
destroyed, but not as it is commonly understood.  For instance, we would
have destroyed more of the material called flour, had we possessed it this
spring in greater abundance.  We should have destroyed more of the wood
that grows on the mountains, could we have got it with more ease, which
seems to us to be utterly destroyed when it is consumed with fire.  But
such is not the case, it will exist in native element.  That which is
consumed by eating, or by burning, is nothing more than simply reduced to
another shape in which it is ready for another process of action.  We
grow, and we behold all the visible creation growing and increasing, and
continuing to increase, until it has arrived at its zenith, at which point
it begins to decompose.  This is the nature of all things which constitute
this organized world.  Even the solid rocks in the mountains continue to
grow until they have come to their perfection, at which point they begin
to decompose.  The forests grow, increase, extend, and spread abroad their
branches until they attain a certain age.  What then?  Do they die?  Are
they annihilated?  No!  They begin to decompose, and pass into native
element.  Men, and all things upon the earth, are subject to the same
process.

	We say this is natural, and easy to comprehend, being plainly
manifested before our eyes.  It is easy to see anything in sight; but
hard, very hard, to see anything out of sight.

	If I look through my telescope, and my friends inquire how far I can
see, I tell them I can see anything in sight, no matter how far from me
the object may be; but I cannot see anything out of sight, or that which
is beyond the power of the instrument.  So it is in the intellectual
faculties of mankind; it is easy for them to see that which is before
their eyes, but when the object is out of sight, it is a difficult matter
for them to see it; and they are at a loss how to form an estimate of it,
or what position to put themselves in, so as to see the object they desire
to see.

	In regard to eternal things, they are all out of sight to them, and
will so remain, unless the Lord lifts the curtain.  The only reason why I
cannot see the heavy range of mountains situated in the Middle States of
the American Confederacy, is because of the natural elevations that raise
themselves betwixt me and them, above the level of my eye, making them out
of sight to me.  Why cannot we behold all things in space?  Because there
is a curtain dropped, which makes them out of sight to us.  Why cannot we
behold the inhabitants in Kolob, or the inhabitants in any of those
distant planets?  For the same reason; because there is a curtain dropped
that interrupts our vision.  So it is, something intervenes between us and
them, which we cannot penetrate.  We are short sighted, and deprived of
the knowledge which we might have.  I might say this is right, without
offering any explanation.

	But there are many reasons, and much good sound logic that could be
produced, showing why we are thus in the dark touching eternal things.  If
our agency was not given to us, we might, perhaps, now have been enjoying
that we do not enjoy.  On the other hand, if our agency had not been given
to us, we could never have enjoyed that we now enjoy.  Which would produce
the greatest good to man, to give him his agency, and draw a vail over
him, or, to give him certain blessings and privileges, let him live in a
certain degree of light, and enjoy a certain glory, and take his agency
from him, compelling him to remain in that position, without any possible
chance of progress?  I say, the greatest good that could be produced by
the all wise Conductor of the universe to His creature, man, was to do
just as He has done--bring him forth on the face of the earth, drawing a
vail before his eyes.  He has caused us to forget every thing we once knew
before our spirits entered within this vail of flesh.  For instance, it is
like this: when we lie down to sleep, our minds are often as bright and
active as the mind of an angel, at least they are as active as when our
bodies are awake.  They will range over the earth, visit distant friends,
and, for aught we know, the planets, and accomplish great feats; do that
which will enhance our happiness, increase to us every enjoyment of life,
and prepare us for celestial glory; but when we wake in the morning, it is
all gone from us; we have forgotten it.  This illustration will explain in
part the nature of the vail which is over the inhabitants of the earth;
they have forgotten that they once knew.  This is right; were it
different, where would be the trial of our faith?  In a word, be it so; it
is as it should be.

	Now understand, to choose life is to choose principles that will lead
you to an eternal increase, and nothing short of them will produce life in
the resurrection for the faithful.  Those that choose death, make choice
of the path which leads to the end of their organization.  The one leads
to endless increase and progression, the other to the destruction of the
organized being, ending in its entire decomposition into the particles
that compose the native elements.  Is this so in all cases? you inquire. 
Yes, for aught I know.  I shall not pretend to deny but what it is so in
all cases.  This much I wanted to say to the brethren, with regard to life
and death.

	As to the word annihilate, as we understand it, there is no such
principle as to put a thing which exists, entirely out or existence, so
that it does not exist in any form, shape, or place whatever.  It would be
as reasonable to say that ENDLESS, which is synonymous to the word
eternity, has both a beginning and an end.  For instance, supposing we get
one of the best mathematicians that can be found, and let him commence at
one point of time, the operation of multiplication; when he has exhausted
all his knowledge of counting in millions, &c., until he can proceed no
further, he is no nigher the outside of eternity than when he commenced. 
This has been understood from the beginning.  The ancients understood it,
it was taught by Jesus and his Apostles, who understood the true
principles of eternity.  In consequence of some expressions of the ancient
servants of God, has come the tradition of the Elders of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You hear some of them preach and teach
that which I never taught; you hear them preach people into hell.  Such a
doctrine never entered into my heart; but you hear others preach, that
people will go there to dwell throughout the endless ages of eternity. 
Such persons know no more about eternity, and are no more capable of
instructing others upon the subject, than a little child.  They tell about
going to hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,
where you must dwell.  How long?  Why, I should say, just as long as you
please.

	One thing more.  The beauty of our religion, that very erroneous
doctrine, which the world call "Mormonism," we had set before us this
morning by Elder Parley P. Pratt.  The whole object of my existence is, to
continue to live, to increase, to spread abroad, and gather around me to
an endless duration.  What shall I say?  You may unite the efforts of the
best mathematicians the world can produce, and when they have counted as
many millions of ages, worlds, and eternities, as the power of numbers
within their knowledge will embrace, they are still as ignorant of
eternity as when they began.  Then ask people of general intelligence;
people who understand in a great degree, the philosophical principles of
creation, which they have studied and learned by a practical course of
education, and what do they know about it?  It is true they know a little,
and that little every other sane person knows, whether he is educated or
uneducated; they know about that portion of eternity called TIME.  Suppose
I ask the learned when was the beginning of eternity?  Can they think of
it?  No!  And I should very much doubt some of the sayings of one of the
best philosophers and writers of the age, that we call brother, with
regard to the character of the Lord God whom we serve.  I very much doubt
whether it has ever entered into his heart to comprehend eternity.  These
are principles and ideas I scarcely ever meddle with.  The practical part
of our religion is that which more particularly interests me.  Still my
mind reflects upon life, death, eternity, knowledge, wisdom, the expansion
of the soul, and the knowledge of the Gods that are, that have been, and
that are to be.  What shall we say?  We are lost in the depth of our own
thoughts.  Suppose we say there was once a beginning to all things, then
we must conclude there will undoubtedly be an end.  Can eternity be
circumscribed?  If it can, there is an end of all wisdom, knowledge,
power, and glory--all will sink into eternal annihilation.

	What is life to you and me?  It is the utmost extent of our desires. 
Do you wish to increase, to continue?  Do you wish to possess kingdoms and
thrones, principalities and powers; to exist, and continue to exist; to
grow in understanding, in wisdom, in knowledge, in power, and in glory
throughout an endless duration?  Why, yes, is the reply natural to every
heart that has been warmed with the life-giving influences of the Holy
Ghost.  And when we have lived, and gathered around us more kingdoms and
creations than it is possible for the mind of mortals to comprehend, (just
think of it, and how it commenced like a grain of mustard seed, cast into
the ground!) then, I may say we could comprehend the very dawning of
eternity, which term I use to accommodate the idea in my mind, not that it
will at all apply to eternity.    When you have reached this stage in the
onward course of your progression, you will be perfectly satisfied not to
be in a hurry.

	The inquiry should not be, if the principles of the Gospel will put
us in possession of the earth, of this farm, that piece of property, of a
few thousand pounds, or as many thousand dollars, but, if they will put us
in possession of principles that are endless, and calculated in their
nature for an eternal increase; that is, to add life to life, being to
being, kingdom to kingdom, principle to principle, power to power, thrones
to thrones, dominions to dominions, and crowns to crowns.

	When we have lived long enough by following out the principles that
are durable, that are tangible, that are calculated in their nature to
produce endless life--I say, when we have lived long enough in them to see
the least Saint, that can be possibly called a Saint, in possession of
more solar systems like this, than it is possible for mortals to number,
or than there are stars in the firmament of heaven visible, or sands on
the sea shore, we shall then have a faint idea of eternity, and begin to
realize that we are in the midst of it.

	Brethren, you that have the principles of life in you, be sure you
are gathering around you kindred principles, that will endure to all
eternity.

	I do not desire to talk any more at this time.


INDIAN HOSTILITIES AND TREACHERY--EXCITEMENT--COVETOUSNESS--CONSEQUENCES
   OF OBEDIENCE AND OF DISOBEDIENCE--POLICY TOWARDS THE INDIANS--WALKER
                         AND HIS BAND--VIGILANCE.
   An address delivered by President Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, July 31, 1853.

	I wish to say a few words to the Latter-day Saints this morning, as
there seems to be considerable excitement in the feelings of the people,
and many inquiring what will be the result of the present Indian
difficulties.

	I will give you my testimony, as far as I have one on the subject,
concerning these difficulties in this territory, north and south,
pertaining to our brethren, the Lamanites.  My testimony to all is--IT IS
RIGHT, and perfectly calculated, like all other providences of the Lord,
of the like nature, to chasten this people until they are willing to take
counsel.  They will purify and sanctify the Saints, and prepare the wicked
for their doom.

	There has nothing strange and uncommon to man, yet occurred; nothing
has yet happened out of the ordinary providences of the Lord. These common
dealings of our great Head with His people have been manifested from days
of old, in blessings and chastisements.  Wars, commotions, tumults,
strife, nation contending against nation, and people against people, have
all been governed and controlled by Him whose right it is to control such
matters.

	Among wicked nations, or among Saints, among the ancient Israelites,
Phillistines, and Romans, the hand of the Lord was felt; in short, all the
powers that have been upon the earth, have been dictated, governed,
controled [sic], and the final issue of their existence has been brought
to pass, according to the wisdom of the Almighty.  Then my testimony is,
IT IS ALL RIGHT.

	There seems to be some excitement among the people and fears are
arising in the breasts of many, as to the general safety.  Some person has
been shot at by the Indians, or some Indians were seen in an hostile
condition.  And away go messengers to report to head quarters, saying,
"What shall we do? for we cannot tell, but we shall all be killed by them;
they have stolen our horses, and driven off some cattle, which has created
a great excitement in our settlement," &c.; when, perhaps, to-morrow, the
very Indians who have committed these depredations will come and say, "How
do you do?  We are friendly, cannot you give us some Chitcup?"  They will
shake hands, and appear as though it were impossible for them to be guilty
of another hostility.  And what is the next move?  Why, our wise men, the
Elders of Israel, are either so fluctuating in their feelings, so unstable
in their ways, or so ignorant of the Indian character, that the least mark
of friendship manifested by these treacherous red men, will lull all their
fears, throw them entirely off their guard, saying, "It is all right;
wife, take care of the stock, for I am going to the kanyon for a load of
wood."

	Away he goes without a gun or a pistol to defend himself, in case of
an attack from some Indian or Indians, to rob him of his cattle, and
perhaps his life.  Herds of cattle are driven upon the range, the feelings
of the people are divested of all fear by this little show of Indian
friendship, and their hearts are at peace with all mankind.  They lie down
to sleep at night with the doors of their houses open, and in many
instances with no way a close them if they were willing, only by means of
hanging up a blanket.  Thus they go to sleep with their guns unloaded, and
entirely without any means of defence, in case they should be attacked in
the night.  On the other hand, they no sooner discover an Indian in an
hostile attitude, than the hue and cry is "We shall all be murdered
immediately."  That is the kind of stability, the kind of unshaken
self-command, the style of generalship and wisdom manifested by Elders in
Israel.  To-day all are in arms, war is on hand; "we are going to be
destroyed, or to fight our way through," is in every mouth.  To-morrow all
is peace, and every man turns to his own way, wherever the common
avocations of life call him.  No concern is felt as to protection in the
future, but "all is right, all is safety, there is no fear of any further
trouble," is the language of people's thoughts, and they lie down to sleep
in a false security, to be murdered in the night by their enemies, if they
are disposed to murder them.

	I can tell you one thing with regard to excitement and war.  You may
take Israel here, as a community, with all their experience, and with all
they have passed through in the shape of war, and difficulties of various
kinds, and these wild Indians are actually wiser in their generations in
the art of war than this people are.  They lay better plans, display
greater skill, and are steadier in their feelings. They are not so easily
excited, and when excited are not so easily allayed, as the men who have
come, to inhabit these mountains, from where they have been trained and
educated in the civilization of modern nations.  You may not believe this
assertion; it is, however, no matter whether you do or do not, the fact
remains unaltered, as well as the conviction of my own mind regarding it.

	I have been frequently asked, what is going to be the result of these
troubles?  I answer--the result will be good.  What did you hear, you who
have come to these valleys within the last few years, previous to your
leaving your native country?  You heard that all was peace and safety
among the Saints in these regions; that the earth yielded inner strength,
giving an abundance of food; and that this was a splendid country to raise
stock.  Your determination was then formed to go up to the Valleys of the
mountains, where you could enjoy peace and quiet, and follow the
avocations of life, undisturbed.  When the people arrive here, many of
them come to me and say, "Brother Brigham, can we go here, or there, to
get us farms?  Shall we enter into this or that speculation?  We have been
very poor, and we want to make some money, or we want the privilege of
taking with us a few families to make a settlement in this or that distant
valley."  If I inquire, why they cannot stay here, their answer is,
"because there is no room, the land is chiefly taken up, and we have a
considerable stock of cattle, we want to go where we can have plenty of
range for our stock, where we can mount our horses, and ride over the
prairies, and say, I am Lord of all I survey.  We do not wish to be
disturbed, in any way, nor to be asked to pay tithing, to work upon the
roads, nor pay territorial tax, but we wish all the time to ourselves, to
appropriate to our own use.  I want you, brother Brigham, to give us
counsel that we can get the whole world in a string after us, and have it
all in our own possession, by and bye."  If there is light enough in
Israel, let it shine in your consciences, and illuminate your
understandings, and give you to know that I tell you the truth.  This is
the object many have, in wishing to settle and take in land that is far
distant from the main body of the people.  I have not given you the
language of their lips to me, but the language of their hearts.

	Elders of Israel are greedy after the things of this world.  If you
ask them if they are ready to build up the kingdom of God, their answer is
prompt--"Why, to be sure we are, with our whole souls; but we want first
to get so much gold, speculate and get rich, and then we can help the
Church considerably.  We will go to California and get gold, go and buy
goods and get rich, trade with the emigrants, build a mill, make a farm,
get a large herd of cattle, and then we can do a great deal for Israel." 
When will you be ready to do it?  "In a few years, brother Brigham, if you
do not disturb us.  We do not believe in the necessity of doing military
duty, in giving over our surplus property for tithing; we never could see
into it; but we want to go and get rich, to accumulate and amass wealth,
by securing all the land adjoining us, and all we have knowledge of."  If
that is not the spirit of this people, then I do not know what the truth
is concerning the matter.

	Now I wish to say to you who are fearing and trembling, do not be
afraid at all, for it is certain if we should be killed off by the
Indians, we could not die any younger; this is about as good a time as can
be for us to die, and if we all go together, why you know, we shall have a
good company along with us; it will not be lonesome passing through the
valley, which is said to have a vail drawn over it.  If we all go
together, the dark valley of the shadow of death will be lighted up by us,
so do not be scared.  But there will not be enough slain by the Indians at
this time to make the company very conspicuous in that dark valley.  Do
you begin to secretly wish you had staid in the States or in England a
little longer, until this Indian war had come to an end?  There is a
mighty fearing and trembling in the hearts of many.  I know what men have
done heretofore, when they have seen the enemy advancing, they have
skulked, they were sure to be somewhere else than on hand when there was
fighting to do, although, upon the whole, I have no fault to find with the
Latter-day Saints, or with the Elders of Israel upon that subject, for
they love to fight a little too well.  If I were to have fears concerning
them, it would not be that they would make war, but in the case of war
being made on them, I should have more fear in consequence of the ignorant
and foolish audacity of the Elders, than of their being afraid.  I should
fear they would rush into danger like an unthinking horse into battle.  So
I will not find fault with regard to their courage.  On that point I am a
coward myself, and if people would do as I tell them, I would not only
save my own life, but theirs likewise.

	Suppose, now, that we should say to this congregation, and to all the
wards in this city, the time has come for us to fort up; do you not think
a great many persons would come immediately to me, and inquire if I did
not think their houses quite safe enough, without being put to that
trouble and expense?  Yes, my office would be crowded with such persons,
wanting to know if they might not live where they were now living,  "for"
they would say, "we have got good houses, and well finished off, besides,
such a course will ruin them, and our gardens will go to destruction; we
really cannot fort up."  Would there not be a great amount of hard
feelings upon the subject?  I think so, whether you do or not.  I think I
should want as many as a legion of angels to assist me to convince every
family it was necessary, if it actually was so.

	I do not know but the time may come, and that speedily, when I shall
build a fort myself in this city, and those who are disposed can go into
it with me, while the rest can stay out.  When I see it is absolutely
necessary to do this, I shall do it.  If the people of Utah Territory
would do as they were told, they would always be safe.  If the people in
San Pete County had done as they were told, from the beginning of that
settlement, they would have been safe at this time, and would not have
lost their cattle.  The day before yesterday, Friday, July 29th, the
Indians came from the mountains, to Father Allred's settlement, and drove
off all the stock amounting to two hundred head.  If the people had done
as they were told, they would not have suffered this severe loss, which is
a just chastisement.

	I recollect when we were down at Father Allred's settlement last
April, they had previously been to me not only to know if they might
settle in San Pete, but if they might separate widely from each other,
over a piece of land about two miles square, each having a five acre lot
for their garden, near their farms.  They were told to build a good
substantial fort, until the settlement became sufficiently strong, and not
live so far apart, and expose themselves and their property to danger. 
Father Allred told me they were then so nigh together, they did not know
how to live!  I told him they had better make up their mind to be baptized
into the Church again, and get the Spirit of God, that each one might be
able to live at peace with his neighbor in close quarters, and not think
himself infringed upon.  They wanted to know if they were to build a fort. 
"Why, yes," I said, "build a strong fort, and a corral, to put your cattle
in, that the Indians cannot get them away from you."  "Do you think,
brother Brigham, the Indians will trouble us here?" they inquired.  I
said, "It is none of your business whether they will or not, but you will
see the time that you will need such preparations."  But I did not think
it would come so quickly.  There will more come upon this people to
destroy them than they at present think of, unless they are prepared to
defend themselves, which I shall not take time, this morning, to dwell
upon.  I said also to the brethren at Utah, "Do you make a fort, and let
it be strong enough, that Indians cannot break into it."  They commenced,
and did not make even the shadow of a fort, for in some places there was
nothing more than a line to mark where the approaching shadow would be. 
They began to settle round upon the various creeks and streamlets, and the
part of a fort that existed was finally pulled up, and carried away
somewhere else.  I have told you, from the beginning, you would need
forts, where to build them, and how strong.  I told you, six years ago, to
build a fort that the Devil could not get into, unless you were disposed
to let him in, and that would keep out the Indians.  Excuse me for saying
devil; I do not often use the old gentleman's name in vain, and if I do
it, it is always in the pulpit, where I do all my swearing.  I make this
apology because it is considered a sin to say devil, and it grates on
refined ears.

	I told the settlement in San Pete, at the first, to build a fort. 
They did not do it, but huddled together beside a stone quarry, without a
place of common shelter where they could defend themselves, in case of an
Indian difficulty.  They had faith they could keep the Indians off.  Well,
now is the time to call it into exercise.  They did, after a while, build
a temporary fort at San Pete, which now shields them in a time of trouble.

	When the brethren went to Salt Creek, they wanted to make a
settlement there, and inquired of me if they might do so.  I told them,
no, unless they first built an efficient fort.  I forbade them taking
their women and children there, until that preparatory work was fully
accomplished.  Has it ever been done?  No, but families went there and
lived in wagons and brush houses, perfectly exposed to be killed.  If they
have faith enough to keep the Indians off, it is all right.

	From the time these distant valleys began to be settled, until now,
there has scarcely been a day but what I have felt twenty-five ton weight,
as it were, upon me, in exercising faith to keep this people from
destroying themselves; but if any of them can exercise faith enough for
themselves, and wish to excuse me, I will take my faith back.

	The word has gone out now, to the different settlements, in the time
of harvest, requiring them to build forts.  Could it not have been done
last winter, better than now?  Yes.  Do you not suppose people will now
wish they had built forts when they were told?  If they do not, it proves
what they have been all the time, shall I say fools?  If that is too harsh
a term, I will say they have been foolish.  It is better for me to labor
in building a house or a fort, to get out fencing timber, and wood to
consume through winter, when I have nothing else to do, and not be under
the necessity of leaving my gain on the ground to do those things. 
Harvest is no time to build forts, neither is it the time to do it when we
should be plowing and sowing.

 	Now the harvest is upon us, I wish to say a few words concerning it. 
I desire you to tell your neighbors, and wish them to tell their
neighbors, and thus let it go to the several counties around--now is the
time for women and children to assist in the harvest fields, the same as
they do in other countries.  I never asked this of them before; I do not
now ask it as a general thing, but those employed in the expedition south,
in the work of defending their brethren from Indian depredations, who have
heavy harvests on hand, rather than suffer the grain to waste, let the
women get in the harvest, and put it where the Indians cannot steal it. 
And when you go into the harvest field, carry a good butcher knife in your
belt, that if an Indian should come upon you, supposing you to be unarmed,
you would be sure to kill him.

	Tell your neighbors of this, and go to work, men, women, and
children, and gather in your grain, and gather it clean, leave none to
waste, and put it where the Indians cannot destroy it.

	Does this language intimate anything terrific to you?  It need not. 
If you will do as you are told, you will be safe continually.  Secure your
bread stuff, your wheat, and your corn, when it is ripe, and let every
particle of grain raised in these valleys be put where it will be safe,
and as much as possible from vermin, and especially from the Indians, and
then build forts.

	Let every man and woman who has a house make that house a fort, from
which you can kill ten where you can now only kill one, if Indians come
upon you.  "Brother Brigham, do you really expect Indians to come upon us
in this city?"  This inquiry, I have no doubt, is at this moment in the
hearts of a few, almost breathless with fear.  Were I to answer such
inquirers as I feel, I should say, it is none of your business; but I will
say, you are so instructed, to see if you will do as you are told.  Let
your dwelling house be a perfect fort.  From the day I lived where brother
Joseph Smith lived, I have been fortified all the time so as to resist
twenty men, if they should come to my house in the night, with an intent
to molest my family, assault my person, or destroy my property; and I have
always been in the habit of sleeping with one eye open, and if I cannot
then sufficiently watch, I will get my wife to help me.  Let an hostile
band of Indians come round my house, and I am good for quite a number of
them.  If one hundred should come, I calculate that only fifty would be
able to go to the next house, and if the Saints there used up the other
fifty, the third house would be safe.

	But instead of the people taking this course, almost every good rifle
in the territory has been traded away to the Indians, with quantities of
powder and lead, though they waste it in various ways when they have got
it.  The whites would sell the title to their lives, for the sake of
trading with the Indians.

	They will learn better, I expect, by and by, for the people have
never received such strict orders as they have got now.  I will give you
the pith of the last orders issued--"That man or family who will not do as
they are told in the orders, are to be treated as strangers, yea, even as
enemies, and not as friends."  And if there should be a contest, if we
should be called upon to defend our lives, our liberty, and our
possessions, we would cut such off the first, and walk over their bodies
to conquer the foe outside.

	Martial law is not enforced yet, although the whole territory is in a
state of war, apparently, but it is only the Utah [Indians] who have
declared war on Utah [Territory.]  Deseret has not yet declared war; how
soon it will be declared is not for me to say; but we have a right, and it
is our duty, to put ourselves in a state of self defence.

	The few families that settled in Cedar Valley, at the point of the
mountains, were instructed to leave there, last spring.  They have gone
back again, upon their own responsibility, and now want to know what they
must do.  They have been told to do just as they have a mind to.

	Those who have taken their wives and children in the kanyons to live,
have been told to remove them into the city; and if you want to make
shingles, or do any other work that requires you to remain there, have
your gun in a situation that an Indian cannot creep up and steal it from
you before you are aware, that you can be good for a few Indians if they
should chance to come upon you.

	If I wished to live away from the body of the people, my first effort
should be directed towards building a good and efficient fort.  When new
settlements were made in the eastern countries, they built them of timber,
and they were called "block houses."  I would advise that every house in a
new settlement should be made good for all the Indians that could approach
it, with an intention to tear it down.  If I did not do that, I would go
to where I could be safe, I would take up my abode with the body of the
people.  I would take my family there at least.  By taking this course,
every person will be safe from the depredations of the Indians, which are
generally committed upon the defenceless and unprotected portions of the
community.

	I know what the feelings of the generality of the people are, at this
time--they think all the Indians in the mountains are coming to kill off
the Latter-day Saints.  I have no more fear of that, than I have of the
sun ceasing to give light upon the earth.  I have studied the Indian
character sufficiently to know what the Indians are in war, I have been
with them more or less from my youth upward, where they have often had
wars among themselves.  Let every man, woman, and child, that can handle a
butcher knife, be good for one Indian, and you are safe.

	I am aware that the people want to ask me a thousand and one
questions, whether they have done it or not, touching the present Indian
difficulties.  I have tried to answer them all, in my own mind, by saying,
it will be just as the Lord will.

	How many times have I been asked in the past week, what I intend to
do with Walker.  I say, LET HIM ALONE, SEVERELY.  I have not made war on
the Indians, nor am I calculating to do it.  My policy is to give them
presents, and be kind to them.  Instead of being Walker's enemy, I have
sent him a great pile of tobacco to smoke when he is lonely in the
mountains.  He is now at war with the only friends he has upon this earth,
and I want him to have some tobacco to smoke.

	I calculate to pursue just such a course with the Indians, and when I
am dictated to by existing circumstances, and the Spirit of the Lord, to
change my course, I will do it, and not until then.

	If you were to see Walker, do you think you would kill him?  You that
want to kill him, I will give you a mission to that effect.  A great many
appear very bold, and desire to go and bring me Walker's head, but they
want all the people in Utah to go with them.  I could point out thousands
in this Territory who would follow these Indians, and continue to follow
them, and leave the cattle to be driven off by the emigrants, and the
grain to perish, and thus subject the whole community to the ravages of
famine, and its consequent evils. I have been teased and teased by men who
will come to me and say, "Just give me twenty-five, fifty, or a hundred
men, and I will go and fetch you Walker's  head."  I do not want his head,
but I wish him to do all the Devil wants him to do so far as the Lord will
suffer him and the Devil to chastise this people for their good.

	I say to the Indians, as I have often said to the mob, go your
length.  You say you are going to kill us all off, you say you are going
to obliterate  the Latter-day Saints, and wipe them from the earth; why
don't you do it, you poor miserable curses?  The mob only had power to
drive the Saints to their duty, and to remember the Lord their God, and
that is all the Indians can do.  This people are worldly-minded, they want
to get rich in earthly substance, and are apt to forget their God, the pit
from which they were dug, and the rock from which they were hewn, every
man turning to his own way.  Seemingly the Lord is chastening us until we
turn and do His will.  What are you willing to do?  Would you be willing
to build a fort, and all go in there to live?  I tell you, you would have
a hell of your own, and devils enough to carry it on.  Do you suppose you
will ever see the time you would do that, and live at peace with each
other, and have the Spirit of the Lord enough to look each other in the
face, and say, with a heart full of kindness, " Good morning, Mary," or
"How do you do, Maria"?  YOU WILL BE WHIPPED UNTIL you have the Spirit of
the Lord Jesus Christ sufficiently to love your brethren and sisters
freely, men,  women, and CHILDREN; until you can live at peace with
yourselves, and with  every family around you; until you can treat every
child as though it were the tender offspring of your own body, every man
as your brother, and every woman as your sister; and until the young
persons treat the old with that respect due to parents, and all learn to
shake hands, with a warm heart, and a friendly grip, and say, "God bless
you," from morning till evening; until each person can say, "I love you
all, I have no evil in my heart to any individual, I can send my children
to school with yours, and can correct your children when they do wrong, as
though they were my own, and I am willing you should correct mine, and let
us live together until we are a holy and sanctified society."  There will
always be Indians or somebody else to chastise you, until you come to that
spot; so amen to the present Indian trouble, for it is all right.  I am
just as willing the rebellious of this people should be kicked, and
cuffed, and mobbed, and hunted by the Indians, as not, for I have preached
to them until I am tired.  I will give no more counsel to any person upon
the duties of self preservation; you can do as you please; if you will not
preserve yourselves, I may reason with you until my tongue cleaves to the
roof of my mouth, to no avail.  Let the Lord extend the hand of
benevolence to brother Walker, and he will make you do it by other means
than exhortations given in mildness.

	This very same Indian Walker has a mission upon him, and I do not
blame him for what he is now doing; he is helping me to do the will of the
Lord to this people, he is doing with a chastening rod what I have failed
to accomplish with soft words, while I have been handing out my substance,
feeding the hungry, comforting the sick.  But this has no effect upon this
people at all, my counsel has not been needed, go the Lord is making
brother Walker an instrument to help me, and perhaps the means that he
will use will have their due effect.

	Do you suppose I want to kill him?  No.  I should be killing the very
means that will make this people do what we wanted them to do years ago.

	There are hundreds of witnesses to bear testimony that I have
counselled this people, from the beginning, what to do to save themselves
both temporally and spiritually.

	In one of our orders issued lately, the southern settlements were
advised to send their surplus cattle to this valley.  No quicker had the
news reached them, than our ears were greeted with one continued whine,
which meant, "We are afraid you want them."  So we did, to take care of
them for you.

	When Father Allred was advised to adopt measures to secure themselves
and their property, he replied, "O, I do not think there is the least
danger in the world; we are perfectly able to take care of our stock, and
protect ourselves against the Indians."  All right, I thought, let
circumstances prove that.

	Now as difficulties surround them, they say to me, "Why, brother
Brigham, if you had only told us what to do, we would have done it.  Were
we not always willing to take your counsel?"  Yes, you are a great deal
more willing to take it, than to obey it.  If people are willing to carry
out good counsel, they will secure themselves accordingly.

	I have thought of setting a pattern, by securing myself; but were I
to build a fort for myself and family, I should want about a legion of
angels from the throne of God, to stay nine months with me, to get my
folks willing to go into it.  But I am so independent about it, I care not
the snap of my finger for one of them.  If my wives will not go into a
place of security with me, it is all right, they can stay out, and I will
go in and take my children with me.  I say, I do not know but I may take a
notion to set a pattern by building a fort; if I do, some one in this city
may follow my example, and then somebody else, &c., until we have a
perfect city of forts.

	"Brother Brigham, do you really think we shall ever need them?"  YES,
I DO.  All the difficulties there is in the community this year, is not a
drop in comparison to the heavy shower that will come.  "Well, and where
is it coming from?"  From hell, where every other trouble comes from. "And
who do you think will be the actors?"  Why, the Devil and his imps.  [W.
W. Phelps in the stand, We could not do very well without a devil.]  No,
sir, you are quite aware of that; you know we could not do without him. 
If there had been no devil to tempt Eve, she never would have got her eyes
opened.  We need a devil to stir up the wicked on the earth to purify the
Saints.  Therefore let devils howl, let them rage, and thus exhibit
themselves in the form of those poor foolish Lamanites.  Let them go on in
their work, and do you not desire to kill them, until they ought to be
killed, and then we will extinguish the Indian title, if it is required.

	Did you never feel to pity them on viewing their wretched condition?
Walker with a small band has succeeded in making all the Indian bands in
these mountains fear him.  He has been in the habit of stealing from the
Californians, and of making every train of emigrants that passed along the
Spanish trail to California pay tithing to him.  He finally began to steal
children from those bands to sell to the Spaniards; and through fear of
him, he has managed to bring in subjection almost all the Utah tribes.

	I will relate one action of Walker's life, which will serve to
illustrate his character.  He, with his band, about last Feb., fell in
with a small band of Piedes, and killed off the whole of the men, took the
squaws prisoners, and sold the children to the Mexicans, and some few were
disposed of in this territory.  This transaction was told by Arapeen,
Walker's brother, though he was not at the affray himself.

	The Indians in these mountains are continually on the decrease; bands
that numbered 150 warriors when we first came here, number not more than
35 now; and some of the little tribes in the southern parts of this
territory, towards New Mexico, have not a single squaw amongst them, for
they have traded them off for horses, &c.  This practice will soon make
the race extinct.  Besides, Walker is continually, whenever an opportunity
presents itself, killing and stealing children from the wandering bands
that he has any power over, which also has its tendency to extinguish the
race.

	Walker is hemmed in, he dare not go into California again.  Dare he
go east to the Snakes?  No.  Dare he go north?  No, for they would rejoice
to kill him.  Here he is, penned up in a small compass, surrounded by his
enemies; and now the Elders of Israel long to eat up, as it were, him and
his little band.  What are they?  They are a set of cursed fools.  Do you
not rather pity them?  They dare not move over a certain boundary, on any
of the four points of the compass, for fear of being killed; then they are
killing one another, and making war upon this people that could use them
up, and they not be a breakfast spell for them if they felt so disposed. 
See their condition, and I ask you, do you not pity them?  From all
appearance, there will not be an Indian left, in a short time, to steal a
horse.  Are they not fools, under these circumstances, to make war with
their best friends?

	Do you want to run after them to kill them?  I say, let them alone,
for peradventure God may pour out His Spirit upon them, and show them the
error of their ways.  We may yet have to fight them, though they are of
the house of Israel to whom the message of salvation is sent; for their
wickedness is so great, that the Lord Almighty cannot get at the hearts of
the older ones to teach them saving principles.  Joseph Smith said we
should have to fight them.  He said, "When this people mingle among the
Lamanites, if they do not bow down in obedience to the Gospel, they will
hunt them until there is but a small remnant of them left upon this
continent."  They have either got to bow down to the Gospel or be slain. 
Shall we slay them simply because they will not obey the Gospel?  No.  But
they will come to us and try to kill us, and we shall be under the
necessity of killing them to save our own lives.

	I wished to lay these thing before the people this morning, to answer
a great many questions, and allay their fears.  Yesterday, brother Kimball
heard at his mill, ten miles north, that I had sent word to him, that the
mountains were full of Indians, and he and the families with him were to
move into the city; so they immediately obeyed this report.  Brother
Kimball came to me and inquired if I had sent such orders.  I said, no. 
But it is all right, for I wanted the women and children from there.  This
shows the excited state of the people.

	One thing more.  I ask you men who have been with Joseph in the wars
he passed through, and who were with him at the time of his death, what
was it that preserved us, to all outward appearances?  It is true, in
reality, God did it.  But by what means did He keep the mob from
destroying us?  It was by means of being well armed with the weapons of
death a send them to hell cross lots. Just so you have got to do.

	As for this people fostering to themselves that the day has come for
them to sell their guns and ammunition to their enemies, and sit down to
sleep in peace, they will find themselves deceived, and before they know,
they will sleep until they are slain.  They have got to carry weapons with
them, to be ready to send their enemies to hell cross lots, whether they
be Lamanites, or mobs who may come to take their lives, or destroy their
property.  We must be so prepared that they dare not come to us in a
hostile manner without being assured they will meet a vigorous resistance,
and ten to one they will meet their grave.

	The Lord will suffer no more trouble to come upon us than is
necessary to bring this people to their senses.  You need not go to sleep
under the impression that it is the north and south only that is in
danger, and we are all safe here.  Now mind, let this people here lie down
to sleep, and be entirely off their watch, and the first thing they know,
they are in the greatest danger. You must not desert the watch tower, but
do as I do--keep some person awake in your house all night long, and be
ready, at the least tap of the foot, to offer a stout resistance, if it is
required.  Be ready at any moment to kill twenty of your enemies at least. 
Let every house be a fort.

	After the cattle were stolen at San Pete, a messenger arrived here in
about thirty hours to report the affair, and obtain advice.  I told
brother Wells, "you can write to them, and say, 'Inasmuch as you have no
cows and oxen to tumble you, you can go to harvesting, and take care of
yourselves.'"  If you do not take care of yourselves, brethren, you will
not be taken care of.  I take care of them that help themselves.  I will
help you that try to help yourselves, and carry out the maxim of Doctor
Dick--"God helps them that help themselves."

	I am my own policeman, and have slept, scores of nights, with my gun
and sword by my side, that is, if I slept at all.  I am still a policeman. 
Now is the day to watch.  It is as important for me to watch now, as well
as pray, as it ever has been since I came into this kingdom.  lt requires
watching, as well as praying men; take turns at it, let some watch while
others pray, and then change round, but never let any time pass without a
watcher, lest you he overtaken in an hour when you think not; it will come
as a thief in the night.  Look out for your enemies, for we know not how
they will come, and what enemy it will be.  Take care of yourselves.

	Again, let me reiterate to the sisters, do not be afraid of going
into the harvest field.  If you are found there helping your sons, your
husbands, and your brethren, to gather in the harvest, I say, God bless
you, and I will also.

	Take care of your grain, and take care of yourselves, that no enemy
come to slay you.  Be always on hand to meet them with death, and send
them to hell, if they come to you.  May God bless you all.  Amen.


                          TRUE AND FALSE RICHES.
   A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young, at the Special
Conference,
in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 14, 1853.

	I am disposed this morning to give my testimony to this congregation
upon the subject of true riches.  Wealth and poverty are much talked of by
all people.  The subject was tolerably well discussed yesterday, and
according to my understanding, the most that I have heard said upon that
point has been on the negative of the question.

	If you wish me to take a text, I will take the Scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments, referring, if you please, to both text and context,
and let the people distribute, or apply them according to their own
pleasure.  I will, however, use one passage of Scripture as a text, that
was used yesterday.  Jesus said to his disciples, to them it was given to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them that were
without, it was not given.  If we were to examine the subject closely, we
should learn that a very scanty portion of the things of the kingdom were
ever revealed, even to the disciples.  If we were prepared to gaze upon
the mysteries of the kingdom, as they are with God, we should then know
that only a very small portion of them has been handed out here and there. 
God, by His Spirit, has revealed many things to His people, but, in almost
all cases, He has straightway shut up the vision of the mind.  He will let
His servants gaze upon eternal things for a moment, but straightway the
vision is closed, and they are left as they were, that they may learn to
act by faith, or as the Apostle has it, not walking by sight, but by
faith.

	In viewing this subject, permit me to preach what I have to preach,
without framing or systematising my address.  When I have endeavored to
address a congregation, I have almost always felt a repugnance in my heart
to the practice of premeditation, or of pre-constructing a discourse to
deliver to the people, but let me ask God my heavenly Father, in the name
of Jesus Christ, to give me His Spirit, and put into my heart the things
He wishes me to speak whether they be for better or worse.  These have
been my private feelings, as a general thing.  I would ask our Father in
heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, to pour His Spirit upon each one of
us this morning, that we might speak and hear with an understanding heart,
that a hint, a key word, or a short sentence pertaining to the things of
God, might open the vision of our minds, so that we might comprehend the
things of eternity, and rejoice exceedingly therein.

	In the first place, suppose we commence by examining the principles
that have been laid before us this Conference, taking up the negative of
the question; suppose, in our social capacity here, we have a system that
feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, administers to the widow and the
fatherless, so that we can say of a truth, as they did in the days of the
Apostles, we have no poor among us.  Would it establish the principle that
we are rich?  To me it would establish no more than a good wholesome
principle upon which the wicked may act, as well as the righteous--a
principle upon which the world ought to act, by the moral obligations they
are under to stretch out the arm of charity to every person, to fill up
their days with industry, prudence, and faithfulness, procuring means to
sustain themselves, and to administer to the wants of those who are unable
to administer to themselves.  To me, I say, this principle manifests no
more than a moral obligation under which all are placed.  Though some may
think it a decided mark of Christianity, that it is a proof of deep piety,
and bespeaks the character of Saints, and all this, if we scan the subject
closely, it amounts to nothing more than a moral obligation all are under
to each other.

	Again, we call up the question of riches, wealth.  We may behold one
upon the right, that commands his thousands of gold and silver, which he
has treasured up; he has houses and lands to occupy, goods and chattels to
fill his store-houses, cattle to cover his fields, and servants to obey
his commands; we call such an individual rich, wealthy, but when we take
into consideration the "true riches" spoken of in this book [the Bible],
they are not riches.  We may behold another upon the left, reigning as a
monarch; the gold, and the silver, yea all the treasures of the kingdom
over which he reigns are at his command; and all his subjects are fully
disposed to do the will of their sovereign.  He reigns, he rules, he
governs, and controls, and there are none to gainsay, none to offer a
single word of opposition, his word is the law, his commands are supreme,
he rides in his richly-adorned chariots, and wears his crown of gold, set
with the most precious stones.  He sets up one, and drags down another. 
Those who have in the least incurred his displeasure, he condemns to the
block, and he exalts others to sudden wealth and power.  This monarch
reigns for a day, a month, a year, or for half a century, according to the
will of Him by whom kings sway the sceptre of power; and the world say he
is a rich man, a powerful and wealthy man.  But this is not riches
according to the saying of the Saviour in the New Testament.

	Suppose we could heap to ourselves the treasures of the earth, as was
mentioned yesterday; suppose we could load our wagons with the purest of
gold; with it we could open our commercial business on an extensive scale,
we could build our temples and mansions, macadamise our streets, beautify
our gardens, and make these valleys as it were like the Garden of Eden,
but would it prove we were actually rich?  It would not.  As it was said
yesterday, and justly, too, we might be brought into circumstances in the
midst of this supposed wealth, to be glad to give a barrel of gold for as
much flour.  In such a circum- stance, of what benefit to us would be this
wealth, so called?  Would not the idea which the wicked, and, I may say,
with some propriety, the Saints, have of wealth vanish like smoke, and
should we not find ourselves poor indeed?  If we possessed mountains of
gold, should we not perish without bread, without something to feed the
body?  Most assuredly.  Though an individual, or a nation of people, could
command their millions of millions of gold and silver, no uses, lands,
goods, and chattels, horses and chariots, crowns, and thrones, or even the
products of the soil--the wheat, the fine flour, the oil, and the wine,
and all the precious metals of the earth in abundance--though they were
flooded with all these good things, yet if the Almighty should withdraw
His hand, they would be smitten with the mildew, and disappear; then
wealth would become the most abject poverty.  The possession of these
things is not wealth to me.  Not that I would cast them away as a thing of
naught, or look upon the good things of this earth, and the riches of the
world, as things of naught, but they are not the true riches, the pearl of
great price spoken of in the Scriptures, when a man found which, he sold
all he had to purchase; they do not belong to those principles couched in
the saying of our Lord, touching the mysteries of the kingdom.  The riches
of this world are nothing more than a stepping stone, or necessary means
whereby people may obtain the true riches--by which they can sustain
themselves until they can procure the true riches of the kingdom of God.
As such they ought to be looked upon and handled.  "Seek first the kingdom
of God."  "Seek FIRST" that durable object.  "Seek FIRST" the
righteousness that will never betray you.  Obtain "FIRST" the prize that
will not forsake you.  Procure to yourselves "FIRST" of all, that which
will endure through time, and through all the eternities that will be. 
"Seek FIRST the kingdom of God, and its righteousness," and let the gold
and silver, the houses, the lands, the horses, the chariots, the crowns,
the thrones, and the dominions of this world be dead to you, as it is
necessary you should secure for yourselves eternal riches that will never
forsake you in time nor in all eternity.

	The negative of the question is present with the people.  If they
begin to seek the kingdom of heaven, if they set out to glorify God in
their souls and bodies, which are His, how quick their feelings and
desires, how soon their natural propensities cling with greater
pertinacity to the things that are perishable.  On the right hand and on
the left we see persons whose trust is wholly in the riches of this world;
they say, "I have gathered to myself substance, if you rob me of it you
rob me of my all.  I have my flocks and herds around me, if you take these
from me all is gone."  Those men or women to whom this will apply have not
eternal riches abiding in them.  Their minds are set upon the things of
this world, upon a shadow, upon the substance that passes away, like the
shadow of morn, or like the morning dew upon the flowers.  They are like a
thing of naught to those who understand the things of the kingdom of God. 
They are to be used, but not abused.  They are to be handled with
discretion, and looked upon in their true light, without any lustful
desires, as the means to feed, clothe, and make us comfortable, that we
may be prepared to secure to ourselves eternal riches.

	Suppose we should remain here to discuss the subject, for days months
and years, and scan it with a scrutinizing examination, in the end of all
our labor we should find that the things of this world called riches, are
in reality not riches.  We should find they are like miracles to the
ignorant, mere phenomena to the inhabitants of the earth; to-day they are,
to-morrow they are not; they were, but now they are gone, it is not known
where.  The earthly king upon his throne, who reigns triumphantly over his
subjects is blasted, with all his kingdom and, brought to naught at one
breath of Him who possesses true riches.  Let Him who possesses the true
riches say to the elements around that kingdom, "produce no wheat, nor
oil, nor wine, but let there be a famine upon that people," in such a
circumstance where is the wealth of that king his power, his grandeur, and
his crown?  There is no bread, no oil, there are no flocks, no herds, for
they have perished upon the plains, his wheat is blasted, and all his
crops are mildewed.  What good does his wealth do him?  His subjects are
lying all around him lifeless for want of bread; he may cry to them, but
in vain; his wealth, power, and influence have vanished, they are swept
away like the flimsy fabric of a cobweb.

	Again, the rich merchant, or private individuals, may have millions
of gold and silver deposited, hid in the ground,  or elsewhere, perhaps,
and this is their god.  Should the Lord Almighty say, as he did in the
days of the Nephites, Let their substance become slippery, let it
disappear that they cannot find it again; it is gone, and they may hunt
for it in vain.  Or let it be deposited in a bank, the first they know,
the bank is broken, the, substance is gone, and they are left in perfect
beggary.  To possess gold and silver, or earthly power and wealth, is not
riches to me, but it is the negative of the question.

	There are hundreds of people in these valleys, who never owned a cow
in the world, until they came here, but now they have got a few cows and
sheep around them, a yoke of oxen, and a horse to ride upon, they feel to
be personages of far greater importance than Jesus Christ was, when he
rode into Jerusalem upon an ass's colt.  They become puffed up in pride,
and selfishness, and their minds become attached to the things of this
world.  They become covetous, which makes them idolators.  Their substance
engrosses so much of their attention, they forget their prayers, and
forget to attend the assemblies of the Saints,  for they must see to their
land, or to their crops that are suffering, until by and bye the
grasshoppers come like a cloud, and cut away the bread from their mouth,
introducing famine and distress, to stir them up in remembrance of the
Lord their God.  Or the Indians will come, and drive off their cattle;
where then is their wealth in their grain, and in their cattle?  Are these
things riches?  No.  They are the things of the world, made to decay, to
perish, or to be decomposed, and thus pass away.

	Were we to spend the period of our lives and try to trace the history
of mankind upon this world from the beginning to the present time by
referring to the lives of kings, rulers, governors, and potentates; to the
wealth, magnificence, and power of nations; also to the poverty,
wretchedness, war, bloodshed, and distress there have been among the
inhabitants of the earth, it could not all be told, but I have noticed
some few of the items which I call the negative of the question.  To
possess this world's goods is not in reality wealth, it is not riches, it
is nothing more nor less than that which is common to all men, to the just
and the unjust, to the Saint and to the sinner.  The sun rises upon the
evil and the good; the Lord sends His rain upon the just and upon the
unjust; this is manifest before our eyes, and in our daily experience. 
Old King Solomon, the wise man, says, the race is not to the swift, nor
the battle to the strong, neither riches to men of wisdom.  The truth of
this saying comes within our daily observation.  Those whom we consider
swift are not always the ones that gain the mastery in the race, but those
who are considered not so fleet, or not fleet at all, often gain the
prize.  It is, I may say, the unseen hand of Providence, that over-ruling
power that controls the destinies of men and nations, that so ordains
these things.  The weak, trembling, and feeble, are the ones frequently
who gain the battle; and the ignorant, foolish, and unwise will blunder
into wealth.  This is all before us, it is the common lot of man, in short
I may say, it is the philosophical providence of a philosophical world.

	Suppose we look for a short time after the true riches--after the
pearl of great price.  In doing this were I to systematize, I would say,
let us leave this subject, which is the negative of the question, and take
up another, entirely different.  We would have to take up the subject of
salvation to the human family, calling up the characters who have
officiated in this great work, and have brought forth redemption, and
placed it before the world, putting it within the reach of every
individual of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.  Yet it is all the
same subject.

	Where shall we direct our course to find true riches?  Who is there
that possesses them?  Were we to admit scriptural testimony, I could refer
you to the Bible, where we read of people exhibiting a power that gave
their beholders satisfactory proof of their possessing the true riches. 
The riches of the world are natural, and common to the human family, but
who governs and controls them?  Who holds the destiny of the wealth of the
nations in his hand?  Do the kings, rulers, governors, or the inhabitants
of the earth generally?  No, not one of them, by any means.  Have there
ever been persons upon the earth who have exhibited the principles of true
riches?  Yes.  The Bible tells us who they are, and delineates the
principles of true riches.

	Again, here is the philosophical world, the terra firma on which we
tread.  Here is the atmosphere which the wise men of the world tell us it
is surrounded with, which is congenial to the constitution of the
vegetable and animal world, it is the air we breathe.  Philosophers tell
us that the terra firma on which we walk is surrounded with it 40 miles
high from the surface of the earth.  It revolves in a this subtle element,
which is a combination of other elements.  This is a philosophical world. 
What then are the results of the philosophical world?  Why, if you were to
put wheat in the ground that has been well tilled, it would grow, and
bring an increase to repay the husbandman for his labor.  If you plant
potatoes in the ground the philosophy of the earth is, it will bring forth
potatoes.  If you plant corn, corn will be produced in abundance, and this
will apply to all the grain, and vegetables, and products of this earth.

	What is there here, in the valleys of these mountains?  Why, the same
that was centuries ago.  As I told my brethren six years ago, I said,
there are here wheat, corn, potatoes, buckwheat, beets, parsnips, carrots,
cabbage, onions, apples, peaches, plums, pears, and fruits of every
description and kind.  They are all in the philosophical world--in the air
we breathe, and in the water we drink; it needs nothing more than
philosophical applications to bring them forth.  The most delicate silks,
the finest linen, and fine cloth of every description, that were ever
produced upon the earth, are right here in this valley, and it requires
nothing more than a philosophical application to bring them forth to
administer to our wants.  What more is there here!  When we first came
into this valley we had no knowledge that our brethren could find gold in
California, or perhaps we might have been digging gold over there at this
time; but our thoughts were occupied with how we should get our wives and
children here; we were thinking about wheat, potatoes, water melons,
peaches, apples, plums, &c.  But allow me to tell you, that gold and
silver, platina, zinc, copper, lead, and every element that there is in
any part of the earth, can be found here; and all that is required, when
we need them, is a philosophical application to make them subservient to
our wants.

	Here we pause, and think--"What! is there gold here, silver here? 
Are the finest and most beautiful silks that were ever made, to be found
here?  Yes.  Is there fine linen here?  Yes, and the finest broad-cloths,
and shawls and dresses of every description.  We are walking over them,
drinking them, and breathing them every day we live.  They are here with
us, and we can make ourselves rich, for all these things are within our
reach.  What hinders us from being truly rich?  This is the point.  I will
tell you when you and I may consider ourselves truly rich--When we can
speak to the earth--to the native elements in boundless space, and say to
them--"Be ye organized, and planted here, or there, and stay until I
command you hence;" when at our command the gold is hid so that no man can
find it, any more than they could in California until within a few years
back.

	Again, we have a little absolute truth still nearer, and which comes
under our own knowledge.  There is the Sweet Water that runs into the
Platte river, that this people have passed by for years.  There have been
no pains spared to find gold on that stream and its tributaries, but it
could not be seen, and yet of late an abundance of it has been discovered,
ranging over a district of country from the South Platte to the South
Pass.  There are men present here to-day, I have no doubt, who have it in
their pockets, or in their wagons.  There are as good prospects for gold
there, as there ever were in California.  How is this?  Why He that hath
all power and all true riches in His possession, has said, "Let that
sleep, let it be out of sight to this people, until I say the word; I
organized the elements, and control them, and place them where I please." 
When He says, "Let it be found;" it is right there on the top of the
earth.  Where was it before?  I do not know; it was out of sight.  In the
very place where men have gone from this valley, to my knowledge, and
hunted weeks and weeks for gold, and could not find it, there is plenty of
it now.  When you and I can say, "Let there be gold in this valley," and
turn round again, and command it to disappear, that it is not to be found;
when we can call gold and silver together from the eternity of matter in
the immensity of space, and all the other precious metals, and command
them to remain or to move at our pleasure; when we can say to the native
element, "Be thou combined, and produce those commodities necessary for
the use and sustenance of man, and to make this earth beautiful and
glorious, and prepare it for the habitation of the sanctified;" then we
shall be in possession of true riches.  This is true riches to me, and
nothing short of it constitutes them.  When I have gold and silver in my
possession, which a thief may steal, or friends borrow, and never pay me
back again, or which may take the wings of the morning, and I behold it no
more, I only possess the negative of the true riches.  When the riches of
this world leave me, I cannot say--"Gold, return thou to my chest."  I
cannot say to the gold I pick up out of the earth, "Be thou separated from
every particle of dross, and let me see the pure virgin gold."  I cannot
do that without submitting to a tedious process of chemical action.

	All those who wish to possess true riches, desire the riches that
will endure.  Then look at the subject of salvation, where you will find
true riches.  They are to be found in the principles of the Gospel of
salvation, and are not to be found anywhere else.  With whom abide
eternally the true riches?  With that God whom we serve, who holds all
things in His hands, that we know anything of; He is the first and the
last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who at one
survey looks upon all the workmanship of His hands; who has the words of
eternal life, and holds the hearts of the children of men in His hand, and
turns them whithersoever He will, even as the rivers of waters are turned;
who commands the earth to perform its revolutions, or stand still, at His
pleasure; who has given the sun, the planets, the earths, and far distant
systems their orbits, their times, and their seasons; whose commands they
all obey.  With Him abide the true riches.

	I will now notice the character who exhibited the power of true
riches on the earth, though he himself was in a state of abject poverty,
to all human appearance, for he was made poor that we might be made rich,
and he descended below all things that he might ascend above all things. 
When the only begotten Son of God was upon the earth, he understood the
nature of these elements, how they were brought together to make this
world and all things that are thereon, for he helped to make them.  He had
the power of organizing, what we would call, in a miraculous manner.  That
which to him was no miracle, is called miraculous by the inhabitants of
the earth.  On one occasion he commanded a sufficient amount of bread to
be formed to feed his disciples and the multitude.  It was in the air, in
the water, and in the earth they walked upon.  He, unperceived by his
disciples and the multitude, spoke to the native elements, and brought
forth bread.  He had the power.  We have not that power, but are under the
necessity of producing bread according to a systematic plan.  We are
obliged to till the ground, and sow wheat, in order to obtain wheat.  But
when we possess the true riches, we shall be able to call forth the bread
from the native element, like as Jesus Christ did.  Everything that is
good for man, is there.  Jesus said to his disciples, Make the multitude
sit down, and divide them unto companies, and take this bread and break
it, and distribute it among them.  They did not know but that it was the
few loaves and fishes that fed the whole of them as they ate.  The truth
is, he called forth bread from the native elements.  Is that mystery to
you?  Did you never think of it before?  How do you suppose he fed them,
he did not feed them upon nothing at all, but they ate bread and fish,
substantial bread and fish! untiI they were satisfied.  This the Saviour
called from the surrounding elements; he was quite capable of doing it,
because he had the keys and power of true riches, if any man possess
which, he is rich in time, and in eternity both.

	Again, the Saviour changed water into wine, in the same manner, by
commanding the elements.  Can that be done by a chemical process.  I admit
it can by the persons who understand the process; and that men can make
bread also.  As quick as I admit that the history Moses gives of himself
is true, I cannot have any question in the world but what in ancient days
they understood in a measure how to command the elements.  The magicians
of Egypt were instructed in things pertaining to true riches, and had
obtained keys and powers enough to produce a bogus in opposition to the
true coin, as it were, and thus they deceived the king and the people. 
They could cause frogs to come upon the land, as well as Moses could. 
They could turn the waters of Egypt into blood, and in many more things
compete with Moses. There was one thing, however, they could not do,
though they produced a very good bogus, but it was not quite the true
coin.  When they threw their staffs on the floor before the king, they
could not swallow the staff of Moses, but the staff of Moses swallowed the
staffs of the magicians.  I have no doubt that men can perform many such
wonders by the principles of natural philosophy.

 	Again, they can deceive the inhabitants of the earth, and make them
believe that things were done, which in reality were not.  If there were
not a true coin in existence, how could there be a bogus produced?  The
true coin is what we are after, the true riches.  We are seeking to be
made rich in the power of God, so as to be able to control the elements,
and say--"Let there be light," and there is light; "Let there be water,"
and there is water; "Let this or that come," and it cometh; by the power
that is within us to command the elements; and they obey, just as they did
the Saviour when he changed the water into wine, or made bread to feed the
multitudes.

	What shall we say?  Do the things of this world, in their present
state, offer unto us true riches?  I say they are not riches, in the true
sense of the word; there is no such thing as a man being truly rich until
he has power over death, hell, the grave, and him that hath the power of
death, which is the devil.  For what are the riches, the wealth possessed
by the inhabitants of the earth?  Why, they are a phantom, a mere shadow,
a bubble on the wave, that bursts with the least breath of air.  Suppose I
possessed millions on millions of wealth of every description I could
think of or ask for, and I took a sudden pain in my head, which threw me
entirely out of my mind, and baffled the skill of the most eminent
physicians, what good would that money do me, in the absence of the power
to say to that pain, "Depart?"  But suppose I possessed power to say to
the pain, "Go thou to the land from whence thou camest;" and say, "Come,
health, and give strength to my body;" and when I want death, to say,
"Come you, for I have claim upon you, a right, a guarantee deed, for this
body must be dissolved;" says death, "I want it, to prey upon;" but again
I can say to death, "Depart from me, you canst not touch me;" would I not
be rich indeed.  How is it now?  Let the slightest accident come upon one
of the human family, and they are no more.  Do we then possess true riches
in this state?  We do not.

	What shall we do to secure the true riches?  "Seek first the kingdom
of God, and its righteousness."  Lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven,
where moth cannot eat, rust corrode, nor thieves break through and steal
them.  If we find the pearl of great price, go and sell all we have to
purchase it, and secure to ourselves the friendship of God, and our Elder
Brother Jesus Christ, and walk humbly before God, and obey those whom He
has told us to obey, all the days of our lives, and He will say, "These
are my friends, and I will withhold nothing from them."

	And is it indeed possible that we can come into that power, while we
are in this mortality, to say to death, "Touch me not?"  Were it possible,
I for one do not want it, I would not accept it were it offered to me.  If
the Lord Almighty proffered to revoke the decree, "Dust thou art, and to
dust thou shalt return," and say to me, "You can live for ever as you
are;" I should say, "Father, I want to ask you a few questions upon this
point.  Shall I still be subject to the tooth-ache, to the head-ache, to
the chills and fever, and to all the diseases incident to the mortal
body?"  "O yes, but you can live, and never die."  "Then I would have you,
Father, to let the old decree stand good; I find no fault with your offer,
it may be a good one; but I have the promise of receiving my body
again--of this body coming up in the morning of the resurrection, and
being re-united with the spirit, and being filled with the principles of
immortality and eternal life.  Thank you, Father, I would rather take a
new body, and then I shall get a good set of new teeth.  My sight, too, is
failing; if I want to read, I cannot do it without using glasses; and if I
wish to walk a few miles, I cannot do it without making myself sick; if I
wish to go out on a journey, I am under the necessity of taking the utmost
care of myself for fear of injuring my health; but when I get a new body,
this will not be so; I shall be out of the reach of him that hath the
power of death in his hands, for Jesus Christ will conquer that foe, and I
shall receive a new body, which will be filled with eternal life, health,
and beauty."

	What more?  Why, to him that overcometh shall be glory, immortality,
and eternal life.  What more?  Jesus says, as it was said yesterday,
Except ye are one, ye are not mine.  Again, he says, I pray thee, Father,
to make these, my disciples, one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in
thee, that they also may be one in us, I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one.  This is a curiosity that ranks among the
mysteries that the people do not understand.  The Father and I are one,
you disciples and I are one; it is quite a curiosity, but it is as true as
it is curious.  It is nothing more than a key-word to exaltation, glory,
power, and excellency, by which principalities, kingdoms, dominions, and
eternal lives will surround us.

	That will give you true riches, and nothing else will.  The only true
riches in existence are for you and I to secure for ourselves a holy
resurrection; then we have command of the gold and the silver, and can
place it where we please, and in whose hands we please.  We can place it
here and there, where it can be found, and in abundance, when we say the
word.  We can say then to the flies, and to the grasshoppers, "Be ye
extinct," and it will be so; and again say, "Go ye, and make a work of
devastation," and at our word clouds of them darken the sun, and cover the
ground, the crops are destroyed in a day.  We can then say to the
hail-storm, "Stay thou thy rage, and hurt not the fields and fruit trees
of the servants of God;" and we are obeyed.  On the other hand, when they
need a little chastisement, we can say to the rain, to the lightnings, and
to the thunders, "Chasten ye the people;" and the elements are at once in
a state of agitation, and they are chastened by the destruction of their
crops, and cities are swallowed up in the yawning earthquake, when God can
bear their wickedness no longer.  He does not want to slay His children
who love and serve him, He is not a hard master, nor a severe Father, but
when He chastens, it is because He wishes to bring His children to
understanding, that they may know where the true riches are, and what are
the true riches of eternity, and rejoice with Him in His presence, being
made equal with Him.

	These are some of my reflections upon true riches.  Why will the
Latter-day Saints wander off after the things of this world?  But are they
not good?  We cannot do very well without them, for we are of the world,
we are in the world, we partake of the elements of which it is composed;
it is our mother earth, we are composed of the same native material.  It
is all good, the air, the water, the gold and silver; the wheat, the fine
flour, and the cattle upon a thousand hills are all good; but, why do men
set their hearts upon them in their present organized state?  Why not lay
a sure foundation to control them hereafter?  Why do we not keep it
continually before us that all flesh is grass; it is to-day, and to-morrow
it is not; it is like the flower of the grass when it is cut down, it
withers, and is no more?  Why do the children of men set their hearts upon
earthly things?  They are to be used, but not to the abusing of
yourselves.  They are to be used to make us comfortable.  Suppose all the
good things of this world should be given to us, the gold and the silver,
the cattle and the horses, and all the flocks of a thousand hills; it
would be for the express purpose of building mansions and temples, of
feeding the poor that cannot feed themselves, of succouring [sic] the
tried and the tempted, of sending Elders to preach the Gospel from nation
to nation, from island to island, and of gathering Israel from the four
quarters of the globe.  But that moment that men seek to build up
themselves, in preference to the kingdom of God, and seek to hoard up
riches, while the widow and the fatherless, the sick and afflicted, around
them, are in poverty and want, it proves that their hearts are weaned from
their God; and their riches will perish in their fingers, and they with
them.

	Where are the true riches--the pearl of great price?  They are here. 
How can we secure them?  By being obedient, for the willing and obedient
will eat the good of the land by and bye; but those who heap to themselves
riches, and set their hearts upon them, where will they be by and bye? 
There are men in our midst who will quarrel for five dollars, and have
their trials before Bishops and other tribunals if it costs all they
possess.  They say, "I will have my rights."  They tell about their
rights, when they know nothing about rights; in this they are governed
solely by the influence of former traditions.  Why do they not say, "I
will satisfy my hellish will, if it destroys me for time and all
eternity."  If they would say that, they would say the truth.  If a man
says "It is my right to have this or that," he knows nothing about rights,
so never say anything more about rights.  But if you can find one
individual who knows what right is, ask him, and then say, "That is right,
and I will do it."  Take that course, and rejoice that you have found
somebody to tell you what right is.  When my heart trembles with rage, and
my nervous system becomes irritated to knock down and kill, it is for me
to say, Brigham, hold on, you should not do this.  Do you wish me to tell
you what right is?  I will point out the way if you will walk in it.  If
your neighbor or your brother should sue you at the law for your coat,
give it to him, and your cloak also, and not turn round and say, "It is my
right; are you going to rob me?"  The instructions of the Saviour of the
world, which I have quoted, are right; and I could prove it so by
philosophical reasoning, and make you believe it, and you would be
satisfied it is the best course you could pursue.  I will give you the key
to it, which is this--it gives you an influence you never can obtain by
contending for your rights.  You say, "Take it, it is no matter whether it
is my right or not."  If a man asks you to go with him one mile, go two,
and then you can say, "You only asked me to go one mile, but I have gone
two."  That is the counsel Jesus Christ gave.  If you sit down and calmly
reason the case, you cannot but discover that it gives you an influence
over that man, which you could not gain by contending with him in anger. 
All the power which is gained by contending with people is usurped power.

	The power which belongs to the true riches is gained by pursuing a
righteous course, by maintaining an upright deportment towards all men,
and especially towards the household of faith, yielding to each other,
giving freely of that which the Lord has given to you, thus you can secure
to yourselves eternal riches; and gain influence and power over all your
friends, as well as your enemies.  "If you want anything I have, here,
take it, and I will have influence and power over you;" this is a key word
to gain the true riches; that is the amount of it.

	I want to hint at the negative of the question again.  I have, from
time to time, said many things to you in this tabernacle, and so have my
brethren, and the people are much inclined for the mysteries of the
kingdom.  I can tell you what they are, in some degree.  The idea appears
very foolish to me when we are talking about it, but we are obliged to use
the English language as it is, which is scarcely a similitude of what we
want.  Again it is first rate to communicate our ideas, and good to enable
us to talk one way, and mean another, when we have a disposition to do so. 
Brother Hyde preached us a good discourse on mystery yesterday.

	What is a mystery?  We do not know, it is beyond our comprehension. 
When we talk about mystery, we talk about eternal obscurity; for that
which is known, ceases to be a mystery; and all that is known, we may know
as we progress in the scale of intelligence.  That which is eternally
beyond the comprehension of all our intelligence is mystery, yet this word
is used by the translators of the Bible.  They write about mystery, and
talk about mystery; what are they talking about?  I do not know what they
mean, nor what they wish to convey by that word, and they do not know
themselves.  This language is made use of in the Bible, because they have
nothing better.  Things transpire almost every day in our lives which we
class under the term mystery, for want of a better term. What does it
mean, in reality?  Why, nothing at all.  But for the accommodation of
those who speak the English language, we will continue to use the term,
and proceed to examine the negative of true riches.

	Here are the earth and the inhabitants upon its face, organized for
the express purpose of a glorious resurrection.  The terra firma on which
we walk, and from which we gain our bread, is looking forth for the
morning of the resurrection, and will get a resurrection, and be cleansed
from the filthiness that has gone forth out of her.  This is Bible
doctrine.  What filthiness has gone forth out of her?  You and I, and all
the inhabitants of the earth; the human body, and all earthly bodies, both
animal and vegetable; are composed of the native element that we breathe,
that we drink, and that we walk upon; we till the earth for our bread,
which is one of the materials of which your body is composed, it comes
forth from the native elements into an organized state; what for?  To be
exalted, to get a glorious resurrection.  We are of the earth, earthy, and
not only will the portion of mother earth which composes these bodies get
a resurrection, but the earth itself.  It has already had a baptism.  You
who have read the Bible must know that that is Bible doctrine.  What does
it matter if it is not stated in the same words that I use, it is one the
less true that it was baptized for the remission of sins.  The Lord said,
"I will deluge (or immerse) the earth in water for the remission of the
sins of the people;" or if you will allow me to express myself in a
familiar style, to kill all the vermin that were nitting and breeding, and
polluting its body; it was cleansed of its filthiness; and soaked in the
water, as long as some of our people ought to soak.  The Lord baptized the
earth for the remission of sins and it has been once cleansed from the
filthiness that has gone out of it which was in the inhabitants who dwelt
upon its face.

	The earth is organized for a glorious resurrection, and life and
death are set before the people, true riches and false riches; and the
whole world are gone after the false riches; after that which is not life,
after decomposition, after that which perishes, and passes away like the
twilight of evening.  The Lord has set before the inhabitants of the
earth, true riches, from the days of Adam until now.  In olden times, in
the ages we call "the dark ages of the world," men could talk to the Lord
face to face, and He looked like another man.  When He had a mind to do
so, He could walk into the assemblies of the people, and none of them
would know him, only they knew He was a stranger that had visited their
meeting.  He understands the difference between true riches and the bogus
which passed current in the days of Pharaoh in Egypt.  We see the bogus
power again exhibited in the days of Saul the king of Israel, by the witch
of Endor, who, at the request of Saul, brought forth the spirit of Samuel,
or some other spirit.  They understood the principles of life, for the
Lord had set life and death before them, true riches and false riches, or
in other words, composition and decomposition, and the laws, principles,
and powers of the eternal world; and the people of the early ages of this
world understood them.

	The people in this age, are like the old miser, whose latter end was
drawing nigh; he had saved a good purse of gold, but he was blind and
could not see it, so he requested the attendants to bring him the gold
that he might put his hand on it; when he laid his hand upon it, he could
go to sleep.  He possessed the negative of true riches.  Again, they are
like the man who found a lump of gold which weighed 100 pounds, the last
that was heard of him was, he was sitting upon it, offering a great price
to the passers by for something to eat, and swearing that if he had to
starve to death, he would stick by the gold, and die a rich man.  If he
had understood the principles of life--the principles of true riches, he
could have commanded that gold in California, in England, or anywhere
else; but he had no power over it, and died like a fool, no doubt.  What
good was his gold to him?  He had not the power of endless life in him,
particles which compose his body and spirit will return to their native
element.  I told you some time ago what would become of such men.  But I
will quote the Scriptures on this point, and you can make what you please
of it. Jesus says, he will DESTROY death and him that hath the power of
it.  What can you make of this but decomposition, the returning of the
organized particles to their native element, after suffering the wrath of
God until the time appointed.  That appears a mystery, but the principle
has been in existence from all eternity, only it is something you have not
known or thought of.  When the elements in an organized form do not fill
the end of their creation, they are thrown back again, like brother
Kimball's old pottery ware, to be ground up, and made over again.  All I
have to say about it is what Jesus says--I will destroy Death, and him
that hath the power of it, which is the devil.  And if he ever makes "a
full end of the wicked," what else can he do than entirely disorganize
them, and reduce them to their native element?  Here are some of the
mysteries of the kingdom.

	On the other hand, let us take the affirmative of the question; and
inquire what is life and salvation?  It is to take that course wherein we
can abide for ever and ever, and be exalted to thrones, kingdoms,
governments, dominions, and have full power to control the elements,
according to our pleasure to all eternity; the one is life, and the other
is death, which is nothing more or less than the decomposition of
organized native element.  There can be no such thing as power to
annihilate element.  There is one eternity of element, which can be
organized or disorganized, composed or decomposed; it may be put into this
shape or into that, according to the will of the intelligence that
commands it, but there is no such thing as putting it entirely out of
existence.

	I never studied philosophy to any great extent, but on one occasion I
had a kind of a confab with Professor Orson Pratt, who endeavoured to
prove that there was empty space, I supposed there was no such thing.  He
thought he had proved it; but I thought he had not proved a word of it,
and told him the idea was folly.  After hearing a good many arguments from
him, and other men, his colleagues in learning, I wished them to tell me
where empty space was situated, that I might tell the wicked, who wish to
hide themselves from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, where
to go, for they will then be where God is not, if they can find empty
space.  To argue such a question as that, would be, to confute my own
arguments in favor of other truths I have advocated, and oppose my own
system of faith.  We believe that God is round about all things, above all
things, in all things, and through all things.  To tell about empty space
is to tell of a space where God is not, and where the wicked might safely
hide from His presence.  There is no such thing as empty space.

	Remember, that true riches--life, happiness, and salvation, is to
secure for ourselves a part in the first resurrection, where we are out of
the reach of death, and him that hath the power of it; then we are exalted
to thrones, and have power to organize element.  Yes, they that are
faithful, and that overcome, shall be crowned with crowns of eternal
glory.  They shall see the time when their cities shall be paved with
gold; for there is no end to the precious metals, they are in the native
element, and there is an eternity of it.  If you want a world of the most
precious substance, you will have nothing to do but say the word, and it
is done.  You can macadamize streets with it, and beautify and make
glorious the temples.  We can then say to the elements, "Produce ye the
best oranges, lemons, apples, figs, grapes, and every other good fruit." 
I presume we do not draw a single breath that there are not particles of
these things mingled in it.  But we have not the knowledge now to organize
them at our pleasure.  Until we have that power we are not fully in
possession of the true riches, which is the affirmative of the question,
and the negative of the question is no riches at all in reality.

	Well, brethren, I think I have stood out first rate.  When I rose I
did not think I could speak over ten minutes.  May the Lord God bless you,
and have mercy upon the world, and upon this people, that we may be saved
in His kingdom.  Amen.

     GATHERING THE POOR--THE PERPETUAL EMIGRATING FUND--INGRATITUDE.
   A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young, in the Tabernacle,
               at the General Conference, October 6, 1853.

	I wish to call the attention of this Conference to an invitation I
shall give them, and wish to extend it to the Saints in this valley and
elsewhere.  I allude to the gathering of the poor Saints.

	Many of us are acquainted with the circumstances of the Saints when
they came to this valley six years ago, also five and four years ago. 
Were we to go through this community and search out the men, women, and
children who have come here on their own resources, and those who have
been helped here by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, and by private
individuals, it would be seen that a large proportion of the community
have been brought here through the assistance of others.  I will not say a
majority have come here under those circumstances, but there are thousands
who have.  Thousands of men, women, and children have been helped here by
the Perpetual Emigrating Fund alone.

	This is the subject to which I wish to call the attention of the
Conference, and the community at large.  I wish all to hearken to it, to
reflect upon it, and contemplate it seriously.

	I call upon those who have not yet put forth their hands to assist in
gathering the poor, to give us their names and their means, during this
Conference, that we may raise a few thousand dollars to be applied to this
purpose.  Suppose we should try to raise as much as we did four years ago,
when we were in the midst of our greatest poverty and distress--we had
just arrived here, and had scarcely sufficient to sustain life;
notwithstanding these straightened circumstances, at the first Conference
we held in the old Tabernacle, this subject was agitated and $5,700 in
gold was raised, and sent to gather in the poor.  Dare I venture to
flatter myself that we can raise $5,000 or $6,000 this Conference, to be
applied to the same good purpose?  The people are better able to raise
$50,000 now, than they were to raise $5,000 then.  Suppose we raise
$15,000 or $20,000 to send for our poor brethren and sisters, who long to
be here as much as any of you did, before your way was opened.  This
amount can be raised now, and not call forth an unusual effort.

	We might ask you to reflect upon the days that you have spent in
yonder distant land, where you could seldom walk the streets or enter a
shop, like another citizen, without the finger of scorn being pointed at
you, without suffering the malignant taunts and sneers of the ungodly, for
the sake of your religion.  Let me refer your minds to the time that the
Gospel was first introduced to you, and the light and glory of it opened
up to your understandings; when eternity and eternal things reflected upon
your benighted minds, and your conceptions were aroused to see things as
they were, as they are, and as they will be.  What were your feelings and
meditations, when Zion and its glory burst upon your vision? when the
people of God appeared to you, assembled together, preparatory to the
coming of the Son of Man?  Again, what were your feelings, when in every
direction that you turned your eyes, they were met with scenes of
wickedness, and your ears saluted with deep dyed blasphemies of every
description?  Were there any that feared the Lord?  No. The most pious
could do nothing more than some did in the days of the Apostles; they
could erect an image to the unknown God, and worship somebody, or
something, but they knew not what.  What were your feelings and
reflections, under such circumstances, when you first heard of the
latter-day work? of the Gospel in its fulness? when you first learned that
the Lord had a Prophet, and Apostles, who held the words of life for the
people?  What was there you would not have sacrificed in a moment for the
privilege of assembling with the Saints? of mingling your voices and
conversation with theirs, day by day? of visiting, journeying, doing
business, labouring, and spending your lives with those who know and love
the Lord, and will serve Him?  Is there anything you would not have
sacrificed?  Verily, no!

	If you can remember your own feeling then, you can know how others
feel, you can realize how thousands and scores of thousands feel at this
present moment.  There is no hardship they would refuse to undergo, no
danger they would not endeavour to surmount, if they could assemble with
us here this day.  No trial would be too keen for them; there is no
sacrifice that they would not readily and willingly make for the privilege
you enjoy this day.  Brethren and sisters, can you realize this?

	Let us now read a chapter on the other side of the page, and we find
the hearts of men and women, by crossing the ocean, by travelling a few
weeks or months by water and land, appear to become partially closed up,
and they lose sight of the object of their pursuit.  It seems as though
the hardships they pass through, in coming to this land, banish nearly
every particle of the light of Christ out of their minds.

	If you started on your journey with the influence of the Holy Spirit
warming your hearts, who prevented you from retaining it every day of your
life?  You may say it was the devil that robbed you of if.  But what
business had you with the devil?  Was there any necessity that you should
enter into fellowship with him, or into partnership with the works of
darkness?  "No," you reply, "I had forsaken him and all my old associates
and feelings, and had given myself to the Lord, had embraced His Gospel,
and set out to build up His kingdom, and wished to gather with the Saints
at the gathering place."

	Suppose the devil does tempt you, must you of necessity enter into
partnership again with him, open your doors, and bid him welcome to your
house, and tell him to reign there?  Why do you not reflect, and tell
master devil, with all his associates and imps, to begone, feeling you
have served him long enough.

	Says one, I did not know that I could possibly come here with unruly
cattle, without getting wrong in my feelings;" or, "this brother did wrong
and marred my feelings; I was irritated, and the cares of the journey
bewildered my mind, and hurt me so that I do not really know whether I
have got to where I stared [sic] for, or not; things are different here to
what I expected to find them, &c."

	This is a representation of the feelings of some who have crossed the
plains this season.  My advice to you is, go and be baptized for the
remission of sins, and start afresh, that temptation may not overcome you
again; pause and reflect, that you be not overcome by the evil one
unawares.

	In the first place, if you are re-baptized for the remission of sins,
peradventure you may receive again the spirit of the Gospel in its glory,
light and beauty; but if your hearts are so engrossed in the things of
this world, that you do not know whether you want to be re-baptized or
not, you had better shut yourselves up in some kanyon or closet, to repent
of your sins, and call upon the name of the Lord, until you get His
Spirit, and the light thereof, to reflect upon you, that you may know the
nature of your offences, and your true condition; that you may realize and
appreciate the blessing you enjoy in being here with the Saints of the
Most High.

	Let me lead your minds a little further.  I wish to tell you
something which you may perhaps know as well as I do, but you may not have
realized it.  When the Lord Almighty opens the vision of a person's mind,
He shows him the things of the Spirit--things that will be.  If any of you
had a vision of Zion, it was shown to you in its beauty and glory, after
Satan was bound.  If you reflected upon the gathering of the Saints, it
was the spirit of gathering that enlightened you; and when your minds were
opened in vision to behold the glory and excellency of the Gospel, you did
not see a vision of driving cattle across the plains, and where you would
be mired in this or that mud hole; you did not see the stampedes among the
cattle, and those of a worse character among the people; but you saw the
beauty and glory of Zion, that you might be encouraged, and prepared to
meet the afflictions, sorrows and disappointments of this mortal life, and
overcome them, and be made ready to enjoy the glory of the Lord as it was
revealed to you.  It was given to you for your encouragement. RECOLLECT
THAT.

	You will recollect my exhortation to those who have means; we want
them to give the Perpetual Emigrating Fund a lift.  Bring in your tithes
and offerings, and we will help a great many more to this place in the
future than we have this year.  We wish to double our diligence, and
treble the crowd of immigrants by that Fund.

	I wish to show you a little of the philosophy of human nature in its
fallen and degraded state; you may consider it in the Gospel or out of it;
in the light of the Holy Spirit, or without it; as you please.  The
philosophy of mankind, in their daily avocations, you may all know for
yourselves, by your own observation and experience.  I wish to mention a
portion of it that has come under my notice.  I could mention names, but I
will content myself with naming circumstances.

	We pick up, say 200 persons, in England, and convey them across the
water, and across the plains, and set them down in this valley.  They
commence to labour, and in a short time they make themselves comfortable. 
They can soon obtain plenty of the best kind of pay for their labour, such
as bread--the staff of life, butter, cheese and vegetables.  When a man
gets these things, without the fancy nicknacks, he does well.

	Suppose we pick up a company of these poor Saints in England, whose
faces are pale, and who can scarcely tread their way through the streets
for want of the staff of life; you may see them bowed down from very
weakness, with their arms across their stomachs, going to and from their
work; the greater part of them not enabled to get a bit of meat more than
once a month; and upon an average only about one table spoonful of meal
per day, for each person in a family, without butter or cheese, by working
16 hours out of the 24; and when they go to their work and return from it,
they need a staff in their hands to lean upon.  We bring 200 of them here;
instead of their being obliged to work for two or three pence per day,
they can get a dollar and a dollar and a half per day.  With one day's
wages they can purchase flour and meat and vegetables enough to last a
moderately sized family one week.

	They have not been here long when they may be seen swelling in the
streets with an air of perfect independence.  Ask one of these men if he
will pay you for bringing him here; and he will reply, "I don't know you,
sir."  You ask another if he will work for you, for bringing him out to
this place; and he will appear quite astonished, saying, "What have I had
from you?"  Another will say, "If I work for you, what will you give me? 
Can you give me some adobies? for I am going to build a fine house, or if
you have any money to pay me, it will answer as well."

	How does such language and ingratitude make the benefactor of that
person feel?  Why, his heart sinks within him.  I can find thousands of
just such men and women in this territory.  When they are brought to this
place, they do not know their benefactors, who saved them from death, but
they are a head and shoulders above them, when they meet them in the
streets.

	Do you know the conclusion that is natural to man, when he is treated
in such a manner by his fellow man?  It is, "I wish I had left you in your
own country."  I wish so too.  I say, let such persons starve to death,
and die Christians, instead of being brought here to live and commit the
sin of ingratitude, and die and go to hell; for while they remained in
their poverty, they were used to the daily practice of praying for
deliverance; and I say it is better for them to die praying, and go into
eternity praying, and the Almighty to have bowels of compassion and mercy
towards them, than for them to come here, and lose the Spirit of God
through ingratitude, and go into eternity swearing.

	I can pick up hundreds of men who have passed by their benefactors,
and if they should speak to them, would turn round and say, "I really
don't know you."  Or if they do, they will speak every thing against them
their tongues can utter, or can be allowed to; and they will swear falsely
about them--about the very men who have saved them from starvation and
death.

	I frequently refer to facts that come under my own observation.  When
I came into this Valley, we had notes amounting to $30,000 against
brethren we had assisted, which no person will pay one cent for.  We have
helped men, women, and children from England, to over the amount of
$30,000.  Except one individual, and that is a man by the name of Thomas
Green, who lives in Utah, and one young woman, who came from England,
there has never been a single person who has paid one dime towards
cancelling a debt amounting to over $30,000, besides other notes,
accounts, and obligations which we hold.

	Do I mean to be understood that no person pays their passage?  By no
means.  My remarks will not hit those, neither are they directed to them
who are thankful to their benefactors, and who do, and are willing to pay. 
But as far as I am concerned, before we came into this Valley, with the
exception of one man and woman, no person has offered to pay us one dime,
and eight-tenths of them have turned away from the Church, and a number of
them joined the mob, and sought to dye their hands in our blood.

	Now do you see the philosophy of human nature, and I will say of
divine nature?  Let me help a man who makes an evil use of the assistance
I render him, and endeavours to injure himself and me, and his neighbour
with it, what does the Spirit of the Lord teach me in such a circumstance? 
What would the Lord do, provided He was here himself?  Do you not think He
would withhold the thing from him?  Do you think an angel would help a man
who would turn round and destroy that angel and himself?  I do not,
neither do I think the Lord would, and no good man would if he knew it,
unless it were done with a view to prove a person.  I do not think a bad
man would distribute his means to another individual, or to individuals,
who would use them to his injury.

	It is the evil actions and covetousness in the hearts of the poor
that shut up the bowels of compassion in the rich, and they say they will
not help the poor.  We could have gathered hundreds of thousands more of
the poor, were it not that the rich have been so biased, and still
continue to be.  Say they "We do not wish our means to be applied to an
evil use."

	If you wish to know what I mean by all this, it is that if any men or
women refuse to pay their passage to this place when they are in
circumstances to do it, let them be cut off from the Church, and then sue
them at the law, and collect the debt.  Sever those limbs from the tree,
and then make them pay their honest debts.  That is to the poor.

	We now want the rich to turn in their means, that the poor, the
honest poor, may be delivered.  Some of you may inquire if we wish to send
the means now to England?  Yes; we want the means now, which you can pay
into the Tithing Office, and have it recorded on the books, to answer the
means we have there, which can be used for next season.  We want to give a
heavy lift to the emigration of the poor, next season.  We have brought
out a considerable number this season, but it is hardly a beginning to
what we wish to be brought out next season.

	The first duty of those who have been brought out by the Perpetual
Emigrating Fund is to pay back what they have received from it, the first
opportunity, that others may receive the same benefit they have received. 
We wish you in the first place to get something to eat, drink, and wear;
but when you are in any way comfortable, we wish you to pay that debt the
next thing you do, and replenish the Fund.  It is built upon a principle,
if carried out properly, and the debts punctually refunded, to increase in
wealth.  The $5,000 that was sent for the poor four years ago this fall,
if every man had been prompt to pay in that which he received, would have
increased to $20,000.

	We are the greatest speculators in the world.  We have the greatest
speculation on hand that can be found in all the earth. I never denied
being a speculator.  I never denied being a miser, or of feeling eager for
riches; but some men will chase a picayune five thousand miles when I
would not turn round for it, and yet we are preachers of the same Gospel,
and brethren in the same kingdom of God.  You may consider this is a
little strong; but the speculation I am after, is to exchange this world,
which, in its present state, passes away, for a world that is eternal and
unchangeable, for a glorified world filled with eternal riches, for the
world that is made an inheritance for the Gods of eternity.

	The plan is to make every thing bend to the revelations of God; this
is the object of our Priesthood--to bring into requisition every good
thing, and make it bear for the accomplishment of the main point we have
in view; and when we get through we shall reap the reward of the just, and
get all our hearts can anticipate or desire.  To lay plans for the
attainment of this, is just as necessary as for a merchant to lay plans to
get earthly riches by buying and selling merchandise.  It is for us to lay
plans to secure to ourselves eternal lives, which is just as necessary as
it is for the miser to lay plans to amass a great amount of gold upon the
earth; and it is for us to engage in it systematically.

	I say to the poor, PAY YOUR DEBTS TO THE PERPETUAL EMIGRATING FUND;
and to the rich, HELP THE POOR; and this will bring wealth and strength,
by each one, according to his ability, calling, and means, assisting in
every point and place in this great speculation for kingdoms, thrones,
principalities and powers.  It is said union is strength; and that is
enough; if we get that, we shall have power.  This is the plan for us to
work upon, and I wish the brethren to whisper this around among their
neighbors, when they go out of this tabernacle,and say, "What can we give
to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund?  Can we give anything this season?"  We
will not refuse help from the sisters.  Do you ask how small an amount we
will take?  We will take from a pin to a bed quilt; but be sure, when you
bring a pin, that you have not many other things in your trunk that would
be useful, more than you at present need; for if you bring a pin under
such circumstances, you cannot receive a blessing, and the reward it is
entitled to.  If the clothing you wear each day is all you have, and you
have need to borrow a shawl to go out in, and you have only a pin to
bestow, bring that, and you shall receive a blessing.

	We think it is not necessary to give you the report of the Perpetual
Emigrating Fund this Conference.  It is doing well, but we want it to do a
great deal better.  We want to swell the operation, and bring the poor
from the nations by scores of thousands instead of by hundreds.  This
embraces what I wished to lay before the Conference upon this point.

	Before the Conference is concluded we shall call for quite a number
of Elders.  It was anticipated that our missionaries would have been
called at the August Conference of this year, but we will call a
considerable number this Conference.  You need not inquire where we want
you to go, for it will be told you when you are ready.  Prepare your mind
and circumstances against that time, for we wish to send the Gospel to
Israel.

    THE GOSPEL--GROWING IN KNOWLEDGE--THE LORD'S SUPPER--BLESSINGS OF
   FAITHFULNESS--UTILITY OF PERSECUTION--CREATION OF ADAM--EXPERIENCE.
   A discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 23, 1853.

	I wish to bear my testimony, before this congregation, to the
religion which is called "Mormonism," and preached by the Elders of the
same profession in all the world; and that, we believe, is the Gospel of
salvation, and calculated to save all the honest in heart who wish to be
saved.

	This is my testimony concerning it--It is the power of God unto
salvation to all who believe and obey it.  The words "obey it," I have
added to the text as it is given to us by King James's translators.  To
say it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe, and that
be the end of it, then the people could not be saved by it.  It is quite
possible some may argue the point as it is held out in the New Testament
reading, and in their own estimation justly.  But to me one argument is
sufficient to lay the matter at rest in my mind--a person who disobeys the
Gospel, and operates against it, may not only believe it, but know it to
be true.  Therefore I read the Scripture thus--"This Gospel that we preach
is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe and obey it."

	My testimony is based upon experience, upon my own experience, in
connection with that obtained by observing others.  To me it has become
positively true--no doubt remains upon my mind, whatever, as to the power
of the revealed will of Heaven to man upon the minds of the people, when
the principles of salvation are set before them by the authorized
ministers of heaven.  The heavenly truth commends itself to every person's
judgment, and to their faith; and more especially to the senses of those
who wish to be honest with themselves, with their God, and with their
neighbor.  Yet I must admit that all men are not operated upon alike; the
evidence of truth comes more forcibly to the understandings of some than
others.  This is owing to numerous influences.  The Gospel may be preached
to an individual, and the truth commend itself to the conscience of that
person, creating but a little faith in its truth, to which there may be an
addition made.  If persons can receive a little, it proves they may
receive more.  If they can receive the first and second principles with an
upright feeling, they may receive still more, and the words of the Prophet
be fulfilled.  He, seeing and understanding the mind of man, and the
operations of the different spirits that have gone abroad into the world,
and knowing the ways of the Lord, and the vision of his mind being opened
to those things we call mysteries, said--"Whom shall he teach knowledge?
and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from
the milk, and drawn from the breasts.  For precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and
there a little."  That is, He gives a little to His humble followers
to-day, and if they improve upon it, to-morrow He will give them a little
more, and the next day a little more.  He does not add to that which they
do not improve upon, but they are required to continually improve upon the
knowledge they already possess, and thus obtain a store of wisdom.  It is
plain, then, that we may receive the truth, and know, through every
portion of the soul, that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation,
that it is the way to life eternal; still there may be added to this, more
power, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.  The Apostle does not say,
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the truth, as Jesus did; no, but it
reads, "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ," which implies a growing in strength, wisdom, and understanding,
as he did.

	It is the privilege of all Saints to grow and increase in
understanding, and to spread abroad.  If they receive a little, it is
their privilege to improve upon that little, and so receive more, until
they become perfect in the Lord--knowing and understanding perfectly His
ways.  Then the manifestations of His providence among the children of men
cease to be a mystery to them.  Kingdoms and thrones, princes and
potentates, with all their earthly splendor, may be hurled to the dust,
and revolution upon revolution may spread scenes of affliction and blood
among the inhabitants of the earth, yet their eyes are open to see the
handy work of the Lord in all this.  They realize that He is capable of
endowing His ministers and servants on the earth with the same power as He
possesses in Himself, that He scrutinizes every particle of His work, and
that not a hair of their heads can fall to the ground without His notice.

	I bear my testimony that the Gospel you have embraced is the way of
life and salvation to every one that believes it, and then obeys it with
an honest intent.  The inquiry may arise in the minds of some, as to how
far they shall obey it.  Every son and daughter of God is expected to obey
with a willing heart every word which the Lord has spoken, and which He
will in the future speak to us.  It is expected that we hearken to the
revelations of His will, and adhere to them, cleave to them with all our
might; for this is salvation, and any thing short of this clips the
salvation and the glory of the Saints.  Consequently, we are here to-day,
engaged in the administration of the ordinance of the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper.  How does it appear to you, and what are your sensations,
when the servants of the Lord present to you the emblems of His body?  Do
you believe you receive life?  Do you realize that you receive any
benefit?  Do you feel that you will receive fresh strength, or additional
knowledge, through this holy ordinance?  Or, do you do it because others
do it?  Do you partake of these tokens of the love of the Redeemer because
it is a mere custom?  Suffice it to say, varied are the feelings among the
human family upon this subject.

	If you ask a certain class of the priests of Christendom what they
think of the bread and wine administered for the Sacrament of the Lord's
supper, they will declare that the bread is the actual flesh, and the wine
the real blood, of him who was slain for the sins of the world.

	If you ask another class of men what benefit they derive from
partaking of the Sacrament, from eating and drinking the emblems of the
body and blood of Christ, they reply, "It is merely a token of our
fellowship with each other."  Is there any life, any power, any real and
substantial benefit to be obtained by adhering to, and obeying faithfully,
this ordinance?  What do the Latter-day Saints think about it?  Do they
understand the true nature of this ordinance?  Perhaps they do, and again
perhaps they do not.

	It is an easy matter for me to understand the information the Lord
has imparted to me, and then communicate the same to you.  Will the bread
administered in this ordinance add life to you?  Will the wine add life to
you?  Yes; if you are hungry and faint, it will sustain the natural
strength of the body.  But suppose you have just eaten and drunk till you
are full, so as not to require another particle of food to sustain the
natural body; you have eaten all your nature requires; do you then receive
any benefit from the bread and wine as mere particles of food?  As far as
the emblems are concerned, you receive strength naturally, when the body
requires it, precisely as you would by eating bread, and drinking wine, at
any other time, or on any other occasion.

	In what consists the benefit we derive from this ordinance?  It is in
obeying the commands of the Lord.  When we obey the commandments of our
heavenly Father, if we have a correct understanding of the ordinances of
the house of God, we receive all the promises attached to the obedience
rendered to His commandments.  Jesus said--Verily, Verily I say unto you,
except ye eat the flesh of the Son of God, and drink his blood, ye have no
life in you.  Again, "He that eateth me," "shall live by me."  Again,
"Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life."  "For
my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."

	Can you understand these sayings of the Saviour?  These sayings are
but isolated portions of the vast amount of instructions given by him to
his followers in his day.  Had a thousandth part of his teachings to them
been handed down to us, and all his doings been faithfully recorded and
transmitted to us, we should not have known what to do with such a vast
amount of information.  The Apostle says, "And there are also many other
things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I
suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should
be written."

	Allow me to explain this text.  The Apostle could not possibly mean
what the language of the quotation implies--that the whole earth would
have been covered with books to a certain depth; no, but he meant, by that
saying, there would have been more written than the world of mankind would
receive, or credit.  The people then were as they are in this day--they
are continually reaching after something that is not revealed, when there
is more written already than they can comprehend.  Instead of saying the
world could not contain the books, we will say there would have been more
written than the people would carry out in their lives.

	I will now tell you what the Saviour meant by those wonderful
expressions touching his body and blood.  It is simply this--"If you do
not keep the commandments of God, you will have no life of the Son of God
in you."  Jesus, as they were eating, took the bread, and blessed it, and
broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my
body.  And he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is
shed for many for the remission of sins."  What were they required to
drink it for?  What are we partaking of these emblems for?  In token of
our fellowship with him, and in token that we desire to be one with each
other, that we may all be one with the Father.  His administering these
symbols to his ancient disciples, and which he commanded should be done
until he came, was for the express purpose that they should witness unto
the Father that they did believe in him.  But on the other hand, if they
did not obey this commandment, they should not be blessed with his spirit.

	It is the same in this, as it is in the ordinance of baptism for the
remission of sins.  Has water, in itself, any virtue to wash away sin? 
Certainly not; but the Lord says, "If the sinner will repent of his sins,
and go down into the waters of baptism, and there be buried in the
likeness of being put into the earth and buried, and again be delivered
from the water, in the likeness of being born--if in the sincerity of his
heart he will do this, his sins shall be washed away.  Will the water of
itself wash them away?  No; but keeping the commandments of God will
cleanse away the stain of sin.

	When we eat of this bread, and drink of this water, do we eat the
literal flesh of the Son of God?  Were I a priest of the Roman Catholic
church, and had been trained from my youth in that faith, I might believe
fully, with my whole heart, that my prayers would transform the bread of
the eucharist into the literal flesh, and the wine into the literal blood,
of the Son of God.  But notwithstanding my faith on that matter, the bread
and wine would be just the same in their component parts, and would
administer to the mortal systems of men, or of beasts, the same amount and
kind of nutriment that the same quantity of unblessed bread and wine
would.  If bread and wine are blessed, dedicated, and sanctified, through
the sincerity and faith of the people of God, then the Spirit of the Lord,
through the promise, rests upon the individuals who thus keep His
commandments, and are diligent in obeying the ordinances of the house of
God.  So I understand all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.  You
know we used to get down upon our knees and pray for the remission of
sins; and we would pray until we got peace of mind, and then we thought
our sins were forgiven.  I have no fault to find with this, it is all
right.  Many in this way have been made to rejoice in the hope of eternal
life, to rejoice in the gift of the Spirit of the Lord, and in the light
of His countenance.  Many received heavenly visions, revelations, the
ministering of holy angels, and the manifestations of the power of God,
until they were satisfied; and all this before the ordinances of the house
of God were preached to the people.  They obtained those blessings through
their faith, and the sincerity of their hearts.  It was this that called
down heavenly blessings upon them.  It was their fervency of spirit, and
not their obedience to the celestial law, through which they received such
blessings; and it was all right.  What is required of us when the law
comes?  We might obey it, as old Paul did.  He was a servant of God in all
good conscience, when he took care of the clothes of those who stoned
Stephen to death; but when the law came, sin revived in him, and he said,
"I died."  That is, his former notions of serving God, his former
incorrect traditions, all appeared to him in their true light, and that
upon which he had trusted for salvation as baseless as a dream, when the
law of the Lord came by Jesus Christ; and in it he found the promises and
the gifts and the blessings of the holy Gospel, through obedience to the
ordinances.  That is the only legal way to obtain salvation, and an
exaltation in the presence of God.

	light do I view all the ordinances of the house of God.  I do not
know of one commandment that may be preferred before another; or of one
ordinance of the house of God, from the beginning to the end of all the
Lord has revealed to the children of men, that is not of equal validity,
power, and authority with the rest.  So we partake of bread and wine,
obeying the commandments of the Lord; and by so doing we receive the
blessing.

	But how do the people feel?  Perhaps you will refer the answer of
this question to myself.  Were I to answer it, I should say, they feel
every way.  Permit me to refer particularly to the brethren and sisters
who have lately come to this place--they have all the variety of feelings
that is common to the human heart.  They know how they feel; they are my
witnesses.  The most frivolous and trifling circumstance that can
transpire, will produce in them the most keen and cutting trial.  What can
we say about it?  For one I will say, let them come, the small trials and
the large ones; let them be many or few, it is the same; let them come as
the Lord pleases.  Brother Heber C. Kimball was speaking this morning
about this people being driven from pillar to post, and he told the cause
of their many trials.  I will ask a question concerning this matter.  If
you had not been driven from York State, and the persecution become so hot
as to send you up to Kirtland, Ohio, would you have known as much as you
now know?  Persecution did not commence in Kirtland, nor in Jackson
County, but it commenced at the time Joseph the Prophet sought the plates
in the hill Cumorah.  It did not commence after I came into the Church,
but I found it at work when I entered the Church.

	Suppose Joseph had not been obliged to flee from Pennsylvania back to
York State, would he have known as much as he afterwards knew?  Suppose he
could have stayed in old Ontario County in peace, without being
persecuted, could he have learned as much as he did by being persecuted? 
He fled from there to Kirtland, accompanied by many others, to save their
lives.  There are men now in this Church, whom I see before me, and in
full fellowship, who haunted my house for days, weeks, and months to kill
me, and I knew it all the time; and Joseph had to flee to Missouri.

	Would he have known as much if this persecution had not come upon
him, as he afterwards did by its coming upon him?  When the people left
Kirtland they went to Jackson County, Missouri, and Joseph commenced to
lay out a city to be called Zion; and not now, but after a time, when the
Lord has accomplished His preparatory work, it will be built, even the New
Jerusalem.  The brethren were persecuted also in Jackson County, and
driven out; they had trial upon trial, persecution on the right hand and
on the left.  Suppose, when they went to Jackson County, all the people of
Missouri had hailed them as brethren, fellow citizens, and as neighbors,
and had treated them accordingly, and they had been protected in their
religious liberty, would the people that were driven from Jackson County
have known as much as they now know?  Could they have gained the knowledge
and wisdom they have obtained by means of their persecutions?  You can
answer these questions to suit your own minds.  When they had to flee from
Ohio to Missouri, it certainly gave the people an experience they could
not have obtained in any other way.  When they were driven from Jackson
County, and went to Clay, Ray, Caldwell, and Davies counties, persecution
still followed them, and every man and woman who acknowledged Joseph Smith
to be a Prophet, had to leave the State forthwith.

	I feel inclined now to give some of you a gentle touch on the left
side. Brethren, how glad I am to see you; how pleased I am to see you;
where have you been these few years back?  Where have you been living? 
Where did you go after you left Missouri?  "Why I stayed there."  I say,
there was not a man who would say that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, could
stay there; they had all to leave the State; and you will now show
yourselves at this late day, and try to have me believe you are first-rate
Latter-day Saints.  My thoughts are, "YOU POOR DEVILS!"

	I hope I do not hurt any of your feelings.  If you will do right from
this time henceforth, and help with your mights to build up the Kingdom of
God, I will hold you in fellowship after you have thus proved yourselves. 
But you may regard it as an established fact, that I have no fellowship
for you yet; and I have as much as the Lord has.  Still, if I have
anything to fear, it is that I fellowship people too much, when they are
not worthy; that is, I reflect--"Can I be more merciful than the Lord?" 
But I have not got light enough nor wisdom enough to fellowship men who
lived in peace with those who sought to kill us.

	Ask yourselves whether you think this people would have received as
much as they have received, if they never had been persecuted.  Could they
have advanced in the school of intelligence as far without being
persecuted, as they have by being persecuted?  Look for instance at Adam. 
Listen, ye Latter-day Saints!  Supposing that Adam was formed actually out
of clay, out of the same kind of material from which bricks are formed;
that with this matter God made the pattern of a man, and breathed into it
the breath of life, and left it there, in that state of supposed
perfection, he would have been an adobie to this day.  He would not have
known anything.

	Some of you may doubt the truth of what I now say, and argue that the
Lord could teach him.  This is a mistake.  The Lord could not have taught
him in any other way than in the way in which He did teach him.  You
believe Adam was made of the dust of this earth.  This I do not believe,
though it is supposed that it is so written in the Bible; but it is not,
to my understanding.  You can write that information to the States, if you
please--that I have publicly declared that I do not believe that portion
of the Bible as the Christian world do.  I never did, and I never want to. 
What is the reason I do not?  Because I have come to understanding, and
banished from my mind all the baby stories my mother taught me when I was
a child.

	But suppose Adam was made and fashioned the same as we make adobies;
if he had never drunk of the bitter cup, the Lord might have talked to him
to this day, and he would have continued as he was to all eternity, never
advancing one particle in the school of intelligence.  This idea opens up
a field of light to the intelligent mind.  How can you know truth but by
its opposite, or light but by its opposite?  The absence of light is
darkness.  How can sweetness be known but by its opposite, bitter?  It is
by this means that we obtain all intelligence.  This is "Mormonism," and
it is founded upon all truth, upon every principle of true philosophy; in
fact the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true philosophy in existence. 
There is not one particle of it that is not strictly philosophical, though
you and I may not understand all the fulness of it, but we will if we
continue faithful.

	Let the brethren who have been persecuted and driven from city to
city, inquire of themselves if they like it.  Some of you may give a
negative to this inquiry.  You recollect brother Taylor telling about a
woman in Far West who had her house burnt down some four or five times;
she finally said, "she would be damned if she would stand it any longer." 
If her eyes had been opened to see, she would have thanked the Lord for
that, more than for anything else; that persecution was more precious to
her than riches, because it was designed to teach her to understand the
knowledge of God.  Do I acknowledge the hand of the Lord in persecution? 
Yes, I do.  It is one of the greatest blessings that could be conferred
upon the people of God.  I acknowledge the hand of the Lord in levelling
His people to the dust of the earth, and reducing them to a state of
abject poverty.

	Time and time again have I left handsome property to be inherited by
our enemies.

	Suppose we were called to leave what we have now, should we call it a
sacrifice?  Shame on the man who would so call it; for it is the very
means of adding to him knowledge, understanding, power, and glory, and
prepares him to receive crowns, kingdoms, thrones, and principalities, and
to be crowned in glory with the Gods of eternity.  Short of this, we can
never receive that which we are looking for.

	For example, I will refer to your crossing the plains.  How could you
in any other way have known the hardships incident to such a journey?  And
do you not feel ashamed for getting angry at your cattle, or for letting
passion arise in your bosoms?  Suppose you were rolling in wealth, and
perfectly at your ease, with an abundance around you; you might have
remained in that condition until Doomsday, and never could have advanced
in the school of intelligence, any more than Adam could have known about
the works of God, in the great design of the creation, without first being
made acquainted with the opposite?  "Is there evil in the city and I have
not done it, saith the Lord."  There is no evil that is not known to the
Lord.  He has been perfectly acquainted with all the persecutions the
Saints have passed through.  His hand was there, as much so as it is in
building up and tearing down kingdoms and thrones on earth; and even the
moth we trample upon is not overlooked by Him.  Everything is under His
watchful eye; he understands all the works of His hands, and knows how to
use them to His own glory.  He has given the children of men the privilege
of becoming equal with His Son Jesus Christ, and has placed all things
that pertain to this world in their hands, to see what use they will make
of them.

	Joseph could not have been perfected, though he had lived a thousand
years, if he had received no persecution.  If he had lived a thousand
years, and led this people, and preached the Gospel without persecution,
he would not have been perfected as well as he was at the age of
thirty-nine years.  You may calculate when this people are called to go
through scenes of affliction and suffering, are driven from their homes,
and cast down, and scattered, and smitten, and peeled, the Almighty is
rolling on His work with greater rapidity.  But let you and me live and
die in peace, and in our lives we send the Gospel to the nations, from
kingdom to kingdom, and from people to people, will it advance with the
same speed if it receive no persecution?  If we had received no
persecution in Nauvoo, would the Gospel have spread as it now has?  Would
the Elders have been scattered so widely as they now are, preaching the
Gospel?  No, they would have been wedded to their farms, and the precious
seed of the word would have been choked.  "Brother Joseph, or brother
Brigham, do not call upon me to go on a mission, for I have so much to do
I cannot go," would have been the general cry.  "I want to build a row of
stores across this or that block, and place myself in a situation to make
$100,000 a year, and then I can devote so much for the building up of the
kingdom of God."  The Elders would have been so devoted to riches, they
would not have gone to preach when the Lord wanted them.  But when they
have not a frock to put upon the backs of their children, or a shoe for
their feet, then they can go out and preach the Gospel to the world.

	Well, do you think that persecution has done us good?  Yes.  I sit
and laugh, and rejoice exceedingly when I see persecution.  I care no more
about it than I do about the whistling of the north wind, the croaking of
the crane that flies over my head, or the crackling of the thorns under
the pot.  The Lord has all things in His hand; therefore let it come, for
it will give me experience.  Do you suppose I should have known what I now
know, had I not been persecuted?  I can now see the hearts of the children
of men with the same clearness as I can your persons in the light of day. 
I know we have been sunk in the depths of poverty and wretchedness, by the
hands of our enemies, but in this we have seen the works of the Lord, and
the works of darkness intermingled; this has taught us to discriminate
between the two, that we may learn to choose the good, and refuse the
evil; or in other words, to separate the chaff from the wheat.

	I am a witness that "Mormonism" is true upon philosophical
principles. Every particle of sense I have, proves it to be sound, natural
reason.  The Gospel is true, there is a God, there are angels, there are a
heaven and a hell, and we are all in eternity, and out of it we can never
get, it is boundless, without beginning or end, and we have never been out
of it.  Time is a certain portion of eternity allotted to the existence of
these mortal bodies, which are to be dissolved, to be decomposed, or
disorganized, preparatory to entering into a more exalted state of being. 
It is a portion of eternity allotted to this world, and can only be known
by the changes we see in the composition and decomposition of the elements
of which it is composed.  The Lord has put His children here, and given
them bodies that are also subject to decay, to see if they will prove
themselves worthy of the particles of which their tabernacles are
composed, and of a glorious resurrection when their mortal bodies will
become immortalized.  Now if you possess the light of the Holy Spirit, you
can see clearly that trials in the flesh are actually necessary.

	I will refer again to the brethren and sisters who have lately come
over the plains.  My counsel to them to-day is, as it has been on former
occasions to all who have come into these valleys, Go and be baptized for
the remission of sins, repenting of all your wanderings from the path of
righteousness, believing firmly, in the name of Jesus Christ, that all
your sins will be washed away.  If any of you inquire what is the
necessity of your being baptized, as you have not committed any sins, I
answer, it is necessary to fulfil all righteousness.

	I have heard of some of you cursing and swearing, even some of the
Elders of Israel.  I would be baptized seven times, were I in your place;
I would not stop teazing [sic] some good Elder to baptize me again and
again, until I could think my sins forgiven.  I would not live over
another night until I was baptized enough to satisfy me that my sins were
forgiven.  Then go and be confirmed, as you were when you first embraced
the religion of Jesus.  That is my counsel.

	Furthermore I counsel you to stop and think what you are doing,
before you commit any more sins, before you give way to your temper.  The
temper, or the evil propensities of men, when given way to, are the cause
of their sinning so much.  The Lord is suffering the devil to work upon
and try His people.  The selfish will, operated upon by the power of
Satan, is the strongest cord that vibrates through the human system.  This
has been verified a thousand times.  Men have sacrificed their money,
their health, their good names, their friends, and have broken through
every tender tie to gratify their wills.  Curb that, bridle the tongue,
and then hold the mastery over your feelings, that they submit not to the
will of the flesh, but to the will of the Holy Ghost; and decide in your
own minds that your will and judgment shall be none other than the will
and judgment of the Spirit of God, and you will then go and sin no more.

	Many of the brethren who have led companies through this season are
scattered through the congregation.  I will tell a story you will scarcely
believe.  In the first place, I will remark, it has been very common for
the companies crossing the plains to send into the city for provisions to
be sent out to them.  Again, many of you new comers have suffered for want
of food on the plains.  Would you have suffered as you did if you had been
in possession of the experience you now have?  "No," you reply.  "No,"
says this father, and that mother, and this man that brought through a
company, "had we the experience we now have, when we left the Missouri
river, we could have come through, and none have suffered for food, and
less of our stock would have been destroyed."  This experience is good for
you.  It helps you to learn the lessons of human life, for the Lord
designs His people to understand the whole of it--to understand the light
and the darkness, the height and the depth, the length and the breadth of
every principle that is within the compass of the human mind.

	Now for the hard saying.  Brother David Wilkin's company, Joseph
Young's company, John Brown's company, and other companies, had more
provisions for their journey, when they left Missouri river, by a great
amount, than the first emigrants had who started to come to this valley,
not knowing whither they went, carrying with them their farming implements
into a country where they could obtain nothing to sustain themselves in
life until they raised it from the ground.  When you started for this
place, you had more provisions, according to your numbers, than the first
Pioneer companies had who came here six years ago.  Can you believe this
statement?  I can prove it to you.  Here are hundreds who can testify to
the truth of this statement.  And you complained of suffering!  If you
suffer, it is for want of experience.  This is positive proof to you, that
were it not that the Lord turns us into these difficulties, and leads us
into these trials, we could not know how to be glorified and crowned in
His presence.  If these companies were again to cross the plains, they
would have plenty, and some to spare to feed the poor, and take up the
lame, and the halt, and the blind, by the way, and bring them to Zion, and
then have a surplus.  Are you to blame?  No.  If you are to blame for
anything, it is for complaining against the providence of God, instead of
feeling thankful for the knowledge and intelligence the Lord has given you
in this experience.  When you are in the like situation again, you can
save yourselves, and those associated with you.  Your experience is worth
more to you than gold.

	Brother Kimball referred to Zion's camp going to Missouri.  When I
returned from that mission to Kirtland, a brother said to me, "Brother
Brigham, what have you gained by this journey?"  I replied, "Just what we
went for; but I would not exchange the knowledge I have received this
season for the whole of Geauga County; for property and mines of wealth
are not to be compared to the worth of knowledge."  Ask those brethren and
sisters who have passed through scenes of affliction and suffering for
years in this Church, what they would take in exchange for their
experience, and be placed back where they were, were it possible.  I
presume they would tell you, that all the wealth, honors, and riches or
the world could not buy the knowledge they had obtained, could they barter
it away.

	Let the brethren be contented, and if you have trials, and must see
hard times, learn to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in it all.  He
directs the affairs of this world, and will until He reigns King of
Saints.  The vail which is over this people is becoming thinner; let them
be faithful until they can rend it asunder, and see the hand of the Lord,
and His goings forth among the people, with a vision unobstructed by the
vail of ignorance, and bless the name of the Lord.

	Brethren and sisters, inasmuch as I have the right and privilege,
through the Priesthood, I bless you in the name of the Lord, and say, Be
you blessed.  These are my feelings to the Latter-day Saints, and would be
to all the human family, if they would receive my blessings, in the name
of Jesus Christ.  Amen.


       COMPREHENSIVENESS OF TRUE RELIGION--THE SAINTS BUT STEWARDS.
A discourse delivered by President Brigham Young, at Great Salt Lake City,
                            December 5, 1853.

	Myself and my brethren frequently rise to address the congregation in
this place, not knowing precisely what may prove the most beneficial and
instructing.  The same weakness is in me, that is common to the most of my
brethren who address you from this stand, that is, a degree of timidity,
which arises from a sense of the importance of the work in which we are
engaged; but my resolution overbalances this.

	Can anything be taught that will edify this congregation like the
principles of the Gospel?  It may be said the life and existence of man,
with the varied avocations of his life, from birth to death, are an
interesting subject, as much so as the Gospel.  But this is connected with
the Gospel of salvation, as well as everything else that is associated
with his being.  The whole mortal existence of man is neither more nor
less than a preparatory state given to finite beings, a space wherein they
may improve themselves for a higher state of being.  The labour of man in
this existence seems to be almost wholly directed to procure a mortal
subsistence; this is more particularly the case with those who have not
learned the order of heaven, and that it is necessary to direct our
energies, during our time here, in a channel to secure salvation in the
kingdom of God.

	Mankind, in general, do not stop to reflect, they are pressing
headlong to grasp the whole world if possible; each individual is for
himself, and he is ignorant of the design the Almighty had in his creation
and existence in this life.  To obtain a knowledge of this design is a
duty obligatory upon all the sons and daughters of Adam.

	The Latter-day Saints realise that there is no period of man's
existence not incorporated with the plan of salvation, and directly
pointing to a future existence.  Consequently, when we stand here to speak
to the people, let every man speak what is in his heart.   If one of our
Elders is capable of giving us a lecture upon any of the sciences, let it
be delivered in the spirit of meekness--in the spirit of the holy Gospel. 
If, on the Sabbath day, when we are assembled here to worship the Lord,
one of the Elders should be prompted to give us a lecture on any branch of
education with which he is acquainted, is it outside the pale of our
religion?  I think not.  If any of the Elders are disposed to give a
lecture to parents and children on letters, on the rudiments of the
English language, it is in my religion, it is a part of my faith.  Or if
an Elder shall give us a lecture upon astronomy, chemistry, or geology,
our religion embraces it all.  It matters not what the subject be, if it
tends to improve the mind, exalt the feelings, and enlarge the capacity. 
The truth that is in all the arts and sciences forms a part of our
religion.  Faith is no more a part of it than any other true principle of
philosophy.  Were I to give you a lecture to-day upon farming, would I be
speaking upon a matter that transcends the bounds of our religion? 
Agriculture is a part of it as well as any other truth.  Were I to lecture
on business principles of any kind, our religion embraces it; and what it
does not circumscribe, it would be well for us to dispense with at once
and for ever.

	This language may come in contact with the prejudices of many people,
and I will add, of all people, unless they have been schooled in
"Mormonism."  It comes in contact with the traditions, prejudices, and
feelings of former years, when the alpha and omega of our religion
consisted in singing, preaching, exhorting, and shouting "Glory,
hallelujah, praise the Lord!"  And when Monday morning came, we would go
to our farms, to our merchandize, to our mechanism, and to what we called
our dull business of life, which we considered did not belong to our
religion.  These are the traditions of the world, but it is not so with
us; we have learned the Gospel better.

	I am aware how easy it is for the mind of man to become entangled
with the deceitfulness of riches, for I am somewhat experienced in the
spirit of the world.  How easy it is for the love of the world to take
possession of the hearts of the human family!  How easy it is for their
minds to become darkened by the god of this world, and become like the
eyes of the fool, which are in the ends of the earth, seeking for gold and
silver, and for the riches, grandeur, popularity, and titles of the world. 
If the religion we possess does not control and reign predominant over
every other principle and feeling, we have not been schooled in it so as
to learn our lessons correctly--we are not masters of this heavenly
science.  If the Latter-day Saints have not been schooled enough to
realise that all things which pertain to this world--riches, honours,
worldly grandeur, and worldly titles, are not wholly subservient to their
religion, they are not fully skilled in their profession.  Are you aware
of this?  Do the Latter-day Saints individually realise the circumstances
in which they are placed, the position they occupy in human society, in
the midst of the Church of Jesus Christ?  How many are there here to-day
who realise as they ought their standing with God and man, and who
understand precisely their position in life, their relationship with
angels, and the destinies of Providence?  Here are many who have been in
the Church for years--are they masters, or are they yet only scholars? 
Are they fathers, or yet only babes?  Have they need to be taught what are
the rudiments of the doctrine of Christ, or are they capable of teaching
them to the human family, pointing out the way of life and salvation? 
Many are capable.  If we have learned our lessons well, while we teach the
way of life and salvation to others, we shall exemplify it in our own
lives.  How many of my hearers possess the mastery over themselves, can
keep the angry spirit of wrath under the empire of reason, and cannot be
prejudiced against their brethren?  Select the men or women who are
capable of judging a righteous judgment, who can weigh exactly the life
and conduct of their neighbours in the balance of justice, mercy, and
truth?  Are there any?  I hope there are many.

 	How many of the Latter-day Saints, who have been in the Church from
fifteen to twenty years, have learned the Gospel sufficiently to be
masters of their passions?  How many have learned the nature of things, as
well as of men, the use of gold and silver, and the elements that are
around us, so as to enjoy the life of the world, and understand the nature
of it well enough to devote all the treasures of the east, did they
possess them, to the building up of the kingdom of God, and to have no
will but the will of the Lord.  Who is proof against the influence of a
good name, and wordly [sic] renown?  How many have learned the lesson so
perfectly as to defy the depths of poverty, distress, and misery to move
them, or in the least shatter their integrity?  The congregation can
answer these questions at their leisure, each one for himself.  I can
assure you we have to learn such lessons, if we have not learned them
already.

	The mysterious and invisible hand (so called) of Providence is
manifested in all the works of God.  Who of this congregation can realise
for one moment, that the Lord would notice so trifling an affair as the
hairs you have combed from your heads this morning?  Yet it is so, not one
hair has fallen to the ground without the notice of our Father in heaven. 
To convince the ancient Apostles of His care over them, Jesus selected the
most trifling things, in their estimation, to illustrate to their minds
that the least thing escaped not His notice.  Said he--"Fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  Are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground
without the knowledge of your Father.  But the very hairs of your head are
numbered."

	Can we realize how this Providence governs and controls the nations
of the earth, and marks out the destinies of individual man?  If we have
not learned these lessons they are before us, and we have them yet to
learn.  If we have not yet learned that poverty, sickness, pain, want,
disappointment, losses, crosses, or even death, should not move us one
hair's breadth from the service of God, or separate us from the principles
of eternal life, it is a lesson we have to learn.  If we have not learned
how to handle the things of this world in the light of salvation, we have
it yet to learn.  Though we have mountains of gold and silver, and stores
of precious things heaped up, and could control the elements, and command
the cattle on a thousand hills, if we have not learned that every iota of
it should be devoted to the building up of the kingdom of God on earth, it
is a lesson yet to learn.

	Our religion embraces every truth pertaining to mortal life--there is
nothing outside the pale of it.  It is no matter what persons do, if they
keep within the bounds of truth and righteousness, of the Gospel of the
Son of God.  Can they step beyond these bounds?  They can.  I will tell
you how easily.  When Saints start to cross the plains to this place, no
matter where they start from, they are full of faith and religion, they
are full of prayer and humility, and O how they desire to get to Zion! 
They cross the Atlantic, travel on the waters of the Mississippi and
Missouri, and commence their journey over the plains, but before they have
travelled over half the distance, they enter into temptation, some of them
so far as to say, "When I get to the Valley I shall go on to California." 
Some will step out of the way far enough to curse and swear at their
cattle, and others will cruelly treat them, in a rage of madness.  Those
who do these things know they are beyond the bounds of what they have been
taught is right, even by the traditions of the fathers.  We have been
taught from our childhood, that passion, anger, strife, and malice are
wrong.  Our former traditions, in a great many instances, have been as
true, and as much in accordance with the Gospel, as they could be given. 
We have been traditionated not to swear, and the spirit within us forbids
it.  If we maltreat our animals, or each other, the spirit within us, our
traditions and the Bible, all agree in declaring it is wrong.  When the
Saints arrive in Salt Lake Valley, how easy it is for them to wander from
the right way!  I could point out scores of cases, had I time.  On the
other hand, I can point out men who have been with us for years in the
depths of poverty, and some from the beginning, and they never saw the
time they could feed their families with sufficient food, nor clothe them,
and yet they are full of faith and humility.  Should this people partake
of the blessings of the Lord as freely as He is willing to bestow them, it
would destroy them.  They do not realize they are to be tried in all
things.  They would say, "I acknowledge I am blessed, but I have blessed
myself;" and forget it is the Lord who has blessed them, and given them
their gold and silver, their houses and lands, their horses and carriages,
and all things they possess.

	If the Latter-day Saints have not learned to handle the good things
of this world, acknowledging the hand of God in putting them into their
possession, they have this lesson yet to learn.  When those who can bear
poverty are blessed with prosperity, they are apt to rise up in their own
strength and wisdom, and forget the God who has blessed them, and make
shipwreck of faith.  Again, there are those who have been prospered in
their life, when they are brought to poverty and want, turn away from the
truth like the young man in Nauvoo, who sat down to breakfast from a
Johnny cake alone; says he, "I do not ask a blessing upon this; if God
does not give me better food than this, I shall never ask him to bless
it."  I said, "You will make shipwreck of faith."  The spirit he
manifested was an apostate spirit; he had forgotten there was a providence
in the very circumstance he spurned, and he went to destruction. 
Mysterious as it may appear to the children of men, God is in and round
about all things.

	To do right, can be reduced to perfect simplicity in a few words,
viz., from this time henceforth, let no person work or transact any kind
of business whatever, that he cannot do in the name of the Lord, and let
him sink wholly into His will, whether it oppose his prejudices, or not,
or is decidedly objectionable to his feelings.  The Lord will ultimately
lead such persons into the fulness of His joy by a way that may sometimes
appear dark to them.  But there are thousands who will say, "Lord, we
believe in your name, in your name we have been baptized, and we have
prophesied, and have cast out devils in your name; do you not remember we
laid hands on a person in yonder city, or in that house, and cast a devil
out of him?"  Such persons, that have healed the sick, or cast out a
devil, sooner or later, take strength to themselves, if they are not
careful, and believe they have power of themselves to do what they please. 
Boast not of these matters.  You hear many say, "I am a Latter-day Saint,
and I never will apostatize;" "I am a Latter-day Saint, and shall be to
the day of my death."  I never make such declarations, and never shall.  I
think I have learned that of myself I have no power, but my system is
organized to increase in wisdom, knowledge, and power, getting a little
here and a little there.  But when I am left to myself, I have no power,
and my wisdom is foolishness; then I cling close to the Lord, and I have
power in His name.  I think I have learned the Gospel so as to know, that
in and of myself I am nothing.  In the organization of my system, however,
is a foundation laid, if I rightly improve upon it, that will secure to me
the independence of the Gods in eternity.  This is obtained by strictly
adhering to the principles of the Gospel in this life, which will lead us
on from faith to faith, and from grace to grace.  This is the way, I
think, I have learned the Lord.

	Shall we ever see the time we shall be perfectly independent of every
other being in all the eternities?  No; we shall never see that time. 
Many have fallen on as simple ground as this, and were I to use a Western
term, I would say, "they were troubled with a big head."  Such persons
think they have power to do this, that, and the other, but they are left
to themselves, and the Lord loves to show them they have no power.

	We hear some saying--"I will get out of this community as soon as I
can." Why?  "Because I bought a wagon of one of my brethren, and he wants
me to pay for it."  Or, "I rode a brother's horse to death, and he thinks
I should make it good."  "It is a damnable community, and I will not stay
in it."  I do not hear these things myself, but I can hear of them.  I
know it is so.  What ails such people?  They have taken strength to
themselves, and forgotten the Lord their God.  They do not call upon His
name, and trust in Him to direct them in all their ways.  They forget they
are doing as they used to do, viz., serve the Lord on the seventh day, and
take six to themselves.  They will traffic, trade, labour and heap up
riches six days, and go to meeting on Sunday to serve the Lord one day. 
About such a religion I am ignorant, only I know it is good for nothing. 
My religion must be with me from one Monday morning to the next, the year
round, or it will not answer me.  You can see how easy it is for
Latter-day Saints to step out of the path of duty.

	Those who step out of the way do not know themselves, they are
unacquainted with the nature of the human family, and with the principles
of the kingdom we are engaged in building up.  When the Latter-day Saints
make up their minds to endure, for the kingdom of God's sake, whatsoever
shall come, whether poverty or riches, whether sickness or to be driven by
mobs, they will say it is all right, and will honor the hand of the Lord
in it, and in all things, and serve Him to the end of their lives,
according to the best of their ability, God being their helper.  If you
have not made up your minds for this, the quicker you do so the better.

	Persons who cannot control themselves, and hold in subjection their
feelings, and lustful desires, and appetites, know no better than to run
distracted after the perishable things of this world.  They say they "are
going to California;" and I thank the Lord they are.  Why?  Because I
would rather be in this community with one hundred families of poor,
honest-hearted Saints, than one hundred millions who mix up with devils,
and go to California.  And how long will they be there before they are
begging of some Gentile merchant to bring them back again?  But I say,
"let them lie there in hell, until they are well burnt out, like an old
pipe."  I would not move my finger to help them back now, for they would
only corrupt the community.  After a while, when they are purified, then
we will bring them to Zion, if they wish to come and serve the Lord; but
if they wish to serve themselves, let them serve themselves, and if the
devil, let them serve him.

	My prayer for you, this morning, is, that you may be servants of the
Most High God; but if any of you find men or women who will not serve the
Lord, do not lay a straw in their way to hinder them from serving the
devil, but give them a dollar, or help them to a wagon, to speed their way
out of this community.  It would be better to do so than to keep them
here, when they have no disposition to love and serve the Lord.  We are
better without them.

	Judge not, that ye be not judged.  Let no man judge his fellow being,
unless he knows he has the mind of Christ within him.  We ought to reflect
seriously upon this point; how often it is said--"Such a person has done
wrong, and he cannot be a Saint, or he would not do so."  How do you know? 
We hear some swear and lie; they trample upon the rights of their
neighbor, break the Sabbath by staying away from meeting, riding about the
city, hunting horses and cattle, or working in the kanyons.  Do not judge
such persons, for you do not know the design of the Lord concerning them;
therefore, do not say they are not Saints.  What shall we do with them? 
Bear with them.  The brethren and sisters from the old countries
frequently place great confidence in the American Elders who have been
their pastors, but some trifling thing occurs that does not appear right
to them, and they say in a moment, "That Elder is not a Latter-day Saint." 
Judge no man.  A person who would say another is not a Latter-day Saint,
for some trifling affair in human life, proves that he does not possess
the Spirit of God.  Think of this, brethren and sisters; write it down,
that you may refresh your memories with it; carry it with you, and look at
it often.  If I judge my brethren and sisters, unless I judge them by the
revelations of Jesus Christ, I have not the spirit of Christ; if I had, I
should judge no man.  This is true doctrine.  Now let the newcomers
especially remember not to judge their brethren and sisters.  A great many
sit in judgment upon me, and upon this people, and I have a right to judge
as well as they.  Were I to pass my judgment upon those who judge me and
this people, I would do it in the language of Joseph, in the Dialogue we
have in print.  In it a question is put to Joseph as follows--"Joseph, are
you Jesus Christ?"--"No; but I am his brother."

	Will all the people be damned who are not Latter-day Saints?  Yes,
and a great many of them, except they repent speedily.  I will say
further, that many of the Latter-day Saints, except they learn their
lessons better, will be judged in the same way.  That is my candid
opinion.  There are families with us here with whom I have been acquainted
from the beginning, who have ideas of the things of this world that appear
strange to me.  They have a strange conception of the good things of the
earth.  Upon this item especially, I wish the Saints of God to concentrate
their minds, and learn this important lesson right, that they enter not
into temptation.  We will suppose, for instance, a small Branch of the
Church raised up in a district where they are generally well off as to
earthly substance.  They sell their property, and gather with the Saints. 
Say there are ten families in the Branch, and allow them to be worth ten
thousand dollars each.  Nine of the ten lose their property by lawyers, by
their brothers, by their fathers, or by some person who robs them on the
way and they have only enough left to get here.  One of the ten is
fortunate enough to save his property, and has it in gold.  He, however,
lends one man a hundred dollars, buys a team for another, and pays the
passage of this or that poor family until he expends all his money, and he
also arrives here naked.  Now, take these ten families and put them
together; from the lips of the nine, whose property has gone into the
hands of the wicked, you will not hear one murmur or complaint, where you
will hear a hundred from him who has disposed of his money to help the
poor Saints to gather to Zion.  I am now telling you what I know to be
true, for I have watched this item of human life from the beginning.

	Allow me here to say to the Saints, that I have accumulated a great
amount of wealth in my time; and I call upon all who are acquainted with
me, to bear witness, if they can, that I have ever distressed a man for
what he owes me, or crowded any person in the least.  Have I ever turned
the widow and the orphan empty away, or the poor man hungry from my door,
or purse, if I had a dime in it?  Have I ever taken a brother by the
throat and said--"Pay me that thou owest me?"  No.  But I have stacks of
notes against them, amounting to over thirty thousand dollars.  I boast
not of this, but present the picture as an example for you to follow.

	When poor, miserable curses, who would cut our throats, get means
from a member of this Church, it hurts my feelings.  How much better would
it be to hand it over to the proper person, saying--"Take this, feed the
poor Saints, and do good with it?"  Who can realize that the Lord can put
a great amount of property in his hands in a short time, or take it from
him again?  I can realize this to a considerable degree.  I may have
thousands of wealth locked up to-day, and hold checks for immense sums on
the best banking institutions in the world, but have I any surety that I
shall be worth a cent to-morrow morning?  Not the least.  The Lord
Almighty can send fire and destruction when He pleases, destroying towns
and swallowing up cities in the bellowing earthquake.  He can set up
kingdoms, and make communities wealthy, and bring them to poverty, at His
pleasure.  When He pleases, He can give them wealth, comfort, and ease,
and, on the other hand, torment them with poverty, distress, and sore
afflictions.  Who can realize this?  All the world ought, and especially
the Saints.

	I wish to impress another thing upon your minds.  An Elder, who is
willing to preach the Gospel, borrows a hundred or a thousand dollars from
you, and you never breathe the first complaint against him, until you came
home to this valley, but after you have been here for a few days, you
follow me round and fill my ears with complaints against this brother, and
ask me what he has done with your money?  I say, "I do not know."  Thus
you are distressed and in misery, all the day long, to get it back again. 
If an Elder has borrowed from you, and you find he is going to apostatize,
then you may tighten the screws upon him; but if he is willing to preach
the Gospel, without purse or scrip, it is none of your business what he
does with the money he has borrowed from you.  The doctrine of brother
Joseph is, that not one dollar you possess is your own; and if the Lord
wants it to use, let it go, and it is none of your business what He does
with it.  Should it be laid out to pamper the lazy?  No; but you can see
those who have been out on missions, working in the kanyons, and
traversing the country right and left, trying to get a living by the work
of their hands.

	But you say, "What has he done with my money?"  He has, perhaps,
helped that poor family to gather with it, or they would not have been
here.  If you murmur against that Elder, it will prove your damnation. 
The money was not yours, but the Lord Almighty put it into your hands to
see what you would do with it.  The gold, the silver, the wheat, the fine
flour, the buffalo, the deer, and the cattle on a thousand hills, are all
His, and He turns them whithersoever He will; and He turns the nations
whithersoever He will, casting down one nation and setting up another,
according to His own pleasure.  All there is of any worth or value in the
world is incorporated in our glorious religion, and designed to exalt the
minds of the children of men to a permanent, celestial, and eternal
station.

	No man need judge me.  You know nothing about it, whether I am sent
or not; furthermore, it is none of your business, only to listen with open
ears to what is taught you, and serve God with an undivided heart.

	Perhaps I have detained you long enough.  In my remarks I have not
transcended the bounds of my religion.  If I had told you about the
Latter-day Saints' new spelling book, my religion embraces it, and all the
good we see from one year's end to another.

	Will you try to be Saints in very deed?  I do not pray the Lord that
you may, but my prayer is offered to you, and I pray you, in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God, and serve Him with an undivided heart, to
the end of your lives.  And I pray my Heavenly Father to enable you so to
do.  And may God bless you.  Amen.

                PERFECTION AND SALVATION--SELF-GOVERNMENT.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, December 18, 1853.

	I love to hear my brethren speak.  Their testimony yields joy and
consolation to my heart.  But notwithstanding the pleasure it would give
me to sit and hear them continually, it is obligatory upon me to occupy
the position I do, and let my voice be heard in connexion with theirs.

	We all occupy diversified stations in the world, and in the kingdom
of God.  Those who do right, and seek the glory of the Father in heaven,
whether their knowledge be little or much, or whether they can do little
or much, if they do the very best they know how, they are perfect.

	It may appear strange to some of you, and it certainly does to the
world, to say it is possible for a man or woman to become perfect on this
earth.  It is written "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which
is in heaven is perfect."  Again, "If any man offend not in word, the same
is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."  This is
perfectly consistent to the person who understands what perfection really
is.

	If the first passage I have quoted is not worded to our
understanding, we can alter the phraseology of the sentence, and say, "Be
ye as perfect as ye can," for that is all we can do, though it is written,
be ye perfect as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.  To be as
perfect as we possibly can, according to our knowledge, is to be just as
perfect as our Father in heaven is.  He cannot be any more perfect than He
knows how, any more than we.  When we are doing as well as we know how in
the sphere and station which we occupy here, we are justified in the
justice, righteousness, mercy, and judgment that go before the Lord of
heaven and earth.  We are as justified as the angels who are before the
throne of God.  The sin that will cleave to all the posterity of Adam and
Eve is, that they have not done as well as they knew how.

	I will apply this to myself, and it will apply to you, and to every
man and woman upon the earth; of course including brother Morley, who
spoke to you this morning.  If he has done the best he could in the late
Indian difficulties in the district where he lives, and acted according to
the judgment and light of the spirit of revelation in him, he is as
justified as an angel of God.

	Though we may do the best we know how at this time, can there be no
improvement made in our lives?  There can.  If we do wrong ignorantly,
when we learn it is wrong, then it is our duty to refrain from that wrong
immediately and for ever, and the sin of ignorance is winked at, and
passes into oblivion.

	An inquiry was made this morning, if we know who we are, what our
situation is, and the relationship we sustain to each other, to our God,
and the position we occupy to the human family.  I can answer the
question.  No, we do not.  Do the people understand all the obligations
they are under to each other and to their God?  They do not.  Again, do
they try to know, as far as it is in their power?  They do not.  Are there
individuals among us who seek with all their hearts to know and understand
the will of God?  Yes, many.  But as a people, do they, with an undivided
heart, endeavor to know the will of God in preference to everything else
upon earth?  They do not.

	There is a reason for this.  Brother Morley wanted to know if we had
learned ourselves.  We have not.  When he referred to the spirits in the
world, and what we could witness in the infant child in its mother's lap,
at this moment like a little seraph, and in the next, more like a demon
with passion and rage, I thought we need not confine ourselves to the
child for example, for this picture of good and evil is exhibited as
frequently in the parent, and even in the grey-headed sire, as in the
child.  If men and women understood perfectly their position before God,
angels, and men, the place they occupy, and the sphere they act in, they
would know they are as independent in their organization as the angels, or
as the Gods.  Yet, in consequence of sin entering into the world,
darkness, wretchedness, folly, weakness of every kind, and the power of
temptation surround the children of men, as well as the power of God.  I
say the grey-headed father, and the aged matron will give way to the power
of evil, when it comes upon them, as readily, in many instances, as the
infant child upon its mother's lap.

	I speak what I know, and say, shame on those who are subject to such
weakness, when they have had time and opportunity to learn better. 
Brother Morley says, "Such spirits will be damned."  Bless your souls,
they are damned already.  The reason they act as they do, in a manner so
diametrically opposed to the angels and Gods in the eternities that are,
is because they have been in a miserable condition since they have been
upon the earth.

	When men and women give way to these wicked spirits, it is a proof
they have not learned their organization, and what they were made for.

	As for this people knowing their true position before God, in the
midst of the nations of the earth, it is certain they have not yet learned
it.  Shall we ever learn it?  We shall.  And further, we shall be obliged
to learn it; and further still, we shall be COMPELLED to learn it.  How? 
By flattery?  By blessings?  By the kind smiles of Providence?  By the
bountiful fulness of the invisible hand of our heavenly Father bestowing
every blessing upon us?  Now some of us are ready to say, this will not
bring us to an understanding of our true position, and prepare us for what
is before us.  If the mercies and blessings of our kind and indulgent
heavenly Parent will not produce the desired effects upon His people, He
will certainly chasten them, and make them know, by what they suffer, how
to govern and sanctify themselves before Him.

	We ought to pursue the same course with our children when we wish
them to obey our commands.  It is reasonable and right, after you have
held out every kind of inducement possible, to bring them to their senses,
and to obedience, if they still continue refractory, to try the rod, and
chasten them until they become obedient.  That is what our Father in
heaven will do for this people, if they will not learn by His blessings
and loving kindness.

	Do you inquire if I think we are about to be afflicted?  If we are
not good children, we shall be.  We must learn to love righteousness, and
hate iniquity, and then we can chasten ourselves, and bring ourselves to
the sphere we were designed to fill in our existence, and govern and
control ourselves in it, preparatory to power being put into our hands. 
We should never have but one desire, but one determination; our will
should be perfectly centred upon the one object, viz., to find out the
will of God, and do it.  Let every individual thus school, chasten, prove,
view, and review himself, taking himself into custody as a prisoner to be
subjected to a severe examination, until his will is perfectly subservient
to the will of God in every instance, and you can say, "No matter what it
is, let us know the will of the Father in heaven, and that is our will." 
Then we shall be able to train, school, and practise upon ourselves, until
we can control, and bring under subjection, the wicked influences that
surround us; we can then begin to pave the way, or throw up an highway of
holiness to the rising generation.

	This we have to do.  It is our business.  It is the labor of the
Latter-day Saints, which, if carried out, will run through all the various
changing scenes of mortal life.  It is in every act and dealing, both with
ourselves, our families, and strangers.  lt fills every avenue of human
life, from beginning to end.  To gain the spiritual ascendancy over
ourselves, and the influences with which we are surrounded, through a
rigid course of self-discipline, is our first consideration, it is our
first labor, before we can pave the way for our children to grow up
without sin unto salvation.

	No man, in a short hour or two, can tell everything that is in his
heart, when it is filled by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.  But I will
continue my remarks, and give you a little more.

	All persons are surrounded with circumstances peculiar to their
location, station, and situation in life.  A portion of our old associates
believe we are controlled entirely by circumstances; but this people have
learned enough to know they have the ability and power to control
circumstances, to a certain extent; they will control us more or less, but
not entirely.  We can lay the foundation in the midst of this people for a
train of circumstances to surround the rising generation with a divine
influence.  We can also produce a train of circumstances that will work
their certain destruction.  This is in our power, and the first is the
labor of the Latter-day Saints.

	Some, when their minds are opened to behold the purity of a God of
eternity--the purity of heaven, and understand that no impure thing can
enter there; when they can realize the perfection of the redeemed and
glorified Zion, and then look at the people now, and their actions, and
how they are overcome with their weaknesses, how they cannot go out and
come in without coming in contact, in some way, with their neighbors; when
they look at the universal sinfulness of mortal man; are ready to exclaim,
"We shall all go to destruction, salvation is impossible."  I do not
believe a word of it.  If we do the best we know how, and yet commit many
acts that are wrong, and contrary to the counsel given to us, there is
hope in our case.

	The Savior has warned us to be careful how we judge, forgiving each
other seven times seventy in a day, if we repent, and confess our sins one
to another.  Can we be more merciful and forgiving than our Father in
heaven?  We cannot.  Therefore let people do the best they can, and they
will pave the way for the rising generation to walk up into the light,
wisdom, and knowledge of the angels, and of the redeemed from this earth,
to say nothing of other earths, and they will be prepared to enjoy in the
resurrection all the blessings which are for the faithful, and enjoy them
in the flesh.

	It is our duty, and to this we are called so to frame and control
circumstances in our lifetime, as to bring blessings upon the rising
generation, which we can never attain to while we are in the flesh.  But
when the vision of our minds is opened to behold the immaculate purity,
perfection, light, beauty, and glory of Zion, the heaven of eternity, the
place where Saints and angels dwell in the eternal worlds, then salvation
for us poor erring mortals seems almost impossible; it seems that we shall
hardly be saved.  This, however, is verily true, we shall hardly be saved. 
There never was any person ever saved; all who have been saved, and that
ever will be in the future, are only just saved, and then it is not
without a struggle to overcome, that calls into exercise every energy of
the soul.

	It is good for us to follow the example of those who have attained
unto salvation; consequently if I wish to be saved, and be an instrument
of pointing out the way to others, let me not only preach the doctrine of
salvation, but set the example in my conduct, and plead with them to
follow it.  If our faith is one, and we are united to gain one grand
object, and I, as an individual, can possibly get into the celestial
kingdom, you and every other person, by the same rule, can also enter
there.

	Though our interest is one as a people, yet remember, salvation is an
individual work; it is every person for themselves.  I mean more by this
than I have time to tell you in full, but I will give you a hint.  There
are those in this Church who calculate to be saved by the righteousness of
others.  They will miss their mark.  They are those who will arrive just
as the gate is shut, so in that case you may be shut out; then you will
call upon some one, who, by their own faithfulness, through the mercy of
Jesus Christ, have entered in through the celestial gate, to come and open
it for you; but to do this is not their province.  Such will be the fate
of those persons who vainly hope to be saved upon the righteousness and
through the influence of brother Somebody.  I forewarn you therefore to
cultivate righteousness and faithfulness in yourselves, which is the only
passport into celestial happiness.

 	There is another thing I wish to notice, viz., touching the man
brother Morley spoke of this morning, who put away his wife which he had
lately taken.  He began to tell you how mean it looks to him to trifle in
this manner with the greatest blessings of heaven to man.  To men who will
ask for blessings, and jewels of great price, and seek to cast them away
to-morrow, it will be said by and bye, "Take that and give it to the man
who is more worthy."  And what shall be done with the other?  Let him
scrub the floor, clean shoes, and make soap.  I mean this to be understood
spiritually.  Of course we shall be so clean in the heavenly Zion, we
shall not need anybody to wash for us, When I say we will set such
characters to work in the garden, to clean our stables, to curry our
horses, or work in the cellar kitchen, it is to be understood spiritually.

	You may get jewels of great price, and trifle with them, and think
them nothing, but by and bye they will so far outshine you, that you
cannot look upon the blaze of their glory without being struck with
blindness.  The words of the Savior will be fulfilled on such persons,
"Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be
given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he
seemeth to have."

	That which they think they possess, they only seem to have.  It is
put in their hands for a few days, to see if they have wisdom sufficient
to use it to the glory and honor of God, that they may have more blessings
added to them.  When they have proved themselves unworthy, that which they
seemed to have will be taken away, and given to another who is more
worthy, that he may have more abundantly.

	As it respects the wicked actions of the people, while brother Morley
was speaking, I thought I could tell you things about some men, that you
would not want to hear.  To satisfy my own feelings by way of comparison,
I will give you a faint idea of how they look to me.

	Imagine all the carcases [sic] of the people who have died of the
cholera, and of other loathsome diseases, heaped up to rot in one general
mass, under the rays of a southern sun, and the stench of such a mass of
corruption would not begin to offend my nostrils, and the nostrils of
every righteous man, so much as those men do.  On the other hand, if every
man will do the best he can, and as far as he knows how, it will be well
with him, and he will be blessed until there is not room to contain the
blessings which will be poured upon him.  Sin consists in doing wrong when
we know and can do better, and it will be punished with a just
retribution, in the due time of the Lord.

	Have this people been blessed?  They have.  Why can they not
understand, that they are organized and formed for the express purpose of
becoming independent in and of themselves, that they may begin to guard
against any evil principle, or the suggestions of evil?  But you will
readily say, "That is in all men, it is natural to them."  So Paul
thought.  He was surrounded with spirits of evil, and was wonderfully
troubled with them, so much so, that when he would do good, evil was
present with him.  I would have kicked them out of doors.  He was a
righteous man, and died for the Gospel's sake, and it was right for him to
die, if it were for nothing but taking care of the clothes of those who
stoned Stephen to death.  "Now," says Paul, "I would do good to that man,
but evil is present with me."  Why did he not kick that evil out of the
way of his doing good?  Was he bound to be troubled with it?  No, no more
than you and I are.

	Are those who are drinking and carousing to-day (and there may be
some doing so who profess to be brethren) obliged to break the Sabbath,
and make themselves drunkards and gluttons?  No.  If the brethren who
profess to be Saints, and do wrong, would reveal the root of the matter,
and tell the whole truth, it would be, "I have a desire to do a great deal
of good, but the devil is always at my elbow, and I always like to keep
the old gentleman so that I can put my head upon him, for I want to use
him sometimes."  That is the reason why men and women are overcome with
evil.

	Again, I can charge you with what you will all plead guilty of, if
you would confess the truth, viz., you dare not quite give up all your
hearts to God, and become sanctified throughout, and be led by the Holy
Ghost from morning until evening, and from one year's end to another.  I
know this is so, and yet few will acknowledge it.  I know this feeling is
in your hearts, as well as I know the sun shines.

	We will examine it a little closer.  Many of you have fearful
forebodings that all is not right in the organization of this kingdom. 
You shiver and shake in your feeling, and tremble in your spirit; you
cannot put your trust in God, in men, nor in yourself.  This arises from
the power of evil that is so prevalent upon the face of the whole earth. 
It was given to you by your father and mother; it was mingled with your
conception in the womb, and it has ripened in your flesh, in your blood,
and in your bones, so that it has become riveted in your very nature.  If
I were to ask you individually, if you wished to be sanctified throughout,
and become as pure and holy as you possibly could live, every person would
say yes; yet if the Lord Almighty should give a revelation instructing you
to be given wholly up to Him, and to His cause, you would shrink, saying,
"I am afraid he will take away some of my darlings."  That is the
difficulty with the majority of this people.

	It is for you and I to wage war with that principle until it is
overcome in us, then we shall not entail it upon our children.  It is for
us to lay a foundation so that everything our children have to do with,
will bring them to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the
general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.  If we
lay such a foundation with all good conscience, and labor as faithfully as
we can, it will be well with us and our children in time and in eternity.

	What kind of a sensation would it produce in my heart, should I hear
at the close of this meeting that the Lord had suffered the devil to
destroy my houses, my wives, and my children, and committed every particle
of my property to the devouring flames--that I am left destitute, and
alone in the world?  I wish you all to apply this interrogation to
yourselves.  What would such a circumstance produce upon this people,
provided they did not know the Lord was going to send a judgment upon
them, as He has done in former times (though you need not be afraid of
it)? how would you feel?  Would there not be murmuring, and fault finding,
and writing and plotting with apostates, and some fleeing to California,
and some running back to the States?

	Or suppose, when you arrive at home from this meeting, you find your
neighbors have killed your horses and destroyed your property, how would
you feel?  You would feel like taking instant vengeance on the perpetrator
of the deed.  But it would be wrong for you to encourage the least
particle of feeling to arise in your bosom like anger, or revenge, or like
taking judgment into your own hands, until the Lord Almighty shall say,
"Judgment is yours, and for you to execute."

	Brother Morley wished to know if any one could tell the origin of
thought.  The origin of thought was planted in our organization at the
beginning of our being.  This is not telling you how it came there, or who
put it there.  Thought originated with our individual being, which is
organized to be as independent as any being in eternity.  When you go
home, and learn that your neighbors have committed some depredation on
your property, or in your family, and anger arises in your bosom, then
consider, and know that it arises in yourselves.

	On the other hand, suppose some person has blessed you when you
return home, brought you a bag of flour, for instance, in a time of great
scarcity, and some butter, milk, and vegetables, thoughts would at once
spring up to bless the giver.  The origin of thought and reflection is in
ourselves.  We think, because we are, and are made susceptible of external
influences, and to feel our relationship to external objects.  Thus
thoughts of revenge, and thoughts of blessing will arise in the same mind,
as it is influenced by external circumstances.

	If you are injured by a neighbor, the first thought of the
unregenerate heart is for God to damn the person who has hurt you.  But if
a person blesses you, the first thought that arises in you is, God bless
that man; and this is the disposition to which we ought to cleave.  But
dismiss any spirit that would prompt you to injure any creature that the
Lord has made, give it no place, encourage it not, and it will not stay
where you are.  You can let the black man, or the white man into your
house, as you please; you can say, "Walk in," to both of them.

	This is a figure.  When the white man presents himself, you know him
at once by his complexion; the same when you see darkness and blackness
advancing, you know it is from beneath, and you can command it to leave
your house.  When the good man comes, he brings with him a halo of
kindness which fills you with peace and heavenly comfort; invite him into
your house, and make him your constant guest.

	I have often told you from this stand, if you cleave to holy, godlike
principles, you add more good to your organization, which is made
independent in the first place, and the good spirit and influence which
come from the Father of lights, and from Jesus Christ, and from the holy
angels add good to it.  And when you have been proved, and when you have
labored and occupied sufficiently upon that, it will become, in you, what
brother Joseph Smith told Elder Taylor, if he would adhere to the Spirit
of the Lord strictly, it should become in him, viz., a fountain of
revelation.  That is true.  After a while the Lord will say to such, "My
son, you have been faithful, you have clung to good, and you love
righteousness, and hate iniquity, from which you have turned away, now you
shall have the blessing of the Holy Spirit to lead you, and be your
constant companion, from this time henceforth and forever.  Then the Holy
Spirit becomes your property, it is given to you for a profit, and an
external blessing.  It tends to addition, extension, and increase, to
immortality and eternal lives.

	If you suffer the opposite of this to take possession of your
tabernacles, it will hurt you, and all that is associated with you, and
blast, and strike with mildew, until your tabernacle, which was created to
continue throughout an endless duration, will be decomposed, and go back
to its native elements, to be ground over again like the refractory clay
that has spoiled in the hand of the potter, it must be worked over again
until it shall become passive, and yield to the potter's wish.

	One power is to add, to build up, and increase; the other to destroy
and diminish; one is life, the other is death.  Let us, then, lay a
foundation for the rising generation to grow up without being trammeled
and hindered in their onward course to glory and happiness by the
superstitions, tradition, and ignorance that have blinded and hurt us. 
Let us do the best we can, and if we make a mistake once, seven times, or
seventy times seven in a day, and are honest in our confessions, we shall
be forgiven freely.  As we expect to obtain mercy, so let us have mercy
upon each other.  And when the evil spirit comes let him find no place in
you.

	I recollect telling the Latter-day Saints that no man could judge the
nature of a spirit without first testing it; until then, he is not capable
to judge of it.  Brethren, love righteousness, and hate iniquity.

	May God bless you for ever.  Amen.

                  PROPER TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS, ETC.
  A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the
Tabernacle,																						 	
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1854.

	As the subject has been broached concerning the Indians, I will take
the liberty to make a few remarks, and with all due deference and respect
to my brethren, and especially to brother George A., who has last spoken
to you.  I am under the necessity, to satisfy my own feelings, to deviate
from his remarks a little.  I will not say, however, that I shall deviate
from his real feelings, though I may from what is conveyed in his remarks.

	I wish to say to this congregation and to the inhabitants of the
Territory of Utah, in connection with the travellers that are passing
through, If the whites in their character and position with the
intelligence and knowledge of the world and of mankind which they have,
had been as kind to the Indians as they have been to the whites from the
beginning, there never would have been a single difficulty to this day.  I
wanted to make that assertion, for it is verily true.

	If the inhabitants of this Territory, my brethren, had never
condescended to reduce themselves to the practices of the Indians, (as few
of them have,) to their low, degraded condition, and in some cases even
lower, there never would have been any trouble between us and our red
neighbours.

	This is the key to the whole of it.  Young men, middle aged, and boys
have been in the habit of mingling with the Indians--of going to their
camp and trading with them a little; and they have tried to cheat them. 
They have sat down in the wickeups and talked with them in the most
ludicrous manner:  they have gambled with them and run horses with them,
and then have taken a game of fisticuff with them.  If they had treated
them as Indians and as their degraded conditions demanded, it would have
manifested their superiority, and a foundations for difficulties would not
have been laid.

	Brother George says he knows what I have said is true.  He did not
explain his real feelings on this matter.

	Allow me to say a word in behalf of Walker.  I tell this congregation
and the world that "Indian Walker," as he is called, has not been at the
foundation of the difficulties we have had.  He has had nothing to do with
them.  I told you so last summer, and I tell it to you now.  I know it
from that which is within me.  Has he done no wrong?  I did not say he had
done no wrong.  He has been angry, and felt at times that he would like to
destroy this people; but I do know that he has been held by a superior
power.  At the very commencement of the fuss, he was not in favour of
killing the whites.

	When Kiel was killed, the Indians were still in the kanyon; and when
the whites followed them, they could have killed every man; but Walker
said, "No--they shall not be killed."  Arapeen took his San Pete squaw and
his favourite horse and killed them, and said, "If God is satisfied, I
am."

	Who are the guilty Indians?  A few bad men, who thirst for blood, who
do not have the Spirit of the Lord, but love to steal Indian children and
kill one another,--who love to steal from each other and kill anybody or
everybody.  A few of them we know.  But I tell you, Walker has not been
the cause of the Indian war.  But the Lord will work out the salvation of
his people, if they do as they are told.  I tell the brethren who live out
from this city that the Indians are friendly and wish to make treaties.

	Now is the time to build forts and pastures for cattle by ditching
and walls.  Let the community arise and build large pastures.  I am far
more afraid of white men stealing our cattle than I am that the Indians
will.  Go to, now; and do not scatter, but gather.

	When men are oppressed, it is in their own hearts and feelings:  it
is not because oppression comes upon them from any other quarter, that
they are dissatisfied.  They are not satisfied with themselves--that is
the trouble.  They may go to the States, to California, or anywhere else,
and they will not be satisfied; but they will always be dissatisfied,
until they can leave themselves behind.  But as long as they must take
themselves with them, they will never be without the cause of their
dissatisfaction.

	They ought to have left self behind them when they started to come
here, and have come with a view to build up the kingdom of God.  All those
who have come to these valleys with such feelings are satisfied.  They
have always been satisfied, and always will remain satisfied so long as
they retain that good intention and do not again bring back self.

	I want to say a few words on Indian character.  When one tribe of
Indians are at war with another, if a few sally out and kill a warrior of
the opposite party, that tribe will watch their opportunity, and perhaps
go and kill men, women, and children of the other tribe.  They do not care
whom they kill, if they can kill any of the tribe.  This has been taught
them from age to age.  The inhabitants of the United States have treated
the Indians in like manner.  If but one person or only a few were guilty
of committing a depredation upon a white settlement, they have chastised
the whole tribe for the crime, and would perhaps kill those who would
fight and die for them.

	But no mercy can be shown the poor Indians.  No.  "We will kill the
whole of you, if we can," instead of hunting out those who have committed
the depredation, and chastising them according to their deserts.  We must
shun this practice, and teach them that the man who has committed the
depredation is the man that must pay the penalty, and not the whole tribe. 
It is our duty to teach them good morals and the principles of the Gospel
of Christ.  We are their saviours.

	As I have done all the time, I tell you again to-day, I will not
consent to your killing one Indian for the sin of another.  If any of them
commit a depredation, tell the tribe to which they belong that they may
deliver up the man or men to be tried according to law, and you will make
friends of the whole tribe.  They have men among them they would be glad
to have despatched.  For instance, there is a man at Utah called
Squash-head:  it is said he has made his boast of taking father Lemon's
child and killing it.  We know the other Indians wish he was dead:  they
do not like to kill him, for fear of their own lives.  They would like to
have that man tried and hung up for the murder of that child.

	We must pursue a different course with the Indians than we have
pursued heretofore; and when we do the best we can and all we can, the
Lord will do the rest of it, if the people will do as they are told.  You
have not been counselled to follow them into the mountains, for there are
not soldiers enough here to contend with them there and kill one hundred
of them.  Though we could raise twelve thousand men, and should send them
into the mountains, and let them undertake to follow the Indians on foot,
where their horses could not find footing, the Indians would escape from
them, in spite of their efforts, and steal all their horses into the
bargain, and laugh them to scorn.  If we wished to destroy them, the only
way would be to set dead-falls and traps.

	They came pretty nigh starving to death last winter; and they now
see, if they are driven from these valleys in winter, they must perish;
therefore they now want to make good peace.  Treat them kindly, and treat
them as Indians, and not as your equals.

	I have fed fifty Indians almost day by day for months together.  I
always give them something, but I never forget to treat them like Indians;
and they are always mannerly and kind, and look upon me as their superior. 
Never let them come into your houses, as the whites did in Utah [County]. 
There they would let them lounge upon their beds, until finally they would
quarrel and become angry, if the women would not let them lounge upon
their beds.  Great, big, athletic fellows would want to go into the
wickeups of the "Mormons," and lounge upon their beds, and sit on their
tables and on their chairs, and make as free as though they belonged to
the family.  When their familiarities became oppressive to the whites, and
they desired them to leave their houses, it made  them angry, and I knew
it would.  This is the true cause of the Indian difficulties in Utah.

	I say to the brethren who live in the country, Treat the Indians
kindly; and now is the time to finish your forts, and make them doubly
strong; and then go to with all your might and prepare places to keep your
cattle, that neither white nor red man can possible steal them from you. 
If you want to know how strong to build your forts and your cattle yards,
I will answer you as I did the brethren when we left Nauvoo.  They wanted
to know what kind of lariets they must provide, and how securely they must
tie their animals.  I said, "Tie them so that the Devil cannot get them." 
Secure yourselves, then, so that you can lie down and sleep in peace and
be comfortable.  Now is the time for us to make efforts to build places of
safety.

	Our meeting has continued about as long as we wished it.  The
brethren will sing, and we will adjourn till to-morrow morning at ten
o'clock.


                    CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, July 4, 1854.

	I realize the nature of my position in rising to speak to an assembly
of intelligent gentlemen and ladies on such an occasion as the present.  I
probably feel my incapability more than can be perceived by my hearers. 
Still my mind is active, and my understanding is fruitful, whether I have
ability or not to express that which is in me.

	While my friends have been speaking, I have been much amused,
edified, and delighted, especially in having Whiggery and Democracy so
ably illustrated.  I do not think they could have been exhibited more
easily more naturally, more to the understanding of all, and more true to
the spirit and universal deportment of those two leading parties of the
nation, as they now exist, than they have been by my predecessor in the
stand to-day; and I presume I am speaking the feelings of the greater part
of this assembly.

	While brother George A. Smith was speaking upon the rise and progress
of the American Revolution, a few items ranging in the same line occurred
to my mind, which I have a desire to express in the hearing of this
assembly.

	The revolutions made by the Government of the United States, with
regard to real progression generally, are small indeed; so small that it
is impossible to perceive any advancement.  It is true the Constitution
has been revised by the voice of the people; but wherein is it bettered? 
Some say it is bettered; but as to the light and knowledge that now exist
with regard to the true spirit of republicanism, the revolution is on the
retrograde motion.  No one will question for a moment that many
revolutions in the United States have become in a great degree popular,
notwithstanding they have been in many instances unconstitutional and in
open violation of the statute laws, and have been winked at by the most
influential officers of the Government.  There has been a progressive
revolution since the close of the war, but not in virtue, justice,
uprightness, and truth.  It has become quite a custom, and by custom it
has the force of law, for one party to mob another, to tear down and
destroy Catholic churches, drive citizens from the ballot box, disallowing
them the right of franchise, and persecute, plunder, drive from their
possessions, and kill a great people.  Revolution in the United States is
progressing; but to the true spirit of Democracy and the science of
government, the Revolution I refer to is strictly opposed.

	With regard to Democracy and Whiggery, no person can exhibit them
better and in a true light than Judge Shaver has to-day.  The General
Government, as a whole, do not understand truly what Democracy and
Whiggery really are.

	What would my friend George A. Smith tell you with regard to these
two political bodies that now rule over our country, were he to address
you upon this subject?  He would tell you that one of them is a monster
having many heads, and the other is a monster with no head at all.  The
impulse that is given to the Government is like that of the animal
creation: when they are hungry, they are impelled to eat, and to drink
when they are thirsty.  When this necessity presses upon them, all the
sensitive powers are on the alert to search for food.  All their natural
impulses to action originate in the appetite: they receive them from the
demands the interior of the animal makes upon the creature.  It then
becomes the duty of the head to search out a method to supply these
demands with food suitable to the nature of the animal, which administers
health, strength, vigour, growth, and beauty to the whole body.

	What ought to be the Government of the United States?  And what are
Whiggery and Democracy as they now exist?  Nothing, and a little less.

	I believe in a true Republican government; but where is the man
capable of exhibiting in their true character the principles of such a
Government?  I do not profess to be that man:  still I believe I am as
capable to search into the merits of the subject, and can understand the
general principles of true Republicanism as well as any other man, though
I may not be capable of setting it before the people in its perfection.  I
can, however, talk a little about it.

	Is there a true Republican government on the earth?  There is.  Do
you inquire, Where is that government?  I answer, It is here.  I am a true
Republican;, if I understand what the term signifies.  But I put my own
definition upon such terms; for in many instances our lexicographers have
widely mistaken ideas, and widely disagree upon the meaning of words. 
They may trace the etymology of words, through the living and dead
languages, to their roots, as they suppose; but there is a great
probability of their being mistaken still.

	A government that is perfect would be called Democratic.  True
Republicanism, and what is meant or understood by true Democracy, is the
same; but the full extent of true Democracy cannot be told by any man at
this time.  In entering upon a point that I do not fully understand, and
can in nowise fully explain, I shall content myself to talk about it
according to the extent of my capacity and the understanding I have of the
subject, and leave the little I have to say with the people.  The
question, What is a true Republican government?  is easily answered.  It
is a government or institution that is perfect--perfect in its laws and
ordinances, having for its object the perfection of mankind in
righteousness.  This is true Democracy.  But Democracy as it is now is
another thing.  True Democracy or Republicanism, if it were rightly
understood, ought to be the Government of the United States.  They might
have had that government long ago; but as it was said by my predecessor in
the stand, "Whom the Lord would destroy, he makes mad;" consequently, he
must take away the wisdom of that man, or of that people.  No man or
people possessing wisdom will give vent to wrath, for that is calculated
to weaken, to destroy, to blot out of existence.

	When the Supreme Ruler of the universe wishes to destroy a nation, he
takes away their wisdom in the first place, and they become insensible to
their own interests, and they are filled with wrath; they give way to
their anger, and thus lay the foundation of their own destruction.  To him
who seeks to save, he gives wisdom, which enables any people, nation, or
individual to lay the foundation for strength, increase, and power.  When
we look abroad upon the nations, we can see this truth verified; and when
we look at home in our own nation, it is no less verified.  We see that
wisdom is actually departing from the lawgiver, and the knowledge and the
discretion the judge possessed years ago have vanished.  We discern that
the very policy adopted by the nations to fortify them in strength is
calculated to sap their foundations.  The axe is laid at the root of the
tree, and all nations are filling up the cup of their guilt.

	Supposes I were speaking to the assembled millions of the inhabitants
of the United States, what counsel or advice could be given to them that
they might regain what they have lost?  Can any temporal means be adopted
to save them from the vortex of ruin into which they are fast
approaching--a doom which they never can avert without sincere repentance? 
Yes, there is seemingly a human policy, if adopted, that would snatch them
from destruction.  What is it?  Let the people rise en masse to lay the
foundation of a wholesome, independent, free, Democratic (as the people
call it), Republican government--a government which, if carried out, will
be perfect in itself.

	Let us look at it in another point of view.  Suppose this people
inhabiting these mountains are broken off entirely from the nations of the
world, rendering no allegiance to any earthly power combined or isolated;
free to make laws, to obey them, or to break them; free to act, to choose,
and to refuse, and, in every sense of the word, to do as they please,
without any fixed order of government whatever; and they wish a
Constitution--a system of government for mutual protection and advancement
in the principles of right, to be framed according to the best wisdom that
can be found in this community;--I say, let them govern themselves by a
Republican system of government, selecting a man from their midst to
preside over them.  And whom should they select to fill so important a
station?  The best man they can find.  Should they keep him in office only
four years?  Should they make a clause in their Constitution that a
President shall serve at most for only two terms without a vacation in his
services?  That is an item that should not be found in the Constitution of
the United States, nor in the constitution made by this or any other
people.  We should select the best man we could find, and centre our
feelings upon him, and sustain him as our President, dictator, lawgiver,
controller, and guide in a national capacity, and in every other capacity
wherein he is a righteous example.  Though we find as good a man as there
is in the nation, yet we should not lay facilities before him to become
evil, were he so disposed.  Great care should be exercised to guard
against placing such a power at the command of any mortal.

	Shall we give him twenty-five thousand dollars per annum, and make
him superior to any other honest man in the Territory, State, or kingdom,
in things pertaining to this world?  or lay inducements before him to
become proud, haughty, and neglectful of the true interests of the people? 
No.  For if he is capable of ruling the people and dictating them, he is
capable of taking care of himself.  If we cannot find a man willing to
control and guide us without our pouring the gold and silver into his
coffers and exalting him above the rest of us, then we will take one less
capable, who will do it for nothing.

	Do you ask why I would recommend this course?  I answer, Because of
the weakness of man.  Were we to elect a man to preside over us in this
capacity, and give him three, four, five, eight, or fifteen thousand
dollars a year, the streets would be full of demagogues; you would see
them perched upon every ant-hill, croaking out their stump speeches for
this or that man to be our ruler; and the paid lackeys of each candidate
for office, in the streets, in the public places, and in the houses of the
citizens, would be using their influence for their employers in their
respective circles, and wherever they would be listened to.

	Whether such a man as a ruler will do good to the people, is not
thought of, either by the candidate or by his lackeys; but the one is
after the thousands of dollars, and the other his paltry fee.  The welfare
the people they do not consider.  What will be the best policy to pursue
for the good of the people at large is not in all their thoughts.

	Let the people see to it that they get righteous men to be their
leaders, who will labour with their hands and administer to their own
necessities, sit in judgment, legislate, and govern in righteousness; and
officers that are filled with peace; and see to it that every man that
goes forth among the people as a travelling officer is full of the fear of
the Lord, and would rather do right at a sacrifice than do wrong for a
reward.

	What would be the result, if this course was adopted by the people of
the United States?  It would destroy the golden prospects of those who
were seeking for gain alone, and men would be sought for, in the nation,
State, or Territory, who were for the people, and would seek earnestly for
their welfare, benefit, and salvation.  We want men to rule the nation who
care more for and love better the nation's welfare than gold and silver,
fame, or popularity.

	Are there any such in the United States?  Yes, plenty of them among
all classes of men, though they have little or nothing to say about
politics.  Many of them are much like one Mr. Hovey, from Cayuga County,
New York, that I once asked if he was going to the election?  "No," he
replied, "I will never give another vote in the United States."  I asked
the reason for such a course. "Why," said he, "they will set up the Devil
as a candidate for the office of President, then set up his apostate
brother, who has forfeited his inheritance, and run him in for sake of
opposition."  There are plenty of men who would do that and worse.  The
nation, however, is not lost yet; there are as many as five righteous men
in the city, at least.

	Let the people lay the foundation for carrying out the Republican
Government which was instituted by our fathers, instead of maintaining a
government of anarchy, confusion, and strife.  Were this people here an
independent people, and had the privilege of selecting their own officers,
and I should be chosen to dictate them in their selections, I would watch
and guard faithfully their rights, and see that they selected men who had
not the dimes in view.  The motto should be--"If you do not labour for the
good of the people, irrespective of the dimes, we do not want your
services; for if you labour for the money, you seek to benefit yourselves
at the people's expense."  I make this application and turn it eastward,
which you know is the way the world rolls.  If the Government knew what
the wants of the people were, they would take away the salaries of
political demagogues, and stop their running and their stump preaching,
from one end of the land to the other, to make proselytes to their cause. 
This would have a tendency to put an end to party names, to party
jealousies, and to party conflicts for ever.  And the people should
concentrate their feelings, their influence, and their faith, to select
the best man they can find to be their President, if he has nothing more
to eat than potatoes and salt--a man who will not aspire to become greater
than the people who appoint him, but be contended to live as they live, be
clothed as they are clothed, and in every good thing be one with them.

	It is yet in the power of the people of the United States to lay a
foundation to redeem themselves from the growing consequences of past
errors.  What would be the result, were the United States to take this
course--viz., to strike out that clause in the Constitution that limits
the services of a President to four years, or the term of service of any
good man, and continue to revise the Constitution and laws as they become
familiar with their defects; then reduce the salaries of all officers in
all the departments?  Would not such a course revolutionize any kingdom or
government, and be very likely to produce union and prosperity?

	Are there any more improvements that might be made? Yes.  If we are
what we profess to be--a Republican Government, there is no State in the
Union but what should be amenable to the General Government holding to the
old English rights in Rhode Island.  Then Congress, with the President at
their head, could meet and veto every act made by any department of the
Government, if it was necessary.  So let Congress come together when any
of the States transcend the bounds of right, and hold them amenable for
their actions.  The General Government should never give any portion of
the nation license to say they are free and independent.  This should only
apply to the nation as a whole.  We have a little experience in this kind
of independence.  For instance, the Government of the United States were
willing to take my money for lands in Missouri, which were in the market;
but the people in that sovereign, that free, and independent State rose up
and mobbed me, drove me from my possessions, and confiscated my property
to themselves; and the General Government has no power to redress my
wrongs.  This is only one instance among many of the kind which I might
enumerate to show the impolicy and down right mockery of such boasted
independence.  While such outrages remain unredressed, this nation never
should defile the sacred term by saying they have a REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT.

	The General Constitution of our country is good, and a wholesome
government could be framed upon it, for it was dictated by the invisible
operations of the Almighty; he moved upon Columbus to launch forth upon
the trackless deep to discover the American Continent; he moved upon the
signers of the Declaration of Independence; and he moved upon Washington
to fight and conquer, in the same way as he moved upon ancient and modern
Prophets, each being inspired to accomplish the particular work he was
called to perform in the times, seasons, and dispensations of the
Almighty.  God's purpose, in raising up these men and inspiring them with
daring sufficient to surmount every opposing power, was to prepare the way
for the formation of a true Republican government.  They laid its
foundation; but when others came to build upon it, they reared a
superstructure far short of their privileges, if they had walked uprightly
as they should have done.

	What shall be done?  Let the people, the whole American people, rise
up and say they will have these abuses regulated, and no longer suffer
political demagogues to gamble away their money, but turn them out of
office to attend to their own business.  Let the people make a whip, if
not of good tough raw hide, of small cords at least, and walk into the
temple of the nation, and cleanse it thoroughly out, and put in men who
will legislate for their good, instead of gambling away their money and
trifling with the sacred interests of the nation which have been entrusted
to their keeping.

	I would not speak so plainly, were it not that statesmen use the same
privilege, and that, too, in the halls of Legislatures.  We can never get
a true Republican government upon any other principle.  The object those
have in view who look and long for the gaudy trash of this world should be
removed, that men may occupy the high and responsible seats of the nation
who will care for the welfare of the people, and cannot be bought with
money, or that which it can purchase.

	Can the Constitution be altered?  It can; and when we get a President
that answers our wishes to occupy the executive chair, there let him sit
to the day of his death, and pray that he may live as long as Methuselah;
and, whenever we have good officers, strive to retain them, and to fill up
vacancies with good men, until there are none who would let the nation
sink for a can of oysters and a lewd woman.

	The signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the
Constitution were inspired from on high to do that work.  But was that
which was given to them perfect, not admitting of any addition whatever?
No; for if men know anything, they must know that the Almighty has never
yet found a man in mortality that was capable, at the first intimation, at
the first impulse, to receive anything in a state of entire perfection. 
They laid the foundation, and it was for after generations to rear the
superstructure upon it.  It is a progressive--a gradual work.  If the
framers of the Constitution and the inhabitants of the United States had
walked humbly before God, who defended them and fought their battles when
Washington was on the stage of action, the nation would now have been free
from a multitude of place hunters who live upon its vitals.  The country
would not have been overrun with murderers and thieves, and our cities
filled with houses of ill-fame, as now; and men could have walked the
streets of cities, or travelled on conveyances through the country,
without being insulted, plundered, and perhaps murdered; and an honest,
sober, industrious, enterprizing [sic], and righteous people would now
have been found from one end of the United States to the other.

	The whole body is deranged; and the head, which ought to be the seat
of sense and the temple of wisdom, is insensible to the wants of the body,
and to the fact that, if the body sinks, the head must sink also.

	I want to tell a political anecdote; or, at least, I will tell it so
nigh that you will guess the whole of it.  Two fellows were stump speaking
for office in the State of Illinois:  one of them was a lawyer, of
flowery, eloquent speech; and the other was a rough and ready homespun
mechanic, but a man of sound sense.  The lawyer made his speech in flaming
language, interlarding it with expressions of sensitive regard for the
people's interests.  The mechanic mounted the rostrum, and says he--"I
cannot make a speech to cope with this man's speech; but I can tell you
what he and I want.  He wants your votes. Now, if you will give me your
votes, when I get into office, you may----and be damned."  They both felt
so; and there are but few exceptions to this practice.  Office-seekers are
full of tricks and intrigues of every kind to get an office, and then the
people may----and be damned.

	The progress of revolution is quite considerable in every government
of the world.  But is the revolution for the constitutional rights of the
people in progress?  No: it is on the retrograde.  I know how they can be
brought back to the people, and the Government be redeemed and become one
of the most powerful and best on the earth.  It was instituted in the
beginning by the Almighty.  He operated upon the hearts of the
Revolutionary Fathers to rebel against the English King and his
Parliament, as he does upon me to preach "Mormonism."  Both are inspired
by him; but the work unto which they are called is dissimilar.  The one
was inspired to fight, and the other to preach the peaceable things of the
kingdom of God.  He operated upon that pusillanimous king to excite the
colonists to rebellion; and he is still operating with this nation, and
taking away their wisdom, until by-and-by they will get mad and rush to
certain destruction.

	Will the Constitution be destroyed?  No:  it will be held inviolate
by this people; and, as Joseph Smith said, "The time will come when the
destiny of the nation will hang upon a single thread.  At that critical
juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened
destruction."  It will be so.

	With regard to the doings of our fathers and the Constitution of the
United States, I have to say, they present to us a glorious prospect in
the future, but one we cannot attain to until the present abuses in the
Government are corrected.

	You have heard our Judge relate an incident, which is only one more
among numberless abuses perpetrated by the rulers of the nation.  The
particulars of this incident can be found upon our dockets, showing that
the President of the United States assumes to himself power to remove a
circuit Judge.  I am not a lawyer; but I wish to propound a question--By
what law, constitutional or statute, has the President a right to remove a
United States' Judge, except for illegal conduct or inability?  It is, to
say the least, a flagrant assumption of power.  What business have they
thus to remove our Judges?  What end have they in view?  I'll tell you. 
It is--

		"Tickle me, tickle me, O Billy, do;

		And, in your turn, I'll tickle you."

	I have perhaps detained the congregation too long.  May God bless
you!  Amen.



  THE WORD OF WISDOM ESPECIALLY SUITED TO INFANTS AND YOUTH--PRIVATIONS
           IN MISSOURI--NECESSITY OF INTEGRITY, AND STRIFE FOR
                  EXCELLENCE--RESPONSIBILITY OF PARENTS.
  An address by President Brigham Young, to the children who formed the
    procession at the anniversary of the entrance of the pioneers into
           Great Salt Lake Valley, delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, July 24, 1854.

	My remarks on this occasion will be disconnected, in order to answer
my feelings, and to satisfy the congregation.

	Here is a spectacle that is indeed admirable, and a scene that has
called forth many reflections in my mind, and, no doubt, in the minds of
the spectators.

	First of all, allow me to remark, that before it was concluded to
celebrate this day, the Seventh Anniversary of the entrance of the
Pioneers into these valleys which we now occupy, I had determined to treat
some of my family and friends to a dinner, and had made preparations
accordingly.  This has occupied a portion of my time and attention, but
before all my preparatory labor was performed, I was urged to attend on
this interesting occasion.  This has thrown my previous plans, touching
this day, somewhat into confusion, still I am filled with joy in beholding
this heart-cheering scene.  According to the Programme it seems I am to be
escorted by the procession back to my dwelling.  I however ask it as a
favor of the officers of the day to excuse me, and relieve me from being
present, or from taking any further part in this day's proceedings, after
the dismissal of this congregation, that I may repair immediately to my
house, for, if I have to wait for the company to escort me, it will make
it late before I can be present to wait upon my friends.

	Before I proceed further, I wish to make another request, in behalf
of the children, who are not capable of judging for themselves--they would
traverse these streets until they fainted.  I wish the Bishops and
Marshals of the day to consider this, and my advice is to dismiss them
soon; and while they are parading the streets, be sure to have plenty of
water handy for them to drink.  If these requests can be granted, I shall
feel thankful, and I presume you will have no objections to granting them.

	On such occasions as this, our Tabernacle does not afford room for
seating the people, I wish the Bishops to hearken to a request I will make
of them--Enable brother Hyde to prosecute the labors placed upon him to
build a Bowery, on the north of this Tabernacle, that will convene about
twelve thousand people; and let it be done before another Celebration
comes off, or even before another Conference.  I am disposed to take a
vote upon this matter.  If the brethren and sisters, old and young, will
put forth their exertions and means to assist in accomplishing this work,
let them signify it by rising [sic] their right hands.  [All hands were
up.]  I shall with pleasure render all the assistance possible.

	Were there time, I would like to make a great many remarks pertaining
to parents and children, but my time will be too limited.

	A portion of the youth of our community is before me, and could I
give these young persons a word of counsel, it would meet my wishes, and
gratify    my desires to do them good.  I will venture to give them a few
items pertaining to life, health, vigor, and salvation; and I hope they
will not forget what I am about to say to them.

	I will begin by asking the older portion of the assembly, if you do
not recollect that when you were two, three, or four years of age, many of
your mothers, as soon as you were able to drink out of a glass, and they
happened to have a little wine, would compel you to partake of it,
contrary to your feeble remonstrances?  Do you not recollect when your
mother made a little sling to revive her when she was fatigued with labor
or exertion of any kind, saying to you, "Drink, my child?"  Now, I wish to
say to you girls, never be guilty of such practices when you become
mothers.  Never, when you sit down at the table to drink strong tea,
perhaps as a stimulant when you are fatigued, give it to your child.  I
see this practice almost daily, or occasionally, at least, in this as well
as other communities.  Keep the tea, the coffee, and the spirits from the
mouths of your children.

	I could say many things that would be of great worth to you,
pertaining to the rising generation, had I time; but I wish you to
recollect and practise this one item I have briefly laid before you.  I
wish the daughters of Israel to far exceed their mothers in wisdom.  And I
wish these young men and boys to far exceed their fathers.  I wish my sons
to far exceed me in goodness and virtue.  This is my earnest desire
concerning my children, and that they not only walk in the footsteps of
their father, but take a course to enjoy life, health, and vigor while
they live, and the Spirit of intelligence from God, that they may far
outstrip their father in long life, and in the good they will perform in
their day.  What I say of my children I apply to all.

	Young men, my young brethren, will you accept a little counsel from
me?  When you go from this Tabernacle make a covenant with yourselves that
you will taste no more ardent spirits, unless it is absolutely necessary,
and you know it is; also make a covenant with yourselves that no more of
that filthy, nasty, and obnoxious weed called tobacco shall enter your
mouths; it is a disgrace to this and every other community.  I am well
aware of the reflections of many upon this subject.  You may say to
yourselves, "If I can do as well as my parents, I think I shall do well,
and be as good as I want to be; and I should not strive to excel them." 
But if you do your duty you will far excel them in everything that is
good--in holiness, in physical and intellectual strength, for this is your
privilege, and it becomes your duty.  Young men, take this advice from me,
and practise it in your future life, and it will be more valuable to you
than the riches of this world.  "Why," say you, "I see the older brethren
chew tobacco, why should I not do it likewise?"  Thus the boys have taken
licence from the pernicious habits of others, until they have formed an
appetite, a false appetite; and they love a little liquor, and a little
tobacco, and many other things that are injurious to their constitutions,
and certainly hurtful to their moral character.  Take a course that you
can know more than your parents.  We have had all the traditions of the
age in which we were born, to contend with; but these young men and women,
or the greater part of them, have been born in the Church, and brought up
Latter-day Saints, and have received the teachings that are necessary to
advance them in the kingdom of God on earth.  If you are in any way
suspicious that the acts of your parents are not right, if there is a
conviction in your minds that they feed appetites that are injurious to
them, then it is for you to abstain from that which you see is not good in
your parents.

	I will now offer a few words of encouragement, and I wish you to
listen to them attentively.  If you wish to be great in the Kingdom of
God, you must be good.  It has been told you often, and I reiterate it
to-day, that no man or woman in this kingdom that the Lord Almighty has
again established upon the earth, can become great without being
good--without being true to their integrity, faithful to their trust, full
of charity and good works.  If they do not order their lives to do all the
good they can, they will be stripped of their anticipations of greatness. 
You may write that down, and write it as revelation if you please, for it
is true.  Again, you must make sacrifice, if such you may call it, of
every feeling you possess on earth, as a man, as a woman, as a father, as
a mother, as a husband, as a wife, as a member of a family or community,
for the sake of the kingdom of God on earth--that you assuredly must do. 
Now remember, that no earthly object may stand between you and your
calling and duty.

	While gazing upon the scene before me, and thinking of what we had
passed through--scenes of affliction fleeting through my memory, I
reflected on the generation now growing up, and on the past dealings of
the Lord towards this people in His wise providences.  I recollect that in
1838, the Twelve and others were called upon to go to England, after they
had suffered much persecution and tribulation.  Brother Joseph Smith had
to leave Ohio and escape for his life.  I had also to leave the country to
save my life; I was going to the west, where Joseph told me to go.  I had
not been in Missouri more than five months, before the mob commenced to
burn houses.  I had expended what little means I had left, to purchase an
inheritance for my family, but I had to leave Missouri, after being at the
trouble and expense of conveying my goods there, and preparing for living;
I left all behind and went to Illinois.  Well, the revelation was that
several of the brethren must start on missions to foreign lands, and we
fulfilled it in the midst of poverty.  This is a proof that the hand of
God is able to sustain His people, and he will continue to provide for
them.

	If we do His will, He will take care of us as a people, and as
individuals. One proof of this, is in my own life and experience.  When I
left my family to start for England, I was not able to walk one mile, I
was not able to lift a small trunk, which I took with me, into the wagon. 
I left my wife and my six children without a second suit to their backs,
for we had left all our property in possession of the mob.  Every one of
my family were sick, and my then youngest child, who has spoken before you
to-day, was but ten days old at the time I left for England.  Joseph said,
"If you will go, I promise you, that your family shall live, and you shall
live, and you shall know that the hand of God is in calling you to go and
preach the Gospel of life and salvation to a perishing world."  He said
all he could say to comfort and encourage the brethren.  This was our
situation, and I say, with regard to the remainder of the Twelve, they had
all been driven like myself, and we were a band of brethren about equal. 
My family lived.  When I left them they had not provisions to last them
ten days, and not one soul of them was able to go to the well for a pail
of water.  I had lain for weeks, myself, in the house, watching from day
to day for some person to pass the door, whom I could get to bring us in a
pail of water.  In this condition I left my family, and went to preach the
Gospel.  As for being cast down, or at all discouraged, or even such
thoughts entering in my heart as, "I will provide for my family, and let
the world perish," these feelings and thoughts never once occurred to me;
if I had known that every one of them would have been in the grave when I
returned, it would not have diverted me from my mission one hour.  When I
was ready to start, I went and left my family in the hands of the Lord,
and with the brethren.

	I returned again in two years, and found that I had spent hundreds of
dollars, which I had accumulated on my mission, to help the brethren to
emigrate to Nauvoo, and had but one sovereign left.  I said I would buy a
barrel of flour with that, and sit down and eat it with my wife and
children, and I determined I would not ask anybody for work, until I had
eaten it all up.  Brother Joseph asked me how I intended to live.  I said,
"I will go to work and get a living."  I tarried in Nauvoo from the year
1841 to 1846, the year we left.  In that time I had accumulated much
property, for the Lord multiplied everything in my hands, and blessed all
my undertakings.  But I never ceased to preach; and travelled every
season, both in the winter, and in the summer.  I was at home
occasionally, and the Lord fed and clothed me.  It has never entered into
my heart, from the first day I was called to preach the Gospel to this
day, when the Lord said, "Go and leave your family," to offer the least
objection.  It has never entered into my heart to violate my covenants, to
be an enemy to my neighbor, to deceive, to lie, or to take to myself that
which was not my own.  The youth around me, in their addresses this day,
have eulogised the life and ability of brother Brigham; I want you not
only to do as I have done, but a great deal better.

	I am trying to encourage you to do good, and not evil, that the Lord
Almighty may take care of you, sustain you, and give you power and
influence, which He will do, if you serve Him with an undivided heart, but
if you do not, He will chastise you.  Remember it.

	When I left Nauvoo, I again left all I had, and was under the
necessity of borrowing a span of horses from this man, a yoke of cattle
from that, and a wagon from the other; and after gathering up what little
moveable property I could in this way, I left the country.  I had
accumulated thousands of dollars' worth of property, and had to leave it
in the hands of the mob, and, said I, "Eat it up, destroy it, or burn it
down, as quick as you please, for 'the earth is the Lord's and the fulness
thereof.'"

	How did I obtain all this property?  The Lord gave it to me; He has
done what has been done.  And if the youth will turn their hearts and
affections to the Lord their God, they will be prepared to enter into the
glory we are contending for, they will be prepared to redeem Zion.  These
young brethren and sisters will be prepared to return to Zion, bear off
the Priesthood triumphantly, and build up the kingdom of God among the
nations of the earth far better than we their fathers and mothers have,
though we have done the best we could.  Be full of integrity and love for
all people, let hope abound in you, be filled with truth and virtue, and
never allow yourselves to do a thing you would be ashamed to do in the
presence of the Lord Almighty, or that you would be ashamed of were He to
stand in your path, and call you to an account.  That is the way to live,
and it is the only way for a "Mormon" Elder to live, or for a "Mormon"
mother, or daughter, or sister, in order to obtain what they wish to
obtain.  It is the only path you can possibly walk in to secure that which
you desire.  There are men who will tell you many things in your houses,
and will try to pervert the truth and the simple principles of the Holy
Gospel, but you must remember that it is a holy life before God which
gives you influence with Him.

	Look, and see the past course of brother Brigham; he is not any
different today from what he ever was.  Knowing that the Lord wishes him
to do a certain work, he is willing to do it.  This has always been his
character.  You have seen me rise up here in my authority, when necessary,
and I have had to be like a lion among the people.  But who can point out
a single act that has not been full of kindness to this people,
collectively and individually?  Though sometimes I have to roar to them;
and why?  Because sometimes they are foolish.  This was exhibited here
to-day, and also on the fourth of July.  I saw scores of men who had no
more sense than to crowd upon the women and children, at the risk of
crushing them to death.  When I see such conduct, I feel like a lion in
the cause of the oppressed; and when the dogs and the wolves undertake to
make this people a prey, they may expect that somebody is ready to roar,
and contend for them.

	Do you wish to know how men of God feel under such circumstances?  I
will tell you.  If an enemy is crawling round this people, trying to make
inroads to destroy them, they can pick up men as fast as they come to
them, and throw them out of their way; they can conquer and destroy army
after army; and in their feelings a thousand or ten thousand are no more
to them than so many grasshoppers.  It is the strength of the Almighty God
that is in them.  Keep His commandments, if you would have strength in the
day you need it; and when you do not need it, be passive, like children in
their mother's lap, and be always ready and willing to extend the hand of
charity and benevolence, and do all the good that is needed to be done,
and you will thereby be able to resist the evil.

	I had to go out to the door, when the people were crowding each other
down, and talk as if I would swallow them up.  What for?  To injure them? 
No.  Did I tell you to rush on and tread down women and children?  No. 
Have I ever told you to take advantage of the weak and defenceless, or in
any way oppress the innocent?  No, never; and if you do, I shall handle
you; and if you get into my way, you will be no more to me than a child's
toy.

	I am consuming much time, and I wish to dismiss the meeting.  But I
will state that if children could know the feelings of their parents, when
they do good or evil, it would have a salutary influence upon their lives;
but no child can possibly know this, until it becomes a parent.  I am
compassionate therefore towards children.  Parents, will you have a little
wisdom, and learn to bring up your children under a proper influence, and
under proper teaching?  Mothers, remember that when your husbands are
engaged in the service of the Church, and are all the time occupied in the
duties of the Priesthood, so that they have not time to instruct their
children, the duty devolves upon you.  Then bring your children up in the
ways of truth, and be to them both a father and mother, until they are old
enough to perform duties by the side, and under the immediate eye, of
their father.  I like to see mothers bring their children to meeting, as
soon as they can be brought without injuring them, and when they can tell
what they want and call for water when they are faint.  As soon as they
are old enough to receive instructions, bring them here to be taught; and
when you go home with them, do not put strong drinks, or tea, or coffee to
their lips.  I have actually seen women whip their children to make them
drink spirits; such mothers do not know what is actually necessary they
should know.  Children should have milk, bread, water, and potatoes; and
everything that would lay the foundation for disease should be strenuously
kept from their stomachs, that no appetites may be formed for pernicious
substances, which, when formed, cannot be overcome easily, if at all.  The
course mothers generally take in the world with their children, produces
an appetite in the child that almost invariably leads to excess.  There
are scores in our midst who were begotten in a vault of liquor, and were
enveloped in it till the day of their birth.  They have come forth from
it, and have a longing desire to still swim in it unto the day of their
death.  I wish you to understand this, sisters; and when you become
mothers, know how to train up your children better than the past
generations have been brought up.

	Brethren and sisters, may the Lord bless you all.  If I had time to
answer my feelings here to-day, I should enjoy more freedom in my remarks. 
Brother George A. Smith has given you the music, and I wished to point out
the way in which you ought to walk.  Take him for the music, and my words
for the counsel; all he said was right, and I want you to observe what he
told you; and what more you should do, we will tell you in season.

                DEBTORS TO THE PERPETUAL EMIGRATING FUND.
   An Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1854.

	It is rather late in the morning to offer a lengthy discourse upon
any particular subject; but I will give a text for others.

	Unless we continue our Conference after the first day of the week, we
shall not have time to instruct the people as fully as we should like to;
but we will endeavor to do what we feel to be our duty in this matter.

	I more particularly wish those who have lately come into this place,
to consider the teachings that may be given upon the text.  The greater
part of those who have come across the plains this season, will no doubt
attend this Conference; though, perhaps, a few of them may be necessarily
absent, and a few have gone to other settlements.

	I will comprise the text in a few words, though not exactly as it
reads in the Bible, and will put it in the form of a question.  My
brethren, you who have been helped to this place by the Perpetual
Emigrating Fund--Will you do to your brethren as you would have, or wish,
them to do by you in like circumstances?

	Can you call to mind the time, when you have seen others emigrating
to America--being helped away from poverty and distress?  Can you
recollect the days and weeks when at work, when walking abroad, and when
at meetings, that your hearts have been full, and lifted to the Lord, in
earnest supplication, to incline the hearts of your brethren in Zion to
put forth their hands, and help you away from that country where hundreds
and thousands are turned out of employment, in consequence of their
embracing the Gospel--thus depriving them of labor, and consequently the
necessary food for themselves and families?

	Can you who have arrived here this fall, or who arrived one, two, and
three years ago, think how you felt when you heard that a company was
established, and means were being provided, to help the poor to this
place?  If you can, call to mind now the feelings you had then, and ask
yourselves if you are willing to do to your brethren who are now in that
country, as you wished to be done unto by those who emigrated before you;
or whether you will do as many have done after they have arrived here.

	Many brought here in former years by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund
have wanted the highest wages for their labor, when they could not do half
the amount of work that a man can do who has been here a few years.  They
have wanted to make themselves rich, or at least very comfortable, before
they could think of paying their passage here.  They must have a good
house, and a fine garden; and by the time they have got that, they think
they really need a farm.

	They will say to themselves, "I must raise grain, for it is becoming
dear, and there will be a high-priced market opened here for it by and
bye; grain is going to be in good demand, and I must have a farm; I must
get poles to fence it; I must have my oxen; and I shall not pay what I owe
the Perpetual Emigrating Fund yet.  I want, at least, time to fence my
farm, and I want so many cows that I can have a dairy, for butter and meat
will be very scarce.  And by the time I have got me a farm and a dairy, I
must have a carriage to ride to my farm to see how my servants are getting
on; and I must have horses," &c., &c.

	With a very few exceptions, no man has put forth his hand to pay the
debts he owes the P. E. Fund.

	I now ask you if you are willing to do what you have wanted others to
do by you?  Let the first thing you attend to be to pay the debt you owe
the Fund.  Do you say, "Well, shall we not get us a house?"  No; live in
your tents, or go into the woods, and bring down bushes and make bough
houses as the Indians do, and say you will be satisfied with that until
you have paid the debt you owe the poor.  You do not owe it to me, nor to
these my brethren; we have plenty.  We have houses; we have enough to
sustain ourselves.  You do not owe it to any individual here, but you owe
it to the poor who wish to come here; the debt is due to them alone.  If
you refuse to do this, would you not shut up the bowels of your compassion
against the poor?

	Be careful, brethren, that your eyes follow not after the riches of
this world, to lust after them; I say, be careful, that you do not want a
cow, and then another, and another, and another; that you do not want a
carriage, and then another, and so on, before paying your debt to the
Fund.  And if you are not careful, you will never be satisfied with
earthly possessions, worlds without end.

	I would like about six discourses preached upon this text, each about
six hours long, if we had time, to see if we could remove the scales from
the eyes of the people, and stir them up to faithfulness in keeping their
covenants, and doing to others as they would have others do to them.

	If any of the brethren are disposed, they can go into mathematical
demonstrations on this subject; and can show to the congregation what the
Fund would probably be another year, if all were faithful in paying back
what they have received from it.  If I were to guess, without entering
into an examination of the books, I should judge that we would have
between one and two hundred thousand dollars, with which to bring the poor
to this place next season.

	The Perpetual Emigrating Fund is a business transaction that
increases; it is bound to increase, if men and women will be faithful to
pay what they owe.  The question may be asked, "Do you want the people to
pay when they are suffering?"  There is no such thing as suffering here. 
Is there a man, woman or child in this territory who cannot get what is
necessary for them to eat without being forced to the necessity of
stealing it?  Is there a house in this city, or territory, that will
refuse a hungry person a meal of victuals, when he has not been here long
enough to earn his food?  Every person acquainted with the circumstances
and disposition of the people here will say "No, there is not a family
that would not impart to their brethren and sisters, to the passing
stranger, and even to an enemy, to feed them."

	Again, how many invalids can you find here, or people who cannot do
enough to maintain themselves?  Very few.

	Four years ago we commenced to lay our plans to sustain the poor, and
take care of those who could not take care of themselves.  We provided
sixteen houses on one farm which we purchased, and had men selected to
take care of those who could not sustain themselves; but there has not
been a man or woman, a widowed lady or an orphan child who was old enough
to speak for himself, that has been willing to occupy one of these houses,
go to a farm, or live in a house that we purchased for them.  They say,
"We do not want to live there, for it was purchased for the poor."  We
have never found a family that would acknowledge themselves so destitute
as to live in a house we bought for the accommodation of the poor.  "But,"
say they, "if you will purchase a house for us close to the Tabernacle, we
will live in it."

	For the last four years, we have fed, on an average, six hundred
people, who come to the Tithing Office, and who never give us a dime for
it; and yet they will not acknowledge themselves poor.  There are also
hundreds of persons in this city, and in other cities in the territory,
who require the Bishops to help them, when at the same time they are able
to drive a pretty good team, and occupy as good a house as I live in, and
are able to have a good garden, and quite a farm.  Yet they will go to the
Bishops, and say, "Will you let me have a yoke of oxen?" or, "I wish,
Bishop, you would let me have those horses; I do not know when I can pay
you for them; I am poor;" or, "Will you let me have that carriage that has
been put in on tithing?  I do not know when I shall pay you for it; I have
raised considerable wheat, but I want to get a quantity of clothing with
that for my family this year; let me have the carriage anyhow, and I do
not want you to ask me for the pay, or say anything about it."  Still we
cannot find one family to acknowledge they are sustained by the Church,
and own the name of being poor--who cannot sustain themselves.  We have
the proof on hand for this.

	There is much said in the Bible with regard to the rich.  In one
place it is said, "It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
heaven; but "blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit," &c.  Can you
understand what the Lord means by these sayings, and others, by His
Prophets and Apostles, touching the poor?  He means simply this, "Those
who have the good things of this world, and will put them to use in
building up the kingdom of God on earth; will feed the hungry, clothe the
naked, and do good with them; they are my people, saith the Lord."

	But let me tell you, poor men, or poor women, who have nothing, and
covet that which is not their own, are just as wicked in their hearts, as
the miserly man who hoards up his gold and silver, and will not put it out
to use.  I wish the poor to understand, and act as they would wish others
to act towards them in like circumstances.

	Let the brethren and sisters who have come in this season, as quick
as the Lord puts anything in their possession, first pay the debts they
owe the poor in foreign countries.  They do not owe it here; it is merely
paid into the treasury here, from which it is appropriated to bring the
poor Saints of other countries to this place.  You owe it to people that
cannot help themselves; to those who may travel hundreds of miles, and
apply to every mechanic's shop or factory for employment to get a penny to
buy a loaf of bread, and to no avail.

	The Americans do not understand this; they have seen hard times it is
true, but they never saw people as poor as they are in Europe.  In the
eastern countries of America, there are thousands who have hard fare, but
they can get food in a way the poor of the old countries cannot.  You who
have come from there, know what it is; it has been before your eyes all
your lifetime.

	If the poor there are found asking for a meal of victuals, or
soliciting the least help in the streets as vagrants, they are reported to
the police; and what is next?  They are taken and put into the house of
correction, and made to work on the tread-mill, and there, by their own
weight, made to turn machinery constructed to grind sand and other
substances.  In these circumstances thousands of them die yearly.  It is
against the law in that country for them to be found begging, and in some
places, if they are found begging a third time, they are put in the
stocks.

	As many of you may not know what the stocks are, I will try to
describe them.  You will see, by the side of the most public
thoroughfares, or in the public market-places, two posts sunk firmly in
the ground; from post to post there is a thick block of wood let into them
and pinned fast; there is also another block above the first one, that is
made to slide down upon it, where it can be made fast; there is a half
circle made in each block, which, when they come together, form a round
hole.  In this hole the vagrant is made fast by the neck.  The upper block
is raised, he is made to put his neck between, it is then slid down, and
made fast; and there they leave him, where he is obliged to stay as long
as the officer is disposed to keep him.

	Do you see any such things in any part of America?  The brethren and
sisters who have come from the old country will tell you that they have
seen hundreds and thousands of men, women, and children, passing through
the streets in that country, bowed down with hunger, and their faces pale
as death, leaning perhaps upon a little stick they use for a walking cane,
and passing slowly along to see if any person would give their something
without asking for it.

	Are any of our brethren there, in that situation?  Yes; there are
hundreds of them to-day who have not a morsel of food to put into their
stomachs to sustain nature.  Are any of them dying with want there?  Yes;
scores of them will die there before next March, for want of something to
eat.  Suppose they were here, they would only need to glean in your fields
to obtain bread enough, and dig over your gardens again to get the
potatoes you have left in the ground, which they would be glad to eat. 
You may as well abuse your own flesh, as to refuse to put forth your hands
to assist the brethren who are thus situated in the old countries.

	This text I want preached upon in this Conference, and how many more
will be preached upon I do not know.  I want the brethren who have come
here this season, to do their duty.

	Little occurrences may be told with regard to the gathering of the
Saints.  For instance, men or women put in a few pounds to bring them to
these valleys and the Perpetual Emigrating Fund pays the rest.  When they
get on the plains, the wagons break down.  They begin to weigh up, and
find a few hundred pounds over weight; they destroy their large boxes, or
leave them on the plains; and in the operation find silks and satins that
would twice pay their passage.  After they arrive here, boxes of English
goods are taken away from the camping ground, which have been smuggled
here in the Fund train.

	Woe to those who profess to be Saints and are not honest.  Only be
honest with yourselves, and you will be honest to the brethren.  I want
the brethren preached to upon this subject, and if they do not remember
the instructions given, the sin will lie at their doors, and not at ours.

	It is not for men to rise in this stand and tell what will be in the
Millennium, and what will be after the Millennium.  That which pertains to
every day life and action, is what pertains to us; that the Saints here
may know how to order their course before each other, and before the Lord;
that they may be justified and have the Spirit of the Lord with them
continually.  This is our Gospel, it is our salvation.  You need to be
instructed with regard to these items of every day duty one towards
another; and when you know how to be a Saint to-day, you are in a fair way
to know how to be a Saint to-morrow.  And if you can continue to be a
Saint to-day, you can through the week, and through the year, and you can
fill up your whole life in performing the duty and labor of a Saint.

	This is our religion, and the Gospel of salvation, and is the
salvation held out in the discourses we have been blessed with this
morning; and I wish you to treasure them up, and profit by them.

	I now request the Presidents of every Branch, and the Bishops and
their Counsellors throughout Utah, to hunt up those who are indebted to
the Perpetual Emigrating Fund and as fast as possible, collect their dues
in available means, and forward the same to my office, even should you
have to plan for them, or set them to work, that the Fund may increase,
and the poor be delivered from oppression.

	And I pray the Lord to bless our efforts for the accomplishment of
this and every other good work, in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

                MARRIAGE RELATIONS OF BISHOPS AND DEACONS.
An Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered at the General
Conference,
        in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1854.

	I do not wish to eradicate any items from the lecture Elder Hyde has
given us this evening, but simply to give you my views, in a few words, on
the portion touching Bishops and Deacons.

	In Paul's first epistle to Timothy, third chapter, he writes as
follows--

	"This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he
desireth a good work.  A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one
wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to
teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but
patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity; (for if a man know not
how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?) 
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the
condemnation of the devil.  Moreover he must have a good report of them
which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. 
Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to much
wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a
pure conscience.  And let these also first be proved; then let them use
the office of a deacon, being found blameless.  Even so must their wives
be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.  Let the deacons
be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses
well."

	I have read this that your minds may be refreshed, and that you may
know how it does read.

	Instead of my believing for a moment that Paul wished to signify to
Timothy that he must select a man to fill the office of a Bishop that
would have but one wife, I believe directly the reverse; but his advice to
Timothy amounts simply to this--It would not be wise for you to ordain a
man to the office of a Bishop unless he has a wife; you must not ordain a
single or unmarried man to that calling.

	If you will read this chapter carefully, you will learn the
qualifications necessary for Deacons and Bishops, and also for their
wives.

	I will simply give my views with regard to this matter, and then
leave it.

	I have no testimony from the Bible, neither have I from any history
that I have any knowledge of, that a man was ever prohibited in the Church
in the days of Paul from taking more than one wife.  If any historian has
knowledge to the contrary, let him make it known at a suitable time; but
if such was the case it has not come to my knowledge.

	I will now give you my reasons why it is necessary that a Bishop
should have a wife, not but that he may have more than one wife.  In the
first place he is (or should be) like a father to his ward, or to the
people over whom he presides, and a good portion of his time is occupied
among them.  Still he does not wish to be bound up, or flooded with cares
of this world, so but that he can officiate in his office, and magnify it
to acceptance.

	The office of a Bishop is in his ward; and when he finds a man who is
doing a good business as a farmer or a tradesman, and who has plenty
around him, and is faithfully paying his tithing, he has no business there
only to receive the tithing that man has to pay for the benefit of the
kingdom of God; his business is more particularly in the houses of widows
and orphans, and he is called to administer to them in righteousness, like
a father.

	Paul, knowing by observation and his own experience the temptations
that were continually thrown before the Elders, gave instructions
paramount to this--Before you ordain a person to be a Bishop, to take the
charge of a Branch in any one district or place, see that he has a wife to
begin with; he did not say, "but one wife;" it does not read so; but he
must have one to begin with, in order that he may not be continually drawn
into temptation while he is in the line of his duty, visiting the houses
of widows and orphans, the poor, the afflicted, and the sick in his ward. 
He is to converse with families, sometimes upon family matters, and care
for them, but if he has no wife, he is not so capable of taking care of a
family as he otherwise would be, and perhaps he is not capable of taking
care of himself.  Now select a young man who has preserved himself in
purity and holiness, one who has carried himself circumspectly before the
people, and before God; it would not do to ordain him to the office of a
Bishop, for he may be drawn into temptation, and he lacks experience in
family matters; but take a man who has one wife at least, a man of
experience, like thousands of our Elders, men of strength of mind, who
have determination in them to preserve themselves pure under all
circumstances, at all times, and in all places in their wards.  Now,
Timothy, select such a man to be a Bishop.

	A Bishop in his calling and duty is with the Church all the time; he
is not called to travel abroad to preach, but is at home; he is not abroad
in the world, but is with the Saints.

	When you have got your Bishop, he needs assistants, and he ordains
Counsellors, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons, and calls them to help him;
and he wishes men of his own heart and hand to do this.  Says he, "I dare
not even call a man to be a Deacon, to assist me in my calling, unless he
has a family."  It is not the business of an ignorant young man, of no
experience in family matters, to inquire into the circumstances of
families, and know the wants of every person.  Some may want medicine and
nourishment, and to be looked after, and it is not the business of boys to
do this; but select a man who has got a family to be a Deacon, whose wife
can go with him, and assist him in administering to the needy in the ward.

	These are simply my views in a few words on this subject, and always
have been since I have reflected upon the doctrine that the fathers teach
us in the Holy Scriptures.  I will venture to say the view I take of the
matter is not to be disputed or disproved by Scripture or reason.

	I have no reasonable grounds upon which to say it was not the custom
in ancient times for a man to have more than one wife, but every reason to
believe that it was the custom among the Jews, from the days of Abraham to
the days of the Apostles, for they were lineal descendants of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom taught and practised the doctrine of
plurality of wives, and were revered by the whole Jewish nation, and it is
but natural that they should have respected and followed their teachings
and example.

	So much I wished to say to my brethren and sisters.  We have had a
splendid address from brother Hyde, for which I am grateful.  I feel in my
heart to bless the people all the time, and can say amen to brother Hyde's
last remarks.  I know just as much about those matters as I want to know,
and if I do not know more, it is because there is no more of it in the
city.  It is a hard matter for a man to hide himself from me in this
Territory; the birds of the air, they say, carry news, and if they do not,
I have plenty of sources for information.

	I say to the congregation, treasure up in your hearts what you have
heard to-night, and at other times.  You will hear more with regard to the
doctrine, that is, our "Marriage Relations."  Elder Hyde says he has only
just dipped into it, but, if it will not be displeasing to him, I will say
he has not dipped into it yet; he has only run round the edge of the
field.  He has done so beautifully, and it will have its desired effect. 
But the whole subject of the marriage relation is not in my reach, nor in
any other man's reach on this earth.  It is without beginning of days or
end of years; it is a hard matter to reach.  We can tell some things with
regard to it; it lays the foundation for worlds, for angels, and for the
Gods; for intelligent beings to be crowned with glory, immortality, and
eternal lives.  In fact, it is the thread which runs from the beginning to
the end of the holy Gospel of salvation--of the Gospel of the Son of God;
it is from eternity to eternity.  When the vision of the mind is opened,
you can see a great portion of it, but you see it comparatively as a
speaker sees the faces of a congregation.  To look at, and talk to, each
individual separately, and thinking to become fully acquainted with them,
only to spend five minutes with each would consume too much time, it could
not easily be done.  So it is with the visions of eternity; we can see and
understand, but it is difficult to tell.   May God bless you.  Amen.

           SPIRITUAL GIFTS--HELL--THE SPIRIT WORLD--THE ELDERS
               AND THE NATIONS--THE LAMANITES--THE TEMPLE.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, Dec., 3, 1854.

	There are two or three subjects that I wish to occupy a short time in
speaking upon, and I will commence with observations upon spiritual gifts,
applicable directly to "such as sit in darkness, and in the shadow of
death," according to the words of the Psalmist.

	In the Scripture written by Job, or said to be written by him, you
can read, "There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty
giveth them understanding;" and in the New Testament, "In him (Christ) was
life; and the life was the light of men."  "Then spake Jesus again unto
them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."  That was the true
light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

	We could turn to many other passages of Scripture, alluding to what I
have in my mind with regard to the inhabitants of the earth.  It is
believed, or has been, for I have often heard it taught by the Elders of
Israel, that every person of accountable age, who did not believe in the
Gospel of the Son of God, as it is written in the New Testament, and
practise it in their lives, would be damned; or in other words, if a
person does not become a Saint, or what we call a Saint, he must be
damned.  According to the old Scriptures, in one sense, I can agree with
them with regard to the expression, and truly say that the inhabitants of
the earth who have lived and died, and those who are now living, are all
damned.

	This idea brings to my mind so much not directly alluding to my
subject, that I will break off, and say that we are now fighting the
devils, in order to make a heaven of this earth.

	Any person knowing and understanding the Scriptures as they are, and
understanding the mind and will of God, can understand at once that when
he is shut out from the presence of the Lord, when He does not hear His
voice, sees not His face, receives not the ministering of His angels or
ministering spirits, and has no messenger from the heavens to visit him,
he must surely be in hell.  Does the wrath of God rest upon all such? 
Yes, and we have plenty of it, just as much as we know what to do with. 
Are you not aware that the Latter-day Saints are realizing this, and
saying "that it seems as though the devils are let loose upon the Saints?" 
Do you not know that they are liable to temptation? to feel wrath, malice,
strife, envy, hatred to God, dislike to righteousness, and an inclination
to dethrone the Almighty, and usurp His authority?  If this is not being
in hell, and if this is not the wrath of God abiding, to a certain degree,
upon the inhabitants of the earth, we will wait until we find out what it
is; but I cannot tell it any better in so few words.

	The Spirit of the Lord, the light of Christ, and the inspiration of
the Almighty, are given to every man to profit withal.  All who understand
the Gospel of salvation, in reflecting upon the condition of their
progenitors, as far back as they can trace them, have this consolation; if
they were honest, if they were upright, if they lived according to the
best light and knowledge they had, if they served the Lord according to
all they could obtain from the priest, and other sources, and lived
according to that light, are they damned?  Yes, precisely as you and I
will be.

	It is understood, and is so written, that when the inhabitants of the
earth pass through what is called the valley of death, that which is in
the tabernacle leaves it, and goes into the world of spirits, which is
called hades or hell.  The spirits that dwell in these tabernacles on this
earth, when they leave them, go directly into the world of spirits.  What,
a congregated mass of inhabitants there in spirit, mingling with each
other, as they do here?  Yes, brethren, they are there together, and if
they associate together, and collect together in clans and in societies as
they do here, it is their privilege.  No doubt they yet, more or less,
see, hear, converse, and have to do with each other, both good and bad. 
Jesus himself went to preach to the spirits in prison; now, as he went to
preach to them, he certainly associated with them; there is no doubt of
that.  If the prophets went and preached to the spirits in prison, they
associated with them: if the Elders of Israel in these latter times go and
preach to the spirits in prison, they associate with them, precisely as
our Elders associate with the wicked in the flesh, when they go to preach
to them.

	This is exactly what I wish to get before your minds, not that but
many of you understand these principles, and again many of you have not
had the privilege of hearing them.  Brother Woodard, who spoke to you this
morning, has been in Italy, and has never before had the privilege of
gathering with the Saints.  He first learned of the coming forth of the
Book of Mormon, and the restoration of the Gospel, from the Elders who
travelled where he was, and by the Spirit of the Lord he understood.

	Brethren and sisters, and all who preach the Gospel of salvation,
and, in short, all who inhabit this earth, I wish you to understand that
the Lord has pleased to organize tabernacles here, and put spirits into
them, and they then become intelligent beings.  By and bye, sooner or
later, the body, this that is tangible to you, that you can feel, see,
handle, &c., returns to its mother dust.  Is the spirit dead?  No.  You
believe the spirit still exists, when this body has crumbled to the earth
again, and the spirit that God puts into the tabernacle goes into the
world of spirits.  What is their situation?  Is there any opportunity for
them whatever?  Yes, there is; although there is a great deal of Scripture
which the priests have been pleased to make, without revelation, that
contradicts this idea; and the traditions of the fathers contradict it,
not the traditions of the Prophets and Apostles, but of our fathers, those
who have lived in the dark ages of the world, and the great majority of
those who live now; for I do not know of a darker period in the history of
the world, than that of the nineteenth century, apart from the light of
the new and everlasting covenant.  It is the ignorance and superstition of
the people that contradict future progression in the world of spirits, for
the Gospel does not.  There is an opportunity for men who are in the
spirit to receive the Gospel.  Jesus, while his body lay in the grave two
nights and one day, went to the world of spirits to show the brethren how
they should build up the kingdom, and bring spirits to the knowledge of
the truth in the spirit world; he went to set them the pattern there, as
he had done on this earth.  Hence you perceive that there, spirits have
the privilege of embracing the truth.

	You may ask if they are baptized there?  No.  Can they have hands
laid upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost?  No.  None of the outward
ordinances that pertain to the flesh are administered there, but the
light, glory, and power of the Holy Ghost are enjoyed just as freely as
upon this earth; and there are laws which govern and control the spirit
world, and to which they are subject.

	Can we do anything for them?  Yes.  What are we trying to build a
Temple for?  And we shall not only build a Temple here, if we are
successful, and are blessed and preserved, but we shall probably commence
two or three more, and so on as fast as the work requires, for the express
purpose of redeeming our dead.  When I get a revelation that some of my
progenitors lived and died without the blessings of the Gospel, or even
hearing it preached, but were as honest as I am, as upright as I am, or as
any man or woman could be upon the earth; as righteous, so far as they
knew how, as any Apostle or Prophet that ever lived, I will go and be
baptized, confirmed, washed, and anointed, and go through all the
ordinances and endowments for them, that their way may be open to the
celestial kingdom.

	As I have frequently told you, that is the work of the Millennium. 
It is the work that has to be performed by the seed of Abraham, the chosen
seed, the royal seed, the blessed of the Lord, those the Lord made
covenants with.  They will step forth, and save every son and daughter of
Adam who will receive salvation here on the earth; and all spirits in the
spirit world will be preached to, conversed with, and the principles of
salvation carried to them, that they may have the privilege of receiving
the Gospel; and they will have plenty of children here on the earth to
officiate for them in those ordinances of the Gospel that pertain to the
flesh.

	Many people believe that the Spirit of the Lord has not been upon the
earth when the Gospel was not among men in its purity; they believe the
Spirit of the Lord has been entirely taken from the earth since the
apostacy of the Church.  I do not believe for one moment that there has
been a man or woman upon the face of the earth, from the days of Adam to
this day, who has not been enlightened, instructed, and taught by the
revelations of Jesus Christ.  "What! the ignorant heathen?"  Yes, every
human being who has possessed a sane mind.  I am far from believing that
the children of men have been deprived of the privilege of receiving the
Spirit of the Lord to teach them right from wrong.  No matter what the
traditions of their fathers were, those who were honest before the Lord,
and acted uprightly, according to the best knowledge they had, will have
an opportunity to go into the kingdom of God.  I believe this privilege
belonged to the sons and daughters of Adam, and descended from him, and
his children who were cotemporary [sic] with him, throughout all
generations.

	Men who are under the influence of their traditions and former
notions, will desire to ask scores of questions upon this subject, but I
think I can relieve your minds.

	The Spirit of the Lord, in teaching the people, in opening their
minds to the principles of truth, does not infringe upon the laws God has
given to mankind for their government; consequently, when the Lord made
man, He made him an agent accountable to his God, with liberty to act and
to do as he pleases, to a certain extent, in order to prove himself. 
There is a law that governs man thus far; but the law of the celestial
kingdom, as I have frequently told you, is, and always will be, the same
to all the children of Adam.  When we talk of the celestial law which is
revealed from heaven, that is, the Priesthood, we are talking about the
principle of salvation, a perfect system of government, of laws and
ordinances, by which we can be prepared to pass from one gate to another,
and from one sentinel to another, until we go into the presence of our
Father and God.  This law has not always been upon the earth; and in its
absence, other laws have been given to the children of men for their
improvement, for their education, for their government, and to prove what
they would do when left to control themselves; and what we now call
tradition has grown out of these circumstances.

	There is so much of this, that I hardly dare to commence talking
about it.  It would require a lengthy discourse upon this particular
point.  Suffice it to say, the Lord has not established laws by which I am
compelled to have my shoes made in a certain style.  He has never given a
law to determine whether I shall have a square-toed boot or a peaked-toed
boot; whether I shall have a coat with the waist just under my arms, and
the skirts down to my heels; or whether I shall have a coat like the one I
have on.  Intelligence, to a certain extent, was bestowed both upon Saint
and sinner, to use independently, aside from whether they have the law of
the Priesthood or not, or whether they have ever heard of it or not.  "I
put into you intelligence," saith the Lord; "that you may know how to
govern and control yourselves, and make yourselves comfortable and happy
on the earth; and give unto you certain privileges to act upon as
independently in your sphere as I do in the government of heaven."

	No matter whether we are Jew or Gentile, as the two classes of people
are called; though Gentile signifies disobedient people; no matter whether
we believe in the Koran as firmly as we now believe in the Bible; no
matter whether we have been educated by the Jews, the Gentiles, or the
Hottentots; whether we serve the true and the living God, or a lifeless
image, if we are honest before the God we serve.

 	Brother George Q. Cannon brought me a god from the Sandwich Islands,
made out of a piece of wood.  If all the people bow down to such a god as
that, it is in accordance with their laws and ordinances, and their manner
of dealing among themselves; the Lord permits them to do as they please
with regard to that matter, and this illustration will apply to all the
nations upon the face of the earth.  People who fall down beneath the
wheels of Juggernaut, and are crushed to death; who sacrifice their
children in the worship of idols; if they act according to the best of
their knowledge, there is a chance for their salvation, as much as there
is for the salvation of any other person.

	"Do you suppose the Hindoos have the light of the Spirit of Christ?" 
I know they have; and so have the Hottentots, and so has every nation and
kingdom upon the face of the earth, even though some of them may be
cannibals, indulging in a practice the most repugnant to our refined
feelings of any we know of among any people; yet that is a practice which
the religious, refined, and polished inhabitants of our lovely country
shudder at.  But let me place any member of this congregation, or the
whole of them, in such a state of suffering, from year to year, that they
shall never see one day or one hour's comfort, nor satisfaction of human
life; when compared with a condition of that kind, the sin of killing and
eating a human being would not be as great as many sins committed by the
so-called Christian nations.

	Can I refer your minds to circumstances of this kind among the people
of our lovely country?  Yes, brethren and sisters, ladies and gentlemen,
scores of them.  When a man has power over his neighbour, over his
fellow-being, and puts him in torment, which is like the flames of
everlasting fire, so that he never dares to speak his mind, or walk across
the street, or attend to any branch of business without a continual fear
of his oppressor, and of the rod hanging over him for punishment, it is
worse than to kill and eat him.  That is as the torment of hell, do you
know it?  Now do not be scared when you hear of the heathen engaging in
loathsome practices, for I defy you to bring up a meaner or more degraded
set than now exists among the so-called civilized nations of the earth.

	When I heard brother George Q. Cannon speak about the traditions of
the people where he has been, I thought that some of their traditions were
no worse than some of ours.  They believe that no one is better capable of
teaching the inhabitants of the earth than they; and I defy them to
believe that stronger than we believe it of ourselves.  It is what we have
been taught, and what we verily believe; they have been taught the same
idea, and believe it with all their hearts; then don't cast them down to
hell for their honest belief.

	But when the light of the knowledge of God comes to a man and he
rejects it, that it is his condemnation.  When I have told all I have been
authorized to declare to him in the name of the Lord, if he does not have
the visions of eternity, it is all nonsense to him.  To know the truth of
my testimony he must have the visions and revelations of God for himself. 
And when he gets them, and turns aside, becoming a traitor to the cause of
righteousness, the wrath of God will beat upon him, and the vengeance of
the Almighty will be heavy upon him.  This comes, not because their
fathers lived in darkness before them, and the ancestors of their fathers
before them; not because the nations have lived and died in ignorance; but
because the Lord pours the spirit of revelation upon them, and they reject
it.  Then they are prepared for the wrath of God, and they are banished to
another part of the spirit world, where the devil has power and control
over them.

	Have not all our missionaries complained of hard times in their
fields of labor?  And some lately sent out are coming home.  It is hard
times for the brethren who are preaching in India.  I understand the cause
of it, and I wish to tell you, that you may understand it when you go
there, or whether you go or not.

	Take an artificial globe, and point out the spot where the Lord
commenced to build up His kingdom in the times before the flood: follow
the history of that people down to the days after the flood; and find on
the globe where their children settled, and where the confusion of
languages took place; then trace the children of Israel from Egypt follow
their tracks along the sea, and in their wanderings through the Red Sea to
the land of Canaan; then take the site of Jerusalem where the Saviour was
martyred; then follow the paths of the ancient Apostles of Christ, and see
where they preached the Gospel; and when you have followed their tracks
throughout the extent of their labors, and come to those who did not
reject the Gospel, or had not the privilege of receiving it, you have come
to the borders of the ground where the good seed can be received.

	Jerusalem is not to be redeemed by our going there and preaching to
the inhabitants.  It will be redeemed by the high hand of the Almighty. 
It will be given into the possession of the ancient Israelites by the
power of God, and by the pouring out of His judgments.  The ground where
you can sow the good seed, and where it will yield crops that you can
gather, is outside of that where the ancient Apostles and Prophets
labored.  They had the light and power of God with them; and made manifest
the hand of the Almighty in delivering the people and working miracles,
and saving those that were redeemed; and the people who are the most ready
to receive the Gospel are those who have lived without it from the days of
Noah to this time.

	If you can find an island upon which a portion of the people who were
scattered from the Tower of Babel found a resting place, and whose
inhabitants were never visited by any of the ancient Apostles and
Prophets, and where Jesus Christ did not visit, and who have not received
any knowledge of the Father, nor the Son, from the days of the confusion,
there is the spot where the Elders will reap the fruits of their labor
more than anywhere else.

	Previous to our receiving the Priesthood in these latter times, when
we were members of the different sectarian churches, we used to read much
about the Waldenses whom brother Woodard has been speaking about to-day,
and who inhabit the mountains and vales of Piedmont, and from whom the
Baptists say they received their authority or priesthood.  But their
priesthood is no better than the Catholic priesthood.  Do you think they
as a people will receive the Gospel?  No.  A few of them will.  You
recollect that brother Woodard said they were a mixed race, and are the
descendants of those who heard, and most of whom rejected the Gospel.  He
said that but very few of them could read and write; and that the priest
was ready to chastise those who could read, if they were known to use
their knowledge.  Now, they are only like the brute; they are not to blame
for their superstition; and they are not the people to readily receive the
Gospel.  I may say they have but their cast-iron creed into the centre of
an iron casting; the creed, notions, and superstitions of their fathers,
their priests, kings, judges, and men in authority have been cast into one
mould, and there they are stereotyped in cast iron.  You may break their
iron bands, and set them at liberty, and but few of them will receive the
Gospel.

	Why is this?  Because their fathers heard the Gospel, and most of
them rejected it; and the curse of the Almighty is upon them, and upon
their posterity until they have wrought out their salvation by suffering;
for the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.  A nation which
has had the privilege of receiving the everlasting covenant, and has
rejected it, will be saved in the kingdom of God, but it will be among the
very last which will receive the Gospel.  Perhaps you will marvel at this. 
It is no marvel to me, because I perceive natural principles and sound
reason for all these providences of the Almighty.  All His providences to
His people upon the face of the whole earth, are perfectly philosophical. 
Then recollect, there is a chance for all who are honest in heart.  What
shall we do with those who are dishonest?  Let them remain with the good
until the time comes to cast them away, and gather out the good.

	We might say much on this point, showing you why things are as they
are concerning the inhabitants of the earth receiving or rejecting the
Gospel.  Do you suppose they believe in Jesus Christ at Jerusalem?  Can
you make a Christian of a Jew?  I tell you, nay.  If a Jew comes into this
Church, and honestly professes to be a Saint, a follower of Christ, and if
the blood of Judah is in his veins, he will apostatize.  He may have been
born and bred a Jew, have the face of a Jew, speak the language of the
Jews, and have attended to all the ceremonies of the Jewish religion, and
have openly professed to be a Jew all his days; but I will tell you a
secret--there is not a particle of the blood of Judaism in him, if he has
become a true Christian, a Saint of God; for if there is, he will most
assuredly leave the Church of Christ, or that blood will be purged out of
his veins.  We have men among us who were Jews, and became converted from
Judaism.  For instance, here is brother Neibaur ;do I believe there is one
particle of the blood of Judah in his veins?  No, not so much as could be
seen on the point of the finest cambric needle, through a microscope with
a magnifying power of two millions.  This is a secret that you will
perhaps find out, in a coming day, to your satisfaction.  The Lord knew
how to preach to the Jews, and told them what the truth was.  You may as
well undertake to command the most degraded of these Indian tribes, and
give them arms and accoutrements, and try to put them through the regular
military exercise, as to preach to the Jews to make them believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ.

	Jerusalem is not to be redeemed by the soft still voice of the
preacher of the Gospel of peace.  Why?  Because they were once the blessed
of the Lord, the chosen of the Lord, the promised seed.  They were the
people from among whom should spring the Messiah; and salvation could be
found only through that tribe.  The Messiah came through them, and they
killed him; and they will be the last of all the seed of Abraham to have
the privilege of receiving the New and Everlasting Covenant.  You may hand
out to them gold, you may feed and clothe them, but it is impossible to
convert the Jews, until the Lord God Almighty does it.

	We have this illustrated in the account of Cain and Abel.  Cain
conversed with his God every day, and knew all about the plan of creating
this earth, for his father told him.  But, for the want of humility, and
through jealousy, and an anxiety to possess the kingdom, and to have the
whole of it under his own control, and not allow any body else the right
to say one word, what did he do?  He killed his brother.  The Lord put a
mark on him; and there are some of his children in this room.  When all
the other children of Adam have had the privilege of receiving the
Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed
from the four quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection
from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove tho curse from Cain
and his posterity.  He deprived his brother of the privilege of pursuing
his journey through life, and of extending his kingdom by multiplying upon
the earth; and because he did this, he is the last to share the joys of
the kingdom of God.

	Here are the Lamanites, another example.  Their wickedness was not so
great as those who slew the Son of God.  Jesus revealed himself to them
after he was slain, preached to them the Gospel.  But in the fourth
generation the Priesthood was driven from their midst, and after that, the
laws, ordinances, and power of the Gospel ceased to be with them.  Is
their curse as great as that of those in Palestine?  No, it is light, in
comparison.  They began to thirst for each other's blood, and massacred
each other, from generation to generation, until they sunk into
wickedness, and evil principles the most degrading, and have become
loathsome and vile.  Still, the curse will be removed from them before it
will be removed from the children of Judah; and they will become "a white
and delightsome people."

	Brother Ballantyne, and many of our brethren in distant lands write,
"O, how we would rejoice to have the privilege of visiting our mountain
home!"  I would rather undertake to convert five thousand Lamanites, than
to convert one of those poor miserable creatures whose fathers killed the
Savior, and who say, "Amen to the deed," to this day.  Yea, I would rather
undertake to convert the devil himself, if it were possible.

	Then I say to the Elders in those regions, be not astonished if you
have to see hard times.  And if I had a voice that would reach the ears of
all those Elders, I would say, LEAVE THEM, AND COME HOME, THE LORD DOES
NOT REQUIRE YOU TO STAY THERE, FOR THEY MUST SUFFER AND BE DAMNED.

	Now, sisters, write to your husbands who are in regions where the
Gospel has been preached anciently, to come home; and I say to all the
Elders who are in lands where the Gospel has been preached previous to our
day, come away from that people, and leave them to live and die in their
sins and ignorance.  For the sins of their fathers are a sweet morsel to
them, and they take pleasure in their wickedness; therefore, let them
alone, and come home, and preach to the Lamanites.

	There are many in this city who can bear witness to an incident I
will now relate.  Last spring, when we visited Walker, the Indian chief,
he was dull and sulky, and lay in his tent, and would not come out to meet
me.  I went into his tent, and the first thing he said was, "Brother
Brigham, lay your hands upon me, for my spirit has gone away from me and I
want it to come back again."  He was full of anger, for his people had
been fighting, and he did not know whether to turn on to the side of peace
or of war.

	We laid hands upon him, and he felt better.  At his request, we sung
some "Mormon" hymns, and, as we left his tent, he was full of the good
Spirit, and would not injure this people, no, not one particle.  He was
full of kindness, and love to God, and to all His works.  He travelled
with us to Iron County, and had dreams which amounted to revelations.  If
I could keep him with me all the time, do you suppose he would have an
evil spirit?  No, he would be filled with the Spirit of the Lord.

	Last Sabbath we had an excellent discourse from brother Aaron Farr;
his spirit is good, and so is brother Washington L. Jolly's.  Brother Farr
closed his remarks by saying, "that we were building fine houses, and
neglecting the Temple of the Lord," and brother Jolly referred to the same
thing in his remarks.  If it would not hurt their feelings, I would say,
it is none of your business if we do not build a Temple here for years.  I
know they feel anxious to have a place for us to administer the endowments
in, and so do I.

	Among those we administered the endowments to in Nauvoo, do you not
think we administered to some who were devils, or in other words, full of
the devil?  You wish to see a Temple built, and, when it is done, some
poor miserable beings will come up, and say, "We were baptized by brother
So-and-so.  Brother Brigham is a charming man, and what an excellent woman
his wife is!  Cannot we have our endowments this winter, brother Brigham?" 
And they will plead with brother Kimball, and sympathise for this or that
man, saying, "Do let him have his endowment, for he is so generous and
loving; he gave a sister a pair of stockings and shoes; cannot he have his
endowment?"  Well, he gets his endowment, and what for?  To go to
California, and reveal everything he can, and stir up wickedness, and
prepare himself for hell.

	I would rather see this people cleansed, and give the righteous their
endowments after they have waited awhile.  Let the poor. and those who are
humble before the Lord, have the first chance.  I should not build a
Temple, nor commence to put one piece of hewn stone upon the foundation,
or plane a board or stick of timber for that building, until the Temple
lot is fenced.  If this people will pay one-fifth of the tithing that is
due, we can build all that we wish.

	I will venture to say that brother Farr and Jolly never counselled
their brethren, where they have been laboring, to come up here and pay
their tithing; and yet they look to me and my brethren to do it all, to
send the Gospel to the nations, to build temples, and watch night and day
over the interests of this kingdom, and they have not even mouthed
tithing; or, if they have, they have merely touched upon it, and when they
get here, they whisper in my ear.  "Brother Brigham, handle them carefully
on tithing, for they know but little about it."

	I wish you to understand me.  Wait until this people have paid their
tithing, before there is any demand made on the Lord, or on His servants,
for a Temple.  If this people rise up, and make demands on me for anything
that has not been done, or complain about anything that they have done, I
am ready to post up the books, and strike a balance sheet, and show
whether it is you or your President that is the defaulter.

	If all the brethren understood, and would pursue a proper policy,
they would do better than they now do.  My policy is to get rich; I am a
miser in eternal things.  Do I want to become rich in the things of this
earth?  Yes, if the Lord wishes me to have such riches, and I can use them
to good advantage.  My policy is to keep every man, woman, and child
busily employed, that they may have no idle time for hatching mischief in
the night, and for making plans to accomplish their own ruin.

	We see men in our streets employed only in plotting the ruin of this
people.  But men who are engaged in the kanyons, in stores, or in any
active labor in the day time, when night comes they are glad to rest. 
Night is the time the idle and the indolent watch for their prey.  My
policy is to keep everybody busy in building up this kingdom; in building
houses; in breaking up land; in setting out fruit and ornamental trees; in
laying out fine gardens, pleasant walks, and beautiful groves; and in
building academies, and other places of learning.

	There are hundreds of young men here who can go to school, which is
far better than to waste their time.  Study languages, get knowledge and
understanding; and while doing this, get wisdom from God, and forget it
not, and learn how to apply it, that you may do good with it all the days
of your lives.  May God bless you.  AMEN.

       THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES--RIGHTS
                   AND POLICY OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 18, 1855.
                     [Read by Elder Thomas Bullock.]

Brethren, Sisters, and Friends--

	We are a people believing in the providences of God, and
acknowledging His hand in His dealing with us from day to day.

	We are a people whose rise and progress from the beginning, has been
the work of God our Heavenly Father, which in His wisdom He has seen
proper to commence for the re-establishment of His kingdom upon the earth.

	Still further we believe that the Lord has been preparing that, when
He should bring forth His work, that, when the set time should fully come,
there might be a place upon His footstool where sufficient liberty of
conscience should exist, that His Saints might dwell in peace under the
broad panoply of constitutional law and equal rights.  In this view we
consider that the men in the Revolution were inspired, by the Almighty, to
throw off the shackles of the mother government, with her established
religion.  For this cause were Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and
a host of others inspired to deeds of resistance to the acts of the King
of Great Britain, who might also have been led to those aggressive acts,
for aught we know, to bring to pass the purposes of God, in thus
establishing a new government upon a principle of greater freedom, a basis
of self-government allowing the free exercise of religious worship.

	It was the voice of the Lord inspiring all those worthy men who bore
influence in those trying times, not only to go forth in battle, but to
exercise wisdom in council, fortitude, courage, and endurance in the
tented field, as well as subsequently to form and adopt those wise and
efficient measures which secured to themselves and suceeding [sic]
generations, the blessing of a free and independent government.

	This government, so formed, has been blessed by the Almighty until
she spreads her sails in every sea, and her power is felt in every land.

	The American Government is second to none in the world in influence
and power, and far before all others in liberal and free institutions. 
Under its benign influence the poor, down trodden masses of the old world
can find an asylum where they can enjoy the blessings of peace and
freedom, no matter to what caste or religious sect they belong, or are
disposed to favor, or whether they are disposed to favor any or none at
all.  It was in this government, formed by men inspired of God, although
at the time they knew it not, after it was firmly established in the seat
of power and influence, where liberty of conscience, and the free exercise
of religious worship were a fundamental principle guaranteed in the
Constitution, and interwoven with all the feelings, traditions, and
sympathies of the people, that the Lord sent forth His angel to reveal the
truths of heaven as in times past, even as in ancient days.  This should
have been hailed as the greatest blessing which could have been bestowed
upon any nation, kindred, tongue, or people.  It should have been received
with hearts of gratitude and gladness, praise and thanksgiving.

	But as it was in the days of our Savior, so was it in the advent of
this new dispensation.  It was not in accordance with the notions,
traditions, and pre-conceived ideas of the American people.  The messenger
did not come to an eminent divine of any of the so-called orthodoxy, he
did not adopt their interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.  The Lord did
not come with the armies of heaven, in power and great glory, nor send His
messengers panoplied with aught else than the truth of heaven, to
communicate to the meek the lowly, the youth of humble origin, the sincere
enquirer after the knowlege [sic] of God.  But He did send His angel to
this same obscure person, Joseph Smith Jun., who afterwards became a
Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, and informed him that he should not join any
of the religious sects of the day, for they were all wrong; that they were
following the precepts of men instead of the Lord Jesus; that He had a
work for him to perform, inasmuch as he should prove faithful before Him.

	No sooner was this made known, and published abroad, and people began
to listen and obey the heavenly summons, than opposition began to rage,
and the people, even in this favored land, began to persecute their
neighbors and friends for entertaining religious opinions differing from
their own.

	I pause now to ask, had not Joseph Smith a right to promulgate and
establish a different, a new religion and form of worship in this
government?  Every one must admit he had.  This right was always held
sacred, for upon it was based the religious liberty of every citizen of
the Republic.  It was a privilege held sacred in the bosom of every class
of people; no Judge dared invade its holy precincts?  No Legislator nor
Governor ventured to obstruct the free exercise thereof.  How then should
it be esteemed an object worthy of persecution that Joseph Smith, the man
called of God to perform a work in restoring the Gospel of salvation unto
the children of men, and his followers, true believers in his divine
mission, should attempt to exercise the same privilege held sacred by all
others, of every name, nature, and description, and equally so by them? 
Why should he and his followers be debarred the privilege of worshipping
God according to the dictates of their consciences?  Legally they cannot,
and I will further state, that legally they have not.  No! whenever the
iron hand of oppression and persecution has fallen upon this people, our
opposers have broken their own laws, set at defiance and trampled under
foot every principle of equal rights, justice, and liberty found written
in that rich legacy of our fathers, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

	Whenever popular fury has been directed against us, no power in the
government has been found potent enough to afford protection, and what is
still more astonishing, honorable enough to yield redress, nor has any
effort succeeded in bringing to justice those individuals who had
perpetrated such fearful crimes.  No!  The murderer, the assassin, the
midday plunderer, and highway robber roam unmolested, and mingle
unquestioned in the society of the rulers of the land; they pass and
re-pass as current coin, producing no jar in the sensibilities of
refinement, no odium in the atmosphere in which they move.

 	I ask you, friends, how is this?  Are not our religious sentiments as
sacred to us as to any other portion of the community?  And should it not
be the duty, as well as the pride, of every American citizen to extend
that provision of the CONSTITUTION to us which he claims for himself?  And
is not that sacred instrument invaded and broken as much in debarring and
excluding this people from its privileges, rights, and blessings, as it
would be if your rights and privileges were thus invaded?  No, gentlemen,
we have broken no laws, our Glorious CONSTITUTION guarantees unto us all
that we claim.  Under its broad folds, in its obvious meaning and intents,
we are safe, and can always rejoice in peace.  All that we have ever
claimed, or wish to, on the part of the government, is the just
administration of the powers and privileges of the National Compact.

	It is not our acts, neither our intentions that the people or the
Government are afraid or complain of, but their own evil surmisings
concerning us.

	In our first settlement in Missouri, it was said by our enemies that
we intended to tamper with the slaves, not that we had any idea of the
kind, for such a thing never entered our minds.  We knew that the children
of Ham were to be the "servant of servants," and no power under heaven
could hinder it, so long as the Lord should permit them to welter under
the curse, and those were known to be our religious views concerning them. 
Yet, the misrepresentation of our enemies found willing ears in those
prejudiced against us, and we were driven from our homes in consequence of
the fears of the people, and the prejudice which had been raised against
us in consequence thereof.

	Again, in Missouri, in the early part of our history, the fears of
the people and Government were aroused, because they, not we, said that it
was our intention to tamper with the Indians, therefore we must not be
allowed to exist in their vicinity; and again the alarm was sounded, and
we were driven from our homes, plundered, mobbed, some killed, and all
this not for any crime which we had committed, but for fear we might
commit one.

	Again; it was industriously circulated that we were going to declare
our "Independence," not that we had, or intended to do so absurd a thing;
yet anything, no matter how absurd, seemed sufficient excuse to startle
the fears of the community, and they began to drive, plunder, rob, burn
our houses, and lay waste our fields, and this was called, "Mormon
disturbances," and the aid of the Government was invoked to quell "Mormon
insurrection," "Mormon troubles," and "Turbulent Mormons."  And although
it was found necessary, as they state, to drive us from Missouri and the
frontiers, to prevent us from tampering with the slaves and Indians, yet
it was found equally necessary, ten years afterwards, when we were a
hundred to one at that time, to drive us from Nauvoo into the very midst
of the Indians, as unworthy of any other society.

	Fears of what we might do with the Indians had by this time subsided,
and fears of something else that we might hereafter do, if left to remain
in peace, and a desire to plunder, accomplished our exodus from Illinois. 
Perhaps, however, in this last case our enemies might have entertained
some fears that, if we were permitted to remain unmolested, the
blood-thirsty assassins who killed our beloved Prophet and Patriarch,
Joseph and Hyrum, who were inhumanly massacred while reposing under the
pledged faith of the State for their protection and safety, might not be
permitted to remain undisturbed in their guilt.

	As in the case of the Indians upon the frontier, this also was a
false conclusion, for if ever a people would have been justified in
redressing their own wrongs, and could have done so with impunity, it was
at the time of this horrible murder.  But they proved to the world, by
their quiet and peaceable demeanor, that they had no such intention, but
this was forgotten, and in less than a year and a half we were again
assailed, our houses and grain stacks burned, and our brethren shot down
in the glare of the light thereof, while attempting to save a pittance to
drive starvation not from the doors nor the tents, for there were none of
either, but from the famishing hearts of their social circle--of their
wives and children.

	And again was the aid of the Government invoked to quell the
so-called "Mormon disturbances," and still we see the newspapers teeming
with these and the like epithets--"Turbulent Mormons."  "What shall be
done with these turbulent Mormons?" is the cry from one end of the Union
to the other.  In the name of Heaven what have we done to excite the fears
of any People or Government, that the sound of war and blood must
eternally be kept ringing in our ears?  I answer, nothing.  It is the same
as before, in the case of tampering with the slaves and Indians, a certain
fearfulness that if we are not looked to, driven, plundered of our homes
and possessions, slain, and massacred as before, we may do something, they
have not yet, to my knowledge, defined precisely what.

	Have not this people invariably evinced their friendly feelings,
disposition and patriotism towards the government by every act and proof
which can be given by any people?

	Permit me to draw your attention, for a moment, to a few facts in
relation to raising the Battalion for the Mexican war.  When the storm
cloud of persecution lowered down upon us on every side, when every avenue
was closed against us, our Leaders treacherously betrayed and slain by the
authorities of the Government in which we lived, and no hope of relief
could penetrate through the thick darkness and gloom which surrounded us
on every side, no voice was raised in our behalf, and the General
Government was silent to our appeals.  When we had been insulted and
abused all the day long, by those in authority requiring us to give up our
arms, and by every other act of insult and abuse which the prolific
imagination of our enemies could devise to test, as they said, our
patriotism, which requisitions, be it known, were always complied with on
our part; and when we were finally compelled to flee, for the preservation
of our lives and the lives of our wives and children, to the wilderness; I
ask, had we not reason to feel that our enemies were in the ascendant?
that even the Government, by their silent acquiesence, were also in favor
of our destruction?  Had we not, I ask, some reason to consider them all,
both the people and the Government, alike our enemies?

	And when, in addition to all this, and while fleeing from our
enemies, another test of fidelity and patriotism was contrived by them for
our destruction, and acquiesced in by the Government, (through the agency
or a distinguished politician who evidently sought, and thought he had
planned, our overthrow and total annihilation,) consisting of a
requisition from the War Department, to furnish a Battalion of five
hundred men to fight under their officers, and for them, in the war then
existing with Mexico, I ask again, could we refrain from considering both
people and Government our most deadly foes?  Look a moment at our
situation, and the circumstances under which this requisition was made. 
We were migrating, we knew not whither, except that it was our intention
to go beyond the reach of our enemies.  We had no homes, save our wagons
and tents, and no stores of provisions and clothing; but had to earn our
daily bread by leaving our families in isolated locations for safety, and
going among our enemies to labor.  Were we not, even before this cruel
requisition was made, unmercifully borne down by oppression and
persecution past endurance by any other community?  But under these trying
circumstances we were required to turn out of our travelling camps 500 of
our most efficient men, leaving the old, the young, the women upon the
hands of the residue, to take care of and support; and in case we refused
to comply with so unreasonable a requirement, we were to be deemed enemies
to the Government, and fit only for the slaughter.

	Look also at the proportion of the number required of us, compared
with that of any other portion of the Republic.  A requisition of only
thirty thousand from a population of more than twenty millions was all
that was wanted, and more than was furnished, amounting to only one person
and a half to a thousand inhabitants.  If all other circumstances had been
equal, if we could have left our families in the enjoyment of peace,
quietness, and security in the houses from which we had been driven, our
quota of an equitable requisition would not have exceeded four persons. 
Instead of this, five hundred must go, thirteen thousand per cent above an
equal ratio, even if all other things had been equal, but under the
peculiar circumstances in which it was made comparison fails to
demonstrate, and reason itself totters beneath its enormity.  And for whom
were we to fight?  As I have already shown, for those that we had every
reason to believe were our most deadly foes.  Could the Government have
expected our compliance therewith?  Did they expect it?  Did not our
enemies believe that we would spurn, with becoming resentment and
indignation, such an unhallowed proposition?  And were they not prepared
to make our rejection of it a pretext to inflame the Government still more
against us, and thereby accomplish their hellish purposes upon an innocent
people, in their utter extinction?  And how was this proposition received,
and how was it responded to by this people?  I went myself, in company
with a few of my brethren, between one and two hundred miles along the
several routes of travel, stopping at every little camp, using our
influence to obtain volunteers, and on the day appointed for the
rendezvous the required compliment was made up; and this was all
accomplished in about twenty days from the time that the requisition was
made known.

	Our Battalion went to the scene of action, not in easy berths on
steamboats, nor with a few months' absence, but on foot over two thousand
miles across trackless deserts and barren plains, experiencing every
degree of privation, hardship, and suffering during some two years'
absence before they could rejoin their families.  Thus was our deliverance
again effected by the interposition of that All-wise Being who can discern
the end from the beginning, and overrule the wicked intentions of men to
promote the advancement of His cause upon the earth.  Thus were we saved
from our enemies by complying with their, as hitherto, unjust and
unparalleled exactions; again proving our loyalty to the Government.

	Here permit me to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of Captain
Allen, the bearer of this requisition from the Government.  He was a
gentleman full of humane feelings, and, had he been spared, would have
smoothed the path, and made easy the performance of this duty, so far as
laid in his power.  His heart was wrung with sympathy when he saw our
situation, and filled with wonder when he witnessed the enthusiastic
patriotism and ardor which so promptly complied with his requirement;
again proving, as we had hundreds of times before proved, by our acts,
that we were belied by our enemies, and that we were as ready, and even
more so than any other inhabitants of the Republic, to shoulder the
musket, and go forth to fight the battles of our common country, or stand
in her defence.  History furnishes no parallel, either of the severity and
injustice of the demand, or in the alacrity, faithfulness, and patriotism
with which it was answered and complied.  Thus can we cite instance after
instance of persons holding legal authority, being moved upon, through the
misrepresentation and influence of our enemies, to insult us as a people,
by requiring a test of our patriotism.  How long must this state of things
continue?  So long as the people choose to remain in wilful ignorance with
regard to us; so long as they choose to misinterpret our views,
misrepresent our feelings, and misunderstand our policy.

	To accuse us of being unfriendly to the Government, is to accuse us
of hostility to our religion, for no item of inspiration is held more
sacred with us than the Constitution under which she acts.  As a religious
society, we, in common with all other denominations, claim its protection;
whether our people are located in the other states or territories, as
thousands of them are, or in this territory, it is held as a shield to
protect the dearest boon of which man is susceptible--his religious views
and sentiments.

	The Government of the United States has never engaged in a crusade
against us as a people, although she has remained silent, or refused us,
when appealed to for redress of grievances.  She has permitted us to be
driven from our own lands, for which she had taken our money, and that too
with her letters patent in our hands, guaranteeing to us peaceable
possession.  She has calmly looked on and permitted one of the fundamental
and dearest provisions of the Constitution to be broken; she has permitted
us to be driven and trampled under foot with impunity.  Under these
circumstances what course is left for us to pursue?  I answer, that,
instead of seeking to destroy the very best government in the world, as
seems to be the fears of some, we, like all other good citizens, should
seek to place those men in power who will feel the obligations and
responsibilites [sic] they are under to a mighty people; who would feel
and realize the important trusts reposed in them by the voice of the
people who call them to administer law under the solemn sanction of an
oath of fidelity to that heaven inspired instrument, to the inviolate
preservation of which we look for the perpetuity of our free institutions.

	It should be the aim of all good citizens, and it is our intention
and design as a people, to promote virtue, intelligence, and patriotism;
and when any person seeks to invade our virtue, by sowing the seeds of
corruption and vice, and, when rebuked therefor [sic], assails our rights
and patriotism, as has universally heretofore been done, he exhibits,
before this people, his own depraved heart.  Should not those persons who
are appointed to administer law, observe it themselves?  Should not those
officers who have been sent among us by the United States, be an example
in point of morality, virtue, and good behavior; and do honor to those
laws which they came here to execute and administer? And shall they so far
forget themselves, as to spend their time in licentiousness, gambling, and
seducing the innocent and unsuspecting, and in a variety of ways sow the
seeds of sin and immorality, with impunity, and no man dare utter his
protest?  I tell you nay.  With me, with this people you will have war, if
needs be, upon this principle.  It is incumbent upon us to use our
influence for the preservation of ourselves, our wives, our children, our
brethren, our sisters, and all of our society from the contaminating
influence of vice, sin, immorality, and iniquity, let it emanate from
where it will.  If it exists in high places, so much the more need of
rebuking it, for from thence it will do the most harm.

	I claim this as a right, as a Constitutional right; I believe it is
legal to exercise all the power and influence which God has given me for
the preservation of virtue, truth, and holiness; and because we feel
sensitive upon points such as these, should it be construed that we are
enemies to the Federal Government?  Our history proves that for such
things we have been persecuted even unto death, but this deters me not.  I
would rather have God my friend, and all the world enemies, than be a
friend with the world, and have God my enemy; and in this view of the case
the Government should also be our friends, for assuredly in the
preservation of virtue, morality, and intelligence she may look for the
perpetuity of her free institutions, and the preservation of her liberty. 
And in the moment of her disregard of these principles, when wickedness
and sin can run riot with impunity, and not moral influence and force
enough be found in the people to check it, and walk it under foot, then
may she reckon on a speedy downfall.  When moral obligations cease to
exert an influence, and virtue hides its face, and the unblushing
effrontery of sin and foul corruption takes its place, then may the nation
consider there is danger.  "When the wicked rule the people mourn."

	This then is our position towards the Government of the United
States, and towards the world, to put down iniquity, and exalt virtue; to
declare the word of God which He revealed unto us, and build up His
Kingdom upon the earth.  And Know all men, Governments, Nations, Kindreds,
Tongues, and People, that this is our calling, intention, and design.  We
aim to live our religion, and have communion with our God.  We aim to
clear our skirts of the blood of this generation, by our faithfulness in
preaching the truth of heaven in all plainness and simplicity; and I have
often said, and repeat it now, that all other considerations of whatever
name or nature, sink into insignificancy in comparison with this.  To
serve God, and keep His commandments, are first and foremost with me.  If
this is higher law, so be it.  As it is with me, so should it be with
every department of the Government; for this doctrine is based upon the
principles of virtue and integrity; with it the Government, her
Constitution, and free institutions are safe; without it no power can
avert their speedy destruction.  It is the life-giving power to the
government; it is the vital element on which she exists and prospers; in
its absence she sinks to rise no more.

	We now proceed to discuss the question, does our faith and
practice--our holy religion, as we hold and believe it--come within the
purview of the Constitution; or, in other words, is it a religious
question over which the Constitution throws its protecting shield?  It
reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  Ours is peculiarly a
religious establishment; in it are centred all our hopes of salvation,
honor, glory, and exaltation.  In it we find our hopes of a resurrection,
and of a life of immortality in another state of existence.  By it we are
actuated in all our business of life, through its influence we have
preserved virtue, established truth, and been enabled to endure
persecution.  By its influence we have surmounted the difficulties of a
banishment from the abodes of civilization and this world's enlightenment,
and established ourselves in these distant vales, where, until we came
hither, there was nothing, either in soil, climate, or productions, to
attract the notice of even the adventurous and enterprising; in a country
which offered no inducements worthy of consideration to any people but us. 
And why to us as a people?  Because here, far distant from any white
settlements, upon a piece of earth not valuable for its facilities either
for cultivation, navigation, or commerce, where the whole face of the
country presented the most barren and forbidding aspect, we considered we
might live and enjoy our religion unmolested, and be free from the
meddlesome interference of any person.  If our principles and religion
were obnoxious to any, they were relieved from our presence, unless they
chose to follow us.

	If the people of the United States do not like our religious
institutions, they are not compelled to mix in our society, or associate
with us, or with our children.  There is nothing here to tempt their
cupidity, their avarice, or their lust.  Then let them remain at home, or
if they wish to roam in quest of new locations, there are none less
desirable than this, for any other purpose than the one for which we have
selected it, not for its intrinsic value in a pecuniary point of view, but
in order that we might enjoy our religion in peace, preserve our youth in
virtue, and be freed from the insults, abuse, and persecution of our
enemies.

	Why should we have enemies?  "Why is it," say our objectors, "that
you cannot mingle and mix in society like other religious denominations?" 
It has been seen that the people would not permit us to dwell in their
midst in peace.  We have been universally driven by illegal force, by
mobs, murderers, and assassins, as unworthy of having a place amongst the
abodes of civilized man, until, as a last resort, we found peace in these
distant valleys.  It is because our religion is the only true one.  It is
because we have the only true authority, upon the face of the whole earth,
to administer in the ordinances of the Gospel.  It is because the keys of
this dispensation were committed by messengers sent from the Celestial
world unto Joseph Smith, and are now held on the earth by this people.  It
is because Christ and Lucifer are enemies, and cannot be made friends; and
Lucifer, knowing that we have this Priesthood, this power, this authority,
seeks our overthrow.

	I am aware that these answers involve the truth of our principles,
the divine appointment of Joseph Smith the divine authenticity of the Book
of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, &c.; but this subject I leave for your
consideration and investigation, with this simple declaration, that
whether our religion is believed by any other people or not, it is by us,
and no power or authority in the government can lawfully or righteously
molest us in the peaceable and quiet enjoyment thereof.  It cannot be done
without law, and surely the government have no right to make any law
concerning it, or to prevent the free exercise thereof.

	Why should tests of patriotism to the government be required of this
people, more than of any other community in the States and Territories? 
Would it not be considered insulting and abusive in the highest degree, by
any other community in the government, to be thus subjected and
humiliated?  Cannot the people and government perceive in us, as a people,
industry, sobriety, order, and well regulated society; also a general
diffusion of knowledge and dissemination of moral principle?  And do they
not know that these are the unmistakable signs and fruits of virtue,
truth, love of our country, and high regard for her institutions?  And do
not such views, feelings, practices, and principles emanate from a pure
and undefiled religion, a high sense of faith, practice, and obligation
unto Christ our Lord, and his revealed will unto us?

	Does our doctrine, containing such views, sentiments, and practices,
and exercising so genial an influence upon society; or in other words,
does our religion disqualify us from being faithful, good, and patriotic
citizens of the American government?  Have the American people so far gone
astray, and wandered from the light and power of the Gospel, that they
cannot understand, recognize, and appreciate the savory element of
religious influence, high tone of morality, and exemplary practice of
virtuous and holy principles?  If so, then indeed have the degenerate sons
of worthy and patriotic sires well nigh spent their substance, and are
preparing to subsist on husks, with swine.  If so, then does the moral
dearth well nigh betoken a famine far exceeding the scorching drought,
wasting pestilence, and direful calamities of 1854.  If so, then will the
government, like the storm-driven bark, soon dash to atoms, having neither
rudder to guide, nor calibre to withstand, the angry surging of the
tempestuous waves.

	In the sincere observances of the principles of true religion and
virtue, we recognize the base, the only sure foundation of enlightened
society and well-established government.  In truth and by virtue of divine
appointment we combat error, and seek to rend asunder the vail of darkness
enveloping the human race.

	In the progress of the age in which we live, we discern the
fulfilment of prophecy, and the preparation for the second coming of our
Lord and Savior to dwell upon the earth.  We expect that the refuge of
lies will be swept away, and that city, nation, government, or kingdom
which serves not God, and gives no heed to the principles of truth and
religion, will be utterly wasted away and destroyed.

	The word has gone forth from the Almighty, and will not return unto
Him void.  It becomes us, therefore, one and all, to have on our wedding
garments, to have our lamps trimmed and burning, well filled with oil,
lest we also be taken unawares, and share the fate of the foolish virgins.

	May the Lord bless us with the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, that
our minds may be enlightened, our understandings enlarged and
strengthened; and may His grace, wisdom, and intelligence be given unto us
for our preservation and sanctification according to our day and
generation, for the Redeemer's sake.  Amen.

     THE PRIESTHOOD AND SATAN--THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE
        UNITED STATES--RIGHTS AND POLICY OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, Feb. 18, 1855.

	A portion of this congregation have been brought up in America, and
are more or less acquainted with the Constitution, with the Constitutional
rights of the people, with the institutions of the country, with the State
governments, laws, &c.; and if they have paid particular attention, and
have heard brother Bullock read my written discourse, so that they could
understand it, they know whether their minds, feelings, and judgments
coincide with mine, upon the views that have just been presented.

	For one, I can say they are true; they are the sentiments of this
people, so far as they are acquainted with the principles of the
government of the United States; though a part of our present community
have not been reared under the benign influences of the institutions of
our parent government.  But as far as they understand, I will venture to
say that these are the sentiments of all the Latter-day Saints.

	In my conversation, I shall talk and act as I please.  Still I am
always aware, when speaking in public, that there are those present who
are disposed to find fault with this people, and to try to raise a
prejudice against them; and they will pick up isolated words and
sentences, and put them together to suit themselves, and send forth a
garbled version to prejudice the world against us.  Such a course I never
care anything about; for I have frequently said, spoken words are but
wind, and when they are spoken are gone; consequently I take liberties in
speaking which I do not allow when I commit my sentiments to writing.

	The discourse that has just been read, pointing out the path this
people have walked in, is merely a brief summary of our experience, of
what we have borne, and of what we believe.

	Before the Book of Mormon was printed, and immediately after Joseph
Smith obtained the plates, and the revelations he received concerning this
record being the record of the Nephites, and of the Lamanites, who are the
fathers of the present aborigines of our country, and in which the Lord
told him that He was about to set to His hand the second time to gather
Israel, the war commenced against him; this was long before the book was
printed.  I will now tell you all a secret, although it has already been
read to you; it is this, Christ and Belial are not friends, they are
enemies.  We ask where Christ's Church is.  My conclusive answer is, if
the Latter-day Saints do not constitute the Kingdom of God on the earth,
the Church of Jesus Christ, it is no where to be found upon it.  It is
easily proved by the Scriptures that no other church, professing to
believe in the Old and New Testament, bears hardly a resemblance to the
ancient true Church in the fulness of the doctrines of the Lord Jesus.

	So far as morality goes, in many instances I have no complaints to
make.  Thousands and millions of people live according to the best light
they have, but the Holy Priesthood is not on the earth, unless the
Latter-day Saints have it.  It is the Priesthood again given to the
children of men--shall I say it out?  ["Yes."]  That raises the devil, and
makes all hell angry; and the servants of the devil will run to and fro,
and publish his lies about Christ and his Church on the earth.  They are
not angry with me or with you; and the professors of Christianity, the
priests, are not angry with us, but they are filled with wrath and
indignation with themselves, and with the Almighty.  Why are they angry? 
Because they are men, and like other men.  If a man sees his house about
to fall, if he sees something or other continually gnawing, and gnawing,
and picking, and operating upon the foundation, and discovers that by and
bye his house must fall, perhaps when he is asleep, or when he is gone
from home, and destroy his women and children, he is all the time worried,
and in a stew; all the time watching with a fearful looking for the time
when it will crumble to pieces.  This is the difficulty with the
professing Christian world.  Is it so with the Infidel?  No, he does not
care anything about the matter; but those sweet, loving, blessed
Christians, the priest in the pulpit, and the deacon under it, and the
sage followers of their own nonsense and the traditions of their fathers
are the ones who are at war with the Eternal Priesthood of God.

	The Universalists say that we are all going to heaven in a heap
together, and if they believe their religion they do not trouble
themselves about "Mormonism."  Though I confess that I think the most of
them are like the old man who was a strong believer in Universalism, and,
while walking among his cattle, and musing over his doctrine, stepped up
to a favorite ox, and said to himself, "I believe the doctrine of the
Universalists, but, old Bright, as well as I love you, I would willingly
give you if I knew it was true."  You find a man who does not believe in
any religious doctrines, who does not believe in a future existence, and
what does he care about "Mormonism?"  Nothing at all.

	Who is it that stirs up the devil all the time?  Those sanctified
hypocrites, those old sectarians, who profess so much sanctity, and so
much religion.  They see that their old favorite dwelling is crumbling to
the dust, never to be rebuilt again before "Mormonism" will triumph.  That
is what stirs up all the mischief.  It was priests who first persecuted
Joseph Smith.  I will here relate a few of the circumstances which I
personally knew concerning the coming forth of the plates, from a part of
which the Book of Mormon was translated.  This fact may be new to several,
but I had a personal knowledge with regard to many of those circumstances.

	I well knew a man who, to get the plates, rode over sixty miles three
times the same season they were obtained by Joseph Smith.  About the time
of their being delivered to Joseph by the angel, the friends of this man
sent for him, and informed him that they were going to lose that treasure,
though they did not know what it was.  The man I refer to was a
fortune-teller, a necromancer, an astrologer, a soothsayer, and possessed
as much talent as any man that walked on the American soil, and was one of
the wickedest men I ever saw.  The last time he went to obtain the
treasure he knew where it was, and told where it was, but did not know its
value.  Allow me to tell you that a Baptist deacon and others of Joseph's
neighbors were the very men who sent for this necromancer the last time he
went for the treasure.  I never heard a man who could swear like that
astrologer; he swore scientifically, by rule, by note.  To those who love
swearing, it was musical to hear him, but not so to me, for I would leave
his presence.  He would call Joseph everything that was bad, and say, "I
believe he will get the treasure after all."  He did get it, and the war
commenced directly.

	When Joseph obtained the treasure, the priests, the deacons, and
religionists of every grade, went hand in hand with the fortune-teller,
and with every wicked person, to get it out of his hands, and, to
accomplish this, a part of them came out and persecuted him.

	Ours is professedly a Christian nation, and those who profess to be
Christians should be so in very deed; if they were, they would not
hesitate to have a good man and a Christian preside over them.  As much as
is said against Christians sitting in the Presidential chair of the
government, they are the only suitable persons to rule, and should be
taught of the Lord by dreams and visions.  But after all the hue and cry
about "Church and State," there has not been a President, nor a Governor,
in our day, but what has been controlled, more or less, by priests who
deny revelation, believe not in visions, and receive not the ministration
of angels.  Presidents, Governors, Members of the Cabinet and of Congress
are more or less controlled either by the priests, or by a traditionary
religious influence; and at the same time nearly all of them will turn
round and curse the priests, and curse religion to the lowest hell, while
they are governed and controlled by it.  The false religion that is in the
world, is what raises this "hue and cry," misguides the people, and
opposes itself against the Kingdom of God on the earth.  Now if we would
only fall in with the wicked all would be right, and then no person would
wish to persecute us.

	I will mention a few sayings and doings that transpired in Missouri,
when they had Joseph and many others in prison.  Old General Clark had
discretionary power, from Governor Boggs, to kill man, woman, and child,
or to spare the women and children, or distribute the whole community of
the Saints among the other inhabitants, just as he pleased.  The cause of
this was laid to "Mormon disturbances," "Mormon troubles;" though the
"Mormons" had not been out of their own county, for they owned nearly all
the county where they lived, and they did not go beyond their own
boundaries except upon lawful and necessary business.  We had given up our
arms, by their request, to prove our loyalty to the government, and then
many of them said, "Now, God damn you, we will shoot you;" and some of the
Saints were killed after they had surrendered their arms, in faithful
compliance with the requisition.

	The starting point of our persecutions there arose by our enemies
setting fire to their own houses, and swearing that they were burnt out
and driven by the "Mormons."  This I know, for it came under my own
observation.  When General Clark came into Far West with his army, he sent
George M. Hinkle, the apostate, to call out the remainder of the brethren
on to the public square, and when they were assembled he surrounded them
with his men, and said, "Gentlemen, I have discretionary power in my
hands, and I will now tell you what we desire.  We wish one to go home
with this man, and another with that man, and take your wives and children
with you, and distribute yourselves through the State.  You are the best
mechanics and the most industrious people we have; and you have
accomplished more here in two years, than our old settlers have in twelve. 
We wish you to live with us.  Why cannot you associate with us?  I want
you to scatter among our people, and give up your religion, and Prophet,
for I will tell you now, in the beginning, you will never see your
Prophet, Joseph Smith, again."  (Said I to myself, 'That is a falsehood.') 
"Only mingle with us, and give up your Prophet, your Apostles, and your
assembling yourselves together, and we wish you to stay with us, for you
are the best citizens in the State."  I thought that these expressions did
not correspond well with many of his remarks, and being determined not to
give up my religion, I at once concluded that he might go to hell, and I
would leave the State; and so I did, with the balance of the Latter-day
Saints, as they had previously killed many.

	Brethren and sisters, our friends wish to know our feelings towards
the Government.  I answer, they are first-rate, and we will prove it too,
as you will see if you only live long enough, for that we shall live to
prove it is certain; and when the Constitution of the United States hangs,
as it were, upon a single thread, they will have to call for the "Mormon"
Elders to save it from utter destruction; and they will step forth and do
it.

	We love the Constitution of our country; it is all we could ask;
though in some few instances there might be some amendments made which
would better it.  We love the Federal Government, and the laws of
Congress.  There is nothing in those laws that in the least militates
against us, not even to our excluding common law from this Territory.  I
can inform our lawyers who plead at the bar here, that the Congress of the
United States have passed laws giving us the privilege of excluding common
law at our pleasure, and that too without any violation of the
Constitution, or general statutes.  They have also given us privilege to
stop drunkenness, swearing, and gambling, and to prevent horse-racing, and
to punish men for hurting and robbing each other.  The Constitution of the
United States, and the whole Federal Government, in their acts, have given
us this privilege.

	Now I will tell you one thing that I am opposed to, and that this
people are opposed to; it is to a man's coming here as an officer, with a
bit of sheep's skin in his pocket having some great man's name to it, and
beginning to set up his rules of discipline for the people, and saying, "I
am a gentleman, I am a high-minded gentleman; can you tell me where I can
find a woman to sleep with me to-night?" and setting up gambling shops,
and drinking, and carousing, and stirring up strife, and hatching up
law-suits; hunting out disaffected spirits, and then lecturing the people
on morality, wishing them to become like other communities, and saying to
Mrs.  Such-a-one or Miss Such-a-one, "Won't you ride with me--won't you
take a sleigh ride tonight with me?  I am a high-minded gentleman."  A
prudent father, or husband, says, "Come home here; this is your place; you
have no business with strangers."  What is the result of this?  Why, from
most of the high-minded gentlemen, you can hear, "God damn the Mormons,
they are opposed to the Federal Government, because they will not let us
sleep with their wives and daughters."  I am opposed to such men, and am
after them with the barbed arrows of the Almighty.  To what extent?  Let
them intrude upon the chastity of my family, and, so help me God, I will
use them up.  [All the congregation said, "Amen."]  Such characters may
cry, "Aliens, aliens; the Mormons are all hostile to the government," and
they may cry it until they are in hell.

 	As I have already stated, the President of the United States should
be a perfect pattern for all the people to walk after; so also should the
Vice-President, the members of the Cabinet, and of Congress, the Governors
of States and Territories, and in fine, all the officers in the
Government, be patterns for the people to imitate.  But what do you find
among the leaders of the people?  Almost everything but an upright
example.

	Corrupt men cannot walk these streets with impunity, and if that is
alienism to the Government, amen to it.  The Constitution of the United
States we sustain all the day long, and it will sustain and shield us,
while the men who say we are aliens, and cry out "Mormon disturbance,"
will go to hell.  There have been officers here who were not fit to live
in our midst, and they ran home, and raised the cry, "Mormon
disturbances," "Mormon rebellion," "Mormon war," and, "Treasoners;" but
their day is over.

	When a man professes to be my friend, and the friend of this people,
he will take my counsel, instead of stirring up strife, and practising
iniquity.  I dislike the wilfully corrupt, and by and bye I will come out
thunder-like, as I have done upon others when practising iniquity; and as
I did upon a certain individual when he made his glorious speech, and
insulted this people, from the highest to the lowest.  I chastised him,
and he ran off and reported as my sayings those which I did not say.  It
was told him, while he was on the plains, that President Zachary Taylor
was dead and damned, and it has gone through the States, from side to
side, that I said so.  It was first given out that the "Mormons" said so,
and then that Brigham said so; well, I backed it up, because I knew it was
true.  I have just as good a right to say that President Taylor is in
hell, as to say that any other miserable sinner is there.  Was he any more
than flesh and blood?  I have as good a right to canvass him in a
religious point of view, as I have to canvass the peasant upon the
dung-hill.  He has gone there, and so have many others; and the Lord
Almighty is removing the bitter branches, as foretold in the Book of
Mormon.

	The newspapers are teeming with statements that I said, "President
Pierce and all hell could not remove me from office."  I will tell you
what I did say, and what I now say; the Lord reigns and rules in the
armies of the heavens, and does His pleasure among the inhabitants of the
earth.  He sets up a kingdom here, and pulls down another there, at His
pleasure.  He walks in the midst of the people, and they know it not.  He
makes Kings, Presidents, and Governors at His pleasure; hence I conclude
that I shall be Governor of Utah Territory, just as long as He wants me to
be; and for that time, neither the President of the United States, nor any
other power, can prevent it.  Then, brethren and sisters, be not worried
about my being dismissed from office; for when the President appoints
another man to be Govenor [sic] of Utah Territory, you may acknowledge
that the Lord has done it, for we should acknowledge His hand in all
things.

	All people are in the hands of the Almighty, and He governs and
controls them, though they cannot perceive, neither do they acknowledge,
His handy-work.  He exalts the President to be the head of the nation, and
places kings upon their thrones.  There is not a man that escapes His
cognizance, and He brings forth His purposes in the latter days.  I can
tell you something more, brethren and sisters, and friends, and the United
States, and all the world; the Lord Almighty will not suffer His
Priesthood to be again driven from the earth, even should He permit the
wicked to kill and destroy this people.  The Government of the United
States and all the kings of the world may go to war with us, but God will
preserve a portion of the meek and humble of this people to bear off the
Kingdom to the inhabitants of the earth, and will defend His Priesthood;
for it is the last time, the last gathering time; and He will not suffer
the Priesthood to be again driven from the earth.  They may massacre men,
women, and children; but the Lord will not suffer them to destroy the
Priesthood; and I say to the Saints, that, if they will truly practise
their religion, they will live, and not be cut off.

	"There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth
them understanding," and many who do not hold the Priesthood have ideas
which are really true, yet they are not always certain whether they are
true or not.  The cogitations, concerning this people, of men upon their
beds, of the President of the United States, of the members of Congress,
and of the rulers of different nations, when they meditate upon the
condition of the world, and their final exit from this stage of action,
are that there is no evil in the Latter-day Saints.  And I tell you, in
the name of the God of Israel, that their secret reflections tell them
this, unless they are so far depraved by wickedness that the Spirit of the
Lord has ceased to strive with them.  But as soon as they engage in the
turmoil of their daily duties, the hue and cry that "the Mormons are about
to do this and that," attracts their attention.  Formerly the rumor was
that "they were agoing to tamper with the slaves," when we had never
thought of such a thing.  The seed of Ham, which is the seed of Cain
descending through Ham, will, according to the curse put upon him, serve
his brethren, and be a "servant of servants" to his fellow-creatures,
until God removes the curse; and no power can hinder it.  These are my
views upon slavery.  I will here say a little more upon this point.  The
conduct of the whites towards the slaves will, in many cases, send both
slave and master to hell.  This statement comprises much in a few words. 
The blacks should be used like servants, and not like brutes, but they
must serve.  It is their privilege to live so as to enjoy many of the
blessings which attend obedience to the first principles of the Gospel,
though they are not entitled to the Priesthood.

	But to proceed; the principal evil is in the rulers, or those who
profess to be rulers, and in the dispensers of the law, and not the
Constitution, it is pure.  Even those who have evil in their hearts, when
they contemplate the powers that be, as now exhibited before their eyes,
when they think of them upon their beds, and in their most sober
reflections, are beginning to realize that God is visiting the earth, that
the Latter-day Saints are not as bad a people as they are represented to
be by their enemies, that they are not disposed to be hostile to the
Government, and that they are a good people.  Many who occasionally
reflect calmly are beginning to realize that we have something which they
know but little about, and to wish that they understood it.  When they
cast off these reflections fear comes upon them, because the cry, from one
end of the Union to the other, is that "the Mormons are agoing to do
something."  What was said in Nauvoo?  "Let Joe Smith and the Mormons
alone, and it will be but a little time before they control the election
of this State; and the man that Joe Smith says shall be Governor, so will
he be; and the men whom he says shall be Representatives, so shall they
be; and we will not bear it."

 	It was the priest in the pulpit thorning the politician, and gouging
underneath, saying, "Don't you bear it;" and this because the priest could
not bear to stand up in the pulpit and own his shame for vindicating a
false religion, for our Elders could silence every one of them, and
crimson their faces with shame.  Hence their words and determinations were
and are, "We will kill the Mormons;" and the priests were pinching the
"Mormons" from behind the politicians.  How long would it have been before
the whole election of Illinois would have been controlled by the
Latter-day Saints?  Our enemies saw this, and the devil knew it, and was
mad, and determined to remove us.  He did so, and I thank God for it.  The
priests and the politicians could discern that "Mormonism" was gathering
to its banner its thousands and tens of thousands, and that it would be
but a very short time ere the State would be governed entirely by the
Latter-day Saints.  The whole election would have been controlled by them,
if we had not come out, and forbidden our people to vote.  We had to do
this, to control the ballot box.

	They succeeded in killing Joseph Smith and Hyrum his brother, and in
driving us to these Valleys.  Now, we are here, and what are they afraid
of?  I will tell you, they are afraid that we shall become independent of
them.

	The relation between us and the Government may be likened to a man
having twelve sons, and all the elder sons pitch upon the younger one, as
Joseph's brethren of old did upon him.  They persecuted him, and lied to
their father about him, and tried to alienate the feelings of the old man
from him, and succeeded in a measure in estranging the feelings of the
father from the young child.  So it is with the General Government and us. 
We have plead time and time again, and will plead, saying, "Spare us, love
us; we mean to be one of the best boys you have got; be kind to us, and if
you chasten us, it may be said that we have kissed the rod and reverenced
the hand that gave it, and tried again: but be merciful to us for do you
not see that we are a dutiful child?"  But no, Tom, Bill, Dick, Harry, and
the rest of the boys are eternally running to the old man with lies in
their mouths, and he will chastise little Joseph.  And though the old
fellow has not come out in open war upon him, and arrayed the force and
arms of the Government to kill the boy, yet he sleeps in his chair, and
dreams it over, and talks in his sleep, saying, "Go it, boys; go it, boys;
we will not say anything here."  And Tom, Bill, Dick, &c., commence
pounding on to little Joseph; and the old man is dozing in his chair,
saying, "Go it, boys."  What will become of this little Joseph?  I will
tell you.  We are a child of the Government, one of the youngest children,
and we cling to our parent, and desire to be reckoned in the family, and
to hail our brethren as brethren, and be numbered among them either in a
Territorial or State capacity.  What next?  The cry is raised by the older
boys that "it never will do to admit this younger child into the Union, he
is an alien, and we must exclude him."  I will tell you what this will
amount to, they will pound and abuse little Joseph until his affections
are entirely weaned from his parent, and from his brethren, and he becomes
an independent boy.  Who will cause this, the "Mormons?"  No, the elder
brethren will do it.  They will urge on their hostility against little
Joseph until he is driven into Egypt for succor.  Well, if this is not
Egypt enough, where will you find it?

	"What is agoing to be done with these turbulent Mormons, these
outrageous Mormons?"  I will tell you what might be done, and what ought
to be done.  The Government of the United States, and the Presidents of
the United States ought to treat the religion of the Latter-day Saints as
they do Methodism, Presbyterianism, Quakerism, Shakerism, and many other
isms, and say, "Here, I wish you to hold your tongues about the Mormons,
for they have just as good a right to their religion as you have to
yours."  And when the people petition for this or that (as the right of
petition should never be denied), it is the duty of those who are
addressed to hearken to the petitions of the people, and to let them have
officers of their own choice, for the appointing power is elected by the
voice of the people, and the mass of the people hold the reins of
government in their hands.  Then let the people carry out those principles
they have adopted and profess to abide by, and when we wish for a
Governor, or a Judge, or any other appointed officer, let us have the men
we prefer, and not those who will ran away and report falsehoods about us.

	Many of the Battalion boys are here to-day, who walked over the
plains and deserts; they know what they have endured.  They left their
fathers, mothers, and children on the prairie, and some of them they have
never since seen, and will not in this time, for they sleep in the silent
grave.  They suffered all this in fighting for the country that had cast
them out!

	Do I love murderers and mobocrats as I do good men?  No.  Do I pray
for them?  Yes, that the Lord would judge them out of their own mouths,
and that speedily.

	We plead all the time to be let alone, and to be permitted to live in
peace, and not to be whipped and abused without cause, for we are " flesh
of your flesh, and bone of your bone;" then why not let us enjoy our piece
of cake, as we let you enjoy yours?  For this we plead, and plead, and
plead continually, but "No," say they, "we will chastise you because we
have the power to do it; we will whip you because we are stronger than
you."

	I will take the Government of the United States, and the laws of
Missouri and Illinois, from the year 1833 to 1845, and if they had been
carried out according to their letter and spirit, they would have strung
up the murderers and mobocrats who illegally and unrighteously killed,
plundered, harassed, and expelled us.  I will tell you how much I love
those characters.  If they had any respect to their own welfare, they
would come forth and say, whether Joseph Smith was a Prophet or not, "We
shed his blood, and now let us atone for it;" and they would be willing to
have their heads chopped off, that their blood might run upon the ground,
and the smoke of it rise before the Lord as an incense for their sins.  I
love them that much.  But if the Lord wishes them to live and foam out
their sins before all men and women, it is all right, I care not where
they go, or what they do.

	I have but one fear concerning this people in the Valleys of the
Mountains, I have but one trembling sensation in the nerves of my spirit,
and that is, lest we do not live the religion we profess.  If we will only
practise what we profess, I tell you we are at the defiance of all hell. 
But if we transgress the law God has given us, and trample His mercies,
blessings, and ordinances under our feet, and treat them with the
indifference which I have thought that some occasionally do, not fully
realizing the obligations that they are under to their God, I have feared
that in consequence they would be overcome, and that the Lord would let
them be scattered and smitten.  But only let them live their religion, and
I have no more fears with regard to their being driven, and with regard to
their enemies having power over them, than I have with regard to these
mountains being blown over up on this city.  I am willing to fight, or to
go; to run, or to stay; or to do anything else that the Lord Almighty
requires of me for His Kingdom's sake, and then to lay down my life for
His cause.  But I swear by the Gods of eternity that I will not suffer men
in our streets, and in our houses, to corrupt this people and overthrow
them, the Lord and good men being my helpers.

	To whom do I allude, but to those who wish to destroy this people? 
Not one, I am not opposed to any man or set of men who are here, there,
yonder, or anywhere else, but I am opposed to wickedness and vice,
whereever [sic] they may be found in the whole earth; I am opposed to
unrighteousness, and I always intend to be.

	I prefer to remark upon subjects as they present themselves to my
mind; though I might prepare a course of lectures, and confine myself to
given subjects, as I have often done; but when I am in this stand I hoist
the gate and let the flood run, not caring which way it goes, or how.

	What happened when I chastised a runaway officer?  I did not say one
rash word to him, nor chastise him half as much as he deserved; but I told
him what he was, and how he looked to me; what he was sent here for, and
what he should be, if he magnified his office.  Before the meeting was out
the word was, "O! we are agoing to be driven; here is a mob coming."  Said
I, "Get out of my way, or I will kick you out; what are you afraid of?" 
"O! of the Government of the United States?"  I replied, "Let me die and
go to my Father in heaven, before I stoop to that abominable wickedness; I
never will stoop to it so help me God."  What was the result of the course
I then took?  He was chastened, and our Chief Justice who is now here told
him in Washington, that he was chastened for his own iniquity, and said to
him, "I expect they did not chastise you half enough."  Do you suppose
that I am agoing to crouch down, and suffer this people to bow down
continually to the rod of corruption?  No.  Come on with your knives, your
swords, and your faggots of fire, and destroy the whole of us, rather than
we will forsake our religion.  Whether it is true or false is none of your
business; whether the doctrine of plurality of wives is true or false is
none of your business.  We have as good a right to adopt tenets in our
religion as the Church of England, or the Methodists, or Baptists, or any
other denomination have to in theirs.  Our doctrine is a Bible doctrine, a
patriarchal doctrine, and is the doctrine of the Gods of eternity, and of
the heavens, and was revealed to our fathers on the earth, and will save
the world at last, and bring us into Abraham's bosom, if we ever get
there.  Are the officers of the Government the judges of our religion?  It
is none of their business whether it is true or false.  I know whether it
is true or not, and that is enough for me; you know, brethren and sisters,
and that is enough for you.  If they do not believe it, we do not trouble
them with it.  We say that we will meet you as friends, and as neighbors,
as "flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone," but not, as the world meet
you, upon the platform of corruption and iniquity.  We are not there,
neither will we meet you there; but we will hail you as friends, and as
brethren, pertaining to the citizenship of the Government; so we hail the
officers who are now with us.  And if the gallant gentleman who is now in
our midst had received the commission of Governor of this Territory, as
was reported, and had accepted it, I would have taken off my hat and
honored the appointment; and this people would have been just as passive
and submissive to him as ever they could be to me.  That I will warrant
and vouch for.  If they wish to send a Governor here, and he is a
gentleman, like the one I have referred to, every heart would say, "Thank
God, we have a man to stand at our head in a gubernatorial capacity; a man
who has got a good heart, and is willing that we should enjoy the federal
rights of the Constitution as well as himself."  I am with all such men,
heart and hand.  But for a man to come here and infringe upon my
individual rights and privileges, and upon those of my brethren, will
never meet my sanction, and I will scourge such a one until he leaves; I
am after him.  But I will say, to the praise of the gallant gentleman
referred to, if there was going to be a gentleman called upon to be our
Governor, there is not a man, out of the Kingdom of God, that I would
listen to sooner, and feel more confidence and cordiality towards, than to
him.  I wish this meed of praise could be awarded to every officer in the
Government, but it cannot.  We have some of the most corrupt, damnable,
mean curses here that ever disgraced the earth; some who even wish to
carry the holy sanctuary in one hand, and a jug full of whisky in the
other, and follow a whore and have a saint trail behind them to hold up
their garments to prevent their drabbling.  They are like the pilot fish
to the shark, serving to lead him to his victim.  I despise them; and so
does every good man.  Show your colors, gentlemen, and let us know what
and who you are, as I do, that all the earth may see and hear.

	Have I any feelings against the man who has a true heart for
constitutional rights?  I have nothing but love and good feelings for all
such.  What have I for the sinner, the hypocrite, the unbeliever, the
ungodly, the liar, the sorcerer, the whoremonger, and the adulterer?  I
have nothing but chastisement for them, until they repent of their wicked
ways, and turn to God and find mercy.  This is according to my priestly
office. I informed you, in my discourse that has just been read, that my
religion is first and foremost with me, and I will send it to all the
earth, to President Pierce, whether he retains me as Governor of Utah
Territory or not; and, whether I should be President of the United States,
or King of Great Britain, or Monarch of all the world, my religion and my
God are first and foremost with me.  My kingship, my presidentship, and
all shall bow to that eternal Priesthood which God has bestowed upon me. 
I have been Governor of this Territory ever since it has had one, and in
all my official transactions I have acted in accordance with the
Priesthood.  I never will infringe upon it with anything I may operate in
in any office; let them all go by the board, before I will be brought into
a situation that will cause me to infringe upon my Priesthood.  In all my
doings as an Elder of Israel, as holding the keys of the Priesthood to
this generation, if I continue to be the Governor of this Territory, I
shall magnify my office by my Priesthood.  No matter what my Priesthood
and calling are, all must bow to my God, and to His commandments.  Have I
been obliged to violate any law?  No.  The Priesthood assists me to honor,
to preserve, to see, and understand the welfare of the Government I am
acting for, and enables me so to do a thousand times more effectually than
I could if I had not this Priesthood; and if any one can produce documents
to prove that any Governor has magnified his office better than I have,
let him bring them forth.

	In the free and independent government of the United States, who in
the eyes of the Almighty ought to have the privilege of sitting in the
Presidential chair, to be countenanced, adored, loved, and reverenced in
his capacity, and be justified therein by the heavenly hosts?  It is that
man who is sanctified before God, and who loves the Lord Jesus with all
his heart, or in other words, who is endowed with wisdom from on high, and
has revelations, visions, and dreams, giving him understanding to provide
for the welfare of every portion of the nation, and a willingness to
preserve to every one their fair and just religious rights, as well as
political, for the good and benefit of all.  In the eyes of eternal
justice, only such a man has a right to that office.  They are afraid to
put a man there who is a professor of religion, lest he favors his own
party.  A man is a fool that would do that, when he has laws to preserve
and keep inviolate towards the Methodists, and all religious
denominations.

	The Kingdom that Daniel saw will push forth its law, and that law
will protect the Methodists, Quakers, Pagans, Jews, and every other creed
there ever was or ever will be, in their religious rights.  At the same
time the Priesthood will bear rule, and hold the government of the Kingdom
under control in all things, so that every knee will bow, and every tongue
confess, to the glory of God the Father, that Jesus is the Christ.  Every
one must bow to the Savior, and acknowledge and confess him with their
mouths.  Can they still be Methodists?  Yes.  Presbyterians?  Yes.  And I
some expect that many will be brought into close places, as the Jew was by
the Catholic priest.  The Jew fell through the ice, and was about to
drown, and implored the Catholic priest to pull him out.  "I cannot," said
the priest, "except you repent, and become a Christian."  Said the Jew,
"Pull me out this once."  "Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the Holy Catholic Church?" asked the priest.  The Jew answered, "No, I do
not."  "Then you must stay there," and the priest held him under the water
awhile.  "Do you believe in Jesus Christ now?"  "O yes, take me out." 
"Well," remarked the priest, "thank God that another sinner has repented;
you are safe now, and while you are safe I will send you right to heaven's
gate," and he gave the Jew a push under the ice.

	I most assuredly expect that the time will come when every tongue
shall confess, and every knee shall bow, to the Savior, though the people
may believe what they will with regard to religion.  The kingdom that
Daniel saw will actually make laws to protect every man in his rights, as
our government does now, whether the religions of the people are true or
false.  We believe this as sincerely as we believe anything else; and I
think that the course of this people has proved it, as far as the acts of
the children of men are concerned.  All creation could ask for no more
witnesses than they have, that the New Testament is true, that Jesus is
the Christ, that the holy Prophets are true, that the Book of Mormon is
true, and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and Revelator.  But the Lord has
so ordained that no man shall receive the benefits of the everlasting
Priesthood without humbling himself before Him, and giving Him the glory
for teaching him, that he may be able to witness to every man of the
truth, and not depend upon the words of any individual on the earth, but
know for himself, live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God," love the Lord Jesus Christ and the institutions of His kingdom and
finally enter into His glory.  Every man and woman may be a Revelator, and
have the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy, and foresee
the mind and will of God concerning them, eschew evil, and choose that
which is good.

	There are thousands of things I would like to name with regard to
ourselves and our Government.  Our whole interest is in it; we cling to it
as a sucking child to its mother's breast, and we will hang to it until
they beat us off, until we can hang no longer, and this will never happen,
unless they drive us from it under the pretext of what "Mormonism" is
agoing to do.  What is the Kingdom of God agoing to accomplish on the
earth?  It will revolutionize not only the United States, but the whole
world, and will go forth from the morning to the evening, from the rising
of the sun to the going down of the same, so shall be the ushering forth
of the Gospel until the whole earth is deluged with it, and the righteous
are gathered.

	The sinner will slay the sinner, the wicked will fall upon the
wicked, until there is an utter overthrow and consumption upon the face of
the whole earth, until God reigns, whose right it is.  As it was said in
the days of the Savior, if we said his man alone you may depend ulet tit
[sic entire phrase] that through his influence he will take away our place
and nation.  If you let "Mormonism" alone, I will promise that every
honest man and woman in the United States will be in the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, and be governed by the law of God.

	Let them take the counsel of the late Captain Gunnison, who was
massacred by the Indians; he was convinced that it would not do to
persecute the "Mormons;" for every time we were driven, we have succeeded
beyond our most sanguine anticipations.  It has happened to us as it did
to the old man's stone wall, which was five feet high and six feet thick. 
The boys could not get his apples, and said among themselves, "We will
turn over the old wall;" they turned it over, and it was higher than
before.  So with us; every time the "Mormons" have been driven they have
enlarged their borders.  Look out, drive us again and we will take the
kingdom before you are aware of it.

	We certainly shall gather out all the good as fast as we can, for the
people who love truth will hear sound argument, which is our rule of
battle, and it is a scientific one.  Now come on to war, whenever you
think best, and we will gather out the honest until the last seed of
Israel is gathered, and there is hardly enough left to elect a President,
even among the Know-Nothings.

	Only persecute us and we will grow the faster.  Say they, "What shall
we do, do tell us which way we shall go, for we do not know what to do,
nor what to say; if we persecute them they will grow the faster, and take
away our place and nation, and will get all the good people to follow
them, and what shall we do?"  It is a hard case I know.

	When strangers come among us they often feel diffident, for we keep
to ourselves here in these distant parts, and do not always immediately
know whether we are about to receive friends or enemies into our
community.  We have been persecuted and driven, and been a scoff and a
by-word, and when strangers come among us they feel a delicacy in making
our acquaintance.  I say, brethren and sisters, be frank with strangers,
and when you talk with them, or are in their presence, live your religion,
and do not vary one particle from the truth.

	You say, "I love my God and my religion."  Then manifest to them what
your religion is, and if they are honest ere long they will fall in with
it, if not they will take up their line of march and leave us; and my
prayer is that we may be delivered from every inbred corruption.

	So far as the time and your patience would permit, I have endeavored
to candidly and truly portray our real feelings and views with regard to
the General Government, the members of the various Christian
denominations, the upright everywhere, and the corrupt and abominable
wherever they are to be found; and also to briefly sketch a few of the
scenes and incidents of our past and present history.

	Let us live our religion, and show the world that we love the Lord
Jesus Christ better than anything else.  Though the world persecute you,
yet cling to the Lord and the Holy Gospel, even if you lay down your lives
for the truth's sake.  May God bless you.  Amen.

                        FAITHFULNESS AND APOSTACY.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1855.

	Twenty-five years ago to-day this Church was organized with six
members.  More had been baptized by brother Joseph, but he having received
a revelation to organize the Church, and only six members being present,
they were all that were then incorporated.  Many of the faithful brethren
and sisters, who embraced the Gospel of salvation in the early days of the
history of this work, have no doubt often looked over the ground this
Church has traversed, and have been enabled to discern the invisible hand
of the Lord in the preservation of this people in the various scenes they
have passed through.

	Many times, to all human appearance, there was no temporal salvation
for the Saints.  Again, those who were not faithful, beholding things as
the natural man beholds them, have left the Church; yes, scores of them,
hundreds of them, thousands of them, both male and female.  They looked at
this kingdom, and, considering its progress upon seemingly natural
principles, discovered it was best for them to leave it, and if possible
save their lives.  Those who have been faithful can witness this day, that
those who have sought to save their lives have lost them, while those who
have sought diligently to build up the kingdom of God, who have clung to
the commandments of the Lord, who have not counted their lives dear to
them, have saved their lives.

	It is marvellous, it is marvellously strange, and truly it is a
marvellous work and a wonder, to those destitute of the revelations of
Jesus Christ, when they reflect upon the history of this people, in their
travels and progress; and it has been a wonder to all who have been
acquainted with it.

	Those who were acquainted with the rise of this Church, with the
lives and acts of the few who then believed the Gospel, and with the lives
and acts of many who surrounded them, discovered then that the powers of
darkness, the powers of the enemies of all righteousness, were leveled
against the few who believed in the Book of Mormon, and who believed that
Joseph Smith was a Prophet.  Whether they were six in number, or six times
six, or whether there was but one, it made no difference.  Just as soon as
the Book of Mormon was declared to the people, or to a neighborhood, and
proclaimed to be the history of the aborigines of our country, and to
contain the will of God to the people formerly, and that the Lord Jesus
appeared to the inhabitants of this continent and revealed to them the
Gospel; that the kingdom of God was built up here; that the Lamanites were
a remnant of the house of Israel; and that the set time had come for the
Lord to favor Zion and gather Israel; at that very time, on that very day,
the powers of darkness were arrayed against the Prophet, against the Book
of Mormon, and those who believed it to be what it purported to be.

	Has this spirit of persecution ceased?  No, not in the least, but it
has steadily increased.  I was somewhat acquainted with the coming forth
of the Book of Mormon, not only through what I read in the newspapers, but
I also heard a great many stories and reports which were circulated as
quick as the Book of Mormon was printed, and began to be scattered abroad. 
Then the spirit of persecution, the spirit of death, the spirit of
destruction immediately seemed to enter the hearts of the pious priests
more particularly than any other portion of the people; they could not
bear it.  Among those who professed great faith and great piety, and
believed in the blessings of sanctification, and professedly believed in
the ministering of angels, and in the gift of the Holy Ghost, and that it
was the privilege of Christians to enjoy the gifts and graces of the
Spirit now, as well as in ancient times, as quick as the Book of Mormon
was introduced into conversation, a spirit would rise in them causing them
to wish to destroy that book and every person who believed in it.  They
would say, "It is from hell, it is from the bottomless pit, it is of the
devil; and those who believe in it ought to go to hell; it is a pity that
such a delusion should be permitted to rise in our Christian country." 
Such expressions came from the mouths of religious priests, from the
mouths of leading characters in society, from those who professed to hold
the keys of salvation, and to teach the people the way of life.  Has this
spirit ceased?  No, it has not, but it has constantly increased.  And to
my certain knowledge, through the visions of the spirit of the Lord Jesus
Christ, I did know, I did see, I did understand, before I went into the
waters of baptism, that this spirit of persecution would increase.  As the
kingdom of God increased upon the earth, so would the power of the enemy
increase in like manner, to keep pace with it; and there never would be a
time, except for a short period, that this people would have rest, until
Israel was fully gathered, was redeemed and built up, and the Lord had
drawn the dividing line between the righteous and the wicked.

	This Church has lived twenty-five years and is not dead yet, although
a great many of its members have gone behind the vail.  Those who were
first baptized into the Church have almost entirely left this stage of
action.  I presume there is not a single person in this congregation who
embraced the Book of Mormon in the fall of 1829, or in the fore part of
the year 1830.  The Prophet, his father, and his brothers, except one, are
gone behind the vail.  I suppose that Martin Harris and Joseph's mother
are living, but Oliver Cowdery has gone to his long home, and most of the
witnesses of the Book of Mormon have died; and I know of but very few in
these valleys who embraced the faith of the Gospel in the early days of
the rise of this Church.  When I call to mind the multitudes with whom I
have been acquainted in this kingdom, and reflect how few there are who
have stood firm, and how many have apostatized, I often at first think it
is strange, but again, it is no marvel, realizing as I do that every
person who lives in this Church must be faithful.  They cannot run by
sight, but must actually exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in order
to enjoy the light of the Holy Ghost.  When they neglect this, the spirit
of the world takes possession of them, and they become cold and fruitless,
and pine away into darkness and spiritual death, and finally leave us. 
Will this continue?  Yes.

	Perhaps there are many who are astonished to see people apostatize,
but it really is no marvel, it is no astonishment at all.  If you wish to
know the reason why they apostatize, it is because they neglect their
duty, lose the Spirit of the Lord, and the spirit of the holy Gospel that
they received when they first embraced it.  Many receive the Gospel
because they know it is true; they are convinced in their judgment that it
is true; strong argument overpowers them, and they are rationally
compelled to admit the Gospel to be true upon fair reasoning.  They yield
to it, and obey its first principles, but never seek to be enlightened by
the power of the Holy Ghost; such ones frequently step out of the way.

	Say they, "Mormonism is true, but I am not going to stand it; I am
not going to abide this severe temporal loss; I am not going to stay here
and have my rights trampled upon; I am not going to be checked in my
career; I do not wish to be trammeled in my doings, but I want my liberty
perfectly; still I believe it to be true with all my heart."

	Well, right upon these statements, if such men only believe
"Mormonism" to be true, and that too no stronger than they do, they are
not so far ahead in this particular as the devils in hell, for they both
believe and know that the Gospel is true.  They believe and know that
Jesus is the Christ; they believe in the Old and New Testament, and in the
Book of Mormon, and know that they are true.  They know when a true
Prophet comes forth upon the earth; if they did not they would not raise
up persecution against him.  Not only believing, but knowing that the
Gospel is true, they are arrayed in opposition to the truth, and lay every
plan and scheme, that it is possible for devils to invent, to overthrow
the kingdom of God on earth, that they may retain possession of the world
still longer.

	Will there still be apostacy?  Yes, brethren and sisters, you may
expect that people will come into the Church, and then apostatize.  You
may expect that some people will run well for a season, and then fall out
by the way.  For example, take the parable of the sower that went out to
sow, "and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls
came and devoured them up: some fell upon stony places, where they had not
much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of
earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had
no root, they withered away.  And some fell among thorns; and the thorns
sprung up, and choked them:  but other fell into good ground, and brought
forth fruit, some an hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold."

	When the seed falls into good ground it takes root, and brings forth
fruit; such individuals will be faithful to the end.  The seed that falls
by the way side, for want of root cannot endure the scorching sun of
persecution.  Those who are represented by the seed among thorns cannot
endure because of the cares of the world and the pride of life.  The
influence and power of the world, and of the adversary, surrounding such
individuals, they are by and by turned away, and cease to be Saints, cease
to serve the Lord, and turn every one to his own way.  Is this strange to
you?  Yes, for a moment, you say it is very strange.  What did you embrace
"Mormonism" for?  Some have embraced it for the truth's sake; some love
the Gospel because it is the Gospel--because it is based upon true
principles, and because it is the only system of doctrine revealed to the
children of men, that is built upon a sure foundation.  They love truth
because it is truth, because it is light, and there is no darkness in it;
and they fear not to come to the light that their deeds may be reproved,
for they wish to get rid of their evil deeds.  They love virtue because it
is a holy principle by which the angels live; they love all the Gospel
principles because they are connected with eternity, and are the
foundation of eternal lives, and will exalt the faithful to happiness and
felicity, to kingdoms of glory, power, and immortality, and to all tho
knowledge and happiness that can be enjoyed by the intelligent beings who
inherit eternity.

	It is not for me to say how many embrace the Gospel for the sake of
the loaves and fishes; but I really think, from their conduct, that many
have embraced the Gospel to see if they cannot make gain of it; to see if
there is any temporal advantage in it.  Let this kingdom or this people
prosper, let them be free from persecution at this day, let our friends,
our relatives, our former neighbors speak well of us and tell the truth
with regard to our temporal prosperity, as they would of other people, and
what would be the result?  Thousands would professedly embrace the Gospel
for the advantages to be derived therefrom, to get a good name, and to
obtain the riches which are of this world, and to be perfectly free from
restraint.  Let this kingdom prosper in a manner that all men will speak
well of it, and let there be no trials, no threatenings, none to say, "You
shall be killed, you shall be destroyed," but let all say "Peace shall be
with you, we will bless you, we will neighbor with you, and hail you as
our friends and brethren;" under such a state of things, thousands would
professedly embrace the Gospel for the sake of living in peace, and to
obtain the riches of this world; thousands would professedly embrace the
Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants for political
advantages, for a great name, and to obtain what they are seeking after
continually.  What is that?  To be spoken well of by everybody, to obtain
power and great influence among men.  Were I to give my own private
opinion concerning the matter, I cannot say that a great many have come
into this Church solely for the worldly advantages which they would derive
therefrom.  On the other hand, do all people join this Church with a pure
intention?  A great many embrace the Gospel to be free from the iron hand
of oppression, under which they are labouring continually, from year to
year, in servile chains, toiling to get a morsel of bread to subsist upon. 
They are ground down and afflicted; their wages are cut down to the last
penny they can live upon, when they know that they must labor or die.

	Thousands are in this pitiable condition, and would embrace anything,
I do not care what under the heavens was preached to them.  You may go and
preach the doctrines of Universalism, of Infidelity, or of any other
belief in the world, you may boil them down and get their very essence,
and with it tell those who are oppressed and borne down by the rich and
the great, "You shall be delivered from your factories, you shall make
your escape from your shops of toil; we are preaching this to the poor;
now embrace our system and our doctrine, and you shall be delivered from
this iron hand of oppression.  We will take you to a land of plenty, to a
land of freedom, where you can enjoy your rights and be blessed, and have
the privilege of obtaining, with comparative ease like other men, all the
comforts of this life."  What is their reply?  "O, we will embrace your
religion, if you will only take us away from these toils and this
starvation."  Many embrace the Gospel, actuated by no other motive than to
have the privilege of being removed from their oppressed condition to
where they will not suffer.  They will embrace any doctrine under the
heavens, if you will only take them from their present condition.

	Are there any with us who act upon the same principle?  O yes, you
may, once in a while, see one who is acting upon that principle.  Let
persecution be heaped upon this people as it has been heretofore, even let
the persecutors threaten, at the great distance from us that they are now,
and those who have embraced the Gospel with motives that are not in every
sense pure, will say, "I am for embracing something else to get rid of
persecution; I am for leaving these Latter-day Saints, lest affliction,
trouble, and persecution come upon me and I be killed, or be made to
suffer in the flesh.  I am going to leave for California, or for the
United States, or I am going to do something; I want to do that which will
free me from all earthly suffering and trouble."  Do these considerations
touch one who has embraced the Gospel because of its principles?  No. 
Those who feel like forsaking the religion of Jesus Christ for such
considerations, embraced it at first to better their temporal position in
life, and for nothing else.  This has always been the case with many, and
when persecution has come, men and women have said, "I cannot bear it, I
thought I was going to have happiness, and to enjoy life; I really
supposed that my sorrows were all ended."

	A great many have embraced the Gospel, believing that their sorrows
would come to an end, at a certain period in this Church and kingdom, on
the earth, and that too, speedily.  I am a witness to this in my own
experience and feelings.  When I yielded obedience to the commandments of
the Lord, the brethren were preparing to gather to a place that was called
Zion, in Jackson County, on the western borders of the State of Missouri. 
I then actually had faith and the spirit of Zion to such a degree, that I
supposed that if we got to Zion our worldly sorrows and afflictions would
cease.  I had not however a disposition to go there myself, for I wanted
to go to the world and proclaim the word of the Lord that was revealed to
me, and on that account I never had the privilege of settling in that
county.  The spirit of Zion which I then possessed is the spirit that
inhabits the heavens and fills them, it is in and round about all heavenly
beings.

	When that spirit is imparted to individuals they realize it as it is
in its purity, and are not mindful, at all times, that they are still
embodied in a tabernacle of clay that is subject to the power of the
devil, and that is liable to be afflicted at any moment, and to have
severe trials, and be opposed and persecuted as long as they are in the
flesh.  But when the spirit that fills eternity is breathed into a person
everything else is dispersed in a moment, and he sees Zion as it is in its
purity, he then enjoys the spirit of Zion.

	A great many people imbibed the same idea which I did in the
beginning, and really believed that in Jackson County all the earthly
sorrows, afflictions, disappointments, and weaknesses pertaining to the
flesh would be at an end, and that every one would be sanctified before
the Lord, and all would be peace and joy from morning until evening, and
from year to year, until the Savior should come.

	The brethren who went then found themselves mistaken, in a very short
time.  Those who went there, and those who were acquainted with their
going and coming, found the world, the flesh, and the devil there, just as
much as any where else, unless they had faith to turn every spirit of the
world out of doors, that is, out of their hearts.  They found the same
tempter, the same covetous feelings, and the same allurements there, as in
other places.

	When our Elders go out to preach the Gospel, they tell the people to
gather to Zion.  Where is it?  It is at the City of the Great Salt Lake,
in the Valleys of the Mountains, in the settlements of Utah
Territory--there is Zion now.  But you perceive when you come here the
same covetous feelings imbibed in the hearts of many, as in other places,
the same tempter is here, and there are plenty of allurements; and unless
the people live before the Lord in the obedience of His commandments, they
cannot have Zion within them.  They must carry it with them, if they
expect to live in it, to enjoy it, and increase in it.  If they do not do
this, they are as much destitute of Zion here as they are in other places. 
Some inquire, "Why cannot we serve God in other countries as well as
here?"  You can just as well in England, in France, in Germany, in Italy,
on the Islands of the Sea, in the United States, in California, or
anywhere else, as you can here.  "Well, then, let us go," say they.  But
hold on, you can serve Him just as well anywhere else, when it is your
duty to be there.  If it is not your duty to be anywhere else, if you
would serve him acceptably, it must be where He calls you.  To what part
of the earth is the Lord now calling His Saints?  He has opened up their
way far into the interior of North America, they are widely removed from
all surrounding civilization.

	If you will examine the map you will find that we are located in an
isolated portion of what?  Of Zion.  And what is Zion?  In one sense Zion
is the pure in heart.  But is there a land that ever will be called Zion? 
Yes, brethren.  What land is it?  It is the land that the Lord gave to
Jacob, who bequeathed it to his son Joseph, and his posterity, and they
inhabit it, and that land is North and South America.  That is Zion as to
land, as to Territory, and location.  The children of Zion have not yet
much in their possession, but their territory is North and South America
to begin with.  As to the spirit of Zion, it is in the hearts of the
Saints, of those who love and serve the Lord with all their might, mind,
and strength.  We have opened up the way, and come here, and what will you
see?  Just as much weakness and trouble as in any other place, if if [sic]
you have a mind to make it--which you will if you do wickedly, and perform
that which is derogatory to the principles of righteousness.  We can make
the territory of Utah one of greatest sinks of iniquity upon the face of
the whole earth, and exceed the abominations of the ancient Sodomites, if
we are so disposed.

	The first founders of this Territory, those who dug their way through
the mountains, cut the sage brush, killed the snakes, made the roads,
built bridges and houses, opened farms, laid out and built cities where no
white man ever thought that civilized people could subsist, unless they
brought provisions from a distant country, can now assemble together
surrounded with the comforts and many of the luxuries of this life.  No
white man who ever passed through this country believed that a settlement
could be made in these mountains, and prosper in cultivating the earth. 
The Lord has brought us here, and what have we brought?  Most certainly
ourselves, and after we get here some want to go away, and say that the
place is not holy enough for them, that they will not endure it, but will
withdraw from this society, until we are pure enough, and then they will
come back again.  Such persons are like those who stayed in Jackson
County, they are too pure and holy for themselves.  But if they stay, they
stay with themselves, and if they go, they take themselves with them, and
that is their great difficulty.  If they could leave themselves behind, we
might succeed in cleansing them from sin; but no, they go and have to take
themselves with them.

	The Saints who first came into these valleys necessarily brought
their tabernacles with them, but we endeavored not to bring any
selfishness with us, any erroneous prepossessed notions, any feelings,
laws, rules, or acts pertaining to ourselves, except such as the Lord
should dictate day by day.

	Suppose that every person who comes into these valleys should come
with a determination to be led by the Lord, from day to day; suppose they
should say, "I will serve my God and keep His commandments; I will not set
a stake here, or there, or anywhere else; I will not say that I will rise
up to-morrow, and go to this city, or to that town, to exchange and trade
to get gain, only as the Lord will say, and this will I do from this time,
henceforth and forever;" and then let each one faithfully maintain such a
determination, and we could truly say that we have the Territory of Zion,
and the spirit, light, glory, and power thereof, and that the God of Zion
dwells with this people.

	But if we bring our old traditions with us, our prepossessed feelings
and notions of this, that, and the other; and set our stakes, build our
habitations, and locate our position in accordance there with, and say, "I
will do so and so, this is the path I will pursue, and I am determined to
walk in it, regardless of everything else," then we may expect to be
overthrown, and the spirit of the holy Gospel will depart from us.  Then
you would soon learn that there was no temporal, no natural prospect for
this people to escape from utter destruction; and you would rise up and
say, "I am off to California to save my life."  But those who try to save
their lives by their skill and craftiness, will lose them, both temporally
and spiritually.

	A great many say, "I believe the Gospel," but continue to act
wickedly, to do that which they know to be wrong.  I wish you to fully
understand that merely believing the Gospel, that Jesus is the Christ, in
the Old and New Testaments, that Joseph Smith was a Prophet sent of God,
and that the Book of Mormon is true, does not prepare you to become angels
of light, sons and daughters of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ to
a divine inheritance.  Nor does mere belief entitle you to the possession
of the crowns and thrones that you are anticipating.  No, such preparation
can be made, and such objects attained only by doing the work required of
us by our Father in heaven, by obeying Him in all things, letting our
will, dispositions, and feelings fall to our feet, to rise no more, from
this time henceforth, and actually operating upon the principle that we
will do the will of our Father in heaven, no matter what comes upon us. 
Then, if you are going to be killed by your enemies, or destroyed by the
adversary, you can say, "Kill away, destroy away."

	True, the enemy of all righteousness, Lucifer, the son of the
morning, the devil, is in possession of the world, and of nearly all that
is in it, and says, "I am determined to destroy every man, woman, and
child that will not yield to my kingdom, obey my mandates, and renounce
the Lord Jesus Christ."  But my determination is, not to renounce the Lord
Jesus Christ and his commandments, but to keep his commandments
faithfully, and let this people pursue the same course, and wait until the
final issue, and see who will come off victorious in the great contest.

	At present the enemies of all righteousness have the lead, and say,
"Now you poor Mormons, are you not afraid that we can muster our
thousands, and destroy every one of you?"  "Go to hell," say I, "and be
damned; for you will go there, and you are damned already."  I can prove
from the Scriptures that they are in hell, though sanctimonious persons
consider it wicked to make such remarks.  I also say, "Stay in the hell
you are in, if you choose, or go to another if you can."

	Are the people going to fear?  If fear is in the hearts of any of
you, it is because you do not pray often enough; or when you do pray you
are not sufficiently humble before the Lord.  You do not plead with Him
until your will is swallowed up in His.  If every one of the Latter day
Saints lived up to their privileges, they would not fear the world, and
all that they can no, any more than they fear that the cranes, that fly
croaking three quarters of a mile above them, will drop their eggs upon
them to dash their brains out.  You might as well fear that event, as to
fear all the forces of hell, if the people were sanctified before the
Lord, and would do His will every day.

	Are these ideas strange to you?  Read and learn how the Lord
protected the children of Israel in former days, even during their
wickedness, and rebellion against Him.

	Whenever a good man would say, "Cease your wickedness, turn from your
idols, and seek to the Lord," and they hearkened to his counsel, then the
Lord would fight their battles, and kill their enemies by scores and
hundreds of thousands.  And on one occasion the angel of the Lord slew one
hundred and eighty-five thousand of those who came against His people to
destroy them, "and when they arose early in the morning, behold, the were
all dead corpses."  So reads the Bible.  The Lord fought their battles.

	Again, Elisha's servant saw that there was more for them than all who
were against them; he saw that the sides of the mountains were covered
with "chariots of fire."

	When the Lord commands those invisible beings, shall I say, those who
have had their resurrection? yes, millions and millions more than the
inhabitants of this earth, they can fight your battles.

	Now, since one angel could fight their battles in former times, and
overcome the enemies of the people of God, whom shall we fear?  Shall we
fear those who can kill the body, and then have no more that they can do? 
No, but we will fear Him who is able not only to destroy the body, but has
power to cast both soul and body into hell fire.

	There is an item of doctrine that I will now present just as it
occurs to me.  You are aware that many think that the devil has rule and
power over both body and spirit.  Now, I want to tell you that he does not
hold any power over man, only so far as the body overcomes the spirit that
is in a man, through yielding to the spirit of evil.  The spirit that the
Lord puts into a tabernacle of flesh, is under the dictation of the Lord
Almighty; but the spirit and body are united in order that the spirit may
have a tabernacle, and be exalted; and the spirit is influenced by the
body, and the body by the spirit.

	In the first place the spirit is pure, and under the special control
and influence of the Lord, but the body is of the earth, and is subject to
the power of the devil, and is under the mighty influence of that fallen
nature that is of the earth.  If the spirit yields to the body, the devil
then has power to overcome both the body and spirit of that man, and he
loses both.

	Recollect, brethren and sisters, every one of you, that when evil is
suggested to you, when it arises in your hearts, it is through the
temporal organization.  When you are tempted, buffetted, and step out of
the way inadvertently: when you are overtaken in a fault, or commit an
overt act unthinkingly; when you are full of evil passion, and wish to
yield to it, then stop and let the spirit, which God has put into your
tabernacles, take the lead.  If you do that, I will promise that you will
overcome all evil, and obtain eternal lives.  But many, very many, let the
spirit yield to the body, and are overcome and destroyed.

	The influence of the enemy has power over all such.  Those who
overcome every passion, and every evil, will be sanctified, and be
prepared to enjoy eternity with the blessed.  If you have never thought of
this before, try to realize it now.  Let it rest upon your minds, and see
if you can discover in yourselves the operations of the spirit and the
body, which constitute the man.  Continually and righteously watch the
spirit that the Lord has put in you, and I will promise you to be led into
righteousness, holiness, peace, and good order.

	But let the body rise up with its passions, with the fallen nature
pertaining to it, and let the spirit yield to it, your destruction is
sure.  On the other hand, let the spirit take the lead, and bring the body
and its passions into subjection, and you are safe.

	It is instructive to reflect upon the acts of men, to observe what
prompts them to action, and to see how liable they are to get out of the
way, how weak they are, how short-coming, how failing in their spirits to
do the will of the Lord, and how fearful they are.  Afraid of what?  Do
you reflect, and realize that your fear is all pertaining to your bodies,
that it not pertaining to your spirits?  Let me tell you, when the spirit
is once separated from the body, it is one of the most beautiful and
delightful objects that you could contemplate, and there is nothing that
can give a pure spirit so much joy as to have the privilege of being
separated from the body, and of going back to its Father in heaven, to
await the morning of the resurrection.

	Remember this when you are afflicted with fear and trembling, and are
exclaiming, "Oh what shall we do?"  Do you recollect what has been said
here?  I recollect that when I chastised certain individuals who were
really not worth any body's notice, the cry of some was, "O, dear! we are
all going to be destroyed, where shall I go to save my life, to the north,
south, east or west?"  That fear arose from the organization of the
tabernacle, and not from the spirit within it.

	The fear and trembling, the misgivings and wavering arise from the
anxiety we have to know how to save ourselves pertaining to the flesh. 
That weakness is not exhibited in the spirit.

	I am afflicted with it just as you are, but what do my judgment, the
revelations of Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, and the spirit of the Gospel
teach me?  That my tabernacle is of comparatively small value, although it
is a pretty fair one, and one that I am willing to take in the morning of
the resurrection.  The Lord gave it to me, and I am thankful for it.  When
it is the will of my Father that my spirit should return to Him, what do I
care about the mouldering tabernacle, so that the spirit is unlocked, and
set free from its prison-house of clay?  It can go to the Father who gave
it, until the body is resurrected, when the spirit will again be reunited
with the tabernacle, to be exalted to thrones, kingdoms, principalities,
and powers, and spread abroad, and to the increase there shall be no end.

	Fears arise from the weaknesses of the flesh, over which the devil
has power.  We should care, comparatively, but little about it; let it
crumble, let it fall, and go back to its mother earth, and be reserved to
the morning of the resurrection.  I shall have this body again, then what
need we care how quickly our bodies dissolve?  All I care for it, in my
spirit, in my judgment, and in my moments of reflection and revelation, is
merely that I wish it to endure here to fight the tabernacles which devils
dwell in, until the last one is driven from the earth.  Then let my
tabernacle stay here and contend with the fallen nature that it is heir
to, and let my spirit rise triumphant over it, until every passion,
feeling, and appetite is brought in subjection to the will of God.  Let me
stay here until I have accomplished this, and have done the work I was
designed for in this my probation, then my spirit will be free from mobs
and strife, and I can soar far above those who have power over them, even
death, hell, and the grave.

	I say to the Latter-day Saints, who are coming here by thousands and
thousands, and who are coming into the Church by tens of thousands, begin
to think, especially some of you first Elders, and ask yourselves how many
you can bring to mind of those who are now in good faith in the Church, in
proportion to the number that you have known to have come into it, and you
will find that there are only a very few.

	If you should hunt up many of these who have been baptized for some
time, but have not yet gathered, and ask them if they believe that Joseph
Smith was a true Prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is true,
several of them will reply, "O yes."  "Then why don't you gather with the
Saints?"  "O, I don't know; I am poor now; but I would very much like to
gather with them."  At the same time, I know that their feelings are, "If
I go there I shall be persecuted, but if I live here I shall have peace
with my neighbors, so long as I let religious matters alone, and here I
can live without persecution, until my tabernacle is ready to return to
the earth."  What makes them have that fear of trials and persecutions? 
It is on account of their tabernacles.  The spirit is not afraid.  If it
was free of the encumbrances of the tabernacle, no such fear would be
manifested; and while we are in the flesh the Gospel is calculated to
deliver those who live by its principles from all those fears.

	I recollect many times when brother Joseph, reflecting upon how many
would come into the Kingdom of God and go out again, would say, "Brethren,
I have not apostatized yet, and don't feel like doing so."  Many of you,
no doubt, can call to mind his words.  Joseph had to pray all the time,
exercise faith, live his religion, and magnify his calling, to obtain the
manifestations of the Lord, and to keep him steadfast in the faith.

	Do you not know others who had manifestations almost equal to those
Joseph had, but who have gone by the board?  Martin Harris declared,
before God and angels, that he had seen angels.  Did he apostatize?  Yes,
though he says that the Book of Mormon is true.  Oliver Cowdery also left
the Church, though he never denied the Book of Mormon, not even in the
wickedest days he ever saw, and came back into the Church before he died. 
A gentleman in Michigan said to him, when he was pleading law, "Mr.
Cowdery, I see your name attached to this book; if you believe it to be
true, why are you in Michigan?"  The gentleman read over the names of the
witnesses, and said, "Mr. Cowdery, do you believe this book?"  "No, sir,"
replied Oliver Cowdery. "That is very well, but your name is attached to
it, and you say here that you saw an angel, and the plates from which this
book is said to be translated, and now you say that you do not believe it. 
Which time was you right?"  Mr. Cowdery replied, "There is my name
attached to that book, and what I have there said that I saw, I know that
I saw, and belief has nothing to do with it, for knowledge has swallowed
up the belief that I had in the work, since I know it is true."  He gave
this testimony when he was pleading law in Michigan.  After he had left
the Church he still believed "Mormonism;" and so it is with hundreds and
thousands of others, and yet they do not live it.

	If the Saints in the midst of these mountains would live their
religion according to the best of their knowledge, according to what they
see, feel, and hear, there is no power that could move them out of their
place.

	A great many of the new comers have been in the Church but a short
time, but you may take the Saints as a body, from those who have been in
the Kingdom twenty, and twenty-two years, to those who have embraced it
but a few years past, and, according to my feelings and faith, and I will
call upon every man and woman, who has got the Holy Ghost, to say whether
I am right, faith and good works are rapidly increasing among this people. 
You know whether I tell the truth, or not.  If they have not increased,
for heaven's sake, for God's sake, for your own soul's sake, for Zion's
sake, for Jerusalem's sake, and for the sake of scattered Israel, let them
increase from this time henceforth.  Let "Mormonism," the faith of the
Gospel, which is "Mormonism," continue to increase, and cease all your
evil deeds, and return to the Lord, and be honest and true.  I tell you
that a man cannot believe "Mormonism" as I do, and be a bad man.

	You will find in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and in
the other revelations of God, that there is a clear distinction made
between the sinner and the ungodly.  A person to be ungodly must have
known godliness, and must have a knowledge of what the Lord requires
concerning him.  There are many in the midst of this people who believe
the Gospel with all their hearts, but yet do wickedly; this makes them
ungodly.  Do wickedly no more, but follow good works, and cherish faith
and benevolence one to another.

      PREACHING AND TESTIMONY--GATHERING ISRAEL--THE BLOOD OF ISRAEL
                  AND THE GENTILES--THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1855.

	It is nearly time to draw our meeting to a close, and I think we had
better adjourn our Conference to the sixth of next October, as the
business now necessary to be done is accomplished; and I find that we are
very much crowded in this Tabernacle, and on this account the congregation
is rather uncomfortable.

	There has been much said, though for one I can say that we have not
preached to the assembled thousands one fourth part as much as we could
have wished.  But we have been privileged to meet from distant points, and
see each other, and hear, learn, and receive spiritual strength.

	A few of the brethren have spoken, but there has not been a lengthy
discourse delivered since we have been together; and if we were to
continue in Conference a whole week, we could give opportunity to but
comparatively few of the Elders who would like to speak, even though we
allotted only fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, or forty-five minutes to
each speaker.

	I realize that the hearts of many are full, and they would like to
rise up and testify, and say that they believe the Book of Mormon, and
that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, just as well as the few who have spoken. 
You are aware that you have this privilege in your several Wards, and any
of the Elders of Israel who wish to bear their testimony to the truth of
the Gospel, and have not had the privilege in this Conference, can go to
the Ward meetings and rise up and bear testimony of the truth, and exhort
the brethren.  And if you have a word of counsel, or a word of doctrine,
give it to the people, and do not be backward, but improve every
opportunity that is presented for you to expand your minds.

	A man who wishes to receive light and knowledge, to increase in the
faith of the Holy Gospel, and to grow in the knowledge of the truth as it
is in Jesus Christ, will find that when he imparts knowledge to others he
will also grow and increase.  Be not miserly in your feelings, but get
knowledge and understanding by freely imparting it to others, and be not
like a man who selfishly hoards his gold; for that man will not thus
increase upon the amount, but will become contracted in his views and
feelings.  So the man who will not impart freely of the knowledge he has
received, will become so contracted in his mind that he cannot receive
truth when it is presented to him.  Wherever you see an opportunity to do
good, do it, for that is the way to increase and grow in the knowledge of
the truth.

	I expect the brethren who have been selected to go and preach the
Gospel will meet this evening in the Seventies' Hall, and the Twelve will
meet with them, and the missionaries will there receive some instructions. 
I will give them one item of instruction now.  I wish each man, who does
not feel willing to seek unto the Lord his God, with all his heart, for
preparation to magnify his mission and calling, but declines in his
feelings to walk up to his duty in spirit, and is not anxious to cleave to
righteousness and forsake iniquity, to keep away from the Hall this
evening; or, if such a one comes there, let him ask us at once to be
excused, and we will excuse him.  We do not wish a man to enter on a
mission, unless his soul is in it.  Some of the brethren will say--"I do
not know whether my feelings are upon my mission, or not, but I will do
the best I can."  That is all we ask of you.  I have known some of the
Elders, when they thought they would be called out to preach, keep away
from meeting lest they should be called upon, for they feel their
littleness, their nothingness, their inability to rise up and preach to
the people.  They do not feel that they are anybody, and why should they
expose their weaknesses?  I have noticed one thing in regard to
this--quite as many of these men become giants in the cause of truth, as
there is of any other class; for when they get away they begin to lean on
the Lord, and to seek unto Him, and feeling their weaknesses, they ask Him
to give them wisdom to speak to the people as occasion may require. 
Others can rise up here and preach a flaming discourse, insomuch that you
would think they were going to tear down the nations; but when they go out
into the world they often accomplish but little.

	You used to hear brother Joseph tell about this people being crowded
into the little end of the horn, and if they kept straight ahead they were
sure to come out at the big end.  It is so with some Elders who go on
missions; while many who go into the big end of the horn, and are so full
of fancied intelligence, preaching, counsel, knowledge, and power, when
they go out into the world, either have to turn around and come back, or
be crowded out at the little end of the horn.

	On the other hand I do not wish any of the brethren to be
discouraged, for if you feel that you cannot say a single word, no matter,
if you will only be faithful to your God and to your religion, and be
humble, and cleave unto righteousness, and forsake iniquity and sin, the
Lord will guide you and give you words in due season.

	Recollect that we are now calling upon the Elders to go and gather up
Israel; this is the mission that is given to us.  It was the first mission
given to the Elders in the days of Joseph.  The set time is come for God
to gather Israel, and for His work to commence upon the face of the whole
earth, and the Elders who have arisen in this Church and Kingdom are
actually of Israel.  Take the Elders who are now in this house, and you
can scarcely find one out of a hundred but what is of the house of Israel. 
It has been remarked that the Gentiles have been cut off, and I doubt
whether another Gentile ever comes into this Church.

	Will we go to the Gentile nations to preach the Gospel?  Yes, and
gather out the Israelites, wherever they are mixed among the nations of
the earth.  What part or portion of them?  The same part or portion that
redeemed the house of Jacob, and saved them from perishing with famine in
Egypt.  When Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph, "guiding his hands
wittingly," he placed his right hand upon Ephraim, "and he blessed Joseph,
and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God
which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me
from all evil, bless the lads," etc.  Joseph was about to remove the old
man's hands, and bringing his right hand upon the head of the oldest boy,
saying--"Not so, my father; for this is the first born; put thy right hand
upon his head.  And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I
know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but
truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall
become a multitude of nations."  Ephraim has become mixed with all the
nations of the earth, and it is Ephraim that is gathering together.

	It is Ephraim that I have been searching for all the days of my
preaching, and that is the blood which ran in my veins when I embraced the
Gospel.  If there are any of the other tribes of Israel mixed with the
Gentiles we are also searching for them.  Though the Gentiles are cut off,
do not suppose that we are not going to preach the Gospel among the
Gentile nations, for they are mingled with the house of Israel, and when
we send to the nations we do not seek for the Gentiles, because they are
disobedient and rebellious.  We want the blood of Jacob, and that of his
father Isaac and Abraham, which runs in the veins of the people.  There is
a particle of it here, and another there, blessing the nations as
predicted.

	Take a family of ten children, for instance, and you may find nine of
them purely of the Gentile stock, and one son or one daughter in that
family who is purely of the Blood of Ephraim.  It was in the veins of the
father or mother, and was reproduced in the son or daughter, while all the
rest of the family are Gentiles.  You may think that is singular, but it
is true.  It is the house of Israel we are after, and we care not whether
they come from the east, the west, the north, or the south; from China,
Russia, England, California, North or South America, or some other
locality; and it is the very lad on whom father Jacob laid his hands, that
will save the house of Israel.  The Book of Mormon came to Ephraim, for
Joseph Smith was a pure Ephraimite, and the Book of Mormon was revealed to
him, and while he lived he made it his business to search for those who
believed the Gospel.

	Again, if a pure Gentile firmly believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
and yields obedience to it, in such a case I will give you the words of
the Prophet Joseph--"When the Lord pours out the Holy Ghost upon that
individual he will have spasms, and you would think that he was going into
fits."

	Joseph said that the Gentile blood was actually cleansed out of their
veins, and the blood of Jacob made to circulate in them; and the
revolution and change in the system were so great that it caused the
beholder to think they were going into fits.

	If any of the Gentiles will believe, we will lay our hands upon them
that they may receive the Holy Ghost, and the Lord will make them of the
house of Israel.  They will be broken off from the wild olive tree, and be
grafted into the good and tame olive tree, and will partake of its sap and
fatness.  If you take a bud and inoculate it into another tree it ceases
to receive nourishment from its original stock; it must, however, receive
nourishment, or it will die.  Where must it receive its nourishment from? 
From the tree into which it has been introduced; it is supported by it,
and becomes incorporated with it.

	It is so with the House of Israel and the Gentile nations; if the
Gentiles are grafted into the good olive tree they will partake of its
root and fatness.

	You understand who we are; we are of the House of Israel, of the
royal seed, of the royal blood.

	There are many subjects upon which I wish to speak, but there is not
time now, though in regard to teachings pertaining to our temporal
organization, I will take the liberty of saying a few words.  Do not some
of you have to send for doctors to draw your teeth, and lie night after
night with a bag of hot ashes, or hot salt, on your faces, and say, "O
dear, what a tooth ache I have got?"  When your children wake up in the
night, crying on account of a pain in their heads, do not some of you go
to the doctors, to see what they can do for the little sufferers?  Some of
your children are afflicted with humors in the head, and blotches upon the
body, and other ailments; and some of you have pains in various parts of
your bodies.

	The fathers and mothers have laid the foundation for many of these
diseases, from generation to generation, until the people are reduced to
their present condition.  True, some live to from fifty to ninety years of
age, but it is an unusual circumstance to see a man an hundred years old,
or a woman ninety.  The people have laid the foundation of short life
through their diet, their rest, their labor, and their doing this, that,
and the other in a wrong manner, with improper motives, and at improper
times.  I would be glad to instruct the people on these points, if they
would hearken to me. I would be glad to tell mothers how to lay the
foundation of health in their children, that they may be delivered from
the diseases with which I am afflicted, and have been from my youth up.

	Suppose I happen to say "Come, wife, let us have a good dinner
to-day; "what does she get?  Pork and beef boiled, stewed, roasted, and
fried, potatoes, onions, cabbage, and turnips, custard, eggs, pies of all
kinds, cheese, and sweet-meats.  Now grant that I and my wife sit down and
overload our stomachs, until we feel the deleterious effects of it from
the crowns of our heads to the soles of our feet, the whole system is
disturbed in its operations, and is ready to receive and impart disease. 
A child begotten under such a condition of the systems of its parents, is
liable to be born with a tabernacle subject to a life of pain and
distress.

	Will all the women hearken to this plain statement?  No, you might as
well talk to the wild geese that fly over us.

	Again, a little hot tea, coffee, or sling, is generally given to a
babe as soon as it comes into the world, to quiet the nerves, and make it
sleep better; and I have seen my own wives almost whip their little ones
to make them drink liquor.  When I happen to see them, I say, "Stop that,
that is something you may very well dispense with; do not put a drop of
liquor into that child's mouth."

	Some mothers, when bearing children, long for tea and coffee, or for
brandy and other strong drinks, and if they give way to that influence the
next time they will want more, and the next still more, and thus lay the
foundation for drunkenness in their offspring.  An appetite is engendered,
bred, and born in the child, and it is a miracle if it does not grow up a
confirmed drunkard.

	Now will you, my sisters who are before me, hearken to good, sound
common sense and reason?  Will you commence now, and lay the foundation
for a healthy posterity?  Will you say, "I am determined not to desire
this thing, or that, which will be injurious, but I will pray, and ask my
Father in heaven for grace according to my day, that I may not desire that
which will lay the foundation of ruin to my offspring, and to my posterity
for generations?"  Or will you say, "Cannot I have a little tea, or a
little whisky?"

	The satisfying of these desires lays the foundation of sickness,
disease, and short life.  But if any one really desires a particular kind
of food, or drink, and feels as though she could not do without it, let it
be obtained, if possible; though it is far better to have faith to
overcome such desires.

	It is for us to stop the tide of physical degeneracy--to lay the
foundation for a return to the position from which the human family has
fallen.  We have that privilege, by keeping ourselves pure.  If we take
the right course, our children will live longer than we shall, and their
children will surpass their fathers, and have longer life, and so on, till
they obtain to the age of those who lived in the early period of the
world.  The Prophet, speaking of the Saints in the last days, said, "For
as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long
enjoy the work of their hands."  Still, in the present short period of
life some say that "this is a miserable world, I do not care how soon I
get through."  Well go and destroy yourselves, if you choose, you have all
the opportunity that you can desire, there is plenty of arsenic, calomel,
and other means, within your reach.  But I would not give a cent for such
persons; I do not delight in such characters, and I do not believe that
the Lord delights in people who wish to die before they have accomplished
the work that He designed for them to do.  For a person to be willing to
die is but a small part of the duties pertaining to the Gospel of
salvation and the Gift of eternal life.  We ought to prepare ourselves to
live in the flesh, and overcome every sin, to live to the glory of God, to
build up His kingdom, and to bring forth righteousness, salvation, and
deliverance to the house of Israel, until the devil and his associates are
driven from the earth, and he and his clan are bound and thrust down to
hell, and a seal put upon them.  Latter-day Saints who live merely to get
ready to die are not worth much; rather get ready to live, and be prepared
to live to the glory of your Father in heaven, and to do the work He has
given you to do.  That is our duty, and then we shall be ready to receive
our blessings.

	I do not wish to occupy any more time now, but if we had the time, as
we shall have, and a house to hold all who wish to assemble, I am ready to
come here every day, for I have nothing to do but to do good.  At this
time some may say, "My wheat is not all sown."  That does not affect my
feelings.  I will tell you an item of my experience with regard to raising
grain.  The last year we staid in Nauvoo, I planted from ten to twelve
acres of corn, and I never saw one day, from the time it was planted until
it was harvested, in which to spend an hour amongst it.  My teams were
wanted at the Temple, and, said I, "Let the corn go."  If they had the
teams ready to attend to the corn, the word was, "Go to the Temple," and I
do not suppose there was a greater crop of corn raised in all Hancock
County. I said to the brethren who plowed and planted the land, "Paul
plants and Apollos waters, and if God does not give the increase I can do
without it."

	I have given the sisters a few words of advice, and wish the brethren
to pay particular attention to what brother George A. Smith said this
forenoon.  If the "old fogies" take a little tobacco, a little whisky, or
a little tea and coffee, we wish you boys to let it alone, and let those
have it who have long been accustomed to its use.  It is far better for
these my brethren, who are young and healthy, to avoid every injurious
habit.  There are a great many boys here who are in the habit of chewing
tobacco, they should stop it, and take no more, they are better without
it.  Some may turn round and say, "Father, do you think so?"  Yes, let the
old folks have it, but you young, smart gentlemen, let it alone.

	I bless you all, and feel to pray for you, and desire you to pray for
me; and I believe that you do, as fervently as I could ask.

	We have had a good Conference, though it has been a short one to me,
and perhaps we may have a long meeting some of these days, and enjoy
ourselves to the full extent of our understandings and patience.

     DEPENDENCE ON THE LORD--COAL AND IRON WORKS--FAMILY EXCURSIONS.
   An Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, May 27, 1855.

	I am happy in the privilege of meeting with you this afternoon.  You
will recollect that I told you, before I left this place a few week's
since, that I should go and come in safety.  We have had a prosperous and
pleasant journey, have met with the Saints, and their hearts were cheered,
and their feelings made glad with comfort and consolation.  Quite a number
of the brethren proposed going with us, as he passed through the
settlements, for the grasshoppers had taken all their crops, and as they
had no farming to see to, they wished to go with us and take a ride. 
Those who went, returned perfectly satisfied with their excursion.

	I believe all the settlements we have passed through are satisfied
with regard to the Lord's dealing with this people; and I wish to add, to
what has already been said, that it becomes our duty to use all possible
diligence and every proper means to sustain ourselves.  We have yet ample
time for planting and sowing; let us improve it, and use that ability
which God has given us to provide sustenance, and then let the result rest
in His hands, and feel perfectly satisfied.

	This people have to learn that the Lord is God, that He rules among
the armies of heaven, and does His pleasure among the inhabitants of the
earth.  They have to be brought to the test, as much so as were the
children of Israel when the Egyptians were in their rear, when mountains
were on either side, and the Red Sea was before them, with no human
prospect for avoiding destruction, yet the Lord brought them salvation. 
This people have got to trust in Him, and learn that He will be with His
people, and provide for His Saints, and defend them against their enemies,
and watch over them as a mother watches over her tender infant.  We have
got to learn the ways of the Lord.  If it is necessary for the Lord to
rain down manna from heaven, He has the same power to do it, the same
power to feed His people, in the latter days, that He had in former days. 
It is far easier for Him to feed the Saints from heaven, than it is for
them to raise grain in the common way.  Still it is our duty to be active
and diligent in doing everything we can to sustain ourselves, to build up
His kingdom, to defend ourselves against our enemies, to lay our plans
wisely, and to prosecute every method that can be devised to establish the
kingdom of God on the earth, and to sanctify and prepare ourselves to
dwell in His presence.  Yet, after all this, if the Lord should not
help--if He should not lend His aid to our endeavors, all our labors will
prove in vain.  This the great majority of mankind do not understand.  He
has made it obligatory upon them to act, to do their part; yet if He was
to neglect His part, or withold [sic] His assistance, our labors would
prove abortive.  We must learn that it is God who gives the increase, or
rather, it is His mercy over the people, whether Saints or sinners, that
sustains them in life.  All Latter-day Saints have got to learn these
facts, and it matters but little how we learn them.

	If the people are anxious to learn the ways of the Lord, if they wish
to see the hand of God made manifest, if they wish to have the visions and
revelations of Jesus Christ given in profusion, perhaps the Lord is now
using the very means to bring them to that point where they will be
obliged to seek Him for themselves.  They have been besought by day and by
night, and from year to year, to humble themselves before the Lord, to
live their religion, and to walk in the light of eternity.  They have been
plead with to live so that they can know the mind and will of the Lord for
themselves, and for that which they preside over; at the same time, not to
be too anxious for the Lord to give revelation, and make Himself known,
but rather to be very anxious and very tenacious to improve upon what He
has already given--this is our duty.

	Now I may say to the Saints, you need not be discouraged, we have yet
plenty of time to raise good crops.  If it is the Lord's will that we
raise crops to sustain ourselves, it will be all right, and if it is His
will that the devourer eat up the products of our labour, it is all right,
and it will deliver and preserve us from greater evil.  For one, if
weeping would have done any good, I have seen months and months, in this
city, when I could have wept like a whipt child to see the awful stupidity
of the people in not realizing the blessings bestowed upon them in grain;
I could have wept to see this people trample on the mercies of their
benefactor in bestowing the fruits of the earth upon them in such plenty. 
If the Lord is now disposed to learn us a lesson, and make us thereby wise
men and wise women, and prudent in all our ways, all I have to say is,
amen, it is all right.  When chastisements come, let them be what they
may, let us always be willing and ready to kiss the rod, and reverence the
hand that administers it, acknowledging the hand of God in all things.

	As I have already observed, it is our duty to do all we can to
sustain ourselves, trusting in God to give the increase, and then be
satisfied.  So far as I am concerned, I intend to plant and sow, not only
in the month of May, but in the month of June, and in the month of July,
and I will continue my labors to raise what is necessary to sustain life,
as long as the season lasts; and if I raise nothing, I shall be just as
well satisfied as though I raised an abundance, at least I ought to be. 
If the people will take this course, it will reconcile them to the
providences of the Almighty.

	I am happy and thankful to be able to say, as far as I have received
information in the midst of this people called Latter-day Saints, that
there is certainly an improvement in their understanding, and an
advancement in their knowledge of the things of God.  A good spirit
prevails, and contentment, peace, and joy seem to pervade the bosoms of
those who walk humbly before God.  Yet, whenever we go to meet with the
Saints, we can say, as it was said in olden times, Satan is there also. 
We find the works and power of the enemy, we find that in the midst of the
kingdom of God, or, in other words, in the net that was cast forth to
gather the people, there are good and bad.  So it will be, until the time
comes to gather the good and throw away the bad, which is not now.  But in
regard to those who desire to be Saints, and who try to be Saints, I can
say there is an increase in their knowledge, in their faith, and in their
understanding.  And now I wish more particularly to see an increase of
resignation to the will of God, of doing every thing that is possible to
build up this kingdom, and of submitting themselves and all their affairs
into His hand; and I wish to see this done cheerfully, and a patient
waiting for the result of His providences.

	There are two subjects which I now wish to speak upon.  The coal beds
which we visited in San Pete, I think can be made available for fuel, even
in this place, at perhaps half or two thirds of the expense of our present
method of procuring fuel, for our home fires, for the public works, smith
shops, &c.  I will say to the brethren here, that I expect the brethren in
San Pete will soon send the terms upon which they will deliver coal in
this city, and when they do so I shall wish to know whether any person in
this city will encourage the business.  If we turn our attention to coal
for fuel, we can easily store away a winter's stock in our cellars, and
turn the key upon it, and this will actually make some men practically
honest, whereas, if your wood pile is out of doors, they may continue to
be dishonest.  I speak now of the practice of dishonest people, not of
their intent.  If we can get men to practise honesty, virtue, and
holiness, I am fully of the faith that they will become righteous in their
intentions,--that the time will come when the Lord will bless them, and
make them in reality righteous men and women.

	Shall we encourage the coal trade or not?  Shall we encourage the
opening of a mine, and have coal brought to this market?  It would no
doubt be disagreeable at first to the Americans, or to the majority of
them, but people who have lived from their youth by a coal fire admire it. 
Its use is accompanied with some dust, but I will offsett [sic] that
inconvenience with one to which we are subject when burning wood; then our
houses are often infested with spiders, bugs, ants, and other insects,
which has always been a great annoyance to me.  I have often almost
dreaded to bring an armful of wood into the house lest such insects should
drop from it.  True, these are small items, but I will tell you one thing
with regard to life, it is the small inconveniences which are interwoven
with our existence that mar the peace of mankind, more than the greater
afflictions, disappointments, and perplexities men meet with as they pass
along in this probation.  But enough on this topic for the present.

	We have visited the Iron works in Cedar city, Iron county, and as far
as I am capable of judging, I will say, that the brethren have done as
well as men could possibly do, considering their impoverished
circumstances, and the inconveniences they have had to labor under.  They
have probably progressed better than any other people would upon the face
of the earth.  They are without sufficient capital to rapidly accomplish
so great a work, and many are without suitable clothing, and almost
destitute of bedding, and other things necessary to supply the common
comforts of life for themselves and families.  Although they have been
thus destitute, yet in the midst of all that, they have progressed almost
equal to men of capital in the older states.

	I am not familiarly acquainted with the fluxing or separating the
metal from the ore, but those who understand building furnaces and their
operations, are aware that it is very injurious for a large and expensive
furnace to blow out, as they call it, hence policy requires the blast to
be continued as long as possible.  I have learned, of late, from men of
experience in these matters, why it is desirable to continue the heat--it
is because no furnace can be heated up for two or three weeks, and then
blow out, or stop, without risk of spoiling the furnace, or destroying its
lining; and it frequently so injures the furnace, that it has to be
rebuilt, or at least a portion of it.  Hence, when it costs from one to
five thousand dollars to prepare a furnace to bear a long blast, it is a
great loss to any company to have it blow out in a short time.

	Our brethren who have been operating in Iron county, have a very fine
furnace, but they are so weak handed as not to be able to continue the
blast over fourteen days, and I have learned that they want help.  This is
the main object of my speaking upon this subject, and my mind inclines in
favour of their having it, and I want to see whether the brethren will
turn out with their teams and help them.  The Church has done much for
them, and we are still intending to aid.  Our last winter's operations
have helped them; the Territory took two shares, and the Trustee in Trust,
two; still they are not able to carry on the business profitably.  Iron we
need, and iron we must have.  We cannot well do without it, and have it we
must, if we have to send to England for it.  We have an abundance of the
best quality of iron ore.  A trial furnace was made, and kept hot for
sixteen days, and produced as good pig metal as can be found in the world;
this they puddled, and brought forth excellent iron.  I believe the
castings made from the pigs will be superior to any in the world.  I
repeat that iron we must have, and we are right on the threshhold [sic] of
obtaining it; we have our feet on the step, and our hand holds the latch
of the door that leads to the possession of this invaluable material.

	From the time I first went to Iron county until now, I had thought
that perhaps the brethren were dilatory--my feelings were tried; I would
not say, however, that I had suspicions pertaining to the doings of the
Iron Company there; but let that be as it may, it is all right with me
now, the iron we must have.  From the time I went to San Pete, and saw
that beautiful coal bed, averaging eight feet thick, with its stony strata
of nine, five, and three inches, which probably will give out, and learned
that iron ore was close by the coal bed, I took into consideration the
distance from Cedar City to this place, and the distance from here to San
Pete.  When I had weighed all the circumstances, my mind balanced in favor
of the works at Cedar City for the present; and if I can get brethren to
join me, I will send one or two teams myself, with teamsters.  We want
fifteen good teams, with men with them who are willing to take hold and
quarry out the ore and the coal, and get wood, and lime, or anything else
that is wanted.  Twenty or twenty-five men, besides these teamsters, are
wanted, and we wish to send them now, in the fore part of the season.  If
we will do this, and we can if we have a mind to, I suppose that in two or
three weeks after they arrive there, the blast furnace can be kept running
for several months, or until they are obliged to stop in consequence of
the deficiency of water.  There is a large stream of water there, but it
is a singular stream, sometimes it will sweep across the flat, carrying
down rocks that would weigh perhaps twenty or thirty tons, and appear as
though it would sweep everything before it; and when the cold weather
comes, and you would naturally think that you were going to have water to
turn a mill wheel, or to create the blast for the furnace, and every use
for which it might be needed, in one freezing night it will perfectly
close up, insomuch that there will not be enough to water a horse.

	That is a singular feature, but it is the way it operates.  The
brethren are now making an engine, so that they can continue their blast
through the winter.  If any are disposed to forward this work, I call upon
them to lend their aid, to send the men and teams, and we can have the
iron.

	The distance from here to the iron works is about 290 miles.  This
should not deter us from bringing iron from there, though it could be
quicker come at if iron works were established at San Pete, which is not
much over 100 miles from here.  I have this to say, if any of the brethren
feel disposed (as the grasshoppers have taken their crops, and they have
not much to do) to go there, I think it would be a good course to pursue. 
There is plenty of grain there; I could have bought wheat, I do not know
but thousands of bushels, at a dollar per bushel; but as sure as you send
men there, it will be raised to three dollars; that is incorrect policy,
and, as Jesus said, the children of this world are wiser than the children
of light.

	I have asked this people not to sell their grain, but to preserve it
to a day of need, but sell it they would.  I have then said, "Will you
sell it for a dollar and a quarter per bushel, and let that be the
standing price?"  "No, we will have two dollars per bushel for it."  I
then said, "Well, brethren, will you keep it at two dollars, and not sell
it to Gentiles cheaper than that?"  "No, I will not, but I will have no
more than a dollar and a quarter of a Gentile."  This is a great mistake
in the dealings of the people only with another.

	I will bring my remarks to a close on this subject.  I have had a
very pleasant ride through the southern settlements, and in a much shorter
time than usual; this was due to the good weather, and the improvements in
the roads.  We had very pleasant weather, and a very good time.  We
started from Parowan, which is two hundred and fifty-one miles from here,
on the morning of the 22nd, travelled thirty-seven miles and turned out
our animals.  They, however, would not graze, but went to playing, and the
brethren said, "Let us drive further next day."  We drove fifty miles next
day, and on the day following sixty; yesterday I took supper in
Springville, and took breakfast to-day in Great Salt Lake City, distance
sixty miles from Springville.  We camped out as much as possible, which
was good for our health.

	If the people should conclude to take short excursions with their
families, except the smallest children, it would be much to their comfort,
and would cheer them up, and I really have some idea of adopting the plan. 
Though you know what they say about me in the east; should I take my
ninety wives and their children, with carriages and wagons enough to
convey them, it would make such a vacuum here, and so many others would
wish to go, that there would be no Salt Lake City.  I think I will take a
few of them, but I dare not take the whole, for if I did they would then
know how many wives I have got, and that would not do.

	I have visited the different settlements many times, and have invited
everybody to go.  I now give a standing invitation again; I wish everybody
to go that can go without interfering with their business at home.  I
invite everybody.  I am soon going north to explore in the mountains, and
I invite you to go.  Take your wives, but not your babies, unless you take
a cradle along to keep them quiet.

	The out-door air is what the people need for health, it is good for
them to camp out.  Close houses are injurious to the health; if our houses
were every one of them levelled to the ground, and we were obliged to live
in our wagons and tents, the people would be healthier, from year to year,
than they are now.  Good houses are comfortable and very convenient, and
please our feelings, and are tolerably healthful when properly ventilated. 
Let us do as Brother Kimball recommends, that is, if we cannot raise
grain, raise houses, and build the best houses we can think of.  If you
are going to do a good deed, do as good a one as you can think of.  If you
wish to build a house, build as good a one as you can imagine.  Some men
have not faith to do this.  As to means, they have it in their own arm, in
their bones and sinews.  A great many think and say that they cannot do
it: you know cannot never did accomplish much in this world.  I never
require five dollars to begin to build a house worth five thousand.  I do
not know that I ever had that much to begin to build with, and I have
built a great many houses, both for myself and for others.  I have never
built two houses alike, and I do not expect to in time or eternity, but I
mean to improve every time I begin.  Build the best houses you can
imagine; and above all things else let this people be faithful to their
God and their religion, keep their vows and covenants, and walk humbly
before Him, that we may receive the blessings we anticipate, which may God
grant, for Christ's sake.  Amen.

                              CONSECRATION.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, June 3, 1855.

	The blessings bestowed upon the Saints are in many instances
considered sacrifices, and for this reason I have concluded to say a few
words upon the law of consecration, surplus property, and tithing.

	The law of consecration was revealed previous to the brethren's going
to Jackson County, or about the time they went; after they left Jackson
County and went to Caldwell, inasmuch as the people did not understand why
they should be called upon to consecrate; for if a man possessed more than
he needed, the Lord was welcome to it anyhow, but if a man did not possess
more than he really thought he needed, they concluded there should be no
such law as the law of consecration, or the law of tithing; and in
consequence of many questions being asked upon the subject, a revelation
was given after the Prophet had cried unto the Lord, saying, O Lord, show
unto thy servants how much oF the property of thy people thou dost require
for tithing.

	This revelation was given in February, 1831, and I will read a part
of it, commencing at the 8th paragraph--"If thou lovest me, thou shalt
serve me and keep all my commandments.  And behold, thou wilt remember the
poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou
hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be
broken; and inasmuch as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will
do it unto me, and they shall be laid before the Bishop of my Church and
his Counsellors, two of the Elders, or High Priests, such as he shall or
has appointed and set apart for that purpose.  9. And it shall come to
pass that after they are laid before the Bishop of my Church, and after
that he has received these testimonies concerning the consecration of the
properties of my Church, that they cannot be taken from the Church,
agreeably to my commandments; every man shall be made accountable unto me,
a steward over his own property, or that which he has received by
consecration, inasmuch as is sufficient for himself and family."

	It is hardly worth while for me to say anything about the disposition
of the people; still, when a person can realize that men do not know
themselves, we consider it proper to tell them who they are, what they
are, and how they feel.  It would not be worth while for me or for any
other person to talk about their dispositions, the nature of their
intentions, their attachments to the world, their sympathies, passions, or
anything of the kind, were it not that people are often blinded in their
minds, and do not know themselves: hence it is proper enough to make a few
remarks about themselves.

	I will read another revelation given in April, 1832--" Verily thus
saith the Lord, in addition to the laws of the Church concerning women and
children, those who belong to the Church, who have lost their husbands or
fathers.  Women have claim on their husbands for their maintenance until
their husbands are taken, and if they are not found transgressors they
shall have fellowship in the Church; and if they are not faithful, they
shall not have fellowship in the Church; yet they may remain upon their
inheritances according to the laws of the land."

	Paragraph 2.  "All children have claim upon their parents for their
maintenance until they are of age; and after that they have claim upon the
Church; or in other words, upon the Lord's storehouse, if their parents
have not wherewith to give them inheritances.  And the storehouse shall be
kept by the consecrations of the Church, and widows and orphans shall be
provided for, as also the poor. Amen."

	There is another revelation still prior to this time, stating that it
is the duty of all people who go to Zion to consecrate all their property
to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This revelation was
referred to at the April Conference in 1854.  It was one of the first
commandments or revelations given to this people after they had the
privilege of organizing themselves as a Church, as a body, as the kingdom
of God on the earth.  I observed then, and I now think, that it will be
one of the last revelations which the people will receive into their
hearts and understandings, of their own free will and choice, and esteem
it as a pleasure, a privilege, and a blessing unto them to observe and
keep most holy.

	It is time the privilege of consecrating their property was given to
the people, it is the will of the Lord they should enjoy this blessing and
privilege, those who choose to hand over their property; to whom?  To Him
who has given them everything they possess: He owns all they possess, and
they have no property, more or less, only that which actually belongs to
the Lord, and He deals it out and bestows it where it seemeth Him good.

	It is not for me to rise up and say that I can give to the Lord, for
in reality I have nothing to give.  I seem to have something, why? 
Because the Lord has seen fit to bring me forth, and has blessed my
efforts in gathering things which are desirable, and which are termed
property.  He has instituted a plan and order, has organized this planet,
and peopled it by His wisdom and power.  He has given me my being upon
this earth which is His, for "the earth is the Lord's," and all that
pertaineth to it, all the elements, no matter how they are organized, no
matter what element it is, it is the element the Lord has brought together
to compose the earth.  Was it His in the beginning?  It was.  Did He cause
the atoms of elements to come together to organize the earth?  He did.  He
did bring forth the earth, and formed and organized it as it was in the
beginning, and made it perfect, pure, and holy.

	To whom do these elements belong now?  To the same Being who owned
them in the beginning.  The earth is still His, and its fulness, and that
includes each one of us, and also includes all that we seem to possess. 
It includes all the elements, in whatever shape, form, or condition, and
wherever they are situated, whether in the native state, or in a state of
organization for the comfort and benefit of man.

	The ability which we have to bring them together we have received of
the Lord, by His free gift, and He has made us capable of performing many
things for His glory, for His wisdom, and for the exaltation of those
creatures He has brought forth and made.  Has He not endowed mankind with
intelligence?  He has created them but a little lower than the angels. 
They have received wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and are organized
to receive power, glory, and honor.  If they are industrious, prudent, and
filled with understanding to know from where these favors emanate, of
course they will attribute all the power and goodness to the honor and
glory of the Being who bestowed them.

	As I have already observed, the people are ignorant; they do not know
themselves, do not understand their own organization, or from whence they
are; if they did, there would be no necessity of talking to the people
upon these points.  We are here on the earth, we live, and find ourselves
endowed with wonderful powers, and it seems as though we, as individuals,
were perfectly independent of every creature or being throughout the
immensity of space.  We cannot see our superiors, and we do not fully
realize from whence we have received anything we now have in our
possession.  This is in consequence of our shortsightedness, of our want
of understanding, and of our lack of the knowledge of eternal beings. 
Herein is where mankind fail, lacking that which we might have in our
possession, viz.--the light of the revelations of Jesus Christ, the light
of the Holy Spirit, the light of heaven.  This is the privilege of the
Latter-day Saints, but they do not enjoy it as much as they might;
consequently it is right to talk about these matters, and to instruct the
people.

	If we could perceive and fully understand that all the ability and
knowledge we have, every good we possess, every bright idea, every pure
affection, and every good vision of mind from our infancy to the present
time, are all the free gift of the Lord, and that we of ourselves have
nothing original, we should be much better prepared and far more ready to
act faithfully and wisely under all circumstances. Every good thing is in
His hands, is subject to His power, belongs to Him, and is only handed
over to us, for the time being, to see what use we will make of it.

	If we will improve, be faithful and diligent in all the blessings
bestowed upon us, we then have the principle of increase, and this is the
great blessing given to man, and was the promise which Abraham received at
the hands of the Lord.  Abraham was fearful he would not increase and
multiply his posterity on the earth, though he might increase in power,
wisdom, and knowledge himself; and reflected, "I have no children, or even
prospect of them, to rise up and bless me, or to honor and revere my name
in coming generations."  The Lord, however, gave him this promise, "You
have been faithful, and gained wisdom and knowledge in every blessing I
have bestowed upon you; and now I will give you a promise that you shall
yet have a posterity, and it shall multiply upon the face of the earth,
and finally, the end of the number thereof no man can tell, for your seed
shall be as numerous as the sands upon the sea shore, or the stars in the
firmament, and to their increase there shall be no end."  The same
blessing was promised to the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was the privilege of
Abraham to receive knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, but this did not
satisfy him, he wanted to see his children multiply.  When Abraham has
passed a certain ordeal and proved himself faithful, he will receive
honor, power, glory, and exaltation, which he is made as capable of
attaining in the future as those were who acted previous to his day.  Were
not this the case, the intelligence, the power of the mind, the spirit
that is placed in the body, and all that pertain to life in this stage of
action, or prior to our coming into the world, are not made honorable; and
if they are not honored by the creature, by the principle that is placed
in him, that organization is liable to decompose.  Can you understand
this?  For instance, let a man or woman who has received much of the power
of God, visions and revelations, turn away from the holy commandments of
the Lord, and it seems that their senses are taken from them, their
understanding and judgment in righteousness are taken away, they go into
darkness, and become like a blind person who gropes by the wall.  Many of
you witness this almost daily.  Such will continue to go on the retrograde
path until they are decomposed; while those who are faithful will continue
to increase, and this is the great blessing the Lord has given to, or
placed within the reach of, the children of man, even to be capable of
receiving eternal lives.

	To have such a promise so sealed upon our heads, which no power on
earth, in heaven, or beneath the earth can take from us, to be sealed up
to the day of redemption and have the promise of eternal lives, is the
greatest gift of all.  The people do not fully understand these things and
have them not in full vision before their minds, if they did I will tell
you, plainly and in honesty, that there is not a trial which the Saints
are called to pass through that they would not realize and acknowledge to
be their greatest blessing.

	I will give you my reasons for this; if Adam had not sinned, and if
his posterity had continued upon the earth, they could not have known sin,
or the bitter from the sweet, neither would they have known righteousness,
for the plain and simple reason that every effect can only be fully
manifested by its opposite.  If the Saints could realize things as they
are when they are called to pass though trials, and suffer what they call
sacrifices, they would acknowledge them to be the greatest blessings that
could be bestowed upon them.  But put them in possession of true
principles and true enjoyments, without the opposite, and they could not
know enjoyment, they could not realize happiness. They could not tell
light from darkness, because they have no knowledge of darkness and
consequently are destitute of a realizing sense of light.  If they should
not taste the bitter, how could they realize the sweet?  They could not. 
They would be like a machine, and could not approximate to the standard of
the present enjoyment of the brute, and probably not even to that of the
vegetable kingdom.  To know the bitter they must taste it; they must be
made acquainted with the evil there is in existence, or they cannot
realize the good.  If the people could see and understand things as they
are, instead of saying, "I have sacrificed a great deal for this kingdom,"
they would understand that they had made no sacrifices at all.  They have
received the blessing of the knowledge of God, to know and understand
things as they are, that they may contrast between the evil and the good,
between the light and the darkness, between that which is of God, and that
which is not of God, between that which is calculated to exalt and glorify
the people, and that which is calculated to carry them down to
destruction, and waste them away until they would be no more.

	It is a curious idea, but one in favor of which there is much
testimony, that when people take the downward road, one that is calculated
to destroy them, they will actually in every sense of the word be
destroyed.  Will they be what is termed annihilated?  No, there is no such
thing as annihilation, for you cannot destroy the elements of which things
are made.  But Jesus will take the kingdom, and reign until he has
destroyed death, and him that hath the power of death, which is the devil. 
The people think that many of the revelations of the Lord are hard, and
say, "The Lord has given this revelation to try me, to try the strength of
my faith."  It is the Lord's design that His people should have an
experience; hence I will not dispute for one moment but what it was the
will of the Lord that we should be made acquainted with darkness, and
subjected to vanity.

	In my fullest belief, it was the design of the Lord that Adam should
partake of the forbidden fruit, and I believe that Adam knew all about it
before he came to this earth.  I believe there was no other way leading to
thrones and dominions only for him to transgress, or take that position
which transgression alone could place man in, so descend below all things,
that they might ascend to thrones, principalities, and powers; for they
could not ascend to that eminence without first descending, nor upon any
other principle.

	I do not dispute but what you and I, naturally, should love the
world; this I verily believe.  I believe the Lord has designed, from ages
immemorial, that we should be in darkness and ignorance, and at the same
time I believe it is His will that we should receive light and
intelligence in order that we may understand true principle, and the true
position which the Saints should take to contrast continually between the
evil and the good.  I believe all this, just as much as I believe anything
else pertaining to mankind.  It is then the design of the Lord that
mankind should be placed in this dark, ignorant, and selfish state, that
we should naturally cling to the earth; for, as it was said here last
Sabbath, the earth is very good in and of itself, and has abided a
celestial law, consequently we should not despise it, nor desire to leave
it, but rather desire and strive to obey the same law that the earth
abides, and abide it as honorably as does the earth.

	If we do abide this law thus faithfully, we are sure to get our
resurrection and exaltation, for then we can see and understand things as
they are.  Then instead of concluding that the Lord has drawn us into
difficulties, and compelled us to do that which is unpleasant to our
feelings, and to suffer sacrifice upon sacrifice to no purpose, we shall
understand that He has designed all this to prepare us to dwell in His
presence, to possess His Spirit, which is right and intelligent, for
nothing but purity and holiness can dwell where He is.  He has so ordained
it, that by the natural mind we cannot see and understand the things of
God, therefore we must then seek unto the Lord, and get His Spirit and the
light thereof, to understand His will.  And when He is calling us to pass
through that which we call afflictions, trials, temptations, and
difficulties, did we possess the light of the Spirit, we would consider
this the greatest blessing that could be bestowed upon us.

	When the Lord gave the revelation instructing us in our duty as to
consecrating what we have, if the people then could have understood things
precisely as they are, and had obeyed that revelation, it would have been
neither more nor less than yielding up that which is not their own, to Him
to whom it belongs.  And so it is now.  But what vain and foolish
principles and ideas have crept into the world, and have occupied the
minds of the people!  They are far from the true principles of salvation
and godliness; and the world has sunk so far in wickedness, wretchedness,
misunderstanding, and every kind of ignorance, and every species of
wickedness which can be devised and introduced by the devil and the people
combined, that even some of the Saints are almost persuaded to think that
the Lord has called upon them to consecrate, to give up something which
they consider their own, but in reality is not, to somebody that never did
own it.  Some of the people feel thus, and it is in consequence of the
wickedness that is on the earth.  The Lord has not called for one
farthing's worth which is not His own.  The people could not own it, and
if they did, have they power to preserve it?  No.  Can they preserve their
buildings from the raging elements of fire?  No.  Have they power over
their grain to keep it from mould, to preserve it from blight, and from
the ravages from insects?  No.  Have they power to preserve their animals
in life?  No.  Can they do these things independent of the power of the
Lord Almighty?  No.  It is a vain and foolish thought for men to think
they own anything of themselves, for they do not.  It is here in our
possession, but how came it so?  They do not know.  Life is here, but do
they know the power that gave it, or the mode of its coming?  Vegetation
and animals, in great variety, teem upon the face of the earth, but are
mankind familiar with the secret springs of their growth and existence? 
Men ought, in the first place, to find out how these things came, and who
produced them.  They will acknowledge at once that there never was a house
which was not built, and understand the principles of human art, but do
not fully understand the operations of nature, though they proceed upon
simple and natural principles.

	Hence they see the mountains and do not know how they are made, the
grass, but do not know upon what principle it grows; the cattle come and
go, but they do not know their first origin.  Mankind spread abroad upon
the earth, but do not know how they came here, and are not familiarwith
the workings of the power that sustains them.  This the people ought to
find out in the first place, and then they will know that the earth is the
Lord's, and the fulness thereof, and that there is an eternity of matter
yet to be organized.  When the Saints find out the truth as it is, they
will learn that they have nothing to consecrate in reality, that they have
nothing to give to the Lord, because they hold nothing but what already
belongs to Him.  We seem to possess much, and if we are faithful and
endure to the end will be crowned, and then the Lord will say, "It is
enough, you have proved yourselves faithful."  Comparatively speaking, He
will talk with them as a father does with his children.  To one son he
says, "Go and improve that farm, though I do not deed it to you;" to
another he says, "Take that farm;" and to a third, "Take this;" and all
upon the same conditions, "and I will see what you will do with these my
farms."  They think the farms are already theirs, but they are mistaken,
for the father did not deed the farms to them.  The eldest son fences,
plows, and improves it, builds a house and a good barn upon it, plants an
orchard, raises cattle, and makes the possession much more valuable than
when the father but it into his hands.  "Now, John," says the father, "you
have proved yourself a wise and faithful steward, I will now give you a
deed of this property which I have owned so long, that it may be your
property."  He says to William, "How is it with your farm?"  "Well,
father, it is much the same as when you gave it to me to improve; I have
not done much; I raised a little wheat and corn."  "Where is your house,
William,?"  "O I was not sure that the land was mine, and I did not build
one."  "Why did you not build a barn?"  "Well, I did not know that I was
going to possess it, so I did not put myself to that trouble; as for an
orchard, I was not going to set one out for you to give to some other of
the boys."  "You are an unfaithful steward, and you can go now and get you
a farm, and I will take this that you might have improved, and possessed
for an everlasting inheritance, and give it to John, for he has been
faithful."  The parable delivered by Jesus Christ is a fit illustration of
this principle, wherein he likens the kingdom of heaven to a man
travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered
unto them his goods; "and unto one he gave five talents, to another two,
and to another one," &c.  The one who received the one talent hid it up;
he was unfaithful and unprofitable, and so his master took away from him
the one talent, and gave to him that had ten.  So it is with the Lord in
all things.  If men are faithful, the time will come when they will
possess the power and the knowledge to obtain, organize, bring into
existence, and own.  "What, of themselves, independent of their Creator?" 
No.  But they and their Creator will always be one, they will always be of
one heart and of one mind, working and operating together; for whatsoever
the Father doeth so doeth the son, and so they continue throughout all
their operations to all eternity.  John will be counted worthy to receive
his inheritance, but William will be disinherited and that which he seemed
to have will be taken from him, and given to the faithful steward.  What
have we that is really our own to consecrate?  Nothing at all.  What is
our duty?  It is our duty to improve upon every blessing the Lord gives to
us.  If He gives us land, improve it; if He gives us the privilege of
building houses, improve it; if He gives us wives and children, try and
teach them the ways of the Lord, and exalt hem above the dark, degraded,
and sunken state of mankind, &c. if He gives us the privilege of gathering
together, let us sanctify ourselves.  In His providence He has called the
Latter-day Saints from the world, has gathered them from other nations and
given them a place upon the earth.  Is this a blessing?  Yes, one of the
greatest the people can enjoy, to be free from the wickedness of the
wicked, from the calamities and clamor of the world.  By this blessing we
can show to our Father in Heaven that we are faithful stewards; and more,
it is a blessing to have the privilege of handing back to Him that which
He has put in our possession, and not say it is ours, until He shall say
it from the heavens.  Then it is plain that what I seem to have I do not
in reality own, and I will hand it back to the Lord when He calls for it;
it belongs to Him, and it is His all the time.  I do not own it, I never
did.  He has called upon the people to consecrate their property, to see
whether they could understand so simple a thing as this.  When they bow
down to worship the Lord, they acknowledge that the earth is His, and the
cattle upon a thousand hills; and tell the Lord there is no sacrifice they
are not willing to make for the sake of the religion of Jesus Christ.  The
people were crying this continually among the churches when the Book of
Mormon came forth, and the Lord spoke through Joseph, revealing the law of
consecration, to see whether they were willing to do as they said in their
prayers.  In their weekly meetings they have told how the Lord has blessed
them and forgiven their sins, what glorious visions they have had, and
have declared that the Lord was present, and that they had angels to visit
them, and they felt so good that they would give all for Christ.  Said the
Lord to Joseph, "See if they will give their farms to me."  What was the
result?  They would not do it, though it was one of the plainest things in
the world.  No revelation that was ever given is more easy of
comprehension than that on the law of consecration, which the Christians
had acknowledged all their days, and we are all Christians by birth, and
all believed that we owned nothing, but that all belonged to the Giver of
all good.  We believe in God the Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, the
Savior of the world, and we believe that he was actually going to possess
the earth, and reign with his people on the earth; that all is his, and
for ever will be.  Yet, when the Lord spoke to Joseph, instructing him to
counsel the people to consecrate their possessions, and deed them over to
the Church in a covenant that cannot be broken, would the people listen to
it?  No, but they began to find out that they were mistaken, and had only
acknowledged with their mouths that the things which they possessed were
the Lord's.  When the Latter-day Saints arise to speak, or bear testimony
in their meetings, they tell us about the Lord's owning the earth, and
being the maker of it, and I have thought, sometimes, that we could pick
up a class that would acknowledge this principle, both out of doors and
in.  Not like a man who spoke to me last summer, as I was riding in my
carriage; he shook hands with me, and kept a firm hold of the carriage
with his other hand, and said, "Brother Brigham, how do you do?  I am
going to consecrate all my property, could you not buy me a farm?"  I got
my hand out of his, and the other off from the wheel, and he went reeling
with drunkenness, and I told him I did not want anything to do with such
men.

	Another says, "Brother Brigham, I want to consecrate all I have, but
you must build me a house for it, or get me my wood."  This class will
acknowledge that all is the Lord's, both out door and in.  I wish to see
the people acknowledge the principle of consecration in their works, as
well as in their prayers.  Do I, as an individual, want to see the people
deed all they have to the Church?  It does not concern me individually; I
would not give the ashes of a rye straw for a personal deed of all the
Latter-day Saints possess.  Yet they are trying to acknowledge that all is
the Lord's, and will say, "Let brother Brigham come and get what he wants,
but I do not believe in giving up this property, it is mine, and I may
want to trade this, that, or the other article."  I do not want one red
cent from you, but the Lord would be glad to see the people practise out
of doors what they hypocritically profess before Him in doors.  They say
they are the Lord's, and when their children are taken sick, or their
wives, fathers, mothers, or husbands are taken sick, O, how humble they
then are, and they will send for the Elders to pray for them, and
acknowledge that all is the Lord's, and say, " We give ourselves and all
we have to thee."  The Lord makes them well by His power, through the
ordinances of His house, but will they consecrate?  No. They say, "It is
mine, and I will have it myself.  There is the treasure, and the heart is
with it, and what will be the end thereof?  That which they seem to have
will be given to those who are faithful, and they will receive nothing at
all.  They will not get an inheritance upon the earth, and cannot be
crowned as king and rulers in the kingdom of God; but if they are saved at
all it will be as servants, to do the drudgery of these who are faithful,
and who live the religion out doors which they say they have in their
hearts.  If the people knew themselves, if they understood their own
feelings and reasonings, and the spirits that operate upon them, and of
what spirit they are, there would be no need of thus talking to them.

	When the revelation which I have read was given in 1838, I was
present, and recollect the feelings of the brethren.  A number of
revelations were given on the same day.  The brethren wished me to go
among the Churches and find out what surplus property the people had, with
which to forward the building of the Temple we were commencing at Far
West.  I accordingly went from place to place through the country.  Before
I started, I asked brother Joseph, "Who shall be the judge of what is
surplus property?"  Said he, "Let them be the judge themselves, for I care
not if they do not give a single dime.  So far as I am concerned, I do not
want anything they have."

	Then I replied, "I will go and ask them for their surplus property;"
and I did so; I found the people said they were willing to do about as
they were counselled, but, upon asking them about their surplus property,
most of the men who owned land and cattle would say, "I have got so many
hundred acres of land, and I have got so many boys, and I want each one of
them to have eighty acres, therefore this is not surplus property." 
Again, "I have got so many girls, and I do not believe I shall be able to
give them more than forty acres each."  "Well, you have got two or three
hundred acres left."  "Yes, but I have a brother-in-law coming on, and he
will depend on me for a living; my wife's nephew is also coming on, he is
poor, and I shall have to furnish him a farm after he arrives here."  I
would go on to the next one, and he would have more land and cattle than
he could make use of to advantage.  It is a laughable idea but is
nevertheless true, men would tell me they were young and beginning the
world, and would say, "We have no children, but our prospects are good,
and we think we shall have a family of children, and if we do, we want to
give them eighty acres of land each; we have no surplus property."  "How
many cattle have you?"  "So many."  "How many horses, &c?"  "So many, but
I have made provisions for all these, and I have use for every thing I
have got."

	Some were disposed to do right with their surplus property, and once
in a while you would find a man who had a cow which he considered surplus,
but generally she was of the class that would kick a person's hat off, or
eyes out, or the wolves had eaten off her teats.  You would once in a
while find a man who had a horse that he considered surplus, but at the
same time he had the ringbone, was broken-winded, spavined in both legs,
had the pole evil at one end of the neck and a fistula at the other, and
both knees sprung.

	This is the description of surplus property that some would offer to
the Lord.  Such have been the feelings of a great many men.  They would
come to me and say, "Brother Brigham, I want to pay my tithing; please
come outside here, I wish to show you a horse I have got.  I want to raise
fifty dollars on this horse, and the balance I am willing to turn in on
tithing.  If you will pay me twenty dollars in money, ten in store pay,
and so much on another man's tithing, and so much on my own, you shall
have the horse for eighty dollars;" when I could get as good a one for
forty.  I make no such trades.  Some of our brethren would actually take a
horse worth no more than forty dollars, pay fifty, and give credit on
tithing for thirty.

	I mention these things to illustrate the feelings of many of the
people, for they do not understand the spirit they are of.  When a man
wishes to give anything, let him give the best he has got.  The Lord has
given to me all I possess; I have nothing in reality, not a single dime of
it is mine.  You may ask, "Do you feel as you say?"  Yes, I actually do. 
The coat I have on my back is not mine, and never was; the Lord put it in
my possession honorably, and I wear it; but if He wishes for it, and all
there is under it, He is welcome to the whole.  I do not own a house, or a
single foot of land, a horse, mule, carriage, or wagon, nor wife, nor
child, but what the Lord gave me, and if He wants them, He can take them
at His pleasure, whether He speaks for them, or takes them without
speaking.  Should this be the feeling to animate every bosom?  It should. 
What have you to consecrate that is actually your own?  Nothing.  The time
will come when the people will look back on their first experience, and
they will realise that that which they now consider hardship was their
greatest blessing.  They are called to leave their homes, their parents,
their families, and their native country.  They are called away by the
providence of God to what they now consider to be sorrow; but it is not
so, it is only an experience put into the possession of the Saints, that
they may know the blessings of eternity.  There is no being in eternity
about whom we have ever read or heard, but what has suffered in like
manner as we have, for it was by suffering they had to gain their
exaltation, as you and I will have to do.

	When was there a beginning?  There never was one; if there was, there
will be an end; but there never was a beginning, and hence there will
never be an end; that looks like eternity.  When we talk about the
beginning of eternity, it is rather simple conversation, and goes far
beyond the capacity of man.  All beings will go into a future state, and
what do you suppose those think who are there now?  Do you suppose that
Joseph the Prophet thinks he has sacrificed anything on this earth?  No. 
But the Lord led him in a way that he might understand glory, exaltation,
and power--that he might comprehend the blessings the Lord gave to him. 
Suppose you had a diamond of the finest water, as large as my fist, and
worth millions of pounds sterling, and you gave it to one who did not know
its value, he would put it in the mud, as quick as he would a potatoe; and
a very ignorant person would know no difference between a piece of gold
and a piece of bright copper.  He has to learn the distinction by those
principles of knowledge which the Lord places in the hearts of the human
family to enable them to contrast the one with the other, and to know
everything by its opposite.  Take a little girl who has no more knowledge
than to think that piece of white paper is just as good to make a frock of
as a piece of good lawn, and she has to wait until she grows up to that
knowledge.  All the Prophets have had to learn in a similar manner; Joseph
learned in that way, and so must we.

	How long have we got to live before we find out that we have nothing
to consecrate to the Lord--that all belongs to the Father in heaven; that
these mountains are His; the valleys, the timber, the water, the soil; in
fine, the earth and its fulness?

	You now see one of His armies passing through here, sweeping
everything before them.  Has He nothing to do with these grasshoppers that
are destroying our crops?  Yes, as He has with everything else on the
earth.  Has He anything to do with the locusts in Egypt?  Yes; but they
are not satisfied with eating the vegetation, but will eat a man's shoes
off from his feet, and the beard from his face, for when a man lies down
to sleep, he is in danger of losing his mustachios.  These are some of the
armies of the Lord; He made them and He made man, the one as well as the
other.  He made man but a little lower than the angels, and next to man
the brute creation, and filled the earth with all varieties of seeds and
insects; He made the earth and all connected with it, organized it, and
brought it forth, and now He intends to see what the people will do with
it; whether they are disposed to do anything more than to say, "This is
mine, and that is thine."

	Observe the men who have come into this Church rich in property, and
where can you find one who has said, "I brought fifty, forty, or twenty
thousand dollars into this Church," but what they have either come begging
to the Church at last, or apostatized?  If you cling to the world, and say
it is hard for you to do this or that, recollect that the love of the
Father is not in you.  Let me love the world as He loves it, to make it
beautiful, and glorify the name of my Father in heaven.  It does not
matter whether I or anybody else owns it, if we only work to beautify it
and make it glorious, it is all right.  Let me do what I am called to do,
and be contented with my lot, and not worry about this, that, or the
other.  I have spoken long enough.  May God bless you. Amen.

        UTAH DELEGATE TO WASHINGTON--U.S. GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS.
   An Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, June 17, 1855.

	Perhaps it is expected that I will make a few remarks, after hearing
the statements made by our Delegate, the Hon. J. M. Bernhisel.

	I presume that but few of this congregation, and I may say that but
few of the people or this Territory, have a thorough knowledge, or even a
general understanding, of the business transactions and responsibilities
of our Delegate in Congress.  It is a matter this people have not
immediately before them, it does not directly concern them--hence they do
not inquire into it.

	Brother Bernhisel has given you a very brief sketch of the doings of
Congress, necessarily omitting most of them.  Doubtless the people of this
Territory were perfectly satisfied with the labors of their Delegate
during the last session of Congress; or, in other words, it would be hard
to find an individual who is the least dissatisfied with him, though it is
true that the greater part of the people do not understand what should
constitute a proper cause for approbation or disapprobation.  They are not
dissatisfied with him, and I am not dissatisfied with him, neither have I
ever been.  He has been in Washington during the past six years, most of
which time he has spent there for this people.  The general government
paid him for the services of four years, the appropriation for the
services of the first two years another received.

	I can say freely that I am perfectly satisfied with the labors of Dr.
Bernhisel in Washington; and I will further say, for the satisfaction of
the parties concerned, that I very much doubt whether we could find
another man, belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
who could go to Washington and do as much for this people, in the capacity
of a representative, as the one we have sent for years past.  Why do I
doubt this?  In the first place, he is a man of sterling integrity, firm
to his faith, punctual, industrious, fervent, and always on hand to do
everything that can be done.  Another reason is, but few of the talented
men who belong to this Church could go to the seat of Government and
endure the slang and misrepresentations which the Doctor has endured.

	The Doctor is different from that class in this respect, he can
endure their insults and abuses.  It is true they have to be offered, if
at all, behind his back, for you cannot easily find a man who will abuse
him to his face, as he is so kind in his manner, so gentlemanly in his
appearance, and so easy in his deportment, treating everybody with due
courtesy and respect.  When a deadly foe to his operations and to the
interests of his constituents is in the field, that is the first man the
Doctor visits, and he labors to make him our friend.

	Having before us these reasons, with many others equally weighty,
that might be given, I doubt whether there is another man in the
Territory, or belonging to the Church, in or out of the Territory, who
could have accomplished what brother Bernhisel has done in Washington for
this people.  I am confident that I should not stay there long, for there
is too much fight in me.

	You have seen some persons who, when mad, would fight a whole crowd
as readily as they would a single person.  I am somewhat of that
temperament; if I should get mad in Washington, I would as soon fight the
whole crowd as one individual, and they would use me up.  There are but
few spirited men who would endure the abuse and lies heaped upon this
people.

	There is one statement which I have already made in this stand twice
or thrice, but I will now make it again before our Delegate, for it has
caused him much trouble.  It has been reported in the United States that
Brigham should have said that the President of the United States could not
remove him from his office.  I will repeat what I did say, as nearly as my
memory will serve me.  Exhorting the brethren and sisters, I said, "Do not
be alarmed, neither let your hearts sink within you, or be worried in the
least with regard to a new Governor's coming to this Territory, for the
Lord Almighty will preserve your present Governor unto you as long as He
pleases, and no power can hinder.  And if it is His will to remove the
present Governor, know ye that it will be for the best."

	That is the spirit of what I said, if not the exact words; and I say
so now.  President Pierce has been in power long enough to try the
experiment, and there have been many to influence him to remove the
Governor of this Territory from office.  Is it done?  It is not; though we
nearly thought it was, when Colonel Steptoe received the appointment; but
the Lord operated upon the Colonel to continue his march to California. 
He received his commission, but he would not be qualified.  There were
many applicants for the office, but they have not yet got it, and the Lord
can baffle them as long as He pleases.  He turns the hearts of men when
they know it not, and the mysterious workings of His providence among the
people they do not understand.  He rules in their midst, and controls the
nations of the earth according to His will and pleasure; so He does in
this case, and will continue to do, just as long as seemeth Him good. 
When He wishes another Governor here, the proper person will be on hand;
until then, there is no power beneath the heavens that can simply remove
the present Governor of Utah, much less the loyal people who inhabit these
mountains.

	The people abroad are at enmity with us; we expect this, for they
have been our enemies ever since we were Saints, or professed to be.  Are
they opposed to us in consequence of the doctrine which has been alluded
to by brother Bernhisel, I mean polygamy?  No.  Let the Methodists, Church
of England, Presbyterians, or any other popular church, adopt that
principle, and it would be applauded to the skies.  They are not opposed
to us in consequence of the doctrine of polygamy.

	Has the wrath of the enemy become any more enraged since that
doctrine has been published than it was before?  No, not one particle. 
Christ and Belial cannot be made friends; the devil is at war with the
Kingdom of God on the earth, and always has been, and will continue to be,
until he is bound.  They do not personally hate you, nor me, any more than
they did Joseph Smith, whom they have slain; they do not hate the
Latter-day Saints any more now than they did twenty years ago.  The same
deadly hatred was then in the heart of every one who had the privilege of
hearing the doctrines of this Church and refused to embrace them, that we
see exhibited at this day.  If they had had the power twenty or
twenty-five years ago, they would have slain the Prophet Joseph as readily
and with as much rejoicing as they did when they massacred him in Carthage
Jail, in the State of Illinois.  It is not any particular doctrine or men
and women that they are opposed to, but they are opposed to Christ and to
the Kingdom of God on the earth.  I observed here last Sabbath, "Let the
wicked rage and the people mock on, for now is their day, and it will soon
be over."  Let them do all they can, and if they have power to destroy any
more of this people, Amen to it; what will it do?  It will only augment
the cause of Zion, spread the Gospel of Salvation, and increase the
Kingdom of God on the earth.  Their persecutions will never destroy this
people, or the everlasting Gospel.  Every time they have killed any of
this people and opposed the Gospel, both have increased ten fold, and the
work has spread still the more; yes, more than it would have done had they
let it alone, and not have come against the Saints to drive them from
their possessions.  If it is wisdom that the Saints should be driven
again, it would be the greatest blessing that could come to this people,
for it would give greater permanency to the Kingdom of God on the earth.

	As I said when I commenced preaching twenty-three years ago, and saw
the same spirit of persecution exhibited then as subsequently, "Let us
alone, persecutors, we do not wish to fight you, for we have not come to
destroy men's lives, or to take peace from the earth, but we have come to
preach the Gospel, and to make known to you the things of the Kingdom of
God.  If your doctrine is better than ours, let us know it, for we are
searching after the true riches, we wish the light of heaven to accompany
us, we are searching after salvation, and if you have anything better than
this, let us have it, and if we have anything better than you, you are
welcome to it.  But just let us alone, for we are determined, in the name
of Israel's God, not to rest until we have revolutionized the world with
truth; and if you persecute us, we will do it the quicker."

	I say the same now.  Let us alone, and we will send Elders to the
uttermost parts of the earth, and gather out Israel, wherever they are;
and if you persecute us, we will do it the quicker, because we are
naturally dull when let alone, and are disposed to take a little sleep, a
little slumber, and a little rest.  If you let us alone, we will do it a
little more leisurely; but if you persecute us, we will sit up nights to
preach the Gospel.

	To return to our Delegate.  It is not my intention at this meeting to
mention whom I think we had better send to Washington, as I did two years
ago this summer, when brother Bernhisel arose to speak here, at which time
we nominated him for our next Delegate.  Before he is again elected I wish
to learn whether he is willing to return.  The office is a toilsome one,
and is a mission which is not desirable to any Elder in this Kingdom; but
if I can learn that he will accept the mission, I have no question but
that he will have to round up his shoulders and go again.  If he declines
accepting, and wishes to be excused, we will pick up somebody else.  Who? 
Why the man who will do the least hurt of any man we can find; as for
doing much there, in the way of getting our just share of the
appropriations, we care not whether he can do it or not, for we care not
whether they make them or not.

	True, the members of the Utah Legislature get their per diem, and
some money has been appropriated to this Territory, but is it paid to the
Territory?  No, only a small portion of it, and it has leaked out that
they have determined in Washington, never to pay another dollar to Utah,
until they can have all the federal offices in this Territory filled by
persons of their own choice.

	A few of the brethren have received some money for the labor they
have done on the military road, but I think I can take men on to that
route, for which $25,000 were appropriated and said to have been expended,
and do more good work with $6,000 or $8,000 than has been done with the
$25,000.

	They wish political gamblers to have the money, in order to work
corruption, and make the influence of money affect the ballot box, as in
the United States, and thus use the appropriations for this Territory to
subserve party purposes and pander to corrupt favoritism.  They had better
keep the money out of the Territory, than bring it here with such objects
in view.

	If the government of the United States never pay another dime to this
Territory, I will insure that in ten years we shall be ten times better
off than if we received a hundred thousand dollars a year from them, and
that too upon natural principles.

	I will use a familiar comparison to illustrate this.  Suppose that a
father has a number of sons, and one of them wishes to set up for himself;
whereupon the old man furnishes him a farm, buys him a team, builds him a
house, and puts bread into the house for his family; buys his seed corn, a
plow and harrow; shows him how to plow, and perhaps sends one of his hired
men to plow for him.  In a great majority of such instances, the son will
remain inactive upon his plantation, leaning upon his father for support
until he becomes indolent, and says, "If I want wheat I can go and get it
from my father; or if I want a team, a barn, a house, or anything else,
the old man will supply them; I have nothing to do but call upon my
father."

	Now what is that boy good for?  He is not worth a red cent; turn him
out into the world alone, and he will starve to death.  But first learn
him to go and earn his farm, his teams, and his bread stuff; to understand
the value of everything by knowing how to earn it; and he will become
independent like the father, and know how to take care of himself.

	So it is with States and Territories.  Let them be unduly fostered
and sustained by the General Government, and it will lead them into
idleness, inactivity, and corruption; they will not be as spirited and
active as when they are made to rely upon their own resources.

	What does it do still further?  You distribute money here, and what
would you see, should men come in here this fall willing to pay a high
price in money for the little grain that will be raised here this season? 
I tell you, these poor men and women would have to suffer for the want of
it, as those who have it, at least many of them, will sell the last
mouthful for money, as has been done.  Men have taken their grain from
their wives and children, and made them live on wolf flesh, in order to
get money.  The love of money raises trouble among a people and sends them
to the devil.

	We want none of their money, and if they are not disposed to send it
here, I care nothing about their money's coming; and this proves to me,
and should to you, that I do not care about a man's getting one dime
appropriated to this Territory.  But we will send a Delegate who will do
no hurt; and if it were not that the hue and cry of "Treason against the
General Government" would be made, we would not send a Delegate at all; or
were it not that they would say, "Now you have proof sufficient that the
Mormons mean to secede from the Union, as they have sent no Delegate;" and
thus hatch up a pretext for commencing fresh hostilities against us.

	It has been observed that the people where Judge Douglass resides say
to him, "What are you going to do with Utah?  We hope you will do
something to put down this odious doctrine, for they will have more women
than one, and they will acknowledge them openly."  I am now talking in
accordance with their practice.  "We want to hire our women in the dark,
and pay them a few dimes or dollars, use them as long as we wish, and then
kick them out of doors.  But the Mormons will own them, give them their
name, acknowledge their children and educate them."

	That is one great difference between the "Mormons and the Gentiles,
and, upon natural principles, that is, to outward appearance, in reality
all the difference there is, though we are laying a foundation for another
state of being.  Are they men of virtuous character who talk so about the
"Mormons" having more wives than one?  How odious it was last winter, in
the sight of certain men who were here, to think that we had more lawful
wives than one; yet they would creep into your houses, and try to coax
your wives and daughters away from you.  What for?  Was it to make them
more honorable, to give them a better character in the midst of the
inhabitants or the earth, sustain them better, and make them more
comfortable, and acknowledge them?  No--they wanted to prostitute them, to
ruin them, and send them to the grave, or to the devil, when they had done
with them.

	I do not know what I shall say next winter, if such men make their
appearance here, as were some last winter.  I know what I think I shall
say, if they play the same game again, let the women be ever so bad, so
help me God, we will slay them.

	If any wish to go to California to whore it, we will send a company
of them off; that is my mind, and perhaps some few ought to go, for they
are indeed bad enough.

	There are some things I learned, when I was in the south country
lately, which I do not wish to mention, because of the friends of those
girls who are gone; but when they passed through the southern settlements
they were weeping all the time, and they are perhaps now in their graves. 
The men who coaxed them away did not intend to take them to California. 
If any offer to do the same things again, in these mountains, "judgment
shall be laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet;" and they say
that Brigham does not lie.

	If they want women to go to California with them, we will send a
company of the same stripe, if they can be found, and then both parties
will be suited to and for each other.  I would rather follow her to the
grave, and send her home pure, than suffer my daughter to be prostituted. 
I will not suffer any female member of my family to be polluted through
the corruptions of wicked men.

	Write this to the States, if you please.  If there are any Gentiles
or hickory "Mormons" here, and so disposed, write it down and send it to
Washington, that if they send their officers and soldiers here, to conduct
themselves as they did last winter, they shall meet upon the spot the due
reward of their crimes.

	Though I may not be Governor here, my power will not be diminished. 
No man they can send here will have much influence with this community,
unless he be the man of their choice.  Let them send whom they will, and
it does not diminish my influence one particle.  As I said, the first time
I spoke on this stand, my Governorship and every other ship under my
control, are aided and derive direct advantages from my position in the
Priesthood.

	The office of Governor is not necessarily in the least degree
incompatible with the upright course of any person clothed with the
Priesthood; but, on the contrary, such a person should be far better
qualified to wisely and righteously administer in any civil office, and in
this manner the channel of true intelligence would be opened, and light
and truth flow freely into every avenue of social life.

	There are more things I might talk about, but no matter now, as the
meeting has been held long enough.  I say, God bless you.  Amen.


                           THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
   A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, July 8, 1855.

	I will make a few remarks upon the same subject that was presented
this forenoon, although there were many leading items in those remarks
that would require a considerable length of time for me to give my views
upon them, and to explain fully what I understand in relation to them.  My
brethren, who rise here to speak to the people, are also aware that it is
impossible to fully explain to the congregation all the points that may be
alluded to in a discourse.

	Hence I design to speak a few words concerning the Kingdom of God. 
Not that I would disagree in the least from the remarks made by brothers
Grant and Pratt, or that we differ in our views upon this subject.  It is
an extensive one, and the usual time never permits a person, in one short
discourse, to fully explain such subjects as were presented for our
edification this morning.  I noticed throughout the remarks of both of the
brethren that they did not make sufficient distinction, nor make it plain
to the minds of the people, that the Kingdom of God would be different, in
a certain sense, from all other kingdoms and empires upon the earth: this
was for the want of time.  In public speaking a man's mind is often led
from one idea to another, branching to the right and to the left upon
matters and points that need explanation, and I presume this is more
particularly the case upon the subject of the Kingdom than any other.

	If you and I could live in the flesh until that Kingdom is fully
established, and actually spread abroad to rule in a temporal point of
view, we should find that it will sustain and uphold every individual in
what they deem their individual rights, so far as they do not infringe
upon the rights of their fellow creatures.  For instance, if the Kingdom
of God was now established upon the continent of North and South America,
and actually held rule and dominion over what we call the United States,
the Methodist would be protected just as much as the Latter-day Saints;
the Friend Quakers, the Shaking Quakers, and the members of every
religious denomination would be sustained in what they considered to be
their rights, so far as their notions were not incompatible with the laws
of the Kingdom.

	The Calvinist would be equally preserved in his rights, whether he
believed, wished to believe, or said he believed and did not believe, that
God has fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass, and has dictated from all
eternity the acts of the children of men down to the end of time,
embracing every sin and every transgression of the law that has ever been
committed upon the earth, from the first creation of man upon it; the
Kingdom of God will protect him in that belief, and extend to him the
privilege and the liberty of believing that, as fully as we should have
the liberty of believing the opposite.

	Again, men would come and say, "We believe in the Christian religion,
but we firmly believe that the God we wish to serve has no eyes, no ears,
no mouth, no head, and no body, that he is not composed of elements, that
he has no parts nor passions, that his centre is everywhere, his
circumference nowhere; we firmly believe in serving such a God."  That
people would be preserved in their rights just as much as the people who
believe that God lives, exists, and has the power of seeing, hearing,
knowing, and understanding, and that we are organized and fashioned after,
or, in other words, made like unto Him.

	This is what the Kingdom of God will do for the inhabitants of the
earth.  If a sect should arise and say, "We do not believe in a God at
all, and only in that which we can see, hear, taste, and handle, that
which we can understand, or in gods our own hands have made, which we have
carved out of wood or stone, or cast from metal, we believe in serving
only such god; we have many gods, we have a god for every element that has
come within the range of our understanding, one for the air, the water,
the sun, the moon, the different planets, and the stars; we have a god of
war and a god of peace, which we carve out of wood and stone, or make them
of silver, gold, iron, or copper, and put them in our temples.  These are
the gods we worship, and do not believe in any other god or gods"--even
they would be preserved in their individual rights and belief, as much so
as the Latter-day Saints.

	When the Kingdom of God is fully set up and established on the face
of the earth, and takes the pre-eminence over all other nations and
kingdoms, it will protect the people in the enjoyment of all their rights,
no matter what they believe, what they profess, or what they worship.  If
they wish to worship a god of their own workmanship, instead of the true
and living God, all right, if they will mind their own business and let
other people alone.

	As was observed by brother Pratt, that Kingdom is actually organized,
and the inhabitants of the earth do not know it.  If this people know
anything about it, all right; it is organized preparatory to taking effect
in the due time of the Lord, and in the manner that shall please Him.  As
observed by one of the speakers this morning, that Kingdom grows out of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it is not the Church,
for a man may be a legislator in that body which will issue laws to
sustain the inhabitants of the earth in their individual rights, and still
not belong to the Church of Jesus Christ at all.

	And further, though a man may not even believe in any religion, it
would be perfectly right, when necessary, to give him the privilege of
holding a seat among that body which will make laws to govern all the
nations of the earth and control those who make no profession of religion
at all; for that body would be governed, controlled, and dictated to
acknowledge others in those rights which they wish to enjoy themselves. 
Then the Latter-day Saints would be protected, if a Kingdom of this kind
was on the earth, the same as all other people.

	It was observed this morning that the government of the United States
was the best or most wholesome one on the earth, and the best adapted to
our condition.   That is very true.  And if the constitution of the United
States, and the laws of the United States, and of the several States, were
honored by the officers, by those who sit in judgment and dispense the
laws to the people, yes, had even the letter of the law been honored, to
say nothing of the spirit of it, of the spirit of right, it would have
hung Governors, Judges, Generals, Magistrates, &c., for they violated the
laws of their own States.

	Such has been the case with our enemies in every instance that this
people have been persecuted.  If a person belonging to the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints was guilty of stealing while living in the
States, or if any of that Church were found guilty of murder, or any other
transgression of the civil law, they ought to have been tried by the law,
and have received the punishment affixed to the crime.  Did any of the
Latter-day Saints object to that!  No, not one.  Joseph the Prophet never
objected to it, but on the contrary he urged it, prayed for it, and wished
the Church to be delivered from all transgressors.

	While we were in Illinois, if every trangressor [sic] of the law of
that State, in our community, had been taken up and tried and punished,
every Saint would have said, "Amen, we are better without than with them." 
So we say here, we are far better off without wicked men than with them. 
I would rather be in the midst of these mountains with one thousand, or
even five hundred, men who are Latter-day Saints, than with five hundred
thousand wicked men, in case all the forces of the earth were to come
against us to battle, for God would fight the battles of the Saints, but
He has not agreed to fight the battles of wicked men.

	I say again that the constitution, and laws of the United States, and
the laws of the different States, as a general thing, are just as good as
we want, provided they were honored.  But we find Judges who do not honor
the laws, yes, officers of the law dishonor the law.  Legislators and law
makers are frequently the first violators of the laws they make.  "When
the wicked rule the people mourn," and when the corruption of a people
bears down the scale in favor of wickedness, that people is nigh unto
destruction.

	We have the proof on hand, that instead of the laws being honored,
they have been violated in every instance of persecution against this
people; instead of the laws being made honorable, they have been trampled
under the feet of lawyers, judges, sheriffs, governors, legislators, and
nearly all the officers of the government; such persons are the most
guilty of breaking the laws.

	To diverge a little, in regard to those who have persecuted this
people and driven them to the mountains, I intend to meet them on their
own grounds.  It was asked this morning how we could obtain redress for
our wrongs; I will tell you how it could be done, we could take the same
law they have taken, viz., mobocracy, and if any miserable scoundrels come
here, cut their throats.  (All the people said, Amen.)

	This would be meting out that treatment to wicked men, which they had
measured to innocent persons.  We could meet them on their own ground,
when they will not honor the law, but will kill the Prophets and destroy
the innocent.  They could drive the innocent from their homes, take their
houses and farms, cattle and goods, and destroy men, women, and children,
walking over the laws of the United States, trampling them under their
feet, and not honoring a single law.

	Suppose I should follow the example they have shown us, and say,
"Latter-day Saints, do ye likewise, and bid defiance to the whole clan of
such men?"  Some who are timid might say, "O! our property will be
destroyed, and we shall be killed."  If any man here is a coward, there
are fine mountain retreats for those who feel their hearts beating, at
every little hue and cry of the wicked, as though they would break their
ribs.

	After this year we shall very likely again have fruitful seasons. 
Now, you cowards, if there are any, hunt in these mountains until you find
some cavern where no person can find you, and go there and store up grain
enough to last you and your families seven years; then when the mob comes,
take your wives and your children, and creep into your den, and there
remain until the war is over.

	Do not apostatize to save your lives, for if you do, you are sure to
lose them.  You may do some good by laying up a little more grain than you
want, and by handing out a biscuit to a brave hearted soldier passing by,
hungry and fatigued.  I could hide myself in these mountains, and defy
five hundred thousand men to find me.  That is not all, I could hide this
whole people, and fifty times more, in the midst of these mountains, and
our enemies might hunt until they died with old age, and they could not
find us.  You who are cowards, lay up your crops another year and hide
them away.

	You know that almost every time that Gentiles address us in public,
they are very mindful to caution the Latter-day Saints "not to fight, now
don't fight."  Have we ever wanted to fight them?  No, but we have wanted
to preach to them the Gospel of peace.

	Again, they say, "We are afraid that you, Latter-day Saints, are
becoming aliens to the United States; we are afraid your hearts are weaned
from the brotherhood down yonder."  Don't talk about weaning now, for we
were weaned long ago, that is, we are or should be weaned from all
wickedness and wicked men.  I am so perfectly weaned that when I embraced
"Mormonism," I could have left father, mother, wife, children, and every
relation I had, and am weaned from everybody that will turn a deaf ear to
the voice of revelation.  We are already weaned, but remember, we are not
weaned from the constitution of the United States, but only from
wickedness, or at least we should be.  Let every man and woman rise up in
the strength of their God, and in their hearts ask no favors of the
wicked; that is the way to live, and then let the wicked persecute, if
they choose.

	Are we going to fight?  No, unless they come upon us and compel us
either to fight or be slain.

	Last fall we were visited by some of the brotherhood from the east,
and I said, "Come in, my brother, come into my house; this is Mrs. Young,
this is my daughter, and this is sister so and so.  Wilford, Joseph, and
William, open your houses and let these eastern brethren stay with us in
comfortable quarters this winter."  Wilford turns his family out of a fine
house into a log cabin, to let the brotherhood in.  Not a person, with but
one exception, opened his house for their accommodation, without first
asking my counsel.  I said, "Yes, open your houses, turn out your wives
and children, and let the brotherhood come in, and prove to the old stock,
that we are their friends if they will do anything like what is decent;"
and we furnished them comfortable winter quarters.

	Directly the brotherhood began to pass around, and, as brother Grant
said to-day, with a glove half way on their fingers, apparently so
virtuous in the day light that they durst not touch a female's hand with
theirs, unless gloved, but under the shadows of night they would go
whisking around, here and there, saying, "Won't you take a sleigh ride
with me this evening?  Step into my carriage, and take a ride."

	These proceedings were directly in the face and eyes of this people. 
What did they do when I introduced them to a wife, a daughter, or a
sister, with all the grace, politeness, and kindness that could be
expected from any man?  As quick as my back was turned, it would be,
"Miss, or Madam, I want to get into bed with you.  Look here, you come to
my office, wont [sic] you?  I have a good bed there."

 	I will cut the matter short, and ask, once for all, did they return
the compliment, and without exception reciprocate the kindness and
courtesy with which they were invariably met?  No, they did not, at least
not all of them, for several returned evil for good, and introduced
wickedness and corruption into our midst, and the Lord knows that we
already had enough of that to contend with.

	Past experience has taught the brethren that in future it will
probably be the best policy to let soldiery quarter by themselves, and I
am perfectly willing.

	If persons come here and behave like gentlemen, they shall enjoy
their rights, and we will enjoy ours or fight to the death.  Let the laws
of the United States be honored, and the laws of the individual States,
and we will do as the Kingdom of God will do--protect every body in their
rights.

	The experience of the last winter has taught us a good lesson, and we
hope it has taught the people generally a lesson.  I am troubled all the
time with, "Brother Brigham," and "President Young, I do love you,
President Young," when at the same time some, who use such expressions,
will have one arm round my neck, loving me dearly, and the other around
the neck of a scoundrel, trying to get Christ and Belial together; this I
cannot endure.

	If a man will keep a grog-shop and permit wickedness to fester around
him, or do anything else that is contrary to the Christian religion taught
in the New Testament, I say to all such, either stop it, or take your
property and leave, for our laws do not tolerate it, and we will put them
in force against you.  As to again suffering the wickedness and misrule of
foul spirits that come into our midst, and are treated by us as gentlemen,
I will not.

	I will say to such official gentlemen as tell and boast "what the
General Government is going to do," or "what they themselves will do," or
"what they  want to do," thinking to terrify the Latter-day Saints, that
you may as well undertake to terrify the Almighty on His throne, as to
terrify a Latter-day Saint of the true stripe--one who has the true blood
in him.

	True, there are many timid persons; timidity or fear is a weakness of
the flesh; but to that person who has so far obtained the victory over the
flesh as to know how God is dealing with the people, there is no terror,
for he is just as ready to die as to live, just as the Lord pleases; his
object is to do right, and he fears not.

	The kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Jesus taught his disciples to pray
that the kingdom of heaven might come upon the earth, and when it does
come, you will find that it will be very different from what many people
are imagining or expecting it will be.  Its spirit will be to preserve
their individual rights sacred to the inhabitants of the earth.

	What is the foundation of the rights of man?  The Lord Almighty has
organized man for the express purpose of becoming an independent being
like unto Himself, and has given him his individual agency.  Man is made
in the likeness of his Creator, the great archetype of the human species,
who bestowed upon him the principles of eternity, planting immortality
within him, and leaving him at liberty to act in the way that seemeth good
unto him, to choose or refuse for himself; to be a Latter day Saint or a
Wesleyan Methodist, to belong to the Church of England, the oldest
daughter of the Mother Church, to the old Mother herself, to her sister
the Greek Church, or to be an infidel and belong to no church.

	As I have just stated, the Lord Almighty has organized every human
creature for the express purpose of becoming independent, and has designed
that they should be capable of receiving the principles of eternity to a
fulness; and when they have received them unto a fulness, they are made
perfect, like unto the Son of Man, and become Gods, even the Sons of God.

	I am so far from believing that any government upon this earth has
constitutions and laws that are perfect, that I do not even believe that
there is a single revelation, among the many God has given to the Church,
that is perfect in its fulness.  The revelations of God contain correct
doctrine and principle, so far as they go; but it is impossible for the
poor, weak, low, grovelling, sinful inhabitants of the earth to receive a
revelation from the Almighty in all its perfections.  He has to speak to
us in a manner to meet the extent of our capacities, as we have to do with
these benighted Lamanites; it would be of no benefit to talk to them as I
am now speaking to you.  Before you can enter into conversation with them
and give them your ideas, you are under the necessity of condescending to
their low estate, so far as communication is concerned, in order to exalt
them.

	You have to use the words they use, and address them in a manner to
meet their capacities, in order to give them the knowledge you have to
bestow.  If an angel should come into this congregation, or visit any
individual of it, and use the language he uses in heaven, what would we be
benefitted?  Not any, because we could not understand a word he said. 
When angels come to visit mortals, they have to condescend to and assume,
more or less, the condition of mortals, they have to descend to our
capacities in order to communicate with us.  I make these remarks to show
you that the kingdom of heaven is not yet complete upon the earth.  Why? 
Because the people are not prepared to receive it in its completeness, for
they are not complete or perfect themselves.

	The laws that the Lord has given are not fully perfect, because the
people could not receive them in their perfect fulness; but they can
receive a little here and a little there, a little today and a little
to-morrow, a little more next week, and a little more in advance of that
next year, if they make a wise improvement upon every little they receive;
if they do not, they are left in the shade, and the light which the Lord
reveals will appear darkness to them, and the kingdom of heaven will
travel on and leave them groping.  Hence, if we wish to act upon the
fulness of the knowledge that the Lord designs to reveal, little by
little, to the inhabitants of the earth, we must improve upon every little
as it is revealed.

	When He tells you how to purify your hearts, purify them.  He says to
the nations, "I send unto you my servants, I raise up unto you a Prophet,
and call upon you, O inhabitants of the earth, through him, to repent of
your sins."  Do the people believe it is right to repent of their sins? 
Yes.  How shall they repent of them?  By forsaking them.  If they will do
this, the Lord will teach them how to become Saints.  In what manner?  By
calling upon them through His servants to be baptized for the remission of
sins, if they want to have their sins remitted, if they wish to be washed
and made clean.

	But before they go into the waters of baptism, they must forsake all
their wicked practices, and covenant before the Lord to leave them for
ever behind them, saying "Now we will go and serve the Lord our Maker." 
Has the Lord called upon the inhabitants of the earth in this way?  Has He
not taught you and me to become Latter-day Saints in this way?  He has. 
Are we Saints still?  When we first received the spirit of the Gospel,
what was the world to us, with its grandeur, its riches, its elegance, its
finery, its gaudy show, its glittering array of paltry honors, its empty
titles, and every thing pertaining to it?  Nothing but a shadow, when the
Lord opened our minds and by the visions of His Spirit revealed to us a
few of the things He had in reserve for the faithful, which were only, as
it were, a drop in the bucket, compared to the ocean yet to be revealed. 
Yet that little made our hearts leap for joy, and we felt that we could
forsake everything for the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the perfections
that we saw in his character.

	Are you Saints still?  If you are not, repent of your sins and do
your first works.  Has the Lord taught you how to consecrate yourselves to
His service, build up His kingdom, and send forth the Gospel to the
uttermost parts of the earth, that others may rejoice in the same Spirit
that you have received, and enjoy the same things you enjoy?  Yes, He has;
and what more?  A great deal more.  He has taught you how to purify
yourselves, and become holy, and be prepared to enter into His kingdom,
how you can advance from one degree to another, and grow in grace and in
the knowledge of the truth, until you are prepared to enter the celestial
kingdom; how to pass every sentinel, watchman, and gate keeper.

	Then go on and build the Temples of the Lord, that you may receive
the endowments in store for you, and possess the keys of the eternal
Priesthood, that you may receive every word, sign, and token, and be made
acquainted with the laws of angels, and of the kingdom of our Father and
our God, and know how to pass from one degree to another, and enter fully
into the joy of your Lord.  Latter-day Saints, do you live to this, do you
seek after it with all your heart?  You are aware that the Lord is able to
reveal all this in one day, but you could not understand it.  The Elders
who have preached abroad, and the Sisters who have taught their neighbors
at home, know by experience that this is true.

	When your minds have been lighted up with the candle of the Lord, and
you have been able to speak forth the great things of God, things that
were beyond the capacities of the people to receive, you have felt your
ideas apparently rebound or return to you again.  So it is with the Lord;
He would be glad to send angels to communicate further to this people, but
there is no room to receive it, consequently, He cannot come and dwell
with you.  There is a further reason--we are not capacitated to throw off
in one day all our traditions, and our prepossessed feelings and notions,
but have to do it little by little.  It is a gradual process, advancing
from one step to another; and as we lay off our false traditions and
foolish notions, we receive more and more light, and thus we grow in
grace; and if we continue so to grow we shall be prepared eventually to
receive the Son of Man, and that is what we are after.

	I wish to proceed a little further with regard to the Kingdom of God. 
The principles, doctrine, germ, and, I may say, marrow of that Kingdom are
actually planted on the earth, but does it grow to perfection at once? 
No.  When wheat is planted and germinates, you first see the blade, and by
and by the head forming in the root, from which in due time it bursts
forth and makes its appearance.  When this Kingdom is set up on the earth,
and spreads, its condition is happily set forth in the toast that was
given here on the fourth, viz.--"May the wings of the American Eagle
spread over the nations, and its DOWN fall on America."  Suppose the
Kingdom of God is compared to the American Eagle; when it spreads over the
nations, what will it do?  Will it destroy every other bird that now
flies, or that will fly?  No, but they will exist the same as they do now. 
When the kingdom of Heaven spreads over the whole earth, do you expect
that all the people composing the different nations will become Latter-day
Saints?  If you do, you will be much mistaken.

	Do you expect that every person will be destroyed from the face of
the earth, but the Latter-day Saints?  If you do, you will be mistaken. 
Many of our Elders labor under these erroneous expectations when reading
over the sayings of the Apostles and Prophets in regard to the coming of
the Son of Man.  In one verse the Prophet will be describing the second
coming previous to the commencement of the Millennium, and perhaps in the
same verse he will describe a scene that will take place after the
Millennium, and when the earth will be cleansed from all wickedness, after
Satan has been let loose a little season, and had another tour upon it,
and after it is renovated and becomes sanctified, and is like a sea of
glass, as John describes it.  Will this be in the Millennium?  No.  But
the order of society will be as it is when Christ comes to reign a
thousand years; there will be every sort of sect and party, and every
individual following what he supposes to be the best in religion, and in
everything else, similar to what it is now.

	Will there be WICKEDNESS then as now?  No.  How will you make this
appear?  When Jesus comes to rule and reign King of Nations as he now does
King of Saints, the veil of the covering will be taken from all nations,
that all flesh may see his glory together, but that will not make them all
Saints.  Seeing the Lord does not make a man a Saint, seeing an Angel does
not make a man a Saint by any means.  A man may see the finger of the
Lord, and not thereby become a Saint; the vail of the covering may be
taken from before the nations, and all flesh see His glory together, and
at the same time declare they will not serve Him.  They may, perhaps, feel
something as a woman in Missouri did, who had been driven four times, and
when she was about to be driven again she said, "I will be damned if I
will stand it any longer; if God wants me to go through such a routine of
things, He may take me where He pleases, and do with me as He pleases; I
won't stand it any longer."

	When the nations shall see the glory of God together, the spirit of
their feelings may be couched in these words, "I will be damned if I will
serve You."  In those days, the Methodists and Presbyterians, headed by
their priests, will not be allowed to form into a mob to drive, kill, and
rob the Latter-day Saints; neither will the Latter-day Saints be allowed
to rise up and say, "We will kill you Methodists, Presbyterians, &c.,"
neither will any of the different sects of Christendom be allowed to
persecute each other.

	What will they do?  They will hear of the wisdom of Zion, and the
kings and potentates of the nations will come up to Zion to inquire after
the ways of the Lord, and to seek out the great knowledge, wisdom, and
understanding manifested through the Saints of the Host High.  They will
inform the people of God that they belong to such and such a Church, and
do not wish to change their religion.

	They will be drawn to Zion by the great wisdom displayed there, and
will attribute it to the cunning and craftiness of men.  It will be asked,
"What do you want to do, ye strangers from afar."  "We want to live our
own religion."  "Will you bow the knee before God with us?"  O yes, we
would as soon do it as not;" and at that time every knee shall bow, and
every tongue acknowledge that Godwho is the framer and maker of all
things, the governor and controller of the universe.  They will have to
bow the knee and confess that He is God, and that Jesus Christ, who
suffered for the sins of the world, is actually its Redeemer; that by the
shedding of his blood he has redeemed men, women, children, beasts, birds,
fish, the earth itself, and everything that John saw and heard praising in
heaven.

	They will ask, "If I bow the knee and confess that he is that
Saviour, the Christ, to the glory of the Father, will you let me go home
and be a Presbyterian?"  "Yes."  "And not persecute me?"  "Never."  "Won't
you let me go home and belong to the Greek Church?"  "Yes."  "Will you
allow me to be a Friend Quaker, or a Shaking Quaker?"  "O yes, anything
you wish to be, but remember that you must not persecute your neighbors,
but must mind your own business, and let your neighbors alone, and let
them worship the sun, moon, a white dog, or anything else they please,
being mindful that every knee has got to bow and every tongue confess. 
When you have paid this tribute to the Most High, who created you and
preserves you, you may then go and worship what you please, or do what you
please, if you do not infringe upon your neighbors."

	The brethren who spoke this morning had not time to explain these
points, and I have only just touched upon the subject.

	The Church of Jesus Christ will produce this government, and cause it
to grow and spread, and it will be a shield round about the Church.  And
under the influence and power of the Kingdom of God, the Church of God
will rest secure and dwell in safety, without taking the trouble of
governing and controlling the whole earth.  The Kingdom of God will do
this, it will control the kingdoms of the world.

	When the day comes in which the Kingdom of God will bear rule, the
flag of the United States will proudly flutter unsullied on the flag staff
of liberty and equal rights, without a spot to sully its fair surface; the
glorious flag our fathers have bequeathed to us will then be unfurled to
the breeze by those who have power to hoist it aloft and defend its
sanctity.

	Up to this time we have carried the world on our backs.  Joseph did
it in his day, besides carrying this whole people, and now all this is
upon my back, with my family to provide for at the same time, and we will
carry it all, and bear off the Kingdom of God.  And you may pile on state
after state, and kingdom after kingdom, and all hell on top, and we will
roll on the Kingdom of our God, gather out the seed of Abraham, build the
cities and temples of Zion, and establish the Kingdom of God to bear rule
over all the earth, and let the oppressed of all nations go free.

	I have never yet talked as rough in these mountains as I did in the
United States when they killed Joseph.  I there said boldly and aloud, "If
ever a man should lay his hands on me and say, on account of my religion,
'Thou art my prisoner,' the Lord Almighty helping me, I would send that
man to hell across lots."  I feel so now.  Let mobbers keep their hands
off from me, or I will send them where they belong; I am always prepared
for such an emergency.

	I have occupied time enough; may God bless you.  Amen.

		TIMES FOR ALL THINGS--PRAYER--CHASTISEMENT
    Discourse by Presidents B. Young, Delivered July 13, 1855, at a Conference
                   held at Provo City, Utah Territory.

	As the people have now begun to assemble, I take the
liberty of making a few remarks.  I request those who profess to be Saints
to exercise faith, and to endeavor to realize that the worship of God is
sacred, and beneficial to His people. It is true that we have much to do
of a temporal nature, as it is termed; many duties pertaining to daily
business and the affairs of this life devolve upon us.

	This is necessarily the case, for if we are to build up the kingdom
of God, or establish Zion upon the earth, we have to labor with our hands,
plan with our minds, and devise ways and means to accomplish that object.

	There is a time for all these duties, and there is also a time to
serve the Lord by praying, preaching, singing, meditating, watching, and
fasting.  Inasmuch as there is a time for all things, and as this is the
time that we have unitedly set apart for the express purpose of
worshipping the Lord, and of enjoying His Holy Spirit by calling in our
reflections pertaining to earthly things and objects, that we may attend
more immediately to a deep reflection and contemplation of heavenly
things, it is necessary for these my brethren, who have accompanied me to
this place, to bring their thoughts to bear upon the things that are
present, and while we are here, to let Great Salt Lake City remain where
it is--don't bring it here.

	Those who have left their families at home, and are away from their
houses, cattle, fields, flocks, herds, and other possessions, and also all
who have assembled from the different settlements in this county, one and
all, let all your affairs, those that you were obliged to leave at home,
stay where they are, and you stay here and worship the Lord.

	In this way every person who has assembled here can feel to leave
their affairs and effects where they belong, and bring their minds to bear
upon the spiritual things of the kingdom of God.  Then they can have their
minds enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and understand that which will make
them rejoice.

	If those are our feelings and determinations, the candle of the Lord
will be lighted within our hearts, but if we keep our minds constantly
upon our families and effects, we shall be but little benefitted by coming
here; this is true in regard to each one of us.

	Where our hearts are, there our thoughts will be:  and if our
thoughts are bound up in our earthly possessions, we had better remain at
home and attend to what we have most set our affections upon, and not
pretend to try to obtain happiness from any other source.

	There is a time for all things, and this is the time for meeting
according to appointment.  I am frequently requested to come out and hold
meetings among the brethren, but I do not recollect that we have at any
time appointed a three days' meeting here, though we have previously been
here and held one during two days.  Much instruction has to be given to
enable us to overcome our passions, and to govern and control our feelings
and disposition.

	Those Elders of Israel who have travelled and preached much have had
a good opportunity for experience, and have learned that they cannot,
figuratively speaking, take their families, friends, and goods with them,
or if they did, they accomplished but little good.

	Those who go out to preach the Gospel and at the same time say, "My
poor wife and my poor children; and I shall be glad when my mission is
out," seldom do much good.

	I think that the help mate was designed to take care of the children,
house, and gardens, and see, as far as possible, that all is cared for and
preserved, as they anciently did.  Some went out to war, but they must
always leave a few at home to stay with the goods, or whatever they had to
be taken care of.

	Elders who have had an experience in this matter know whether they
carried their families in their feelings, or not; but it is our privilege
to train our feelings and dispositions, and to bring all into subjection
to the dictates of wisdom, even that wisdom which proceedeth from our God.

	When an Elder goes out to preach he ought not to let his mind be
filled with care for his family, only when he is praying about them; and
if they have lived by faith, all right; and if they have died during his
absence, all right; they are the Lord's; and say, "that He gave them to
me, it is all right; at the same time I would like to have them, but
blessed be the name of the Lord."

	An elder has possessions great or small, much or little, and instead
of carrying those possessions in his feelings he ought to leave them, and
say that they are the Lord's, and say, "I give  my spirit and body and
what is committed into my hands, I am only a steward over it; I yield its
care to Him, since He sends me from my home so that I cannot directly look
after it."  That man can go as free as the air, and will feel that he has
in his possession the Spirit of the Lord, which should be considered of
paramount importance.

	When people assemble to worship they should leave their worldly cares
where they belong, then their minds are in a proper condition to worship
the Lord, to call upon Him in the name of Jesus, and to get His Holy
Spirit, that they may hear and understand things as they are in eternity,
and know how to comprehend the providences of our God.  This is the time
for their minds to be open, to behold the invisible things of God, that He
reveals by His Spirit.

	Again, suppose a family wish to assemble for prayer, what would be
orderly and proper?  For the head of the family to call together his wife,
or wives, and children, except the children who are too small to be kept
quiet, and when he prays aloud, all present, who are old enough to
understand, should mentally repeat the words as they fall from his lips;
and why so?  That all may be one.

	If the people will ask in faith, they will receive, and let all
mentally ask precisely as does the one who is spokesman.  Let all leave
the cares of their work behind them; let the kitchens take care of
themselves, and let the barns, the flocks and herds take care of
themselves, and if they are destroyed while you are praying, be able to
freely say, "Go, they are the Lord's; He gave them to me, and I will
worship Him; I will assemble my family and call upon the name of my God."

	By leaving business and the cares thereof where they belong, and
attending strictly to worship in its season, if not at first, you soon
will be united, and be able to bring every evil principle into subjection. 
If all are bound up in this manner, don't you see that it will make a
mighty cord of faith?

	I will now ask this congregation, how many of you thought of mentally
repeating my prayer as the words came to your ears?  Did you realize that
the order of prayer required you to mentally follow the words of the
person who was praying?  With us every one should mentally repeat the same
words and ask for the same things as does the one who leads vocally, and
let all say, amen.  There are times and places when all should vocally
repeat the words spoken, but in our prayer meetings and in our family
circles let every heart be united with the one who takes the lead by being
mouth before the Lord, and let every person mentally repeat the prayers,
and all unite in whatever is asked for, and the Lord will not withhold,
but will give to such persons the things which they ask for and rightly
need.

	In some denominations the hearers are accustomed to cry out, "Amen,
amen, amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord," &c., during the prayer service,
and immediately let their minds wander to the ends of the earth.  That is
not the right way to pray, but let every one throw off care for their
effects, for the Lord knows all about them; He protects them while we are
with them; and He is equally able to protect them while we are absent;
therefore, while engaged in worshipping Him, let every heart be
concentrated upon the subject before them. If this congregation will take
this course, I promise them that they will go to their dwellings satisfied
that the Almighty has been with us to strengthen us; but if our minds are
like the fool's eyes, we shall be profited but little.

	There are several here who will ad dress you, and suppose that they
should chastise us a little, do we not deserve it?  Still, perhaps some
will complain of the speaker for chastising them, when perhaps the first
sentences which meet their eyes upon opening the Bible, will convey the
idea that every son and daughter whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, but
those who are not chastened are bastards and not sons.

	Says one, "I am willing to be chastened, but I am not willing to have
that brother who has just come from England, or some other country,
chasten me, but if some one high in authority should do it, I would kiss
the rod and reverence the hand that gave it;" but the man who will only
receive chastening from the Lord Himself is not in a proper state of mind
before Him.

	The Latter-day Saints have been chastened much and often.  Many in
this congregation have had their corn and wheat stacks burned in
consequence of their religion, and have often been called to part with
their fathers and mothers, their wives and children, in consequence of
their religion.  They have been chastened here and there, and perhaps some
may think we are being chastened now by the drought and insects.  I am
willing to take it as a chastisement, and to learn that wisdom and
knowledge which I had not before it happened; and if every man could
realize and understand it, they would receive it as a prize and as lesson
that would qualify them for future duties.  Though our chastisements are
often hard to be borne, those who bear them patiently, willingly, and
submissively, will find that they yield the Gospel fruits of righteousness
insomuch that they will know how to be Saints indeed.

	Chastisement often comes upon the Saints of God on account of the
wicked, and that also will redound to the benefit of the humble and
faithful.  If we receive chastisement for our sins, it will teach us to
forsake our sins, and become righteous, for we receive chastisement
because there is wickedness among us, and it is permitted to come to
prevent our turning from the path of duty, and is always designed for our
good.  In all these things we have to acknowledge the hand of the Lord,
and to be passive the things of His kingdom, that we may govern and
control natural things, and all those with whom we have to do, that those
we preside over may become eternal heirs of the celestial kingdom of our
God.

	It seems to be hard work for me to speak here this morning, and I
will give way and let the brethren occupy the remaining time this
forenoon.  The ideas that I have laid before you, if you think of them and
lay them to heart, will do you good; and in our protracted meeting we may
be spiritually benefited, and receive joy and satisfaction.  I feel to
bless you all the time, and pray that we may be prepared to build up Zion
and to inherit the fulness of the glory of God on the earth; this is my
prayer continually.  May the Lord bless you.  Amen.

                    REMARKS ON BEHALF OF THE INDIANS.
         By President Joseph Young, made in the Bowery at Provo,
                              July 13, 1855.
                         Reported by J. V. Long.

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

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

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

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

	May God bless you.  Amen.



               PLURALITY OF WIVES.--THE FREE AGENCY OF MAN.
         Remarks made by President Brigham Young, in the Bowery, 
                          Provo, July 14, 1855.

	I have a few words to say concerning one item of doctrine, that I
seldom think of mentioning before a public congregation; I refer to the
doctrine pertaining to raising up a royal Priesthood to the name of
Israel's God, for which purpose the revelation was given to Joseph,
concerning the right of faithful Elders, in taking to themselves more than
one wife.  I frequently hear from others that this doctrine is laughed at
and ridiculed; I heard yesterday of its being laughed out of doors, even
jeered and sneered out of a Bishop's house.

	I am not personally cognizant of any one jeering at and deriding this
doctrine; still, I hear that there are some few who are opposed to it.
Once in a while sentiments reach my ears which sound very curious and
strange, and when I hear them, I do really wish that some were possessed
of better sense; I will, therefore, tell you a few things that you should
know.  God never introduced the Patriarchial [sic] order of marriage with
a view to please man in his carnal desires, nor to punish females for
anything which they had done; but He introduced it for the express purpose
of raising up to His name a royal Priesthood, a peculiar people.  Do we
not see the benefit of it?  Yes, we have lived long enough to realize its
advantages.

	Suppose that I had had the privilege of having only one wife, I
should have had only three sons, for those are all that my first wife
bore, whereas, I now have buried five sons, and have thirteen living.

	It is obvious that I could not have been blessed with such a family,
if I had been restricted to one wife, but, by the introduction of this
law, I can be the instrument in preparing tabernacles for those spirits
which have to come in this dispensation.  Under this law, I and my
brethren are preparing tabernacles for those spirits which have been
preserved to enter into bodies of honor, and be taught the pure principles
of life and salvation, and those tabernacles will grow up and become
mighty in the kingdom of our God.

	I believe that our children will become mighty in faith, be powerful
in defending the truth, and will soon have to take important places in the
great work of this dispensation.  They may be rude at present, yet, you
will find within them the true principles of "Mormonism," and, when our
sons become men, they will be men of God, and be useful in accomplishing a
good work upon the earth.

	The spirits which are reserved have to be born into the world, and
the Lord will prepare some way for them to have tabernacles.  Spirits must
be born, even if they have to come to brothels for their fleshly
coverings, and many of them will take the lowest and meanest spirit house
that there is in the world, rather than do without, and will say, "Let me
have a tabernacle, that I may have a chance to be perfected."

 	The Lord has instituted this plan for a holy purpose and not with a
design to afflict or distress the people; hence, and important and
imperative duty is placed upon all holy men and women, and the reward will
follow, for it is said, that the children will add to our honor and glory.

	It hurts my feelings when I see good men, men who love correct
principles and cling to the counsels of the Church, who have lived near to
God for years and have always been faithful, with not a child to bear up
their names to future generations, and I grieve to reflect that their
names must go into the grave with them.

	It would please me to see good men and women have families; I would
like to have righteous men take more wives and raise up holy children. 
Some say, "I would do so, but brother Joseph and brother Brigham have
never told me to do it."

	This law was never given of the Lord for any but his faithful
children; it is not for the ungodly at all; no man has a right to a wife,
or wives, unless he honors his Priesthood and magnifies his calling before
God.

	I foresaw, when Joseph first made known this doctrine, that it would
be a trial, and a source of great care and anxiety to the brethren, and
what of that?  We are to gird up our loins and fulfil this, just as we
would any other duty. (High wind and clouds of dust prevented speaking for
several seconds.)

	It has been strenuously urged by many, that this doctrine was
introduced through lust, but that is a gross misrepresentation.  (A thick
cloud of dust prevented speaking for about two minutes.)

	This revelation, which God gave to Joseph, was for the express
purpose of providing a channel for the organization of tabernacles, for
those spirits to occupy who have been reserved to come forth in the
kingdom of God, and that they might not be obliged to take tabernacles out
of the kingdom of God.

	We are commanded to overcome all our lustful desires, also our pride,
selfishness, and every evil propensity that pertains to the flesh, to keep
the commandments of God, and all the commandments pertaining to the holy
Priesthood.

	It is important that we get a victory over our earthly passions, and
learn to live by the law of God.

	I am aware that care and other duties are greatly increased, by the
law which I am remarking upon; this I know by experience, yet though it
adds to our care and labor, we should say, "Not my will, but thine, O
Lord, be done."

	As far as my acquaintance extends, the brethren who have entered into
this order, with a pure heart, have enjoyed full as much worldly
prosperity as they did before the Prophet Joseph revealed this holy law
and order to the Latter-day Saints.

	The Lord intended that our family cares should be greater; He knew
they would be, yet He is able to bless us in proportion.  I know quite a
number of men in this church who will not take any more women, because
they do not wish to take care of them; a contracted spirit causes that
feeling.  I have also known some in my past life, who have said, that they
did not desire to have their wives bear any children, and some even take
measures to prevent it; there are a few such persons in this Church.

	When I see a man in this church with those feelings, and hear him say
"I do not wish to enlarge my family, because it will bring care upon me,"
I conclude that he has more or less of the old sectarian leaven about him,
and that he does not understand the glory of the celestial kingdom.

	Says one, "How will you explain this to me?"  We understand that we
are to be made kings and Priests unto god; now if I be made the king and
lawgiver to my family, and if I have many sons, I shall become the father
of many fathers, for they will have sons, and their sons will have sons,
and so on, from generation to generation, and, in this way I may become
the father of many fathers, or the king of many kings.  This will
constitute every man a prince, king, lord, or whatever the Father sees fit
to confer upon us.

	In this way we can become King of kings, and Lord of lords, or Father
of fathers, or Prince of princes, and this is the only course, for another
man is not going to raise up a kingdom for you.

	If I did not feel disposed, in my poverty, to enlarge my family and
to build up the kingdom, I could not be acquainted with the difficulties
thereof, neither should I be counted worthy to enjoy the blessings
conferred upon those who are faithful. 

	This should be the view taken of this matter, by the whole of this
people, and, when a man or woman sees that this principle should be
introduced among the Latter-day Saints, they should cease their
murmurings.

	It is not through lust that men and women are to practise this
doctrine, but it is to be observed upon righteous principles; and, if men
and women would pay attention to those instructions, I would promise, in
the name of the Lord, that you would never find them lustful in their
dispositions, and you might watch them as closely as you pleased.

	Plurality of wives is not designed to afflict you nor me, but is
purposed for our exaltation in the kingdoms of God.  If any man had asked
me what was my choice when Joseph revealed that doctrine, provided that it
would not diminish my glory, I would have said, "Let me have but one
wife;" not because it is not a great comfort to me to have children, but
if I have not children I know them not.

	Some of these my brethren know what my feelings were at the time
Joseph revealed the doctrine; I was not desirous of shrinking from any
duty, nor of failing in the least to do as I was commanded, but it was the
first time in my life that I had desired the grave, and I could hardly get
over it for a long time.  And when I saw a funeral, I felt to envy the
corpse its situation, and to regret that I was not in the coffin, knowing
the toil and labor that my body would have to undergo; and I have had to
examine myself, from that day to this, and watch my faith, and carefully
mediate, lest I should be found desiring the grave more than I ought to
do.

	You will probably wonder at this, and that such should have been my
feelings upon this point, but they were even so.

	Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to
do so, I promise that you will be damned; and I will go still further and
say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has
given, and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be
damned.

	But the Saints who live their religion will be exalted, for they
never will deny any revelation which the Lord has given or may give,
though, when there is a doctrine coming to them which they cannot
comprehend fully, they may be found saying, "The Lord sendeth this unto
me, and I pray that He will save and preserve me from denying anything
which proceedeth from Him, and give me patience to wait until I can
understand it for myself."

	Such persons will never deny, but will allow those subjects which
they do not understand, to remain until the visions of their minds become
open. This is the course which I have invariably pursued, and, if anything
came that I could not understand, I would pray until I could comprehend
it.

	Do not reject anything because it is new or strange, and do not sneer
nor jeer at what comes from the Lord, for if we do, we endanger our
salvation.  It is given to us, as agents to choose or refuse, as brother
S. W. Richards has set before you, but we are agents within limits, if it
were not so there would be no law.

	There are limits to agency, and to all things and to all beings, and
our agency must not infringe upon that law.  A man must choose life or
death, and if he chooses death he will find himself abridged, and that the
agency which is given to him is so bound up that he cannot exercise it in
opposition to the law, without laying himself liable to be corrected and
punished by the Almighty.

	A man can dispose of his agency or of his birth-right, as did Esau of
old, but when disposed of he cannot again obtain it; consequently, it
behoves us to be careful, and not forfeit the agency that is given to us. 
The difference between the righteous and the sinner, eternal life or
death, happiness or misery is this, to those who are exalted there are no
bounds or limits to their privileges, their blessings have a continuation,
and to their kingdoms thrones, and dominions, principalities, and powers
there is no end, but they increase through all eternity; whereas, those
who reject the offer, who despise the proffered mercies of the Lord, and
prepare themselves to be banished from His presence, and to become
companions of the devils, have their agency abridged immediately, and
bounds and limits are put to their operations.

	The power of the devil is limited; the power of God is unlimited;
therefore let us be cautious how we use our liberty and agency, and be
careful to choose that which is good and right before the Lord, and then
our exaltation is sure.

	I now wish to say a few words concerning your meeting house. When
brother Geo. A. Smith concluded to make his home here, for a little while,
we thought we would erect an old-fashioned meeting house, believing that
it would look so good; and we thought to have a bell put in the belfry,
and I believe that the foundation for such a building was commenced three
years ago.

	I was just thinking what a smart people dwell here; three years ago
they threw out a few shovels full of earth, to prepare for a foundation,
and at that the labor ended.  I was talking to some of the brethren about
it to-day, and was wondering, if I were to come here to live this summer,
whether I could not get this meeting house built; I think that I have
lightning enough to accomplish it. Tell the people what I wanted, and they
would come with the timber, and the adobies would be piled up, and the
building finished.

	But I wish to tell you how it can be done without my coming here,
that is, if you have a man here in whom you have confidence, though I do
not know whether there is a man in this settlement that you have
confidence in, but if there is such a man, you can come out every Saturday
and work at erecting this meeting house.  Draw together the sand and lime,
the timber and all the other materials, then employ the masons and
carpenters for two or three months and the house will be completed.

	If this had been done you would have had a good meeting house, and,
at least, been just as well off as you are now, and I think that you would
have greatly increased the value of your property and been better off.

	Has the house stopped because there is not a man here who knows how
to do the work, or what is the cause? I think that there are men here who
know how to do all the work.  If you wish to know my mind, I say, haul the
materials together, employ men to lay the stone and adobies, to cut the
timber, and to put on the shingles, and if I were you I would go right to
work and to it; and if you will, we will come and preach to you at the
dedication.

	Before the commencement of this conference I ought to have come here
with as many of the twelve and other brethren as I could have handily
picked up, and to have held prayer meetings for two or three weeks, in all
the Wards of this city; then I think you would have heard something that
you will not now hear.

	I do not feel that there is any requirement in this congregation for
fresh teachings, or new revelations, if I am mistaken, all right.  I do
not believe that all the brethren pray in their families, or in secret,
and I do not believe that all the women are strict enough in their
families, for the spirit of the Gospel should be as a constant flowing
stream.  True, I have not yet heard a man speak here but what has given
you good, yes the best of teaching, and first-rate discourses and ideas,
and all has been systematical and calculated to draw us to the line.

	Still I hope that you and I will get warmed up, and that the fire of
the Spirit will burn in our hearts so that we may be refreshed.

	We will now bring the meeting to a close.


                           GATHERING THE POOR.
     An address by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, 
                   Great Salt Lake City, Sep. 16, 1855.

 	Concerning the Saints in these Valleys, and those who are abroad, I
have a few remarks to make.  The promises referred to by the brethren who
have addressed you this morning are very reasonable--they are very
judicious; they have promised to remember the poor in their prayers, and
before their brethren in Zion.  I have made the Saints some promises, and
I am not aware that I have made any promises to them that I have not
fulfilled, at least so far as I was personally concerned.  I have promised
myself that I would plead for the poor; I have done it--I have continued
to do it--and I expect to continue to plead for the poor Saints.  I have
preached in the United States, in the British Provinces, and in the Island
of Great Britain, and have invariably promised the Saints one blessing,
viz., hard labor, hard fare, and plenty of persecution, if they would only
live their religion, and I believe they are generally well satisfied that
this promise has been amply fulfilled.  If the Saints cannot endure, and
endure to the end, they have no reason to expect eternal salvation.

	While brother Brown was speaking of the Saints in England, that they
would probably be good Saints if they were nursed, nourished, and
cherished, I had certain reflections.  We gather the Saints, and gather
those who are poor; what for?  To bring to pass righteousness, but many of
them turn and go to the devil.  I will relate.  Before we arrived in
Winter Quarters we held obligations and accounts, against the poor Saints
we had emigrated to America, to the amount of about thirty-five thousand
dollars, and that too out of our own individual pockets--it was not Church
money.  But while we were in Winter Quarters, I do not think there could
have been ten persons counted, old and young, who were brought from
England by our liberality.  Is this fact encouraging or discouraging?  The
honest poor are still suffering, I mean the Lord's poor.  But you may take
the devil's poor and the poor devils, and they will plead a thousand times
harder to be brought out of England, to have their feet placed upon
American soil, than the Lord's poor, or the honest poor.  The devil's poor
and the poor devils will manage to get here, while very many of the Lord's
poor stay there and suffer, and continue to suffer until they lay down
their bodies and sleep in the tomb. Thousands and thousands of them will
do this, while that portion who call so loudly for help are those who will
come here and then go to the devil.

	If there could be any rule by which the honest poor in England could
be designated from the dishonest, if the wealthy of that nation could draw
the line between them, allow me to tell you that but few of the honest
inhabitants of that country would suffer as they now do for want of the
common necessaries of life.

	What is the cause of so much suffering there?  Why the poor devils
get licence for begging, and beg from house to house, making a speculation
of it; they beg money, bread, and clothing, and then speculate upon it,
and thus abuse their friends and their gifts.

	There are thousands of houses in England kept by beggars, as fine
houses as there are in that country, and their proprietors can ride in
their coach and four: that there are such characters is well known among
the people.  Some of the large boarding houses in England are kept by
them, and they hire men, women, and children to beg; they are licensed
beggars.  The women borrow their neighbor's children and carry them out to
deceive the industrious and wealthy population, and thus they excite the
sympathies of, and beg from, every passenger going into or coming out of a
conveyance, and perhaps go to their homes twice or three times a-day
loaded down with money.  This is well known by the wealthy, but they
cannot draw the line of distinction between them and the honest poor,
hence they are obliged to suffer the consequences.

	Were it not for this the worthy poor would be fed and clothed in
England.  If the wealthy of that nation could know the truth they would
feed the hungry and clothe the naked, honest, just, and virtuous portions
of the community.  But they do not know them, and if they give a loaf of
bread or a sixpence, they expect it is given to a poor devil; this makes
them very careful how they give.

	Has not a similar dishonesty the same effect upon us?  It has, and
that is what I wish to talk about.  For example, a man in England,
professing to be a Latter-day Saint, will go to his brother in the Church
and promise, in the most sacred manner, and call God and angels to
witness, and hope he may die, and not live to get to America, if he is not
as prompt to his word as an angel, to pay him back at such a time, if he
will lend him ten sovereigns to help him away to America; another will get
five sovereigns in the same way; another will beg to be allowed to take so
much out of a contribution box, promising to refund it, and saying, "When
I get to the Saints, where there is liberty, and get work and good wages,
I will remember you, my brethren, and send for you;" and when they get
here they forget it all.  This is the way with the devil's poor; the
Lord's poor do not forget their covenants, while the devil's poor pay no
regard to their promises.  Are you afraid the devil's poor will
apostatize?  I am not afraid of it, though sooner of later they will. 
They may hang on to the Church for five, ten, or twenty years, but by and
by, when they cannot endure what the Lord will bring upon them, they will
falter and fall, and go by the board. 

	Now this is discouraging to every man who has been punctual to his
word, and done just as he said he would.  You will find men in England,
who have said, out of their hard earnings, at ten shillings per week, five
pounds, or ten pounds, handing it out as freely to their brethren as water
to drink, saying, "Go to America now, and you will help me out."  But
these men forget their words, and when they have means they tie up their
purse strings, before they will bestow their charity upon those who have
assisted them.

	Do I receive promises?  Yes, men will promise me, saying, "If you
will let me go out this year by the means of the P. E. Fund, I will refund
the means again, that you may have it to send back for more."  And what
will they do when they get here?  Steal our wagons and go off with them to
California, and try to steal the bake kettles, frying pans, tents, and
wagon covers; and will borrow the oxen and run away with them, if you do  
not watch them closely.  Do they all do this?  No, but many of them will
try to do it.  We checked a number this year who were trying to run away
with the wagons, instead of paying their just debts to the Fund.  They
will hang on and plead poverty and sickness, and say that they cannot live
unless they have this tent, or that wagon, and when they get it into their
possession they will never return it, unless they are compelled to.

	This conduct is discouraging to us.  I will tell you a little
further; it is actually the faltering, and misgiving, and misdealing of
unjust persons that prevent the gathering of the Lord's poor, and that is
God's truth.  Were it not for that, the Saints would be gathered by scores
of thousands.  It is the wicked, the half-hearted, and what I call hickory
Mormons that prevent a more extensive gathering of the Saints.

	We have done pretty well this season, and quite a number are coming
out, and I will tell you how this is operating upon me and the people.  It
is well known that we annually handle a large amount of means, and that we
turn it over and shift it about until it will answer the end for which it
was designed.

	Now I can ask the world this one question, were we ever in your debt
and refused to pay you?  And they will all answer, "No."  We can turn to
the Saints in England, France, America, or anywhere upon the face of the
whole earth; and ask them, "Have you lent us money, or means of any kind,
and we were not on hand to pay you?"  And they will answer, "No."

	When brother Erastus Snow arrived, on the 1st of this month, he came
in the morning and informed me that he had run me in debt nearly fifty
thousand dollars; he said, "President Young"s name is as good as the
bank."

	My name has been used without my consent, or without my knowing
anything about it, and our agents have run us in debt almost fifty
thousand dollars to strangers, merchants, cattle dealers, and our brethren
who are coming here.

	I will tell you a little about the brethren, to show you the amount
of confidence there is.

	There are men who have lately arrived in town who have a draft on me,
and who have hunted me up for the cash before they could find time to
shave their beards, or wash themselves, saying, "I have a draft on you at
ten days', fifty days', or six months' sight," as the case may be, with,
"Please pay so and so.  Brother Young, cannot you let me have the money
immediately, for I do not know how I can live without it, or get along
with my business at all?"  This is the kind of confidence some men have in
me.  I wanted to name this.  Why?  Because I am hunted; I am like one that
is their prey, ready to be devoured.  I wish to give you one text to
preach upon, "From this time henceforth do not fret thy gizzard."  I will
pay you when I can, and not before.  Now I hope you will apostatize, if
you would rather do it.

	It is the poor who have got your money, and if you have any
complaints to make, make them against the Almighty for having so many
poor. I do not owe you anything.  You have my name attached to the paper
to help the poor; whether they are the Lord's poor, the devil's poor, or
poor devils, is not for me now to judge.  I tell the brethren that they
may understand here to-day what kind of sacred confidence some of them
have in the leader of this people, though I am happy to say that such
cases are few.  I would be ashamed to join a people, organized as we are,
and be afraid to trust their leader.

	It has just come into my mind how the brethren can be relieved of
their present dilemma, viz., every soul of you come forward and make a
donation of those drafts to the P. E. Fund.  That will relieve you of the
debt at once, and you can then sit down and enjoy yourselves, and lie down
and sleep contentedly. This is pleading for the poor again, and I am bound
to do that.

	I will tell you what I have done, for I know that many of the
brethren think that I am building myself up.  I am, but let me tell you
that if I do not build up the kingdom of God on earth I never expect to be
built up; and I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for any man in
this kingdom, or for all his substance, who does not build it up, and
gather means for that purpose.  It is true I gather a great deal of
substance around me; I am obliged to do it, I cannot shun it.  I must feed
the poor, I must clothe them and take care of them; I must see that they
have houses; and when they get so as to deserve them they must have a
team, a watch, a farm, &c., and must increase; but they must work and pay
for it all.

	You know I preached you a short charity sermon last Sunday.  I am not
now preaching for the poor in England, but for Utah poor; and in Utah no
man is deserving, or woman either, of fifty or even twenty-five cents'
worth of flour, of a piece of meat, a garment, or the possession of any
property without they pay for it with their labor, if they are able.  That
is for Utah, no for England, France, Ireland, &c.  It is plain to you that
circumstances actually compel me to do as I do.  Do I feed my hundreds? 
Yes, I have fed them ever since I have been in these valleys, ever since I
could raise the grain to do it, which I have always done until this year,
and have had a great deal to spare besides.

	I collect means around me, the poor must have it, and I make them
work and pay for it; that makes me wealthy, and I cannot help it.  I have
property for sale, and say, if any man in England, or anywhere else, will
expand his heart and loosen his purse strings to buy sixty-two thousand
dollars' worth of my individual property, I have it for sale to help the
poor.  I do not want it destroyed, or to go into the hands of a mob, but I
want it to go to the building up of the kingdom of God.  I would prefer to
let it go into the hands of the Saints, and use it to pay off those who
have drafts against me.  Here is brother Duel, he has a good house, and
there are many others, go and buy their property, and they will take your
drafts and hand them to me.  [Here many voices were heard in a low tone,
saying, "Yes, take my property."]  Why do I hear such responses on every
side?  Because they know me and understand "Mormonism" as they ought.  Go
and throw out your drafts, it is better for you to do this than to have
the money and let it go to destruction, and perhaps you with it.  How many
scores have come into this kingdom, who have mourned themselves to death
because Joseph had five dollars of them?  And yet they would let their
money go into the hands of the enemies of Christ, and sit down calmly, and
say, "Though I have lost that money, I am in the kingdom of God yet."  If
it is absolutely necessary, and circumstances cannot be controlled to keep
the money from going into the hands of our enemies, we will not whine
about it, but let it go, and then get more.

	All cash means that are in the hands of this people should be kept
there for the benefit and convenience of the kingdom of God.  What for? 
To roll on the work of the last days, gather the Saints, preach the
Gospel, build up cities and temples, send the Gospel to the uttermost
parts of the earth, and revolutionize the whole world.

	You who have got those drafts, walk up like men of God and see where
you can purchase property, instead of taking the money to put in the hands
of some poor apostate, who wants to go to California.

	Dare any of you come and buy property?  I can furnish as much as you
can buy.  My house on the hill yonder, I have advertised it for sale, and
also my lands and barn.  "What do you ask for it?"  Sixteen thousand
dollars; it is worth that and a great deal more, for it actually cost
more.  Can any of you buy it?  Walk up and buy my beautiful situation on
the hill, and I will put the proceeds into the Perpetual Emigrating Fund,
if you will pay me the money, and gather the Saints, the Lord's poor, and
the devil's poor, and the poor devils, and when we have got them here we
will make Saints of them, if we can, and if we cannot, we will cast them
out of the kingdom.

	If the brethren all felt as some do, the Perpetual Fund means would
increase rapidly, but what do they do?  It was reported to you here last
Conference, that there were then fifty-six thousand dollars owing to the
P. E. Fund, by brethren in this Territory; some of the debtors have run
away, but the most of them are here.  Can these men pay anything?  No,
they are poor and distressed; they say, "If we let our oxen go, how can we
live?  If we let our cows go our families will suffer."  How did your
families get along before you got the cows?  Another will say, "I have
only one span of horses and a wagon; and I cannot pay the debt."  You
promised, before you left England, that you would pay it, and pledged your
sacred honor, and that is forfeited to the P. E. Fund.  You say that you
cannot pay the debt; but I know you can if you have a mind to.  Live
without a cow, as you used to, pay in your houses and farms, and work
until you get more.  This debt is diminished but little since last
Conference; I do not suppose we have gathered in more than one thousand
dollars of it, and this season there are about forty-nine thousand dollars
more added to it.  I calculate that will rest upon my shoulders, but they
are so sloping, as you may observe, that it slips off, and then I kick it
off at my heels.  The money will be forth-coming and all will be well, all
will be right; I am not discouraged.

	I have a word to say to another portion of the community, some of
whom may be here to-day.  A great many of the brethren are indebted to the
tithing office; and I have a good deal coming to me; and I intend to put
you into the screw, for we mean to make you pay these debts this season. 
One man says, "I owe the Church the money, it is true, but I believe I
shall break and not pay it."  They want to get their money into the safe
and then break.  If they owed a Gentile they would pay their debts, they
would work, and toil, and labor, day and night, to pay their enemy;  but
when they owe the Church and kingdom of God they can lie down and sleep in
peace, though they owe thousands of dollars, and say, "O! well, it is no
matter whether the debt is paid or not."  I want to have you understand
fully that I intend to put the screws upon you, and you who have owed for
years, if you do not pay up now and help us, we will levy on your property
and take every farthing you have on the earth.  I want to see if I can
make some of you apostatize; I will if I can, by teaching sound doctrine
and advocating correct principles; for I am tired of men who are eternally
gouging their brethren and taking the advantage of them, and at the same
time pretending to be Saints until they gain an advantage over this
people, and then they are ready to leave.  I want you to leave now; I give
you this word of caution, prepare to pay the debt you owe to the Church. 
If I had the money due to the Church by a few individuals, I could pay
every one of our individual debts and the Church debt, and have a few
scores of thousands lying by me to operate upon; and in such circumstances
I could operate to some advantage, and greatly benefit the Church.  But it
seems that there are many drones in the hive, who are determined to tie up
the hands of those who rule the affairs of this kingdom, and the quicker
they are thrown out the better.

	I have given you some reasons why things are so slow and tardy in
their progress with regard to the gathering of the Saints.  Let the poor
Saints strive to induce the rich to have confidence in them, by keeping
their word and punctually paying those who loan them money.  I am sorry to
say that this is not always the case.  The poor are filled with idolatry
as well as the rich, and covet the means of those who have helped them;
the rich, also, have the same spirit of idolatry, and stick to what they
have.  Let the poor be honest, let the rich be liberal, and lay their
plans to assist the poor, to build up the kingdom of God, and at the same
time enrich themselves, for that is the way to build up God's kingdom. 
May the Lord bless you.  Amen.

        FAITH-PRACTICAL RELIGION-CHASTISEMENT-NECESSITY OF DEVILS.
      A Sermon by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery,
                  Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1855.

	As we have assembled in the capacity of a Conference to attend to
business, we should earnestly seek to enjoy the spirit of our calling.  We
are called to be Saints, and if we have the spirit of Saints we shall have
the spirit of our calling, otherwise we certainly do not enjoy the
privileges that the Lord designs we should.  The Lord is ready and willing
to give His Spirit to those who are honest before Him, and who seek
earnestly to enjoy it.

	If Saints, assembled to worship the Lord and transact business
pertaining to His kingdom, should not have the aid of His Spirit they
would be likely to commit errors, it would be strange indeed if they did
not, and to do that which they ought not, even in business transactions;
they would fall short of accomplishing their own wishes, and of course far
short of fulfilling the designs of heaven.  We see many led astray,
because they have not retained the spirit of Christ to guide them.

	When any of this people, who believe the Gospel, forsake the duty
which they owe to God and His cause, they are at once surrounded by an
influence which causes them to imbibe a dislike to Saints and to the
conduct of Saints; they receive a false spirit, and then the Saints cannot
do right in their eyes, the ministers of God cannot preach right nor act
right, and soon they wish to leave the society of the Saints, and that
too, as they suppose, with a sanctified heart and life.  They wish to
withdraw from this, as they believe, wicked people, fancying all to be
wicked but themselves, and wish to separate themselves until the people
are as holy as they flatter themselves that they are, when they calculate
to return again.  Others will lose the spirit of their calling, and
realize that they have lost it; they are wicked, and know it, and will
have more confidence in others than in themselves.  But the self-righteous
will go away and wait until we as a people are sanctified and able to
endure their presence, and think that then they will, perhaps, gather
among us again.

	People are liable in many ways to be led astray by the power of the
adversary, for they do not fully understand that it is a hard matter for
them to always distinguish the things of God from the things of the devil. 
There is but one way by which they can know the difference, and that is by
the light of the spirit of revelation, even the spirit of our Lord Jesus
Christ.  Without this we are all liable to be led astray and forsake our
brethren, forsake our covenants and the Church and kingdom of God on
earth.

	Should the whole people neglect their duty and come short in
performing the things required at their hands, lose the light of the
Spirit of the Lord, the light of the spirit of revelation, they would not
know the voice of the Good Shepherd from the voice of a stranger, they
would not know the difference between a false teacher and a true one, for
there are many spirits gone out into the world, and the false spirits are
giving revelations as well as the Spirit of the Lord.  This we are
acquainted with; we know that there are many delusive spirits, and unless
the Latter-day Saints live to their privileges, and enjoy the spirit of
the holy Gospel, they cannot discern between those who serve God and those
who serve Him not.  Consequently, it becomes us, as Saints, to cleave to
the Lord with all our hearts, and seek unto Him until we do enjoy the
light of His Spirit, that we may discern between the righteous and the
wicked, and understand the difference between false spirits and true. 
Then, when we see a presentation, we shall know whence it is, and
understand whether it be of the Lord, or whether it is not of Him; but if
the people are not endowed with the Holy Ghost they cannot tell, therefore
it becomes us to have the Spirit of the Lord, not only in preaching and
praying, but to enable us to reflect and judge, for the Saints are to
judge in these matters.  They are to judge not only men, they are to be
judges not only in the capacity of a Conference to decide what shall be
done, what course shall be pursued to further the kingdom of God, what
business shall be transacted, and how it shall be transacted, and so on,
but they will actually judge angels.

	We sit here as judges, and suppose that business which would prove
injurious to this people should now be presented for them to decide upon,
or suppose that the leaders of this people had forsaken the Lord and
should introduce, through selfishness, that which would militate against
the kingdom of God on the earth, that which would in the issue actually
destroy this people, how are you going to detect the wrong and know it
from the right?  You cannot do it, unless you have the Spirit of the Lord. 
Do the people enjoy that Spirit?  Yes, many of them do.  Do they enjoy it
in as great a degree as it is their privilege?  A few of them do, still I
think that the people in general might enjoy more of the Holy Spirit, more
of the nature and essence of the Deity, than they do.  I know that they
have their trials, I know they have the world to grapple with, and are
tempted, and I know what they have to war against.

	But let us ask ourselves individually whether we fight this warfare
to such a degree that we do overcome in every instance?  In every contest
do we come off victorious?  Here we have to do with our passions; here is
fallen nature, that we can never get rid of until we lie down in the
grave, it is sown in the flesh and will remain there, but it is our
privilege to overcome that, and bring it under subjection in our
reflections, in our meditations, and in all the labor that we perform,
though we may be tried, tempted, and buffeted by Satan.  It is our
privilege to have power to rule, govern, and bring under subjection even
our momentary passions; yes, it is our privilege so to live and overcome
them that we never would have a temptation to think evil, or at least
would never speak before we took time to think, but all would be in
subjection to the law of Christ.  Do we live up to this privilege?

	People may ask, are we not good Saints?  Yes, I can say that this
people are a good people, and they wish to be Saints, and many of them
strive to be Saints, and many of them are Saints.  I realize the
weaknesses of men; I am not ignorant of my own weaknesses, and this is
where I learn every body else, their dispositions and the operations of
the spirit upon the inhabitants of the earth; to learn mankind is learn
myself.

	This is a good people, they are a righteous people; yet there are
some who are filled with folly, there are some who are inclined to do
wickedly and seem to love wickedness; there are some who are filled with
idolatry, and it seems as though it were impossible for them to overcome
the spirit of the world, to keep from loving it and from cleaving to it
and to the things of the world.  I will appeal to the people as
judges--are you capable of judging in matters pertaining to the kingdom of
God on earth, unless you have the Spirit of truth within you?

	Some may say, "Brethren, you who lead the Church, we have all
confidence in you, we are not in the least afraid but what everything will
go right under your superintendence; all the business matters will be
transacted right; and if brother Brigham is satisfied with it, I am."  I
do not wish any Latter-day Saint in this world, nor in heaven, to be
satisfied with anything I do, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the spirit of revelation, makes them satisfied.  I wish them to know for
themselves and understand for themselves, for this would strengthen the
faith that is within them.  Suppose that the people were heedless, that
they manifested no concern with regard to the things of the kingdom of
God, but threw the whole burden upon the leaders of the people, saying,
"If the brethren who take charge of matters are satisfied, we are,"  this
is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord.

	Every man and woman in this kingdom ought to be satisfied with what
we do, but they never should be satisfied without asking the Father, in
the name of Jesus Christ, whether what we do is right.  When you are
inspired by the Holy Ghost you can understandingly say, that you are
satisfied; and that is the only power that should cause you to exclaim
that you are satisfied, for without that you do not know whether you
should be satisfied or not.  You may say that you are satisfied and
believe that all is right, and your confidence may be almost unbounded in
the authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ, but if you asked God, in
the name of Jesus, and received knowledge for yourself, through the Holy
Spirit, would it not strengthen your faith?  It would.  A little faith
will perform little works; that is good logic.  Jesus says, "If ye have
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove
hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be
impossible unto you."

	A grain of mustard seed is very small; nevertheless if you had faith
as a grain of mustard seed, and should say unto this mountain, "Remove
hence to yonder place, it would be done; or to that sycamore tree, "Be
thou planted in the sea;" or to the sick, "Be ye healed;" or to the
devils, "Be ye cast out; it would be done."

	Suppose that I had faith like a grain of mustard seed, and could do
the things which Christ has said are possible to be done through that
faith, and that another man on the continent of Asia had the same faith,
we could not accomplish much because but two would have all the power of
Satan to combat.  Do you suppose that Jesus Christ healed every person
that was sick, or that all the devils were cast out in the country where
he sojourned?  I do not.  Working miracles, healing the sick, raising the
dead, and the like, were almost as rare in his day as in this our day. 
Once in a while the people would have faith in his power, and what is
called a miracle would be performed, but the sick, the blind, the deaf and
dumb, the crazy, and those possessed with different kinds of devils were
around him, and only now and then could his faith have power to take
effect, on account of the want of faith in the individuals.

	Many suppose that in the days of the Savior no person was sick, in
the vicinity of his labors, but what was healed; this is a mistake, for it
was only occasionally that a case of healing a sick person or casting out
a devil occurred.  But again, suppose that two-thirds of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem and the regions round about had actually possessed like faith
in the Savior that a few did, then it is very probable that all the sick
would have been healed and the devils cast out, for there would have been
a predominance of a good power over the evil influences.

	Let two persons be on the continent of America, having faith like a
grain of mustard seed, and let one of them be situated on the Atlantic and
the other on the Pacific coast, and most of the sick would remain sick
around them, the dying would die, and those possessed of devils would
continue to be tormented, though once in a while a sick person might be
healed, or a blind person be made to see.  Now let each one of those
individuals have another person of like faith added to him, and they will
do as much again work; them let there be four persons in the east and four
in the west, all possessing faith like a grain of mustard seed, and there
will be four times as much done as when there was but one in each place;
and thus go on increasing their number in this ratio until, by and bye,
all the Latter-day Saints have faith like a grain of mustard seed, and
where would there be place for devils?  Not in these mountains, for they
would all be cast out.  Do you not perceive that that would be a great
help to us?

	If I had power of myself to heal the sick, which I do not profess to
have, or to cast out devils, which power I have not got, though if the
Lord sees fit to cast them out through my command it is all right--still
if I had that power, and there was no other person to help me, the people
would do as they do now, they would hunt me almost to death, saying,
"Won't you lay hands on this sick person?  Won't you go to my house over
yonder?" and so on.  I am sent for continually, though I only go
occasionally, because it is the privilege of every father, who is an Elder
in Israel, to have faith to heal his family, just as much so as it is my
privilege to have faith to heal my family; and if he does not do it he is
not living up to his privilege.  It is just as reasonable for him to ask
me to cut his wood and maintain his family, for if he had faith himself he
would save me the trouble of leaving other duties to attend to his
request.

		Let this faith be distributed and it makes all things easy, but
put one or two dozen men to hauling a wagon containing a hundred tons'
weight, and the labor is very heavy, whereas if the whole of the
Latter-day Saints would put their shoulder to the load it would be moved
easily.  It is with the mental powers as it is with the physical, and that
is why I wish you to consider the matter, and why I lay those things
before you.  Let the Latter-day Saints have faith and works, and let them
forsake their covetousness and cleave unto righteousness.

	I have given you a short discourse upon faith and practical religion,
and now I say to the Elders of Israel, to the Bishops of the different
wards, and to the Presidents of the different Branches, if there is any
business you wish to bring before this Conference, pertaining to
fellowship and the conduct of individuals, you can have the privilege.  We
were accustomed, some years ago, to attend to such business before our
General Conference, and it is our privilege to do so again, if we choose,
or if there is any occasion.

	In all High Councils, in Bishops' Courts, and in all other
departments for transacting our business, the Church and kingdom of God,
with the Lord Almighty at the head, will cause every man to exhibit the
feelings of his heart, for you recollect it is is [sic] written that in
the last days the Lord will reveal the secrets of the hearts of the
children of men.

	Does not the Gospel do that?  It does; it causes men and women to
reveal that which would have slept in their dispositions until they
dropped into their graves.  The plan by which the Lord leads this people
makes them reveal their thoughts and intents, and brings out every trait
of disposition lurking in their organizations.  Is this right?  It is. 
How are you going to correct a man's faults, by hiding them and never
speaking of them, by covering up every fault you see in your brother, or
by saying, "O, do not say a word about his faults, we know that he lies,
but it will not do to say a word about it, for it would be awful to reveal
such a fact to the people?"  That is the policy of the world and of the
devil, but is it the way that the Lord will do with the people in the
latter-days?  It is not.

	This is a matter that seems to be but little understood by some of
the Latter-day Saints, it may be understood by a portion of them, but
others do not understand it.  Every fault that a person has will be made
manifest, that it may be corrected by the Gospel of salvation, by the laws
of the Holy Priesthood.

	Suppose that a man lies, and you dare not tell of it; "Very well,"
says the man, "I am secure, I can lie as much as I please."  He is
inclined to lie, and if we dare not chastise him about it he takes shelter
under that pavilion, cloaks himself with the charity of his brethren, and
continues to lie.  By and bye he will steal a little, and perhaps one or
two of his brethren know about it, but they say, "We must cover up this
fault with the cloak of charity."  He continues to lie and to steal, and
we continue to hide his faults; where will it lead that person to?  Where
will he end his career?  Nowhere but in hell.

	What shall we do with such men?  Shall we reveal their faults?  Yes,
whenever we deem it right and proper.  I know it is hard to receive
chastisement, for no chastisement is joyous, but grievous at the time it
is given; but if a person will receive chastisement and pray for the Holy
Spirit to rest upon him, that he may have the Spirit of truth in his
heart, and cleave to that which is pleasing to the Lord, the Lord will
give him grace to bear the chastisement, and he will submit to and receive
it, knowing that it is for his good.  He will endure it patiently, and, by
and bye, he will get over it, and see that he has been chastised for his
faults, and will banish the evil, and the chastisement will yield to him
the peaceable fruits of righteousness, because he exercises himself
profitably therein.

	In this way chastisement is a benefit to any person.  Grant that I
have a fault, and wish it concealed, would I not be likely to hide it? 
And if the Lord would not reveal it I might cling to it, if I had not the
spirit of revelation to discern my fault and its consequences.  Without
the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, I am just as liable to lie and
abide in false principles, false notions, and unrighteous actions as true
ones.  It is so with you.

	If your faults are not made known to you, how can you refrain from
them and overcome them?  You cannot.  But if your faults are made
manifest, you have the privilege of forsaking them and cleaving unto that
which is good.  The design of the Gospel is to reveal the secrets of the
hearts of the children of men.

	When men intimate to me, whether in public or in private, that their
faults must not be spoken of, I do not know how worldly-minded men feel in
similar cases, but like Elijah, when he mocked the priests of Baal, I feel
to laugh and make derision of such men.

	Do you suppose that I will thus far bow down to any man in this
Territory, or on the earth?  Do you suppose that I will suffer myself to
be so muzzled that I cannot reveal the faults of the people when wisdom
dictates me to do it?

	I fear not the wicked half so much as I would a musquito [sic] in my
bedroom at night, for he would keep me from sleeping, but for the
unrighteous, those who will act the villain and conduct themselves worse
than the devil, to insinuate that I have not the privilege of speaking of
their faults makes me feel like laughing at their folly.  I will speak of
men's faults when and where I please, and what are you going to do about
it?

	Do you know that that very principle caused the death of all the
Prophets, from the days of Adam until now?  Let a Prophet arise upon the
earth, and never reveal the evils of men, and do you suppose that the
wicked would desire to kill him?  No, for he would cease to be a Prophet
of the Lord, and they would invite him to their feasts, and hail him as a
friend and brother.  Why?  Because it would be impossible for him to be
anything but one of them.  It is impossible for a Prophet of Christ to
live in an adulterous generation without speaking of the wickedness of the
people, without revealing their faults and their failings, and there is
nothing short of death that will stay him from it, for a Prophet of God
will do as he pleases.

	I have been preached to, pleaded with, and written to, to be careful
how I speak about men's faults, more so than ever Joseph Smith was in his
life time; every week or two I receive a letter of instruction, warning me
to be careful of this or that man's character.  Did you ever have the
Spirit of the Lord, so that you have felt full of joy, and like jumping up
and shouting hallelujah?  I feel in that way when such epistles come to
me; I feel like saying, "I ask no odds of you, nor of all your clan this
side of hell."

	I have wise brethren around me who will sometimes say, "Don't speak
so and so, be very careful, now do be cautions;" and I have been written
to from the east; I have package after package of letters, yes, a
wheel-barrow load of them, saying, "O, brother Brigham, I would beseech
and pray and plead with you, if I only dare, to be careful how you speak. 
Would not this or that course be better than for you to get up in the
stand, and tell the Gentiles what they are?  Would it not be better to
keep this to yourself?"

	Do you know how I feel when I get such communications?  I will tell
you, I feel just like rubbing their noses with them.  If I am not to have
the privilege of speaking of Saint and sinner when I please, tie up my
mouth and let me go to the grave, for my work would be done. 

	It was for this that they killed Joseph and Hyrum, it is for this
that they wish to kill me and my brethren; we know their iniquity, and we
will tell of it when the Spirit dictates, or talk about this, that, or the
other person and conduct at the proper time.

	There are people in our midst who grunt at this course, and at the
same time have evils that I think are hardly worth notice, for I do not
think that such persons will be good for anything even should they happen
to get into the kingdom of heaven, though I suppose they are good in their
place if we can find out where it is, but as yet I am ignorant of it; I
presume that the Lord knows where it is, but I do not.  I wish to say to
the Elders of Israel, to all people, I shall tell you of your iniquity and
talk about you just as I please, and when you feel like killing me for so
doing, as some of the people did who called themselves brethren in the
days of Joseph Smith, look out for yourselves, for false brethren were the
cause of Joseph's death, and I am not a very righteous man.  I have told
the Latter-day Saints from the beginning that I do not profess much
righteousness, but I profess to know the will of God concerning you, and I
have boldness enough to tell it to you, fearless of your wrath, and I
expect that it is on this account that the Lord has called me to occupy
the place I do; I feel as independent as an angel. 

	Some of you have been brought before the High Council, charged with
this fault and with that, and you say it is too much for you, that you
cannot bear it.  But you have got to bear it, and if you will not, make up
your minds to go to hell at once and have done with it. If you wish to be
Saints you must have your evils taken away and your iniquities exposed,
this must be done if you remain in the kingdom of God.  If you do wrong,
and it is made manifest before the High Council, don't grunt about it, nor
whine about your loving, precious character, but consider that you have
none; that is the best way to get along with it.  Myriads have scandalized
me since I have been in this Church, and I have been asked, "Brother
Brigham, are you going to bear this?  Do you not know that such and such
persons are scandalizing your character?"  Said I, "I do not know that I
have any character, I have never stopped to inquire whether I have one or
not."  It is for me to pursue a course that will build up the kingdom of
God on the earth, and you may take my character to be what you please, I
care not what you do with it, so you but keep your hands off from me.

	If you are brought before the High Council, or before a Bishop's
court, and it is proven before either of those tribunals that you are
covetous, don't fly in a passion and become so excited that you are ready
to burst.  I may see fit to expose some men who have not paid their
tithing; now if you are going to get nervous about it and are afraid of
bursting, let me know, and we will slip and egg shell over you and your
precious characters.  What precious characters some of you had in Wales,
in England, in Scotland, and perhaps in Ireland.

	Do not be scared if it is proven against some, before the Bishop's
court, that you did steal the poles from your neighbor's garden fence.  If
you did, it would be far better for you to get right up and own it, for
you have in reality lost your character before God, angels, and men, and
then refrain from such evils and try to establish a good character.  It
would be better for you to do that, than to become angry when your faults
are made manifest.  If it is proven before the High Council that you did
steal a beef creature, don't get angry, but rise up and acknowledge that
you did steal it.

	If it is proven that you have been to some person's wood pile and
stolen wood, don't be frightened, for if you will steal, it must be made
manifest.  Some one may say, "Why I did not think Saints were guilty of
such deeds!"  Nor I either.  Such crimes are committed by people who
gather with the Saints, to try them, to afflict and annoy them, and drive
them to their duty.  Do you not suppose that it is necessary to have
devils mixed up with us, to make Saints of us?  We are as yet obliged to
have devils in our community, we could not build up the kingdom without
them. Many of you know that you cannot get your endowment without the
devil's being present; indeed we cannot make rapid progress without the
devils.  I know that it frightens the righteous sectarian world to think
that we have so many devils with us, so many poor, miserable curses. 
Bless your souls, we could not prosper in the kingdom of God without them. 
We must have those amongst us who will steal our fence poles, who will go
and steal hay from their neighbor's hay stack, or go into his corn field
to steal corn, and leave the fence down; nearly every ax that is dropped
in the kanyon must be picked up by them, and the scores of lost watches,
gold rings, breast pins, &c., must get into their hands, though they will
not wear them in your sight.  It is essentially necessary to have such
characters here.

	After we had given the brethren such a scouring two or three months
ago, about returning lost property when found, one or two men brought in
two or three rusty nails of no value, which they had picked up; this was
tantamount to saying to brother Sprague, "If we had found your purse, or
if we had found Brigham's purse, we would see you in hell before we would
return it."  We wish to impress upon you the necessity of your bringing
the ax you find, the hay fork, or any other lost property which you find,
to the person who is appointed to take charge of such property, that the
owners may again possess it.  But if you should pick up a piece of rotten
wood, and bring it to brother Brigham, or Dr. Sprague, with a show of
honesty, and in derision of the counsel you have received, it would be
like saying, "If we could find or steal your purses, you should never see
them again.  We are poor, miserable devils, and mean to live here by
stealing from the Saints, and you cannot help yourselves."

	Live here then, you poor, miserable curses, until the time of
retribution, when your heads will have to be severed from your bodies. 
Just let the Lord Almighty say, "Lay judgment to the line and
righteousness to the plummet," and the time of thieves is short in this
community.  What do you suppose they would say in old Massachusetts,
should they hear that the Latter-day Saints had received a revelation or
commandment to lay "judgment to the line and righteousness to the
plummet?"  What would they say in old Connecticut?  They would raise a
universal howl of, "How wicked those Mormons are; they are killing the
evil doers who are among them; why I hear that they kill the wicked away
up yonder in Utah."  They do no kill anybody down there, do they?

	As for the inhabitants of the earth, who know anything about the
"Mormons," having power to utter worse epithets against us than they do,
they have to get more knowledge in order to do it; and as for those
enemies who have been in our midst, feeling any worse than they do, they
have first to know more; they are as full of bad feeling now as they can
hold without bursting.  What do I care for the wrath of man?  No more than
I do for the chickens that run in my dooryard.  I am here to teach the
ways of the Lord, and lead men to life everlasting, but if they have not a
mind to go there, I wish them to keep out of my path.

	I want the Elders of Israel to understand that if they are exposed in
their stealing, lying, deceiving, wickedness, and covetousness, which is
idolatry, they must not fly in a passion about it, for we calculate to
expose you, from time to time, as we please, when we can get time to
notice you.

	During this Conference, I do not want to think where the "Mormons"
have been, and how they have been treated, but I want to think of matters
that will make my heart light, like the roe on the mountains--to reflect
that the Lord Almighty has given me my firth on the land where He raised
up a Prophet, and revealed the everlasting Gospel through him, and that I
had the privilege of hearing it--of knowing and understanding it--of
embracing and enjoying it.  I feel like shouting hallejujah [sic], all the
time, when I think that I ever knew Joseph Smith, the Prophet whom the
Lord raised up and ordained, and to whom He gave keys and power to build
up the kingdom of God on earth and sustain it.  These keys are committed
to this people, and we have power to continue the work that Joseph
commenced, until everything is prepared for the coming of the Son of Man. 
This is the business of the Latter-day Saints, and it is all the business
we have on hand.  When we come to worldly affairs, as they are called,
they can be done in stormy weather, if we attend to the kingdom of God in
fair weather.

	May God bless you.  Amen.